[{"_1":2,"_3":-5,"_4":-5},"loaderData",{"_5":6,"_7":8},"actionData","errors","root",{"_139":-5,"_140":-5,"_141":142,"_143":144,"_145":146},"routes/clips.$id.$slug",{"_9":10,"_11":12},"clip",{"_13":14,"_15":16,"_17":-5,"_18":19,"_20":-5,"_21":22,"_23":24,"_25":26,"_27":28,"_29":30,"_31":32,"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_44":45,"_46":-5,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":-5},"canonicalUrl","https://howleaderslead.com/clips/2758/build-teams-you-want-to-be-in-the-trenches-with","id",2758,"title","Build teams you want to be in the trenches with","subtitle","transcript","WEBVTT\n\n1\n00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.510\nSpeaking of good people, understand you have this policy which you call the\n\n2\n00:00:04.510 --> 00:00:05.840\nNOAA policy or the\n\n3\n00:00:05.840 --> 00:00:11.520\nNOAA H policy. Tell us about that policy and how you came up with it.\n\n4\n00:00:11.520 --> 00:00:15.960\nOkay, so it's no assholes allowed, so excuse my French, but that's what the\n\n5\n00:00:15.960 --> 00:00:17.440\nNOAA policy is.\n\n6\n00:00:17.440 --> 00:00:21.980\nAnd actually, Joe DiSomone, the founder that we spun three companies with out\n\n7\n00:00:21.980 --> 00:00:22.000\nof UNC,\n\n8\n00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:26.680\nhe's the one who taught us that and it is so true. You just need to pick people\n\n9\n00:00:26.680 --> 00:00:27.360\nthat you can be in\n\n10\n00:00:27.360 --> 00:00:31.760\nthe trenches with because you're going to see in an early stage venture\n\n11\n00:00:31.760 --> 00:00:32.720\ninvesting, you're going to see\n\n12\n00:00:32.720 --> 00:00:35.780\nevery part of somebody's personality, the good, bad, and the ugly, and you've\n\n13\n00:00:35.780 --> 00:00:37.360\ngot to make sure that\n\n14\n00:00:37.360 --> 00:00:41.120\nwhen they're in the ugly, you can still handle it and that they're good people.\n\n15\n00:00:41.120 --> 00:00:42.160\nAnd so everybody we\n\n16\n00:00:42.160 --> 00:00:47.600\npick is in that area. And so it makes it fun to work with them. And together,\n\n17\n00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:48.160\nyou just keep\n\n18\n00:00:48.160 --> 00:00:52.240\ndigging out of the quicksand. And I think that's led to a lot of our success\n\n19\n00:00:52.240 --> 00:00:53.520\nand bringing things to\n","pretty_transcript","start_time",715359,"end_time",766238,"keywords","Personality, team dynamics, team, teamwork, culture, assholes, adversity","slug","build-teams-you-want-to-be-in-the-trenches-with","origin","cms","mux_playback_id","1vM6ADhNKZXXHl0100ev1Fa02RWzq02OZqQYk5XJaMSQJ6A","mux_asset_id","2xse7QewvJkHRvhwvYmSfqjuVFgChvE3gVsCseHyCkc","leader_id",212,"episode_id",362,"updated_at","2025-02-26T20:19:34.000000Z","meta_title","meta_description","og_image_media_id","web_url","https://www.howleaderslead.com/clips/2758/build-teams-you-want-to-be-in-the-trenches-with","og_image_url","leader",{"_13":36,"_103":104,"_105":106,"_107":108,"_25":109,"_110":111,"_62":112,"_59":112,"_113":114,"_69":115,"_39":116,"_117":-5,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_118":119,"_91":120,"_44":121,"_122":123,"_124":125,"_46":-5,"_126":127,"_128":129,"_95":130,"_51":-5},"episode",{"_13":38,"_15":52,"_27":53,"_17":54,"_55":56,"_18":57,"_20":58,"_59":60,"_61":-5,"_62":60,"_63":-5,"_64":65,"_66":67,"_68":-5,"_69":-5,"_70":71,"_72":73,"_74":75,"_35":36,"_39":76,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_77":78,"_79":80,"_81":82,"_83":84,"_85":-5,"_86":-5,"_87":88,"_89":90,"_91":-5,"_46":-5,"_92":93,"_94":-5,"_95":-5,"_51":-5},"og_image_media","Go above and beyond for others","go-above-and-beyond-for-others","Learn how to go above and beyond for people—and why it can help your whole business thrive. Discover one rule to help you select great partners and hires, every time. Plus, a sneaky way to give tough feedback.","summary","

Is one of your 2025 goals to strengthen your team or shift your culture?

If so, you’ll love hearing from Louise Brady, the co-founder and managing partner at the successful VC firm Piedmont Capital Partners.

She shows how powerful it is when leaders prioritize the people around them.

When you go above and beyond for your team, it comes back to you—and not just in a fluffy, feel-good way.

As you’ll hear today, that kind of generosity can drive serious results for your culture, your bottom line, and your own growth.

You’ll also learn:

What you can do to attract the attention of a VC firm
One sneaky strategy to give tough feedback to someone with a bad attitude
The surprising role that positivity plays in your team culture
Exciting developments in the ongoing effort to cure cancer and Alzheimer’s

Take your learning further. Get proven leadership advice from these (free!) resources:

The How Leaders Lead App: A vast library of 90-second leadership lessons to stay sharp on the go

Daily Insight Emails: One small (but powerful!) leadership principle to focus on each day

Whichever you choose, you can be sure you’ll get the trusted leadership advice you need to advance your career, develop your team, and grow your business.

