YouSaid · the spoken record

David Chilton

lines on the record: 89
first: 2017-05-30
most recent: 2017-05-30
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“That's one of my favorite questions I've never been asked that. It's a very bright question, and I'll tell you there were a couple. Number one is that if you noticed right away in the due diligence process that the founders had very weak attention to detail, I walked. I walked. So we had one company that we all quite liked, and three or four of us went in. I started the due diligence, and there was two spelling mistakes on the packaging. I couldn't get past that. I ended up handing over the due diligence to somebody else. I'm not even sure if the deal ever went through because attention to detail is everything. And people talk too much about the grandness of the idea. It's about execution. And you have to be fanatical in the detail front. So that part definitely scared me. But the second thing is, and you see this on Shark Tank less, but you do see it, is that a lot of the entrepreneurs had no plans on the marketing front whatsoever. So again, they come on, they've got a fairly good product, maybe even unique. They've got a position it though. That's expensive. How does it rise above the noise? How do they educate that it is, in fact, different from everything else? They have no plans on those fronts.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Small businesses. That's how I would do 100% in small businesses of all I cared about was money. Now, again, you'd have to juggle the time demands, but if you know what you're doing, that's a great spot. And I'm talking the kind of things you describe. I'm not talking private equity partnerships and investing companies doing 86 million that you may emerge or borrow against and lay off all the time. No, I'm not talking about things. I'm talking about roofing companies that are looking for some extra cash or about to sell to management and you're going to finance and take some that kind of opportunity for people who want to do the due diligence and like that is phenomenal. But again, you also don't have a lot of liquidity. So you have to recognize going in that these are going to take quite some time to play out. They're often not saleable. So you've got to wait for them to be saleable down the road or you've got to take a dividend stream, whatever, but the trade-offs are worth it if you want to put the work in.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But if you said to me, Dave, all that matters is money. Forget everything else. You have to invest only to make money. That's how I'd invest.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it's actually 29 because I kept going. When I left the show, I invested in a number of other ones and I kept going with the due diligence for about a year. And then I really did hit the limit. And you're right. You're seeing more people look to do that. And I think you nailed it when you said they can figure things out. In my case, I do it because I can add value. If I buy Royal Bank stock or if I buy, you know, a U.S. bank, I can't change the value situation at all. But in Canada, I can introduce these people to the major distributors. I can take them to UNFI. I can even introduce them to people I know at Whole Foods and the States, whatever. That's an unusual opportunity. Plus all of your experiences can help you strategically to guide them and so on and so forth. But the trade-off when you do this is the time involvement's very high. So it's not just the check you're writing. You're involved. And you have to be able to make sure you can honor all your commitments and still do the things you're doing outside of the private company investing. And so I found that part quite tricky, frankly. And because I wanted to honor those commitments, I led a few things on my own business life slip a little bit. So again, striking all these balances is not easy.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, I think that the two entrepreneurs hated me by the end of the packaging issue, but now I would think they would say that was a good learning experience. Like it was just nonstop until we got it right. The packaging is great. They'd enter the States. That's going very well. This is a good story. Jimmy Patterson, one of Canada's wealthiest five or ten individuals. He owns all the billboards. You could probably see some from here. He just came in with over a million dollars in our next round. And so it's an exciting story.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“pricing could we hit the margins all of these types of things but the interesting thing about this particular one was they had great sell-through in their BC stores so they had figured out the hardest part of this business it's not getting on shelf it's getting off the shelf that's the hardest part of the business their in-store sampling was working that really intrigued me and I called up the female of the two and I said why aren't you expanding to stores like the hard part here is getting off the shelf you're doing that the easy part's getting more stores involved We haven't got the right broker. We haven't got the right distributor. Well, she was one of the most charming people I've ever dealt with, Australian accent, very funny, very outspoken. I said, forget the broker and distributor. You're doing it. You go to every meeting on your own. And I think of all the decisions we made, that was our best one because she can sell. And she goes into these meetings. They love her. They love the product. We replace the packaging. Did the same type of crazy approach to the packaging that I've described, the amount of testing we went through, the alterations, the consumer feedback.