Author: Courtney McLeod

Finding a school for you

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There are a few key elements to this search

  1. Target schools based on academics that you would be interested in; the ones that have the program you are interested in. Also use copilot or chat gpt to rank schools in that discipline.
  2. Look for sports programs at your level. You will know this based on where older players with similar scoring averages as you have attended. Yes disciplined defence and rebounding are important but top coaches feel they can teach that. They can teach a kid to have enough confidence to shoot enough to score 30-40 points in a game. Also look at the average height by position for the conference you are lining up with. If you are sorter than the range, you better have some outstanding scoring stats to offset that.
  3. Take ownership of the communication with coaches. Leverage your coach yes but don’t rely on them. Take note of coaches at your games and look them up, flip them a note before they come to your practice or game just to say high, provide them an overview of you so when they come to the gym they are looking for you not “discovering you”.
  4. Work the relationships and visits before the summer after grade 11. Find ways to call, talk to players in the programs you are interested in and ask for a visit. If you wait you will need to cram them in during late summer or fall before grade 12.
  5. Attend a practice: see what the coaching style and practice looks like. This is where you can tell the role of the assistants. Who are the coaches in most control of things?
  6. Meet with professors or deans about your school choices. Get a tour, ask about acceptance rates, ask about grad school etc. what supports are in place to help student athletes juggle it all.
  7. Meet with the players in informal settings is key. They usually hang out or have a team social when you come. Get to know them have conversations that are likely not going to be shared in front of coaches. Get their contact information.
  8. Prioritize this over any existing school work you have. It is more important than that test that you have next week. Out things in perspective here.
  9. Build a list of what’s important to you and compare the schools against those criteria. Weight the criteria, rank the schools and weight the ranks.
  10. Listen to your heart. This is a marriage. It is not about your stats, your weighted criteria rankings, the NIL or collective deal, this is about falling in love.
  11. Saying no to other schools once you have chosen should be hard if you opened yourself up enough to let them in your heart. If you feel this congratulations you have done the right thing and made the right choice.

Thoughts on becoming a D1 basketball recruit

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Measurement and benchmarking is key to focusing your energy, time, and effort in areas that will have the biggest impact.

Body

  • What is your height and weight versus the conference you plan to play in and versus other players on your future team that play your position? If you are under sized, what superpowers do you need to work on to overcome that?
  • What are your strength stats? (Bench, squat, deadlift, leg press) you need to know your numbers and how they stack up to others that you are competing with or even others at your position at the next level. That will help you prioritize where to focus. Lock in and dominate your focus areas.
  • Power stats (power clean, standing broad jump, Vertical, vertical leap, shot put) make sure you have proper instruction on how to do these movements safely. It is very easy to hurt your back going too heavy before you have learned the right technique. Power will be extremely important for vertical jump and speed. This is what separates athletes. (Strength x velocity)
  • Endurance (400m, 800m, 1,500m, beep test) there may be other sport specific movements for your sport for example in basketball free throw and back to centre and back to far free throw and back to far baseline and back. You should also know your VO2 max and how it stacks up. You can’t compete if you are tired; your coach can’t keep you on the court if you are lacking endurance. Build a plan to improve this to a point where you can play an entire game. Track interval work of 200m and 400m is likely the best for this.
  • Agility (3 cone shuttle) strength and power can help with this. You will also need strong ankles and explosive calves to help here.
  • Speed (40m, 100m, 200m) or whatever other distances are standard and can be tracked. Shorter distances will help with power longer with speed endurance and both are important.
  • Sleep duration, quality, causes. Get some sort of sleep tracking device that can ensure you get enough quality rest. Understand what your natural sleep amount is when there is no alarm. Get as close to that number of hours as possible. Understand what impacts your sleep. Get off your phone 1 hr before bed, don’t work out just before bed if you can help it, careful eating a huge meal just before bed.
  • Nutrition (pre-post-in-off season phases) Pre Game, in game Post Game recovery, maintenance, hydration and electrolytes? Understand your macros and specifically how you carb load and the amount of protein you are getting. Build a clear plan with meal timing for game days including half time and recovery meals. Water, and electrolytes are also important.
  • Therapy – physical, physiotherapy, ankles, knees, massage, cold and heat, recovery, pliability, chiropractic. There should be proactive preventative therapy. In basketball to help prevent ankle injuries and ACL prevention as well. Overall therapists mentioned above should help with a rest recovery plan for you. Understand what is covered with your benefit plan and work out a plan to maximize the use for the year.