","WEBVTT\n\n1\n00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.400\nBecause I think it's all about relationships.\n\n2\n00:00:02.400 --> 00:00:05.400\nI think in life, if you give more than you take,\n\n3\n00:00:05.400 --> 00:00:07.500\nit'll come back to you in spades.\n\n4\n00:00:07.500 --> 00:00:10.040\nThat pays dividends because, of course, when people\n\n5\n00:00:10.040 --> 00:00:13.200\ntreat you that way, you're more apt to work hard for them.\n\n6\n00:00:13.200 --> 00:00:23.840\nIf one of your goals this year is to strengthen your team\n\n7\n00:00:23.840 --> 00:00:26.880\nor shift your culture, you're in the right place.\n\n8\n00:00:26.880 --> 00:00:28.040\nWelcome to \"Howl Leaders Lead.\"\n\n9\n00:00:28.040 --> 00:00:29.040\nI'm David Novak.\n\n10\n00:00:29.040 --> 00:00:31.080\nAnd every week, I have conversations\n\n11\n00:00:31.080 --> 00:00:33.000\nwith the very best leaders in the world\n\n12\n00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:36.640\nto help you become the very best leader that you can be.\n\n13\n00:00:36.640 --> 00:00:39.000\nMy guest today is Louise Brady, the co-founder\n\n14\n00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:42.200\nof Managing Partner at Piedmont Capital Partners.\n\n15\n00:00:42.200 --> 00:00:44.800\nThey're a venture capital firm out of North Carolina.\n\n16\n00:00:44.800 --> 00:00:46.520\nAnd let me tell you, you're going\n\n17\n00:00:46.520 --> 00:00:50.120\nto love getting a sneak peek into the incredible technologies\n\n18\n00:00:50.120 --> 00:00:51.200\nthey're investing in.\n\n19\n00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:54.040\nYou're also going to love hearing \"Howl Louise Leads.\"\n\n20\n00:00:54.040 --> 00:00:56.760\nI mean, she is an absolute master\n\n21\n00:00:56.760 --> 00:01:00.560\nat building strong teams and strong relationships.\n\n22\n00:01:00.560 --> 00:01:03.200\nIn her words, it's all about people.\n\n23\n00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:05.280\nWhen you put them first, when you cheer for them,\n\n24\n00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:09.360\nwhen you go above and beyond for them, it all comes back to you.\n\n25\n00:01:09.360 --> 00:01:12.880\nAnd not in just fluffy, feel-good ways.\n\n26\n00:01:12.880 --> 00:01:16.080\nAs you're about to see, that kind of generosity\n\n27\n00:01:16.080 --> 00:01:19.720\ncan drive serious results for your culture, your bottom line,\n\n28\n00:01:19.720 --> 00:01:22.240\nand your own personal growth.\n\n29\n00:01:22.240 --> 00:01:24.680\nSo here's my conversation with my good friend,\n\n30\n00:01:24.680 --> 00:01:27.080\nand soon to be yours, Louise Brady.\n\n31\n00:01:27.080 --> 00:01:34.400\nYou know, I'm looking at your office there,\n\n32\n00:01:34.400 --> 00:01:36.600\nand it looks like it's spick and span.\n\n33\n00:01:36.600 --> 00:01:39.640\nI mean, it looks like everything is so together there.\n\n34\n00:01:39.640 --> 00:01:40.760\nIs it always like that?\n\n35\n00:01:40.760 --> 00:01:43.200\nSadly, it probably is always like this,\n\n36\n00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:45.520\nor usually is like this, because I'm on the road a lot,\n\n37\n00:01:45.520 --> 00:01:48.680\nand I'm working from all over the place,\n\n38\n00:01:48.680 --> 00:01:50.440\nsometimes from home, sometimes from the office,\n\n39\n00:01:50.440 --> 00:01:53.560\nbut a lot of times from a plane or anywhere.\n\n40\n00:01:53.560 --> 00:01:55.680\nWith Zoom, you can pretty much be anywhere.\n\n41\n00:01:55.680 --> 00:01:59.240\nThat's true, and speaking of traveling a lot,\n\n42\n00:01:59.240 --> 00:02:01.560\none place we both travel to is Philadelphia,\n\n43\n00:02:01.560 --> 00:02:03.240\nbecause we're both on the Comcast board,\n\n44\n00:02:03.240 --> 00:02:06.000\nand so we go down and work out,\n\n45\n00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:08.520\nand I see you in the mornings working out,\n\n46\n00:02:08.520 --> 00:02:11.080\nand I'm doing my thing, which is pretty simple,\n\n47\n00:02:11.080 --> 00:02:13.960\nand then I look over at you and you're killing yourself, okay?\n\n48\n00:02:13.960 --> 00:02:16.240\nYou know, I mean, you really, really go after it.\n\n49\n00:02:16.240 --> 00:02:18.760\nWhat's that say about the way how you lead,\n\n50\n00:02:18.760 --> 00:02:21.400\nand how much does just working out really impact you?\n\n51\n00:02:21.400 --> 00:02:22.440\nIt helps me.\n\n52\n00:02:22.440 --> 00:02:24.880\nI mean, daily, I think it's my antidepressant,\n\n53\n00:02:24.880 --> 00:02:26.040\nor whatever you want to call it.\n\n54\n00:02:26.040 --> 00:02:28.840\nGet up every morning and get my workout in,\n\n55\n00:02:28.840 --> 00:02:30.280\nand I feel so much more effective.\n\n56\n00:02:30.280 --> 00:02:32.840\nAnd literally, if I wait and do it in the afternoon,\n\n57\n00:02:32.840 --> 00:02:34.720\nit's always a good little pick me up,\n\n58\n00:02:34.720 --> 00:02:37.440\nbut my day goes better if I start off with it.\n\n59\n00:02:37.440 --> 00:02:40.760\nBut as far as how I lead,\n\n60\n00:02:40.760 --> 00:02:45.320\nI think it's with enthusiasm for sure.\n\n61\n00:02:45.320 --> 00:02:47.640\nI've got a little extra dose of,\n\n62\n00:02:47.640 --> 00:02:49.040\nsome might call it Pollyanna,\n\n63\n00:02:49.040 --> 00:02:52.800\nbut belief and hope and mankind and doing better things.\n\n64\n00:02:52.800 --> 00:02:55.200\nSo I just go after it hard,\n\n65\n00:02:55.200 --> 00:02:57.680\nand if you fail, you get up and try again.\n\n66\n00:02:57.680 --> 00:03:00.720\nSo my exercise, I just try to make myself miserable\n\n67\n00:03:00.720 --> 00:03:02.440\nand sweat really bad for 20 minutes\n\n68\n00:03:02.440 --> 00:03:04.840\nthan I feel like I've done something good.\n\n69\n00:03:04.840 --> 00:03:09.640\n- Now you started Piedmont\n\n70\n00:03:09.640 --> 00:03:12.080\nwith one of our mutual friends, Bobby Long.\n\n71\n00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:14.040\nWhat's something you've learned about leadership,\n\n72\n00:03:14.040 --> 00:03:17.640\ngetting to work with him as a partner for all these years?\n\n73\n00:03:17.640 --> 00:03:20.320\n- Oh God, that's a softball question.\n\n74\n00:03:20.320 --> 00:03:22.640\nThere's nobody better in the world than Bobby Long.\n\n75\n00:03:22.640 --> 00:03:25.000\nAnd to be able to work side by side with him\n\n76\n00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:28.280\nfrom the last 13, 14 years has been amazing.\n\n77\n00:03:28.280 --> 00:03:30.520\nWe had worked together in the community,\n\n78\n00:03:30.520 --> 00:03:33.720\nso I'd seen him lead in a community setting,\n\n79\n00:03:33.720 --> 00:03:36.760\nbut through a business, it's even more fun.\n\n80\n00:03:36.760 --> 00:03:39.520\nHe's a leader that is quiet,\n\n81\n00:03:39.520 --> 00:03:41.680\nand you don't even know you're being led,\n\n82\n00:03:41.680 --> 00:03:43.560\nbecause he's so nice and so kind,\n\n83\n00:03:43.560 --> 00:03:44.760\nbut yet he's wicked smart\n\n84\n00:03:44.760 --> 00:03:46.800\nand gets what he needs to get done.\n\n85\n00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:49.960\nSo he's been a great mentor,\n\n86\n00:03:49.960 --> 00:03:54.320\nand I think probably if Bobby epitomizes anything,\n\n87\n00:03:54.320 --> 00:03:57.560\nit is give people the benefit of the doubt\n\n88\n00:03:57.560 --> 00:04:01.080\nand work with him and be overly nice,\n\n89\n00:04:01.080 --> 00:04:03.160\nand it usually pays back.\n\n90\n00:04:03.160 --> 00:04:07.120\nWe try to be givers and not takers, if you know what I mean.\n\n91\n00:04:07.120 --> 00:04:11.000\n- Yeah, I do, and give us a snapshot of Piedmont\n\n92\n00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:14.360\nand the business you two started in 2013.\n\n93\n00:04:14.360 --> 00:04:16.160\n- Bobby, as I said, Bobby and I had worked together\n\n94\n00:04:16.160 --> 00:04:18.080\nin the community on community projects,\n\n95\n00:04:18.080 --> 00:04:20.440\nand we both were at a point where we wanted\n\n96\n00:04:20.440 --> 00:04:22.280\nto do something a little different.\n\n97\n00:04:22.280 --> 00:04:25.560\nI'd come up through banking and then the investment business,\n\n98\n00:04:25.560 --> 00:04:27.720\nand was excited when Bobby said,\n\n99\n00:04:27.720 --> 00:04:32.720\n\"Hey, let's start this fund to invest in smart people\n\n100\n00:04:32.720 --> 00:04:34.280\n\"and help grow jobs in our region.\"\n\n101\n00:04:34.280 --> 00:04:36.480\nSo that was really the nexus of it,\n\n102\n00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:38.320\nis it was kind of a three-legged stool.\n\n103\n00:04:38.320 --> 00:04:40.080\nI get to continue in the investment business.\n\n104\n00:04:40.080 --> 00:04:44.480\nI get to try to help people and help the community\n\n105\n00:04:44.480 --> 00:04:46.720\nwhile doing good.\n\n106\n00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:50.760\nSo we got started, we didn't know what we were doing,\n\n107\n00:04:50.760 --> 00:04:54.280\nbut we knew that we both had a heart for it.\n\n108\n00:04:54.280 --> 00:04:57.840\nSo we went up to New York and met with Henry Kravas,\n\n109\n00:04:57.840 --> 00:04:59.000\nwho I did not know at the time,\n\n110\n00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:01.880\nbut I grew up in banking back in the '80s.\n\n111\n00:05:01.880 --> 00:05:03.920\nSo Barberry and to the gate, that book,\n\n112\n00:05:03.920 --> 00:05:05.160\nI'm sure everybody remembers,\n\n113\n00:05:05.160 --> 00:05:07.280\nwas one of the case studies that we had\n\n114\n00:05:07.280 --> 00:05:09.120\nwhen I was going through the training program at the bank.\n\n115\n00:05:09.120 --> 00:05:13.120\nAnd so I was expecting Henry to be this big grumpy man,\n\n116\n00:05:13.120 --> 00:05:16.320\nand he was nothing but, he was the exact opposite\n\n117\n00:05:16.320 --> 00:05:18.120\nand was such a sweetheart, gave me a hug,\n\n118\n00:05:18.120 --> 00:05:20.960\nwe're real southern, so I love that.\n\n119\n00:05:20.960 --> 00:05:22.920\nAnd we talked about what we'd done in the community,\n\n120\n00:05:22.920 --> 00:05:24.760\nand by the end of the meeting, he said,\n\n121\n00:05:24.760 --> 00:05:26.920\n\"Look, you guys are in North Carolina,\n\n122\n00:05:26.920 --> 00:05:29.840\n\"you've got some of the best universities of any state.\n\n123\n00:05:29.840 --> 00:05:32.080\n\"Go to universities, most of the technologies\n\n124\n00:05:32.080 --> 00:05:33.520\n\"being spun out of universities.\n\n125\n00:05:33.520 --> 00:05:37.040\n\"It's not being created in corporate America anymore,\n\n126\n00:05:37.040 --> 00:05:38.400\n\"they're just buying it.\"\n\n127\n00:05:38.400 --> 00:05:40.400\nSo go find the smart people.\n\n128\n00:05:40.400 --> 00:05:44.960\nSo we did, and here we are, I think for about 13 years in,\n\n129\n00:05:44.960 --> 00:05:48.200\nand have launched another fund\n\n130\n00:05:48.200 --> 00:05:51.040\nand have had a great time with a lot of smart people\n\n131\n00:05:51.040 --> 00:05:52.040\nand a lot of great companies.\n\n132\n00:05:52.040 --> 00:05:54.200\n- There are lots of reasons why people invest.\n\n133\n00:05:54.200 --> 00:05:57.560\nSometimes it's the idea, sometimes it's the people,\n\n134\n00:05:57.560 --> 00:05:59.400\nsometimes it's the vision.\n\n135\n00:05:59.400 --> 00:06:02.400\nWhat's most important for you\n\n136\n00:06:02.400 --> 00:06:05.280\nthat really makes you wanna get involved?\n\n137\n00:06:05.280 --> 00:06:06.520\n- It's all about the people.\n\n138\n00:06:06.520 --> 00:06:08.240\nI mean, it starts with people, ends with people,\n\n139\n00:06:08.240 --> 00:06:10.840\nand all along the way it's people.\n\n140\n00:06:10.840 --> 00:06:14.080\nIf you get it right on the people,\n\n141\n00:06:14.080 --> 00:06:15.320\nif you work with good people,\n\n142\n00:06:15.320 --> 00:06:16.760\nyou're gonna enjoy what you're doing.\n\n143\n00:06:16.760 --> 00:06:19.640\nAnd I think if you enjoy what you're doing\n\n144\n00:06:19.640 --> 00:06:21.560\nand you're doing it with good people,\n\n145\n00:06:21.560 --> 00:06:22.760\nanything can be accomplished.\n\n146\n00:06:22.760 --> 00:06:25.080\nSo we start with great technology, of course,\n\n147\n00:06:25.080 --> 00:06:26.560\nbut there's plenty of good technology\n\n148\n00:06:26.560 --> 00:06:27.640\nthat's still sitting on the shelf\n\n149\n00:06:27.640 --> 00:06:29.760\nand never gets commercialized.\n\n150\n00:06:29.760 --> 00:06:34.280\nThere's also plenty of people that you wouldn't wanna work with\n\n151\n00:06:34.280 --> 00:06:35.880\nthat have been really successful too.\n\n152\n00:06:35.880 --> 00:06:38.560\nWe've chosen work with good people\n\n153\n00:06:38.560 --> 00:06:40.960\nand together just continue to row the boat.\n\n154\n00:06:40.960 --> 00:06:42.680\nAnd probably if we do anything,\n\n155\n00:06:42.680 --> 00:06:45.040\nwe're overly enthusiastic and continue\n\n156\n00:06:45.040 --> 00:06:48.000\nto push our founders.\n\n157\n00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:49.000\nWe start companies.\n\n158\n00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:52.160\nAnd so it's been really fun to just pull them through\n\n159\n00:06:52.160 --> 00:06:56.920\nthe quicksand or part cheerleader, part HR director,\n\n160\n00:06:56.920 --> 00:06:58.840\npart finance director of it.\n\n161\n00:06:58.840 --> 00:07:02.720\nI think really just not giving up and continuing is important.\n\n162\n00:07:02.720 --> 00:07:05.360\nAnd you've gotta have the people you wanna be around\n\n163\n00:07:05.360 --> 00:07:07.520\nto be in the slog like that to continue.\n\n164\n00:07:07.520 --> 00:07:09.000\n- Tell me about one of these companies\n\n165\n00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:11.880\nthat you started up that you're most proud of\n\n166\n00:07:11.880 --> 00:07:13.400\nbecause of the success it's had\n\n167\n00:07:13.400 --> 00:07:15.360\nand the difference it's making in people's lives.\n\n168\n00:07:15.360 --> 00:07:18.960\n- I'd probably go to our Alzheimer's drug\n\n169\n00:07:18.960 --> 00:07:20.680\nand this is one that you know\n\n170\n00:07:20.680 --> 00:07:23.080\nand it's near and dear to most everybody's heart\n\n171\n00:07:23.080 --> 00:07:24.280\n'cause we're all affected by it.\n\n172\n00:07:24.280 --> 00:07:26.520\nMy mother has vascular dementia.\n\n173\n00:07:26.520 --> 00:07:30.120\nAnd so it's something we need to solve for America\n\n174\n00:07:30.120 --> 00:07:33.640\nand we met an amazing man, Frank Longo,\n\n175\n00:07:33.640 --> 00:07:37.200\nwho is a physician and he also was the chair\n\n176\n00:07:37.200 --> 00:07:40.240\nof neurology at Stanford for 16 or 17 years\n\n177\n00:07:40.240 --> 00:07:43.080\nand just stepped down to focus more on the company\n\n178\n00:07:43.080 --> 00:07:46.760\nthat we started with or that he started that we helped fund.\n\n179\n00:07:46.760 --> 00:07:50.400\nAnd it's been an amazing journey.\n\n180\n00:07:50.400 --> 00:07:53.200\nThis will be a daily pill that people take\n\n181\n00:07:53.200 --> 00:07:55.880\nwhich will stop Alzheimer's,\n\n182\n00:07:55.880 --> 00:07:59.840\nstop the synaptic connection degradation\n\n183\n00:07:59.840 --> 00:08:02.240\nand we're even hopeful that it will reverse it.\n\n184\n00:08:02.240 --> 00:08:03.840\nHe'll probably kill me for saying that.\n\n185\n00:08:03.840 --> 00:08:08.040\nBut in mouse models it has done that\n\n186\n00:08:08.040 --> 00:08:11.280\nand their brains are very similar to our brains.\n\n187\n00:08:11.280 --> 00:08:14.080\nSometimes the body translation isn't as exact\n\n188\n00:08:14.080 --> 00:08:16.320\nbut so we're very hopeful for that one\n\n189\n00:08:16.320 --> 00:08:19.840\nand it's been interesting because it's been a virtual company.\n\n190\n00:08:19.840 --> 00:08:23.000\nSo we've really kind of, you know, I'm on the board.\n\n191\n00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:26.040\nSo, you know, in there daily working with them,\n\n192\n00:08:26.040 --> 00:08:27.640\ntrying to build the business around it\n\n193\n00:08:27.640 --> 00:08:30.000\nand try to figure out how to move it forward.\n\n194\n00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:34.080\nFrank is an amazing scientist and leader\n\n195\n00:08:34.080 --> 00:08:35.560\nand he's managed a ton of people\n\n196\n00:08:35.560 --> 00:08:37.680\nbut he hasn't run a business.\n\n197\n00:08:37.680 --> 00:08:40.680\nSo we've pulled together great consultants\n\n198\n00:08:40.680 --> 00:08:42.800\nand with his help we've been able to get\n\n199\n00:08:42.800 --> 00:08:45.360\nto the point we are now which is getting ready\n\n200\n00:08:45.360 --> 00:08:48.000\nto head into our pivotal trials for Alzheimer's\n\n201\n00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:50.040\nand looks like we've got the only answer out there.\n\n202\n00:08:50.040 --> 00:08:50.960\nSo we're excited.\n\n203\n00:08:50.960 --> 00:08:53.200\n- When you start a business up like that,\n\n204\n00:08:53.200 --> 00:08:54.920\nit's not a straight line.\n\n205\n00:08:54.920 --> 00:08:57.520\nI mean, he has a great idea.\n\n206\n00:08:57.520 --> 00:09:02.200\nYou know, he's the horse that can maybe come up with the cure\n\n207\n00:09:02.200 --> 00:09:06.640\nbut how do you yourself just stay the course\n\n208\n00:09:06.640 --> 00:09:11.160\nand keep forging ahead?\n\n209\n00:09:11.160 --> 00:09:13.600\nI'm sure there are a lot of times you have setbacks.\n\n210\n00:09:13.600 --> 00:09:15.960\n- Oh, there's setbacks for sure.