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's all the due diligence and initial involvement in what you can do. So we had a pitch my third year from Nona Piazza. It was a balsamic vinaigrette company from Whistler, BC, husband-wife team, lovely people. Very good product. Not great packaging, but lots of other positives. And I loved that Arlene Dickinson on the show loved it. She ended up not going forward with it for whatever reasons, and I did. And we did a long due diligence. And again, the due diligence process here is a lot of work because you're taking their product. We tested it with 32 different people. So we're giving them the product. Would you be buying it again? What are you using it on? You're trying to learn as much as you possibly can, which flavors are going over well. In many instances, you're only going to get one or two skews in of your line to a store. You're trying to figure out which ones have the most potential. And it's not as easy as, well, I like that one the best, and so do most others because there may be a competing product that's similar to it. You may be better to go with a second or third choice depending on the competitive landscape. I had my daughter drive down to the States and go to all kinds of stores, take pictures of all the competing products on shelves, trying to work back.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, it's true. That's very well said by you. People see that part. And then later they see the update, but the real work's in the middle.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's a good question. I think it changed from pitch to pitch. Certainly the chemistry you have with the pitcher, and do you believe in them? You're trying to assess a lot of things. I know this sounds very basic, but one of the things you're asking yourself a lot is can this person get the meeting? Are they that person that can get the meeting with the distributor or with the retailer? You're constantly wondering about that because that's a certain skill on its own. And so I think in some cases it mattered a lot, but in other cases, by the time you've done the due diligence, you've learned so much more that the original pitch is a small waiting in your decision. So I would say that varies dramatically from pitch to pitch and from deal to deal.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And you get to know the entrepreneurs and see what they're up against, and you're going into the stores and looking on shelf to see what the competitive landscape is, et cetera. You can't help but learn a ton. And you can, by the way, use a lot of what you learn in one field and move it over. In fact, I think I've been of help to a lot of the entrepreneurs through lateral thinking and stealing ideas from one area and bringing it back over to another. And it was a great experience. But the way I was doing it, to do all my own due diligence, but also to close that many deals, it was overwhelming. And a couple of the other dragons said to me the first year, you're not going to be able to keep this up beyond two or three years. And they were right at the end of the third year. I couldn't do it anymore. So I either had to change my approach or leave, and I couldn't change my approach. By then, you had a reputation for being the guy who was going to be directly involved. And I didn't want to lose that. And so I decided to pass on it going forward. And I've missed it. I mean, it was fun doing.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's Shark Tank. There's no difference It started a year before a shark tank, and then two of the guys came down from Canada. And I got a call from them, I guess, seven, eight years ago. Unfortunately, one of the original dragons passed on. And they were asking myself, they were asking tons of people to audition. I had no interest. I was busy traveling. I'm a pretty low-key guy. Like, I live a very quiet life. And I passed. But then when Robert left the show to focus more on the U.S. and his security company doing so well, they asked again more aggressively, will you do it? And I said, I'll think about her for a few days. And actually decided against it. Then a colleague of mine who works at the CDC or did at the time. I think she was trying to be motivational, but she said to me, you should try this. You're not young. That's kind of rude. And she said, you know, it's something new and something different. And do it for you if you don't like it, then go a different route. And, you know, that really hit me. And I thought that actually makes sense. And even though I was busy at the time, that was going to be the challenge juggling all the different involvements I had. I thought it was a good idea. And I loved it. I really did. I learned a lot from it. Like if you throw yourself in and you do 25 due diligences or 55, 75 due diligence.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“For sure, hundreds of hours. Like, there's no way that it's not hundreds of hours. I don't want to sit back and wonder if it's a thousand, but it's hundreds of hours.