Leading Champions with Frank Dancevic on The Unlimited Podcast

Frank Dancevic on The Unlimited Podcast

While the U.S. Open ended on Sunday, the World Championships of Tennis – known as The Davis Cup – is on! And Team Canada is back to defend their championship title after winning last year’s tournament.

On this episode of The Unlimited Podcast, Brian speaks with Frank Dancevic, former professional tennis player and current Captain of Canada’s Davis Cup team.

We were lucky to catch Frank just hours before he joined his team in Bologna, Italy for the start of Canada’s defending run.

Hailing from Niagara Falls, Ontario, Frank Dancevic is a retired Canadian professional tennis player. He first became the country’s top singles player, according to ATP rankings, on February 10, 2003, as an 18-year-old, and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 65 in September 2007. He has been the captain of Canada’s Davis Cup team since 2017 and continues to lead top-ranked Canadian tennis players Felix Auger-Aliassime, Vasek Pospisil, and Denis Shapovalov, among others, in this year’s Davis Cup.

In this episode, Brian speaks with Frank about his experience as a professional tennis player, what it takes to be a world-class athlete, and how to lead and coach high performers.

You can listen to this episode here or find us in your favourite podcasting app, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music.

If you like what you hear, please don’t hesitate to rate us kindly. And if there are particular topics you’d like covered, please let us know.

Everything is Sales with Darren Rabie on The Unlimited Podcast

Darren Rabie on The Unlimited Podcast

Brian believes that everyone needs to understand sales because ultimately, “everything is sales”. What does this mean? Sales expert Darren Rabie joins Brian on this episode of The Unlimited Podcast to help answer that question, and show how sales can be applied to more aspects of life than you may think.

(Note: This episode is also available with video on Spotify or on the Ginsler Wealth YouTube Channel.)

Darren was born in Cape Town, South Africa. His father owned successful clothing stores and his mother was a teacher. Along with his two brothers, he lived a wonderful life. But the fears and injustice of Apartheid drove the family to immigrate to Toronto in 1977. In Canada, with no money or connections, Darren’s father started a clothing import business and his mom became a travel agent. He grew up learning from two hard-working, never complaining, dedicated and loving parents who sacrificed for their kids. As a teenager, Darren had lots of jobs but quickly realized that he was more entrepreneur than employee. After graduating from Ivey Business School in 1996, Darren co-founded his first company – The Results Group (TRG) – an outsourced lead-generation firm for B2B businesses. By 2003 Darren realized that many of TRG’s clients lacked the sales leadership, structure and tools to succeed, no matter how many leads were generated for them. So, he sold TRG and founded Focus Sales Management – initially renting himself, then others, out as part-time sales managers for small B2B companies. In 2010 another division was born – Focus CRM – to provide ongoing support and training contracts for companies struggling with salesforce.com. In 2018, Darren decided to make his next life change and sold Focus to his partners in the firm. Darren now provides his clients with sales-related consulting, coaching, recruiting, and workshops.

Brian and Darren discuss human nature, applying sales concepts in your personal life, Darren’s “12 C’s” (characteristics) of effective (sales)people, and more.

You can listen to this episode here or find us in your favourite podcasting app, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music. You can also watch the video of Brian’s interview with Darren here.

If you like what you hear, please don’t hesitate to rate us kindly. And if there are particular topics you’d like covered, please let us know.

The Perfect Cup with Andrea Chiaramello on The Unlimited Podcast

At Ginsler Wealth, we love coffee. Recently, Brian spoke with Lavazza Canada President, Andrea Chiaramello, at the Truffle Kings media preview event, for a special live recorded episode of The Unlimited Podcast.

Andrea Chiaramello was born and raised in Turin, Italy, hometown of Lavazza. He has been a coffee “addict” for decades, after spending most of his working life as an export manager, specializing in Route-To-Market projects, bringing Italian products into international markets (Europe, North and South America, Middle East). Andrea joined Lavazza and moved to Toronto in 2017 leading the Canadian operations across all channels.