\n\n211\n00:09:15.960 --> 00:09:17.600\nI think you have to believe in it\n\n212\n00:09:17.600 --> 00:09:21.480\nand then you also have to believe in the goodness of people\n\n213\n00:09:21.480 --> 00:09:23.880\nand they give you a great example of that.\n\n214\n00:09:23.880 --> 00:09:25.600\nWe also have a battery startup.\n\n215\n00:09:25.600 --> 00:09:30.080\nSo everything that we do is something that we're passionate\n\n216\n00:09:30.080 --> 00:09:31.880\nabout, something that can change the world,\n\n217\n00:09:31.880 --> 00:09:35.520\nimprove the world, make things better for humankind.\n\n218\n00:09:35.520 --> 00:09:37.840\nAnd so that's what drives me every day.\n\n219\n00:09:37.840 --> 00:09:41.440\nIt's like, okay, I've got to get this cancer drug to market\n\n220\n00:09:41.440 --> 00:09:43.320\nor I've got to get this Alzheimer's drug to market\n\n221\n00:09:43.320 --> 00:09:45.600\nor we've got to solve this energy problem.\n\n222\n00:09:45.600 --> 00:09:47.520\nSo the energy problem, let's think about it.\n\n223\n00:09:47.520 --> 00:09:49.880\nChina has pretty much, you know,\n\n224\n00:09:49.880 --> 00:09:53.280\nlapped us in all of the energy transformation\n\n225\n00:09:53.280 --> 00:09:54.840\nand really the US needs something\n\n226\n00:09:54.840 --> 00:09:59.320\nand we feel like we have got the next generation battery.\n\n227\n00:09:59.320 --> 00:10:03.080\nIt's a solid state battery, no liquid, so it won't blow up.\n\n228\n00:10:03.080 --> 00:10:05.640\nBut we think we have that in this company\n\n229\n00:10:05.640 --> 00:10:09.240\nthat I'm talking about, but it was not a straight road at all.\n\n230\n00:10:09.240 --> 00:10:13.640\nWe started it, it was technology spun out of UNC\n\n231\n00:10:13.640 --> 00:10:17.360\nwith Joe D. Simone who was a prolific inventor\n\n232\n00:10:17.360 --> 00:10:19.840\nand professor and we actually launched three companies\n\n233\n00:10:19.840 --> 00:10:22.000\nwith him right off the bat, one of which was\n\n234\n00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:24.000\nthis battery company, BlueKurt.\n\n235\n00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:28.120\nWell, five years into it, this safe battery\n\n236\n00:10:28.120 --> 00:10:32.400\nwe were going after blew up beautifully and a safety test.\n\n237\n00:10:32.400 --> 00:10:34.400\nI mean, completely blew up and we're like,\n\n238\n00:10:34.400 --> 00:10:36.320\noh no, what do we do now?\n\n239\n00:10:36.320 --> 00:10:40.760\nAnd the co-founder is a gentleman by the name\n\n240\n00:10:40.760 --> 00:10:44.280\nof Natasha Balsera and this goes to working with good people.\n\n241\n00:10:44.280 --> 00:10:47.320\nSo he is a professor at Berkeley\n\n242\n00:10:47.320 --> 00:10:49.240\nand Lawrence Berkeley National Labs\n\n243\n00:10:49.240 --> 00:10:53.040\nand is a foremost battery specialist and so well respected.\n\n244\n00:10:53.040 --> 00:10:55.000\nHe is such a sweetheart.\n\n245\n00:10:55.000 --> 00:10:57.040\nHe's a dear, dear friend.\n\n246\n00:10:57.040 --> 00:10:58.760\nSo when it blew up, we thought we're gonna have to close\n\n247\n00:10:58.760 --> 00:11:01.480\nthe company down and Natasha goes, no, no, no.\n\n248\n00:11:01.480 --> 00:11:04.920\nActually, we've had this finding in my lab\n\n249\n00:11:04.920 --> 00:11:06.880\nfor the solid state, this new battery\n\n250\n00:11:06.880 --> 00:11:09.880\nand I think that we should put that inside BlueKurt.\n\n251\n00:11:09.880 --> 00:11:11.800\nWe said, well, Natasha, you don't have to\n\n252\n00:11:11.800 --> 00:11:15.200\nbecause that really wasn't what we were funding.\n\n253\n00:11:15.200 --> 00:11:16.720\nYes, we're after a safe battery,\n\n254\n00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:18.120\nbut you don't have to do that.\n\n255\n00:11:18.120 --> 00:11:20.240\nAnd he said, this is what I want to do.\n\n256\n00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:21.440\nHe said, y'all are my partners,\n\n257\n00:11:21.440 --> 00:11:23.020\nwhy would I pick other partners?\n\n258\n00:11:23.020 --> 00:11:25.360\nWhen I know how well this is running\n\n259\n00:11:25.360 --> 00:11:27.500\nand how y'all are to work with.\n\n260\n00:11:27.500 --> 00:11:29.920\nThose are the kind of people we wanna bet on\n\n261\n00:11:29.920 --> 00:11:31.280\nand continue to push.\n\n262\n00:11:31.280 --> 00:11:34.080\nAnd he said, you're crazy to do this anyway\n\n263\n00:11:34.080 --> 00:11:35.880\nbecause nobody bets on batteries.\n\n264\n00:11:35.880 --> 00:11:38.440\nIt's a graveyard of investments\n\n265\n00:11:38.440 --> 00:11:41.320\nand nobody's gonna wanna invest with you.\n\n266\n00:11:41.320 --> 00:11:44.600\nAnd fast forward 13 years later\n\n267\n00:11:44.600 --> 00:11:46.800\nand now we've got some fabulous partners\n\n268\n00:11:46.800 --> 00:11:50.180\nand are on our way to really having\n\n269\n00:11:50.180 --> 00:11:52.400\nthe next generation battery.\n\n270\n00:11:52.400 --> 00:11:53.240\nFantastic.\n\n271\n00:11:53.240 --> 00:11:55.460\nAnd speaking of good people,\n\n272\n00:11:55.460 --> 00:11:57.660\nunderstand you have this policy\n\n273\n00:11:57.660 --> 00:12:01.940\nwhich you call the NOAA policy or the NOAA H policy.\n\n274\n00:12:01.940 --> 00:12:05.540\nTell us about that policy and how you came up with it.\n\n275\n00:12:05.540 --> 00:12:09.140\nOkay, so it's no assholes allowed, so excuse my French,\n\n276\n00:12:09.140 --> 00:12:11.140\nbut that's what the NOAA policy is.\n\n277\n00:12:11.140 --> 00:12:13.460\nAnd actually Joe D. Simone, the founder\n\n278\n00:12:13.460 --> 00:12:15.900\nthat we spun three companies with out of UNC,\n\n279\n00:12:15.900 --> 00:12:19.220\nhe's the one who taught us that and it is so true.\n\n280\n00:12:19.220 --> 00:12:20.700\nYou just need to pick people\n\n281\n00:12:20.700 --> 00:12:22.100\nthat you can be in the trenches with\n\n282\n00:12:22.100 --> 00:12:26.220\nbecause you're gonna see in a early stage venture investing,\n\n283\n00:12:26.220 --> 00:12:28.700\nyou're gonna see every part of somebody's personality,\n\n284\n00:12:28.700 --> 00:12:29.700\nthe good, bad, and the ugly.\n\n285\n00:12:29.700 --> 00:12:33.060\nAnd you gotta make sure that when they're in the ugly,\n\n286\n00:12:33.060 --> 00:12:35.100\nyou can still handle it and that they're good people.\n\n287\n00:12:35.100 --> 00:12:39.380\nAnd so everybody we pick is in that area.\n\n288\n00:12:39.380 --> 00:12:41.420\nAnd so it makes it fun to work with them and together,\n\n289\n00:12:41.420 --> 00:12:43.380\nyou just keep digging out of the quicksand.\n\n290\n00:12:43.380 --> 00:12:46.300\nAnd I think that's led to a lot of our success\n\n291\n00:12:46.300 --> 00:12:49.620\nand bringing things to market that wouldn't otherwise make it.\n\n292\n00:12:49.620 --> 00:12:52.980\n- That's a great comment that leads to my next question.\n\n293\n00:12:52.980 --> 00:12:56.380\nAnd I'd like you to share the story of the honey badger.\n\n294\n00:12:56.380 --> 00:13:01.660\n- Okay, so we, this is Carbon,\n\n295\n00:13:01.660 --> 00:13:04.980\nwhich is a 3D printing company.\n\n296\n00:13:04.980 --> 00:13:07.220\nAnd it's the next generation 3D printing.\n\n297\n00:13:07.220 --> 00:13:10.580\nSo it's, we say it's like the Terminator\n\n298\n00:13:10.580 --> 00:13:11.860\nis growing out of liquid.\n\n299\n00:13:11.860 --> 00:13:15.460\nSo it truly was novel and Joe D. Simone,\n\n300\n00:13:15.460 --> 00:13:16.860\nthat was one of his companies.\n\n301\n00:13:16.860 --> 00:13:19.860\nAnd we, he showed us in his office,\n\n302\n00:13:19.860 --> 00:13:22.860\nhe printed a little square, a little ice cube,\n\n303\n00:13:22.860 --> 00:13:25.300\nand we were wild, like, can you really do that?\n\n304\n00:13:25.300 --> 00:13:26.380\nAnd we said, okay, we'll invest.\n\n305\n00:13:26.380 --> 00:13:28.580\nTell us how much, tell us what you need,\n\n306\n00:13:28.580 --> 00:13:30.140\ntell us what percentage of the company we get.\n\n307\n00:13:30.140 --> 00:13:32.260\nI mean, we were, you know, pretty stupid naive,\n\n308\n00:13:32.260 --> 00:13:34.100\nbut we were so excited about it.\n\n309\n00:13:34.100 --> 00:13:35.940\nSo fast forward, we were having board meetings\n\n310\n00:13:35.940 --> 00:13:37.100\non the weekends with, you know,\n\n311\n00:13:37.100 --> 00:13:38.460\ntheir spouses were involved.\n\n312\n00:13:38.460 --> 00:13:41.140\nI mean, it was really like a family business.\n\n313\n00:13:41.140 --> 00:13:44.420\nHis son got involved and is now the CEO of the company.\n\n314\n00:13:44.420 --> 00:13:47.460\nBut we said, well, we need to take it out to California\n\n315\n00:13:47.460 --> 00:13:50.060\n'cause we need investment and we need to go talk\n\n316\n00:13:50.060 --> 00:13:52.500\nto Sequoia Capital 'cause they would be a great investor.\n\n317\n00:13:52.500 --> 00:13:57.500\nSo we carry our 3D printer on a plane in a box\n\n318\n00:13:57.500 --> 00:14:01.140\nand we called it like the Honey Badger\n\n319\n00:14:01.140 --> 00:14:03.780\nand took it into Sequoia and had a meeting\n\n320\n00:14:03.780 --> 00:14:05.220\nat 10 in the morning.\n\n321\n00:14:05.220 --> 00:14:10.060\nWe took out our, you know, 3D printing, 3D printer,\n\n322\n00:14:10.060 --> 00:14:11.100\nprinted in front of them.\n\n323\n00:14:11.100 --> 00:14:13.220\nThey said, oh, wow, can you come back at noon?\n\n324\n00:14:13.220 --> 00:14:15.140\nCame back at noon, printed again.\n\n325\n00:14:15.140 --> 00:14:17.100\nThey said, would you mind coming back at five\n\n326\n00:14:17.100 --> 00:14:19.780\nand by five o'clock every partner in Sequoia\n\n327\n00:14:19.780 --> 00:14:22.020\nwas in that room stuffed in there to watch it?\n\n328\n00:14:22.020 --> 00:14:25.540\n'Cause it's, there's nothing like showing somebody live\n\n329\n00:14:25.540 --> 00:14:26.820\nwhat your product can do.\n\n330\n00:14:26.820 --> 00:14:28.540\nBut we called it the Honey Badger.\n\n331\n00:14:28.540 --> 00:14:29.780\nEverybody's like, what are you doing?\n\n332\n00:14:29.780 --> 00:14:32.700\nYou're carrying that box into the meeting.\n\n333\n00:14:32.700 --> 00:14:35.780\nAnd the funny thing was when we flew it,\n\n334\n00:14:35.780 --> 00:14:38.260\nwe never thought about the, you know, like I said,\n\n335\n00:14:38.260 --> 00:14:41.180\nit's resin, it's, you know, it's growing out of liquids.\n\n336\n00:14:41.180 --> 00:14:42.420\nWe never thought about the resins\n\n337\n00:14:42.420 --> 00:14:46.100\nand how they would do back in the hold of the baggage.\n\n338\n00:14:46.100 --> 00:14:47.620\nYou know, at freezing temperatures, we're like,\n\n339\n00:14:47.620 --> 00:14:49.180\noh God, we could have blown this whole thing.\n\n340\n00:14:49.180 --> 00:14:50.660\nBut it ended up working fine.\n\n341\n00:14:50.660 --> 00:14:54.620\nAnd we got investment from Sequoia and the rest is history.\n\n342\n00:14:54.620 --> 00:14:55.620\n- That's a great firm.\n\n343\n00:14:55.620 --> 00:14:57.300\n- It was our first unicorn.\n\n344\n00:14:57.300 --> 00:15:02.300\n- There you go, you know, you're such a posy person.\n\n345\n00:15:02.300 --> 00:15:04.300\nYou're enthusiastic, you just mentioned that.\n\n346\n00:15:04.300 --> 00:15:06.420\nAnd you're dealing with these leaders\n\n347\n00:15:06.420 --> 00:15:10.700\nwho you really good invested in and you care about them.\n\n348\n00:15:10.700 --> 00:15:14.140\nAnd you know, but I have to ask you, you know,\n\n349\n00:15:14.140 --> 00:15:18.300\nwhat's your decision making process like when you,\n\n350\n00:15:18.300 --> 00:15:21.380\nin terms of whether deciding whether you should push through\n\n351\n00:15:21.380 --> 00:15:23.900\nor when to really cut your losses?\n\n352\n00:15:23.900 --> 00:15:28.180\nI mean, you know, can you give an example of when you decided,\n\n353\n00:15:28.180 --> 00:15:30.020\nyou know, it was time to pull the plug\n\n354\n00:15:30.020 --> 00:15:32.020\nor is that hard for you to do?\n\n355\n00:15:32.020 --> 00:15:34.580\n- That is the hardest thing to do.\n\n356\n00:15:34.580 --> 00:15:37.500\nI will say you just picked on the one thing\n\n357\n00:15:37.500 --> 00:15:40.500\nthat we need to get better at is letting your babies go.\n\n358\n00:15:40.500 --> 00:15:42.380\nBut it's hard when they are your babies\n\n359\n00:15:42.380 --> 00:15:44.700\nand you're so passionate about it.\n\n360\n00:15:44.700 --> 00:15:48.140\nI think when we have decided that way,\n\n361\n00:15:48.140 --> 00:15:50.740\nit's been a group effort, you know,\n\n362\n00:15:50.740 --> 00:15:53.660\nthe leader of the company in addition to all the investors.\n\n363\n00:15:53.660 --> 00:15:55.420\nWe don't make it in a vacuum.\n\n364\n00:15:55.420 --> 00:15:56.940\nWe're supportive till the very end.\n\n365\n00:15:56.940 --> 00:16:00.140\nBut there are times when you've either just missed the market\n\n366\n00:16:00.140 --> 00:16:02.180\nand there's a better technology that comes along\n\n367\n00:16:02.180 --> 00:16:04.580\nor it's just not good enough.\n\n368\n00:16:04.580 --> 00:16:07.220\nAnd you think it's the end all be all.\n\n369\n00:16:07.220 --> 00:16:10.140\nAnd we have, I have one example of that,\n\n370\n00:16:10.140 --> 00:16:12.380\nwhich is a company.\n\n371\n00:16:12.380 --> 00:16:15.140\nIt's, it was, we took it public.\n\n372\n00:16:15.140 --> 00:16:16.180\nIt was called Nexamune.\n\n373\n00:16:16.180 --> 00:16:18.100\nAnd the science is great.\n\n374\n00:16:18.100 --> 00:16:19.740\nThe people are great.\n\n375\n00:16:19.740 --> 00:16:23.580\nThe trials, we went into really, really hard areas.\n\n376\n00:16:23.580 --> 00:16:26.060\nAML and MML, you know, myelomas\n\n377\n00:16:26.060 --> 00:16:27.620\nand it's the last line therapy.\n\n378\n00:16:27.620 --> 00:16:29.780\nSo it was just, it was a very tough trial\n\n379\n00:16:29.780 --> 00:16:30.940\nand we didn't have enough money\n\n380\n00:16:30.940 --> 00:16:32.860\nand we should have raised right when we went public\n\n381\n00:16:32.860 --> 00:16:33.700\nand we didn't.\n\n382\n00:16:34.780 --> 00:16:38.020\nAnd so we literally were limping along with not much money\n\n383\n00:16:38.020 --> 00:16:40.220\nand the technology's still great\n\n384\n00:16:40.220 --> 00:16:41.820\nand we just ran out of time.\n\n385\n00:16:41.820 --> 00:16:43.620\nAnd so we've closed the company,\n\n386\n00:16:43.620 --> 00:16:46.020\nbut that was a tough one because you know,\n\n387\n00:16:46.020 --> 00:16:47.260\nthat's one of those technologies\n\n388\n00:16:47.260 --> 00:16:48.700\nthat will be sitting on the shelf.\n\n389\n00:16:48.700 --> 00:16:51.340\nAnd I hope someday somebody will pick up the IP\n\n390\n00:16:51.340 --> 00:16:52.900\nand go run with it.\n\n391\n00:16:52.900 --> 00:16:55.020\nMaybe a big farmer will after hearing this.\n\n392\n00:16:55.020 --> 00:16:56.100\n(laughs)\n\n393\n00:16:56.100 --> 00:16:57.620\n- I hope they do hear it.\n\n394\n00:16:57.620 --> 00:17:01.460\nAnd you know, I can't wait to talk more about,\n\n395\n00:17:01.460 --> 00:17:03.820\nyou know, what you're doing at Piedbump.\n\n396\n00:17:03.820 --> 00:17:07.860\nBut first, Louise, I wanna take you back to the beginning.\n\n397\n00:17:07.860 --> 00:17:10.860\nYou know, what's a story from your childhood\n\n398\n00:17:10.860 --> 00:17:13.340\nthat shaped the kind of leader you are today?\n\n399\n00:17:13.340 --> 00:17:14.940\n- That's an interesting question.\n\n400\n00:17:14.940 --> 00:17:18.460\nWell, there might be a few things.\n\n401\n00:17:18.460 --> 00:17:21.580\nGrowing up, I had an older brother and a younger brother.\n\n402\n00:17:21.580 --> 00:17:24.500\nSo I always felt like I was, you know,\n\n403\n00:17:24.500 --> 00:17:28.100\na boy until my parents, we were playing shirts and skins\n\n404\n00:17:28.100 --> 00:17:29.100\nand my older brother said,\n\n405\n00:17:29.100 --> 00:17:30.660\n\"You can't play with us anymore.\n\n406\n00:17:30.660 --> 00:17:31.740\nYou can't do skins.\"\n\n407\n00:17:31.740 --> 00:17:32.900\nI'm like, \"Why?\"\n\n408\n00:17:32.900 --> 00:17:34.500\nI didn't get it.\n\n409\n00:17:34.500 --> 00:17:36.900\nAnd my dad always said I was his middle boy.\n\n410\n00:17:36.900 --> 00:17:40.380\nAnd he really did treat me like a boy, a man.\n\n411\n00:17:40.380 --> 00:17:43.260\nSo I would read the Wall Street Journal with him, you know,\n\n412\n00:17:43.260 --> 00:17:46.500\nin the mornings, you know, before school.\n\n413\n00:17:46.500 --> 00:17:48.260\nWe talk about business at night.\n\n414\n00:17:48.260 --> 00:17:51.220\nAnd so it really was my dad.\n\n415\n00:17:51.220 --> 00:17:53.340\nAnd I think him not treating me differently.\n\n416\n00:17:53.340 --> 00:17:56.140\nI mean, I was always his princess, he would say,\n\n417\n00:17:56.140 --> 00:17:58.380\nbut he treated me just like one of the boys.\n\n418\n00:17:58.380 --> 00:18:00.460\nSo from a business perspective,\n\n419\n00:18:00.460 --> 00:18:04.740\nI always kind of had that business mind of really being intrigued\n\n420\n00:18:04.740 --> 00:18:06.660\nabout business and the way things ran.\n\n421\n00:18:06.660 --> 00:18:09.020\nSo I have to give credit to my dad.\n\n422\n00:18:09.020 --> 00:18:10.180\n- Hey everyone, it's Kula.\n\n423\n00:18:10.180 --> 00:18:12.340\nWe'll get back to the interview in just a second.\n\n424\n00:18:12.340 --> 00:18:15.460\nBefore we do though, I have a question for you.\n\n425\n00:18:15.460 --> 00:18:17.900\nHave you downloaded the How Leaders Lead app\n\n426\n00:18:17.900 --> 00:18:19.300\non your iPhone?\n\n427\n00:18:19.300 --> 00:18:21.820\nIf you haven't, take 20 seconds right now,\n\n428\n00:18:21.820 --> 00:18:24.420\ngo to the App Store, search for How Leaders Lead,\n\n429\n00:18:24.420 --> 00:18:27.020\nand download the How Leaders Lead app.