Five Good Questions Podcast

In this week's Five Good Questions, we're interviewing Mark Moffett about his book, The Human Swarm. Mark Moffett is a tropical biologist and explorer known for finding rare species and behavior in remote places. His research has extended from the architecture of rainforest canopies to the behavior of army ants. For the last six years he has been merging psychology and anthropology to investigate the role of social identity in holding societies together across species and in humans up to the present day. Five Good Questions 1. What is so remarkable about being able to walk into a modern day coffee shop? 2. What can ants, with their 250k neurons, teach us about human societies? 3. Can we ever get rid of societies? 4. Is it possible the psychological bias known as the “endowment effect” is an artifact of our avoiding violent territorial conflicts? 5. Tell us a funny or surprising anecdote about E.O. Wilson. And make sure you pick up your copy of the Rebel Allocator, available now on Amazon in digital, physical,

The Hikecast is a show where interesting people take me on their favorite hikes or walks and we talk about big ideas in an unconstrained format. No planned agendas, just deep conversations, recorded out in nature. The idea is for you to put on The Hikecast and get outside to simulate taking a hike with us. I want you to feel like you're there with us out in nature. Care to join us on a hike? :) My guest for this episode is Dan Sheehan.  Dan is the general partner of Sheehan Associates Limited Partnership, an investment partnership created in 1999. Dan has a degree in economics from McMaster and an MBA from York. We went on a chilly hike in Toronto. Please enjoy this hikecast with Dan Sheehan. ********************* Also, please check out my first literary effort: The Rebel Allocator It’s a coming-of-age story of a young man who learns about business and life from an unlikely teacher. Imagine The Karate Kid meets Thorndike’s The Outsiders. You’re right, it’s probably not what you were expecting, but I have my f

In this week's Five Good Questions, we're interviewing Betsy Atkins about her book Be Board Ready. Betsy Atkins is a 3-time CEO, serial entrepreneur & Founder of Baja Corp. Betsy is a corporate governance expert with an eye for making boards a competitive asset. Her corporate board experience is vast and covers multiple industries, she has served on over 27 public boards and been through 13 IPOs. Five Good Questions (PART 2): 1. What should you look for when selecting board members? 2. How can you get the most out of your board? 3. How do you "future proof" your board? 4. From an investor’s perspective, what does a healthy board look like from the outside? 5. What’s the biggest mistake you see management make with board interactions? And make sure you pick up your copy of the Rebel Allocator, available now on Amazon in both digital and physical formats!

In this week's Five Good Questions, we're interviewing Betsy Atkins about her book Be Board Ready. Betsy Atkins is a 3-time CEO, serial entrepreneur & Founder of Baja Corp. Betsy is a corporate governance expert with an eye for making boards a competitive asset. Her corporate board experience is vast and covers multiple industries, she has served on over 27 public boards and been through 13 IPOs. Five Good Questions (PART 1): 1. What is the best way to get on a board? 2. What are the right or wrong reasons for someone to want to be on a board? 3. What makes for an effective board member? 4. What role do activist investors play? 5. What’s the biggest mistake you see first time board members make? And make sure you pick up your copy of the Rebel Allocator, available now on Amazon in both digital and physical formats!

In this week's Five Good Questions, we're interviewing Josh Miller about his book I Call Bullsh*t. Josh is a Master Certified Executive Coach and a creative leader in the personal and professional development field. His career experience spanned both the advertising world and the world of organizational development. In advertising, he was the Creative Lead. He was responsible for the campaign strategy for Fortune 100 brands. Today, he is an innovator, developing and supporting executive development and change management for many of the same companies. Five Good Questions: 1. You carry a fortune cookie around with you in your wallet. What does it say, and what is the significance? 2. What does it mean to you to live an authentic, happy life? 3. How do we separate out what we want versus what society tells us we’re supposed to want? 4. How do we keep a groove in life from becoming a rut? 5. If you could waive a magic wand and solve one small problem that you see tripping people up, what would you fix? And make

