Rainmaking Bankers Masterclass

Why he is one of the best presidents

Right at the start of the interview she goes after him.

No pleasantries, her opening question is an attack.

Without hesitation she’s going for the wound.

And it’s not even politics.

This is business.

It’s all good, he’s a master at this.

“Stock lagging”

“When you look at the strategy set by Goldman Sachs,” the Bloomberg reporter opens this interview, “Help us understand Goldman’s stock has been lagging on a price to book basis from some of its rivals, what are investors not seeing?”

Not nuclear, but aggressive, right?

That’s her opening question to the President of Goldman Sachs, John Waldron.

Right out the gates she’s challenging him to explain their lagging performance.

Now, look what he does with it.

“Well, first of all it’s great to have you in our building, thanks for taking the time,” he begins, “Today was an important day for us, as you said it was our second investor day in our 23 or so years as a public company…”

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Come out of the gates hot post Labor Day

In any ordinary year, now is the calm before the sprint.

This week is typically a time for chilling out and setting up for the post Labor Day rush.

You have this feeling of the year closing out, which is exciting, especially this year, but also the desire to finish the year strong.

But this is no ordinary year, is it?

Groundhog year

This groundhog year has presented many challenges, and a number of business leaders I’ve spoken to hardly feel like they got a summer.

Locked at home with the family, with a short leash to Zoom, they didn’t get their usual time to reset.

One told me he felt he was coming out of the starting gates half a track behind the other horses.

But he also readily admitted it’s likely many of those other chargers feel much the same way!

I suggested to him that even if he doesn’t feel well set up to finish the year…

You can easily, and quickly build momentum from here.

Building momentum through the summer

I’ll write you more about this August Man Upgrade I did on this person formerly known as Geoff Blades. 🙂

But ultimately it was about stepping back, resetting, and building momentum through the summer for driving the rest of the year.

Looking at where I was in late July, it was clear to me I needed to make changes to give it more gas.

An open wheel racing instructor once taught me that you only have three levers in driving a car.

He said think of it like a rope attaching your steering wheel to the gas and brake.

“The problem,” he said is, “You only have 100% grip, and so long as you’re on the gas, you’re taking some of that away from your ability to steer.”

Hence, in driving a car real fast you must be precise about how you align the steering before you kick it in the rear.

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How do you win in your Wall Street career NOW?

You may not be in a career on Wall Street, and get value from this new video program.

But you might still get value from where I’m taking this letter.

Where?

Well, the operative word in the subject line is NOW!

Meaning, in this Covid world, how do you keep driving forward in your business and career NOW?

2020 hardly what we dreamed…

That’s an understatement, right?

Of course none of us dreamed of the world coming to a halt!

But here we are…

So, what do you do?

You’ve certainly already adapted to this massive shock to the system.

And found some normalcy in the current environment, working from home, etc.

But what do you do from here?

How do you keep driving forward now?

What do you NEED to do?

This is the hardest place many people find themselves.

Covid has created massive problems in their business and career, and they need to do something.

Find another job. Adapt. They must solve a problem.

Luckily for many people on Wall Street this isn’t the case.

Unlike two previous massive shocks to the system I experienced and talk about here—when I began this work after the Internet bubble burst, and the 2008 credit crisis—Wall Street has held up nicely.

The markets have stayed strong.

Some Wall Street businesses have gotten stronger.

So unlike previous cycles where Wall Street careers got shredded, this time around there’s less you NEED to do.

That’s a good thing.

But it’s also bad because it can lead people to think it’s all good, and then focus too little on…

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Again this is only for bankers who especially now must be more commercially effective

Rainmaking Bankers

Hi there.

I hope you’re doing as well as can be expected.

I don’t know if you checked out this free video program for winning in banking I sent around a couple weeks back.

I’ve been getting a ton of great feedback on the program.

And people keep telling me it’s even more valuable now.

It’s of course gotten harder to win

The markets and economy are in tatters.

And it’s of course a much harder time to drive your banking business.

Less meetings.

Capital markets are closed

Fewer companies will transact.

It’s harder to connect with your clients but also a time when they need you even more.

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This is only for bankers who want to make more money working less

I know not many of you are bankers.

And that not all bankers want to make more money…

Let alone by working less 🙂

But for those who do, this short video program is for you!

For crushing your career in banking

With less effort.

In less time.

Making more money.

Getting promoted faster.

Creating more options in your career.

You want to be making it rain.

Because this Masterclass is 16 hours of rainmaking pleasure

And because I know some of you love my ranting at a camera…

We’ve recorded this short video program that gets to the heart of the Rainmaking Bankers Masterclass.

This free program gives away the golden goose for making more money in banking.

And if you’re serious about getting it pouring, gives you more intel and a deeper discount on the full program.

For a limited time only, you can check out the video program here.

Or if you like you can also get the program straight from the website for 30% off right here.

Disappointed on Comp? Do This.

It’s that time of year where some receiving bonuses are over the moon.

And many others are disappointed, feeling left behind.

There’s of course a lot that goes into how we’re paid that we can’t control.

But then there are those things that we can.

