YouSaid · the spoken record

Laura Geritz

lines on the record: 112
first: 2024-01-21
most recent: 2024-01-21
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“I mean, I think even just language, you know, like the nuances of language Americans are direct. So many cultures are not direct. And so I think by going in with this notion that everyone is direct, I mean, a lot of times people will say something. And especially, I think I'll speak to Asian cultures because I know they're the best, but they will tell you what you want to hear to get you to leave not alone. So, I mean, you have to go into a meeting, you know, this is, again, why reading is so important. Mosaic theory is so important to me because most cultures are not going to tell. I don't think Americans, they'll tell you what you want to hear too. And they'll strongly voice their opinions, even if their opinions are dead and wrong. Because, you know, I think particularly when I was younger, right? Maybe I was a braver investor when I was younger because I thought I was right or knew I was right. You know, now I feel.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't think we have any business selling a company in India how they should run their business. I don't have that will. This notion of like I am listening to your podcast, the older I get, the less I know is so true. So on one planet should I be going into India telling someone who's lived and run a business in that culture forever how to run their business? I just don't think I should.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“How we try to approach going into each different country was with respect for the culture and trying to speak on the company's terms and not our own.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I am a lot. I mean, I'm embarrassed by Americans overseas often, you know, and I've embarrassed myself a few times by being American overseas, but I mean, this notion of there's no such thing as a quiet American, I think that statement rings true. So I try not to bring my Americanness to global understanding. I think maybe you take a unique approach when we think, when we thought about who we wanted to be as responsible investors, we wanted sort of this answer. I didn't want this Western notion, you know, of I think the problems in the US, I mean, this is changing. And, you know, you look at Europe, a lot of these problems are rich people's problems. I've always said after spending all kinds of time in Africa, poverty has no carbon footprint. That's completely true. And so you think what...”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And ESG are responsible investing before it was fashionable, right? I mean, it's, you know, stakeholder customer, you know, customer comes first. You know, there's these actors, you know, that we don't count. I mean, mainly employee. We don't think as much about employees in Western culture customers. It's really sort of this environment of managing for the quarter, maximizing profit, right? Profit maximization right in the short term versus surviving for the long term, I think it's dramatically different culture. And I know, by the way, I know, you know, we both have, I think we both love ground green. I'm being huge ground green. My favorite, one of my favorite books of all time is The Quiet Americans. So that probably sums up.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Think it saves a lot of time too. I traveled recently with two or three, there were three different generations of investors, sort of entry level or new investors, like beginning of their career, kind of mid career investors. And then I'm usually the most senior person in the room these days. But it's so interesting how you approach things because for me, there's this nuance of culture. I don't know how to explain it, but like the first part of a lot of meetings is lost in translation. I think we all waste a lot of managerial time by sort of not understanding these cultural things when we go into the meetings. So, I mean, I think one of the things it has enabled me to do is cut to the chase of what makes the investment tick a lot quicker by understanding how the company functions within its particular culture. I think that's important. And I think that that can really”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“English speaking Africa hubbed out of the UK. I've hugged out of Japan. I've spent weeks in Indonesia. I'm not one either. Like, you know, you hear about people who, you know, they go live in Thailand and they go hub out of, you know, a beach city. I mean, I like Bangkok, so I'll stay in Bangkok. I find it fascinating. And you learn a lot about how people behave when you're in, when you spend time in these places. You learn a lot about culture.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There was a part of it, you know, too. I mean, it was actually the shared economy came about with apartments, you know, it actually became frugal. He has this plane ticket is actually often the most expensive part of travel. So you go and you'd rent this apartment in this place. You'd get on the time zone. I think one of the biggest things was like saving your own health, you know, getting in the same time zone with these companies. You know, you were able to get a lot more done operating in the US, in the US time zone and a US frame of mind, you know. So I've hugged out it when I was covering Africa. I used to hub out of Europe a lot. So if I were going to French-speaking Africa, I would hub out of Paris because the flights were really common, you know, and easy. So if I were, you know, traveling to...”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Everything today is interconnected, I think. You know, there's no company that exists in a vacuum. It exists within a global economy. And so for me to try to go out and solve for what makes this company tick, it requires doing a lot more than just reading the sell side report on the quarter.