Lavazza, also known as Luigi Lavazza S.p.A., is an Italian coffee manufacturer that was founded in Turin in 1895 by Luigi Lavazza. It started as a small grocery store on Via San Tommaso 10 and is currently managed by the third and fourth generations of the Lavazza family. The company imports coffee from various countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, Uganda, Indonesia, the United States, and Mexico. Lavazza was introduced to Canada in 1971. The company expanded its presence internationally and began exporting its coffee products to various countries, including Canada. Since then, Lavazza has established a presence in the Canadian market and offers its range of coffee products to Canadian consumers.

Brian and Andrea discuss the history of Lavazza, Italian coffee culture, how to make the perfect cup of coffee at home, and much more.

Stay tuned to the very end of the episode for a special offer!

This episode can be found here or find us in your favourite podcasting app, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music.

If you like what you hear, please don’t hesitate to rate us kindly. And if there are particular topics you’d like covered, please let us know.

What is SPAC Arbitrage? with Jamie Wise on The Unlimited Podcast

SPAC Arbitrage. While it may sound complicated, we are lucky to have Jamie Wise, President & CEO of Periscope Capital, as our guest on The Unlimited Podcast to explain. In fact, we’ll go back to basics to understand what “arbitrage” is and why investors have been trying to find arbitrage opportunities forever.

Prior to launching Periscope Capital in 2009, Jamie was a managing director at Moore Capital Advisors Canada, a multi-strategy Canadian-focused hedge fund. Prior to Moore Capital, Jamie was a Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at BMO Capital Markets where he led an internal proprietary trading group (we’ll explain what that means as well). At BMO, Jamie was appointed the youngest Managing Director in the firm’s history. He has an undergraduate business degree (hons.), graduating first in his class from the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario in 1998 and holds a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.

Jamie is also the founder of Buzz Indexes, creators of the BUZZ index (NYSE:BUZZ), also known as the VanEck Social Sentiment ETF. BUZZ uses AI to measure investor sentiment across millions of social media posts each month, ranking the top 75 stocks in the BUZZ NextGen AI US Sentiment Leaders Index™.

Brian and Jamie discuss what it takes to be successful as a young professional, SPACs 101, the beauty of asymmetric returns, how AI is being used in markets today, and much more.

This episode can be found here or find us in your favourite podcasting app, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music.

If you like what you hear, please don’t hesitate to rate us kindly. And if there are particular topics you’d like covered, please let us know.

Business News Anchor Jon Erlichman on The Unlimited Podcast

On this episode of The Unlimited Podcast, BNN Bloomberg news anchor Jon Erlichman joins Brian for an interesting “behind-the-scenes” look at what it’s like to be a business journalist.

Brian and Jon discuss what it takes to be “on” all the time, what makes a great interview, some stories from Jon’s celebrity interviews, and much more!

Jon Erlichman anchors BNN Bloomberg’s morning program, The Open, which airs every weekday. He also serves as co-host of Bloomberg’s global program Bloomberg Markets which airs weekdays as well. Erlichman has a background as a scoop-oriented reporter, an accomplished interviewer of top global CEOs and a digital innovator. On BNN he has interviewed too many high profile Canadian CEOs and business leaders to name. Erlichman has interviewed athletes such as Connor McDavid, entertainers such as Robert DeNiro, Ice Cube, Dan Aykroyd and Charli XCX, and entertainment industry players including Brian Grazer, Jerry Bruckheimer, Disney’s Michael Eisner, Ron Howard and Jon Favreau, leading investors such as David Einhorn and Michael Burry, and media and tech leaders including Barry Diller and Jimmy Iovine. Among other roles, Erlichman previously served as a correspondent for ABC News in Los Angeles, an anchor and reporter for Bloomberg Television in New York, and in San Francisco with Bloomberg Technology. Beyond his traditional news experience, Erlichman is passionate about digital media. In 2015, he helped launch Parachute TV, the first live streaming TV channel on Twitter’s Periscope app and he himself has more than 100,000 followers across all social media platforms.

Click here for Jon’s full bio from BNN Bloomberg.

This episode can be found here or find us in your favourite podcasting app, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music.

If you like what you hear, please don’t hesitate to rate us kindly. And if there are particular topics you’d like covered, please let us know.