Mind

  • Mental coach and psychologist to help with your strengths as a player and build resilience and confidence specific to you.
  • Analyze Film: performance reviews on your own games. What are your performance goals in the stat categories you have? Are you trying to improve your passing? View the game film through a passers eyes. What are you noticing on your reads? Are you squaring up and taking what the D gives you or are you just passing to the next player without being a threat yourself? Are you picking up on what side the D is giving you? and adjusting accordingly? Do you see the weak spots for shooting in the zone defence Based on the game you just played, did you miss any box outs? Were you communicating switches on defense?
  • Film: watch schools you are interested in and also the best schools to compare and contrast. What systems do they run. Where would you fit in the offensive schemes? What players are most similar to you on their team? What do their stats look like and how do they fit in in the overall offense? How does the team defend? what type of zone coverages do they use? Do they press at all? What kind of inbound plays do they run? Do they get more points from the paint or from the three-point line? Do they run a lot of screens that open up short range jump shots do they get a lot of points in the paint etc.
  • Get a vpn and espn+ to watch as many schools as you can. Favourite the teams and players you are interested in tracking and keep track, watch them.
  • You may need a US address or send a gift subscription from a Canadian card to yourself to set this up.
  • Understand what schools the top recruits are going to, and also what date the majority of the recruits in a given class commit and sign to the school they eventually go to.
  • Make sure you understand the recruiting rules. The time windows were communication is allowed and not as well as the signing periods, etc..

Skills

  • Shooting – what are your percentages from different places in the floor? Where are you best? Worst? Where should you work to improve your game? What is the difference between your practice and game shooting percentages from these spots?
    • How much time are you spending on the shooting machine and what are your stats as you have each session? Are your sessions focussed on the areas that need most work?
    • Finishing drills – where do you finish best with what hand? from what location on the floor? How can you continue to practice those shots and finishing drills as well as others where you are not as strong?
  • Timed drills for your handle, left vs right are you able to move through a sequence of more and more complex handling drills with both hands and improve your times.

Coaching

  • System understanding, offence, defence, presses, inbounds. Relative defensive standing and performance, 3pt frequency and percentages
  • Positional depth chart, roles of each player on the team and how they use their guards and big players in relation to their forwards?
  • Positional strengths, opportunities, stats, FT%, 3pts, reb per game etc. and potential role relative stats.

Investment what are you spending on:

  • Nutritionist
  • Trainer
  • Gym rentals
  • Physio
  • Therapy ie massage
  • Food and nutritional supplements

Schools

– What is their basketball ranking?

– School ranking for the program you are interested in?

  • What is the athletics budget for the school? Does the school have a football program or a men’s basketball program that bring in the majority of the funds for the university that can be spread across programs like women’s basketball?
  • What conference? What is their average team ranking of the conference?
  • Location, Drive distance, Fly dist
  • Do they take the bus or fly to games.
  • Population of the city and the school and the program.
  • Costs what is covered? Tuition? Books? Meals? Residence?
  • Weather
  • City or country location?
  • SAT requirements? GPA
  • Remaining years on coaches contract? is the coach new in the last 3 years? What about the assistance?
  • Players year(s) in your position
  • Tournament performance or ranking
  • Coaching staff philosophy or assistant aspirations and family situations.
  • How many assistants are there? What are the roles? What schools did they come from? Do they have any children? how old are their children? What are their children involved in? Canada basketball support. Will they allow you to leave for international tournaments
  • What is the graduation rate how many women have gone on to play professional basketball from the team?
  • Typically, how many credits are taken during the season and is it possible to take credits from home over the summer?
  • What does the therapy staff look like? How many are full-time? How many are part-time? Is there a strength and conditioning coach?

These are just a few things to consider when preparing for a division 1 scholarship offer, and conversations with coaches who are interested in you and your abilities.

How to get “hired” for a new team

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With kids in sports, there are many learnings that help them make teams they try out for. These same themes help you land jobs and move around easily within a company too.

