Because I think it's all about relationships. I think in life, if you give more than you take, it'll come back to you in spades. That pays dividends because, of course, when people treat you that way, you're more apt to work hard for them. If one of your goals this year is to strengthen your team or shift your culture, you're in the right place. Welcome to "Howl Leaders Lead." I'm David Novak. And every week, I have conversations with the very best leaders in the world to help you become the very best leader that you can be. My guest today is Louise Brady, the co-founder of Managing Partner at Piedmont Capital Partners. They're a venture capital firm out of North Carolina. And let me tell you, you're going to love getting a sneak peek into the incredible technologies they're investing in. You're also going to love hearing "Howl Louise Leads." I mean, she is an absolute master at building strong teams and strong relationships. In her words, it's all about people. When you put them first, when you cheer for them, when you go above and beyond for them, it all comes back to you. And not in just fluffy, feel-good ways. As you're about to see, that kind of generosity can drive serious results for your culture, your bottom line, and your own personal growth. So here's my conversation with my good friend, and soon to be yours, Louise Brady. You know, I'm looking at your office there, and it looks like it's spick and span. I mean, it looks like everything is so together there. Is it always like that? Sadly, it probably is always like this, or usually is like this, because I'm on the road a lot, and I'm working from all over the place, sometimes from home, sometimes from the office, but a lot of times from a plane or anywhere. With Zoom, you can pretty much be anywhere. That's true, and speaking of traveling a lot, one place we both travel to is Philadelphia, because we're both on the Comcast board, and so we go down and work out, and I see you in the mornings working out, and I'm doing my thing, which is pretty simple, and then I look over at you and you're killing yourself, okay? You know, I mean, you really, really go after it. What's that say about the way how you lead, and how much does just working out really impact you? It helps me. I mean, daily, I think it's my antidepressant, or whatever you want to call it. Get up every morning and get my workout in, and I feel so much more effective. And literally, if I wait and do it in the afternoon, it's always a good little pick me up, but my day goes better if I start off with it. But as far as how I lead, I think it's with enthusiasm for sure. I've got a little extra dose of, some might call it Pollyanna, but belief and hope and mankind and doing better things. So I just go after it hard, and if you fail, you get up and try again. So my exercise, I just try to make myself miserable and sweat really bad for 20 minutes than I feel like I've done something good. - Now you started Piedmont with one of our mutual friends, Bobby Long. What's something you've learned about leadership, getting to work with him as a partner for all these years? - Oh God, that's a softball question. There's nobody better in the world than Bobby Long. And to be able to work side by side with him from the last 13, 14 years has been amazing. We had worked together in the community, so I'd seen him lead in a community setting, but through a business, it's even more fun. He's a leader that is quiet, and you don't even know you're being led, because he's so nice and so kind, but yet he's wicked smart and gets what he needs to get done. So he's been a great mentor, and I think probably if Bobby epitomizes anything, it is give people the benefit of the doubt and work with him and be overly nice, and it usually pays back. We try to be givers and not takers, if you know what I mean. - Yeah, I do, and give us a snapshot of Piedmont and the business you two started in 2013. - Bobby, as I said, Bobby and I had worked together in the community on community projects, and we both were at a point where we wanted to do something a little different. I'd come up through banking and then the investment business, and was excited when Bobby said, "Hey, let's start this fund to invest in smart people "and help grow jobs in our region." So that was really the nexus of it, is it was kind of a three-legged stool. I get to continue in the investment business. I get to try to help people and help the community while doing good. So we got started, we didn't know what we were doing, but we knew that we both had a heart for it. So we went up to New York and met with Henry Kravas, who I did not know at the time, but I grew up in banking back in the '80s. So Barberry and to the gate, that book, I'm sure everybody remembers, was one of the case studies that we had when I was going through the training program at the bank. And so I was expecting Henry to be this big grumpy man, and he was nothing but, he was the exact opposite and was such a sweetheart, gave me a hug, we're real southern, so I love that. And we talked about what we'd done in the community, and by the end of the meeting, he said, "Look, you guys are in North Carolina, "you've got some of the best universities of any state. "Go to universities, most of the technologies "being spun out of universities. "It's not being created in corporate America anymore, "they're just buying it." So go find the smart people. So we did, and here we are, I think for about 13 years in, and have launched another fund and have had a great time with a