Speaker 1: Everyone, Welcome to another episode of the Market Disruptors Show. Today,
Speaker 1: I am sitting down with Jay Martin. He's the CEO
Speaker 1: of Cambridge House International UM. They do a lot of
Speaker 1: live events, a lot of media, and a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff around the gold and small cap industry, which of
Speaker 1: course I spend a lot of time talking about. What
Speaker 1: I like about Jay is he has this insight because
Speaker 1: he's kind of behind the scenes in these in these videos.
Speaker 1: There's so much good information that we can get from him,
Speaker 1: and I'm so excited to sit down with him. So, Jay, welcome,
Speaker 1: Thank for having me Mark. It's great the job with you. Yeah.
Speaker 1: You know, I I've built my career off of the
Speaker 1: statement and I say it all the time. The success
Speaker 1: leaves clues, and so I like to follow successful people
Speaker 1: and see what I can learn from him. And uh,
Speaker 1: I know you're kind of in the same space like you.
Speaker 1: You you put these events together, you bring all these
Speaker 1: well together, and I'm sure you're learning so much. So
Speaker 1: I want to see what I can learn from you
Speaker 1: and what the audience can as well. But for those
Speaker 1: that haven't been following, you haven't made before, just give
Speaker 1: us a little bit of background. What is it that
Speaker 1: you've been working on and what are you doing? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so predominantly Mark, I'm a small cap investor, right I.
Speaker 1: Um I I look at sort of venture listed or
Speaker 1: CSC listed companies. UM I offer a newsletter where I
Speaker 1: talk about that and essentially talking about the trends I
Speaker 1: see the companies I'm investing in. Pretty Much everything I
Speaker 1: do is is you know, following the money, right. The
Speaker 1: money flow is is my first indicator and almost my
Speaker 1: last rate. It's my business has really built around building
Speaker 1: and maintaining a network of money managers and portfolio managers
Speaker 1: in the space. UM I hold those relationships very very
Speaker 1: tight with the intention of knowing first where dollars are moving, right,
Speaker 1: And so if I'm looking at an industry, you know,
Speaker 1: the first thing I I'm looking for is when is
Speaker 1: the smart money starting to move in? And so yeah,
Speaker 1: based on that, you know, I'm an investor first, and
Speaker 1: I'm pretty active in the spec market. The early stage
Speaker 1: hirisk stuff is where I like to spend my time.
Speaker 1: Probably too weighted in that industry, to be honest with you.
Speaker 1: My newsletter talks about that. I host a show on
Speaker 1: my YouTube channel which is is a bit of a
Speaker 1: step back from the actual market itself. Maybe it's more
Speaker 1: macro themes. So the way I explained it is, my
Speaker 1: newsletter is focused on making money and YouTube show is
Speaker 1: focused on protecting it. Right, So we talked more about
Speaker 1: safe haven asset classes and more conservative stuff. Um. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then in in pre COVID times, you know, we
Speaker 1: host a series of investment conferences, um, all over North America.
Speaker 1: You know, our biggest shows are in Vancouver, Canada, Las Vegas, Nevada,
Speaker 1: San Francisco, Toronto, Ontario, but we've been all over you know, Boston,
Speaker 1: Palm Springs, Montreal. It really depends, you know that the
Speaker 1: live event industry when it comes to the capital markets,
Speaker 1: it really you really have to watch the market right
Speaker 1: because you know, if it's a hot gold market, you'll
Speaker 1: do well in Vancouver, you'll do well in San Francisco. Still,
Speaker 1: you know, a pretty historical population of gold investors in
Speaker 1: the Bay Area. UM. If it's if it's more agnostic,
Speaker 1: we do well in Vegas, we do well in Toronto. Um.
Speaker 1: And so it's you know, up to us to really
Speaker 1: know what markets are hitting, where the populations that investing
Speaker 1: that invest in those sectors live and and uh yeah,
Speaker 1: and they're generally open to the public. Their range in
Speaker 1: size from I guess at the small end, maybe a
Speaker 1: thousand investors would attend and will have sort of fifty
Speaker 1: to sixty small cap companies, and then at the larger end,
Speaker 1: you know, ten eleven thousand investors and five or six
Speaker 1: small cap companies. UM. And then we have a private
Speaker 1: investor club called the Panjia Club, which is really like
Speaker 1: handpicked investors that I meet along the way. There's no
Speaker 1: quantitative criteria. Uh, it's it's just people that I meet
Speaker 1: through the trade show, business, through the newsletter UM subscribers
Speaker 1: and whatnot that I identify as being superactive in the
Speaker 1: venture market UM, and that I enjoy spending time with.
Speaker 1: It's like the unofficial no douche head clause, right. And
Speaker 1: we we we have this club where we look at
Speaker 1: deals together. I often fly club members out to locations
Speaker 1: and we'll we'll have handpicked you know, six eight deals.