Do you get disappointed, and then do nothing to change?

Or do you use your comp as a signal to change your job or to drive more value where you are?

In this video I talk about:

How expectations lead many to be disappointed.
That it’s not just comp, but what it means.
If you’re disappointed, the three doors you get to choose…

“Geoff Blades You Suck”

You’re absolutely right…

Plenty of people might say that about me…

And I guess what really matters is…

Do I suck less than you want to learn a powerful, simple, two-step method to…

Destroy Objections?

Many people think they already know how to sell.

They speak eloquently.

Are fine at persuading people.

So they figure, that’s the craft, they are good at selling.

But in one question you can expose their faux skill—

What, specifically, is your process for destroying objections?

To be sure, if you lack a process for destroying objections, you lack a process for selling.

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Too Few Commercial Assassins

Rainmaking Bankers Roger Moore’s James Bond was a gentleman spy.

Daniel Craig’s is an assassin.

He may have a licence to kill but he’s got nothing on bankers.

Killers Everywhere

I spend time around SEALs and other trained killers.

None talk about killing more than bankers.

She’s a total killer.

A commercial killer.

Some are ’00s, commercial assassins.

Unfortunately, however, many bankers only ever kill trees making useless books.

They’ll never earn their licence to kill because nobody teaches them how.

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“I am simply trying to survive…”

Kids in Africa.

India.

Half the damn world.

They are TRYING to survive.

Half The Office Laid Off

It was 2001.

The Internet bubble had burst.

Goldman’s Silicon Valley office I’d relocated to was being slashed.

It didn’t make sense to me.

Is this as good as it gets?

All these people who’ve given their life to this business just trying to survive?

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Veggies Of Banking

If benefits are the meat of a sale.

Objections are the veggies.

They’re perhaps the most important part of the meal.

But they’re most often avoided.

Left On The Table

Us humans hate hearing no.

No man wants to be “rejected” by a woman.

No person wants to be told they can’t have what they want.

And too novice salespeople most want to avoid hearing no.

So they do everything they can to dance around it.

Like those banker meetings, consuming all the oxygen in the room, leaving no space to hear no…

Also means leaving with no idea what stands in the way of yes.

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“Never Too Junior To Make It Rain”

Rainmaking Bankers

“Too many junior bankers see their job as minutia,” a bank CEO said.

“But I keep grooming my entire team to see their job is revenues.”

What Does McDonald’s Do?

The most junior server at McDonald’s doesn’t just take your order, do they?

They upsell you to buy more.

Would you like fries with that?

How about a drink?

In their most seductive voice…

Hot fudge sundae… Mmmmm

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Bye Buy Morgan Stanley…

You’re meeting with a potential client.

They love the team.

Are really into what you’re talking about.

You’re delivering them massive value but something stands in the way.

“Our House Bank Is Morgan Stanley”

What do you say?

How do you blow out that “objection?”

There’s lots of ways to get it wrong.

You start talking about how much Morgan sucks…

When everyone knows they’re great and your not-client is already invested in them.

You talk up yourself and how much better you are…

When your not-client already thinks they work with the best.

So, what do you do?

How do you blow out the objection?

And perhaps Morgan too?

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Goldman Doesn’t Need Rainmaking Bankers

Top bankers are born, not made…

He didn’t use those words, but that’s what one of Goldman’s top execs implied.

We talked about if Tiger was born to play.

Or did honing his craft from 6 months old make him a champion of the game?

That said, he was right, Goldman doesn’t need this.

It’s Too Easy To Win…

When you’re the market leader.

The business card pulls the sale.

You attract top talent.

Long, deep relationships.

Enormous resources.

Market dominance.

Some celebrity execs.

Talking up recent deals.

It’s a winning formula, but no top franchise endures that way.

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“Bankers Aren’t Valued For Efforts”

Back in San Francisco I worked with a rockstar associate.

This guy would crank all night.

Be in all the details.

Leave rapid fire, all over it sounding voicemails.

15 years later he’s a middling senior-ish banker.

Bullet Points Aren’t The Job

When I was the Business Unit Manager (yes, BUM, aka staffer) at Goldman…

I got the inside scoop on what the business is really about.

In that one year by far I learned more about the banking business than the rest combined.

Stepping back from the day-to-day of being a banker…

I was responsible for managing bankers seeing clearly what was valued.

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Massive Shame In Banking

At Goldman it’s called the Junior Banker Problem.

Specifically, junior bankers lives get destroyed.

Banks have tried plenty things to solve it.

It’s all pig lipstick…

Because the root cause of the Junior Banker Problem is…

The Senior Banker Problem

Because few senior bankers get their job is selling.

They fail to build winning processes and skills.

The best they know is to wind up the printing press producing those awfully big, boring banker books.

Burning down forests and junior banker lives…

They run around having “Great Meetings.”

Mostly failing to drive results.

They produce too little value for the firm.

Too little success for themselves.

And after all those years in the business, still fail to succeed.

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Many Bankers Don’t Get Their Job

I didn’t get it.

For years at Goldman I still didn’t get the job.

I was good at doing it.