lot of smart people and a lot of great companies. - There are lots of reasons why people invest. Sometimes it's the idea, sometimes it's the people, sometimes it's the vision. What's most important for you that really makes you wanna get involved? - It's all about the people. I mean, it starts with people, ends with people, and all along the way it's people. If you get it right on the people, if you work with good people, you're gonna enjoy what you're doing. And I think if you enjoy what you're doing and you're doing it with good people, anything can be accomplished. So we start with great technology, of course, but there's plenty of good technology that's still sitting on the shelf and never gets commercialized. There's also plenty of people that you wouldn't wanna work with that have been really successful too. We've chosen work with good people and together just continue to row the boat. And probably if we do anything, we're overly enthusiastic and continue to push our founders. We start companies. And so it's been really fun to just pull them through the quicksand or part cheerleader, part HR director, part finance director of it. I think really just not giving up and continuing is important. And you've gotta have the people you wanna be around to be in the slog like that to continue. - Tell me about one of these companies that you started up that you're most proud of because of the success it's had and the difference it's making in people's lives. - I'd probably go to our Alzheimer's drug and this is one that you know and it's near and dear to most everybody's heart 'cause we're all affected by it. My mother has vascular dementia. And so it's something we need to solve for America and we met an amazing man, Frank Longo, who is a physician and he also was the chair of neurology at Stanford for 16 or 17 years and just stepped down to focus more on the company that we started with or that he started that we helped fund. And it's been an amazing journey. This will be a daily pill that people take which will stop Alzheimer's, stop the synaptic connection degradation and we're even hopeful that it will reverse it. He'll probably kill me for saying that. But in mouse models it has done that and their brains are very similar to our brains. Sometimes the body translation isn't as exact but so we're very hopeful for that one and it's been interesting because it's been a virtual company. So we've really kind of, you know, I'm on the board. So, you know, in there daily working with them, trying to build the business around it and try to figure out how to move it forward. Frank is an amazing scientist and leader and he's managed a ton of people but he hasn't run a business. So we've pulled together great consultants and with his help we've been able to get to the point we are now which is getting ready to head into our pivotal trials for Alzheimer's and looks like we've got the only answer out there. So we're excited. - When you start a business up like that, it's not a straight line. I mean, he has a great idea. You know, he's the horse that can maybe come up with the cure but how do you yourself just stay the course and keep forging ahead? I'm sure there are a lot of times you have setbacks. - Oh, there's setbacks for sure. I think you have to believe in it and then you also have to believe in the goodness of people and they give you a great example of that. We also have a battery startup. So everything that we do is something that we're passionate about, something that can change the world, improve the world, make things better for humankind. And so that's what drives me every day. It's like, okay, I've got to get this cancer drug to market or I've got to get this Alzheimer's drug to market or we've got to solve this energy problem. So the energy problem, let's think about it. China has pretty much, you know, lapped us in all of the energy transformation and really the US needs something and we feel like we have got the next generation battery. It's a solid state battery, no liquid, so it won't blow up. But we think we have that in this company that I'm talking about, but it was not a straight road at all. We started it, it was technology spun out of UNC with Joe D. Simone who was a prolific inventor and professor and we actually launched three companies with him right off the bat, one of which was this battery company, BlueKurt. Well, five years into it, this safe battery we were going after blew up beautifully and a safety test. I mean, completely blew up and we're like, oh no, what do we do now? And the co-founder is a gentleman by the name of Natasha Balsera and this goes to working with good people. So he is a professor at Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Labs and is a foremost battery specialist and so well respected. He is such a sweetheart. He's a dear, dear friend. So when it blew up, we thought we're gonna have to close the company down and Natasha goes, no, no, no. Actually, we've had this finding in my lab for the solid state, this new battery and I think that we should put that inside BlueKurt. We said, well, Natasha, you don't have to because that really wasn't what we were funding. Yes, we're after a safe battery, but you don't have to do that. And he said, this is what I want to do. He said, y'all are my partners, why would I pick other partners? When I know how well this is running and how y'all are to work with. Those are the kind of people we wanna bet on and continue to push. And he said, you're crazy to do this anyway because nobody bets on batteries. It's a graveyard of investments and nobody's gonna wanna invest with you. And fast forward 13 years later and now we've got some fabulous partners and are on our way to really having the next generation battery. Fantastic. And speaking of good people, understand you have this policy which you call the NOAA policy or the NOAA H policy. Tell us about that policy and how you came up with it. Okay, so it's no assholes allowed, so excuse my French, but that's what the NOAA policy is. And actually Joe D. Simone, the founder that we spun three companies with out of UNC, he's the one who taught us that and it is so true. You just need to pick people that you can be in the trenches with because you're gonna see in a early stage venture investing, you're gonna see every part of somebody's personality, the good, bad, and the ugly. And you gotta make sure that when they're in the ugly, you can still handle it and that they're good people. And so everybody we pick is in that area. And so it makes it fun to work with them and together, you just keep digging out of the quicksand. And I think that's led to a lot of our success and bringing things to market that wouldn't otherwise make it. - That's a great comment that leads to my next question. And I'd like you to share the story of the honey badger. - Okay, so we, this is Carbon, which is a 3D printing company. And it's the next generation 3D printing. So it's, we say it's like the Terminator is growing out of liquid. So it truly was novel and Joe D. Simone, that was one of his companies. And we, he showed us in his office, he printed a little square, a little ice cube, and we were wild, like, can you really do that? And we said, okay, we'll invest. Tell us how much, tell us what you need, tell us what percentage of the company we get. I mean, we were, you know, pretty stupid naive, but we were so excited about it. So fast forward, we were having board meetings on the weekends with, you know, their spouses were involved. I mean, it was really like a family business. His son got involved and is now the CEO of the company. But we said, well, we need to take it out to California 'cause we need investment and we need to go talk to Sequoia Capital 'cause they would be a great investor. So we carry our 3D printer on a plane in a box and we called it like the Honey Badger and took it into Sequoia and had a meeting at 10 in the morning. We took out our, you know, 3D printing, 3D printer, printed in front of them. They said, oh, wow, can you come back at noon? Came back at noon, printed again. They said, would you mind coming back at five and by five o'clock every partner in Sequoia was in that room stuffed in there to watch it? 'Cause it's, there's nothing like showing somebody live what your product can do. But we called it the Honey Badger. Everybody's like, what are you doing? You're carrying that box into the meeting. And the funny thing was when we flew it, we never thought about the, you know, like I said, it's resin, it's, you know, it's growing out of liquids. We never thought about the resins and how they would do back in the hold of the baggage. You know, at freezing temperatures, we're like, oh God, we could have blown this whole thing. But it ended up working fine. And we got investment from Sequoia and the rest is history. - That's a great firm. - It was our first unicorn. - There you go, you know, you're such a posy person. You're enthusiastic, you just mentioned that. And you're dealing with these leaders who you really good invested in and you care about them. And you know, but I have to ask you, you know, what's your decision making process like when you, in terms of whether deciding whether you should push through or when to really cut your losses? I mean, you know, can you give an example of when you decided, you know, it was time to pull the plug or is that hard for you to do? - That is the hardest thing to do. I will say you just picked on the one thing that we need to get better at is letting your babies go. But it's hard when they are your babies and you're so passionate about it. I think when we have decided that way, it's been a group effort, you know, the leader of the company in addition to all the investors. We don't make it in a vacuum. We're supportive till the very end. But there are times when you've either just missed the market and there's a better technology that comes along or it's just not good enough. And you think it's the end all be all. And we have, I have one example of that, which is a company. It's, it was, we took it public. It was called Nexamune. And the science is great. The people are great. The trials, we went into really, really hard areas. AML and MML, you know, myelomas and it's the last line therapy. So it was just, it was a very tough trial and we didn't have enough money and we should have raised right when we went public and we didn't. And so we literally were limping along with not much money and the technology's still great and we just ran out of time. And so we've closed the company, but that was a tough one because you know, that's one of those technologies that will be sitting on the shelf. And I hope someday somebody will pick up the IP and go run with it. Maybe a big farmer will after hearing this. (laughs) - I hope they do hear it. And you know, I can't wait to talk more about, you know, what you're doing at Piedbump. But first, Louise, I wanna take you back to the beginning. You know, what's a story from your childhood that shaped the kind of leader you are today? - That's