Speaker 1: So it sort of view diligence on together co invest
Speaker 1: It's a lot of fun. It's kind of all about
Speaker 1: camaraderie and and uh, you know, co diligence and get
Speaker 1: to rub shoulders and just talk shop and and just
Speaker 1: kind of borne out of the conference business and and
Speaker 1: the Panjia Club now is probably my my favorite part
Speaker 1: of the business, to be honest. Yeah, that's awesome that
Speaker 1: you're able to build that network. I love the saying
Speaker 1: that your network is your net worth and so UM.
Speaker 1: I look back on a lot of things that I've
Speaker 1: been successful on and it was like, you know, where
Speaker 1: do I get that idea or whatever? And it was
Speaker 1: from somebody that I knew, right, So it's like being
Speaker 1: able to rub shoulders with everybody makes such a big difference.
Speaker 1: I just want to quantify if everybody listening though. You
Speaker 1: say small cap, so you're you run these events, you're
Speaker 1: invest in small cap? What what do you consider small cap? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a good question, and I guess when it comes
Speaker 1: to my conferences, you know, the sweet spot would be
Speaker 1: companies that are either looking to list have a listing
Speaker 1: on the Venture Exchange or the OTC in the US,
Speaker 1: or the Canadian Securities Exchange up here or the Toronto
Speaker 1: Venture UM and typically to look in to raise between
Speaker 1: sort of five to thirty million. That's our sweet spot
Speaker 1: for the companies that will work with UM and help
Speaker 1: them acquirity shareholder base. When it comes to investing myself
Speaker 1: in the spec sector, um, you know, really markets, it's
Speaker 1: all over like on the small end. You know, we'll
Speaker 1: look at companies that are maybe like sub hunter mill
Speaker 1: market cap for sure, you know, even thirty to fifty
Speaker 1: million market cap um. Uh, even pretty public for sure
Speaker 1: as well. So, um, I like the early stage stuff,
Speaker 1: um because I'm I'm you know, I'm all about the people,
Speaker 1: and it's it's far more important to me that that
Speaker 1: I'm betting on the right entrepreneur and so the earlier
Speaker 1: I can get in the better right as far as
Speaker 1: needing that. So um, yeah, but you know I played
Speaker 1: pretty heavy in the precious metals industry and and uh
Speaker 1: you know take positions and companies as big as wheat
Speaker 1: and precious metals for just some security and more stable portfolio.
Speaker 1: Yeah now, I know, um, I know, I know you
Speaker 1: You've been big in the gold space, and that's that's
Speaker 1: that's a hot area right now. It's when I've been
Speaker 1: talking about a lot. But before we dive into that,
Speaker 1: because I do want to talk about that. Before we
Speaker 1: talk dive into that, though, I like something that you
Speaker 1: said earlier, which is that you kind of just follow
Speaker 1: the money flow and so um, you know, as like
Speaker 1: a macro kind of guy, I like to look at
Speaker 1: the market like top down. Um. And it sounds like
Speaker 1: that's kind of how you're looking at it, like top down,
Speaker 1: where is the money going to flow? And it's easy
Speaker 1: to look back in hindsight and see that you know,
Speaker 1: certain assets, it's it's it's tech stocks, then it's real
Speaker 1: estate then you know or whatever, um, And so you
Speaker 1: can see how this money flows. Um. But I guess
Speaker 1: is that how you're approaching the market like from a
Speaker 1: macro kind of top down and then just kind of
Speaker 1: like chasing that or trying to get there ahead of it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know, I think that's a symptom of you
Speaker 1: know the size of my investable assets, right, Um, I
Speaker 1: don't you know. So I love that bar here Ridholts quote.
Speaker 1: There's no wrong ideas, just just wrong timing um. And
Speaker 1: and much respect to the hardcore contrarians. You can make
Speaker 1: a bet and wait seven years for it to come
Speaker 1: to fruition. At this age of my life, you know,
Speaker 1: that's not what I'm trying to do. And so for example,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm very active in the gold space today,
Speaker 1: because of the favorable tailwind. Right. I've been watching the
Speaker 1: gold space uh four about eight nine years, became really
Speaker 1: active in it again about four or five years ago, uh,
Speaker 1: and then superactive maybe three to three years ago. Um.
Speaker 1: And that's really just looking at the smart money. When
Speaker 1: is the smart money beginning to move right? Uh, the
Speaker 1: smart patient money, the ultra conservative uh, that that has
Speaker 1: the time horizon. Um. You know, I think that the
Speaker 1: biggest bollmarket in my lifetime mark is going to be
Speaker 1: the health science industry. And it's one that I'm stuper
Speaker 1: passionate about right um. And I watched very very closely.
Speaker 1: But you know, I look at the sort of macro
Speaker 1: themes occurring right now, and it's just not the time
Speaker 1: in my opinion, to invest in optimization. Right. I think
Speaker 1: the next five seven years it's all about buying stability.