  1. Learn about who might be there and share what you are doing with your existing coach. The sports community is often small and coaches have coached against each other, played with each other, went to school, or taught together and could have relationships with the coach you are trying out with. All it takes is one call from a respected colleague that vouches for you and you are on the team. The same is true for that new role you are going for! Share your desires with your manager. All it takes in some cases is an endorsement for you to move into another role!
  2. Get there early. This shows you are serious about improving and committed to getting better. You will also want to have some drills or skills that you are working on so you can demonstrate that you are there to work. If you have chosen one area to work on, often the new coaches may wonder over and help you with that skill. Getting them engaged in your development and showing them how coachable you are by demonstrating that skill later in the practice can go a long way.
  3. Be unique / noticeable. This is simple; wearing something unique, a new hairstyle a different pair of shoes or something that can uniquely identify you. “the guy in the orange shirt” as an example. That will help them remember you and it is important to be consistent throughout the tryouts so they always have that familiar anchor!
  4. Introduce yourself to the coach. This can be when you get there early or even before the tryouts begin. You could have a conversation with the coach about the tryouts, their coaching philosophy, or even to get their feedback on your goals a few days before the practice. This can also help get them engaged in your success.
  5. Touch the line! Never come up 1″ short of the line even in a race. You would be surprised at how many people don’t finish drills, stop 1″ short, gear down before the finish line. Great coaches are watching this and great teammates hold you accountable to finishing drills, sprints and plays. Always finish!
  6. Make Eye contact with the coach and nod your head for understanding! Coaches want to be heard and they want to ensure that their message is getting through to the team. So many players don’t look them in the eye when they are speaking or acknowledge their points. Looking at them and nodding can differentiate you. Or asking a good question for clarity, then nodding again and executing can be very appreciated by the coach. Also never argue with the coach! You can ask for clarity but never argue with them; even if you don’t agree, they are the coach! Their opinion matters more than yours! Shut up and row!
  7. Cheer on your teammates! Coaches are looking for leaders; people on the team who can lift their teammates up and pump the tires of others are often more valuable to a team than the leading scorer or the best player. Your teammates will also appreciate you cheering them on especially when you are tired.
  8. Dive for Balls, get physical! Commitment is a key element coaches are looking for! Who is willing to put their body on the line? Who is willing to do what it takes and go the extra mile that others are not willing to do? Those are the types of people who win championships and everyone wants on their team!
  9. All out effort on Defence! There is often no glory on defense and that is exactly why coaches pay such close attention to your defense. Everyone can keep track of who scored how many points but coaches are looking for girls who don’t want to be guarded by people who hustle, or that girl that tries her absolute hardest on defense; you earn more respect from coaches and teammates on defense than you do in any other way.
  10. Want the ball! Be hungry for the ball, ask for the ball, be aggressive to go and get the ball. Coaches are looking for people who want it and if the skills are not there yet, they can teach that, but it is far more difficult to teach confidence and a desire for the ball.
  11. Talk / Communicate in the practice and game. The ability to communicate to teammates is a next level skill that is done so much more at the next level. If you are communicating the most of your team, it is assumed you are a far better contributor and you are! Tell your teammates they are doing great, let them know if your player is moving in behind them! Communicate! Coaches are looking for that
  12. Running within the lines! When you are within the lines of the field or court, never walk inside the lines – jog / run or be stopped but don’t walk! Save the walking for when you are off the field. People will notice this! Your competition will notice, your teammates will notice! How is she jogging off the field when she is that tired? Wow are they ever hustling all the time! Make the effort! People are watching!
  13. Be the Demonstrator or the first in line! Coaches are always looking for volunteers that they can show how this new drill works on or where to be positioned etc. If you are in the front of the line, you will be chosen for this task and perceived as a leader. Be first, show the coaches you want it!
  14. Own your break – when the coach breaks for water be the first to get the water, and the first back. Jog back if you are between the lines! This can give you some more discussion time with the coach and also shows them that you are back, refreshed and ready to play. You are into it and not wanting to waste any time. This is leading by example and soon they will be calling the others over to get there now! you are ready to work.
  15. Thank the coach! Coaches are coaching because they love watching people grow and having an impact on them. Thank them for their time and for teaching you or making you better! That is why they are there!

