Financial Modeler's Corner
00:19:06 · Giles Male, Paul Barnhurst
[00:19:06] S1: Yeah. Chris. I... Do know, I haven't heard from Chris for a while, I I like Chris. I like I like what he does. [00:19:11] S0: Yeah. And his work is outstanding. You're not gonna find somebody better on the training side as far as just online training that shares a ton of free resources. Doesn't mean there aren't other great trainers. I think FMI is a great one to follow. You definitely should be following Financial Modeling Institute. Obviously, I'm biased. They host a podcast, but even if they didn't, I would still say to follow them because I believe in the work they're doing. What about you? Who's one or two people you recommend? [00:19:38] S1: I've got a few. So actually, one of my favorite people in financial modeling altogether is Hilary Smart, who works at Operis. She... She's fantastic and, you know, an ex world champion of the predecessor to the competition that runs now, which is Modeler. I think the obvious ones, people like Dim, obviously, Dim Early for anyone in esports or Financial Modeling is so generous with what he shares. [00:20:05] S0: If you want your brain to hurt, just try to do what he does. [00:20:08] S1: It's it's wild what he he does. And for me, he's the bar of, you know, broad and deep Excel knowledge, both together, bizarrely. Michael Jarman, I I wish he posted more, but I think Michael Jarman is so busy with life. He's he's got a new job now. [00:20:24] S0: Well, and he also... I think he recently got married as well, if I remember right, in the last year or two and moved across the country.
00:20:24 · Paul Barnhurst, Giles Male
[00:20:24] S0: Well, and he also... I think he recently got married as well, if I remember right, in the last year or two and moved across the country. [00:20:31] S1: Yeah. And the last person I'll mention who I know you know really well is your friend, Glenn Hopper, who I think is [00:20:38] S0: absolutely incredible. AI, Glenn is as good as they come. He's working on his fourth book. He has about 12 training courses out there between LinkedIn Learning and Corporate Finance Institute. And, you know, I have a podcast with him. He's great. You're not gonna find someone better. He's not into the self promotion, so he's not as well known. That's really hard for him, but he he knows his stuff as well as they come. [00:21:03] S1: I listened to one of your interviews with him recently, and I just found myself nodding the whole time. Like, none none of it was hype based. It was just very real, insightful, honest communication, which I thought was great. Alright. One other pivot of a question before we talk about AI. You and I have done training together. I can probably count on one hand the number of people I would trust and recommend as trainers. So I don't wanna lose too much time on here, but for me, like, it's a real skill, and I've obviously seen you do this really well. What's your experience like as a trainer? Like, do you enjoy the process of virtually or in person, like, trying to lead a training group?
00:21:49 · Paul Barnhurst
[00:21:49] S0: I do. I really enjoy training. I've had a... Got it a lot better at reading the room. My training partner is much better at that than me. And it'll be times like pick it up or let's take a break or... Because he really reads the room, and I think that's a very important skill you have to develop. But for me, the joy of training is when it makes a difference. When you know somebody actually took it away and they come back like, oh, that saved me hours or I still use that. Or the other one that I always find interesting is you share something that wasn't necessarily in the lesson. You're just kinda talking, and they come back, and that's the thing they remember. Right? When you ask them, okay. What's the takeaway? And you're like, that was just kind of a throwaway line. I didn't even think about that. And so for me, I think the biggest thing is just seeing when it actually helps people and knowing that they can use this to help in their career. Because let's just say it took me a long time to get promoted. I was way too detail oriented. I could go on and about a lot of things. And so helping people realize and not have to go through some of the pitfalls I did is rewarding.
00:22:49 · Giles Male, Paul Barnhurst
[00:22:49] S1: But you're very... How can I describe this? Like, when you deliver training, like I said, we've we've done stuff together. You put a lot of effort into making it fun as well as educational. And I feel like that's such a huge part of what a trainer or a good trainer is. It's not just technically being aware of the content. It's actually, like, thinking about the experience across half a day a day for people, which I I think you do as as well as anyone I've seen, really. [00:23:18] S0: Well, thank you. So I think, you know, speaking to that, I'll I'll I'll... I'm gonna flip it back to you and ask a question. If I asked you to think of top speeches or presentations you've been to, some of the best presenters, what percentage or how many use some kind of humor in their speech? [00:23:32] S1: All of them. [00:23:33] S0: All of them. Right there. What do you remember? And so that keeps people engaged, and it makes them realize we can have fun while doing this. And so it just lightens the entire mood. Cause let's face it, probably anywhere from 20 to 80% of the people in the room don't wanna be there. [00:23:51] S1: Yep. It's so true with team training. Right? With team... Yeah. It's different when people have paid their own money to be on a boot camp or something. But when it's team, yeah, it's very different.
00:23:51 · Giles Male, Paul Barnhurst
[00:23:51] S1: Yep. It's so true with team training. Right? With team... Yeah. It's different when people have paid their own money to be on a boot camp or something. But when it's team, yeah, it's very different. [00:24:03] S0: Yeah. When they've been told... They've been voluntold that they will attend this training. And if you're doing Excel training, the reality is one person knows everything you're talking about and may even be better at Excel than you. One person probably should have one on one training because they may not have ever used a spreadsheet, and then you got a range everywhere in between. So you have to break it up, do something to help keep them engaged in addition to being hands on. Otherwise, you're just gonna lose the room. Anyone can claim to be able to build a model. Not everyone can defend one when the questions start. The advanced financial modeler puts your modeling under real scrutiny, so you know it holds up. I invite you to become an AFM. Go to fminstitute.com/podcast. That is fminstitute.com/podcast and use code podcast for 15% off.
00:24:03 · Paul Barnhurst, Giles Male
[00:24:03] S0: Yeah. When they've been told... They've been voluntold that they will attend this training. And if you're doing Excel training, the reality is one person knows everything you're talking about and may even be better at Excel than you. One person probably should have one on one training because they may not have ever used a spreadsheet, and then you got a range everywhere in between. So you have to break it up, do something to help keep them engaged in addition to being hands on. Otherwise, you're just gonna lose the room. Anyone can claim to be able to build a model. Not everyone can defend one when the questions start. The advanced financial modeler puts your modeling under real scrutiny, so you know it holds up. I invite you to become an AFM. Go to fminstitute.com/podcast. That is fminstitute.com/podcast and use code podcast for 15% off. [00:25:11] S1: I agree. And and I spoke about this a few years ago somewhere where I said, you know, on average within a cohort of say 30 people, you will have a pocket, maybe 5% of people that are genuinely very good. And interestingly for me, the people that rate themselves as experts quite often aren't the best in the group. It's the ones that rate themselves as intermediate or they know they're pretty good, high end intermediate, but they're so aware of everything they don't know that they are really hesitant to call themselves experts. I don't know if you've had that experience.