Making Billions: The Private Equity Podcast for Fund Managers, Alternative Asset Managers, and Venture Capital Investors
Making Billions with Ryan Miller — The Wolf of Alt Street — is the definitive top 2% ranked podcast for fund managers who want to raise capital and gain a competitive edge in private markets.
Are you a fund manager trying to raise capital? Do you want to know how the top 0.01% in finance actually build and scale their funds?
THE HOST
Ryan Miller — fund manager, capital strategist, and former CFO turned angel investor in technology and energy — delivers the unfiltered playbook serious fund managers use to raise capital and compete at the highest level across:
· Capital Raising & LP Relations
· PE Deal Sourcing & Acquisition Strategy
· Value Creation & Exit Strategies
· Private Credit, Venture Capital & AI in Fund Management
THE SHOW
Making Billions: The Private Equity Podcast for Fund Managers,
Alternative Asset Managers, and venture capital investors alternate between two powerful formats every week:
Expert interviews with top fund managers, family office allocators, institutional investors, and alternative asset operators who have done it at the highest level — and Making Billions Academy episodes where Ryan delivers solo masterclasses teaching the exact finance principles
and capital raising frameworks serious fund managers need to compete and win in private markets.
New episodes every week. No theory. No fluff. Just the playbook.
This is the show your competitors hope you never find.
How do you raise capital for a fund?
👉 https://go.fundraisecapital.co/apply
For educational purposes only. Not financial, legal, or investment advice. Not a solicitation. Full disclaimer here:
https://making-billions.com/disclaimer
Making Billions: The Private Equity Podcast for Fund Managers, Alternative Asset Managers, and Venture Capital Investors
Is Your Trading Strategy Failing or Is It Just Your Mind?
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
"RAISE CAPITAL LIKE A LEGEND: https://go.fundraisecapital.co/apply"
Wall Street spends billions on market data, yet almost nothing on the one "edge" that actually separates fund titans from the rest: the biology of decision-making.
In this episode of Making Billions, host Ryan Miller is joined by 25-year Wall Street veteran and elite performance coach Evan Marks to pull back the curtain on the "hidden interferences" that sabotage professional investors.
[THE HOST]: Ryan Miller is a fund manager, capital strategist, and former CFO turned angel investor in technology and energy. He is the founder of Fund Raise Capital and Aequor Capital Partners, and has mentored over 1,000 fund managers across private equity, private credit, venture capital, real estate, and alternative assets globally.
[THE GUEST]: Evan Marks is the founder of M1 Performance Group and a former Wall Street portfolio manager with over 25 years of trading experience. Evan is a renowned expert in emotional regulation and the "Aggressive Patience" performance framework.
Subscribe on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTOe79EXLDsROQ0z3YLnu1QQ
Connect with Ryan Miller:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rcmiller1/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanmilleroffical/
X: https://x.com/_MakingBillions
Website: https://making-billions.com/
DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for entertainment and general informational purposes only — not legal, financial, tax, or investment advice. Nothing herein constitutes a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any security or investment product. Past performance does not indicate future results. Always consult qualified legal, financial, and tax professionals before making any investment decision. NAME NOTICE: "Making Billions with Ryan Miller" reflects the profile and aspirations of guests featured — it is not a promise, projection, guarantee, or representation of any financial result, income, or outcome for any listener, viewer, or reader. Most individuals who consume this content do not raise any particular amount of capital, and many achieve no financial result whatsoever. "Fund Raise Capital" is a brand identifier only — it is not a promise, guarantee, or representation that any member, subscriber, or listener will raise capital, attract investors, or achieve any financial or professional outcome. This show does not constitute a business opportunity, franchise, investment program, or offer of any product or service of any kind. No part of this show should be construed as a solicitation for investment in any way. Guest views are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the show or host. Host and/or guests may hold positions in assets discussed. This episode may contain paid sponsorships, advertisements, or endorsements. Sponsored content is identified where...
Wall Street spends billions perfecting strategy and almost nothing on the one edge that actually separates the fund titans from the fund tourists. So if you're in high finance and your returns do not reflect your research, then this conversation was made for you. Here we go.
Evan, welcome the show, man.
Ryan, I appreciate you having me. You're talking about some of my favorite topics right now, finance, which I did for a long time, and mental performance. If anybody knows this, the mental edge is the ultimate prize in finance. When you talk about you know, I always have, I have one line that I always use, and I think I have to get another one soon. You have to be comfortable in the uncertainty and confident in your behavior. That is the key to this whole game as we look at these markets and ever changing and adaptability. If your mental foundation isn't there, walk away period the end. That's how strong I feel about this.
Yeah, so you got those steel nerves that you've earned over decades of being a professional trader and a Wall Street legend, man. So I'm excited to have you here, buddy. So let's dive in. So my question for you is, what is the single psychological pattern you see in underperforming fund managers that no one on the desk is talking about?
There's two words, there's one word, impulsivity, which, by the way, is reacting. So when you don't have a strong mental foundation in a sea of chaos and uncertainty, and you don't have the ability to pause and take mental space, and instead, you react. Those reactions are not coming from a knowledge you know become past experiences. So you're literally, it's called, if you're reliving experiences over and over again, as opposed to creating new behaviors. So when you said in the beginning about controlling emotions. We actually control behavior. Emotions are just the data points that guide us in order to choose conscious behavior. So when you look at underperforming managers, and if you pull them as what do you think your biggest problem is, they go, I can't stop reacting. Once we're able to understand why they're reacting and get them in the space of responding, then it's time to invest with them. But it's one of it sounds so simple, but like anything else, it takes training, and you need to be visible in the moment. So you can meditate all you want at two in the morning or four in the morning or five in the morning, but if you're not visible in the moment to make best decisions, because that's where it counts.
Brilliant. So, so then how does let's say, so we talked about acting versus overreacting. What about overconfident? What have you seen? I'm sure, let's talk about the other side of that spectrum. How is overconfidence, which is never really a compliment, sometimes it is. But in the case of training and fund managers and managing assets, how does overconfidence play into underperformance.
So overconfidence is sometimes in line with a feeling of euphoria. Quote, unquote. I could do no wrong. I know what I'm doing at any moment, at any time. I'm the best at this, and always will be. And as we know, markets will humble you. So when I go back to emotions, there's a range of emotions. Let's say one is panic, and seven is euphoria. We have to understand in our personal dictionaries of emotions, there are certain areas not to make. You don't make best decisions. So when you're overconfident, you're kind of too loose, you kind of stray from the basics of mental performance. So when I hear clients, when I can pick up these overconfident red flags are being from being thrown all over the place because it's a bad place to make decisions. So what happens? So the question is, when you realize you're overconfident, when news flow is coming in, you're not responding appropriately, because you think you know everything, or whatever it may be that should give you a hint. That's a data point saying, wait a second, I need to down regulate, because when I'm feeling this way, my behavior starts to react. We don't pick up on the cues that are necessary. That's very important. So that's why we talk about down regulation being visible in the moment.