Tax-Effective Giving with Ali Spinner on The Unlimited Podcast

Ali Spinner on The Unlimited Podcast

Even though tax season is coming to a close, it is never to late to plan for next year! On this episode of The Unlimited Podcast, Alexandra (Ali) Spinner joins Brian to share some tips and tricks for maximizing your charitable donations.

Brian and Ali discuss Ali’s “Three W” framework for giving, alternative donation methods, different avenues for philanthropy, how Ali became known as the Tax Ninja, and much more!

Ali is a Partner in Crowe Soberman’s Tax Group, a member of the firm’s Management Committee, and leader of the High-Net-Worth tax practice. Her practice focuses on helping wealthy families and high-performance professionals structure their affairs in a tax-efficient manner. She works closely with her clients to ensure that their short and long term personal, financial, estate, and philanthropic goals are carefully considered in their planning. Ali brings a high level of passion and warmth to her practice and enjoys building deep relationships with her clients across generations.

Ali’s broad technical expertise includes domestic, cross-border, and international tax matters for individuals, trusts, estates, and corporations. She is experienced in complex estate and trust planning, post-mortem planning, corporate reorganizations, and the preparation of Canadian tax returns and compliance forms. Her transaction advisory experience includes tax due diligence and business purchase and sale structuring. She has testified in Ontario court and has been recognized by the court as an expert in taxation matters.

Ali has more than 20 years of experience in public accounting and tax and estate planning. In 2022, she was elected as a Fellow of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario. The distinction of Fellow formally recognizes her exceptional service to the professional and to the broader community.

Ali is a past lecturer in the Commerce Program at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, CPA Canada’s In-Depth Tax Program, and the School of Accountancy Tax Program administered by CPA Ontario.

In 2020, Ali was the recipient of the Award of Excellence presented by the Jewish Foundation’s Professional Advisory Committee. In 2016, she was a winner of the M&A Advisor Emerging Leaders Award (Top 40 Under 40). In 2015, she received the CPA Ontario and the Institute for Management & Innovation at the University of Toronto’s Alumni Award. She is also a 2002 recipient of the Gordon Cressy Student Leadership Award from the University of Toronto.

This episode can be found here or find us in your favourite podcasting app, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music.

If you like what you hear, please don’t hesitate to rate us kindly. And if there are particular topics you’d like covered, please let us know.

Ginsler Wealth First Quarter 2023 Client Letter – Well Done Edition

(An audio version of this letter can now be found as Episode 20 of The Unlimited Podcast by Ginsler Wealth. Use the link provided or find us on your favourite podcast app.)

To Ginsler Wealth’s Clients:

Back in 1998 during my last year in the Ivey Business School’s HBA program, I organized a large event for the school, which I thought went off very well. A few days after the event was over, I got called in to see Lawrence Tapp, the Dean of the school. Nervously, I made my way to his office where he sat me down and said: “Brian, job not just done…but well done.” Phew. I’ve never forgotten that phrase.

Fast forward 25 years, a few weeks ago I was at Pearson airport at 6am for an early flight with my son. Prior to the flight, we sat down and ordered breakfast off the iPad ordering system. My friends who know me well will know that I like all my food well done…well done eggs, well done potatoes, well done toast, well…you get the picture. (And yes, I am a pain at restaurants).

A few minutes after ordering, I realized that I hadn’t specified my “well done” preferences electronically so I walked to the open kitchen area where the chef was cooking. Remember, this is 6am and I’m sure catering to my particularities was likely not high on his list of things to care about. When I called to him and asked about making everything well done, he didn’t look very pleased to speak to me and said that the food was already ready.

The food as delivered was not well done but I figured I’d make the best of it. After the first bite, to my surprise, I heard the chef call to me from the kitchen area and ask if everything was ok or if I’d like it cooked a bit more. Since he was asking, I let him cook it a bit more and when it was returned to me the chef smiled as he watched me take the second bites with delight.

The chef got the job “done” originally. He delivered what I ordered, and he could have moved on. But he didn’t. He ensured my meal was cooked to my liking and in doing so he got the job not just done…but well done. I thanked him verbally and gave him a tip in excess of the entire cost of the meal.

