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My Worst Investment Ever Podcast

My Worst Investment Ever Podcast

De : Andrew Stotz
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Welcome to My Worst Investment Ever podcast hosted by Your Worst Podcast Host, Andrew Stotz, where you will hear stories of loss to keep you winning. In our community, we know that to win in investing you must take the risk, but to win big, you’ve got to reduce it. Your Worst Podcast Host, Andrew Stotz, Ph.D., CFA, is also the CEO of A. Stotz Investment Research and A. Stotz Academy, which helps people create, grow, measure, and protect their wealth. To find more stories like this, previous episodes, and resources to help you reduce your risk, visit https://myworstinvestmentever.com/Copyright 2026 Andrew Stotz Economie Finances privées Management Management et direction
Épisodes
  • David Barnett - Business and Asset Values: Why Most Small Businesses Never Sell

    David Barnett - Business and Asset Values: Why Most Small Businesses Never Sell
    Oct 5 2026
    BIO: As an author, consultant, and international speaker, David C. Barnett has helped thousands of entrepreneurs avoid bad deals and close successful ones.STORY: Seven years after his first appearance discussing tax-related business losses, David returns for his third visit to unpack the biggest myth in small business acquisitions: that a wave of retiring baby boomers is about to flood the market with cheap businesses for sale. The real numbers tell a very different story, and most of what actually kills a deal has nothing to do with supply and demand.LEARNING: Value is never a fixed number; it depends entirely on who is asking and why. "Success is not closing the deal. It is buying a successful cash-flowing business at a reasonable price that's going to allow you to get a reasonable rate of return—or you avoid a bad deal."David Barnett As an author, consultant, and international speaker, David C. Barnett has helped thousands of entrepreneurs avoid bad deals and achieve successful business deals. His YouTube channel and podcast reach a global audience of small business buyers and sellers.David joins the podcast for a third time to discuss his newly released book, Business and Asset Values, and the realities of buying and selling small and mid-sized businesses today.The "silver tsunami" myth, debunkedThere is a lot of buzz right now about a coming wave of business sales, driven by baby boomer owners hitting retirement age. David has heard the pitch many times, and he does not buy it. The theory goes that this surplus of retiring owners will flood the market and drive prices down. But supply and demand only work that way if the pool of buyers stays fixed, and in small business, it does not.David uses his own 17-foot aluminum canoe to make the point: he already owns one, so no price will convince him to buy a second. Most consumer goods work that way. Small business acquisitions do not.Successful buyers that already own profitable businesses have no limit to how many other new businesses they can also acquire. And so the competitive forces at play when a good private business comes up for sale are just as vigorous as they always have been. The businesses that struggle to sell were always going to struggle, tsunami or not. BizBuySell, one of the largest business-for-sale marketplaces, reports that roughly 70% of listed businesses never sell.Why most listed businesses never sellAccording to David, most listed businesses never sell due to dead capital. These businesses have equipment or assets that cost money but do not generate a return, which makes the business harder to finance and harder to sell. If a buyer would have to borrow money to pay fair value for those assets, and the resulting cash flow doesn't cover the debt service, the deal simply doesn't work, no matter how much the owner believes their business is worth.David adds that public companies are often valued on their future because investors are buying an experienced leadership team along with a plan. Small businesses, on the other hand, are valued almost entirely on their past, because when the owner leaves, most of the knowledge and relationships that made the business work leave with them. Buyers want to see the history proven out, not projected forward, which is one reason small businesses trade at much lower multiples of cash flow than anything publicly traded.Seller's discretionary earnings (SDE)Another factor that affects a business sale, David says, is seller's discretionary earnings (SDE), which is EBITDA plus the owner's salary. A healthy SDE margin usually falls between 10% and 20%. Above 40% is a red flag worth investigating, and below 5% requires looking for what is off, whether that is pricing, high costs, or high gross margins. Often what turns up is unrecorded sales or personal expenses run through the business to lower its tax bill. That kind of underreporting can make an otherwise sellable business unbankable, since no lender will finance a deal built on numbers the owner cannot legally document.Financing also shapes a business's price. A business worth $800,000 with only $400,000 in tangible assets might get a loan for $300,000 in Canada or Europe, leaving the buyer to bridge the rest with their own equity and seller financing, often 30% to 40% of the deal. Easier access to credit pushes prices up. The same business in Ontario, Canada, and across the water in upstate New York will typically sell for around 25% more on the American side, simply because more buyers there can access the financing to pay for it.What actually counts as a "small" businessDavid's advice for anyone in a conversation about "small business" is to stop and ask for a definition. The Harvard Business Review Guide to Buying a Small Business describes a small business as one with $10 million in revenue, a number that would strike most of David's own clients as anything but small.He prefers to define businesses by EBITDA rather than revenue. He notes that, ...
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    42 min
  • Pierre Rogers - Lessons on Trust, Ownership, and Rebuilding From Zero