Speaker 1: That's what people are gonna be looking for safe. You
Speaker 1: have an asset classes and so you know that's that's
Speaker 1: hard assets, things like gold. And if you want the
Speaker 1: capital gains and the torque, then you can go down
Speaker 1: the food chain to the explorers. Um. But there will
Speaker 1: be a time we're all be just as aggressive in
Speaker 1: the health science industry. I believe right, it's just not
Speaker 1: right now. Yeah, I love that. I love that approach.
Speaker 1: You know, I was on a life stream with my
Speaker 1: with my one of my groups earlier and I was
Speaker 1: saying that, Um, you know, I'm not a professional knife catcher.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to time the bottom of any market.
Speaker 1: I'm a I'm a surfer. And we were talking about earlier,
Speaker 1: like I was just on a surf trip and I'm
Speaker 1: a surfer. So I ride the wave. I look at
Speaker 1: the forecast, I see a swells coming, I go to
Speaker 1: where those waves are going to be, and then I
Speaker 1: just ride the wave. Right, And so it's kind of
Speaker 1: the same thing that you're talking about, where, Um, you're
Speaker 1: not trying to like you said the contrarians that can
Speaker 1: wait seven years, but why not just wait till the
Speaker 1: waves there jump on the wave? Yeah, exactly exactly this
Speaker 1: point in my life, That's what I'm looking for, is uh.
Speaker 1: You know, my average position with the company is probably
Speaker 1: two to three years, right, Um, and I'll definitely hold
Speaker 1: longer than that, but that's ideal for me. Yeah. Now
Speaker 1: you talked about with Precious Metals, um the tailwind for that,
Speaker 1: and then you went on to talk about how people
Speaker 1: would want kind of like hard assets and things like that.
Speaker 1: What do you what are you seeing? Why why do
Speaker 1: you think that? Well, you know, I think that the
Speaker 1: you know, march rocked everybody, and I think exposed so
Speaker 1: many people to how fragile they were and how exposed
Speaker 1: they were, and uh, you know, put a real emphasis
Speaker 1: on the importance of basic things like cash reserves and income, right, um,
Speaker 1: and uh even myself. You know, I got three kids,
Speaker 1: I got a mortgage, you know, you know, run a
Speaker 1: few small companies like you know, I'm I'm I'm quite busy.
Speaker 1: But you know, if we were my conference, business was
Speaker 1: put was put on pause with COVID, right, and we
Speaker 1: didn't have to wonder about that when the pandemic Yet
Speaker 1: it was like day one. You know, a lot of
Speaker 1: my fellow my buddy entrepreneurs were sort of wondering one
Speaker 1: month in two months in this is going to impact
Speaker 1: my business, Like we knew on day one, right, the
Speaker 1: event business is shut down for a long time, So
Speaker 1: let's pave it hard into all of our digital businesses.
Speaker 1: And that's worked out well. But you know, when when
Speaker 1: that cash flow shut off, I was looking around at
Speaker 1: my portfolio and saying, you know, I'm really having the
Speaker 1: spec market. I love the higher risk sector, uh, the
Speaker 1: gambler and me thrives there. Um, but where's the security
Speaker 1: in my portfolio? And do I have enough? Right? And
Speaker 1: and I definitely double down on a few uh positions
Speaker 1: I had. Um that just I didn't feel we're large
Speaker 1: enough to really carry my family through a worst case scenario. Right.
Speaker 1: And I think that that's a relatable circumstance right now.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people can relate to that.
Speaker 1: They've had their income shut off or compromised. Um. And
Speaker 1: you know, you look at the capital was like you know,
Speaker 1: that's what I look at. And you look at the
Speaker 1: central banks buying up gold right now. You look at
Speaker 1: the ultra conservative pension funds buying up gold right now.
Speaker 1: They're looking for security, they're looking for a buffer against inflation. Um.
Speaker 1: And and that's really gonna find it right historically, Uh,
Speaker 1: you know they find it in gold, right And so um,
Speaker 1: that's what that's what I'm talking about. Yeah, I know
Speaker 1: exactly what you're talking about. Like when that pandemic hit,
Speaker 1: I can't imagine there was a single person. Well I'm
Speaker 1: sure there was probably some people, but the people that
Speaker 1: I knew probably all wish they had a little bit
Speaker 1: more savings. You know. I was like, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: I I I can, I can go quite a while
Speaker 1: without making any income. But even me, I was like,
Speaker 1: I need more savings, and and and and even and
Speaker 1: even with the future being uncertain. Um, you know, the
Speaker 1: reality is in the future it might be harder to
Speaker 1: make money. We don't know. So it's like, uh, every
Speaker 1: everyone's definitely scrambling for more security right now. Yeah, well
Speaker 1: there's never you know that I think we've and taught
Speaker 1: to have not enough respect for cash, right, It's it's
Speaker 1: put the money to work, right, what's your money doing
Speaker 1: for you? Right? Uh? You know, interest rates have just
Speaker 1: remains so appealing. You look at the bubbles and car
Speaker 1: loans and student loans, like it's it's the way we've
Speaker 1: been trained to a degree, right, Like cash has no value, right,
Speaker 1: put it to work, right, leverage whatever. Uh, And I
Speaker 1: think we woke a lot of people were woken up
Speaker 1: to the fact that that can be hugely costly. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, they've created a system, the central banks, the
Speaker 1: front reserved, They've created a system where the money just
Speaker 1: loses value every day, so like forces people to go save.