I explained to my son that there is a magic in exceeding expectations.

I use this same “well done” phrase with our growing but small team at Ginsler Wealth. If we are going to provide you with great service and value, we have to exceed your expectations.

How are we doing on this front? I would like to hear from you.

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This past quarter, in addition to managing your portfolios, we have been very busy taking care of your other wealth management needs. This included updating tax and holding structures, updating wills, and introducing tax effective insurance solutions – all with the expert external partners we work with. For families that utilize our full family office services, we also rolled out technology that enables us to organize and manage all your critical financial documents, accessible at all times via a desktop and mobile app.

By the examples below, I’m encouraged that we are on the right path to delivering our services done well:

  • This past quarter, five different families asked me to be an executor of their wills. (Unfortunately, due to potential conflict of interests, we can’t do this, but we will always be available to support the appointed executors.)
  • In our specific desire to find a forum to allow you to hear from the investment managers we work with, along with other topics, last year we launched The Unlimited Podcast. In January, we learned that the podcast was ranked by Spotify in the Top 20% of Most Followed and Most Shared podcasts globally in 2022.[1]
  • And just recently, we were notified by Wealth Professional, a publisher focused solely on the Canadian wealth management industry, that Ginsler Wealth has been named an Excellence Awardee and finalist for The Avenue Living Asset Management Award for Portfolio/Discretionary Manager of the Year. While we care far less about what our industry thinks than what you think, we are proud to have garnered this recognition early in our journey.

Our ability to achieve the above – for your benefit – emanates from our deliberate decision to operate Ginsler Wealth as a fully independent wealth management firm. We only answer to one group: our clients. We decide what content to share with you via our podcast; we decide the level of breadth and depth of financial advice to provide; and we have no constraints on the investments that we can consider for your portfolios. I believe the latter enabled us to do a good job protecting your capital throughout 2022.[2]

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Speaking of investments, you no doubt are aware of the continued volatility and instability in some areas of the financial system, most notably the unbelievably swift collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (“SVB”). SVB was the largest bank failure since the Great Financial Crisis in 2008. Interestingly, equity and bond markets are positive both since the start of the year and since the day before SVB’s failure. This is a good reminder that while there is always plenty to worry about day-to-day, the markets are forward looking and in the long-run, push through the short-term noise. By now you should not be surprised to hear that while we may have taken some action in your portfolios over the past quarter, we have not made any dramatic changes during this time.

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At a time when some of our independent peers are either being bought or…um…given away to a big bank, we remain undistracted and resolutely focused on getting the job well done for the most important people in this relationship – all of you.

Thank you for your trust, support, and confidence. We are available 24/7 should you need us.

Sincerely,

Brian singnature

Brian Ginsler
President & CEO

 

[1] Source: Spotify. Year-end statistical summary. January 10, 2022.

[2] Reminder that our clients have varying risk tolerance and goals & objectives. All Ginsler Wealth portfolios are customized for each client and therefore all portfolios will have a different performance experience as a result.

The Evolution of Investing with Ira Gluskin on The Unlimited Podcast

On this episode of The Unlimited Podcast, Brian is joined by one of Canada’s “legendary” investors, his friend and mentor, Ira Gluskin.

Brian and Ira discuss the founding of Gluskin Sheff, investing and investment management, Ira’s career advice, and the advantages of a multi-family office over a large investment firm.

Ira Gluskin is the Chief Investment Officer of Irager + Associates Inc., a family office, overseeing Strategy and Investments. Mr. Gluskin was the Co-Founder of Gluskin Sheff + Associates Inc. He served as the firm’s President & Chief Investment Officer from its founding in 1984 until December 31, 2009 and as a Director and the firm’s Vice-Chairman through 2013.