For me, I spent 25 years doing this, and believe it or not, my go to feeling where I perform my best was being nervous. Why do you think that is so being nervous to me? Maybe when I was 12 wasn't so great, but I realized that as my career was going on, I was always nervous in a certain point on a certain trade. And I began to realize that being nervous actually mean I was dialed in. So nervousness, to me, was a great place to make best decisions. That's my experience. So as you get to know yourself better and better better, and you start building this personal dictionary of emotions, you start to now align with different behaviors. So instead of running away when I was nervous, I would die, I was dialed in. I put that mental space, and that was the place I always wanted to be, because it wanted meant something to me. Something was going on that piqued my curiosity. I could feel it viscerally in my body. I knew to take a breath, and that's the place I wanted to be in. So for you, Ryan, it may be very different. For Johnny trader, Beth trader may be very different, but once you start to really understand, become a. Student of yourself, of yourself, that is the place to be. Overconfidence is never a great place to make decisions. Competence is a great place to make decisions. If you understand that and know the difference.
That's brilliant. So does that come into because you've been frequently, and I've heard you say this before, is pressure is a privilege. Is that kind of what you're talking about? There is to say, you know, maybe when I was 12, would run for 12, would run from it, but now I understand it makes me pay attention, makes me lock in. Is that what we're saying? It's a privilege to have pressure.
So when we say pressure is a privilege, which actually comes from Billie Jean King, the tennis player. Pressure is a privilege, meaning it's a responsibility. So Ryan Miller, I am giving you this role to do this with a lot more pressure. So I'm giving you more responsibility. It's a privilege. I really think that you not only can do it, but you can far out see our expectations. It's still a lot of pressure. So when we say pressure is a privilege, it's a privilege to sit in a seat of trading, running money, CEO, professional athlete, so it's a privilege. So how do you now take that responsibility and instead of surviving, thrive? It's really a reframe on that. So I like my people being under pressure, that means we're in the right seat. We have the right capabilities. Now it's the mental game that's so important. And now how do they respond in the moment? That's why it's a privilege, somebody's bestowing on to you this responsibility. Now we need to show up. I get very intense about these things, as you can tell.
I love it, and let's keep the fire, brother. So with that said, I'd love to, let's, let's start peeling this back even deeper walk it, maybe you can walk us through the exact mental protocol that a pm should run when a position moves hard against them.
So obviously there's mental priming way before that. It's like going to the gym and working out and all those things. So when we think of trading, portfolio management, anything in finance that involves high risk. You have to treat it like a performance sport, even though trading psychology is different than sports psychology, but there are many overlaps. So the question is, way before you have to make this big decision, what have you done before that? How do you sleep? How do you actually go to bed? How do you wake up in the morning, start priming yourself mentally when you start putting those reps in, when the moment that you need to be visible, right? That high stakes decision that you need to make, we're already setting ourselves up for it. So when that moment comes which it's going to come, right, positive psychology is not going to help you in this one, right? This is the reality that we live in. So how do my people get ready in that moment of chaos where they need to make best decisions? So now, as we primed ourselves into that moment. We have a routine, right? We set an intention, where, where do I need to be? How do I need to get better? Now the moment comes.
So now, now meditating at four in the morning. It's helpful, but is it going to help me now to really have a solid foundation to make the best decisions? So now whatever happened, trade goes up, trade goes down. It goes against us. I want to make sure that I can create space to make a best decision here. Do I need to add? Do I need to sell? Whatever it may be, but it can't be impulsive. So as it's moving, my heart rate is racing, right? I feel a little rigid. So now I'm picking it somatic. I'm picking this up now I'm getting scared. I'm getting a little panicked. All right, normal, acknowledge that what is going on here? Okay, I feel panicked. I feel really nervous. I feel scared. Okay, space. So what does that do right there Ryan, it really starts to block off that reacting. So what's interesting about this? You have to verbalize it. You just can't think I'm panicked and I'm nervous because it is already going on in your head. Once it leaves your mouth, you get to see what it looks like. Now we're creating space. This is in seconds, like in a second or two, all right, where do I need to be right now? Now we're conscious that took above three seconds, right there. So now we're confident. What do I need to do? We are in a much better situation to make a better decision than we are when we panic and we react.
Now, obviously that sounds so simple, like, oh, really, that's nothing. Try, try and compete in a moment. And obviously at this time the market has a lot of heat of the moments. Try to be visible in that moment. Push back for a second, open up your body. Okay, okay. Feeling nervous. Where do I need to dig? What behavior do I need to do right now? What's the “How should I respond”? Now you do this over and over again, so now the emotions don't change, you can't control an emotion. It's just a data point. But now, as we create these new behaviors, what it does is it starts to build a new experience in our brain. So now the brain said, well, when he's nervous, he does this now, and this is the experience, because we know the brain is always predicting. How's this going to make me feel? What happens if I get this wrong? That's a catastrophe. How's all these things are going on? But when it starts to predict into the future, the pool it's predicting from is past events.
So then it's our job to build new experiences that go into that pool. So now, through the course of repetition, we start to put new stuff. In that pool. So now, when Ryan Miller PM, is feeling nervous, things are going right, say, wait a second. He doesn't react anymore. Why does he respond like that even if he is nervous, that is mental training. And then what happens over the course of repetition, again and again and again, neurally, in our brain, it starts to rewire. So now our default that little Evan running away when he was 12, when he was nervous. Now he sits in the pocket and he responds and doesn't react. So what may look to you is like I'm reacting. That is a response, but in nanoseconds, because I've trained myself to behave this way. This is all about emotions of data and conscious behavior, again and again and again, until you start rewiring your brain. So the question always is, why am I doing what I'm doing, right? So my game as a mental performance coach is marrying the why and the how. Why do I do what I do? How do I get better? How do I change? So we know on the psychoanalytical side that a lot of this stuff comes from where, childhood, it comes from, pre programming.
So it's our job now for the, to redo the programming in our brain for the things that no longer serve us. So it sounds like I'm gonna put you on the couch right now, but I'm not, because what happens is, as we start to change behavior, the why I do what I do, starts to come out. So when you think about therapy, and I'm pro therapy, this is not a dig on therapy. But they're always thinking of the why, what coaching is, and what we do is the marriage between why and how, because we really want these changes to be repeatable, sustainable and leverageable, and that's where growth happens.
So it sounds very Herculean, but it's really not change happens anywhere. If you decide to go to bed a half hour earlier and wake up a half hour earlier and go for a walk, and you've never done that, that's change. Now you start to do that, you start to build evidence, and then evidence with consistency builds what confidence. Now, how is waking up early and going to bed earlier and walk in the morning help your trading, because it believes a belief system. All this stuff starts to connect. You're an entrepreneur. You know this, like we have to take risks, but there's got to be a consistency in what we do. Are we going to be right all the time, the answer absolutely is no. However, we could put ourselves in spots of best decision making. Only time will tell, right, but I can guarantee we start stacking best decisions that are conscious over alarm.
I love what you said about putting ourselves in a position of best decision making. I'm gonna, I'm gonna pin that on my wall, brother, that that is incredible.