The Hikecast is a show where interesting people take me on their favorite hikes or walks and we talk about big ideas in an unconstrained format. No planned agendas, just deep conversations, recorded out in nature. The idea is for you to put on The Hikecast and get outside to simulate taking a hike with us. I want you to feel like you're there with us out in nature. Care to join us on a hike? :) My guest for this episode is Tobias Carlisle.  Toby is principal at Acquirers Funds, LLC, and serves as chief investment officer.  He is best known as the author of Acquirer's Multiple, Deep Value, Quantitative Value, and Concentrated Investing.  He has extensive experience in investment management, business valuation, public company corporate governance, and corporate law. We went on a blustery morning hike in Southern California. Please enjoy this hikecast with Toby Carlisle. ********************* Also, pick up a copy of my first literary effort: The Rebel Allocator. It’s a coming-of-age story of a young man who lear

In this week's Five Good Questions, we're interviewing Danielle Town about her book Invested. Danielle Town is a New York Times bestselling author and corporate attorney who was afraid of stock markets until she realized she had been abdicating the power of her money and could create impactful generational wealth with an investing practice. She now invests and writes her newsletter, The Invested Practice, from Zurich, Switzerland. She wrote her book, Invested, with her investor father, Phil Town, with whom she also banters about value investing and life on their podcast, InvestED. Five Good Questions: 1. What kept you from learning about investing until you were in your mid-30s, despite having a dad who is a value investor? How did “voting with your money” draw you into learning about investing and help you overcome your fears? 2. I’ve long been fascinated by the “intangibles” of the investment process, like time management, mental and physical preparation, and environmental design. How did you curate your in

In this week's Five Good Questions, we're interviewing Kenneth Jeffrey Marshall about his book Good Stocks Cheap. Kenneth Jeffrey Marshall teaches value investing at the Stockholm School of Economics in Sweden, and at Stanford University.  He also teaches asset management at UC Berkeley.  A longtime value investor, he wrote the book Good Stocks Cheap: Value Investing with Confidence for a Lifetime of Stock Market Outperformance.  He holds a BA in Economics from UCLA; and an MBA from Harvard. Five Good Questions: 1.  Can you walk us through how you built your investing model?  I especially liked your ideas that organize efforts around “Know what to do,” “Do it,” and “Don’t do anything else.” 2.  Your book demonstrates a clear understanding of accounting.  Has the rise of intangibles changed how you use and interpret financial statements? 3.  There have been some great studies and white papers on reversion to the mean on returns on invested capital.  Do those influence your evaluation of strategic assessment? 

The Hikecast is a show where interesting people take me on their favorite hikes or walks and we talk about big ideas in an unconstrained format.  No planned agendas, just deep conversations, recorded out in nature. The idea is for you to put on The Hikecast and get outside to simulate taking a hike with us.  I want you to feel like you're there with us out in nature. Care to join us on a hike? :) My guest for this episode is Kim House.  Kim has been an ordained Zen Buddhist Teacher since 2008. When not leading meditation and guiding students with their mindfulness practice, he works as an information technology consultant specializing in helping non-profits. Kim lives in Wisconsin in the warmer months with his wife. In the winter months Kim is often at his son and daughter-in-law's retreat center (floretreatcenter.org) in Uvita, Costa Rica. Kim helps with meditation at the many yoga and wellness retreats held at Flo. We went on a balmy afternoon hike near Uvita, Costa Rica. Please enjoy this hikecast with Kim

In this week's Five Good Questions, we're interviewing Brent Beshore about his new book, The Messy Marketplace. Brent is the founder and CEO of adventur.es, a family of companies that acquires family-owned companies. He recently published “The Messy Marketplace: Selling Your Business in a World of Imperfect Buyers” and lives in Columbia, MO with his wife and three daughters. Five Good Questions: 1. There’s a tremendous amount of information that needs to be sorted through before a buyer can get comfortable purchasing an entire business. What percentage of information do you shoot for before making that final decision? 2. Like any investment, you often have to pay up for quality. What’s your thought process as you balance the quality of the business versus your purchase price? 3. How do you assess capital allocation skills in a small business? 4. What’s the most preventable deal breaker you see sellers making on a regular basis? What about buyers? 5. After analyzing more than 10,000 deals, what’s been the craz