an interesting question. Well, there might be a few things. Growing up, I had an older brother and a younger brother. So I always felt like I was, you know, a boy until my parents, we were playing shirts and skins and my older brother said, "You can't play with us anymore. You can't do skins." I'm like, "Why?" I didn't get it. And my dad always said I was his middle boy. And he really did treat me like a boy, a man. So I would read the Wall Street Journal with him, you know, in the mornings, you know, before school. We talk about business at night. And so it really was my dad. And I think him not treating me differently. I mean, I was always his princess, he would say, but he treated me just like one of the boys. So from a business perspective, I always kind of had that business mind of really being intrigued about business and the way things ran. So I have to give credit to my dad. - Hey everyone, it's Kula. We'll get back to the interview in just a second. Before we do though, I have a question for you. Have you downloaded the How Leaders Lead app on your iPhone? If you haven't, take 20 seconds right now, go to the App Store, search for How Leaders Lead, and download the How Leaders Lead app. In the app every day, you'll get a two minute video that'll give you a leadership insight from one of our amazing guests from our podcast to inspire you and to really get your mind in the right place before you start your work day. So go to the App Store, search How Leaders Lead, download the How Leaders Lead app and start your day every day with two minutes of leadership wisdom. It'll take 20 seconds, go to the App Store, download the app, and you'll be able to watch every day, just like me, the leadership insight from How Leaders Lead. - What are the things that I've observed with women in business? And I'd like to get your perspective on this is that I don't think it should be this way, but what I find a lot of times with women in business is they're really good at making men feel comfortable around them. They don't necessarily wear being a female on their sleeve. What do you think about that? Am I way off base on that or what's your perspective? - Obviously, I think to be successful as a woman, it was a lot different back in the '80s when I first started working than it is today. I feel like women have a fair chance at being just as successful as men. There was a little bit of the glass ceiling going on when I first started working. And so yes, you would try to be as kind as you could and maybe almost to the point of being sweet and maybe subservient, but once you got in the room and your kindness would get you in the door, then you had to show that you had something upstairs that you could talk business and/or had the fortitude for the business. So I do think that as women were raised, especially in the South and from North Carolina, were raised to be kind to people and gracious and hospitable. So I think that's part of just what comes with the territory and my world, but I can't speak for other women. But I think we've kind of gotten past the hardest parts. - Oh, that's great. I hope so, for my daughter's sake and all the women out there in the world are really trying to make it. I think it should be an even playing field. But you talk about being kind and here you are in this investment business and it's a sharp, elbow business. I mean, how did you have to grow in that aspect of your ability to get tough? - I'm pretty stubborn. I was born in May, so I'm a tourist. I'm pretty bullheaded. And so if I believe in something, I'm gonna continue to push for it. And I think I was like that since I was two years old. So that hadn't changed, but I think you have to know your subject matter and you have to know what it is that you're talking about to be able to command that type of respect. And so I just, I really think that it's part of just using, not only your niceness, but also moving forward and trying to make sure you keep up intellectually and are learning as much as you can and staying curious so that you can be persuasive. - Yeah, and having that dogged determination doesn't hurt either, right? - Yeah, I mean, but if you give up too soon, then shame on you. Were you really that passionate about it? So again, it all starts from the passion level and once you're passionate about something, you're not gonna easily give up. - You know, you spent almost a decade at Bank of America early on in your career. What was the biggest lessons you learned from that tenure? - Yeah, I was in banking at the most fun time. I feel like it was such a fun time. I was with NZMB, Nations Bank Bank of America. And that's back, I was living in Charlotte, back when Hugh McCall was running NCMB and Ed Crutchfield was running First Union. And there was this buzz in the banking industry. And McCall was literally changing the face of banking. We were making acquisitions. It was very aggressive, operated very much like a startup. And Hugh was a great person to kind of follow and learn from. I mean, he was so passionate about everything he wanted to do. So I feel like I got that entrepreneurial spirit, believe it or not, in corporate banking. Because we were doing deals and we were small at the time. So we would take deals up to McCall's office and talk to him about him. And he loved it. He loved being in the game. So it was just an exciting time. And I think that banking today probably looks a little bit different from the entrepreneurial standpoint with rules and regulations. So it was a great time to