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because that's what it's like. You know, it really is. I wasn't kidding when I said that the CFO and the CEO just laugh. Like they think it's very funny. I think they think, how do we end up with an investor who's going to end up knowing more about the company than we do? And I didn't have much background in geology either. Like I've had to learn a lot about all of that and the different types of rock formations and this type of thing. And you're trying to find people who you can work with as the data comes out so that they can help you make sense of the big picture and all this. It was fairly easy on this stock early because I didn't know what it was worth. But I knew it was worth way more than it was trading at. And so I had a big margin of safety that way, even though I couldn't get much certainty. It's getting trickier because it's done quite well and it's done well. You've lost some of that and you're trying to figure all these things out. So it's fascinating.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't do any of this due diligence through email. So I do all my reading online or I get books and then all of my stuff is phone, which is a little bit unusual. But I just find I get so much more out of the conversations, the back and forth that you don't get in email because people are busy and they're distracted. They're doing other things. But when you're on the phone, they tend to be more in the moment. So I've used that extensively. And again, I'm not doing a lot of these. I've done like three in 25 years where I've gone to this crazy level, but they have been crazy.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This is relatively short term story. I think that we're involved. And so that kind of research is not easy to do. There aren't a lot of places you can go to find that out. And I just reach out. I just phone anybody I possibly can. So I'll phone the major accounting firms because you know”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it's freezing cold there. That's what surprised me. For some reason, I thought in the desert between Russia and China it was going to be quite warm most of the year, but it's the coldest of all the winters. But the big thing I learned is that their fiscal situation is sold about a balance. It's crazy. I mean, ratio's like you can't believe, but the absolute amount of money involved is relatively small because they're a small country, 3.5 million people, because they have this bounty of natural resources sooner or later things are going to go well there. It could be later. Traditionally, this takes a long time to play out in countries. But when they ran into the problems on the fiscal front, you don't know how this is going to turn out. Are they going to be more tempted to nationalize? Are you going to have issues with contracts? And there have been lots of ups and downs there with the political establishment dealing with the companies on the foreign direct investment front and mining. So these are things you have to be very wary of. And they're more likely to be problematic when you have these fiscal issues. And so I had to do a lot of research on what was the IMF likely to do, what was the World Bank's involvement going to be, were they going to kick the can down the road, which was fine with me.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And it was primarily a coal company at the time. I didn't do any due diligence on it at all. And then it wasn't doing great and I had some cash and I started doing due diligence and I didn't like it, to be honest with you. And sure enough it went down a lot. But it ended up splitting into the coal company and this little itty bitty gold expiration company. And that's when I started doing my homework on it and realized it was a very good opportunity. The market had mispriced it and went from there.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Process. I went out and got books on the energy industry, on Gabon that don't even relate to the energy, just on the Gabon, what's the political setup? Is it tribal? What are the risks? I was doing all this. I would go to the Economist database and I would plug in Gabon and every single article on Gabon for the last five and ten years. I would read, I've done the same thing with Mongolia. But the Mongolian one, I would say I bordered on Nutty. Like I would say if I told you everything I've done, you'd say you might need to get to a doctor because it is even the company. I talk to the CEO of the CFO a lot and they're going, this guy's crazy. It's actually pretty funny how much work I put in on that. But it's done very well. I have to tell you how I got involved because your listeners will find this amusing. The Gabon stock did so well. And so one of the two guys that got me involved in that is a broker. So I sent him some money and said, hey, good for you. And go ahead and manage this. And it's your discretion. And it didn't do great. And one of the things he bought me was this little company out in Halifax.