In this week's Five Good Questions, we're interviewing James Clear about his book Atomic Habits. James is an author, entrepreneur, and photographer. He writes about habits and human potential on his website JamesClear.com. His focus is self-improvement that is supported by scientific research. James’s work ends up being one-part storytelling, one-part academic research, one-part personal experimentation. Five Good Questions:  1. What makes being thoughtful about our habits so important? 2. What are a few best practices for good habit hygiene? 3. What habit would you guess is a commonality among great investors? Or maybe, we should invert and ask what are the bad habits of investing? I’m imagining checking stock prices too often has to be up there? 4. Is there a dark side to habits? Is it possible that too much structure can sap away spontaneity, joie de vivre, and being present? 5. What’s the one bad habit that’s been hardest for you to personally break?

The Hikecast is a show where interesting people take me on their favorite hikes or walks and we talk about big ideas in an unconstrained format.  No planned agendas, just deep conversations, recorded out in nature. The idea is for you to put on The Hikecast and get outside to simulate taking a hike with us.  I want you to feel like you're there with us out in nature. Care to join us on a hike? :) My guest for this episode is Darren Virassammy.  Darren is the founder of 34Strong, a strengths-based coaching and consulting agency.  His company has been recognized as one of the fastest growing in his area.  Darren and I met in our first year of business school and we've been fast friends ever since, and I've always loved his infectious positive energy. We went on a crisp morning hike around Folsom Lake, CA. Please enjoy this hikecast with Darren Virassammy. ********************* Also, I'm announcing the release of my first literary effort: The Rebel Allocator It’s a coming-of-age story of a young man who learns a

The Hikecast is a show where interesting people take me on their favorite hikes or walks and we talk about big ideas in an unconstrained format.  No planned agendas, just deep conversations, recorded out in nature. The idea is for you to put on The Hikecast and get outside to simulate taking a hike with us.  I want you to feel like you're there with us out in nature. Care to join us on a hike?  :) My guest for this episode is Brad Kearns. Brad is the host of the podcast "Get Over Yourself." He's also a NYT best selling author, a Guinness World Recorder holding speed golfer, and the former #3 world-ranked pro triathlete. We had perfect weather for a hike in my backyard of Folsom Lake, CA. Please enjoy this hikecast with Brad Kearns. ********************* Also, I'm announcing the release of my first literary effort: The Rebel Allocator It’s a coming-of-age story of a young man who learns about business and life from an unlikely teacher. Imagine The Karate Kid meets Thorndike’s The Outsiders. You’re right, it’s

The Hikecast is a show where interesting people take me on their favorite hikes or walks and we talk about big ideas in an unconstrained format.  No planned agendas, just deep conversations, recorded out in nature. The idea is for you to put on The Hikecast and get outside to simulate taking a hike with us.  I want you to feel like you're there with us out in nature. Care to join us on a hike?  :) My guest for this episode is Christopher Kelly.  Chris is the founder of Nourish Balance Thrive, a functional medicine practice for athletes.  He is a computer scientist and pro mountain biker.  Chris was doing machine learning for a hedge fund when chronic health issues lead him tackling health for himself.  All of that learning lead him to founding his own company to help others.  He's one of my favorite thinkers in the space and his NBT podcast is a treasure trove of health info. We went on a gorgeous hike near his home in Santa Cruz, CA. Please enjoy this hikecast with Chris Kelly.