Speaker 1: And by design, I mean the FED targets a two
Speaker 1: percent inflation rate, which means you're losing to percent value
Speaker 1: every year. Um. And so by design they're forcing us
Speaker 1: to go spend. And you chase that down a couple
Speaker 1: of generations, and of course it's no surprise that here
Speaker 1: we are today. Right. So I'm curious, um, being the
Speaker 1: in small caps, which I guess would be considered more
Speaker 1: risky for sure. Um. Right. You kind of mentioned with
Speaker 1: the miners. As you move down the food chain, right,
Speaker 1: you're kind of trading risk and reward. So being in
Speaker 1: the small cap space, you're younger, you probably make a
Speaker 1: good income, you're probably generally okay being a little bit
Speaker 1: more risky. Um. But then you see something like the
Speaker 1: pandemic happen where all of a sudden you're questioning that. Um.
Speaker 1: So I'm curious how you kind of like look at
Speaker 1: your own portfolio, um, and how you balance that out.
Speaker 1: I mean, were you getting rid of a lot of
Speaker 1: those like short term positions and moving to cash, or
Speaker 1: were you're moving that to gold instead, or like, how
Speaker 1: how did you approach that for your for yourself. Sure. Yeah, so, um,
Speaker 1: I guess I think about it in sort of three
Speaker 1: buckets in my portfolio. It's pretty simple. It's the the
Speaker 1: one bucket called the insurance insurance assets, things like my
Speaker 1: principal residents, uh physical gold right not not not paper
Speaker 1: gold or funds, but actual is the goal that I
Speaker 1: own and have. Um and you know, I still get
Speaker 1: a lot of people have called me out on that.
Speaker 1: It's funny, Um, like I'm some kind of tin hat
Speaker 1: arm to get in prepping, you know, with the safe
Speaker 1: in my basement. But you know, it is what it is.
Speaker 1: It's you know, you don't have to look far back
Speaker 1: in history to see the value that just in case scenario, right, Um,
Speaker 1: so yeah, that's what I think about it. Actually, you know,
Speaker 1: this is this will be something you'll probably have some
Speaker 1: comments and actually put a bitcoin in that bucket for
Speaker 1: myself and and only because um, you know, I'm not
Speaker 1: an aggressive bitcoin investor. You know, I allocate a bit
Speaker 1: of cash through every two weeks. But I guess the
Speaker 1: way I think about bitcoin is, you know, I never
Speaker 1: intended on becoming a trader. I don't really intend on
Speaker 1: sort of catching out unless there was some unique circumstance.
Speaker 1: It's something that I just I want to have a
Speaker 1: horse in that race, you know, just in case scenario,
Speaker 1: if there was a situation where FIA currencies were massively compromised,
Speaker 1: I think those asset classes are going to do really,
Speaker 1: really well. And so yeah, it's real estate, it's gold. Uh,
Speaker 1: even though bitcoin you've got a hard asset. I put
Speaker 1: it in there. I'll get people to argue me on that,
Speaker 1: but that's where where I where I place it. UM.
Speaker 1: And then it's you know, yield paying stocks. Read. I
Speaker 1: have a position UM in a variety of dividend paining
Speaker 1: gold miners right now. UM. And that's where I feel good, uh,
Speaker 1: in terms of market exposure with those bigger companies UM.
Speaker 1: And then about maybe thirty percent of my invested glasset,
Speaker 1: which I acknowledge is large, but it's my style is
Speaker 1: in the spec market, in the early stage, high risk
Speaker 1: stuff UM and and right now it's it's Uh. It's
Speaker 1: a majority precious metals for sure, a lot of precious
Speaker 1: metals explorers or early stage developers, but not exclusively. We're
Speaker 1: still quite active in the telemedicine space. One of my
Speaker 1: biggest holdings is in the nutrition space. UM it's a
Speaker 1: company I helped co found a couple of years back
Speaker 1: and as a seed investor. UM it's actually the infant
Speaker 1: nutrition industry. UM, and it's doing really really well. But yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's kind of the overall breakdown. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: that's great. And what I what I think that a
Speaker 1: lot of people can get from this is that one
Speaker 1: you said, Uh, it maybe a little bit too much,
Speaker 1: but it's my style and so UM, I think that's
Speaker 1: really important for people to understand, is that what I
Speaker 1: what I say is like, we have our own investor
Speaker 1: d n A and we need to understand what that is.