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, you and I are quite similar. I know if I'm following you on Twitter, we have a very similar mindset about reading and everything else. And I love doing the research. Like when I was on Dragonstone, I did my own due diligence, which nobody could believe. Because no Dragons and Shark anywhere in the world do their own due diligence. I took four months a year to do it. I took off from everything, speaking, working everything. I went home and did due diligence on all the Dragonsten deals. Loved it. Man, was that a good learning experience and humbling because you were reminded how hard business is. And I was also reminded how lucky I was. I had a lot of luck in my life. I really did a lot of things film. I had fantastic parents. Never sick a day in my life. Like I do all this traveling. I always feel 100%. Can't figure it out. I drink all this dipsy and I eat nibs, little liquor stings. I don't know how I feel so healthy all the time. But even with the book, a lot of things kind of fell in my way. If I hadn't done the testing with the guys, it may not have turned out the way it did. And so I've been quite fortunate. But going back to the due diligence, yeah, I'm nutty.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, the oil company actually was producing. The Mongolian stock is not in oil. It's in gold. Got it. And it's an exploration company.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And then I'll go to this obsessive compulsive due diligence approach. But it's been pretty successful. You know, I mean, so far so good. I just wouldn't want to do it full time.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That we felt the stock was worth $40, $45, $50, it got taken out of 58 about a couple years after we got involved in it. And there was three of us that did a fair amount of investing. I owe the other guys for getting me involved, almost badgering me to get involved. But once I got involved, my due diligence is borderline crazy. Like I will call the political officials in Gabon. I will call the Canadian consulate people. I will call brokerage firms and convince analysts to look at it for me. I'll do all that. I'm involved in one now. It's a penny stock. And I've had five people do thorough due diligence. They don't even own the stock. But they've intrigued by the story and I get involved. And it's over in Mongolia. So I've spoken to ambassadors to Mongolia. I got through to the IMF through a colleague as they were looking to put a loan package together from Mongolia just a very few months ago. So few people are going to do the kind of due diligence I do, but I don't do it a lot. So I'm talking once every few years, I'll find a situation I think is extremely intriguing.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, the one was called Pan Ocean, and it was an oil company in Gabon, Africa, and a colleague of mine, a fellow your dad knows very well, called me up and he said, you should look at this. It was at $3. And he said, I think it's worth like $20. And I said, okay, I'll look at it. Didn't look at it. Then it went to five. And I'm thinking I missed the boat. And he calls me, and this is his exact word. He said, I did a thorough due diligence on this, load up the truck. That intrigued me. So I started buying at five. I did a lot of due diligence, and it took me a few months. And while I was doing it, it went up to eight. By the time it was at eight, I was convinced it was worth 30, $40, $50 and that the market had completely missed this. I think because of Gabon Africa, they were feeling there could be nationalization or major troubles. We'd done a lot of homework on the political setup there and felt it was a risk, certainly, but not that big of one. And I kept doing the research. And it was one of those few situations or rare situations where the stock price never caught the story. So even when the stock went from eight to 11 to 15 to 18, the story had improved.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I mean, a little. I've never used a lot of options. I've never used leverage. I've always stayed away from that. I've had a broad base of index funds in most instances kind of riding those forward and keeping the cost low. But I have done a fair amount of individual stock picking, not trading. This would interest people. I've taken a couple very large, extremely speculative positions, which would surprise people as the wealthy barber. But again, in the context of my overall net worth, it's been a reasonable thing to do. But even if I showed the numbers, people go, crap, that's pretty aggressive. It's surprising, but I love due diligence. I love research. And I've thrown myself in in all three of these situations to it. And two of the three have gone very well and the other one went okay. But again, it's a little bit inconsistent with what I teach and preach certainly. But remember, I'm trying to help people who are building their retirement plans and those types of things. I don't deal a lot with the affluent. That's not my marketplace. So, yeah, it's been a little bit all over the place.