And, but you gotta just real quick, but you got to slow down. So when, when I say slow down, to be like, no, man, I got to keep going. No, that's not what I mean. Slowing down in order to speed up is an art of intentionality. Has nothing to do with gas, nothing. It's back to what you were just saying. It's back to best decisions.
I love that you know, making those decisions and you talked about praise, because we talk a lot about fundraising and fund management. And so as you go out, and let's say you go and fundraise, and you raise capital, and then you execute on it, there's one thing, the common thread between all of that is your thesis. And so my question for you, Evan is, how does a fund manager stay convicted to that thesis without becoming stubborn? Sometimes I call that aggressive patience, right? So slow down to go like you got a lot of tools in your toolbox, man. So how do they stay convicted to a thesis without being stubborn and inflexible and now you're making stupid choices?
It's a great question. So just, I just want to clarify when we talk about aggressive patience at M1 it's one of our pillars. We look at it slightly different. So when we say patience, we assume that's passive, where aggressive patience is almost that Jaguar and a brush. Oh, I've never seen a Jaguar in a brush, but I keep going back to this. Where the heart is in control. It's just ready to strike. So when we say aggressive, patience is preparation, behavioral control and readiness to go. That's what we consider aggressive patience, and it is a great place to constantly be, because it puts you in that responsive instead of reactive nature. Now, when we talk about when things go awry for analysts, PMs, but it really starts a little bit before that.
So I had a call with Timeline in London, and we had the same issue. And the discussion was, when we have ideas, how do we actually know it's a good idea or not a good idea? So we can obviously do our research, whatever it may be, but are we asking ourselves enough questions? So what does that exactly mean? So if I was in love with stock. Let's say I would look at my analyst and I would say, call every single bear analyst on Wall Street. I want to know why they don't like it. Please poke holes in my story. So I want to know where, where the bulls lie and the bears lie. And then I want to know where sentiment is. So once I understand that, you have to ask yourself additional. What would make me react if this went against me? Where would I ache if it went against me and it was just noise? But the thing is, you just can't do that in the moment. That has to be sort of your structure. If this happens, I'll do this if that, so when the moment happens, you have a better ability to sit in a pocket and make, once again, best decisions.
Now if, let's say things change and a lot of people have confirmation bias, right, which gets in the way and all these other biases, you have to ask these questions. Has anything changed in the scenario? Do I have confirmation bias? But once again, Ryan, it's got to come out of your mouth. This doesn't take that long. You have to be willing to ask yourselves these questions, am I was, am I reacting because I'm scared? Because we're all human beings, nobody's perfect, but the better we are to start asking these self exploratory questions. Who's asking ourselves questions? That's what that is. It puts us in a better seat of consciousness. Why? One's very simple, because we're able to ask the question. I didn't forget that. I didn't I forgot to ask myself that question, that means we're reacting the more. The better we get at this, the better chance we have it. But again, best decisions we could do all the work, have an edge, done everything correctly and still be wrong, right? We're dealing with uncertainty. We don't know duration and time, how long it takes. So we're not in a business. We're obviously in the business of making money, not being right, and we're in the business, really, of inputs.
So when you think about people, get lost in confirmation bias, because they're thinking about a couple of things. One, they're thinking about the outcome, which is quite obvious, but also they're looking at, am I going to feel embarrassed? Am I going to feel rejected? Am I going to feel judged? So now it is no longer about the market, and it's about who, you. It becomes personal. So the best way for that, for not to stay personal, is to ask questions. Speak out loud, so you can see the words. I mean, you can't see words, but you can see the experience. The better you get at this. I'm sure, Ryan, I mean, you do a lot of things, and I'm sure when you have a moment with yourself, you ask yourself a couple questions. What am I thinking right here? What is the best decision I can make here? But I know I need to make a decision. So what is that going to look like? You weigh the pros and cons a little bit, and then you make a decision. Now, if you said, I just think about things and I just make decisions. I'd say, listen, you should hire me. Right, but you don't, you know you don't, right? You have a lot of things going on, so you need this clarity. And clarity comes from verbalizing what's going on in your head. I'd like to say, take it from the dark to the light. And it's interesting also, because what we do and follow this, because it's pretty important, my job is being the unconscious conscious. Make it visible, of whatever the interferences are that are going on in your head. And then through proper repetition, we become unconsciously conscious. And what exactly is that, that's hope flow, just like that, and that's repetition. So when people how you make it look so easy? Well, I've done this so many times that it may look easy too, but that I put so much intention into this, and so much repetition and so much practice. And is when you build this mental foundation. And you know this, you do a lot of different you know you're not going to be doing the same thing you're doing in three years from now, but your mental foundation will always be with you, which is so important. And what happens is, as you stretch, you build another layer, and you stack and stack. What a wonderful place to be.
And by the way, you could change your mental foundation. You could build your mental foundation at any age. I'm 53 years old. I started my company two years ago even though I've been coaching for eight. I knew shit about social media. I wasn't even on social media. Podcasts. Didn't know what the hell those were. Maybe I listened to a couple being on stage doing a TEDx. What are you nuts? Then all of a sudden, I started to build. Okay, what do I need to do next? Where the reps needed to do this? And then what happens? You start stacking these things, so days into weeks, into months, into years. And now you look back, now time has become an ally of mine, as opposed to a foe. The reason this becomes a foe, I did nothing. So you know, when you think about your business and how you start, I'm doing this now that I'm gonna do this. Then, then you build your cement, then you do your next thing, your decision making gets so much better because you have evidence, because you why, because you trust yourself. People don't talk about trust enough. They don't, like how people trust themselves. And that's evidence, that's behavior, evidence based.
Yeah, I love that you brought that up because in high finance, I always say it's more about trust than it is transactions. But what you talk and I, that was more oriented to getting, you know, making sure you have integrity or compliance, and you know the external stuff. But what you're talking about is a whole dimension of that still about trust, more than transactions. Not that it's not about the transaction. We're just saying it's a hard time getting the transaction if nobody trusts you and you're a scumbag. But I think what you're saying is like, yeah, that's good, Ryan, but trusting yourself, and I think, is where it all begins. If you don't even trust yourself, that's number one.
Transformational, right? It's not transactional, and life isn't linear, especially if you take risks. But the more you trust yourself, because you have evidence behind it, the better positions you'll be. Not positions. I'm not saying equity and credit positions, I'm just saying positions. In life, what a great place to be. But I deal in the world of risk, whether it's athletes, global CEOs or financial finance, you know finance people. We're in a game of Risk. You better be able to fucking trust yourself. And being able to trust yourself is behavior in the face of any emotion. You're able to stand in a sea of chaos and make the best decisions. How good does that sound?
Sign me up.
Sign me up. That is practice.
Yeah.
Nobody's perfect, because we always have an opportunity to be better and keep moving that needle. It's all about the inputs. It's just input, input, input, I don't like to say process anymore because it's overplayed. I care about the inputs. We are input obsessed, result focused.