Speaker 1: Because what I want, what I need, what my goals are,
Speaker 1: what I know is different than you, and so I
Speaker 1: need to know what is right for me. Just like
Speaker 1: what you said, It maybe a little bit much for
Speaker 1: the people, but it but it's your style. And so
Speaker 1: I think I think that was that was a great
Speaker 1: point that you put out there, and I think everybody needs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it'll change with time, I'm sure. Right at this point
Speaker 1: in my life, I'm I'm not quite swinging for the fences,
Speaker 1: but I like that, you know, And that's what I
Speaker 1: used to do prior to having kids and having a
Speaker 1: few more responsibilities. I've always been a gambler, right, and
Speaker 1: I'm definitely uh, you know, I trend towards a higher
Speaker 1: risk tolerance for sure, So I need to be careful,
Speaker 1: right and share. I put some structures in place that
Speaker 1: limit my exposure a little bit because I'd be all in.
Speaker 1: I'm a horrible poker player. Man, I'm all in on
Speaker 1: the parents suos. But but that's the point, and that's
Speaker 1: why it's so important for people to understand this, because
Speaker 1: there's no like me giving you the right answer, because
Speaker 1: that answer changes, right, So like you're for you, like
Speaker 1: you might have been more risky before kids. Now you
Speaker 1: have a couple of young kids, you're and you know,
Speaker 1: a little bit less risky. Uh. And then then pandemic hits,
Speaker 1: and then there's even less risk and so and and
Speaker 1: your goals and things change, and so it's important that
Speaker 1: people understand that. The other thing that you were saying
Speaker 1: that I want to bring a point to for everybody listening,
Speaker 1: is that what you also said, and one is investing
Speaker 1: along your style. The other thing is that you're investing
Speaker 1: along It sounds like and tell me if I'm wrong,
Speaker 1: But you're investing into stuff that you know that you
Speaker 1: have some domain expertise in UM. So you're running events,
Speaker 1: you're meeting people, you have expertise there, you have maybe
Speaker 1: inside connection, not insider, but you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: And so you're investing along with your knowledge. Would you
Speaker 1: say that's correct? And it's still key right to play
Speaker 1: to your strengths. And yeah, I'm agnostic in the industries
Speaker 1: I touched, but not in my approach. It's all about
Speaker 1: the people people every company. I'm a shareholder of UM.
Speaker 1: I have a high, high, high level of confidence in
Speaker 1: the entrepreneur um you know, and and you know my
Speaker 1: criteria is real simple. It's essentially when I began looking
Speaker 1: at a company, first of all, I need to be
Speaker 1: able to identify some shareholders that I know and have
Speaker 1: a high level of trust in, right, UM. Then that
Speaker 1: helps me qualify yes, this is worth a deeper look.
Speaker 1: And then secondly, let's look at the management team and
Speaker 1: decide um whether or not they've had wins in the
Speaker 1: past that I can stand behind. Right, I'm not opposed
Speaker 1: to betting on the rookie at all. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: most of my life I've been the rockie, Right, but
Speaker 1: like when it comes to my my dollars, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: do have that criteria, right, and if it is, you know,
Speaker 1: I've got a couple of positions and some first time CEOs,
Speaker 1: but they've surrounded themselves with the right executive team and
Speaker 1: I've got all the confidence in the world that they've
Speaker 1: made the rights to buffer their blind spots, right, and
Speaker 1: so I can believe in that team. But yeah, step
Speaker 1: one is look at the shareholder base. Who are the
Speaker 1: cornerstone investors? Do I know them? Do I trust them?
Speaker 1: Do they have a history of making good decisions and
Speaker 1: being right? You know? And secondly it's the management team
Speaker 1: have already proven they can do it right, So the
Speaker 1: question isn't can they do it? But can they do
Speaker 1: it again? Right? Um? Always look at who the majority
Speaker 1: shareholder is, you know, and if they're not the management,
Speaker 1: then runaway. Right. If they don't have more skin in
Speaker 1: the game than I could ever, then I'm not interested. Right.
Speaker 1: They'll never never be a good steward of your capital
Speaker 1: unless they're more worried about their own. That's just human nature, right. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that that that that that skin of the game is
Speaker 1: so important because it's so easy for someone to walk
Speaker 1: away from sweat equity, but they're they're very less likely
Speaker 1: to walk away from their own capital. And that's something
Speaker 1: that I constantly talk about. And and uh, not just
Speaker 1: that I'm the smartest guy and I figured out how
Speaker 1: we're we're both smart. But you know, every every other
Speaker 1: successful person I've talked to you always says, follow the team.