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, it's absolutely true. You know, it's one thing I've always said, and again, I'd love to get the comment from some of your more esteemed guests, but I don't think risk reward do walk hand in hand at all times. I think a lot of times when markets have collapsed, that the risk is very low and the reward is very high, they are delinked. And those are the times, obviously, you're looking to get involved. And I was lucky in 2009 to get involved in a couple situations where force selling had driven the stonks way underneath their intrinsic value, even based on the challenging economic times and the collapse. They were way underneath where they should have been. You know, I have a couple of colleagues. That's all they do. They only buy when you've had a lot of forced selling. And now lately we haven't had much because you've had steady rises in markets. You haven't had many economic pullbacks. But traditionally, every few years, you see something come along that forces a sale of a stock. It could get booted out of an index. It could be something relatively small like that.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I'm sure it's in the States as well, but in the last 25 years, I call them the accidental winners are a lot of older people who 20 and 25 years ago decided they wanted to go as safe as they could but stay involved in equities. So they bought into utilities and bank stocks in Canada and those types of things. They wanted the steady dividend flow. Well, of course, they've had great capital appreciation in this declining interest rate environment. They've actually outperformed all the people who were pursuing growth. So we have a fair number of people I cross paths with who have incredible amounts of money now. in retirement because that was the investment approach they took. And again, those stocks have roared along, even though that wasn't their intention when they bought them. Tough to do poorly with Canadian banks.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“About this, and his argument is very interesting he said, I can't figure out where things are going anyway. And he argues nobody else can either. And I believe in capitalism and to some extent buying into equities is a bet on long-term capitalism. I'm leaving it alone as long as I possibly can. But it's actually quite amusing. Like, I mean, I tell a story in my second book about him putting, I think it was $25,000 in an international fund and coming back to me years later and saying it's down to $7,500. And I said, can't be right. The markets have been fairly good. We had 7,500 units. And he actually had like 110 grand or something. He's going, well, I've done well. I said, yeah, the master investor here. But I made a joke in the book, you can learn a lot from this guy who knows so little. As crazy as that statement sounds, because he does stay detached. He's not going to get emotionally involved. He's not going to get out at the wrong time, et cetera. He just leaves it. He's the guy that people say is not out there. People always say nobody actually does this and leaves it forever. Well, he's been the guy who has done that. I'm really jumping all over, but your listeners will find this one interesting too. You know who's done really...”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I didn't have a nice car. When I first met your dad, I was still driving a beater. And then I eventually bought a nice car. But for the most part, I live a very humble life, not because I'm a minimalist. I don't like stuff. You know, it's not trying to make an environmental statement or anything else. I just don't like stuff. I like living a quite simple life. And I think that's been a big help too. But yeah, on the investment front, I tried to be well diversified at all times and think long term and do all the things that I preach, made my fair share of mistakes. I had one big home run, which certainly helped. And all that's been a lot of fun. I've learned a lot. You learn a lot about your self-investing too. I mean, a lot of what your dad teaches and preaches about how hard it is to stick with a plan, especially an investment approach during the tough times. It's so true. My father is an interesting investor. He has done very well because he is oblivious. He pays zero attention. I mean none. So he puts his money into a long-term growth fund or an index fund and he looks at it once every 26 to 27 years. Like the thought of opening a paper to read.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, for sure. I mean, no way anticipating making that kind of income at that time. I mean, it was a bit of a shock truthfully. And so, yeah, I did all the basic things first because you didn't want to be hypocritical. You want to do all the things you taught. But after that, I put a lot of effort into trying to invest my money well. And I gave a lot of it away, truthfully. I've always been into that. I live a very humble life. In fact, I think your listeners would be quite fascinated by just how humble. I live in a 1,300 square foot house that includes the basement. And it's one of the most poorly built homes in Canada. Like when it's windy, the whole thing shakes. I had a buddy come down from Sarnia one day who's going to do some fix-ups for me and I wasn't home. And I get there and he's there. And I said, what do you think of my house? He goes, it's shit. I said, you know, I might want to be a little bit more diplomatic. And then he takes me up to the front room and he says, there's no insulation in this room. This is Canada. And I said, it's not cold here because the house is so small. It never gets cold. And he said, but your walls are freezing. I said, I don't walk around the house like Spider-Man with my hands in the wall. I don't care. So I live in this little house. I have a little tiny cot.