be in banking and I learned a tremendous amount. - Now I understand you used to actually take Fridays off. Tell us more about that. - Okay, well I'm a mother of three, three very successful children that I'm very proud of. And actually my eldest daughter who's gonna be 31 next month is in venture capital as well. When I had our first child, I was working five days a week at the bank and I was actually scared, this is back when women weren't, you know, as lucky as they are today to be seen as equal. I was scared they were gonna fire me if I took too much time off so I was like, okay, I wanna work four days a week. I just wanna take Fridays off. And my manager at the time, I've been so lucky to have strong men and compassionate men as managers and mentors. He's like, Louise, y'all were made to make children. This is, you are the people that we want to have children because you're gonna raise them well. And he goes, of course you should stay home on Fridays and be with your children. And so I took Fridays off after the first child, after the third, the second child, I was scared to death that they were gonna say, oh, she's got two children, she's not gonna come back, which I did. And so I kind of crafted my schedule from that point on, we had a nanny and she was wonderful. She had raised three boys and so she was excited at the two girls at the time. And I don't think I would have continued working and had a not-had nanny for a decade. But she was like a grandmother and a friend and I felt so comfortable, but she had never worked on Fridays either. So it was just this match made in heaven that she replied to the one ad we put in the Greensboro News and Record, our newspaper. - That's great. - Yeah, but I think it was a great work-life balance. - Yeah, that's a great story. And then you became the VP of Investments at Wells Fargo and how did your leadership change in that new environment or did it? - I mean, I think I've always matured and I hope I'm still growing even today. I have a lot to learn. So, but yeah, that was a transition. It was a good transition. My father had always been a broker. He was an institutional broker. And when we moved back to Greensboro with my husband, when he was coming to work for a family business and moved from Charlotte and I transferred with the bank, I started thinking more seriously about it. And so I went to work with Dad, but I said, "Look, I don't want to be an institutional salesman because I don't want to sell research and have to wake up every single day to earn my keep. And I want to do fee-based business, which was similar to what I did at the bank, account management, relationship management." So I went to New York, went to the training program and kind of went into a different side of the business than my dad. We were always partners, but I was independent enough that I said, "I want to have my own book of business and I want to do my own thing." And so we kind of paralleled, but I spent the next 20 years with most of my bank clients came over and were my investment clients. So going to quarterly investment committee meetings and managing pools of money and asset allocating, all the smart things that you have that advisors do for your portfolio. And then Bobby says, "Let's go do startups where you've got to give up on this asset allocation and risk profile. You've got to go on the far edge of what I've been doing and it took a while to learn how to take that risk." - You know, you're a tremendous relationship person. What advice can you give to people on how to make a relationship work in business? - That's a good question. I don't know if I'm great at it, but I certainly try because I think it's all about relationships. I think in life, if you give more than you take, it'll come back to you in spades. And so try to be helpful whenever we can. Try to really try to go above and beyond what they would expect. And I think that pays dividends because of course when people treat you that way, you're more apt to work hard for them. So it's really jumping in and joining the team with them and there's no hierarchy and it's everybody working together and just, you know, if you give 150% then everybody else is gonna level up so to speak to wanting to be that passionate about it. So you just gotta keep the dream alive and stay positive and keep growing. So I'm part cheerleader, I guess. (laughs) - But you know, speaking of being positive and optimistic, you know, that's a trait that you yourself have. How do you spread that with your team and the people that you work with? I mean, what's the key to that? In your mind. - The key to that, you know, exercise every morning, as I said earlier, right at the beginning, you know, when things get tough, if you take the positive path and take the higher road, people start watching. I mean, like I said, I've learned that from my business partner, from Bobby. It's really compelling. So the more you do it, the more other people do it. It's like paying it forward. So I think optimism and enthusiasm, it all goes into believing in people and believing in a mission. And if you continue like that, then it's contagious. And I think people want to replicate it. - Can you tell a story, Louise, when you were dealing with somebody on your team or maybe someone you were trying to build a relationship with where they were just negative as hell and you really needed to help them get an attitude adjustment? You know, how'd you go about it? - That's a really tough one. I think the only way to do that, I can't say that