Speaker 1: Follow the team, follow the team. And even when I'm
Speaker 1: going into stocks, especially some of the smaller stocks, I
Speaker 1: just look at the team, and I always what I
Speaker 1: like to say is that a good team won't go
Speaker 1: to a bad project. And so it's just if I
Speaker 1: start there, I can filter all the junk out first,
Speaker 1: and then I do some private kind of like small
Speaker 1: private stuff, and then maybe maybe, as you're saying, right,
Speaker 1: the founder doesn't have the track record, but because it's smaller,
Speaker 1: you can kind of get to know them a little
Speaker 1: bit and you can see like what their passion levels are,
Speaker 1: what their you know, tenacity levels are, things like that. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: because we all know, like there's bad days out number
Speaker 1: good days an entrepreneurship nin one, right definitely, And uh,
Speaker 1: you know, and so and that we're talking small cap,
Speaker 1: early stage stuff, right, you look at the bigger companies
Speaker 1: and bigger, bigger funds and investors, you know, people like
Speaker 1: First Year, Right, he's famous. Some of his famous quotes
Speaker 1: are the good good company can survive a horrible CEO. Right.
Speaker 1: And he's not wrong with the level of companies he
Speaker 1: plays with. Right. But if you're looking at the small
Speaker 1: cap early stage, you you are betting on the entrepreneur, right,
Speaker 1: and plenty is not going to work. It rarely ever
Speaker 1: does right. Plan B rarely works, right, So do they
Speaker 1: have the resiliency, the energy, the mental toughness. Are they
Speaker 1: going to be losing sleep over there? Probably? I kind
Speaker 1: of want that, right, You want someone who's willing to
Speaker 1: bleed to make it work, right. I think that's hypercritical. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love that. So now I know, like, like we've
Speaker 1: already mentioned, I mean, you do a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: in the gold space. I talked about gold quite a
Speaker 1: bit bitcoin as well. I'm sure my audience has heard
Speaker 1: plenty of that. But I'm curious because you know you
Speaker 1: are Also you said you kind of just more involved
Speaker 1: in small cap. So you mentioned um cannabis, you mentioned blockchain,
Speaker 1: you mentioned neutral suticals, you mentioned technology, tele medicine, things
Speaker 1: like that, Um, are there any other ones that you're
Speaker 1: kind of like part way in right now, like other
Speaker 1: money flow areas or do you think gold is like
Speaker 1: the best spot or like what else are you seeing
Speaker 1: right now? Well? I was, I was very very keen
Speaker 1: on uh the psychedelic space actually over the last or
Speaker 1: three years. Um. Uh you know what's the psyched what
Speaker 1: what's the psychedelic space? Like legal right right? No, So
Speaker 1: we're talking about psychedelic plant medicines like psilocybin, i e.
Speaker 1: Magic mushrooms um M, d M A UH and LSD
Speaker 1: as a treatment for mental health disorders. And the clinical
Speaker 1: trials that are being run right now and over the
Speaker 1: last sort of four or five years are incredibly compelling.
Speaker 1: And when you look at the size of an industry,
Speaker 1: like you know, depression treatment for example, and the the
Speaker 1: success of traditional treatments is incredibly low, right um. And
Speaker 1: then there's companies like Compass Pathways and now I think
Speaker 1: a two billion dollar company found founded out of the UK. UH.
Speaker 1: They're running clinical trials in the UK, USA, Canada putting
Speaker 1: hundreds of patients through UH psilocybin trials to treat what
Speaker 1: they determined to be treatment resistant depression. They've they've been
Speaker 1: unsuccessful with traditional ssr s right depression medicine. UH. And
Speaker 1: there's there's uh yeah, there's clinical trials that are stacking
Speaker 1: up now supporting UM counseled and guided psychedelic experience UM
Speaker 1: that is proving able to change the way we believe,
Speaker 1: think about ourselves, you know, our self beliefs and are
Speaker 1: preconceived UM ideas. That's having a very positive effects on
Speaker 1: things like depression, on addiction, end of life anxiety. UM.
Speaker 1: And it's an industry that I was watching really really
Speaker 1: closely for about three years because the science was so
Speaker 1: compelling UM. And you know, whenever you have it. It's
Speaker 1: similar to cannabis in that, you know, UM clinical studies
Speaker 1: were blocked by prohibition for so long, and so there's
Speaker 1: just a lot we don't know about these molecules and
Speaker 1: their potential medicinal benefits. I mean, that was the real
Speaker 1: thing with cannabis, right, it was it was the real
Speaker 1: downside to prohibition is that you couldn't study the compounds, right,
Speaker 1: You couldn't learn more about the potential impact. And now
Speaker 1: that we've lifted up that gate, there's all sorts of
Speaker 1: amazing science coming out about how to not just not
Speaker 1: just cannabis, but the various cannabinoids that come out of
Speaker 1: the plants and how they can be utilized and and um,
Speaker 1: you know, we're seeing similar studies now and getting clinical
Speaker 1: passes on specifically m D M A and psilocybin um.