You know, I like what you talked about thinking about what you're thinking about, right? And that's part of your slowing down, exactly. So metacognitions we talked about, how do you remain somewhat flexible and patient without you know if the market changes, especially if you're in trading, for example, like real estate, private equity might be a little bit different, but you still need to figure out how you act, not react. So metacognition is one, and then one is just clarity is power and through that clarity and that newfound power, now you're in a position to back to what you said earlier, make better decisions. And so now you're in your good decision zone because you're clear, you're able to slow down and think about what you're thinking about and criticize yourself in a healthy way to say, I'm just believing nonsense like I'm all worked up. Nothing's happened yet, what, I need to go for, walk wherever. And so that metacognition, which is a high IQ thing, the scientists just came out and said, they said. Actually, IQ tests need to be, they find that the highest IQ people actually have the ability they do it naturally, which is, I'm able to criticize my own thoughts and say I don't believe that, even though I believe that. And so you can kind of like, have this conversation with yourself without mental illness or issues with mental health, but in a true healthy way, is to say, maybe that's an old pattern that you know, like, as you talked about a 12 year old having.
Observe yourself, right?
Observe yourself.
Observe yourself.
Yeah.
Is a wonderful thing. We know, we know we're not perfect. That's a wonderful thing. So if you, if you give yourself enough mental space, say what was that about? Why did I react there? Why am I thinking this way? So the greatest part about that, right, is you don't have to answer the question. You ask that question, let the unconscious start to do its work. Maybe it comes out now I'm getting 49. Maybe it comes out in the dream or on a walk, but it'll show its hand. You don't need to struggle with this. You need to acknowledge it and choose behavior. So I would say, you know, it's a very intimate relationship I have with my clients, right? Just, you know, what's going on? Like? How are people thinking? What is their past look like? How were they wired? Why do they do what they do? And how do we create change? And why do they want to create change, right? It sounds, you know, it's interesting, but it doesn't happen in a day. We start to make these small into these small mental shifts via behavior. Watch what happens again and again and again. So, you know, like we, you know this, right, money compounds, right? 72 rule, whatever the hell that is, behavior compounds, just like money. The problem is, just like in money, people don't give them a chance to compound, because progress in the beginning is very loose. Just like money's compounded. It looks the same, like it was for four years, and then it starts to double. Behavior is much quicker than that, if you're able to tolerate the repetition of it, the boredom of it.
That's brilliant.
Yeah, somebody listened to this podcast makes a change, whatever it may be, a cold shower, deciding not to react to his wife instead of counting to three and then responding reply to this podcast and say, Wow, that was a big difference. And that starts to build momentum, even talking about momentum, yet the momentum train is the greatest fuck motivation, right? Because your time matters, like your minutes accounting, and what you're feeling is flow. You're adaptable, you're flexible. It's just a great spot to be.
It sure is man. And you know, you talk about behavior compounding, decisions compound, I might add, and feel free, and I'd love to get your opinion. But also emotions compound, sometimes called emotional stacking, and that sword cuts both ways. I can really drive you into hell, or actually make you elated, or somewhere in between. And so my question for you is, what are some of those emotions that traders most miss on the desk, and how do you convert those into a decision making advantage.
You know,I lie on the other side of that. We can't control our emotions. So I've said before, and I don't mean it literally, I don't care how you feel. I care less how you feel, because behavior changes before feelings. You can't control emotions, they come into you know, the amount of time you spend in joy, it's the same amount of time you spend in anger. It's just to be attached experiences to it, that's what makes it linger. But the body works with a homeostatic pattern. So emotions, to me, it just data, like, do? Do I think fulfillment and joy are important? Oh, absolutely. Do I think the service of others is important, absolutely. But I also think you fulfill, you feel fulfilled. Like I said earlier, when you do what you say. I think that's very fulfilling. That is all behavior before feelings, because when I say that, I mean when I'm happy, I'm going to do this when I feel more confident, I'm going to trade better or run light don't work that way. Behavior first always. That's why people can't tolerate certain things, feelings and last things to change, ie, emotions. Emotions are just data. That's all they are. Listen, would I rather feel joy than anger? Yeah, of course, but I can't control that, but if I change my behavior, the odds of me feeling joy than anger or I mean, we know. So when I think about this, I'm a behavioral coach that creates new experiences in the brain, that creates new circuitry and the emotion and the emotions of the data and the feelings of elastic change. Because I can make you feel happy in about a second right now, and I can make you feel sad in about a second, but I don't want your behavior to change. That's true, right?
Yeah. So my question then is, when it comes so emotions, I think we're saying, you know, they move in and out. They're unreliable. They're just data. See it for what it is, it's just data, especially as a trader, and when things are moving fast. And any fund, under any asset class, you're gonna have those moments where it's just barely a pulse, absolutely nuts. Yeah, any profession, exactly, sports could be any. But there's also the you mentioned earlier, and I'd love to get this, which is kind of like the pre prep, right, getting ahead, getting in your decision zone, really making that and going through that mental lab ahead of time, and so you've rehearsed it so many times that you can move fast. And so what does that mental pre market routine look like for a PM that's managing a serious book of business?
So now we're talking mind/body now, right? So just before I get into that, to that answer, the people that I deal with are in high pressure, high stress, high risk, high decision environments. So when that pressure gets too much, even though pressure is a privilege, there's got to be way we down regulated that it's still uncomfortable. We still able to make best decisions. But when our nervous systems get attacked like this, and our minds get attacked like this, sometimes it is overwhelming. We need to get into the body, working out all these things. Why is that important? Because what happens is it lets your mind breathe. So if you're working like I have a trainer three times a week, the reason why one is phenomenal, shout out to Charles, is that it gives me a moment, an hour, three times a week to focus on my body and what's going on and what's the byproduct. It's two byproducts. One, I'm in much better shape and my brain is relaxing, it's just a timeout. I'm not thinking about m1 and all these things I'm doing, I'm in the body now. What a wonderful place to be that it's intentional. So when we talk about these pre-market routines, and you always hear about, man, I got a dynamite morning routine. I always say, Tell me about your evening routine. Evening routines could be the most important thing, how you go to bed, whether that's I'm a big sauna guy, I take saunas at night. Now, is it journaling? Yeah, I love it. I love it, ice in the morning, saunas at night. It's the best. But for me, what it does is a trigger. It's obviously very healthy for you, but it tells my mind and body it's time to down regulate, which is for your nervous system.
I want to say this again. Take a sheet of paper, draw a line down the middle. What did I do well today? And where do I want to get better? That's forward thinking, because now we're setting up the brain right, because what we're feeding it is, where do I get better? Not what I did wrong? That's not positive psychology, by the way. That's just mental reframing. Now you go to bed, listen, sleep is king. It's King. You know, whether it's six to eight hours, whatever you need. Find out what you need. Obviously, booze is going to affect your sleep, eating hard, eating unhealthy at night or heavy at night, before bed affects sleep. You get a good night's sleep. Obviously, I've got a cold night. I got it all here in this house, but darkness, all these things count. Then you wake up, set your intentions and want to go for a workout, or whatever you do, do some breathing, if you're into meditation and meditate, but know why you're doing it.