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Just how strong that dollar is today. So, you know, these are things we see. I think because I'm a consumer analyst and I was trained first in consumer. That was my first sector. And so so much of what I do or the types of companies that we invest in or where my circle of competence lies is tangible. So, you know, I can watch people's behavior and that's really helpful to me to see what they're doing. But you're right. I mean, it just, there's a combination of this real rigor. We don't have a lot of time. We're in this industry that's, you know, we've got to narrow down or whittle down the world in a way that makes sense. So we narrow down, you know, these are the types of companies or the businesses we're going to look at. And then getting on the road serves multiple purposes. I think, again, it goes to”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I was in it when I was in Japan, this loud gathering sound ball, when I was in Japan this last time, I actually wrote my quarterly letter on the hamburger economics. I was talking about the Big Mac index, but I noticed every country we've been to over the last five months. So everything that's not dollar denominated or dollar-oriented has really cheap hamburgers right now. This goes back to international markets today. They're cheap, you know, almost anywhere you go, emerging developed. You know, it's funny we read that stuff here. We read that stuff. We know like the dollar is strong, but I don't think you realize it until you're really, truly realize it until you're on the ground.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And many of those countries, like if you think about where there's a broad array of high quality moded businesses, some countries I've been to many times, I mean, you know when you go to Korea, Korea is still a country where you exchange business cards. And I walk into a corporate meeting and I don't want to exchange cards with me. You know, it's probably a slander that I've been in the meetings a few times. Yeah, so there are some places, you know, I've only been want twice and semicolon too many times.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Is just tiny, or Australia. We're dealing with NASA economies. So that means, you know, you can have an 800 pound gorilla in the small land when you look overseas. I mean, the quality of company is quite good down cap overseas, especially because it's been out of favor so long. So we're not sacrificing quality downt.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And then we whittle that world down. And believe it or not, it's, you know, when you whittle the world down today, there aren't that many companies that fit that level of quality as when you look around the world. So here's another reason, you know, when we talk about international emerging markets that we haven't gotten to. But you always hear this quality of the company must be terrible in small land, right? Well, in America where stock prices have gone up, up and up, I think what has been left in small cap. And given we've had high levels of inflation, how we define small cap should probably change. But I think if you're using old definitions of small cap pre-inflation, you know, then, yeah, the quality of a small cap here probably isn't all that good. You've got a lot of unprofitable companies in small cap land today. But I mean, we're dealing with small countries. You know, you've got countries like New Zealand where the population.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Or is the debt on the balance sheet improving? So, you know, you're looking for these terms in the business and then you're saying is this, well, you know, is this the type of business where it's acceptable to have some debt? Is it a business where there's a high level of recurring revenue or a simple business where people, consumers tend to consume even when it's fat, you know, raw menodles or and then we look at the cash flow. How does the company use the cash flow? Are they investing for growth? Do they pay dividends? Do they, you know, buy back shares? And then last but not least, we really look at, I mean, this is from this kind of book like studying how Larn Buffett invests, but, you know, is there, you know, does their margins suggest that they have a competitive advantage? And then Graham, you know, does they have stable or durable growth? We're not looking for the fastest growth, but we're looking for a business that, you know, has a history of growing through a lot of different environments.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, honestly, if you read defense of investor and you go back and read your teller, you're an investor. I mean, we have stolen a lot damned around. I mean, we start with the balance sheet. I mean, that's where I differ from Wassach. My original mentors were value investors. Oddly enough, at a growth firm in American century, my mentors, I was an accidental tourist to Graham and Buffin. They were teaching me I was 25 years old and they're teaching me, you know, Graham and Buffett and I had no idea that's what they were teaching me. But so, you know, we just apply that to the international markets. I mean, we look, we started to screen it and encapsulates what does a balance sheet of a company look like. It goes back 10, 15 years, 15 years, but looks at the balance sheet and the history of the balance sheet and cash flow, whether the company adds economic value. So we start with balance sheet. You say, does this company have reasonable leverage?”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. So, I mean, that's, you know, good business has got more reasonably priced. When most people had heavyweights in China, we thought the market was way too expensive. I mean, the animal spirits were incredible. Stocks were overvalued. So we didn't have much investment there. I guess this was a couple of years ago. I mean, it's part of why we had such a good year last year. We didn't know Russia and we, when Russia, Ukraine happened, we didn't own any. And then, you know, we were dramatically, we sold a lot of China when it got expensive during COVID. So China, if you remember, their policies were the best at the beginning of COVID. So the stock market was on fire and stocks were expensive. And that's when we were peeling back on our China weights. And I think we've been too early this time.