Speaker 1: And although the science is very compelling, I haven't seen
Speaker 1: a business model that really convinces me yet that there's
Speaker 1: something there. And necessarily definitely a capital markets uh play there,
Speaker 1: But it's an emerging industry. There was a ton of
Speaker 1: dough going that direction sort of a year and a
Speaker 1: half two years ago, but I believe it was really
Speaker 1: just on the heels of that maybe this is cannabis
Speaker 1: Part two industry, and I just didn't believe that to
Speaker 1: be the case. Um. So it's it's it's an industry
Speaker 1: that I'm watching very closely. In the private sector, I
Speaker 1: haven't found a company that I believed in enough to
Speaker 1: take a susition, and but one that I am watching
Speaker 1: very closely. Um. And then, like I said, you know,
Speaker 1: the health science sector in general, like I love the
Speaker 1: health sector by the nutrition nutraceuticals. Um, you know, got
Speaker 1: a couple of big positions and some telemedicine businesses, which
Speaker 1: I think is just fantastic that this industry is. You know,
Speaker 1: it's one of the silver linings of unfortunate situation like
Speaker 1: a global pandemic. We're stuck at home, and it's it's
Speaker 1: expediting the evolution of somebody's companies. Like you know, I
Speaker 1: would probably visit my doctor farmer often if it was
Speaker 1: the simple a skype call instead of having to call in,
Speaker 1: book an appointment, wait three weeks and get in there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and everybody has been forced now to get used to
Speaker 1: zoom or skype or whatever it is, and so um
Speaker 1: as you become more used to that than of course
Speaker 1: seeing your doctor seems pretty simple. UM. I have read
Speaker 1: a lot about um as. You're talking about the benefits
Speaker 1: of the pilocide and m D m A treatments, and
Speaker 1: uh yeah, it looks like overwhelmingly positive. I mean that
Speaker 1: the amount of of of stuff they've been able to
Speaker 1: do has been been amazing. In the United States, you know,
Speaker 1: it started with with like one state. I think it
Speaker 1: was Colorado legalized marijuana first, and then it just spread.
Speaker 1: I think Oregon is now like legalizing psilocybin treatment. UM.
Speaker 1: But I know there's a handful of other therapists that
Speaker 1: are doing both well. Actually, the psilocybin, the LSD which
Speaker 1: they call something else I forget, and then and then
Speaker 1: the m B m A. So I think I've been
Speaker 1: watching it as well. And I think, like like anything,
Speaker 1: if you get in early, if as you said earlier,
Speaker 1: like if you had the if you had the hands
Speaker 1: as a contrarian to get in and wait for seven years,
Speaker 1: the rewards can be big. Um. For me, again, as
Speaker 1: a surfer and not a professional knife catcher, I kind
Speaker 1: of like to wait for that trend to develop a
Speaker 1: little bit. And so I think it required a little
Speaker 1: bit of legalization, maybe some policy change, um, but I
Speaker 1: haven't really seen. Yeah, I mean Oregon, I guess is
Speaker 1: a little bit. So maybe it'll happen. Yeah, there's special
Speaker 1: circumstances licenses right now for maybe four or five companies
Speaker 1: in the US and Canada that hal approval to synthesize
Speaker 1: the psilocybic compound and then utilize them in trials. Um.
Speaker 1: And you know, the results look great right in terms
Speaker 1: of like sort of one treatment you're seeing six months
Speaker 1: post treatment, uh, limited or no effects of what was
Speaker 1: treatment resistant depression. And and the problem that's that's probably
Speaker 1: going to occur there is that you know, cannabis as
Speaker 1: either a recreational or medicinal application is generally generally recurring use, right,
Speaker 1: And that's why there's money to be made. Because his
Speaker 1: money to be made, that industry got pushed forward. Right.
Speaker 1: You look at the psychedelic industry, and the clinical trials
Speaker 1: so far are so positive that it literally is one
Speaker 1: treatment and six eight months later results are still there.
Speaker 1: And so unfortunately, although it's you know, we're talking about potential,
Speaker 1: uh really impactful cure for mental health, that's amazing, but
Speaker 1: because the recurringing, that's the thing, right, and you know,
Speaker 1: unfortunately it takes money to push these things forward so well.