But I still didn’t get what the business was really about.

Making Money…

In some ways I’m naive.

And I may have been a total dimwit starting at Goldman.

But my sense from 20+ years around the business is that many bankers still fail to get their job is selling.

A great aspect of working at Goldman and some shops is it’s a team culture.

At least up until the senior ranks, it’s all about what we’re doing together in best serving our clients.

That’s a powerful mindset for delivering your best service…

But it leaves many bankers confused what the business is actually about.

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Most Bankers MASSIVELY Underpaid

After the credit crisis there was lots of noise about banker compensation.

For good reason, people questioned bankers’ role and how much they’d been paid.

There’s certainly lots wrong with compensation in our society, including…

How Many Bankers Are Underpaid

Fact is…

Most bankers didn’t join the industry expecting little reward.

If you’d told them decades ago, give your life to this and one day you’ll be making 0.25X, many would have chosen a different path.

Of course relative to the average worker bankers are ridiculously paid.

But relative to others providing such massive value to our society as reading lines or catching balls, not so much.

Nor relative to what bankers give to get paid.

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Take This To The Next Level

What’s more human than progress?

No matter how far we’ve come, there’s something inside that keeps us striving to the next level.

What is this for you?

What does it take for you reach it?

What do you need when you get there?

A Hard Thing…

About reaching the next level is that, by definition, it requires something beyond this level.

Whether it’s taking your career/business to another level, getting in better shape, getting more skilled, or any other goal requires something beyond where we are now.

In gaming, leveling up requires navigating your current level, collecting keys, earning points, overcoming an ordeal, whatever it is demands you collect what you need before ascending.

This test determines if you’re qualified to pass, and also ensures you have what you need to succeed at a higher level.

When a hike turns into technical climb it’s too late to turn around and go get your rope.

To pass to the next level you must be ready when you arrive.

Acting As-If, We Fail

In our careers it’s natural to think we get promoted when we’re successful, but in fact we get promoted to test if we can succeed at a higher level.

An NFL player doesn’t succeed by playing college ball.

We can be fooled into chicken and egg thinking that when we make it to the next level we’ll step up our game, but by definition we step up to be here.

This isn’t only having the capabilities we need to succeed, but also the self-image.

As was perhaps best put by Maxwell Maltz some 70 years ago, we only achieve goals that are consistent with who we perceive ourselves to be.

And to reach the next level we must not only become this person, we must be them now.

Acting as if, we fail.

Daniel Craig does a nice job acting as a cold killer, but you’d hardly want him covering your six in a gunfight.

To reach that next level, we can’t fake it till we make it, we must make it now to take it there.

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Why Bankers Lives Suck. And What To Do About It.

Investment banking is hardly known for its cushy lifestyle, but every now and then we’re reminded of just how bad it can be.

Earlier this week a buddy forwarded me this email message from a staffer at Moelis.

I don’t know whether it’s legit or not (I’m told it is), but irrespective it’s hardly a unique message in investment banking.

Long story short, the staffer (who is responsible for assigning bankers to projects) sent an email to his team after walking the floor at 2am, and noticing how many seats were empty.

As he supposedly wrote—

Given that new staffings continue to flow in and you are all very near capacity, the only way I can think of to differentiate among you is to see who is in the office in the wee hours of the morning.

Ouch!

Can you imagine that?

You’re working your ass off 7 days a week in a grueling job, and now you’re being judged on how busy you are based on whether you’re in the office at 2am?

I can. I lived that life, and I also did a year in the job of staffer.

While it’s easy to beat up on the staffer for his lack of managerial skills (and judgement in sending that email), I can attest that it was perhaps the hardest job I did in banking, where you’re constantly pulled and pushed in every direction.

It’s demand and supply, baby!

As the staffer, you have a limited pool of resources to assign to projects, and unlimited mouths to feed.

In my experience it was the rare senior banker who would step back and really think carefully about the work that needed to be done (blast from the past shout out to George Lee, Mike Wishart and Kevin Quinn), and whether it was worth having someone sit up all night and do it.

Generally, that’s not because senior bankers perceive working like a medical resident as a rite of passage, or they don’t care about their team, but because they also have mouths to feed.

Clients. Bosses. Shareholders. Enormous, enormous pressure to perform.

As Lloyd Blankfein once put it, the culture of insecurity runs all the way to the top in banking, and while senior bankers might want to help their juniors have a more balanced life, most of all they want to deliver their best for their clients.

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Why My Greatest Achievement As A Goldman Sachs VP Was Quitting

6 AM meant it was time to check voicemails. 11 PM meant it was time to check voicemails again. Every second in between reserved for cranking and putting out the many fires guaranteed to crop up that day.

That was my life as a Goldman Sachs VP, and despite what you might assume, I didn’t hate it.

I didn’t get there by accident. I’d worked that hard since my first job at KFC to get where I thought I should want to be, and by all accounts I was crushing my goals.

Except they weren’t my goals. Despite my success, despite the deep friendships I’d made at Goldman, I could never shake the sense that I was living someone else’s idea of success.

At a certain point, it was time to leave.

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