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Insanely motivated businesses, right? I mean, we're looking for financial characteristics, great balance sheet, you know, good cash flow characteristics and the ability to use that cash flow well, even in bad times. I mean, part of the good thing about a bad economy or a bad market is good businesses tend to gain advantage during those periods because everything else goes under. I mean, I go back to 2000, I think it was, I get my time years confused these days, but you know, you go back to the last bad market in China, you know, 2000. All about ballistic or holistic industries. So that was actually a period of time where you see that good balance sheets and businesses with the moat only get better. So, you know, you think about the US during the worst periods of the macbo environment, you still had stocks that were big winners.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Criteria or transparency criteria where we think they're less influenced by the hand of the large hand of the government.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Process doesn't sound all that different. And Graham on, you know, it's a combination of Ben Graham and Warren Buffett, you know, in global markets. You know, what companies grow thoughtfully over time, who is in capital allocator and buys back shares based dividends. So there's sort of these smart companies that we think still can grow in this landscape. I mean, I think China is going to have to look more like the rest of the world. It's going to have to become a nation of consumers. whether it can pull that off or not i don't know but we've been too early i don't know if we were too early or too late we've always had an i guess in our world where we think in terms of relative where at least we're supposed to think in terms of weight relative to the index we've always been underweight china just um because of the exact problems you point out you know there's such a small set of companies that fit our quality”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I mean, the demographics are bad everywhere. I keep thinking of, I love that, you know, Lily Ice Age when the dottos are out playing with the watermelon, playing football. And they throw the watermelon, it goes over a cliff, and they're female, you know, runs over the edge of the cliff and falls. And, you know, the dotos are like, oops, there goes our last female. I mean, that's a problem around the world. I mean, it's not just a China-specific problem. That's why I love spending time in Japan too, because it's such a petri dish for all these problems that are coming from the rest of the world, the easy money policies that have prevailed there for so long, and then shrinking demographics and how do you deal with that. So I think that's a common problem that isn't unique to China. It's a global problem. But we really try to invest in companies that we think are quite good, that can grow in spite of sort of this macro landscape.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, it just doesn't feel like it can be to me, you know, like you look at violation, you look at, I mean, I'm a big believer. I mean, actually, you know, you should not seem Taliban too, you kn He calls it a white swan today, right? He's like, this should be obvious. The US has let Bernie go be, you know, we've kept the cost of capital too cheap, too long. He thinks, you know, it's almost like thinking about Krakatoa, right? You've got this risk building in a system where I think diversification, you know, if anything, you know, the longer this occurs, the more diversification makes sense. But this notion of concentration and concentration in the US big caps has been what has worked for so long that I think people forget that I agree that pendulum shift. We actually see Lake Clayton's a really smart guy, but he actually talks a lot about the pendulum swinging double and triple time in China and Taiwan and Korea, you know, and swing so fast.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In the form of chips, semiconductor chips in cars, they are the factory, I think, for the US consumer. And then it benefits China to a great degree because of scale, the scale of China, this absolute size of China. So he's Really, kind of complicated things can be boiled down into kind of one simple cause and effect. So, and that's the world we've kind of been in. So it's either those markets are in favor or they're not. Then they're in favor or they're not. It's sort of an uninteresting time as an investor, I think, where sort of narrative dominates or interest rate environment dominates fundamentals.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There has been one heavy influencer in the world. And again, we keep going back to Hart Marx, but in C-chains, he just talks about the dominance of the global central banks in terms of its influence on investing. And I think that is just their control, sort of this control of the interest rate environment and the consequence of building of the wealth effect and then the unraveling of the wealth effect is going to heavily influence how stocks do. But how we see it percolate in international or emerging markets is if interest rates come down and the US can, you know, the first thing that interest rates go down, stocks go up, the consumer starts to get a little extra money in their pocket and they go out and spin and then the job market gets better. It's just building Waltham Seg. But that was like highly beneficial to the biggest of big countries. It was beneficial to Korea and Taiwan who make everything that the US consumer consumed.