So it's interesting people like, man, that's a lot. I said, then don't live in a rough lane. If you want to be elite and you want to be exceptional in this and you want to go win, this is what people do. This is what people do.
Couldn't of said it better.
And then we get, yeah, this is, I don't know, don't go talk to your most successful people. They're not sitting on the couch all day. I can guarantee you that. Or come from. Even against five people, we'll eat you. So but now what happens in the market? We got to make decisions. This is all said and good. Now it's game time. So all this is great because there is no stress on us right now, but it primes us. We're getting the mind ready, but this is where repetition comes at anybody could, anybody could find peace at four in the morning? What happens when the bell rings or the whistle blows and it's game time? How do we remind ourselves to be visible? Visibility is obviously opposite of invisible, and invisible is unconscious, repeating old patterns. Visibility is being conscious, being cognizant of the patterns that we want to build. What better place to build them than in the heat of the moment? And that's what we train for.
That's brilliant man. So you talked about the somatic exercises as well. And I, I'm a big meditator, and I believe, I think I heard, gosh, I forget his name, coconut water guy, married to Sara Blakely.
He's awesome. Remember?
Yeah, he's incredible.
Incredible.
Yeah. And he actually said something that I agree with and also live, which is actually my day starts at like, 8pm the night before. So he was like, I actually start my day. And it took me a while to because you're so trained to say the day starts when I open my eyes and I'm in bed just like, No, it's not. The day is half gone. When you open your eyes and you climb out of bed, you already, you've already used half the day for sleeping. He said, I plan like a beast at night. And so that that evening routine, and what we're talking about, where it really comes back to, especially in finance, is making effective decisions, is staying in the pocket, as you eloquently said it. And so that that pregame routine, or pre market routine, or pre fundraise routine, whatever it is, have a routine.
And I have a Venn diagram, and I'm not drawing it out here, but you know, you remind me of something that I love to teach in it, and it's because I've developed this for my own path to realize success as I've defined it. I always say your three most valuable assets in any fund managers position is your reputation, your relationships and your results. But what's interesting, so if you picture a Venn diagram of these three concentric circles, reputation, relationships and results, and then at the center, I always say money and deals come to you. But if you see those as an asset, meaning it adds value to your personal balance sheet, reputation adds value. Your relationships add value, and your results will add value.
But if you go zoom way out and put a circle around all of them, it's the fourth R that I don't normally talk about, which is rituals. That's how you add value to the things that add value. And so your rituals, or as you said, brilliantly, was your behavior good, good decisions. What are those rituals? Those could be mental, those could be physical, those could be spiritual, those could be relational. There's so many rituals, and like you said, a lot of it's unconscious, can be. But assessing, thinking about how you're thinking, metacognition is one of those mental labs that we can go into, and once we have that set up. Now we have the rituals that feed our reputation and in a healthy way. It feeds our relationships in a healthy way, and then it feeds ultimately, into our results. And at the core of all that is where opportunity comes to us.
Beautifully said and you know, and to take it a step further, performance is a very simple equation. Performance equals potential minus interferences. We start taking out the interferences, you know, almost long, you know, addition by subtraction, and we start to really focus on behavioral change. I can't guarantee that the world changes. We're very willing to sell Wednesday by Thursday, but watch what could happen if you stick to this. I'm not saying for five years. Do it for a week, and you will notice changes, a week. And it's so in the development, you know, Jesse, that's who I think is, you know, I don't know him personally, but we're from Pounds, I'm a Long Island boy also. But he says something really good, and remember tomorrow, what you do today, remember how it's going to feel tomorrow, and why it's such a powerful line. And I think it's his, and I'm pretty sure it is. When you say, Okay, how am I going to feel about this tomorrow? That's causing mental space again, it really cuts off a behavior that's not going to be beneficial to you. How can one question do that? Because it creates that from reacting to causing space, to say, you know what, I'm gonna pass. It was just an urge, and the urge is gone. It's that simple? Well, it's not that simple, because you gotta remember to do it. That's the work.
Hey, thanks for listening to Making Billions. If you liked this episode, could you do me a huge favor and go leave a review. This helps us to get the podcast to more ears to help people raise capital, learn fund management strategies and serve our mission to help fund managers and deal syndicators to gain greater hope and focus as they build their empire. All right, let's get back to the show.
But when you start to build these things, and that's interesting, when I work with traders, PMs, we never set P&L goals ever. I said, What do you think I could do? I said. Why, why I said it. I said I'm not putting any limit on you. All I care about is the inputs, like, if they're not, I'll tell you what's funny, right? If they're not working out in the morning where they should, that's a crack in the foundation. I know something's up because something's off in the foundation. Little things count. And by the way, you know, I know, you know, we're not much time. All this stuff is not a fucking punishment. This should be highly rewarding that you are in control of what you want to do. And to be able to operate at a high level man. And the thing about it as well, and my number one goal for people to do this, when we talk about whether it's finance, organization, entrepreneurialship, athletics. We always want to be in a seat of best decisions and to have choices. What a great place to be. Our own choices, not choices made for us, but our own choices. So when somebody wants to go raise money and all these things, they have a belief system behind it. It's their choice they're doing it. They have a ritual that they've been working on. We have evidence now, so now they're taking this and that's what they want to do. And it's and it's and it's one of those things is, that which we didn't even talk about yet, which is one of the greatest feelings of all times, is something called regret. They did a Harvard case study, and there's a book by a nurse, and I forgot her name. I want to say it's Brene, but I may be wrong. And they and they did a survey about people on death beds. And they say, when they talk about her, Do you regret doing something or not doing something? And 70-76% was not doing it. So when we put all this together and we have belief and we have evidence and we have routine and we have this mental framework, we're able to go make the best decisions and choices that we won't regret.
Yeah, actually, it's Bronnie win (Ware) or something like that. Yeah.
Something like that.Yeah.
It's like, The 5 Regrets of the Dying. It is a fascinating read. Really puts into perspective.
Fascinating.
Yeah. And it goes it really, I don't know if they wrote it like that or if you meant it like that, but that reminds me of something, another great philosopher, business strategist, Stephen Covey. He always talked about, forever ago, I was a kid when I read his Seven Habits,
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Yeah, it was a great one. Yeah, it's brilliant work and he talked about, begin with the end of mind, which is really a stoic way of thinking, is to say, and I actually think I'll say it live. So I always carry a silver coin with me, and it has two sides. Momento Morey, which remembers your mortality means you don't have enough time. And then Carpe Diem, which is a Carpe Diem, however you want to say it, which is, cease the day. And so it just reminds me to say when I, you know, I feel that when I'm walking and my little girl's holding my hand, and we're in the mall or something, and you're like, remember, you don't have unlimited time. You don't have unlimited moments like this. And so really dialing in and being patient.