These strategies have been proven to help kids make sports teams, help adults get hired a companies and help careers flourish in the real world. I encourage you try some of these ideas and see how they work for you!

Good Luck!

In your career, pick your major, but it is guaranteed to change

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When it comes to career, many new hires are not sure this is what they really want. Newsflash! Many of us are still in this position 20-30 years later but there is one perspective that may reframe it a bit.

Imagine you are in university and you are trying to earn a degree, you need to understand the prerequisites required for those 4th year courses so you can progress toward earning the requirements to graduate. As you move through the 200 and 300 level courses they build on each other and they get more difficult, but you have built the skills and knowledge required to move through the coursework.

Sometimes, people get a couple years into their major and they learn that is really is not for them. At that point they change majors but because they have been progressing, they are provided credit for many of their courses taken in the original major and carry on to get their degree. But the point is to stay with a major and get progressing. On the other hand, if in university, you take all of the first year courses available in every faculty, that would take you years to complete and you would never have progressed past first year.

When it comes to your career, choose your major and get progressing! Now how do you choose your major and who is the guidance councillor that you can go to to plan out your courses so you get your degree? Well this is likely a number of people. These are people who have earned the degree you want! People who have reached your goal destination in your career. It is important to sit down with multiple people that you think you would like to be one day and understand their career paths, share your projected path with them and get their input. Do this with multiple people and senior leaders in your company. They will all have input and unique points of view to help you with your proposed path.

What you will find in this exercise is there is never one path; rather that everyone who earned those “degrees” that you want got there with a different group of prerequisites or classes. That will help you understand the variety available to you and the different paths you can take to get where you want to go. Another benefit of this exercise, is that you now have multiple Sr. Leaders understand your desired career path! They helped you build it!

Early in my career, I planned out every year to retirement. I had different experiences on there using our company “career map” that outlined the different experiences you need to get to progress as well as what capabilities I would learn and skills i would build in each role. I called out if the location would be international or local, what level I would be at, what customers I would be connected to, what categories I would be on all in an effort to round out my skills and become the Sr. Leader with the best profile and skill set for success.

I think socialised this plan and modified it over the years. It is the same plan that I use today and guide others that I mentor with.

In summary, pick your major, build your ideal career plan, socialize it with people you want to be like, broaden your reach with it, allow for flexibility, share it with others.

Good luck!

I am thinking of retirement: what should I do?

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Congratulations! The fact you are thinking about or asking questions about retirement is a significant step that many people are never able to get to let alone put a plan in place to enjoy.

One of the biggest questions that people have is: Will I run out of money? and how can I stress test this. Over the past few years, I have done a lot of reading and learning about what needs to be true for retirement so I thought I would share some of the resources and or learning I have gained over this time.

  • To retire, you need to understand how much you plan to spend each year. This will help you understand how much of a nest egg you need to have saved up to fund your lifestyle. As you go through many of the categories, for a 6-12 month period, you will also be able to identify areas of spend that will not be as high in retirement for example, clothing, commuting costs, lunches etc. There may also be some areas that increase vs. your working days for example travel, entertainment etc. To track Expenses, I use Mint where I link up all of my accounts and credit cards that with a little help learns categories over time. This will help you trend your spending and understand variance year over year in a very easy way.
  • Fees: if returns are 6% per year and your advisor or the funds you invest in are 2%, then you are giving away 1/3 of your earnings. ETFs can be put together by a computer and cost significantly less while still providing exposure to the equity markets. If you are investing this way, it is not likely that you need a highly paid money manager.
  • Wealthica (Canada) or Personal Capital (US) are great tools you can use to evaluate your net worth over time and understand the fee structure associated with your investments.