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Mean, I think one thing we didn't talk about too is I think allocations are down in the single digits now to emerging markets because going back to like this generation of investors again, I mean, there's some very large generation of investors who have only seen the US go up, and particularly a few stocks in the US go up. I think that's also the product of the easy money period we've been in. I mean, easy money benefits scale. It benefits the biggest companies and the biggest countries We didn't write about this in the article. I was separate. Sometimes we do white sheets because we don't think the intention spans are there anymore. And then we call white sheets a white paper find white sheets equal a white paper, but there's also it's unbelievable if you look at like it's hard to like you know want to be Buds on the ground I love being boots on the ground personally but you lucky”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Because the Fed kept the momentum cycle going through a very long period of time. So you had that. But I don't think that world looks quite as perfect today. You know, the quality is there, the momentum, and these bin caps is there. The value is there as much as it used to be. And the value is there in international emerging market stocks, at least in the high quality ones. So at some point, I'd like to think of the dollars, it's the catalyst and these stocks have value.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, the dollar has just literally, I mean, that quote, right, the dollar is our currency and your problem has just swashed everything around the world. So, I mean, I think your chase is, you know, if that ever reverses, you know, you have two drivers of really not just emerging markets in the international stock right now because you have weak currencies around the world and then you have cheap value relatively cheap valuations So even in a world of higher interest rates, valuations have come down. So I think you have when we started Roger I thought large cap US stocks were actually quite attractive. I mean I started as a large cap global stock analyst at a period when big shops were in favor so I was very aware that Microsoft looked like it was sunk the perfect intersection of quality and value and momentum”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, that was the environment we've been in for 12 years where cash is trash. And so now I think, you know, when you're getting 5% on a 30-year or 10-year treasury, cash is no longer trash. I think the sort of mentality of debt or leverage has to change.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think that's right. So, I mean, just think about how much the risk mentality is dominating investing right now because just of how I, I mean, I'm a believer that period of pre-money or easy money went far too long. And so I think it's ingrained this culture of risk taking that might be dangerous in a world where, again, howard barks his sea change, where reads may be higher for longer. I mean, you're having to rotate your mentality dramatically in this environment from one, well, again, I'll use Dalio here, you know, cash is trash, which I am a diehard believer in Ben Graham. So Cash has never trashed to me, you know, there is an option, an optionality value of that cash that is very important or sort of, you know, a resilience factor in that cash is important.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“About nature versus nurture in our industry, and I think a lot of investors are a product of their early years or their foundational years when they're investing. When I started investing in tech bubble was starting to blow up. So I'm naturally risk averse. And then, of course, I was nurtured to be risk averse as well. But then I look, you know, over the last 12 years when it's been sort of the higher the beta your portfolio, the more you've returned, the more risk you've taken, the more leverage you've had, the better your returns. I mean, I think you have a whole generation of investors, male and female, who've been nurtured to take risks.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Gender paraves in the industry. And I think, you know, some of my best years as money is a money manager, been when I have been paired, male and female paired together. I think that's just a great pairing in money management. And again, I think a lot of them, you know, when you talk about sort of the traditional stereotypical female personality, well, this gets into nature and nurture in our industry, right? You know, a lot of the great value investors have these characteristics that are similar to how you describe a female investor. They manage for risk as well as return. So a lot of my greatest influencers are, you know, these great male value investors. So anyway, I think that's all interesting and confusing what I'm saying here, but I think a lot.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Jason, Jesus. I don't know why you said that. Thank you so much. But yeah, the little book is safe money, right? I'm a huge fan of them. Yeah. There's that great chapter provocatively titled Sex, right”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, maybe life has gotten kind of controlling my own destiny around your May. Maybe it's gotten a little better for me because I've sought out sort of men who are great partners in the last at least five or six years of my career as sort of different type of male. I mean, we didn't talk about the positive males in my life. I have had some of the best male mentors and men who have supported sort of this push for more diversity in the industry through the years as well. So I always say, you know, I know we're both big fans of Martin's Weig. So, you know, the little book of Saved Money. He has that one.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's very, very difficult, you know, to get to the level scale where you're making a lot of money again. And it was never my intention or in the kind of money I made working for other companies. It was about, you know, trying to do something to change our industry. Yeah, what I saw, you know, when I left Wasatch was exactly what I stalled when I started in the beginning. The actual number of females who were left in the industry, it was actually, I think, the number of females in actual research had gone down. from when I started, and I can count on one hand maybe add a finger how many people were in American century, you know, who were china. That, yes, so I mean, there was one woman who was a role model for me. She actually came up in a similar way to me and she quit in her 40s. She just said enough.