I frequently in my younger years when I'm trying to grow my career and prove that you got something. And you know my immature way of when I started my career, and you just, you get this idea that you got unlimited chances, unlimited emotion, unlimited energy. And maybe there's a mindset place for that, but it wasn't in the best way. And so understanding that your time is limited, so appreciate it, invest it, use it wisely, because your time is also considered, in my opinion, energy. And so leverage that energy that you use as an input in your life. And just know one day when you're out of time, you're out of life. And so leveraging that opportunity, whatever that is, if it's walking down the street with your your little kindergartner, holding your hand, a moment with your spouse, yeah, I'm living those days, so I'm very lucky,
Those are good days.
Yeah, but going through that mental lab now, with that said, Evan, I have a question for you. I'd love, because in your, your, your, your previous life will say, if we, if I could phrase it that way, when you were a trader and you're doing it, you're doing your thing, you're living that life. Things happen fast, which we're kind of talking about, that moving fast, not letting your emotions take over, just seeing it as data, metacognition, the pre-game warm up of you know, whether that's the night before, whatever that is. But what I think I'm hearing is that it really comes down to good decision making, but in your world, it also needed to be fast at times. Market moves quick, and you got to move quick with it, and so that's why we're talking about the pre-warm ups, so that you can be good at that. So that's a long walk to the front door. Here's my question, what would be the process that a PM can run in under 60 seconds to separate that fear based decision from a strategy based one.
First of all, you know, when you talk about being a PM and a trader, this is one of the quickest feedback loops ever. You can feel the ROYGBIV of emotions within 20 seconds. It's unbelievable. You know where sports and the business world and the market, that's where they're different. The feedback loops are much different. So when you say 60 seconds it goes back to what we were discussing, how am I feeling, and why? But it's one of those things you have to be able to say. So in the commotion of what, how am I feel? I'm feeling nervous. Okay. Why am I feeling nervous right now, right? You can feel the tension. Your body I feel tense, You take a breath first to down regulate. Let me stand up, open up my body, which will shift my nervous system. So I want to be in a place to make best decisions. You get yourself down regulated to make best decisions. We just, I just said that within 10 seconds, you start to do that on a daily basis. And by the way, breath is important. Standing up is important. Opening up your body, your physiology is important. This is all being done at the same time as you recognize, how am I feeling and why? Now you don't have to answer, because it makes you more aware of what's going on. Open up, take a breath. Okay, where do I need to be right now, what's the right, what's the proper behavior? Where's the best decision I can make right now? That's 15 seconds reminding yourself is, hey, how am I feeling, and why, is acknowledgement?
Pause, take a breath that creates mental space. Ask yourself a self exploratory question, where do I need to be right now. What is the best decision I can make right now, you're in the seat of influence. When we ask self exploratory questions, we are in the seat of influence because we're conscious when you will go to a meeting and somebody asks the question, the person asked the question usually is in the seat of influence. But when we ask self exploratory questions, it puts us personally in the seat of influence, because we're asking you, you have to ask. It's got to leave your mouth, all this stuff has to leave your mouth. It can't be lost in your head. That means overthinking, rumination, different narratives, so it's got to come out of your mouth. And then what happens? You're able to respond.
So right now, all those things run on conscious behaviors. And what's really interesting is, the more you do that, you have the ability to get better. Why do you have the ability to get better? Because as we build consistency, we can tweak it. You cannot tweak inconsistency. So now, as we have this structure down, it's not playing because, right, we're flexible within it. We're now, okay, where do I need to get better, but now we have something to work with, because we're making conscious decisions, not unconscious, which are from the past. Now we're in the right direction. That's where we need to be. And there's your 60 second reset, right back. And I think that was in 40 seconds, to be honest. If people start to do that, and I don't care if you're speaking out on a desk, and people think you're nuts, because they won't, why won't they? Because when they start to see the results that you start to put up, you're going to have a whole place doing it. And it's extreme, you know, you know what, the real but, it's very healthy. You know, you haven't said mental health yet. Your mental health is so important, the way I look at it as mental capital. I'm in charge of mental capital. You're in charge of financial capital. That's what I do for a living. So I got to make sure the clients that I serve have strong mental capital. Will get mixed up here, in here, of course, when the game of decision making and risk. But how do we protect it and expand it this way? This little reset is a wonderful first step, and everything else we talked about,
Yeah, that's right,
All this stuff is important.
Yeah, it's, it's absolutely vital, man. And you know, you remind me of there was a few months ago. Every 100th episode we do, I tend to speak from the heart. And so about three months ago, I had my 200th episode, and we talked about the Anatomy of Peace. And often it's an afterthought to be like, I want peace. Maybe when I get that house or marry that person, or no longer married to that person, or whatever it is, I'll have peace. And we look at our circumstances as the source of peace, right? And maybe we grew up in, we as in people who would feel that way. They grew up in a way where you all you got was external validation. You never had to think about your own stuff. And a problem with PMs, fund managers, whatever, I think is that too often where people start to slide you start making some decent money in your career. And so I'm speaking to everyone around the world that's listening to this, is that where it starts to be, start to have trouble, and we start maybe short circuiting some of those good things that we've been doing. Is when we start to confuse our net worth with our self worth, and that it starts to go a little bit sideways, because then, when you know you do a bad trade and you lose your ass on something, and how do I feel about myself? Well, not great, or you make all this money, I you know, then that overconfidence that we talked about earlier starts setting it. And both when you confuse your net worth with your self worth, it can push you when, when your net worth goes extreme and in either direction, then you start to think about who you are and how you behave, and that is the downward slide. And you were very much really great at speaking of a bad decision making. And so the Anatomy of Peace is not an afterthought. It's actually a strategy, and you can inject that so we go over that so we go over that. I'm not necessarily promoting the show, even though I kind of am, but yeah, what I'm talking about is pieces of strategy, right? These, these, these experiences that we have. It's not something that's nice to have. And maybe one day when my circumstances are right, or I get that girl, or I get that car, make that trick, what we're saying is actually peace has nothing to do with that. All those feel great.
Yeah? Like, so, you know, it's curious to what you were saying. Like people, they always ask me what I think about work, life balance. I said it's total bullshit. There's no such thing.
Agreed, yeah.
I said, how do you create harmony, it's different, right? So I, you know, it's funny when people strive for peace, and so excuse me, strive for like, happiness and stuff like that. I think peace is the word, I think you nailed it.
That's the one.
What is peace? You know, I'll tell you one thing. As you get older, you really start not giving a shit about what people have.
Agreed.
Really don't care, like, if they're not kind and funny and generous, and you just stay far away.
That's right. Yeah.
But you like people who are emote or who know what self validation is, and can also validate others. It's so important. You know, when you say your self worth is not your net worth, which I've heard before, but you said it really well in that whole context, it's so true. It's so true. Like, like, obviously, when you start this career, you're motivated by money. You just are.
Yeah.