\n\n430\n00:18:27.020 --> 00:18:29.780\nIn the app every day, you'll get a two minute video\n\n431\n00:18:29.780 --> 00:18:31.300\nthat'll give you a leadership insight\n\n432\n00:18:31.300 --> 00:18:33.420\nfrom one of our amazing guests from our podcast\n\n433\n00:18:33.420 --> 00:18:35.700\nto inspire you and to really get your mind\n\n434\n00:18:35.700 --> 00:18:38.100\nin the right place before you start your work day.\n\n435\n00:18:38.100 --> 00:18:40.660\nSo go to the App Store, search How Leaders Lead,\n\n436\n00:18:40.660 --> 00:18:42.580\ndownload the How Leaders Lead app\n\n437\n00:18:42.580 --> 00:18:44.580\nand start your day every day\n\n438\n00:18:44.580 --> 00:18:46.620\nwith two minutes of leadership wisdom.\n\n439\n00:18:46.620 --> 00:18:48.740\nIt'll take 20 seconds, go to the App Store,\n\n440\n00:18:48.740 --> 00:18:52.020\ndownload the app, and you'll be able to watch every day,\n\n441\n00:18:52.020 --> 00:18:56.020\njust like me, the leadership insight from How Leaders Lead.\n\n442\n00:18:56.020 --> 00:18:58.100\n- What are the things that I've observed\n\n443\n00:18:59.460 --> 00:19:00.940\nwith women in business?\n\n444\n00:19:00.940 --> 00:19:02.940\nAnd I'd like to get your perspective on this\n\n445\n00:19:02.940 --> 00:19:06.340\nis that I don't think it should be this way,\n\n446\n00:19:06.340 --> 00:19:09.060\nbut what I find a lot of times with women in business\n\n447\n00:19:09.060 --> 00:19:13.180\nis they're really good at making men feel comfortable\n\n448\n00:19:13.180 --> 00:19:14.620\naround them.\n\n449\n00:19:14.620 --> 00:19:19.460\nThey don't necessarily wear being a female on their sleeve.\n\n450\n00:19:19.460 --> 00:19:22.820\nWhat do you think about that?\n\n451\n00:19:22.820 --> 00:19:26.340\nAm I way off base on that or what's your perspective?\n\n452\n00:19:26.340 --> 00:19:29.780\n- Obviously, I think to be successful as a woman,\n\n453\n00:19:29.780 --> 00:19:31.500\nit was a lot different back in the '80s\n\n454\n00:19:31.500 --> 00:19:33.900\nwhen I first started working than it is today.\n\n455\n00:19:33.900 --> 00:19:37.460\nI feel like women have a fair chance\n\n456\n00:19:37.460 --> 00:19:40.220\nat being just as successful as men.\n\n457\n00:19:40.220 --> 00:19:42.180\nThere was a little bit of the glass ceiling going on\n\n458\n00:19:42.180 --> 00:19:43.860\nwhen I first started working.\n\n459\n00:19:43.860 --> 00:19:47.180\nAnd so yes, you would try to be as kind as you could\n\n460\n00:19:47.180 --> 00:19:52.180\nand maybe almost to the point of being sweet\n\n461\n00:19:52.180 --> 00:19:55.060\nand maybe subservient,\n\n462\n00:19:55.060 --> 00:19:57.700\nbut once you got in the room\n\n463\n00:19:57.700 --> 00:20:00.420\nand your kindness would get you in the door,\n\n464\n00:20:00.420 --> 00:20:02.980\nthen you had to show that you had something upstairs\n\n465\n00:20:02.980 --> 00:20:07.620\nthat you could talk business and/or had the fortitude\n\n466\n00:20:07.620 --> 00:20:08.900\nfor the business.\n\n467\n00:20:08.900 --> 00:20:13.900\nSo I do think that as women were raised,\n\n468\n00:20:13.900 --> 00:20:16.540\nespecially in the South and from North Carolina,\n\n469\n00:20:16.540 --> 00:20:19.860\nwere raised to be kind to people and gracious\n\n470\n00:20:19.860 --> 00:20:20.940\nand hospitable.\n\n471\n00:20:20.940 --> 00:20:24.660\nSo I think that's part of just what comes with the territory\n\n472\n00:20:24.660 --> 00:20:27.100\nand my world, but I can't speak for other women.\n\n473\n00:20:27.100 --> 00:20:30.100\nBut I think we've kind of gotten past the hardest parts.\n\n474\n00:20:30.100 --> 00:20:30.940\n- Oh, that's great.\n\n475\n00:20:30.940 --> 00:20:34.060\nI hope so, for my daughter's sake\n\n476\n00:20:34.060 --> 00:20:35.340\nand all the women out there in the world\n\n477\n00:20:35.340 --> 00:20:36.380\nare really trying to make it.\n\n478\n00:20:36.380 --> 00:20:40.260\nI think it should be an even playing field.\n\n479\n00:20:40.260 --> 00:20:42.300\nBut you talk about being kind\n\n480\n00:20:42.300 --> 00:20:44.420\nand here you are in this investment business\n\n481\n00:20:44.420 --> 00:20:47.900\nand it's a sharp, elbow business.\n\n482\n00:20:47.900 --> 00:20:52.580\nI mean, how did you have to grow in that aspect\n\n483\n00:20:52.580 --> 00:20:54.660\nof your ability to get tough?\n\n484\n00:20:54.660 --> 00:20:56.300\n- I'm pretty stubborn.\n\n485\n00:20:56.300 --> 00:20:58.020\nI was born in May, so I'm a tourist.\n\n486\n00:20:58.020 --> 00:21:00.540\nI'm pretty bullheaded.\n\n487\n00:21:00.540 --> 00:21:02.660\nAnd so if I believe in something,\n\n488\n00:21:02.660 --> 00:21:04.100\nI'm gonna continue to push for it.\n\n489\n00:21:04.100 --> 00:21:07.820\nAnd I think I was like that since I was two years old.\n\n490\n00:21:07.820 --> 00:21:09.980\nSo that hadn't changed,\n\n491\n00:21:09.980 --> 00:21:12.900\nbut I think you have to know your subject matter\n\n492\n00:21:12.900 --> 00:21:15.020\nand you have to know what it is\n\n493\n00:21:15.020 --> 00:21:17.020\nthat you're talking about to be able to command\n\n494\n00:21:17.020 --> 00:21:19.740\nthat type of respect.\n\n495\n00:21:19.740 --> 00:21:24.740\nAnd so I just, I really think that it's part of just using,\n\n496\n00:21:24.740 --> 00:21:33.260\nnot only your niceness, but also moving forward\n\n497\n00:21:33.260 --> 00:21:37.180\nand trying to make sure you keep up intellectually\n\n498\n00:21:37.180 --> 00:21:38.700\nand are learning as much as you can\n\n499\n00:21:38.700 --> 00:21:42.860\nand staying curious so that you can be persuasive.\n\n500\n00:21:42.860 --> 00:21:46.100\n- Yeah, and having that dogged determination\n\n501\n00:21:46.100 --> 00:21:47.860\ndoesn't hurt either, right?\n\n502\n00:21:47.860 --> 00:21:48.700\n- Yeah, I mean,\n\n503\n00:21:48.700 --> 00:21:51.220\nbut if you give up too soon,\n\n504\n00:21:51.220 --> 00:21:53.620\nthen shame on you.\n\n505\n00:21:53.620 --> 00:21:55.220\nWere you really that passionate about it?\n\n506\n00:21:55.220 --> 00:21:57.980\nSo again, it all starts from the passion level\n\n507\n00:21:57.980 --> 00:21:59.300\nand once you're passionate about something,\n\n508\n00:21:59.300 --> 00:22:01.420\nyou're not gonna easily give up.\n\n509\n00:22:01.420 --> 00:22:04.260\n- You know, you spent almost a decade at Bank of America\n\n510\n00:22:04.260 --> 00:22:05.980\nearly on in your career.\n\n511\n00:22:05.980 --> 00:22:09.860\nWhat was the biggest lessons you learned from that tenure?\n\n512\n00:22:09.860 --> 00:22:11.980\n- Yeah, I was in banking at the most fun time.\n\n513\n00:22:11.980 --> 00:22:14.620\nI feel like it was such a fun time.\n\n514\n00:22:14.620 --> 00:22:17.220\nI was with NZMB, Nations Bank Bank of America.\n\n515\n00:22:17.220 --> 00:22:19.900\nAnd that's back, I was living in Charlotte,\n\n516\n00:22:19.900 --> 00:22:23.380\nback when Hugh McCall was running NCMB\n\n517\n00:22:23.380 --> 00:22:25.700\nand Ed Crutchfield was running First Union.\n\n518\n00:22:25.700 --> 00:22:28.500\nAnd there was this buzz in the banking industry.\n\n519\n00:22:28.500 --> 00:22:32.500\nAnd McCall was literally changing the face of banking.\n\n520\n00:22:32.500 --> 00:22:33.980\nWe were making acquisitions.\n\n521\n00:22:33.980 --> 00:22:34.940\nIt was very aggressive,\n\n522\n00:22:34.940 --> 00:22:37.340\noperated very much like a startup.\n\n523\n00:22:37.340 --> 00:22:40.980\nAnd Hugh was a great person to kind of follow\n\n524\n00:22:40.980 --> 00:22:42.780\nand learn from.\n\n525\n00:22:42.780 --> 00:22:46.380\nI mean, he was so passionate about everything he wanted to do.\n\n526\n00:22:46.380 --> 00:22:48.780\nSo I feel like I got that entrepreneurial spirit,\n\n527\n00:22:48.780 --> 00:22:51.660\nbelieve it or not, in corporate banking.\n\n528\n00:22:51.660 --> 00:22:55.620\nBecause we were doing deals and we were small at the time.\n\n529\n00:22:55.620 --> 00:22:59.060\nSo we would take deals up to McCall's office\n\n530\n00:22:59.060 --> 00:23:01.140\nand talk to him about him.\n\n531\n00:23:01.140 --> 00:23:01.980\nAnd he loved it.\n\n532\n00:23:01.980 --> 00:23:03.380\nHe loved being in the game.\n\n533\n00:23:03.380 --> 00:23:05.220\nSo it was just an exciting time.\n\n534\n00:23:05.220 --> 00:23:09.020\nAnd I think that banking today\n\n535\n00:23:09.020 --> 00:23:10.900\nprobably looks a little bit different\n\n536\n00:23:10.900 --> 00:23:13.220\nfrom the entrepreneurial standpoint\n\n537\n00:23:13.220 --> 00:23:14.580\nwith rules and regulations.\n\n538\n00:23:14.580 --> 00:23:16.820\nSo it was a great time to be in banking\n\n539\n00:23:16.820 --> 00:23:18.580\nand I learned a tremendous amount.\n\n540\n00:23:18.580 --> 00:23:21.860\n- Now I understand you used to actually take Fridays off.\n\n541\n00:23:21.860 --> 00:23:22.940\nTell us more about that.\n\n542\n00:23:22.940 --> 00:23:25.620\n- Okay, well I'm a mother of three,\n\n543\n00:23:25.620 --> 00:23:28.180\nthree very successful children that I'm very proud of.\n\n544\n00:23:28.180 --> 00:23:31.140\nAnd actually my eldest daughter who's gonna be 31\n\n545\n00:23:31.140 --> 00:23:33.420\nnext month is in venture capital as well.\n\n546\n00:23:33.420 --> 00:23:37.260\nWhen I had our first child,\n\n547\n00:23:37.260 --> 00:23:39.780\nI was working five days a week at the bank\n\n548\n00:23:39.780 --> 00:23:40.980\nand I was actually scared,\n\n549\n00:23:40.980 --> 00:23:43.820\nthis is back when women weren't, you know,\n\n550\n00:23:43.820 --> 00:23:47.300\nas lucky as they are today to be seen as equal.\n\n551\n00:23:47.300 --> 00:23:51.300\nI was scared they were gonna fire me if I took too much time\n\n552\n00:23:51.300 --> 00:23:52.380\noff so I was like, okay,\n\n553\n00:23:52.380 --> 00:23:53.900\nI wanna work four days a week.\n\n554\n00:23:53.900 --> 00:23:55.740\nI just wanna take Fridays off.\n\n555\n00:23:55.740 --> 00:23:57.420\nAnd my manager at the time,\n\n556\n00:23:57.420 --> 00:23:59.580\nI've been so lucky to have strong men\n\n557\n00:23:59.580 --> 00:24:04.780\nand compassionate men as managers and mentors.\n\n558\n00:24:04.780 --> 00:24:07.740\nHe's like, Louise, y'all were made to make children.\n\n559\n00:24:07.740 --> 00:24:10.380\nThis is, you are the people that we want to have children\n\n560\n00:24:10.380 --> 00:24:12.100\nbecause you're gonna raise them well.\n\n561\n00:24:12.100 --> 00:24:14.420\nAnd he goes, of course you should stay home on Fridays\n\n562\n00:24:14.420 --> 00:24:16.220\nand be with your children.\n\n563\n00:24:16.220 --> 00:24:20.260\nAnd so I took Fridays off after the first child,\n\n564\n00:24:20.260 --> 00:24:23.100\nafter the third, the second child,\n\n565\n00:24:23.100 --> 00:24:24.660\nI was scared to death that they were gonna say,\n\n566\n00:24:24.660 --> 00:24:27.540\noh, she's got two children, she's not gonna come back,\n\n567\n00:24:27.540 --> 00:24:28.380\nwhich I did.\n\n568\n00:24:28.380 --> 00:24:31.460\nAnd so I kind of crafted my schedule from that point on,\n\n569\n00:24:31.460 --> 00:24:34.180\nwe had a nanny and she was wonderful.\n\n570\n00:24:34.180 --> 00:24:37.100\nShe had raised three boys and so she was excited\n\n571\n00:24:37.100 --> 00:24:39.100\nat the two girls at the time.\n\n572\n00:24:39.100 --> 00:24:41.420\nAnd I don't think I would have continued working\n\n573\n00:24:41.420 --> 00:24:44.340\nand had a not-had nanny for a decade.\n\n574\n00:24:44.340 --> 00:24:47.100\nBut she was like a grandmother and a friend\n\n575\n00:24:47.100 --> 00:24:48.180\nand I felt so comfortable,\n\n576\n00:24:48.180 --> 00:24:50.340\nbut she had never worked on Fridays either.\n\n577\n00:24:50.340 --> 00:24:52.540\nSo it was just this match made in heaven\n\n578\n00:24:52.540 --> 00:24:55.980\nthat she replied to the one ad we put\n\n579\n00:24:55.980 --> 00:24:59.420\nin the Greensboro News and Record, our newspaper.\n\n580\n00:24:59.420 --> 00:25:00.780\n- That's great.\n\n581\n00:25:00.780 --> 00:25:05.020\n- Yeah, but I think it was a great work-life balance.\n\n582\n00:25:05.020 --> 00:25:06.300\n- Yeah, that's a great story.\n\n583\n00:25:06.300 --> 00:25:11.300\nAnd then you became the VP of Investments at Wells Fargo\n\n584\n00:25:12.300 --> 00:25:14.820\nand how did your leadership change\n\n585\n00:25:14.820 --> 00:25:17.380\nin that new environment or did it?\n\n586\n00:25:17.380 --> 00:25:18.980\n- I mean, I think I've always matured\n\n587\n00:25:18.980 --> 00:25:21.220\nand I hope I'm still growing even today.\n\n588\n00:25:21.220 --> 00:25:22.420\nI have a lot to learn.\n\n589\n00:25:22.420 --> 00:25:24.940\nSo, but yeah, that was a transition.\n\n590\n00:25:24.940 --> 00:25:26.220\nIt was a good transition.\n\n591\n00:25:26.220 --> 00:25:29.180\nMy father had always been a broker.\n\n592\n00:25:29.180 --> 00:25:31.060\nHe was an institutional broker.\n\n593\n00:25:31.060 --> 00:25:33.740\nAnd when we moved back to Greensboro with my husband,\n\n594\n00:25:33.740 --> 00:25:35.540\nwhen he was coming to work for a family business\n\n595\n00:25:35.540 --> 00:25:38.820\nand moved from Charlotte and I transferred with the bank,\n\n596\n00:25:38.820 --> 00:25:40.500\nI started thinking more seriously about it.\n\n597\n00:25:40.500 --> 00:25:42.180\nAnd so I went to work with Dad,\n\n598\n00:25:42.180 --> 00:25:45.540\nbut I said, \"Look, I don't want to be an institutional salesman\n\n599\n00:25:45.540 --> 00:25:46.940\nbecause I don't want to sell research\n\n600\n00:25:46.940 --> 00:25:50.900\nand have to wake up every single day to earn my keep.\n\n601\n00:25:50.900 --> 00:25:54.380\nAnd I want to do fee-based business,\n\n602\n00:25:54.380 --> 00:25:56.340\nwhich was similar to what I did at the bank,\n\n603\n00:25:56.340 --> 00:25:59.020\naccount management, relationship management.\"\n\n604\n00:25:59.020 --> 00:26:01.220\nSo I went to New York, went to the training program\n\n605\n00:26:01.220 --> 00:26:03.500\nand kind of went into a different side of the business\n\n606\n00:26:03.500 --> 00:26:04.340\nthan my dad.\n\n607\n00:26:04.340 --> 00:26:07.220\nWe were always partners, but I was independent enough\n\n608\n00:26:07.220 --> 00:26:09.220\nthat I said, \"I want to have my own book of business\n\n609\n00:26:09.220 --> 00:26:10.500\nand I want to do my own thing.\"\n\n610\n00:26:10.500 --> 00:26:13.340\nAnd so we kind of paralleled,\n\n611\n00:26:13.340 --> 00:26:17.260\nbut I spent the next 20 years with most of my bank clients\n\n612\n00:26:17.260 --> 00:26:20.220\ncame over and were my investment clients.\n\n613\n00:26:20.220 --> 00:26:22.980\nSo going to quarterly investment committee meetings\n\n614\n00:26:22.980 --> 00:26:26.140\nand managing pools of money and asset allocating,\n\n615\n00:26:26.140 --> 00:26:28.740\nall the smart things that you have\n\n616\n00:26:28.740 --> 00:26:30.820\nthat advisors do for your portfolio.\n\n617\n00:26:30.820 --> 00:26:32.580\nAnd then Bobby says, \"Let's go do startups\n\n618\n00:26:32.580 --> 00:26:35.900\nwhere you've got to give up on this asset allocation\n\n619\n00:26:35.900 --> 00:26:37.020\nand risk profile.\n\n620\n00:26:37.020 --> 00:26:40.940\nYou've got to go on the far edge of what I've been doing\n\n621\n00:26:40.940 --> 00:26:43.540\nand it took a while to learn how to take that risk.\"\n\n622\n00:26:43.540 --> 00:26:47.100\n- You know, you're a tremendous relationship person.\n\n623\n00:26:47.100 --> 00:26:49.180\nWhat advice can you give to people\n\n624\n00:26:49.180 --> 00:26:52.660\non how to make a relationship work in business?\n\n625\n00:26:52.660 --> 00:26:53.500\n- That's a good question.\n\n626\n00:26:53.500 --> 00:26:54.380\nI don't know if I'm great at it,\n\n627\n00:26:54.380 --> 00:26:56.100\nbut I certainly try because I think\n\n628\n00:26:56.100 --> 00:26:58.020\nit's all about relationships.\n\n629\n00:26:58.020 --> 00:27:00.980\nI think in life, if you give more than you take,\n\n630\n00:27:00.980 --> 00:27:03.060\nit'll come back to you in spades.\n\n631\n00:27:03.060 --> 00:27:07.500\nAnd so try to be helpful whenever we can.\n\n632\n00:27:07.500 --> 00:27:10.780\nTry to really try to go above and beyond\n\n633\n00:27:10.780 --> 00:27:12.300\nwhat they would expect.\n\n634\n00:27:12.300 --> 00:27:15.100\nAnd I think that pays dividends\n\n635\n00:27:15.100 --> 00:27:17.780\nbecause of course when people treat you that way,\n\n636\n00:27:17.780 --> 00:27:19.860\nyou're more apt to work hard for them.\n\n637\n00:27:19.860 --> 00:27:23.620\nSo it's really jumping in and joining the team with them\n\n638\n00:27:23.620 --> 00:27:27.900\nand there's no hierarchy and it's everybody working together\n\n639\n00:27:27.900 --> 00:27:30.460\nand just, you know, if you give 150%\n\n640\n00:27:30.460 --> 00:27:33.140\nthen everybody else is gonna level up\n\n641\n00:27:33.140 --> 00:27:35.620\nso to speak to wanting to be that passionate about it.\n\n642\n00:27:35.620 --> 00:27:37.300\nSo you just gotta keep the dream alive\n\n643\n00:27:37.300 --> 00:27:39.460\nand stay positive and keep growing.\n\n644\n00:27:39.460 --> 00:27:41.100\nSo I'm part cheerleader, I guess.\n\n645\n00:27:41.100 --> 00:27:42.620\n(laughs)\n\n646\n00:27:42.620 --> 00:27:45.860\n- But you know, speaking of being positive\n\n647\n00:27:45.860 --> 00:27:48.620\nand optimistic, you know, that's a trait\n\n648\n00:27:48.620 --> 00:27:50.860\nthat you yourself have.\n\n649\n00:27:50.860 --> 00:27:54.740\nHow do you spread that with your team\n\n650\n00:27:54.740 --> 00:27:58.580\nand the people that you work with?