Resources

  1. http://www.ChooseFI.com/start a website and a podcast https://www.choosefi.com/start/
  2. The Simple Path to Wealth JL Collins the last few pages are a summary for his daughter who was not that interested in finance. https://jlcollinsnh.com/
  3. Mr Money Mustache blog and app. https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/
  4. Quit Like a Millionaire https://www.millennial-revolution.com/landing-page/
  5. Your Money or your Life Book https://yourmoneyoryourlife.com/book-summary/
  6. https://www.financialsamurai.com/
  7. https://www.gocurrycracker.com/
  8. https://www.donebyforty.com/
  9. https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/
  10. Mint.com – track and categorise your spending https://mint.intuit.com/
  11. Wealthica – net worth tracking https://wealthica.com/
  12. Personal capital – US net worth tracking. https://www.personalcapital.com/
  13. The Millionaire Next Door Thomas Stanley https://themillionairenextdoor.com/publications/
  14. Stop Acting Rich Thomas Stanley https://themillionairenextdoor.com/publications/
  15. The Millionaire Mind Thomas Stanley https://themillionairenextdoor.com/publications/
  16. Your Retirement Income Blueprint Darryl Diamond https://www.diamondretirement.com/
  17. The Secrets of the Millionaire Mind T Harv Eker https://millionairemindevents.com/secrets-of-the-millionaire-mind/
  18. Die with Zero https://www.diewithzerobook.com/welcome
  19. Choose FI for kids curriculum https://www.choosefifoundation.org/prek12
  20. Choose FI the book https://store.choosefi.com/library/
  21. Big Ern and the Safe Withdrawl rate series. https://earlyretirementnow.com/safe-withdrawal-rate-series/
  22. https://earlyretirementnow.com/2017/01/25/the-ultimate-guide-to-safe-withdrawal-rates-part-7-toolbox
  23. Playing with Fire book and documentary https://www.playingwithfire.co/the-documentary
  24. 1500days https://www.1500days.com/
  25. The frugalwoods https://www.frugalwoods.com/
  26. Dave Ramsey (for debt reduction) https://www.ramseysolutions.com/
  27. The mad fientist https://www.madfientist.com/
  28. Calculators https://firecalc.com/
  29. https://jlcollinsnh.com/calculators/
  30. https://www.newretirement.com/
  31. https://jlcollinsnh.com/calculators/
  32. https://www.caniretireyet.com/the-best-retirement-calculators/
  33. https://engaging-data.com/early-retirement-calculators-and-tools/
  34. https://princeoftravel.com/ for travel hacking and point collection in Canada
  35. https://whitecoatinvestor.teachable.com/p/fire-your-financial-advisor

If I were to start my career over…

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Rewarding career: Five ways to build a rewarding career - The Economic Times

I love the energy new hires bring to their first corporate job!  They just graduated and joined a company with something big to prove!  Look at me, I can do this, I can learn, grow and deliver results; I can also work hard, build relationships and love the rush of pleasing my superiors, peers or anyone else.  With all of the raw horsepower and blind faith that hard work will make it happen, there are some things that I wish I knew during these times