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Me. There is sort of Chanel, you know, end and beginning to your day because some market is always open somewhere. But I mean, most of us who do international and the long hours of international also just absolutely love, you know, learning about different cultures and places and stocks and talking to different people. So there's a different level of a reward. You're compensated for the hours worked by the knowledge that you gain from doing these unique markets. So, but yes, that was, I think I told you I mentioned this to you, but when I left and decided to start, it was with a greater purpose of trying to do something to create a role model or strike out in the industry. It certainly wasn't for monetary reasons because it's starting a business. And one of my friends jokes who did a startup company, me called Startup Not-for-Profit.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, she was actually married to the head of IT at the company. And, you know, they had children. So she said, I can put in this amount of time, which actually most people were only putting in that amount of time anyway. There were a few extraordinary people who were really trying to advance power in your head. But the fact that she couldn't was, you know, that she actually said, I think most people just would never admit openly that these are going to be my hours, right? So she was civilized for being honest. So I don't really see why she couldn't achieve that level of success because a lot of people were only working those hours anyway. I mean, especially like if you're doing domestic equities. Now, if you're doing international equities, I can tell you, you know, for any young person thinking about the becoming an analyst or portfolio manager.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, and I owe them such a debt of gratitude because, yes, I had no accounting background either. This was an accounting job. I'm a financial analyst. So they weren't looking at the time frame for people who sought globally, who thought about other places because they already had, you know, I love Adam Grant's book on, you know, when he talks about cultural enhancements and culture fit, but they had enough accountants and the nuts and other financial analysts at a timeframe. What they needed was someone who could think globally. And so I think that is why I got the job. You know, I was a foreign language speaker. I'd lived abroad. And I was lucky enough or fortunate enough of one of the first stocks I was ever given was Tiffany at a time frame when Japan mattered to Tiffany. And I really understood the culture of the Japanese consumer. So that gave me this different lens into that stock than.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Time, and sometimes you can be good and just be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I mean, I love how it works, you know, or anything great. He has his most recent letter on Sea Change. And, you know, I think we've been through this period of absurdly easy money. And we say this all the time internally, you know, Donald Pinthius, bull markets with brains. And I think, you know, that your comment again about who is good and who is bad, that's particularly hard to tell right now too, because the bull markets have made a lot of things good for a long time. So, but I mean, I think just when I look at the people who I have thought of as good investors in my life, they approach stocks in the markets with an incredible amount of humility and they have a lot of respect.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think it's hard because, well, you look and you think, you know, does the person have an actual discipline approach to investing? Do they have a process? And then the other thing does that process translate to the other members of the team and these other personalities, how do you transmit that process? But I think that's very hard to tell from an outside view. And then, you know, you look at people in the industry, this is true for me at the moment. I mean, I am working in most out of favor asset classes. I think on the planet, you know, I think the only people left in the emerging markets, right, are the very old, the very senior and devoted or the very young because they can't get a job in private equity or venture capital. So they've had to take a job in emerging markets. So luckily such a role in this industry, right? There's hard work and then there's being in the right place in the right place.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, he stung that in the past. So, I mean, we talked about this, but I mean, the one thing that there's not a day that goes by and those guys don't think about their fiduciary duty. And so to me, being partnered with people who think that way is important, you know. So yeah, he really cares about his clients. I mean, he takes that serious. And all of his biggest victories, I mean, which I don't want to say his biggest victories, but almost every time I hear about a win, it's based on something well for clients. So, and that culture kind of pervades grandchildren peak. So they're just, it's just a great group of people.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Small in this. Clients. Yes, yes, they're still like that. So, I mean, I always consider myself an honorary member of the culture. You know, I'm not from Utah, but there's something about the culture where I've something about the culture of Western Kansas that is similar, you know.