\n\n651\n00:27:58.580 --> 00:28:00.340\nI mean, what's the key to that?\n\n652\n00:28:00.340 --> 00:28:01.180\nIn your mind.\n\n653\n00:28:01.180 --> 00:28:04.620\n- The key to that, you know, exercise every morning,\n\n654\n00:28:04.620 --> 00:28:06.980\nas I said earlier, right at the beginning,\n\n655\n00:28:06.980 --> 00:28:08.060\nyou know, when things get tough,\n\n656\n00:28:08.060 --> 00:28:10.660\nif you take the positive path\n\n657\n00:28:10.660 --> 00:28:14.500\nand take the higher road, people start watching.\n\n658\n00:28:14.500 --> 00:28:15.980\nI mean, like I said, I've learned that\n\n659\n00:28:15.980 --> 00:28:18.060\nfrom my business partner, from Bobby.\n\n660\n00:28:18.060 --> 00:28:19.940\nIt's really compelling.\n\n661\n00:28:19.940 --> 00:28:22.420\nSo the more you do it, the more other people do it.\n\n662\n00:28:22.420 --> 00:28:23.820\nIt's like paying it forward.\n\n663\n00:28:23.820 --> 00:28:27.500\nSo I think optimism and enthusiasm,\n\n664\n00:28:27.500 --> 00:28:29.300\nit all goes into believing in people\n\n665\n00:28:29.300 --> 00:28:30.820\nand believing in a mission.\n\n666\n00:28:30.820 --> 00:28:34.180\nAnd if you continue like that, then it's contagious.\n\n667\n00:28:34.180 --> 00:28:36.540\nAnd I think people want to replicate it.\n\n668\n00:28:36.540 --> 00:28:38.020\n- Can you tell a story, Louise,\n\n669\n00:28:38.020 --> 00:28:40.740\nwhen you were dealing with somebody on your team\n\n670\n00:28:40.740 --> 00:28:44.820\nor maybe someone you were trying to build a relationship\n\n671\n00:28:44.820 --> 00:28:47.100\nwith where they were just negative as hell\n\n672\n00:28:47.100 --> 00:28:49.980\nand you really needed to help them\n\n673\n00:28:49.980 --> 00:28:51.940\nget an attitude adjustment?\n\n674\n00:28:51.940 --> 00:28:53.740\nYou know, how'd you go about it?\n\n675\n00:28:53.740 --> 00:28:55.100\n- That's a really tough one.\n\n676\n00:28:55.100 --> 00:28:57.220\nI think the only way to do that,\n\n677\n00:28:57.220 --> 00:28:58.900\nI can't say that I'm good at that.\n\n678\n00:28:58.900 --> 00:29:03.900\nThe only way in my mind that I've ever somewhat\n\n679\n00:29:03.900 --> 00:29:08.300\nbeen able to do that is to try to tell a story\n\n680\n00:29:08.300 --> 00:29:12.700\nand put their behavior or the thing that you would like\n\n681\n00:29:12.700 --> 00:29:16.300\nto change or coach them on into a story of other people\n\n682\n00:29:16.300 --> 00:29:20.860\nand what it felt like or what the thoughts\n\n683\n00:29:20.860 --> 00:29:22.540\nand reactions were on the other side.\n\n684\n00:29:22.540 --> 00:29:24.740\nAnd so they see it from a third party.\n\n685\n00:29:24.740 --> 00:29:28.380\nAnd so sometimes it clicks and then they can adjust\n\n686\n00:29:28.380 --> 00:29:30.380\ntheir attitude without you having to go straight to them\n\n687\n00:29:30.380 --> 00:29:33.620\nand saying, you've got a bad attitude or whatever.\n\n688\n00:29:33.620 --> 00:29:35.620\nThat seems better than hitting people direct.\n\n689\n00:29:35.620 --> 00:29:36.620\nThere are certain people,\n\n690\n00:29:36.620 --> 00:29:38.180\nit depends on the personality,\n\n691\n00:29:38.180 --> 00:29:39.620\nthat you can just go to them and say,\n\n692\n00:29:39.620 --> 00:29:42.580\n\"Gah, I love you so much and I just want you to know\n\n693\n00:29:42.580 --> 00:29:45.540\nthat you're a 10 out of a 10 liter.\"\n\n694\n00:29:45.540 --> 00:29:46.700\nBut gosh, if you just,\n\n695\n00:29:46.700 --> 00:29:48.500\nif you added this into your repertoire\n\n696\n00:29:48.500 --> 00:29:52.180\nand then you'd be amazing.\n\n697\n00:29:52.180 --> 00:29:54.020\nSo you can do it in that way too.\n\n698\n00:29:54.020 --> 00:29:57.300\nI just think it's always with the lead of positive.\n\n699\n00:29:57.300 --> 00:30:01.420\nYou know, five compliments to one improvement.\n\n700\n00:30:01.420 --> 00:30:04.820\n- As someone, Louise, who gets regularly,\n\n701\n00:30:04.820 --> 00:30:06.420\nyou know, pitched on ideas.\n\n702\n00:30:06.420 --> 00:30:07.620\nI mean, you've got people coming to you\n\n703\n00:30:07.620 --> 00:30:10.820\nand you're going to people to hear about their ideas as well.\n\n704\n00:30:10.820 --> 00:30:14.020\nWhat is the fastest way to get a yes from you?\n\n705\n00:30:14.020 --> 00:30:17.260\nAnd what are your best practices\n\n706\n00:30:17.260 --> 00:30:22.260\nthat you really lean into when you're kind of assessing\n\n707\n00:30:22.260 --> 00:30:24.420\nwhether it's a yes or a no?\n\n708\n00:30:24.420 --> 00:30:28.140\n- The fastest way to a yes is to have an area\n\n709\n00:30:28.140 --> 00:30:29.180\nthat we're passionate about.\n\n710\n00:30:29.180 --> 00:30:31.020\nSomething that's going to change the world.\n\n711\n00:30:31.020 --> 00:30:32.660\nI mean, if it's groundbreaking\n\n712\n00:30:32.660 --> 00:30:35.980\nand change the world type of technology,\n\n713\n00:30:35.980 --> 00:30:38.180\nthen we're hooked from the beginning.\n\n714\n00:30:38.180 --> 00:30:40.620\nIf you layer on amazing people\n\n715\n00:30:40.620 --> 00:30:44.260\nand you do your diligence and background checks\n\n716\n00:30:44.260 --> 00:30:47.980\nand you meet face to face with the leaders\n\n717\n00:30:47.980 --> 00:30:50.300\nenough times to understand them,\n\n718\n00:30:50.300 --> 00:30:53.220\nand I'll go back to that in a minute about any agreement,\n\n719\n00:30:53.220 --> 00:30:54.980\nhow helpful that's been to me.\n\n720\n00:30:54.980 --> 00:30:56.820\nBut knowing the personality\n\n721\n00:30:56.820 --> 00:30:58.100\nand understanding the person,\n\n722\n00:30:58.100 --> 00:31:01.180\nthen that's two great things.\n\n723\n00:31:01.180 --> 00:31:02.740\nAnd then you do your diligence\n\n724\n00:31:02.740 --> 00:31:03.620\nand you've got to make sure\n\n725\n00:31:03.620 --> 00:31:06.380\nthat their IP and patent portfolio\n\n726\n00:31:06.380 --> 00:31:09.820\nand positioning and all that makes sense in the market.\n\n727\n00:31:09.820 --> 00:31:11.660\nBut they hooked me the quickest,\n\n728\n00:31:11.660 --> 00:31:15.060\nif it's the mission that we're excited about\n\n729\n00:31:15.060 --> 00:31:17.260\nand the people are amazing,\n\n730\n00:31:17.260 --> 00:31:18.100\nthen the rest of it,\n\n731\n00:31:18.100 --> 00:31:19.820\nbecause we can backfill some of the rest of it\n\n732\n00:31:19.820 --> 00:31:24.820\nas long as they've got something unique to work with.\n\n733\n00:31:24.820 --> 00:31:26.980\n- We'll be back with the rest of my conversation\n\n734\n00:31:26.980 --> 00:31:29.020\nwith Louise Brady in just a moment.\n\n735\n00:31:29.020 --> 00:31:31.460\nAs we're getting into the rhythm of a new year,\n\n736\n00:31:31.460 --> 00:31:35.340\nit's a great time to revisit my conversation with Larry Bosni.\n\n737\n00:31:35.340 --> 00:31:37.460\nHe's the former CEO of Honeywell\n\n738\n00:31:37.460 --> 00:31:41.700\nand the expert on execution and getting things done.\n\n739\n00:31:41.700 --> 00:31:43.420\n- And I tried to reduce strategy\n\n740\n00:31:43.420 --> 00:31:46.260\nto something that we could be sure to do.\n\n741\n00:31:46.260 --> 00:31:47.680\nEvery time I went to a business\n\n742\n00:31:47.680 --> 00:31:49.020\nand a strategy session,\n\n743\n00:31:49.020 --> 00:31:50.860\nI had a people session the same day.\n\n744\n00:31:50.860 --> 00:31:53.580\nDo we have the people to execute the strategy\n\n745\n00:31:53.580 --> 00:31:55.860\nwithout that, the debt and arrival?\n\n746\n00:31:55.860 --> 00:31:57.700\nAnd secondly, as I said, we headed\n\n747\n00:31:57.700 --> 00:31:59.820\nwhat I call an invasive people process\n\n748\n00:31:59.820 --> 00:32:04.140\nwhere we evaluated the top 200 people in the company.\n\n749\n00:32:04.140 --> 00:32:06.660\nAnd then we spent a lot of time in operations.\n\n750\n00:32:06.660 --> 00:32:08.300\nNot only in the budget preparation,\n\n751\n00:32:08.300 --> 00:32:10.620\nbut on the execution of the budget.\n\n752\n00:32:10.620 --> 00:32:13.340\nAnd the more time I spent in those three things,\n\n753\n00:32:13.340 --> 00:32:14.540\non the people, the strategy,\n\n754\n00:32:14.540 --> 00:32:15.940\nand the operations, the better we got.\n\n755\n00:32:15.940 --> 00:32:17.420\n- It's one thing to have a strategy.\n\n756\n00:32:17.420 --> 00:32:18.900\nIf you don't put the structure around it,\n\n757\n00:32:18.900 --> 00:32:20.820\nso that you can execute it, you don't have a chance.\n\n758\n00:32:20.820 --> 00:32:21.660\n- You don't.\n\n759\n00:32:21.660 --> 00:32:24.220\nSo lots of people get proud of the big books\n\n760\n00:32:24.220 --> 00:32:25.700\nthat they produce on strategy.\n\n761\n00:32:25.700 --> 00:32:27.540\nAnd they're basically debt and arrival\n\n762\n00:32:27.540 --> 00:32:28.900\nbecause they have no concept\n\n763\n00:32:28.900 --> 00:32:30.580\nof how they're gonna execute it.\n\n764\n00:32:30.580 --> 00:32:33.460\n- Go back and listen to my entire conversation with Larry.\n\n765\n00:32:33.460 --> 00:32:37.300\nEpisode 79 here on How Leaders Lead.\n\n766\n00:32:37.300 --> 00:32:40.740\n- I've heard you say, dream huge into the stratosphere.\n\n767\n00:32:40.740 --> 00:32:42.500\nThen maybe you'll get to the moon.\n\n768\n00:32:42.500 --> 00:32:45.340\nYou know, as you look to the future,\n\n769\n00:32:45.340 --> 00:32:48.260\nwhat's clear to you that's maybe not yet visible\n\n770\n00:32:48.260 --> 00:32:50.460\nto others that you wanna pursue?\n\n771\n00:32:50.460 --> 00:32:52.660\n- I think the energy transition,\n\n772\n00:32:52.660 --> 00:32:55.060\nI think biotech and healthcare,\n\n773\n00:32:55.060 --> 00:32:57.940\nI think we will eradicate cancer and horrible diseases.\n\n774\n00:32:57.940 --> 00:33:00.140\nThere will be something else that comes up behind it.\n\n775\n00:33:00.140 --> 00:33:02.980\nLike we've got one investment that we loved.\n\n776\n00:33:02.980 --> 00:33:05.620\nAnd it was such a simple idea.\n\n777\n00:33:05.620 --> 00:33:08.100\nIt's called Surge.\n\n778\n00:33:08.100 --> 00:33:11.420\nAnd what they do is this brilliant guy,\n\n779\n00:33:11.420 --> 00:33:13.700\nmore of a student scientist,\n\n780\n00:33:13.700 --> 00:33:15.500\nand he just kept reading, reading, reading.\n\n781\n00:33:15.500 --> 00:33:18.700\nHe said, I think if we can get the T cells,\n\n782\n00:33:18.700 --> 00:33:20.980\nwhich are the cells that fight cancer,\n\n783\n00:33:20.980 --> 00:33:23.980\nwhen we're doing a surgery resection to remove a tumor,\n\n784\n00:33:23.980 --> 00:33:25.460\nwhich is the standard of care now,\n\n785\n00:33:25.460 --> 00:33:28.020\nyou have a tumor, cancer tumor growing,\n\n786\n00:33:28.020 --> 00:33:29.380\nyou try to remove it,\n\n787\n00:33:29.380 --> 00:33:31.140\nand then you treat it with, you know,\n\n788\n00:33:31.140 --> 00:33:33.220\nradiation or chemotherapy.\n\n789\n00:33:33.220 --> 00:33:34.580\nBut when they're removing it,\n\n790\n00:33:34.580 --> 00:33:38.620\nthen what happens, the T cells are going to\n\n791\n00:33:38.620 --> 00:33:40.900\ntry to heal the wound, right?\n\n792\n00:33:40.900 --> 00:33:42.220\nWhich makes sense.\n\n793\n00:33:42.220 --> 00:33:44.540\nAnd so they're not fighting off the cancer.\n\n794\n00:33:44.540 --> 00:33:47.340\nSo for two or three weeks until that wound heals,\n\n795\n00:33:47.340 --> 00:33:48.500\nthey're not doing their job,\n\n796\n00:33:48.500 --> 00:33:50.020\nwhich is keep fighting that cancer\n\n797\n00:33:50.020 --> 00:33:52.300\nthat there's still little pieces of it floating around.\n\n798\n00:33:52.300 --> 00:33:56.460\nSo his idea is let's go into the surgery site,\n\n799\n00:33:56.460 --> 00:34:01.380\nput in this gel that's treated with cancer fighting agents,\n\n800\n00:34:01.380 --> 00:34:03.620\nand it signals to the T cells,\n\n801\n00:34:03.620 --> 00:34:06.140\nyou keep fighting the cancer,\n\n802\n00:34:06.140 --> 00:34:10.460\nI'm sorry, with wound healing properties.\n\n803\n00:34:10.460 --> 00:34:13.220\nSo the T cells keep fighting the cancer,\n\n804\n00:34:13.220 --> 00:34:18.300\nthe gel fights the incision in the spot,\n\n805\n00:34:18.300 --> 00:34:19.860\nin addition with some of, you know,\n\n806\n00:34:19.860 --> 00:34:21.460\nsome secret properties in there\n\n807\n00:34:21.460 --> 00:34:24.700\nto help the cancer kind of stay away,\n\n808\n00:34:24.700 --> 00:34:27.780\nthen you never have a chance for those cancer cells to grow.\n\n809\n00:34:27.780 --> 00:34:29.740\nWe're in four or five indications now,\n\n810\n00:34:29.740 --> 00:34:32.420\nand the results are astonishing,\n\n811\n00:34:32.420 --> 00:34:36.220\nand it could potentially change the standard of care\n\n812\n00:34:36.220 --> 00:34:38.100\nfor cancer, which would be amazing.\n\n813\n00:34:38.100 --> 00:34:41.820\nAnd it's just a, this smart kid that read a lot\n\n814\n00:34:41.820 --> 00:34:44.540\nand said, \"I think we can start this company.\"\n\n815\n00:34:44.540 --> 00:34:48.620\nSo following somebody like that and an idea like that.\n\n816\n00:34:48.620 --> 00:34:51.580\nSo I think I went off a little bit on a tangent,\n\n817\n00:34:51.580 --> 00:34:53.940\nbut that's such a fun story to tell.\n\n818\n00:34:53.940 --> 00:34:55.380\nAnything to shoot the moon\n\n819\n00:34:55.380 --> 00:34:58.340\nthat's gonna change things for the future.\n\n820\n00:34:58.340 --> 00:35:01.540\n- And you know, you obviously have the passion.\n\n821\n00:35:01.540 --> 00:35:06.260\nWhat have you learned about sustaining the passion?\n\n822\n00:35:06.260 --> 00:35:09.380\nYou know, 'cause I mean, a lot of times it's easy,\n\n823\n00:35:09.380 --> 00:35:12.700\nyou know, you get so passionate to be getting,\n\n824\n00:35:12.700 --> 00:35:14.140\nhow do you sustain it?\n\n825\n00:35:14.140 --> 00:35:15.260\n'Cause I think that's key.\n\n826\n00:35:15.260 --> 00:35:16.500\nI mean, you know, a lot of leaders,\n\n827\n00:35:16.500 --> 00:35:19.060\nyou fall in love with an idea or a thought,\n\n828\n00:35:19.060 --> 00:35:21.900\nand then, you know, the next one comes along\n\n829\n00:35:21.900 --> 00:35:23.180\nand you go to that one,\n\n830\n00:35:23.180 --> 00:35:25.380\nbut you don't really sustain something\n\n831\n00:35:25.380 --> 00:35:26.980\nthat needs to be sustained.\n\n832\n00:35:26.980 --> 00:35:29.220\n- I think I'm just hard-headed enough\n\n833\n00:35:29.220 --> 00:35:31.140\nto wanna stick to it until I see it,\n\n834\n00:35:31.140 --> 00:35:34.100\nto fruition or to see it successful.\n\n835\n00:35:34.100 --> 00:35:36.740\nSo, you know, remember, if you start with something\n\n836\n00:35:36.740 --> 00:35:38.220\nthat you're passionate about, like your kids,\n\n837\n00:35:38.220 --> 00:35:39.420\nyou're not gonna give up on your kids,\n\n838\n00:35:39.420 --> 00:35:41.620\nyou're gonna continue to help 'em along\n\n839\n00:35:41.620 --> 00:35:44.260\nand coach 'em and make 'em the best they can be.\n\n840\n00:35:44.260 --> 00:35:47.460\nIt's the same thing with portfolio companies and technologies.\n\n841\n00:35:47.460 --> 00:35:48.740\nYou've fallen in love with it,\n\n842\n00:35:48.740 --> 00:35:50.140\nor you wouldn't have invested in it,\n\n843\n00:35:50.140 --> 00:35:51.740\nand you wanna continue to push it\n\n844\n00:35:51.740 --> 00:35:55.020\nuntil there's a clear signal not to,\n\n845\n00:35:55.020 --> 00:35:57.020\nor until they hit success.\n\n846\n00:35:57.020 --> 00:35:58.260\nAnd there's always learnings.\n\n847\n00:35:58.260 --> 00:35:59.540\nI mean, I think if anything,\n\n848\n00:35:59.540 --> 00:36:03.100\nif I learned something, I am passionate about it.\n\n849\n00:36:03.100 --> 00:36:05.180\nI mean, I'm curious, I love learning every day.\n\n850\n00:36:05.180 --> 00:36:06.220\nThat's why I love my job,\n\n851\n00:36:06.220 --> 00:36:07.940\nand feel like it's not really a job.\n\n852\n00:36:07.940 --> 00:36:09.420\nIt's a pleasure to serve,\n\n853\n00:36:09.420 --> 00:36:13.300\nbecause I get to learn about amazing technologies,\n\n854\n00:36:13.300 --> 00:36:15.460\nand I can see the future of a world\n\n855\n00:36:15.460 --> 00:36:17.460\nthat's even better than it is today,\n\n856\n00:36:17.460 --> 00:36:19.300\nand that's what keeps me going.\n\n857\n00:36:19.300 --> 00:36:22.980\nAnd I don't fatigue on any of the companies,\n\n858\n00:36:22.980 --> 00:36:26.580\nbecause you wanna see it come to life.\n\n859\n00:36:26.580 --> 00:36:29.260\n- You know, your investment track record at Piedmont,\n\n860\n00:36:29.260 --> 00:36:31.460\nit's pretty amazing.\n\n861\n00:36:31.460 --> 00:36:37.020\nHow do you measure what are the normal percentage\n\n862\n00:36:37.020 --> 00:36:39.580\nof hits versus mediocre returns,\n\n863\n00:36:39.580 --> 00:36:42.980\nversus investments that lose money compared to,\n\n864\n00:36:42.980 --> 00:36:45.500\nI mean, how do you look at yourself\n\n865\n00:36:45.500 --> 00:36:47.140\nwithin your own industry,\n\n866\n00:36:47.140 --> 00:36:50.340\nor is that something that you even do?\n\n867\n00:36:50.340 --> 00:36:51.380\n- When we first started,\n\n868\n00:36:51.380 --> 00:36:53.020\nI talked to one of my best friends\n\n869\n00:36:53.020 --> 00:36:56.060\ngrowing up her husband's in the investment business as well.\n\n870\n00:36:56.060 --> 00:36:56.940\nSo I called him up and said,\n\n871\n00:36:56.940 --> 00:36:58.460\n\"Hey, can we have a conversation?\"\n\n872\n00:36:58.460 --> 00:37:00.860\nI'm heading into the venture business,\n\n873\n00:37:00.860 --> 00:37:03.300\nand would love to just pick your brain for a little bit.\n\n874\n00:37:03.300 --> 00:37:04.220\nAnd he's the one who told me,\n\n875\n00:37:04.220 --> 00:37:06.180\nhe said, \"Oh, out of 10 investments,\n\n876\n00:37:06.180 --> 00:37:07.300\n\"you're gonna have one that hits,\n\n877\n00:37:07.300 --> 00:37:09.620\n\"and that's gonna save the day and cover you.\n\n878\n00:37:09.620 --> 00:37:14.620\n\"You'll have two or three that'll be maybe three to five X,\n\n879\n00:37:14.620 --> 00:37:17.580\n\"and then you'll have a bunch of losers\n\n880\n00:37:17.580 --> 00:37:19.300\n\"and some that are just flat.\"\n\n881\n00:37:19.300 --> 00:37:21.980\nBut it's that one, one out of 10.\n\n882\n00:37:21.980 --> 00:37:24.460\nAnd I was like, \"I'm gonna have nine out of 10.\"\n\n883\n00:37:24.460 --> 00:37:28.140\nI don't want one out of 10, but as it works out,\n\n884\n00:37:28.140 --> 00:37:29.380\nI mean, looking back,\n\n885\n00:37:29.380 --> 00:37:31.980\nI think we're doing better than that.\n\n886\n00:37:31.980 --> 00:37:35.100\nBut the earlier you get in,\n\n887\n00:37:35.100 --> 00:37:38.660\nand you've gotta be able to take a stake in a big position,\n\n888\n00:37:38.660 --> 00:37:40.340\nthose are the ones that really are gonna,\n\n889\n00:37:40.340 --> 00:37:42.620\nour juicher returns going forward.\n\n890\n00:37:42.620 --> 00:37:46.300\nI mean, you have to continue to have the fortitude\n\n891\n00:37:46.300 --> 00:37:51.300\nto continue investing and continue supporting the company.\n\n892\n00:37:51.300 --> 00:37:56.020\nAnd we're hoping that maybe we'll be five out of five,\n\n893\n00:37:56.020 --> 00:37:58.660\nand that would be great, not all at 100 X.\n\n894\n00:37:58.660 --> 00:38:01.300\nBut I mean, you might have one huge hit like that,\n\n895\n00:38:01.300 --> 00:38:04.020\nbut I think if you can consistently pick the winners,\n\n896\n00:38:04.020 --> 00:38:06.740\nyou don't have as many of the losers or zeros in there.\n\n897\n00:38:06.740 --> 00:38:10.980\n- So if you were gonna make 10 investments in today's world,\n\n898\n00:38:10.980 --> 00:38:14.940\nwhat do you think for you and Piedmont is,\n\n899\n00:38:14.940 --> 00:38:17.940\nwhat's the hit rate?\n\n900\n00:38:17.940 --> 00:38:20.620\nWhat would you say you would say is good?\n\n901\n00:38:20.620 --> 00:38:22.300\n- If I don't think it's 10 out of 10,\n\n902\n00:38:22.300 --> 00:38:23.940\nwe wouldn't make the investments.\n\n903\n00:38:23.940 --> 00:38:25.300\n- Yeah, but you don't always,\n\n904\n00:38:25.300 --> 00:38:26.620\nthat doesn't always happen, right?\n\n905\n00:38:26.620 --> 00:38:30.220\nI mean, so if you step back and look at it,\n\n906\n00:38:30.220 --> 00:38:32.740\nyou're going for 10 out of 10, what do you end up with?\n\n907\n00:38:32.740 --> 00:38:35.100\n- I mean, they're probably six out of 10\n\n908\n00:38:35.100 --> 00:38:36.740\nthat are still great companies.\n\n909\n00:38:36.740 --> 00:38:40.460\n- Yeah, that's very, very good, that's incredible.\n\n910\n00:38:40.460 --> 00:38:43.900\nYou know, Louise, this has been so much fun,\n\n911\n00:38:43.900 --> 00:38:46.180\nand I wanna have some more with my lightning round of questions.\n\n912\n00:38:46.180 --> 00:38:47.460\nSo are you ready for this?\n\n913\n00:38:47.460 --> 00:38:48.900\n- Absolutely, bring it.\n\n914\n00:38:48.900 --> 00:38:52.460\n- The three words that others would use to describe you.\n\n915\n00:38:52.460 --> 00:38:55.340\n- Positive, kind, supportive.\n\n916\n00:38:55.340 --> 00:38:58.340\n- If you could be one person beside yourself, who would it be?\n\n917\n00:38:58.340 --> 00:39:00.020\n- That's a really good one.\n\n918\n00:39:00.020 --> 00:39:01.900\nIt might be Elon Musk.\n\n919\n00:39:01.900 --> 00:39:03.860\n- I love to know what goes on in his head.\n\n920\n00:39:03.860 --> 00:39:05.420\n- What's your biggest pet peeve?\n\n921\n00:39:05.420 --> 00:39:06.460\n- When people give up.\n\n922\n00:39:06.460 --> 00:39:07.820\n- Who would play you in a movie?\n\n923\n00:39:07.820 --> 00:39:08.940\n- Maybe Princess Diana,\n\n924\n00:39:08.940 --> 00:39:10.540\neverybody says they look like Princess Diana.\n\n925\n00:39:10.540 --> 00:39:11.500\n- You do.\n\n926\n00:39:11.500 --> 00:39:14.380\nWhat's a hidden gem of North Carolina?\n\n927\n00:39:14.380 --> 00:39:18.140\n- Oh, I think our hidden gem,\n\n928\n00:39:18.140 --> 00:39:20.140\nthe people, everybody's nice.\n\n929\n00:39:20.140 --> 00:39:22.540\n- What's the one thing you do just for you?\n\n930\n00:39:22.540 --> 00:39:23.380\n- Exercise.\n\n931\n00:39:23.380 --> 00:39:25.260\n- What's your most prized possession?\n\n932\n00:39:25.260 --> 00:39:26.100\n- My family.\n\n933\n00:39:26.100 --> 00:39:29.500\n- If I turned on the radio in your car, what would I hear?\n\n934\n00:39:29.500 --> 00:39:30.820\n- You'd hear Bloomberg.\n\n935\n00:39:30.820 --> 00:39:33.540\n- What's something about you a few people would know?\n\n936\n00:39:33.540 --> 00:39:35.460\n- I'm pretty much an open book.\n\n937\n00:39:35.460 --> 00:39:38.100\nMaybe that I love classical music.\n\n938\n00:39:38.100 --> 00:39:40.060\n- The one, I think I know the answer to this,\n\n939\n00:39:40.060 --> 00:39:42.340\nbut one of your daily rituals, I'll change it,\n\n940\n00:39:42.340 --> 00:39:45.660\none of your daily rituals, besides exercise,\n\n941\n00:39:45.660 --> 00:39:47.340\nsomething that you'd never miss.\n\n942\n00:39:47.340 --> 00:39:49.980\n- That I never miss eating while I hope.\n\n943\n00:39:49.980 --> 00:39:51.340\n- That's great, you did a great job.\n\n944\n00:39:51.340 --> 00:39:52.620\nWe're out of the light, you're out.\n\n945\n00:39:52.620 --> 00:39:55.260\nWe're gonna wrap this up after a few more questions here.\n\n946\n00:39:55.260 --> 00:39:57.020\nYou have three grown kids.\n\n947\n00:39:57.020 --> 00:40:00.580\nWhat's a leadership lesson you pulled from the office\n\n948\n00:40:00.580 --> 00:40:03.780\nthat you would use to lead at home?\n\n949\n00:40:03.780 --> 00:40:07.620\n- Quotes from other people, examples from business people\n\n950\n00:40:07.620 --> 00:40:12.620\noften send them articles and examples of either kind people,\n\n951\n00:40:12.620 --> 00:40:14.980\ngood people or great leadership.\n\n952\n00:40:14.980 --> 00:40:18.300\n- You know, I've heard people talk about success either\n\n953\n00:40:18.300 --> 00:40:21.860\nwhen you have it, you either you grow or you swell.\n\n954\n00:40:21.860 --> 00:40:24.860\nWhat do you do to stay, Louise Brady?\n\n955\n00:40:24.860 --> 00:40:29.180\nBecause you know, you definitely grow and you're so humble\n\n956\n00:40:29.180 --> 00:40:32.620\nand you're so giving, you know,\n\n957\n00:40:32.620 --> 00:40:36.300\nhow do you do that given all the success you have?\n\n958\n00:40:36.300 --> 00:40:40.100\nHow can you avoid stopping, you know,\n\n959\n00:40:40.100 --> 00:40:41.740\nsmelling your own perfume?\n\n960\n00:40:41.740 --> 00:40:44.420\n- Well, the people that I'm around,\n\n961\n00:40:44.420 --> 00:40:47.260\nI am not successful by any means compared to them.\n\n962\n00:40:47.260 --> 00:40:51.300\nSo I'm a small chip on that big battleship.\n\n963\n00:40:51.300 --> 00:40:53.300\nSo it's surround yourself by good people\n\n964\n00:40:53.300 --> 00:40:54.460\nand you never feel like you're,\n\n965\n00:40:54.460 --> 00:40:57.780\nyou've ever stopped needing to learn and get better.\n\n966\n00:40:57.780 --> 00:41:01.660\n- You know, you've been a part of several boards.\n\n967\n00:41:01.660 --> 00:41:06.660\nTell me about a time when you made an undeniable impact\n\n968\n00:41:06.660 --> 00:41:09.700\nbecause you were in that seat and you were in that room.\n\n969\n00:41:09.700 --> 00:41:11.060\n- I would say,\n\n970\n00:41:11.060 --> 00:41:17.540\npotentially fighting for people and compensation,\n\n971\n00:41:17.540 --> 00:41:19.460\na chair compensation committee\n\n972\n00:41:19.460 --> 00:41:24.380\nand really fighting to pay people that deserve to be paid\n\n973\n00:41:24.380 --> 00:41:25.940\nat the highest level\n\n974\n00:41:25.940 --> 00:41:29.060\nand upgrading an organization.\n\n975\n00:41:29.060 --> 00:41:31.580\n- You know, you have so many access to leaders\n\n976\n00:41:31.580 --> 00:41:35.380\nthrough your investments and the boards that you're on,\n\n977\n00:41:35.380 --> 00:41:38.620\npeople you work with, you know,\n\n978\n00:41:38.620 --> 00:41:41.500\nwhat would you say are the top three traits you see\n\n979\n00:41:41.500 --> 00:41:43.340\nand the very best leaders?\n\n980\n00:41:43.340 --> 00:41:46.360\n- Oh my gosh, humble would be one.\n\n981\n00:41:46.360 --> 00:41:52.060\nQuiet leaderships, like that might kind of go under humble,\n\n982\n00:41:52.060 --> 00:41:53.220\ngivers not takers.\n\n983\n00:41:53.220 --> 00:41:55.420\nIt's all the things that I aspire to do.\n\n984\n00:41:56.420 --> 00:42:01.420\nAnd very gracious and kind, gracious people.\n\n985\n00:42:01.420 --> 00:42:05.060\nPeople wanna follow good people.\n\n986\n00:42:05.060 --> 00:42:07.700\n- So, you know, I know you're on the Wyndham board\n\n987\n00:42:07.700 --> 00:42:11.300\nand I know you've worked with a friend of ours, Steve Holmes.\n\n988\n00:42:11.300 --> 00:42:12.980\nWhat do you think he does as a leader\n\n989\n00:42:12.980 --> 00:42:17.500\nthat helped him build such an empire in the hotel business?\n\n990\n00:42:17.500 --> 00:42:19.820\n- Oh my gosh, Steve is the best of the best.\n\n991\n00:42:19.820 --> 00:42:23.220\nI love that man and I respect him so much\n\n992\n00:42:23.220 --> 00:42:25.300\nbecause he's been an incredible leader.\n\n993\n00:42:25.300 --> 00:42:28.260\nIn so many ways, but I think what his superpower is,\n\n994\n00:42:28.260 --> 00:42:30.940\nhe came up through the CFO office\n\n995\n00:42:30.940 --> 00:42:33.900\nand then became the CEO\n\n996\n00:42:33.900 --> 00:42:36.620\nand he is an amazing strategist\n\n997\n00:42:36.620 --> 00:42:40.860\nand his acquisition history is unparalleled.\n\n998\n00:42:40.860 --> 00:42:43.100\nAnd not only is he smart enough to put together\n\n999\n00:42:43.100 --> 00:42:45.740\ninteresting deals and get things done,\n\n1000\n00:42:45.740 --> 00:42:48.620\nthen he assimilates them into the organization so well\n\n1001\n00:42:48.620 --> 00:42:49.860\nbecause he has such good culture,\n\n1002\n00:42:49.860 --> 00:42:51.260\nhas set such great culture.\n\n1003\n00:42:51.260 --> 00:42:53.620\nAnd it's really even continued on the next generation\n\n1004\n00:42:53.620 --> 00:42:56.420\nas we split Wyndham into Wyndham hotels\n\n1005\n00:42:56.420 --> 00:42:57.620\nand travel and leisure.\n\n1006\n00:42:57.620 --> 00:42:59.980\n- So, Louise, now you're looking forward\n\n1007\n00:42:59.980 --> 00:43:03.540\nand I know you're excited about the future.\n\n1008\n00:43:03.540 --> 00:43:06.620\nYou know, what's your unfinished business?\n\n1009\n00:43:06.620 --> 00:43:08.500\n- Everything, everything.\n\n1010\n00:43:08.500 --> 00:43:10.540\nI've got so much more to do.\n\n1011\n00:43:10.540 --> 00:43:11.380\nPeople ask me all the time,\n\n1012\n00:43:11.380 --> 00:43:12.260\n\"When are you gonna retire?\"\n\n1013\n00:43:12.260 --> 00:43:13.620\nI was like, \"Retire?\n\n1014\n00:43:13.620 --> 00:43:14.620\nI'm only like, I'm working.\n\n1015\n00:43:14.620 --> 00:43:15.740\nI'm having the time of my life.\n\n1016\n00:43:15.740 --> 00:43:16.940\nI'm learning every day.\"\n\n1017\n00:43:16.940 --> 00:43:19.020\n- You're not even close to retirement age.\n\n1018\n00:43:19.020 --> 00:43:19.860\nCome on.\n\n1019\n00:43:19.860 --> 00:43:21.300\n- No, I said no.\n\n1020\n00:43:21.300 --> 00:43:22.820\nI have a lot of unfinished business.\n\n1021\n00:43:22.820 --> 00:43:23.820\nA lot to learn.\n\n1022\n00:43:23.820 --> 00:43:27.340\nI don't think I'll ever stop until there's nothing\n\n1023\n00:43:27.340 --> 00:43:28.700\nI can learn and when is that gonna be?\n\n1024\n00:43:28.700 --> 00:43:29.740\nWe all have something to learn.\n\n1025\n00:43:29.740 --> 00:43:31.980\nSo, as long as I'm learning, I'm working.\n\n1026\n00:43:31.980 --> 00:43:33.300\n- Is there one thing though?\n\n1027\n00:43:33.300 --> 00:43:34.660\nIs there one thing that you say,\n\n1028\n00:43:34.660 --> 00:43:38.860\n\"Geez, this is what I really wanna make happen in my life?\"\n\n1029\n00:43:38.860 --> 00:43:40.820\n- I think Alzheimer's would probably be it\n\n1030\n00:43:40.820 --> 00:43:45.220\nbecause of all of the familial connections\n\n1031\n00:43:45.220 --> 00:43:49.980\nand knowing that my dad's twin sister died of Alzheimer's.\n\n1032\n00:43:49.980 --> 00:43:51.740\nSo, I think maybe selfishly\n\n1033\n00:43:51.740 --> 00:43:54.780\n'cause I'm staring down that barrel, potentially.\n\n1034\n00:43:54.780 --> 00:43:57.740\nI'd love to eradicate that horrible disease.\n\n1035\n00:43:57.740 --> 00:43:59.180\n- All right, last question.\n\n1036\n00:43:59.180 --> 00:44:01.580\nWhat's one piece of advice you'd give to anyone\n\n1037\n00:44:01.580 --> 00:44:02.940\nwho wants to be a better leader?\n\n1038\n00:44:02.940 --> 00:44:06.980\n- Listen to David Novak's podcast, except for this one.\n\n1039\n00:44:06.980 --> 00:44:11.940\n- You gotta come up with a little better one than that,\n\n1040\n00:44:11.940 --> 00:44:12.780\nbut I liked it.\n\n1041\n00:44:12.780 --> 00:44:16.300\n- I think that's the best one, following your footsteps.\n\n1042\n00:44:16.300 --> 00:44:18.420\nI remember you coming to Grisver\n\n1043\n00:44:18.420 --> 00:44:20.740\nand speaking with us with your rubber chicken.\n\n1044\n00:44:20.740 --> 00:44:23.500\nI mean, it's follow smart people like yourselves\n\n1045\n00:44:23.500 --> 00:44:25.820\nand try to take a little bit of tips from him.\n\n1046\n00:44:25.820 --> 00:44:28.340\nI steal a tip from Alan Malali all the time,\n\n1047\n00:44:28.340 --> 00:44:30.100\nwhich is, I just love to serve.\n\n1048\n00:44:30.100 --> 00:44:32.980\nAnd that's the way he led his companies\n\n1049\n00:44:32.980 --> 00:44:35.620\nand he's a great one to follow as well.\n\n1050\n00:44:35.620 --> 00:44:39.900\nSo, learn tips from others people and be aware\n\n1051\n00:44:39.900 --> 00:44:41.420\nand then adopt them.\n\n1052\n00:44:41.420 --> 00:44:43.980\n- Luis, you are such a role model for being someone\n\n1053\n00:44:43.980 --> 00:44:47.500\nthat is kind, someone that is so accomplished\n\n1054\n00:44:47.500 --> 00:44:51.380\nand have done so much because you're just so talented.\n\n1055\n00:44:51.380 --> 00:44:56.380\nAnd being positive, I've always found that\n\n1056\n00:44:56.380 --> 00:44:59.220\nif you smile, other people will smile.\n\n1057\n00:44:59.220 --> 00:45:03.100\nAnd when you walk into a room, that energy spreads\n\n1058\n00:45:03.100 --> 00:45:05.340\nbecause of your smile and the enthusiasm\n\n1059\n00:45:05.340 --> 00:45:06.420\nthat you bring to the party.\n\n1060\n00:45:06.420 --> 00:45:09.940\nAnd I wanna thank you for being on this podcast\n\n1061\n00:45:09.940 --> 00:45:12.140\nand sharing your insights.\n\n1062\n00:45:12.140 --> 00:45:13.100\nIt was great.\n\n1063\n00:45:13.100 --> 00:45:13.940\n- Thank you, David.\n\n1064\n00:45:13.940 --> 00:45:14.940\nThanks for having me.\n\n1065\n00:45:14.940 --> 00:45:17.180\n(silence)\n\n1066\n00:45:17.180 --> 00:45:22.660\n- Listen, I know it's easy for me to sit here\n\n1067\n00:45:22.660 --> 00:45:25.620\nand talk about going above and beyond for people\n\n1068\n00:45:25.620 --> 00:45:28.260\nand being generous with your time and energy.\n\n1069\n00:45:28.260 --> 00:45:29.900\nAnd let's be honest,\n\n1070\n00:45:29.900 --> 00:45:33.180\nLuis makes it look really easy.\n\n1071\n00:45:33.180 --> 00:45:36.060\nBut you and I both know it's not.\n\n1072\n00:45:36.060 --> 00:45:38.420\nIn the pressure of any given work day,\n\n1073\n00:45:38.420 --> 00:45:41.180\nit can be really hard to go that extra mile\n\n1074\n00:45:41.180 --> 00:45:42.980\nand stay positive for your team.\n\n1075\n00:45:43.820 --> 00:45:46.580\nBut let today's episode remind you,\n\n1076\n00:45:46.580 --> 00:45:49.620\nwhen you invest that level of effort into your team,\n\n1077\n00:45:49.620 --> 00:45:51.900\nit comes back to you.\n\n1078\n00:45:51.900 --> 00:45:53.580\nIt's a boomerang.\n\n1079\n00:45:53.580 --> 00:45:55.740\nIt's how you attract good people.\n\n1080\n00:45:55.740 --> 00:45:59.020\nIt's how you get those people rowing in the same direction.\n\n1081\n00:45:59.020 --> 00:46:03.220\nAnd it's ultimately how you accomplish incredible things.\n\n1082\n00:46:03.220 --> 00:46:07.140\nThis week, find one way that you can go above and beyond\n\n1083\n00:46:07.140 --> 00:46:09.060\nfor someone on your team.\n\n1084\n00:46:09.060 --> 00:46:12.300\nGive that extra bit of effort to show 'em you care.\n\n1085\n00:46:12.300 --> 00:46:15.300\nAs Luis says, when you set the example,\n\n1086\n00:46:15.300 --> 00:46:18.940\neverybody else is going to level up their effort too.\n\n1087\n00:46:18.940 --> 00:46:20.980\nSo do you wanna know how leaders lead?\n\n1088\n00:46:20.980 --> 00:46:23.220\nWhat we learned today is that great leaders\n\n1089\n00:46:23.220 --> 00:46:25.700\ngo above and beyond for others.\n\n1090\n00:46:25.700 --> 00:46:28.060\nThanks again for tuning in to another episode\n\n1091\n00:46:28.060 --> 00:46:30.940\nof How Leaders Lead, where every Thursday you get to listen in\n\n1092\n00:46:30.940 --> 00:46:34.060\nwhile I interview some of the very best leaders in the world.\n\n1093\n00:46:34.060 --> 00:46:36.060\nI make it a point to give you something simple\n\n1094\n00:46:36.060 --> 00:46:39.220\non each episode that you can apply to your business\n\n1095\n00:46:39.220 --> 00:46:42.100\nso that you will become the best leader you can be.\n\n1096\n00:46:42.100 --> 00:46:44.420\n(silence)\n\n1097\n00:46:44.420 --> 00:46:46.500\n(silence)\n\n1098\n00:46:46.500 --> 00:46:56.500\n[BLANK_AUDIO]\n","

Louise Brady 0:00

Because I think it's all about relationships. I think in life, if you give more than you take, it'll come back to you in spades. That pays dividends, because, of course, when people treat you that way, you're more apt to work hard for them. If

David Novak 0:21

one of your goals this year is to strengthen your team or shift your culture, you're in the right place. Welcome to how leaders lead. I'm David Novak, and every week I have conversations with the very best leaders in the world to help you become the very best leader that you can be. My guest today is Louise Brady, the co founder and managing partner at Piedmont Capital Partners. They're a venture capital firm out of North Carolina, and let me tell you, you're going to love getting a sneak peek into the incredible technologies they're investing in. You're also going to love hearing how Louise leads, I mean, she is an absolute master at building strong teams and strong relationships. In her words, it's all about people. When you put them first, when you cheer for them, when you go above and beyond for them, it all comes back to you, and not in just fluffy feel good ways, as you're about to see, that kind of generosity can drive serious results for your culture, your bottom line, and your own personal growth. So here's my conversation with my good friend and soon to be yours, Louise Brady,

you know, I'm looking at your office there, and it looks like it's spic and span. I mean, it looks like everything is so together there Is it always like that.

Louise Brady 1:40

Sadly, it probably is always like this, or usually is like this, because I'm on the road a lot and working from all over the place, sometimes from home, sometimes from the office, but lot of times from a plane or anywhere. With zoom, you can pretty much be anywhere.

David Novak 1:55

That's true. And speaking of traveling a lot, one place we both travel to is Philadelphia, because we're both on the Comcast board. And so we go down and work out. And I see you in the mornings working out, and I'm doing my thing, which is pretty simple, and then I look over at you, and you're killing yourself, okay, you know? I mean, you really, really go after it. What's that say about the way, how you lead, and how much does just working out really impact you. It

Louise Brady 2:21

helps me. I mean, daily. I think it's my antidepressant, or whatever you want to call it. Get up every morning and get my my workout in, and I feel so much more effective. And literally, if I wait and do it in the afternoon, it's always a good little pick me up. But my day goes better if I if I start off with it. But you know, as far as how I lead, you know, I think it's with enthusiasm, for sure. I've got a little extra dose of some might call it Pollyanna, but belief and hope and mankind and doing better things. So I just go after it hard. And, you know, if you fail, you get up, try again. So my exercise, I just try to make myself miserable and sweat really bad for 20 minutes, then I feel like I've done something good.

David Novak 3:07

Now you start now you started Piedmont with one of our mutual friends, Bobby long. What's something you've learned about leadership getting to work with him as a partner for all these years?

Louise Brady 3:17

Oh, god, that's a softball question. There's nobody better in the world than Bobby long and to be able to work side by side with him from the last 1314, years, has been amazing. We had worked together in the community, so I'd seen him lead in a community setting, but through a business, it's even more fun. He's one of the he's a leader that is quiet and you don't even know you're being led, because he's so nice and so kind, but yet he's wicked smart and and gets what he needs to get done. So he's, he's been a great a great mentor. And I think probably if body Bobby epitomizes anything, it is give people the benefit of the doubt and and work with them and be overly nice, and it usually, it usually pays back where we try to be givers and not takers, if you know what I mean. Yeah,

David Novak 4:07

I do. And give us a snapshot of Piedmont and the business you two started in 2013

Louise Brady 4:13

Bobby. And as I said, Bobby and I had worked together in the community on community projects, and we both were at a point where we wanted to do something a little different. I'd come up through banking and then the investment business, and was excited when Bobby said, Hey, let's try to, let's start this fund to invest in smart people and help grow jobs in our region. So that was really the nexus of it is, it was kind of a three legged stool. I get to continue in the investment business. I get to, you know, try to help people and help the community while, you know, doing good. So we, we got started, we didn't know what we were doing, but we, we knew that we both had a heart for it. So we went up to New York and met with Henry Kravis, who I did not know at the time, but I grew up in banking. And back in the 80s, so barbarians at the gate. That book I'm sure everybody remembers, was one that one of the case studies that we had when I was going through the training program at the bank. And so I was expecting Henry to be this big, gruff, you know, grumpy man, and he was nothing, but he was the exact opposite, and was such a sweetheart. Gave me a hug. You know, we're real Southern, so I love that. And we talked about what we'd done in the community, and by the end of the meeting, he said, Look, you guys are in North Carolina. You've got some of the best universities of any state. Go to universities. Most of the technology is being spun out of universities. It's not being created in corporate America anymore. They're just buying it. So go find the smart people. So we did. And, you know, here we are. I think we're about 13 years in and and, you know, have launched another fund, and have had a great time with a lot of smart people and a lot of great companies. There

David Novak 5:52

are lots of reasons why people invest. Sometimes it's the idea, sometimes it's the people, sometimes it's the vision. What's most important for you that really makes you want to get involved? It's

Louise Brady 6:05

all about the people. I mean, it starts with people, ends with people, and all the along the way, it's people. You know, if you get it right on the people, if you work with good people, you're going to enjoy what you're doing. And I think if you enjoy what you're doing and you're doing it with good people. Anything can be accomplished. So we start with great technology, of course, but there's plenty of good technology that's still sitting on the shelf and never gets commercialized. There's also, you know, plenty of people that you wouldn't want to work with that have been really successful too. We've chosen, you know, work with good people and together just continue to row the boat, and probably, if we do anything, we're overly enthusiastic and continue to to push our founders. We start companies. And so it's been really fun to just, you know, pull them through the the quicksand and, you know, or part cheerleader, part HR director, you know, part finance director. But I think really, just not giving up and up and continuing is is important, and you've got to have the people you want to be around, to be in the slog like that, to continue. Tell

David Novak 7:07

me about one of these companies that you started up that you're most proud of because of the success it's had and the difference it's making in people's lives.

Louise Brady 7:14

I'd probably go to our Alzheimer's drug and this is one that you know, and it's near and dear to most everybody's heart, because we're all affected by it. My mother has vascular dementia, and so it's something we need to solve for America. And we met an amazing man, Frank Longo, who is a physician, and he also was the chair of Neurology at Stanford for 16 or 17 years, and just step down to focus more on the company that we started with now, or that he started, that we helped fund, and it's been an amazing journey. This will be a daily pill that people take, which will stop Alzheimer's, stop the synaptic connection degradation, and we're even hopeful that it will reverse it. He'll probably kill me for saying that. But in mouse model, in mouse models, it has done that, and their brains are very similar to our brains. Sometimes the body translation is isn't as exact, but so we're very hopeful for that one. And it's, it's been interesting, because it's been a virtual company. So we really, kind of, you know, I'm on the board, so, you know, in there daily, working with them, trying to build the business around it, and try to figure out how to to move it forward. Frank is an amazing scientist and leader, and he's managed a ton of people, but he hasn't run a, you know, a business. So we pulled together great consultants, and, you know, with his help, we've been able to get to the point where now, which is getting ready to head into our pivotal trials for Alzheimer's, and looks like we've got the only answer out there. So we're excited when you

David Novak 8:51

start a business up like that. It's, it's not a straight line. I mean, you know, he has a great idea. You know, he's the horse that can maybe, you know, come up with the cure. But how do you yourself? Just stay the course and keep you know, keep forging ahead when I'm sure there are a lot of times you have setbacks.

Louise Brady 9:13

Oh, there are setbacks, for sure, I think you have to believe in it, and then you often also have to believe in the goodness of people, I'm gonna give you a great example of that. We also have a battery startup. So everything that we do is something that we're passionate about, something that can change the world, improve the world, make things better for for humankind. And so that's what drives me every day, is like, Okay, I've got to get this cancer drug to market, or I've got to get this Alzheimer's drug to market. Or we've got to solve this energy problem. So the energy problem, let's think about it. China's pretty much, you know, lapped us in in all of the energy transformation. And really, the US needs something, and we feel like we have got the next generation battery. It's a solid. State battery no liquid, so it won't blow up. But we think we have that in our in this company that I'm talking about, but it was not a straight road at all. We started it. It was technology spun out of UNC with Joe DeSimone, who was a prolific inventor and professor, and we actually launched three companies with him right off the bat, one of which was this battery company, blue cart. Well, five years into it, this safe battery we were going after blew up beautifully, and a safety test, I mean, completely blew up. And we're like, Oh no, what do we do now? And the co founder is a gentleman by the name of Natasha balsara, and this goes to working with good people. So he is a professor at Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, and is a foremost battery specialist and so well respected. He is such a sweetheart. He's a dear, dear friend. So when it blew up, we thought, we're gonna have to close the company down. And Natasha goes, no, no, actually, we've had this finding in my lab for the solid state, this new battery, and I think that we should put that inside blue current. We said, well, Natasha, you don't have to, because that really wasn't we were what we were funding. Yes, we're after a safe battery, but you don't have to do that. And he said, This is what I want to do. He said, y'all are my partners. Why would I pick other partners when I know how well it is, you know, how well this is running and how y'all are to work with. Those are the kind of people we want to bet on and continue to push and so. And he said, You're crazy to do this anyway, because nobody bets on batteries. It's, you know, it's a graveyard of investments and and nobody's going to want to want to invest with you. And fast forward, you know, 13 years later, and now we've got some fabulous partners, and are on our way to really having the next generation battery,

David Novak 11:52

fantastic. And you know, speaking of good people, you understand you have this policy, which you call the NOAA policy, or the Noah policy. Tell us about that policy and how you came up with it. Okay,

Louise Brady 12:05

so that it's no assholes allowed. So excuse my French, but that's what the NOAA policy is. And actually Joe DeSimone, the founder that we spend three companies with out of UNC, he's the one who taught us that, and it is so true. You just need to pick people that you can be in the trenches with, because you're going to see in a in a early stage venture investing, you're going to see every part of somebody's personality, the good, bad and the ugly. And you got to make sure that when they're in the ugly you can still handle it, and that they're good people. And so everybody we pick is is in that in that area. And so it makes it fun to work with them, and together, you just keep digging out of the quicksand and and I think that's led to a lot of our success and bringing things to market that wouldn't otherwise make it

David Novak 12:49

that's a great comment. That leads to my next question, and I'd like you to share the story of the honey badger.

Louise Brady 12:57

Okay, so we this is carbon, which is a 3d printing company, and it's the next generation 3d printing. So it's, it's, we say it's like the Terminator is growing out of liquid. So it's, truly, was novel, and Joe DeSimone, that was one of his companies, and we, he showed us in his office, he printed a little square, little ice cube. And we were wowed, like, can you really do that? And we said, Okay, we'll invest. Tell us how much, tell us what you need, tell us what percentage of the company we get. I mean, we were, you know, pretty stupid, naive, but we were so excited about it. So fast forward. We were having board meetings on the weekends with, you know, their spouses were involved. I mean, it was really like a family business. His son got involved and is now the CEO of the company. But we said, well, we need to take it out to California, because we need investment, and we need to go talk to Sequoia Capital, because they would be a great investor. So we carry our 3d printer on a plane, in a in a in a box, and we called it like the honey badger, and took it into Sequoia and had a meeting at 10 in the morning. We took out our, you know, 3d printing. 3d printer printed in front of them. They said, Oh, wow. Can you come back at noon? Came back at noon, printed again. They said, Would you mind coming back at five? And by five o'clock, every partner in Sequoia was in that room, stuffed in there to watch it, because it's, there's nothing like showing somebody live what your product can do. But we called it the honey badger. Everybody's like, what are you doing? You're carrying that box into the into the meeting. And the funny thing was, when we flew it, we never thought about the, you know, like I said, it's resin. It's, you know, that's growing out of liquids. We never thought about the resins and how they would do back in the hold of the baggage. You know, at freezing temperatures, we're like, oh God, we could have blown this whole thing, but it ended up working fine. And and we got investment from Sequoia, and the rest is history. That's a great firm. It was our first unicorn.

David Novak 14:58

There you go. You know, you. Know, you're such a positive person. You're enthusiastic, you just mentioned that, and you're dealing with these leaders who you really good invested in, and you care about them, and but I have to ask you, you know, you know, what's your decision making process like when you in terms of whether, deciding whether you should push through, or when to really cut your losses. I mean, you know, can you give an example of when you decided, you know, it was time to pull the plug? Or is that hard for you to do? That

Louise Brady 15:31

is the hardest thing to do. I will say you just, you just picked on the one thing that we need to get better at is letting your babies go. But it's hard when they are your babies and you're so passionate about it. I think when we have decided that way, it's been a group effort, you know, the leader of the company, in addition to all the investors, we don't make it in a vacuum. We're supportive till the very end, but, but there are times when you've either just missed the market and there's a better technology that comes along, or it's just not good enough. And you think it's, you think it's the end all be all. And we have, I have one example of that, which is a company. It's, it's, was it? We took it public. It was called next immune. And the science is great. The people are great. The trials, we went into really, really hard areas, AML and MML, you know, myelomas, and it's the last line therapy. So it was just, it was a very tough trial, and we didn't have enough money, and we should have raised right when we went public, and we didn't. And so we literally were limping along with not much money, and the technology is still great, and we just ran out of time, and so we've closed the company. But it was, that was a tough one, because, you know, that's one of those technologies that will be sitting on the shelf. And I hope someday somebody will pick up the IP and go run with it. Maybe a big farmer will after hearing this.

David Novak 16:55

I hope they do hear it, you know. And you know, I can't wait to talk more about, you know what you're doing at Piedmont, but first, Louise, I want to take you back to the beginning. You know what's a story from your childhood that shaped the kind of leader you are today?

Louise Brady 17:13

That's an interesting question. Well, there might be a few things growing up, I had an older brother and a younger brother. So always felt like I was, you know, a boy, until my parents we were playing shirts and skins, and my older brother said, You can't play with us anymore. You can't do skins. I'm like, why? I didn't get it. And my dad always said I was his middle boy, and he really did treat me like a boy, a man. So I would read the Wall Street Journal with them, you know, in the mornings. You know, before school, we'd talk about business at night. And so it really was my dad, and I think him not treating me differently. I mean, I was always his princess, he would say, but he treated me just like one of the boys. So from a business perspective, I always kind of had that business mind of of really being intrigued about about business and the way things ran. So I have to give credit to my dad. Hey, everyone, it's cool. We'll get back to the interview in just a second before we do though, I have a question for you. Have you downloaded the how leaders lead app on your iPhone? If you haven't take 20 seconds right now, go to the App Store search for how leaders lead and download the how leaders lead app. In the app every day, you'll get a two minute video that'll give you a leadership insight from one of our amazing guests from our podcast to inspire you and to really get your mind in the right place before you start your work day. So go to the App Store, search how leaders lead. Download the how leaders lead app and start your day, every day with two minutes of leadership wisdom. It'll take 20 seconds go to the App Store, download the app, and you'll be able to watch every day, just like me, the leadership insight from how leaders lead. One of

David Novak 18:56

the things that I've observed with women in business, and I'd like to get your perspective on this, is that I don't think it should be this way, but what I find a lot of times with women in business is they're really good at making men feel comfortable around them. You know, they don't necessarily wear being a female on their sleeve. You know, what do you think about that? Am I way off base on that? Or what's your what's your perspective?

Louise Brady 19:26

Obviously, I think to be successful as a woman, it was a lot different back in the 80s when I first started working than it is today. I feel like women have a, you know, a fair chance at being just as successful as men. There was a little bit of the glass ceiling going on when I first started working. Started working. And so yes, you would try to be as kind as you could, and and maybe almost to the point of being sweet and, you know, maybe subservient. But you then had to, once you got in the room, and your kindness would get you in the door. Yeah, then you had to show that you had something upstairs, that you could talk, you know, business and, or had the the fortitude for for the business. So I do think that as women, we're, we're, I mean, we're raised, especially in the South. I'm from North Carolina, we're raised to be kind to people and and gracious and hospitable. So I think that's part of just what comes with the territory and my world. But I can't speak for other women, but I think we've kind of gotten past the hardest parts. Oh,

David Novak 20:30

that's great. I hope so. You know, for my daughter's sakes and all the women out there in the world are really trying to make it. I think it should be an even playing field, you know. But, you know, you talk about being kind, and here you are in this investment business, and it's a sharp knives, you know, sharp elbow business. I mean, you know, how did you have to grow in that aspect of your ability to get tough?

Louise Brady 20:54

I'm pretty stubborn. I was born in May, so I'm a tourist. I'm pretty, pretty bullheaded, and so if I believe in something, I'm going to continue to push for it. And that, I think I was like that since I was two years old, so that hadn't changed. But I think you have to know your subject matter, and you have to know what it is that you're talking about to be able to command that type of respect. And so, you know, I just, I really think that it's part of just using not only your, you know, your your niceness, but also moving forward and trying to make sure you keep up intellectually and are learning as much as you can and staying curious so that you can be persuasive,

David Novak 21:42

yeah? And having that dogged determination doesn't hurt either, right? Yeah,

Louise Brady 21:47

I mean that if you give up too soon, then, you know, shame on you. You know, were you really that passionate about it? So again, it all starts from the passion level. And once you're passionate about something, you're not gonna, not gonna easily give up. You know,

David Novak 22:01

you spent almost a decade at Bank of America early on in your career. What was the biggest lessons you learned from, from from that tenure? Yeah,

Louise Brady 22:09

I was in banking at the most fun time. I feel like it was such a fun time. I was with NC and being nations Bank, Bank of America, and that's back and I was living in Charlotte back when Hugh McCall was running ncmb And Ed Crutchfield was running First Union, and there was this buzz in the banking industry, McCall was literally changing the face of banking, where they were making acquisitions. It was very aggressive, operated very much like a startup, and Hugh was a great person to kind of follow and and learn from I mean, he, he was so passionate about everything he wanted to do. So I feel like I got that entrepreneurial spirit, believe it or not, in corporate banking, because we, you know, we were doing deals, and we were small at the time, so we would take deals up to to McCall's office. And, you know, talk to him about him, and he loved it. He loved being in the game. So it was, it was just an exciting time. And I think that the banking today probably looks a little bit different from the entrepreneurial standpoint, with rules and regulations. So it's, it was a great time to be in banking, and I learned a tremendous amount. Now,

David Novak 23:18

I understand you used to actually take Fridays off. Tell us more about that. Okay,

Louise Brady 23:22

well, I'm a mother of three, three very successful children that I'm very proud of. And actually my eldest daughter, who's gonna be 31 next month, is in venture capital as well. When I had that our first child, I was working five days a week, that week at the bank, and I was actually scared. This is back when women weren't, you know, as lucky as they are today to be seen as equal. I was scared they were going to fire me if I if I took too much time off. So I was like, Okay, I want to work four days a week. I just want to take Fridays off. And my manager at the time, I've been so lucky to have strong men and compassionate men as managers and and mentors. He's like Louise, y'all were made to make children. This is this, you are the people that we want to have children, because you're going to raise them well. And he goes, of course, you should stay home on Fridays and and be with your children. And so I took Fridays off after the first child, after the third second child, I was scared to death that they were going to say, Oh, she's got two children. She's not going to come back, which I did. And so I kind of crafted my schedule from that point on. We had a nanny, and she was wonderful. She had raised three boys, and so she was excited at the two girls at the time. And I don't think I would have continued working had I not had Nancy our nanny for a decade, but she was like a grandmother and a friend, and I felt so comfortable, but she had never worked on Fridays either. So it was just this match made in heaven that, you know, she replied to the one ad we put in the Greensboro News and Record our newspaper. So. Um, yeah, but I think it was a it was a great work, work life balance. Yeah,

David Novak 25:04

that's a great story. And and then you became the VP of investments at Wells Fargo. How did your leadership change in in that new environment? Or did it?

Louise Brady 25:16

I mean, I think I've always mature, and I hope I'm still growing, even today, I have a lot to learn so but yeah, that was a transition. It was a good transition. My father had always been a broker. He was an institutional broker. And when we moved back to Greensboro with my husband, when he was coming to work for a family business and moved from Charlotte and I transferred with the bank, I started thinking more seriously about it. And so I went to work with dad, but I said, Look, I don't want to be an institutional salesman, because I don't want to sell research and have to wake up every single day to, you know, earn my keep, and I want to do fee based business, which was similar to what I did at the bank, you know, account management, relationship management. So I went to New York, went to the training program, and kind of went into a different side of the business than my dad. We were always partners, but I was independent enough that I said, I want to have my own book of business, and I want to do my own thing. And so we kind of paralleled, but, you know, I spent the next 20 years with most of my bank clients came over and were my investment clients. So, you know, going to quarterly investment committee meetings and managing pools of money and asset allocating all the the smart things that that you have advisors do for your portfolio. And then Bobby says, Let's go do startups where you've got to give up on, you know, this Asset Allocation and Risk Profile, you've got to go on the far edge of of what I'd been doing. And it took a while to learn how to take that risk. You

David Novak 26:43

know, you're a tremendous relationship person. What advice can you give to people on how to make a relationship work? In business,

Louise Brady 26:51

that's a good question. I don't know if I'm great at it, but I certainly try, because I think it's all about relationships. I think in life, if you give more than you take, it'll come back to you in spades. And so try to be helpful whenever, whenever we can try to really try to go above and beyond what they would expect. And I think that that pays dividends, because, of course, when people treat you that way, you're more apt to work hard for them. So it's, it's really jumping in and joining the team with them, and there's no hierarchy, and it's everybody working together. And just, you know, if you give 150% then you know everybody else is going to level up. So to speak to want to be that passionate about it. So you just got to keep the dream alive and stay positive and keep rowing. So I'm part cheerleader, I guess.

David Novak 27:42

But you know, speaking of being positive and optimistic, you know, that's a trait that you yourself have, how do you spread that with your team and the people that you you work with? I mean, what's the key to that? In your mind, the key to

Louise Brady 28:01

that, you know, exercise every morning, as I said earlier, right at the beginning. You know, when things get tough, if you take the positive path and take the higher road, people start watching. I mean, like I said, I've learned that from my business partner, from Bobby it, and it's really compelling. So the more you do it, the more other people do it. It's like paying it forward. So I think optimism and enthusiasm, it all goes into believing in people and believing in a mission. And if you continue like that, then it's contagious. And I think people want to replicate it. Can

David Novak 28:36

you tell a story, Louise, when you were dealing with somebody on your team, or maybe someone you were trying to build a relationship with, where they were just negative as hell, and you really needed to help them get an attitude adjustment. You know, how'd you go about it?

Louise Brady 28:53

That's a really tough one. I think the only way to do that, I can't say that I'm good at that, the only way in my mind that I've ever somewhat been able to do that, is to try to tell a story and put it, put the their behavior or the thing that you would like to change or coach them on into a story of other people and what it felt like, or what, what the the thoughts and reactions were on the other side. And so they see it from a third party. And so sometimes that clicks, and then they can adjust their attitude without you having to go straight to them and saying, you know, you've got a bad attitude or whatever. That seems better than hitting people direct. There are certain people It depends on the personality that you can just go to them and say, God, you know, I love you so much, and I just want you to know that you would, you're a 10 out of a 10 leader. But gosh, if you just, if you added this into your repertoire, and you know that then, then you, you'd be amazing. So there, you know, you can do it in that way too. I just think it's, it's always with the lead of positive, you know, five compliments to one. You. Improvement as someone

David Novak 30:01

Louise, who gets regularly, you know, pitched on ideas. I mean, you got people coming to you, and you're going to people to hear about their ideas as well. What is the fastest way to get a yes from you and and what are your best practices that that that you you really lean into when you're when you're kind of assessing whether it's a yes or a no. The fastest

Louise Brady 30:24

way to a yes is to have a an area that we're passionate about, something that's going to change the world. I mean, if it's groundbreaking and change the world, type of technology, then we're hurt hooked from the beginning. If you layer on amazing people and you and you get and you do your diligence and background checks, and you you meet face to face with the with the leaders, enough times to understand them. And I'll go back to that in a minute about Enneagram and how helpful that's been to me, but, but knowing the personality and understanding the person, then that's, that's, you know, two great things, and then you do your diligence, and you've got to make sure that the that their IP and patent portfolio and positioning and all that makes sense in the market, but they hook me the quickest. If it's, you know, the mission that we're excited about, and the people are amazing, then the rest of it, because we can backfill some of the rest of it, as long as as long as they've got something, something unique to work with.

David Novak 31:24

We'll be back with the rest of my conversation with Louise Brady in just a moment, as we're getting into the rhythm of a new year, it's a great time to revisit my conversation with Larry bosti. He's the former CEO of Honeywell and the expert on execution and getting things done. And

Larry Bossidy 31:41

I tried to reduce strategy to something that we could be sure to do every time I went to a business and a strategy session, I had a people session the same day. Do we have the people to execute the strategy without that the dead and arrival? And secondly, as I said, we had in what I call an invasive people process, where we evaluated a top 200 people in the company, and then we spent a lot of time in operations. We not only in the budget preparation, but on the execution of the budget. And the more more time I spend on those three things, on the people, the strategy and the operations, the better we got. It's one

David Novak 32:16

thing to have a strategy if you don't put the structure around it so that you can execute it, you don't have a chance. You don't

Larry Bossidy 32:20

so lots of people get proud of the big books that they produce on strategy, and they're basically dead on arrival because they have no concept of how they're going to execute it.

David Novak 32:30

Go back and listen to my entire conversation with Larry, Episode 79 here on how leaders lead. I've heard you say, Dream huge into the stratosphere, then maybe you'll get to the moon. You know, as you look to the future, what's clear to you that's maybe not yet visible to others, that you want to pursue. I think

Louise Brady 32:50

the energy transition, I think biotech and healthcare, I think we will eradicate cancer and horrible diseases. There will be something else that comes up behind it, like we've got one investment that we loved, and it was, it was such a simple idea. It's called surge. And what they do is, is this brilliant guy, more of a student scientist, and he just kept reading, reading, reading. He said, I think if we can get the T cells, which are the cells that fight cancer when we're doing a surgery resection to remove a tumor, which is the standard of care. Now you have a tumor, cancer, tumor growing, you try to remove it, and then you treat it with, you know, radiation or chemotherapy. But when they're removing it, then what happens? The T cells are going to try to heal the wound, right? Which makes sense. And so they're not fighting off the cancer, so for two or three weeks until that wound heals, they're not doing their job, which is, keep fighting that cancer, that there's still little pieces of it floating around. So his idea is, let's go into the surgery site, put in this gel that's that's treated with with cancer fighting agents, and it signals to the T cells you keep fighting the cancer. I'm sorry, with wound healing properties, so the T cells keep fighting the cancer. The gel fights the incision in the spot, in addition with some of you know, some secret properties in there to help the cancer kind of stay away, then you never have a chance for those cancer cells to grow. We're in four or five indications now, and the results are astonishing, and it could potentially change the standard of care for cancer, which would be amazing. And it's just this smart kid that read a lot and said, I think we can start this company, so following somebody like that and an idea like that. So I think I went off a little bit on a tangent, but that's such a fun story to tell. Anything to shoot the moon that's going to change things for the future.

David Novak 34:58

And, you know, you obviously. Actually have the passion. What? What have you learned about sustaining the passion? You know, because, I mean, a lot of times it's easy to, you know, you get so passionate at the beginning. How do you sustain it? Because I think that's key. I mean, you know, a lot of leaders, you fall in love with an idea or a thought, and then, you know, the next one comes along and you go to that one, but you don't really sustain something that needs to be sustained. I

Louise Brady 35:27

think I'm just hard headed enough to want to stick to it until I see it to fruition, or to see it successful. So, you know, remember, if you start with something that you're passionate about, like your kids, you're not going to give up on your kids. You're going to continue to help them along and coach them and make them the best they can be. It's the same thing with portfolio companies and technologies. You've fallen in love with it or you wouldn't have invested in it, and you want to continue to push it until it's, you know, until there's a clear signal not to or until they hit success. And there's always learnings. I mean, I think, if anything, if I learned something, I am passionate about it. I mean, I'm curious. I love learning every day. That's why I love my job. And feel like it's not really a job. It's a pleasure to serve because I get to learn about amazing, amazing technologies and and I can see the future of a world that's even better than it is today. And, and that's what keeps me going. It's I don't I don't fatigue on any of of the companies, because you want to see it come to life. You know, your

David Novak 36:26

your investment track record at Piedmont is, is pretty amazing. You know, how do you, how do you measure, what are the normal percentage of hits versus mediocre returns, versus investments that lose money compared to I mean, how do you how do you look at yourself within your own industry? Or is that something that you even do?

Louise Brady 36:50

When we first started, I talked to one of my best friends growing up, her husband's in the investment business as well. So I called him up and said, Hey, can we have a conversation? You know, I'm heading into, you know, the venture business, and would love to just pick your brain for a little bit. And he's the one who told me, he said, Oh, out of 10 investments, you're gonna have one that hits and that's gonna save the day and cover you. You'll have two or three that'll, that'll, you know, be, you know, maybe three to 5x and then you'll have a bunch of losers and some that are just flat. But it's that one, out of 10. And I was like, I'm going to have nine out of 10. That's, I don't want one out of 10. But as it works out, I mean, looking back, it's, I think we're doing better than that, but you do the earlier you get in, and you've got to be able to take a stake in a big position. Those are the ones that really are going to juice your returns going forward. I mean, you have to continue to to have the fortitude to continue investing and continue, you know, supporting the company, and we're hoping that maybe we'll be five out of five, and that would be great, not not all at 100x but, I mean, you might have one huge hit like that. But I think if you can consistently pick the winners, you don't have as many of the losers or zeros in there.

David Novak 38:06

So if you, if you are going to make 10 investments in today's world, what do you think, for you and Piedmont is, what's, what's the hit rate? What would you say? You would say is good

Louise Brady 38:20

if I don't think it's 10 out of 10, we wouldn't make the investments, yeah,

David Novak 38:24

but you don't always, that doesn't always happen, right? I mean, so if you look, if you step back and look at it, you're going for 10 out of 10, what do you end up with?

Louise Brady 38:32

I mean, they're probably six out of 10. That are still great companies, yeah,

David Novak 38:37

that's, that's very, very good. That's incredible. You know Louise this, this has been so much fun, and I want to have some more with my lightning round of questions. So are you ready for this? Absolutely bring it the three words that others would use to describe you, positive, kind, supportive. If you could be one person beside yourself. Who would it be? That's a really

Louise Brady 38:58

good one. It might be Elon Musk. I'd love know what goes on in his head.

David Novak 39:03

What's your biggest pet peeve when people give up, who would play you at a movie?

Louise Brady 39:07

Maybe Princess Diana. Everybody says, I look like Princess Diana. You do what's

David Novak 39:11

a hidden gem of North Carolina? Oh,

Louise Brady 39:15

I think our hidden gem, the people, everybody's nice.

David Novak 39:20

What's the one thing you do just for you exercise? What's your most prized possession, my family, if I turned on the radio in your car, what would I hear?

Louise Brady 39:28

You'd hear Bloomberg.

David Novak 39:30

What's something about you? Few people would know I'm

Louise Brady 39:33

pretty much an open book, maybe that I love classical music, the

David Novak 39:38

one I think I know the answer to this. But one of your daily rituals, I'll change it, one of your daily rituals, besides exercise, something that you never miss,

Louise Brady 39:46

that I never miss, eating while I hope that's

David Novak 39:49

great. You did a great job. We're out of the lightning round. We're gonna wrap this up after a few more questions. Here you have three grown kids. What's a leadership lesson you pulled from the. Office that you would use to lead at home. Quotes

Louise Brady 40:03

from other people, examples from business people often send them articles and examples of either kind people, good people or great leadership. You know,

David Novak 40:15

I've heard people talk about success, either when you have it you either you grow or you swell. What do you do to stay? Louise Brady, because, you know, you definitely grow, and you're so humble, and you're so giving, you know, how do you, how do you do that, given all your the success you have, how can you, how can you avoid the, you know, stopping, you know, smelling your own perfume. Well,

Louise Brady 40:41

the people that I'm around, I am not successful by any means compared to them. So I'm a small chip on that big battleship. So it's surround yourself by good people, and you never feel like you're you've ever stopped needing to learn and get better?

David Novak 40:57

You know, you've been a part of several boards. Tell me about a time when you made an undeniable impact, because you were in that seat and you were in that room,

Louise Brady 41:09

I would say, potentially fighting for people and and compensation. I chair compensation committee and really fighting to pay people that deserve to be paid at the highest level, and upgrading an organization

David Novak 41:28

you have so many access to leaders through your investments and the boards that you're on, people you work with. You know, what would you say are the top three traits, you see, and the very best leaders,

Louise Brady 41:43

oh my gosh, humble would be one, quiet leadership that might kind of go under. Humble givers, not takers. It's all the things that I aspire to do and and very gracious. And, you know, kind, gracious people, people want to follow good people. So,

David Novak 42:05

you know, I know you're on the the Windham board, and I know you've worked with a friend of ours, Steve Holmes. What do you think he does as a leader that helped him build such an empire in the in the hotel business? Oh

Louise Brady 42:17

my gosh, Steve is the best of the best. I love that man, and I respect him so much, because he's been an incredible leader in so many ways. But I think what his superpower is he came up through the CFO office and then became the CEO, and he is an amazing, amazing strategist, and has his acquisition history is unparalleled. And not only is he smart enough to put together interesting deals and get things done, then he assimilates them into the organization so well, because he has such good culture set such great culture, and it's really even continued on the next generation, as we split Windham into Wyndham hotels and travel and leisure. So

David Novak 42:57

Louise, now you're looking forward, and I know you're excited about the future. You know, what's your unfinished business?

Louise Brady 43:06

Everything, everything. I've got so much more to do. People ask me all the time, when are you going to retire? I was like, retire. I don't even feel like I'm working. I don't have the time of my life. I'm learning every day you're not

David Novak 43:17

even close to retirement age. Come on.

Louise Brady 43:19

No, I have a lot of unfinished business, a lot to learn. You know, I don't think I'll ever stop until there's nothing I can learn. And when is that going to be? We all have something to learn, so as long as I'm learning, I'm working. Is

David Novak 43:31

there one thing, though, is there one thing that you say, Geez, you know, this is what I really want to make happen in my life. I think

Louise Brady 43:39

Alzheimer's would probably be it because of all of the familial connections, and knowing that it my, my dad's twin sister died of Alzheimer's. So I think, you know, maybe selfishly, because I'm staring down that barrel, potentially, I'd love to eradicate that horrible disease.

David Novak 43:57

All right, last question, what's one piece of advice you'd give to anyone who wants to be a better leader. Listen

Louise Brady 44:02

to David Novak's podcast. Except for this one,

David Novak 44:09

you got to come up one with a little better one than that. But I liked it.

Louise Brady 44:13

I think that's the best one following your footsteps. I remember you coming to Greensboro and speaking with us with your rubber chicken. I mean, it's follow smart people like yourselves and try to take a little bit of tips from them. I'd steal a tip from Alan Mulally all the time, which is, I just love to serve. And that's the way he led his companies. And he's a he's a great one to follow as well. So learn tips from others people and be aware and then adopt them. Louise,

David Novak 44:41

you are such a role model for being someone that is kind, someone that is so accomplished and had done so much, because you're just so talented. And you know, the being positive. You know, I've always found that if, if you smile, other people will smile. And you know. When you walk into a room, that energy spreads because of your smile and the enthusiasm that you bring to the party. And I want to thank you for being on this podcast and sharing your insights. It was great. Thank

Louise Brady 45:13

you, David, thanks for having me

David Novak 45:20

listen. I know it's easy for me to sit here and talk about going above and beyond for people and being generous with your time and energy, and let's be honest, Louise, makes it look really easy, but you and I both know it's not in the pressure of any given workday. It can be really hard to go that extra mile and stay positive for your team. But let today's episode remind you, when you invest that level of effort into your team, it comes back to you. It's a boomerang. It's how you attract good people. It's how you get those people rowing in the same direction, and it's ultimately how you accomplish incredible things this week, find one way that you can go above and beyond for someone on your team, give that extra bit of effort to show them you care. As Louise says, when you set the example, everybody else is going to level up their effort too. So do you want to know how leaders lead? What we learned today is that great leaders go above and beyond for others. Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of how leaders lead, where every Thursday you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world. I make it a point to give you something simple on each episode that you can apply to your business, so that you will become the best leader you can be. You.

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