    Pierre Rogers - Lessons on Trust, Ownership, and Rebuilding From Zero
    Sep 21 2026
    BIO: Pierre Rogers is a founder and author based in Irvine, California. After his first company collapsed, resulting in federal prison and $1.6M in personal debt, he rebuilt from less than zero—launching a new company.STORY: Pierre hired his best friend as CFO, ignored repeated warnings from his own team, and watched that one decision spiral into a PPP fraud scandal, a federal indictment, and 18 months behind bars.LEARNING: What you tolerate in the people you lead says more about your judgment than anything you say or do yourself."What you tolerate says more about you than what you say or what you do."Pierre RogersPierre Rogers is a founder and author based in Irvine, California. After his first company's collapse ended in federal prison and $1.6M of personal debt, he rebuilt from less than zero—launching a new company and writing Built by Failures, where he publishes weekly, unedited chapters of his own recovery alongside case studies of famous comebacks like Robert Downey Jr., Martha Stewart, and Tina Turner.Worst investment everPierre's worst investment wasn't a stock or a property; it was trusting his best friend as CFO. He founded Yahyn, a software startup designed to let small and mid-sized vineyards sell directly to consumers across the US, a niche complicated by strict alcohol distribution regulations. Pierre invested his capital and reputation into the company. Then he made the biggest mistake of his life; he hired his best friend as CFO, believing that they shared the same values and goals.They didn't. The CFO routinely showed up late, missed meetings unprepared, used substances during work hours, and went unresponsive for days at a time. Pierre's team members approached him individually to flag the pattern, at real risk to themselves, since criticizing the founder's best friend could easily have cost them their jobs. Pierre dismissed the warnings because personal loyalty clouded his judgment.This behavior escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic, when his friend overstated the number of employees to receive money from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). His CFO's fraudulent activity led to a federal investigation, the failure of his business, and Pierre's indictment. That fraud triggered a federal investigation, the company's collapse, and Pierre's own indictment. He takes full ownership: he hired the person, tolerated the behavior, and failed to supervise closely enough to catch it before it became a criminal case that sent him to federal prison for 18 months.Lessons learnedWhat you tolerate in the people around you, especially in a leadership role, says more about your own judgment than anything you say.A bad hire in a leadership role can cost your company, your reputation, and more.If you reinforce negative cognitive biases, you'll see negative things in the world. Try to practice positive self-talk often.Make an active choice to focus on the positive things that matter to you, and the things that you can control. Say no to self-pity.Structure and daily habits—a five-minute nightly log tracking diet, exercise, and a simple self-score—can rebuild discipline and mental clarity even in the worst circumstances.Andrew's takeawaysBefore you sign important things, slow down because once you put your name on it, it's done.When hiring people, try to find people whose values align with yours because misjudging a person's values, not just their skill, can cost you more than money.Actionable adviceDevelop a simple daily habit of tracking your own signals-mood, focus, energy-to uncover patterns that influence your judgment and decisions over time. He says that the same structure works just as well for evaluating a business or a hire: track the small signals daily. Patterns that are invisible day to day become obvious in hindsight.If you're bringing a friend or family member into a leadership role in your business, agree in advance on how you'll raise and handle performance issues, so the relationship doesn't override professional judgment later.Pierre's recommendationsPierre recommends his own project, Built By Failures, where he publishes weekly, unfiltered chapters of his recovery.No. 1 goal for the next 12 monthsPierre's number one goal for the next 12 months is to build a stronger, better-equipped sales team for his new company, so it can scale its reach into more enterprise accounts.Parting words"If you're going through hell, keep going.”Pierre RogersConnect with Pierre RogersBlogAndrew’s booksHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketMy Worst Investment Ever9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid ThemTransform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 PointsAndrew’s online programsValuation Master ClassHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketFinance Made Ridiculously SimpleFVMR Investing: Quantamental Investing Across the WorldBecome a Great Presenter and Increase Your InfluenceTransform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 PointsAchieve Your ...
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    38 min
  • Tony Martignetti - The One-Week Fundraising Plan Small Nonprofits Are Missing