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“He was my office mate for a long time. And he was generous with his time in mentoring and coaching. And I just, you know, the personality of caring about something greater than himself is very similar to the philosophy that you grow up with on the plains of Western Kansas.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“My grandpa, you know, my grandpa and grandmother, you know, they splurged twice. Once was on, they bought a grandfather clock. And then one time there was this beautiful clock and they had this very small farmhouse, but they had a tiny TV in the front room, the only TV. But my grandfather wore these beat-up overalls. And here the spin was a millionaire. You know, you would have never known it, right? So, everyone I grew up with and surrounded myself with through most of my histories is like that. I would even say, you know, the great respect, I chose to fart knowing Grandeur Peace. That's what those founders are like as well. You know, they have this culture that I really adore of. You know, it's about more than just me. They're very charitable. They care about their community.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Your wealth. There's just nothing. I just didn't grow up in that culture. It's not important to me in any boy, shape, or form.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Relations really represented, so I wasn't thanking very much, and but you wouldn't have known, you know, that you were surrounded by this great wealth because it's just not the culture of the Midwest. We actually competed for worst car. I was on one of the largest funds in the country at the time. It was the second, I think, the second biggest fund in the country. And one guy drove this ancient civic. You know, my windows actually had fallen off my car. So they were taped up. And then, I mean, it snowed in Kansas City. So we're all like, you know, it was like something out of the incredibles where we're all in these mini cars, you know, driving into work. So that was just the culture of Kansas City. I mean, there's not this culture of flashing money. In fact, and I think Japan has a very similar culture, which is why I feel comfortable there, right? You know, the nail that sticks up gets hammered down. So this sort of culture of showing your importance by flash.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think within 20th century from the leadership there was a coalition that's also part of Midwestern culture, right? There's a culture of frugality in the Midwest, of humility, you know, the sense of humor in the Midwest is self-deprecating. So nobody takes themselves too seriously. And so there's actually, you know, even among these, I didn't know anything. I actually feel very lucky because I've never felt like happening to have this sort of like focus on quality of life for a lot of free time or because I found a job I love to do. And so there's not really a separation between work and life for me. And so I think I'm really fortunate. And then in my early years, I was surrounded by this group of people who you wouldn't have known. I didn't know anything about how much the industry was paid. I just really loved the job and I was paid very little. So at that time frame, you know, I started as a lingual craft.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Think we hear often in this industry, I don't get the sense that a lot of people understand it's not their money. I listen to that over and over again. And to me, like the greatest reward is doing something well for a clients. I mean, I live and breathe. I don't always do, you know, I don't always, you know, I'm not always right and I make mistakes, but it's always sort of in the back of my head. This is someone else's money. This is someone else's future, you know, this is their goal. This is their children's goal. So that matters to me. It really matter hearing these people's stories. I mean, I know you're a great storyteller and for me just hearing other people's stories is really magical.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, we actually spoke Japanese, so no one ever did. Yeah, now once American 20th century at that time prevented partially acquired by JP Morgan. And so the only time I really ever used my language skills and they got rusty for a while was when a camera crew came in from Japan to interview. And so that was the only time I really used my Japanese.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it was the pure, it was the tech bubble, you know? So we ran diversified strategies. So, you know, I spent great periods of time getting yelled at for, you know, only having 35% returns or something along those lines. You know, they were so extraordinary returns, but they weren't keeping up with the NASDAQ at the moment. So that was how I started. But that was still in the days where people called. I sort of cheated too. We talked about this before. I knew I would never have to use Japanese on the phone in American century. If you think about the culture of Japan, I mean, you know, it's a culture that's sort of funny because, you know, you think about crap and there's, you know, again, a culture where there's a lot of contradictions, but you have imperfection in architecture. But people who are Japanese and they want to speak English, they want to speak in perfect. So I didn't think, I didn't think anyone ever called.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“He's a believer, you know, and if you think about what he thought it would take to be successful in life and get to this point of wiser and happier, he thought, okay, we need to accrue savings so that we can choose what we want to do in life. And so he's like, I think we can accrue savings by staying in Kansas. So that's sort of how I ended up in 20th century accruing savings of what exploring the world. And then I think also the people who come to work in Kansas City, you know, there's sort of a different breed of people too. So that was sort of a nice set of people who surround to be surrounded by in the early years.”
2024-01-21 · We Study Billionaires · RWH040: Go Global w/ Laura Geritz · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT