AWM Insights Financial and Investment News

Join Chief Investment Officer Justin Dyer and portfolio manager Mena Hanna as they break down what it really means to win in investing. This episode challenges the fixation on returns, spotlighting how true success comes from defining your personal goals and building a disciplined process. With relatable stories from sports and investing, Justin and Mena offer practical advice for making decisions that build lasting wealth and legacy. Tune in to learn how to craft a winning playbook for your family's financial future.

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Chapters
(00:00) Rethinking winning in investing
(01:00) Defining personal success and legacy
(04:00) The power of process over outcome
(06:00) Overcoming behavioral biases and hype
(07:00) Clarifying goals and measurement
(09:00) Intentional decision making for what matters most

Creators and Guests

Host
Justin Dyer
Chief Investment Officer and Chief Operating Officer at AWM Capital
Host
Mena Hanna
Senior Investment Analyst at AWM Capital

What is AWM Insights Financial and Investment News?

A bite sized discussion on timely financial news and investment topics, to help you maximize your net worth and wealth for the next generation with Justin Dyer and Mena Hanna of AWM Capital.

Justin Dyer: Hey

I'm Justin Dyer, chief Investment Officer
here at a WM Capital, joined by Mina Ha.

Portfolio manager.

Uh, and we're here to talk about
winning decisions, building your

personal playbook for success.

Obviously this is an investing podcast.

We're not gonna stru or stray too far
away from that core, core topic, but

almost taking a step back, uh, and
talking about winning decisions or really

how to make good decisions, uh, and.

Applying this probably over the
next couple episodes to making

investment related decisions.

Now, big shocker here is you can
probably take a lot of what we're

gonna talk about and think about it
and apply it to all areas of your life.

Um, 'cause making good decisions
in the investment world is really

no different than making good
decisions in your day-to-day life.

So we're gonna jump right into it.

We're gonna start with.

The question Mina really of, uh, that
we get pretty often where, which is

what have your investment returns been?

We get this from clients, prospects, just
people who are curious about what we do.

Um, and really it's not the most important
question or really the most important kind

of decision you should be thinking of.

Uh, and so let's jump right into it.

Yeah.

And

Mena Hanna: returns

Justin Dyer: matter.

Returns have

Mena Hanna: an impact.

But if you're kind of to look at
it with a sporting mindset, returns

are scoring runs, scoring points,
and that's a part of winning.

But that's not the whole picture.

You don't really necessarily
need to score that.

Like you can score three
points, one run and win a game.

Um, if your defense is great.

What we want to do is we wanna win games
and ultimately win So even though scoring

runs is super, super important, you kind
of have to look at the big picture and

determine what it actually takes to win,
and use that as your starting spot and as

your foundation, as you evaluate and start
to think about making investment decisions

and holistically making good decisions.

And I think it's really important

to interject here, what

Justin Dyer: is winning, right?

Winning is not.

Maximizing returns, I think is,
this is exactly what you're saying,

but winning the game in our view is
accomplishing what's important to you.

Right.

you the, phrase, money is a tool to
accomplish what's important to you.

That is the game we are playing.

Mena Hanna: Yeah, winning is for your
kids' college tuitions, you know,

maybe making a down payment, paying for
their weddings like that is winning.

And winning ultimately leads to a legacy.

And these are real life goals that have
true impact and that you will remember.

I don't think, and you made this comment
before, but no investor is going to

remember that they beat the s and p by
one to 2% in any given year, made X, Y,

Z positive investment decision like that.

That's a part of it that helps you
actually achieve your goals and win.

But that is not the whole picture, and we
have to kind of reframe the way that we

think about winning and the way we think
about success because everything that.

Our clients see, and that we see on
social media, on the news platforms

really focus on the numerical
side and it's not customized and

personalized for our clients.

Right.

Right.

And that's, it's, it's
part of, it's an important

Justin Dyer: or very critical part of it.

Sorry, stumbling over my words there.

But how do we think about
getting state, right?

The end state of, of winning and winning
the proverbial championship winning

life, you could even say, and in our
opinion, and this is not just unique

to a WM, there's a whole field of
study around this decision analysis.

It's around making good
decisions along the way.

We know that having a good process.

Is way more important than just
focusing on the end result.

We will systematically have good
results if we have a good process at

the at the upfront, but we're not gonna
change our process just 'cause we're

not getting the results we want in one.

At bat in one inning, in one whatever,
rep, you're, you, you, you, you

insert whatever you want to there.

And so I think it's a really
great framework, right?

We think we, when we relate to our
good old friend, friend Brian Kane,

on the mental performance side of
things, it's no different, right?

Or you all professional athletes, your.

Uh, your pre at bat routine, your,
well, you know, again, your pre-game

routine, your post-game routine,
your AM routine, your your PM

routine, all of it is the exact same.