  1. Plagiarism needs to be encouraged at work!   Remember in school, if you copied something from someone else you would get a zero!  it is not like that in the work world!  I think of it like this: Imagine you are in Grade 9 Science class and the person in the back of the class has been in that class for 25 years.  They have written the tests 25 times, they have handed in the assignments 25 times, they have talked to the teacher for 25 years.  They know what the teacher likes, they know what they got wrong last year, they have the tests and assignments and are happy to give them to you so you don’t make the same mistakes they did.  My advice: Copy their work, change the things they got wrong, get the results and share back the results you got and give credit to them for helping you too.  They will help you whenever you want going forward
  2. Networking with higher ups not is kissing ass! This is simply not true; here is a different perspective: People higher up than you are smarter and have proven they can deliver better results.  Listen to them, use their ideas and when you get results, share back with them so they continue to help you deliver better results!  Over time these people are also in positions that control funding and resources which when you are using their ideas, they are more likely to invest resources and money against that idea.  Networking with higher ups gets you more money and resources to get better results!
  3. Understand your data  Data helps you understand where to get the biggest bang for your buck.  This will point you in the direction where you can get the biggest result per unit of work; units of work are very finite and the more results you can get with a limited capacity the better.  Spend time understanding how to manipulate and look at data early in your career.  Understand analytical tools like Spotfire, PowerBI, Tableau, or even Excel or Access for those who were born in that era.  A foundation in this space will be a requirement for the leaders of the future.
  4. Get better at something than anyone else: After my first month with my company, I met a mentor who became a friend and was about 11 years ahead of me. His advise was extremely valuable to me and he said I should get as good as I could at one thing and use it as a differentiator vs. My peers. I chose something that I was naturally drawn to which was data. Being an analytical and science based person, I found myself drawn to charting and graphing things as well as automating analytics. I also read thick books on software to get better at it. It ended up helping me understand my business as indicated above but it also helped me help my peers. Remember this: one day you will work for or in organizations lead by your peers. If this is not they case, get with a better set of peers! During my time with them, I helped them in my area of expertise as much as I could. As many of them have now grown to be international leaders of massive companies, they have remembered the help they got back in the day. Also note it is super fun!
  5. Learning doesn’t stop when School stops! Many people have not invested a dime in their education since they left school. It is almost like they learned all there is to learn! I also found that the higher level of education I attended, the more the responsibility moved away from the teacher or professor. The term “hit the books” does not mean hit the professor but rather that most of the learning comes from reading. How much reading to people do post university? Is there a reading week at work to catch up with the work reading? Did you know that CEOs read on average 60 books per year? THe beauty about this is that books are free at the library and you can read what ever you want! Sign up for the library, try to get access to the research and scientific journals. You can still learn at lot even if you don’t have a paper due! Even if you don’t get a degree.
  6. Become financially independent as soon as possible! This will help you be truly authentic at work and say what you mean. If you are not scared of losing your job, you are in a far better place to tell people what you really feel and think. This will allow you to take bigger risks on the business that have a bigger upside and chance of paying out. Get there by not keeping up with the joneses, avoiding lifestyle creep and investing in low cost total market equity funds over the long term. When you get 25x your annual expenses you can consider yourself free! Go to Choosefi on the web to learn more.

Some of this is what worked for me and some of it is what I would tell my kids when they start their careers. Good luck!

Are you important?

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RDoC Resident Profiles

Here are some things I have learned over the years that would have helped me back when I was 24!

  1. Take your health seriously
    • Get an annual physical that includes blood work, abdominal ultrasounds, shots, EKGs, blood sugar, urine, Vision tests, etc. you know the drill.  Men are really bad at this!  Don’t be that “guy”.
    • They can find little things when they are little and fix them before they get big.
  2. Understand your family history
    • Ask your parents and grandparents what is wrong with your family (loaded question) – these indicators help focus healthcare providers focus in specific areas for you.  They will get you specific tests that you need based on this.
    • Build a summary of your family history that you can take with you to doctor appointments.  When my grandpa was sick, I remember my grandma being so sick and tired of it that she wrote his history out and passed it to the doctor.  That way it is accurate and you can build on it as life unfolds – I do this in Excel of course.
  3. Build your own Bio Passport – no one else will
    • This should include all of the numbers in your blood tests – I have recorded the results in every one of my blood tests since 2001.  Now I have a blood passport so they call it – I got that term from pro sports where they are doing that now too – they will be able to tell if any one of the 50 or so numbers moves. 
    • The blood passport was super helpful to my doctor as he could tell where I have been over the past 20 years on some of these measures.   I do this in excel of course.
  4. Know what you are susceptible to
    1. Apart from family history, you can now get genetic screening that will show you what your genes say you are at risk of – understanding these markers could be of significant value to you – I have not done this yet but will likely do it soon.
  5. Workout over work
    • I can’t hit the gym or exercise because I have this due date at work… BS… just don’t do as good of a job at the work and be ok with that.   The fact is that an hour of exercise 3-4x per week will likely get you doing a better job at your work anyway.   The previous has been my thinking in the past including today when I had a deliverable for my boss!  I skipped my workout this am and did not really need to!  I also find playing sports to not be a workout at all rather Playing so that helps when it is not COVID.
  6. Collect data to make sure you know what is going on with your body:
    • Track your work How much time do you actually work – there are aps now that can tell you how much you actually work and where you spend your time. Here are some – I use life cycle for this and I use the office analytics that is in the web version of office 365 called “my analytics.  Book focus time with yourself automatically!  Also remove email notifications, and remove all notifications from your phone.
    • Track your sleep – I use sleep cycle for this and have 5 years of sleep history – I never use an alarm clock and if I do need to, I wake up in REM sleep vs. deep sleep.
    • Track your nutrition – I use my fitness pal for this – it keeps track of nutrition calories and macros.
    • Track your weight – I use fitbit Aria for this – connects to the wifi, then to my fitness pal, 1 lb / year for 30 years = 30lbs! 
    • Track your exercise – I use Runkeeper for this that links up to my Apple Health ap, I also use an HR monitor – Polar Bluetooth model to track my heart when I workout.
    • Track your heart – I use my Iwatch for this – I can tell my resting heart rate and how it changes when I exercise too.
    • Track your immunizations – I use CANimmunize for this I know when my shots are due etc. as well as the kids.
  7. Watch the drinking.
    • We bought a cool wine rack years ago and I thought… it holds 30 bottles, lets fill it up…it will look cool.  Then 30 days later there were way less bottles of wine on the rack… I love to drink beer and wine, so does my wife but… Not good for the liver, not good for the heart, not good for cancer, not good for calories, not good for the $$, So we now don’t keep it in the house to make us have to go through one more hoop to do it.