Otherwise, you know. But what happens over course of time and this happened to me when I was 46 but I did think I had a heart attack. That's why I retired from Wall Street. I started getting motivated by impact. And that really and by the way, being motivated by being motivated by impact actually doesn't hurt the bottom line whatsoever. You're just looking at things differently. And I am so lucky. And since you did a plugin, I'll give a plugin that I became a coach. I've always wanted to do this my whole life, but I'll tell you, when I had this heart attack, which was a massive panic attack, and I had so many concussions playing ball, I was taken out of the game. It was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. I never wanted to trade. I always wanted to be a coach or a teacher. I just happened to be pretty decent at it, and my identical twin brother shout out to him, got me in it. And, but it was one of these things now, at 53 years old, getting to speak on stage, and we have programs coming out and working with incredible people. What a great place to be. So when you think about your hedge fund managers and people raising money, impact should be in the equation. Whether the people you're serving, who your clients that you're raising money from, or the people on your staff, how you're leading and managing. How do you create this impact? Because great cultures, like great leaders, breed exceptional performance, and that is impact.
You know that you remind me of something before I get to my last question with this. When we talked about, you know, peace is your power, and the anatomy of peace. It, how do we create that right and getting to that impact moment, or where you even want to have an impact, where you have the mental capacity, but also the emotional capacity to care. You're not cold. I know a lot of people, they kind of give Wall Street folks a hard time, like being cold and calculated and whatever, and maybe that there is an appropriate time for that. I don't make anything wrong. It's just decisions. But what I do want to talk about is the motivation behind it, which is that piece of that powers performance. There's Triple P, and what I've found in my life. And anyone listen to this, including you, Evan, feel free to steal it's all good. Call it the UVE framework, Stan and I classify activities, thoughts, habits, everything. So even you, everybody, I've trained myself to classify that in one of those. I stay far away stands for umpires, vampires and empires, and you fit into at least one of those. So there'll be people, there'll be habits, there'll be things that you own, whatever, relationships, hobbies, they all fit into. Umpires are they keep you on the rails, right? You have, let's say something ridiculous, like, I'm gonna have an affair on my spouse, right, something that's catastrophic for many people. Not that ain't but what I'm saying is, you need people around you be like, Evan, what are you talking about? Like, have you lost your mind? That's not you. What are you doing? They keep you on track. In a formal sense, it's lawyers, accountants, but these are people that just stop you from going off the rails. And they can, they know you good enough to know before you even see it. What's going on? Man, you need those umpires in your life. Vampires. They need no introduction. There's habits, right? People? It's easy to be like, Oh, that person's a vampire. It's easy to see it in others. What about yourself? If you actually audit your life, you will find most vampire energy draining things in your life are self inflicted. What about a messy office and you can't think straight? What about you know, you haven't seen your toes for a year because you've been eating so much and you can't see your feet? I'm not here to make anyone wrong. But what we're saying is there are things that are helpful and there are things that are harmful, and a lot of it all starts in the inside. And then these empires are what you talked about earlier. These are the people that are around you, that are in the game. They're making moves, right? So you said, you know, life's not linear unless you're taking risks, then it could be very nonlinear, or, you said, especially for ticket risk. And so getting umpires and empire builders, and then also solving. And the easiest ones are to solve the self-inflicted vampires that attend right back to the mental game. And the mental preparation is to say, let me audit my life with that lens. So feel free anybody can use that to say your friend, Ryan, filled you in on that. But what I really want is for people to win more than I want to be right. So I want. Everybody when feel free to audit your life, your energy, your surroundings, your circumstances and everything. Try to classify it. See which ones fit. And those are the things that drain you get rid of the vampires. Stay close to the umpires, so they know you better than you know yourself. Then the empire builders that that's your wolf pack. These are good people that are making great moves.
You know, you know, what's interesting is that when you're able to take things out sometimes, you know, when I say take things out, I'm like, I'm not saying break behavior, because it's very hard to break habits, like bad habits, whatever, because you got to create new ones, right, because it's easier to create than destroy, by the way. But also to understand what is triggering you, what are the things that are holding you back and start building. You know, if, if alcohol is your problem, be curious about sobriety, right? There's different shifts that can happen if, if you are, you know, you feel outside, you feel sluggish. Get curious about, what does healthy look like, what are, what's one habit I can do, recognize the things that are no longer serving it. Right, we talk about umpires, vampires and empires. It's so true, right? First, check out the vampires first.
They're, they're easy,
Yeah, get those out of the way a little bit, and you start to see that addiction is maybe not as big as you think it's. It's a human experience. I mean, I know this show is about, you know, it's a lot of, it's a lot of lot of things. But it's, how do you set yourself up for possibility, whether you're a PM, a trader, a business owner, a CEO or a CX suite or an athlete, how am I setting myself up? You can have expectations right, up here. If your trainings here, not a shot in hell. It's got to be there. There's that. You've got to minimize the gap between expectation and training at all times. And then what happens as we raise we continue, and that's vampires, you know, umpires, empires. It's all that. You got to keep that all in mind. That's great.
Yeah. And when, when I got rid of the vampires, here's the pleasant surprise. And I hope, if anybody wants to take this life audit framework, what you'll find is when you get rid of the vampires, you realize you've always had everything you need is everything you are, right? Everything you need is everything you are. You just couldn't see it because you're surrounded by so many bad habits. Whereas we talked about earlier rituals, right? You have a horrible ritual. Maybe it's drinking and after to fall asleep, and then you sleep like crap. Maybe it's you run to anger all the time when any inconvenience happens, you lose your mind. What? No judgment here? I'm just saying it's not helpful. And so you find that when you get rid of the vampire energy draining, especially the self-inflicted ones, it all starts with taking accountability. Right, owning that side, and then you realize I am an umpire and an empire builder, just like you and just like other people, I just couldn't see it until I washed away the fog of war. Exactly, exactly.
How does this lead into finance? It's the mental side of this.
Well, finance is a high stakes game with high performance, high reward. Yeah, you want to win the trophy. This is a high this is one of the high stakes careers, jobs, especially trading, but all of it high finance is high stakes, which requires high performance.
Yeah, how are you able to make best decisions if you're living in the land of markets and you're not, you're not this sounds, I know this is cliche, and I've never really said this, but I'm going to say it. But unless you're controlling the controllables, like cliches are true for a reason, I guess, unconditional love, children, all this stuff. But if you start to control the controllables and give yourself an opportunity to go win this thing and start stacking wins, I know I'm talking in my book, the mental side of this is so important. When you're overwhelmed, how do we rest and recover? How do we create mental space? Because what happens as you go out and build something gorgeous. If you're not mentally stable, mentally healthy, and have a strong mental foundation, then why the hell are we doing this? If you are not at the end, finding peace and joy at the you know, as you're in this process, you can live in that harmony, by the way. I believe, right, and it's not positive psychology. You can have your cake and eat it too, if you play it's more like, I'm not saying it's not risking this, three steps ahead, one step back, no shit, right? But we're gonna move on a beautiful slope. You can have that. It's possible. Does it take effort? Everything takes effort. Talent without effort is the biggest waste.