I'm good at that. The only way in my mind that I've ever somewhat been able to do that is to try to tell a story and put their behavior or the thing that you would like to change or coach them on into a story of other people and what it felt like or what the thoughts and reactions were on the other side. And so they see it from a third party. And so sometimes it clicks and then they can adjust their attitude without you having to go straight to them and saying, you've got a bad attitude or whatever. That seems better than hitting people direct. There are certain people, it depends on the personality, that you can just go to them and say, "Gah, I love you so much and I just want you to know that you're a 10 out of a 10 liter." But gosh, if you just, if you added this into your repertoire and then you'd be amazing. So you can do it in that way too. I just think it's always with the lead of positive. You know, five compliments to one improvement. - As someone, Louise, who gets regularly, you know, pitched on ideas. I mean, you've got people coming to you and you're going to people to hear about their ideas as well. What is the fastest way to get a yes from you? And what are your best practices that you really lean into when you're kind of assessing whether it's a yes or a no? - The fastest way to a yes is to have an area that we're passionate about. Something that's going to change the world. I mean, if it's groundbreaking and change the world type of technology, then we're hooked from the beginning. If you layer on amazing people and you do your diligence and background checks and you meet face to face with the leaders enough times to understand them, and I'll go back to that in a minute about any agreement, how helpful that's been to me. But knowing the personality and understanding the person, then that's two great things. And then you do your diligence and you've got to make sure that their IP and patent portfolio and positioning and all that makes sense in the market. But they hooked me the quickest, if it's the mission that we're excited about and the people are amazing, then the rest of it, because we can backfill some of the rest of it as long as they've got something unique to work with. - We'll be back with the rest of my conversation with Louise Brady in just a moment. As we're getting into the rhythm of a new year, it's a great time to revisit my conversation with Larry Bosni. He's the former CEO of Honeywell and the expert on execution and getting things done. - And I tried to reduce strategy to something that we could be sure to do. Every time I went to a business and a strategy session, I had a people session the same day. Do we have the people to execute the strategy without that, the debt and arrival? And secondly, as I said, we headed what I call an invasive people process where we evaluated the top 200 people in the company. And then we spent a lot of time in operations. Not only in the budget preparation, but on the execution of the budget. And the more time I spent in those three things, on the people, the strategy, and the operations, the better we got. - It's one thing to have a strategy. If you don't put the structure around it, so that you can execute it, you don't have a chance. - You don't. So lots of people get proud of the big books that they produce on strategy. And they're basically debt and arrival because they have no concept of how they're gonna execute it. - Go back and listen to my entire conversation with Larry. Episode 79 here on How Leaders Lead. - I've heard you say, dream huge into the stratosphere. Then maybe you'll get to the moon. You know, as you look to the future, what's clear to you that's maybe not yet visible to others that you wanna pursue? - I think the energy transition, I think biotech and healthcare, I think we will eradicate cancer and horrible diseases. There will be something else that comes up behind it. Like we've got one investment that we loved. And it was such a simple idea. It's called Surge. And what they do is this brilliant guy, more of a student scientist, and he just kept reading, reading, reading. He said, I think if we can get the T cells, which are the cells that fight cancer, when we're doing a surgery resection to remove a tumor, which is the standard of care now, you have a tumor, cancer tumor growing, you try to remove it, and then you treat it with, you know, radiation or chemotherapy. But when they're removing it, then what happens, the T cells are going to try to heal the wound, right? Which makes sense. And so they're not fighting off the cancer. So for two or three weeks until that wound heals, they're not doing their job, which is keep fighting that cancer that there's still little pieces of it floating around. So his idea is let's go into the surgery site, put in this gel that's treated with cancer fighting agents, and it signals to the T cells, you keep fighting the cancer, I'm sorry, with wound healing properties. So the T cells keep fighting the cancer, the gel fights the incision in the spot, in addition with some of, you know, some secret properties in there to help the cancer kind of stay away, then you never have a chance for those cancer cells to grow. We're in four or five indications now, and the results are astonishing, and it could potentially change the standard of care for cancer, which would be amazing. And it's just a, this smart kid that read a lot and said, "I think we can start this company." So following somebody like that and an idea like that. So I think I went off a little bit on a tangent, but that's such a fun story to tell. Anything to shoot the moon that's gonna change things for the future. - And you know, you obviously have the passion. What have you learned about sustaining the passion? You know, 'cause I mean, a lot of times it's easy, you know, you get so passionate to be getting, how do you sustain it? 