I hope you either learned one thing or found something useful in this one!

Did you stop learning when school stopped?

Published on by Courtney McLeodLeave a comment

open books on wooden table

In university or any school, the term “hit the books” is used synonymously with learning.  That said, there is a major difference in the amount of learning and the amount of reading people do if they are not in school.  If you are trying to improve, get better, become more effective at your job, or contribute more to society, relationships, family and friends, then learning is key.

The biggest single barrier I hear to reading is “I don’t have the time”.  So often we spend the time we could be learning on our social media feed, watching TV, or just overall time-wasting.  If you have ever had to accomplish something significant over a few months and actually focus on it, you would be shocked to learn how much time we actually have: lots; if we don’t waste it!  I also hear that the cost of books is just so high these days so here are a few ideas that could help you overcome those barriers:

  • Use Audiobooks – imagine you could read books on your commute or when you are working out?  30 minutes to and from work in a car = 1 hour/day, 5/week, 20/month, 240/year with an average audiobook being 8 hours that if listened to at 1.5X speed = 45 books you could read per year!  Some services that are available include Audible, but there is a cost to that – read on about how to eliminate the cost.
  • Listen to Podcasts – there are experts in your field that pump out many different podcasts that may include other experts that you can listen too – all on your commute.  They also come with show notes where the producers put links to all kinds of content as well and most of this content is free.
  • Use predictive services to suggest your next read.  I like the Ap called Goodreads to do that for me.   It analyzes all of the books I have read and then suggests books that I may be interested in.  You can also go to a section in a bookstore or library that you like and see what else is adjacent to your favourite books.
  • Use an RSS Feed reader like Feedly. You can get the links to any blogs that you are interested in, organize them and get collated content from experts in that area.  I subscribe to lots of blogs where I am provided the headlines and I can double click to get the content if I think it could be useful.
  • Use your local library! Did you know you can get and read any book you want for free and that your library has an app where you can put books on hold and renew them from your phone? This can save lots of money and even a $0.60 late fine is far more economical than buying that book for $25.
  • Your library has audiobooks that you may have had to pay for through apps or subscriptions like audible but I have found I seldom go back and listen to a book I have already “read”. You can use the ap Overdrive or Libby to connect to your library and do the same thing as audible for free.
  • Your library can offer academic research or if you are alumni of a university, your alumni card can get you certain levels of access to the university library.
  • Lynda.com is a learning service with online courses from experts on almost any topic you can access this through your local library website!  If not in your local city, or town, just go to another city or town and sign up for a library card there.
  • Percipio is also an online learning service that may be offered by your employer with all kinds of content relevant to your job.
  • Get abstract is a service you may have access to where you can access the “Coles notes” book summary version if any of those business or leadership books that you may just want to explore at a top-line level.

In summary, you will never lose when you invest in yourself and your learning; also note that your wealth will only grow to the extent that you grow yourself!

Happy learning!

Track your net worth like it is your business, wait…it is!