Yeah, it is. I want to tee up my final question for you. I want to talk about some of those rituals, questions, actions, all that you can provide people. I've never told anyone, my wife knows about this. So there's a lot of firsts that are coming out in the show, because this is something I care about, because I interview people I don't talk about myself very much. One of the things that has been supremely helpful to my performance is pick one day. Anyone can do this, and it costs you nothing. You might look silly, but bear with me. I call it slow down Sunday, and on that day, because things move fast, especially in high finance, you got deals, you got investors, you got partners, you got employees, you got capital. You got, you know, yeah, there's something's on fire. And. And you just feel you could get caught up in that moment and feel that data, that pull and you either resist it or lean into it. And neither feels great. And so you kind of feel, you can get stuck in this.
Detention.
Yeah, and so the slow down Sunday. Well, while that sounds cute and all what I what that specifically means is literally slow everything down. Get dressed slower, walk slower, talk slower, eat slower. What that does is, when you slow it down and you just pick one day, a week, or even one hour, it's whatever you want, and speaking to generally the public. What you find is slow. You talk about slow, go slow, so you go fast. But what, I couldn't agree more, and you're specifically an actual action, what that does, at least for me, and you know, feel free to connect with me if anyone's listening to this has a similar experience or different but when you slow it down, I learned this from running. Actually, I ran during covid. All the gyms were closed. It was the Nike head running coach where he purposely made you run slow, and it drives you crazy, because run slow you're running, it's supposed to be fast. What it does is, when you slow down, your brain clicks back into I'm in control. There's something about slowing down that makes your brain say, oh. And when you feel in control, you feel calm. Right, when you feel out of control, you're in bad decision mode. And so once a week, this is just what I do figure out if that's even right for you. I'm not giving medical advice or anything like that. I'm just saying what works for observation. Works for observation, not advice, but when I purpose, I drive slow, not to the point where I cause accidents, but I definitely don't speed.
You're in the right hand lane.
But I'm in the right hand lane. Yeah. So for the other days of the week, both physically and metaphorically, I'm in the fast lane. But for one day, slow it down, just if you want to have slow down Sunday, walk, slow, get dressed slow, eat Slow, slow it down. What that does is, it's not slow. It's reminding your brain you're good, you're in control. And I don't have that mantra, and these, you know, these repeat affirmations, none of that. It's automatic, automatically that happens is when you run slow, running slow isn't about going slow. It's about being controlled, executing with control is same with physical performance as it is with financial performance. In what we do. Go slow so that you can go fast, but going slow trains your mind to remind yourself, I got this everything's good. We're in control. Try it.
What a great act of intentionality.
Yeah.
I'm gonna give it a go. Obviously, yeah, that's what I do for a living. I'm going to work on that one.
Yeah, send me a text. Let me know. Slow down Sunday.
My kids, my friends, are like, I think something's wrong with him.
They will think that. They're like, right,
If you say that I'm doing it right.
Yeah, exactly, if your people are, if they're concerned, if you're getting arthritis, yeah.
Oh there's nothing wrong with that.
Yeah. So my question, so that's my I pre answered that because I wanted you to have, I have the final answer. So given any fund manager this typically, who follows the show, fund manager, anyone in high finance who's listening, what's one daily action, one daily question, maybe one metric that will tell them in seven days whether their problem is a skill, a process, or psychology, what are some of those rituals, or whatever that might be to help people diagnose?
You know, I haven't said this one in a long time, and I'm gonna bring it out from the, my mental arsenal. I would take a piece of paper. We're talking about emotions as data, and we're in the behavioral game and how it creates new experiences. Draw a line down a piece of paper anytime you're about to react. Put a check on the left. When you feel like you're in control. Put a check on the right. Do that for a week. All of a sudden you'd be like, wow, I was about to react. I was about to react. You're going to start to realize how important the things that we just discussed are, you start putting check marks. Oh, I'm about to do that. Okay, I just saw that check mark. Watch what happens. Like, I haven't used this one in a while, and you kind of put me on the spot. I've been wanting to talk about this for a while. You're going to look at this thing and be like, wow, it's a lot of check marks? Watch what happens the next day. Now you don't want to have a lot of check marks. Some be a little more conscious. Also, next day there's less check marks on the left side, there's more on the right side. This may sound so elementary. Watch what happens. I'm literally a piece of paper. Fold it in half and put a line down and put reaction, respondent, and keep count of how you're doing it. Now remember, so it's almost impulsivity and intuition. Reaction, reacting is impulsive. Even the feeling of you're about to react, check mark. Send Ryan Miller an email, and somebody, after seven days, got to do it. Can't think about it. Make it a ritual for seven days. And by the way, these markets going to give you a lot of opportunity to put check marks on either side of the column. What is that doing that is making you more aware, and you're going to be really caught by 10 o'clock, you're like, Wow. I have 47 check marks on left side. I almost reacted. You'll know how important understanding emotions is data and choosing conscious behavior really is. That is mine.
It's your mic drop moment. Yeah, I love that. So final word, this has been phenomenal, Evan, this is this is good. Are there anything final thoughts, anything else you want people to know? Maybe ways they could reach out if they want to learn more about you, just you're a cool guy, just ways that they can just connect with you and the cool things they got going on. Maybe they want to bump their performance. Maybe they just want to be buddies with you. How can people connect with you? Final thoughts.
Well, we actually, you know, obviously, what's going on the markets and the chaos and uncertainty, which I always think is an advantage if you mentally, it's a mental game. We actually have something called the M1 Mental Training Academy that's coming out May 1. It's a six week boot camp based on the things we just discussed, it's what I posted, point .001% that are, that are my clients. It's a six week boot camp. You can go to M1performance, m1performancegroup.com. Go to the website. It'll be there for you. If you're interested in signing up. I also do one on one, and we have, you know, obviously, a podcast, and I'm actually have a TEDx talk, which is about post traumatic growth that's coming out tomorrow, which is wonderful. So you can see that on YouTube, and that's where you could find me. We're on LinkedIn. We're on social media as an emarc 72 on LinkedIn, excuse me, on Instagram, LinkedIn is Evan Marks, and if I can leave, you know, a leaving, a thought is we are way more capable than we think we are. And I truly believe the real edge is mental. And once you really start to train that edge, you'll thank yourself for a long time.
That's brilliant, brother. So just to summarize everything that we talked about, get yourself into a good decision zone. We talked about a lot of strategies that Evan recommended. The other one is days can start the night before. So have those routines, however you start it, have those routines to add clarity to your mind, so that it drives performance. And finally, go slow to go fast. Try a slow down Sunday, if you think that's cool, not to go slow, but to remind yourself from the inside out that you're in control. You do these things, and you too will be well on your way in your pursuit of Making Billions.
Wow, what a show, I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. Now, if you haven't done so already, be sure to leave a comment and review on new ideas and guests you want me to bring on for future episodes. Plus, why don't you head over to YouTube and see extra takes while you get to know our guests even better, and make sure to come back for our next episode where we dive even deeper into the people, the process and the perspectives of both investors and founders. Until then, my friends, stay hungry, focus on your goals and keep grinding towards your dream of Making Billions.
Podcasts we love
Check out these other fine podcasts recommended by us, not an algorithm.