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To be done. So I didn't write it because it was much of a passion, although it was, but investing is where I've always been more passionate. I mean, I read everything I can on it. I love the field. But it's an interesting one because you read all this, and I'm not sure it benefits you that much.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I thought people needed help. You know, I really did. The first book, by the way, said almost nothing new. It really didn't. I tried to take the conventional wisdom of financial planning and repackage it in a more palatable way because the vast majority of people weren't going to read a financial planning book. They thought they were dull. They thought they were intimidating. They thought they were math-oriented. And I said, no, it's really four, five, six basic things you have to do. And I'm going to communicate them in a fun story with some give and take and some humor. And we're going to take the math out. And you'll grasp this. And it seemed to work. The only really unconventional opinion I had in that original book was, I don't like budgeting. I've never felt it to be very impactful. I think people are better just to take the 10% or 15% read off the top of their paycheck. I think actually what does work I talk about in the second book a lot are spending summaries for whatever reason when people keep track of everything they've spent over the last 60 days they tend to alter their behavior going forward subconsciously without even putting much effort in but anyway it was very much conventional wisdom just repackaged in a story format and I thought it needed”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I agree, and it's key. I mean, you do have to have the substance, the data, the research, but you have to deliver it in a way that people enjoy taking it in. And humor can certainly help. Stories are a key part of it. I mean, people want to begin a middle and an end. They want character in conflict. And doing all that is a real skill, but most people could be better after they put a little work in on. Your dad's naturally gifted in that area, but please take that part out and edit that. I don't want him to call me and say, you called me naturally. I don't want him hearing. I said that. But he is. He's a storyteller. And so he's one of the few money managers that you can put in front of a crowd. And they love hearing him. A lot of the money managers aren't too good. Although that being said, I maybe shouldn't say that. In the last few years, there have been a number of very, very good communicators on the money management front.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No question about it. And also, if you again speak to the readers. So one of the things that we really started getting back strong, I'd say maybe seven, eight years ago, maybe nine to ten, was how high a percentage of readers prefer short chapters. And we saw the data coming back on that and we thought that's interesting. And every year it's gone up. And if you're talking male millennials, a tough group to get to read a book, period, by the way. But if you're talking male millennials, they want short chapters almost across the board. And so give it to them. And I always...”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Testimonials on the back, for example, something that we've known through our testing, makes a big difference. But when I say publishers, if you grab that book behind you, they've got really long testimonials, even I don't read them, and I tend to read everything. The acknowledgements to the back was one of my favorites in the whole course because I've been saying that for 25 years, that when people open their book with acknowledgements to a bunch of people, I couldn't give my rap about. It's just ridiculous. What a crazy way to open your book. And then, as I said in the course, a lot of people say to me, yeah, but I'm hoping people don't read that. So you're opening your book with something you're hoping people don't read. Ridiculous. But in publishing, so many of those things just become the way they're done. And so you keep doing them forever, even when they make no sense. We are seeing some changes. Tim Ferris, et cetera, they're marketers. And they naturally did a lot of this well. They didn't need Dave Chilton's testing to help them. They all had their acknowledgements at the back because they thought it was stupid to have them at the front. Still didn't get great dedications in most instances, but most of the rest of the...”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Forwards are bad. And so when we did all that testing back in the 90s and the early 2000s, over 90% of forwards tested poorly with readers. Why are we putting things in a book that over 90% of our readers don't like? That's wacky. I'm not over 50%. Over 90% didn't like the forwards. And you used a good expression when most of them are half-assed. They are. The people I've written lots of forwards. You don't want to write them. They're an inconvenience. So you write them quickly. You often haven't read the book fully and they're in a different style of writing. And then the editor's caught in a horrible position. The editor can't really alter it much because it's insulting to the person who provided it. There's a lot of challenges here. It duplicates things that are said later or contradicts and even in some cases things that are said later. You wouldn't have a music album. And the first track on the album be a different artist. You shouldn't do that with books either. You're way better if you can get a big name instead of getting a four just to get a cover testimonial. They do work. Cover testimonials, all the research proves. They're very impactful. Publishers are figuring out some of these things now. They're going with short.