Published on by Courtney McLeodLeave a comment

networth

Many people work in companies and devote 60+ hours / week to those companies.  We are often responsible for growing sales and profit, driving volume and coming up with ideas that will meet targets for the year.  An important element in every public company is the forecast relative to the target or commitment that management has made to the street.  This can have implications on profitability, inventory and total shareholder return which managers take very seriously and implement many processes to ensure their success:

Innovation:  Companies will perform consumer research to understand unmet consumer needs, match those opportunities up with the production capabilities to develop an innovation pipeline that can be 3-5 years out.  These projects are tested with consumers and shoppers in relative environments so companies can gather information to narrow the error range of the estimated volume associated with the innovation.

Trade investments: Companies will invest significantly to entice retailers to support their products with listings in more stores, feature frequency, display space outside of the shelf, pricing strategies to drive incrementality and shelf space to reduce out of stocks and stimulate triggers to purchase in store.  Companies will also determine the specific target of each innovation or product segment and develop shopper marketing plans to drive trial, penetration.   All of these investments drive estimated volumes with expected investment payouts that justify the spend; these estimates often roll up and translate to financial guidance that gets to the street.  Post game analysis is usually required to understand the impact these investments have had on the business and relative to what was projected all with the hope of optimizing investments.

Marketers do similar planning and analysis using techniques like Market Mix Modeling which is a statistical analysis on sales and marketing data to estimate the impact of various tactics (marketing mix) on sales and then forecast the impact of future sets of tactics.

Before a year even starts, these companies compile a list of “Building blocks” which include last years base volume, planned innovation, trade and marketing investments with the volumes associated.  The team then tracks each of those building blocks in a phased approach throughout the year.

This seems like a very rigorous logical and data based approach with elements that could be reapplied to our personal finances to drive a better return.  Some steps that could be taken on the personal finance front include:

  1. Tracking historical Assets and the return they have delivered.
  2. Tracking the growth trajectory of various asset groups
  3. Tracking the management of expenses.
  4. Tracking various financial ratios like savings rate, Monthly investment income / expenses
  5. Targets for the years net worth broken out by quarter
  6. Building blocks to help drive the net worth target with regular tracking.
  7. % of net worth in tax deferred accounts
  8. % of tax deferred investment room being used.
  9. Budget required while in the work force vs. in retirement.
  10. Portfolio mix vs. desired allocation over time.

Tracking our personal finances is just as important as our company business because after all, it is our business!

Girl Guide cookies are not for raising money

Published on by Courtney McLeodLeave a comment

cookies-gif-Post2

Have you ever seen a lunch room at work with a stack of Girl Guide cookies saying $5 please put the money in the envelope?  Parents who do this think they are contributing to their kids childhood or are they actually robbing them of critical skills that will stick with them for life? skills they can make a living from?

What if we looked at this a little bit differently?  What if we used this as a learning opportunity for our children and taught them how to sell?  Most people find it a bit awkward to ask people for money or to support them but that is exactly what many people have to do during the workday to be successful.  They have that feeling of anxiety and try to put off asking for the sale so it won’t get “uncomfortable” or to protect from “rejection”.  In reality, the more often you ask or get a rejection, the more equipped and practiced our children get at dealing with it.

How about a reframe?  Hey kids, lets go and see how many rejections we can get!  Expect them because they are going to come, but sometimes they might buy.  What about role playing with them to help them open the shade to purchase with a stranger, determine, understand, verify and handle objections?  Hey, I am with the Girl Guides and I am selling cookies to support my group.  Are you interested in purchasing some cookies today?

If you get a buying signal, could you ask “how many boxes would you like?  It is $20 for 4 boxes or $5 for one box” to provide them an option to purchase 4 right away.  “I don’t like cookies”  Is there anyone in your life who likes cookies?,  “I don’t have the cash” I can come back and get it at a better time or you can email money transfer my dad.

What if you took it a step further and paid your kids a 50% commision on every box so they could get excited about it.  They can easily sell $60/hr which would amount to $30/hr at a 50% commision – that hourly rate is 3X babysitting showing them they could actually make a great living per hour selling!  Don’t forget about teaching the importance of savings rate and investing their earnings as well!

Girl Guide cookies are not for raising money, they are for raising strong, confident girls.  So next time a parent asks you to buy something tell them “Get your kid to sell them to me, let me give them a bit of a hard time so they earn it and I would gladly buy the goods and build up your kid in the process”.