You are going to reflect and refocus
periodically and make some adjustments.

But repeatable habits and repeatable
processes is how we get to win the game.

It's how we apply a framework in making
investment decisions, whether that's

the boring old kind of plain vanilla,
fixed income, all the way to the.

Incredibly interesting, sometimes hard
to understand world of venture capital.

All of that relies on good process to
increase our odds of winning consistently,

despite acknowledging there are gonna
be some strikeouts along the way.

Right.

That is how we think about
a good decision framework.

Mena Hanna: Yeah.

And increasing

Justin Dyer: your odds

Mena Hanna: what we want to do.

We don't care about getting lucky
or, you know, that potential of

throwing the ball in double coverage
and you know, it gets caught in.

Goes in for a touchdown, we
want to make the right pass.

Make sure that we're making,
you know, the right read and the

right call at every, every point.

You know, sometimes that's not
going to be the sexiest play

that leads to the most yards.

That leads to the most points
being put on the board, but

ultimately that is how you win.

Um, and yeah, it's just re
reframing and refocusing on that.

So kind of some common pitfalls
that we see, um, and that are.

Pushed by social media and by media in
general is yes, this focusing on the

scoring points element, but a lot of that
is actually rooted with behavioral biases,

psychological traps, you know, fomo,
overconfidence, you know, the whole, trust

me bro, uh, culture that we're seeing
right now, especially on, on Instagram and

TikTok chasing headlines, all of these.

Behavioral biases will resolve in
terms of making the right decision.

And it is hard sometimes to make the
right decision and not just do what

you want to do, but it's important
to understand what you're actually

after, that you're after winning games.

And to run the playbook, as
we've said many times before.

Yeah, right.

It, it, it's swinging for the fences

Justin Dyer: being
disciplined at the plate.

It's like, that is a lovely analogy.

Or you know,

just

throwing a hail Mary or going deep
every snap versus being disciplined,

going through your progressions and
finding the open, open receiver.

Right?

Like there's so many analogies here
in, in sports especially, which is.

Wonderful given, uh,
who we get to work with.

But again, you can apply this to every
single aspect of life, pretty much.

And, and I think that's a great,
great reminder as we kind of

bring this to a conclusion.

We're really talking about a pretty
simple, straightforward gotta

clarify your goals ahead of time.

What does the game plan call for?

What is your playbook
to your point right now?

And as you are making decisions
based on those goals, based on that

playbook, you do reflect and refocus.

Clarify the process.

Do you need to make adjustments?

What is the data telling you?

We talk about data all the time,
and then make sure you also

know what your objective measure
is for progress ahead of time.

Right?

Like is it just maximizing returns?

Well.

I would argue it's maximizing returns
in light of what your goals are.

Right?

Maybe that requires that you beat the
s and p 500 over a long period of time.

Great.

Alright.

That is your measurement,
your objective measurement.

Maybe it's just that you need
to keep up with inflation.

Okay?

If you can do that, that's
all you need, right?

You have to understand that
ahead of time and that.

This process is not gonna lead to home,
run to every single at consistently,

you're going to win games, you're
gonna stack wins, you're gonna

stack days, make the days count,
et cetera, et cetera, et et cetera.

Until you get to that winning season,
the winning the championship and, and

the proverbial winning life, I shouldn't
say proverbial the reality of winning

life really at the end of the day.

So that's the framework.

Um, hopefully.

Real high level, but hopefully it's
impactful 'cause we're gonna take

this and use this framework to apply
it to really concrete questions.

Investing situations over the next couple
weeks, how we think about it, et cetera.

Um, so really at the end of the
day, it's good decisions come

from good processes, not chasing
fads, chasing returns, et cetera.

And

Mena Hanna: of it is being

Justin Dyer: realistic with yourself and

Mena Hanna: questioning like,
are, are you making, are we making

the right decisions to get you
closer to what matters the most?

Like taking even that step back and
making sure that you know the process

that is in place and the decision
making process is intentional, make

sense, and will lead to good outcomes.

That's, that's where we start.

And, and yeah, that's probably
where we're gonna start this series.

Totally.

I mean, it's like kind of simple question.

We're asking a lot of rhetorical

Justin Dyer: questions here,
but are my decisions getting

me closer to what matters most?

I really, really like that.

Uh, hopefully this was, uh, a
helpful framework for you all.

Send us a text if you have any
questions with respect to this

or, or otherwise, we'll certainly
make sure we talk about 'em.

Mina, the text

number?

Yeah,

Mena Hanna: 2

Justin Dyer: 6 8 6 2 0 3 5 5.

Mena Hanna: the text messages so far.

Keep it going.

I will let you know if they
get overwhelming, but yeah.

Good so far.

Cool.

All right, and we'll wrap there.

Justin Dyer: Until next own your wealth,
make an impact, and always be a pro.

Appreciate you tuning in.