'Cause I think that's key. I mean, you know, a lot of leaders, you fall in love with an idea or a thought, and then, you know, the next one comes along and you go to that one, but you don't really sustain something that needs to be sustained. - I think I'm just hard-headed enough to wanna stick to it until I see it, to fruition or to see it successful. So, you know, remember, if you start with something that you're passionate about, like your kids, you're not gonna give up on your kids, you're gonna continue to help 'em along and coach 'em and make 'em the best they can be. It's the same thing with portfolio companies and technologies. You've fallen in love with it, or you wouldn't have invested in it, and you wanna continue to push it until there's a clear signal not to, or until they hit success. And there's always learnings. I mean, I think if anything, if I learned something, I am passionate about it. I mean, I'm curious, I love learning every day. That's why I love my job, and feel like it's not really a job. It's a pleasure to serve, because I get to learn about amazing technologies, and I can see the future of a world that's even better than it is today, and that's what keeps me going. And I don't fatigue on any of the companies, because you wanna see it come to life. - You know, your investment track record at Piedmont, it's pretty amazing. How do you measure what are the normal percentage of hits versus mediocre returns, versus investments that lose money compared to, I mean, how do you look at yourself within your own industry, or is that something that you even do? - When we first started, I talked to one of my best friends growing up her husband's in the investment business as well. So I called him up and said, "Hey, can we have a conversation?" I'm heading into the venture business, and would love to just pick your brain for a little bit. And he's the one who told me, he said, "Oh, out of 10 investments, "you're gonna have one that hits, "and that's gonna save the day and cover you. "You'll have two or three that'll be maybe three to five X, "and then you'll have a bunch of losers "and some that are just flat." But it's that one, one out of 10. And I was like, "I'm gonna have nine out of 10." I don't want one out of 10, but as it works out, I mean, looking back, I think we're doing better than that. But the earlier you get in, and you've gotta be able to take a stake in a big position, those are the ones that really are gonna, our juicher returns going forward. I mean, you have to continue to have the fortitude to continue investing and continue supporting the company. And we're hoping that maybe we'll be five out of five, and that would be great, not all at 100 X. But I mean, you might have one huge hit like that, but I think if you can consistently pick the winners, you don't have as many of the losers or zeros in there. - So if you were gonna make 10 investments in today's world, what do you think for you and Piedmont is, what's the hit rate? What would you say you would say is good? - If I don't think it's 10 out of 10, we wouldn't make the investments. - Yeah, but you don't always, that doesn't always happen, right? I mean, so if you step back and look at it, you're going for 10 out of 10, what do you end up with? - I mean, they're probably six out of 10 that are still great companies. - Yeah, that's very, very good, that's incredible. You know, Louise, this has been so much fun, and I wanna have some more with my lightning round of questions. So are you ready for this? - Absolutely, bring it. - The three words that others would use to describe you. - Positive, kind, supportive. - If you could be one person beside yourself, who would it be? - That's a really good one. It might be Elon Musk. - I love to know what goes on in his head. - What's your biggest pet peeve? - When people give up. - Who would play you in a movie? - Maybe Princess Diana, everybody says they look like Princess Diana. - You do. What's a hidden gem of North Carolina? - Oh, I think our hidden gem, the people, everybody's nice. - What's the one thing you do just for you? - Exercise. - What's your most prized possession? - My family. - If I turned on the radio in your car, what would I hear? - You'd hear Bloomberg. - What's something about you a few people would know? - I'm pretty much an open book. Maybe that I love classical music. - The one, I think I know the answer to this, but one of your daily rituals, I'll change it, one of your daily rituals, besides exercise, something that you'd never miss. - That I never miss eating while I hope. - That's great, you did a great job. We're out of the light, you're out. We're gonna wrap this up after a few more questions here. You have three grown kids. What's a leadership lesson you pulled from the office that you would use to lead at home? - Quotes from other people, examples from business people often send them articles and examples of either kind people, good people or great leadership. - You know, I've heard people talk about success either when you have it, you either you grow or you swell. What do you do to stay, Louise Brady? Because you know, you definitely grow and you're so humble and you're so