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You said all that very well, too, by the way. You really did. You're an outstanding communicator, but our early research told us that about 85% of people read the dedication page, and most don't even read any of the earlier books stuff. In fact, most don't read introductions anymore. They go right to chapter one. And so you have to take advantage of it. And I mentioned in the course, there were a couple great ones we've been sent. One was a little sad. I'll leave it out. But the one was so funny. He said, I dedicate this to my two fabulous wives. I pray you never meet. But when you read that, you're already hooked. You want to keep going and you want to read more from this person. So there's a lot of examples like that where when you add up the little subtleties here and there, cumulative today make a huge difference to the book. When you're writing nonfiction, you're trying to pull people in. You're trying to change the way they think. If they like you, if they buy into you as a person, that's a lot easier job. And too many books are boring, to be perfectly honest. That's one of the biggest problems with nonfiction we're seeing too much material produced. It's boring. And in these days and times of everybody having ADD, you better not go down that path.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Get spoken about nearly enough. I mean, a lot of the opportunities in life are because institutions do the same thing over and over and over again, and that's what creates the opportunity to come in and do something differently. But what I've learned, and I am changing the subject a bit, is it afflicts people, obviously, just as much. And that's why a lot of the fintech companies haven't done nearly as well as they were thinking they were going to do. You can't get people to switch. They might even be at an institution they don't like, but getting them to switch over is very difficult. People don't like a lot of change in their life, especially with all the noise hitting us from all sides right now. So inertia is always a challenge, but therein lies a lot of opportunity as well.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, there's a lot of truth to that. And if you have a product you really believe can help people, you tend to be pretty driven to get in front of them. And, you know, I still to this day, all these years later, and I'm old now, I get way more excited when I get emails every morning from people saying, hey, it's because of the wealthy barbar, I'm retired today than I do because we strike a big deal and you make a lot of money. I've always been motivated by helping people. And I don't mean to sound corny, but I really have. Like that's always kind of what's driven me. And one of the first things that drew me to Jan and Greta, the two cookbook sisters who wrote looney spoons and crazy plates. And he's shrinking me merry was their passion was to help people eat more healthfully. They weren't into the money. It ended up, they made almost more money than anybody I've ever met in publishing, but that wasn't what their motivation was. They were all about helping people eat more healthily. And I knew that we were kindred spirits on that front. And also it's that passion that drives you to get through the tougher times or to put up with the long hours and the travel because marketing some of these things requires you being on the road a lot. You know, going back to institutional inertia, you mentioned it's such an issue.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's a very interesting question because there's a misconception in the marketplace that I self-published because I couldn't get a publisher. No truth to that. I only went to one and to his credit he saw the potential and wanted the book. It was for Tenri and Whiteside. I think that Simon Schuster may have seen it too. So there may have been two. I want to control the special sales market, the corporate sales market. I know that's a weak spot for almost all publishers. I felt the book would do well with companies buying to give to their employees, for example. And sure enough, it ended up being a huge market. In fact, in the States, we sold more books into the corporate sales arena than we did through retail. So Bell South, Motorola, IBM, they all bought lots of books to give out to employees. In some cases, they would use it as a marketing tool as well. But in most situations, it was just given to employees. So I wanted to control that. And that's why I decided to self-publish. And it wasn't as hard as people think to do that. I just read a whole bunch of books on it and just set out. And I'm still like that today. Like I love controlling things and I love reading. And so to try something new, I'll just read. And I'm not that talented.”
2017-05-30 · Invest Like the Best · David Chilton - The Human Blitzkrieg - [Invest Like the Best, EP.39] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source