Hi there! I hope you're having a great 2017!  Here's a quick video update while we're between seasons of Five Good Questions. Topics include: Omaha Toronto Mexico Lake Shasta Ireland A business development 2 recent books I enjoyed Plus, a big reveal at the end... See you soon for Season 4! With gratitude,

Aswath Damodaran holds the Kerschner Family Chair in Finance Education and is Professor of Finance at New York University Stern School of Business. Before coming to Stern, he also lectured in Finance at the University of California, Berkeley. He has been voted "Professor of the Year" by the graduating M.B.A. class five times during his career at NYU and was profiled in Business Week as one of the top 12 U.S. business school professors.  Professor Damodaran currently teaches Corporate Finance and Equity Instruments & Markets. His research interests include Information and Prices, Real Estate, and Valuation. 1.  Why has access to increased data and computing power ironically made us more dependent on and susceptible to storytelling? 2.  What makes numbers so powerful? How do we guard against being fooled by numbers, especially when we’re fooling ourselves? 3.  There seems to be competition amongst many firms on who has the most “unbiased” process and is the most quantitatively-driven. What are some poten

Sean Iddings is co-founder of the Intelligent Fanatics Project which helps investors and entrepreneurs see further by standing on the shoulders of organizational and leadership giants. The book series, of the same name co-authored by Ian Cassel, is the introduction into the overall project. Sean is also a member of MicroCapClub and runs Unconventional Capital Wisdom, a registered investment advisor in New York State. http://amzn.to/2nQlEu2 1. What is an “intelligent fanatic,” and why do we want to recognize them as investors? What are some qualities you didn’t like in some of the leaders or their organizations you highlighted in the book? Why? 2. Who was John Patterson and how did he embody an intelligent fanatic? 3. Finding a Jeff Bezos or Warren Buffett after they’re big and famous seems easy. How do we find an intelligent fanatic early enough to invest in them to really see the benefits? Are there markers we can look for a priori to success? 4. A large addressable market with a big runway for growth was a

Dr. Michael Shermer is the Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine, a monthly columnist for Scientific American, a regular contributor to Time.com, and Presidential Fellow at Chapman University. His new book is "Skeptic: Viewing the World with a Rational Eye." He is also the author of “The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity Toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom”, “The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies”, “The Mind of the Market”, “Why Darwin Matters: Evolution and the Case Against Intelligent Design”, and “The Science of Good and Evil”. He has been a college professor since 1979, also teaching at Occidental College, Glendale College, and Claremont Graduate University, where he taught a transdisciplinary course for Ph.D. students on Evolution, Economics, and the Brain. As a public intellectual he regularly contributes Opinion Editorials, book reviews, and essays to the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, Science, Nature, and other publications. Dr. Shermer recei

Dov Baron has been sharing his wisdom and expertise privately and on international stages with professional leaders for more than 30 years. He has interviewed and worked with leaders featured on Oprah, Ellen, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, CBS, Huffington Post, Larry King, New York Times, Washington Post, Forbes, and the Wall Street Journal. Dov was named by Inc Magazine as one of the Top 100 Leadership Speakers. His current podcast “Leadership and Loyalty Tips for Executives” is the #1 podcast for Fortune 500 Executives. In addition to being a speaker, author, and a radio host, Dov Baron is the leading authority on Authentic Leadership and creating a corporate culture that generates fierce loyalty, particularly when dealing with Millennials. http://amzn.to/2m2KMhE 1. Why is loyalty the single most important characteristic of any organization? 2. It’s easy to imagine finding meaning if you work for the Red Cross, Patagonia, or maybe Whole Foods. But if you’re in a more “regular” business, how do you find that all-importan

Maureen Monte is a leadership and team consultant with over ten years experience in building winning teams. She has a BS & MS in Mechanical Engineering and an MS in Leadership and her client list includes Kellogg, SalesForce, Huntington National Bank, and La-Z-Boy. She is the author of Destination Unstoppable which documents the true story of helping a talented but dysfunctional boys varsity hockey team become state champions - in six weeks. Her process works in the locker room and the board room! 1. How did an elite high school hockey team become the narrative of your story? 2. Why are sports teams such an apt environment for strengths-based work? 3. What’s the secret to good team chemistry? How about outside of the sports world? 4. What’s an abundance mindset and why is it so important to cultivate it? Does our society have a bias toward some strengths? 5. What’s a trust bank?