giving, you know, how do you do that given all the success you have? How can you avoid stopping, you know, smelling your own perfume? - Well, the people that I'm around, I am not successful by any means compared to them. So I'm a small chip on that big battleship. So it's surround yourself by good people and you never feel like you're, you've ever stopped needing to learn and get better. - You know, you've been a part of several boards. Tell me about a time when you made an undeniable impact because you were in that seat and you were in that room. - I would say, potentially fighting for people and compensation, a chair compensation committee and really fighting to pay people that deserve to be paid at the highest level and upgrading an organization. - You know, you have so many access to leaders through your investments and the boards that you're on, people you work with, you know, what would you say are the top three traits you see and the very best leaders? - Oh my gosh, humble would be one. Quiet leaderships, like that might kind of go under humble, givers not takers. It's all the things that I aspire to do. And very gracious and kind, gracious people. People wanna follow good people. - So, you know, I know you're on the Wyndham board and I know you've worked with a friend of ours, Steve Holmes. What do you think he does as a leader that helped him build such an empire in the hotel business? - Oh my gosh, Steve is the best of the best. I love that man and I respect him so much because he's been an incredible leader. In so many ways, but I think what his superpower is, he came up through the CFO office and then became the CEO and he is an amazing strategist and his acquisition history is unparalleled. And not only is he smart enough to put together interesting deals and get things done, then he assimilates them into the organization so well because he has such good culture, has set such great culture. And it's really even continued on the next generation as we split Wyndham into Wyndham hotels and travel and leisure. - So, Louise, now you're looking forward and I know you're excited about the future. You know, what's your unfinished business? - Everything, everything. I've got so much more to do. People ask me all the time, "When are you gonna retire?" I was like, "Retire? I'm only like, I'm working. I'm having the time of my life. I'm learning every day." - You're not even close to retirement age. Come on. - No, I said no. I have a lot of unfinished business. A lot to learn. I don't think I'll ever stop until there's nothing I can learn and when is that gonna be? We all have something to learn. So, as long as I'm learning, I'm working. - Is there one thing though? Is there one thing that you say, "Geez, this is what I really wanna make happen in my life?" - I think Alzheimer's would probably be it because of all of the familial connections and knowing that my dad's twin sister died of Alzheimer's. So, I think maybe selfishly 'cause I'm staring down that barrel, potentially. I'd love to eradicate that horrible disease. - All right, last question. What's one piece of advice you'd give to anyone who wants to be a better leader? - Listen to David Novak's podcast, except for this one. - You gotta come up with a little better one than that, but I liked it. - I think that's the best one, following your footsteps. I remember you coming to Grisver and speaking with us with your rubber chicken. I mean, it's follow smart people like yourselves and try to take a little bit of tips from him. I steal a tip from Alan Malali all the time, which is, I just love to serve. And that's the way he led his companies and he's a great one to follow as well. So, learn tips from others people and be aware and then adopt them. - Luis, you are such a role model for being someone that is kind, someone that is so accomplished and have done so much because you're just so talented. And being positive, I've always found that if you smile, other people will smile. And when you walk into a room, that energy spreads because of your smile and the enthusiasm that you bring to the party. And I wanna thank you for being on this podcast and sharing your insights. It was great. - Thank you, David. Thanks for having me. (silence) - Listen, I know it's easy for me to sit here and talk about going above and beyond for people and being generous with your time and energy. And let's be honest, Luis makes it look really easy. But you and I both know it's not. In the pressure of any given work day, it can be really hard to go that extra mile and stay positive for your team. But let today's episode remind you, when you invest that level of effort into your team, it comes back to you. It's a boomerang. It's how you attract good people. It's how you get those people rowing in the same direction. And it's ultimately how you accomplish incredible things. This week, find one way that you can go above and beyond for someone on your team. Give that extra bit of effort to show 'em you care. As Luis says, when you set the example, everybody else is going to level up their effort too. So do you wanna know how leaders lead? What we learned today is that great leaders go above and beyond for others. Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of How Leaders Lead, where every Thursday you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world. I make it a point to give you something simple on each episode that you can apply to your business so that you will become the best leader you can be. (silence) (silence) [BLANK_AUDIO]