Been under the weather this week, so it seemed like a great opportunity to make up for the lack of podcasts last week.

Went on a huge investor podcast binge, then detoured from there.

Not sure I can cover all of it so I’ll just hit the highlights.

Topics for this week:

• How to Be An Investor

• UGC Numbers

• Derek Sivers

• Dan Porter

• Mr. Olympia

How to Be An Investor

Following my recent investor interest, I listened to a bunch of podcasts and YouTube videos from Warren Buffet, Charlie Munger, Bill Ackman, Mohnish Prabai, Guy Spier, and one outlier, Joe Lonsdale, all breaking down their advice on investing and business.

A surprising or unsurprising amount of advice centered around people.

According to Mohnish, Buffett and Munger focus on finding excellent human beings.

They say you want to avoid the Takers (always take without giving), and the Counters (secretly keeping track, expecting favors), and try to exclusively spend time with other Givers (give without asking).

Similarly, Joe Lonsdale, who’s started multiple billion dollar companies said he has an elite recruiting network that allows him to find the right people for the companies he’s involved in.

Guy Spier realized he was being too cynical and needed to value his relationships with the people in his life which made a huge difference for him.

Brand matters because what people think about that business matters.

Coca-Cola and Apple have incredibly strong brands which is why they are part of the shortlist of Berkshire Hatheway holdings.

And beyond the people aspect there’s a few other key elements.

Guy Spier learned from Bill Ackman to dig deep into the documents before making a bet.

Patience is key. Investing takes time in both researching and being able to wait out decisions.

Money isn’t made in the buying or the selling. Money is made in the waiting.

With all of this, basically I came to the conclusion that I have time.

The only tactical advice any of these videos provided was from Guy Spier.

He recommended making 10 bets over 5 years, at a rate of about 2 investments a year.

Even small amounts of money can compound to large sums when put in the right place and left to grow, uninterrupted.

Plenty to think about with all of that advice, and luckily that seems to be what investors tend to do. A lot of time spent thinking and reading…

Anyway, back down to earth.

UGC Numbers

Devin Nash is on a mission to build his channel to 1 million subscribers so he’s been ramping up the content lately and it’s been good stuff so far.

I’ve had User Generated Content in the back of my mind as a strategy I’d like to deploy in the future, but I really haven’t done much research into it.

After Devin’s recent video, I’m now debating maybe I should just be the UGC creator for a little while instead.

I had no idea some of these creators are collecting decent monthly retainers to make a handful of videos a few times a month.

But probably the most valuable part of the video was this:

Seeing the values is one thing, but hearing someone currently working in the industry validate these prices was even more valuable.

If you’re looking to jump into the content game, this may be something to look into, specially if you’re a guy apparently.

A tempting idea for sure…

Derek Sivers

For all the podcasts I’ve consumed, I’m surprised I haven’t heard Derek Sivers yet.

I’ve heard multiple mentions of Derek, and never listened to him myself until now, but I get why people like Andrew Wilkinson, Chris Williamson and Tim Ferriss look up to him.

He’s clearly a very intelligent person but also living a unique and bold life unlike most others.

For a period of time he said he basically did the opposite of whatever he felt he should do.

He found he really loved living in the US, so he renounced his US citizenship to force himself to go live in other countries and not be able to default back to his safe feeling in New York or LA.

After selling his company for $30 million, Derek immediately setup a trust to lock himself out of that money so that he couldn’t spend it and instead let it grow untouched so that it could be donated later in his life.

While talking to Tim, Derek outlined all the steps of setting up your own servers and running your own online services so that you don’t have to use cloud products like Gmail or GDrive, fully embracing his nomadic lifestyle and philosophy.

All great things, truly inspiring.

He’s written multiple books so I’ll be adding them to my stack of books to get to eventually.

And I’ve recently been considering transitioning a number of websites away from Webflow so I will certainly be looking into Derek’s recommendations for digital independence.

Dan Porter

Admittedly I was avoiding this podcast because of the title and thumbnail.

Selling a $200 million app in 6 weeks sounds like a great way to get more previously used winning lottery numbers.

But I let YouTube autoplay move forward with it, and I’m glad I did.

Dan Porter is a really charismatic, fun and intelligent person that made for a great episode, I didn’t want it to end.

Even Sam mentioned how he could talk to Dan forever.

Dan ended up creating the wildly popular mobile app Draw Something which I remember hearing had sold for $200 million back when I was in college.

Dan, much like Munger and Buffett, has an amazing sense of simplifying things to their core.

He figured out a simple but fun game and found ways to make it rewarding without someone losing.

And when it sold for a huge sum of money, he continually found ways to use the money to help others rather than cash out and save it for himself.

In another business, Overtime, he found a simple way to create a community from a brand by giving everyone a hand signal so anyone could show they are part of that group.

Really amazing stuff.

It’s a fun listen and Dan gives some great insights, worth listening if you have the time. Don’t trust the thumbnail!

Mr. Olympia

And finally, I’ll end with a six time Mr. Olympia Classic Physique, crowned last week, Chris Bumstead.

I think CBum is a true leader.

He has a great attitude toward life and a world-class commitment to excellence in specific areas.

He’s a real human being, aware of the sacrifices he’s making but also maintaining a perspective that what he’s doing will end and everyone will move on.

He’s embraced the secret of enjoying the journey and everything it involves, good and bad.

Chris and Chris also have great chemistry, CBum even mentioning that he vowed not to do any other podcasts while he prepared for this competition, yet he showed up to Chris Williamson’s just days before competing.

Doing anything other than prep during prep week is a big deal, wasting what little energy he has left, but Bumstead is a pro after all.

It’s a longer conversation but worth the listen:

And there you have it. Being sick for a week has unravelled the mysteries of being an investor, a UGC creator, an app designer, and a world champion body builder. Now that I know all of that and am feeling better, it’s time to get back to work.

Those are the links that stuck with me throughout the week and a glimpse into what I personally worked on.

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