Prior to co-founding Gluskin Sheff, Mr. Gluskin had worked in the investment industry for 20 years. He serves on the Board of Directors of both Tricon Capital Group and European Residential Real Estate Investment Trust and serves on the board of trustees for First Capital REIT. He is a member of the Advisory Board of Vision Capital Corporation, and The University of Toronto’s Real Estate Advisory Committee. He is also on the University of Toronto’s Boundless Campaign Executive Committee, Sinai Health’s Board of Directors and Investment Committee, Board of the Canadian Jewish News, The Walrus Magazine, Capitalize for Kids, and the National Theatre School of Canada. Mr. Gluskin is also the former Chair of the University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation and the former Chair of the Investment Advisory Committee for the Jewish Foundation of Greater Toronto and is currently a member of its Investment Committee.

Mr. Gluskin received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto in 1964. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws degree from Wilfrid Laurier University 2019.

This episode can be found here or find us in your favourite podcasting app, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music.

If you like what you hear, please don’t hesitate to rate us kindly. And if there are particular topics you’d like covered, please let us know.

Real Estate Investing with Jeffrey Olin on The Unlimited Podcast

There are many ways to get exposure to real estate. Our guest, Jeffrey Olin, President & CEO of Vision Capital – managing approximately $1 billion solely focused on real estate investments – tells us how.

In this episode, Brian and Jeff provide an introduction to the real estate asset class (Real Estate 101), different real estate investing options, the challenges of owning real estate directly, public vs. private real estate investing, and much more.

Jeffrey Olin is a co-founder, CEO and has been a portfolio manager at Vision Capital for over 14 years. Mr. Olin brings ten years of direct corporate real estate experience and fifteen years of senior level investment banking experience to Vision Capital. Between 2003 and 2007, Mr. Olin served as the Managing Partner, Ontario and Head of Investment Banking with Desjardins Securities, a $200 billion financial institution. Mr. Olin was previously a Managing Director with HSBC Securities and a Vice President with Canaccord Capital. As an investment banker, Mr. Olin was the Lead Manager and M&A advisor with direct responsibility for over 70 transactions representing over $5 billion in value. He has served as a key advisor to many of Canada’s leading corporate, institutional, and family-owned real estate enterprises on their global real estate investments. Prior to his investment banking career, Mr. Olin has ten years of direct real estate industry experience. Between 1985 and 1991, Mr. Olin was Vice President with Bramalea Limited in Dallas, Texas and Toronto, Canada. In addition, he worked with Olympia & York Developments Ltd., and the Parking Authority of Toronto. His experience in real estate includes acquisitions and dispositions, development, financing, leasing, operations, and planning and design. Mr. Olin has extensive corporate governance experience and expertise. He has served on the Board of Directors for numerous public companies as well as charitable and community boards. He has also acted as an expert witness on behalf of the Ontario Securities Commission and the Government of Canada Parliamentary Finance Committee. Mr. Olin is a graduate from the Kellogg Graduate School at Northwestern University in Chicago with an MBA. He received his Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto.

This Podcast was recorded on February 17, 2023.

This episode can be found here or find us in your favourite podcasting app, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music.

If you like what you hear, please don’t hesitate to rate us kindly. And if there are particular topics you’d like covered, please let us know.

Bonus Episode: Bonds 101 on The Unlimited Podcast

A few weeks ago we released an episode of The Unlimited Podcast focused on bonds and bond investing featuring Richard Usher-Jones from Canso Investment Counsel, a $35 billion+ fixed income manager. In just a few weeks, that podcast has become one of our most played episodes and we have received significant positive feedback on the first half dedicated specifically to a “Bonds 101” lesson. So we extracted that section and created this bonus episode: Bonds… Just Bonds.

For those who aren’t very familiar with bonds or may want a refresher, for children, for teachers,…this is the episode for you!

This episode covers:

  • The bond market versus the equity market
  • What is a bond?
  • Coupon payments and “clipping coupons”
  • Who issues bonds?
  • What determines a bond’s interest rate, or yield?
  • The relationship between bond prices and interest rates
  • What are bond ratings?
  • Who has the highest bond ratings?
  • Investing in “junk” bonds
  • Which is safer: bonds or equities?
  • What is the yield curve?
  • And more…

This episode and the full original episode can be found here or find us in your favourite podcasting app, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music.

If you like what you hear, please don’t hesitate to rate us kindly. And if there are particular topics you’d like covered, please let us know.