    Tony Martignetti - The One-Week Fundraising Plan Small Nonprofits Are Missing
    Sep 7 2026
    BIO: Tony Martignetti is the author of the upcoming book, Planned Giving Accelerated. He's been helping small- and mid-size US nonprofits launch Planned Giving fundraising programs since 1997. Tony is a lawyer, but he doesn't write or talk like one. He weaves in his background in stand-up comedy and improv to make Planned Giving easy, accessible, and affordable.STORY: Tony returns with a different kind of investment story: how he spent eight months writing Planned Giving Accelerated, a book designed to help small and mid-sized nonprofits launch a legacy giving program in as little as one week.LEARNING: The best fundraising asset most small nonprofits already have is their most loyal, longest-tenured donors, and putting it to work costs nothing but a conversation. "Planned giving is not a conversation about death. It's about life, the longevity and sustainability of your nonprofit's work."Tony Martignetti Tony Martignetti is the author of the upcoming book, Planned Giving Accelerated. He's been helping small- and mid-size US nonprofits launch Planned Giving fundraising programs since 1997. Tony is a lawyer, but he doesn't write or talk like one. He weaves in his background in stand-up comedy and improv to make Planned Giving easy, accessible, and affordable.Tony joins the podcast for the second time. In his first appearance, Ep820: A Flattering Binder and $13,500 Down the Drain, he shared how a $13,500 bet on a flashy Manhattan PR agency taught him to check his ego. This time he returns with the opposite kind of story: a low-cost, three-step system that has helped nonprofits raise nine figures without spending a dollar on PR.What is planned giving, and why does it matter?Planned giving fundraising is the practice of securing long-term gifts made through a donor's estate or retirement plan, rather than a check written today. Tony's new book focuses specifically on the simplest and most common form: a bequest, meaning a gift left through a nonprofit inside a supporter's will.For a nonprofit, these gifts function like seeds planted years or even decades before they mature. Since most bequest donors are in their 60s or 70s when they name a charity in their will, the gift itself may not arrive for another 20 to 30 years. That time horizon is exactly why Tony sees planned giving as the foundation of real organizational sustainability—feeding an endowment a nonprofit can grow indefinitely, rather than a one-time cash infusion that gets spent immediately.The missed opportunity hiding in your donor listTony points out that most nonprofits miss donor opportunities because they don't ask. They already have everything they need to start a legacy giving program and simply never ask. Tony's three-step framework, which he calls the Martignetti Three-Step, One-Week Planned Giving Launch, laid out in the first three chapters of his book, is designed to get an organization from zero to a live planned giving program within a week:Step one: Identify your top prospects by analyzing donors who have shown consistent giving over at least 10 years, regardless of gift size, to ensure targeted outreach.Step two: Start with the simplest planned gift there is, a bequest written into a will, rather than a more complex vehicle.Step three: Cultivate and solicit those prospects directly by initiating a personalized, values-based conversation about legacy, making the donor comfortable and engaged.Tony's point is that a nonprofit does not need a press release, a webpage, or a campaign to say it has launched planned giving. It needs one honest, genuine conversation with the right donor. Have that conversation, and the program is live.Furthermore, he explains, the size of the gift matters less than its consistency. When a donor has given $5 each year for 20 years, it shows a strong emotional connection to the cause and makes them a better prospect for planned giving than a single large donation made one year ago.Why the conversation isn't about deathA common excuse Tony often receives is that conversations about planned giving make people feel uncomfortable or even morbid, because bequests are paid out only after a donor dies. However, according to Tony, this is not a conversation about death but about leaving a long-term impact that a donor has already been experiencing.Planned giving, Tony believes, is different from immediate, urgent appeals based on scarce funds and the need to pay employees' salaries soon. When the conversation starts by mentioning how important it is to keep the nonprofit from running out of money, that is an unsustainable way to fundraise. A nonprofit with enough stability to plan decades in advance is better placed to have a successful planned giving conversation.The data behind love and moneyTony cites research from Russell James, a professor at Texas Tech University who has spent decades studying the psychology and economics of bequest giving using quantitative methods rather than anecdotes. One striking ...
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    35 min
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