Speaker 1: And and and I mean they you know, they want
Speaker 1: you to be taking a prescription, you know, anti depressant
Speaker 1: for the rest of your life, like you're saying, So
Speaker 1: there's that, but also that that prescription can be patented
Speaker 1: or whatever, but you can't patent a plant, and so
Speaker 1: you have you have that problem as well. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so definitely uptil battle I uh, you know, I it's
Speaker 1: it's a shame to see you know, regulations trampling what
Speaker 1: could potentially be you know, life changing treatments. As you said,
Speaker 1: I mean, some of the reports have seen been amazing. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: that that depression treatment business is a you know, multibillion
Speaker 1: dollar industry, but it's really a subscription business, right, and
Speaker 1: so that's to replace that is going to be very
Speaker 1: very challenging. Well, the problem is with that industry is that, um,
Speaker 1: you know, whatever they're gonna put you on xan X,
Speaker 1: ors olaf or whatever it may be. I don't even
Speaker 1: know the names of all of but uh, you know,
Speaker 1: it's like, if you're depressed, you don't have a zan
Speaker 1: X deficiency, you don't need zan x. Like what is
Speaker 1: causing the depression. It's either something mentally, some sort of trauma,
Speaker 1: something whatever, or it could be some kind of chemical
Speaker 1: you know, makeup in your body. But it's not because
Speaker 1: you lack zanex, you know. I mean, so you know,
Speaker 1: using something like these these alternative treatments, you can go
Speaker 1: through the mental side, or you could work on your
Speaker 1: diet side, you know, taking stuff out of your diet,
Speaker 1: adding stuff in. But I just I don't I don't
Speaker 1: see how the prescription of Zanex for the rest of
Speaker 1: your life solves that but that's the money side, right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: that's interesting. The telemedicine space is interesting. I haven't seen
Speaker 1: direct plays on that. The biotech space is something that
Speaker 1: I have been kind of watching. I think there's there's
Speaker 1: a lot of advancement there, obviously, Uh, with the whole
Speaker 1: COVID thing, you know, therapeutics and whatnot. Um so um,
Speaker 1: I have been watching that. Have you Have you looked
Speaker 1: at that at all or you know, Mark, I don't.
Speaker 1: And it's it's funny. It's just it's never really attracted
Speaker 1: a lot of capital in Canada where I live. And
Speaker 1: although it's a massive industry in the United States, Um,
Speaker 1: it's it's not. You know, out East Countreal there is
Speaker 1: maybe a few a handful of companies, but it's never
Speaker 1: been big enough out here for me to know enough
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs to be make a qualified decision about investing, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. Yeah, I see the industry. It's exciting.
Speaker 1: But because it doesn't exist to any large extent out here, uh,
Speaker 1: And because I guess my approach is all about getting
Speaker 1: to know the individuals behind the funds and the companies,
Speaker 1: I haven't had that opportunity, and so it's never really
Speaker 1: been an industry that I've played with. And and that's
Speaker 1: a great answer, and it goes back to what you
Speaker 1: said earlier, right about investing in what you know. And
Speaker 1: so I get asked all the time, oh, what about
Speaker 1: this or what about that? And I said, I just
Speaker 1: I don't have the expertise there, and so I don't
Speaker 1: go into those areas. I do recognize them, and I
Speaker 1: think there's opportunity there, but because I don't understand it,
Speaker 1: then I just stay away. And I think I think
Speaker 1: most people could benefit it from that. We see, you know,
Speaker 1: people buying all kinds of things they don't understand, and
Speaker 1: a lot of times it doesn't work out so well.
Speaker 1: So I think that's uh, I think that's a great thing. Um.
Speaker 1: And then obviously you own a business, so then you're
Speaker 1: investing in the business as well, which I always tell everybody,
Speaker 1: like I believe that the best investment you could ever
Speaker 1: make is in yourself right, and so invest in your
Speaker 1: own education, invest in your own business. And um, you
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier you're like your newsletter and your YouTube channel.
Speaker 1: Ones like making money and one's protecting your money. Yes,
Speaker 1: and so really there's like three levels of money making it,
Speaker 1: growing it, and then protecting it. Yeah, and you really
Speaker 1: need to focus on that. And so many people, you know,
Speaker 1: I talk about investment stuff. Everyone is talking about I
Speaker 1: want to invest, I want to invest, I want to
Speaker 1: grow my money. And that's fine, but you need to
Speaker 1: also focus on making money. And a lot of people,
Speaker 1: I feel, unfortunately, neglect that part and they think they
Speaker 1: can become a full time investor and they don't realize, like, well,
Speaker 1: the investing is kind of what you do with your
Speaker 1: money after you make it, right. Yeah. Yeah, managing a
Speaker 1: portfolio full time can incredibly stressful, and you need to
Speaker 1: have a lot of money. Yes, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It's like you don't you don't start with a thousand
Speaker 1: dollars and then become a full time investor like you
Speaker 1: started like a few, you know, ten million dollars and
Speaker 1: then maybe become a full time investor. Yeah yeah, great stuff. Well, um,
Speaker 1: some great insights from me. J I really appreciate sharing
Speaker 1: that with us. I think, uh, like I said, your
Speaker 1: your unique insight because you're putting these events together, your
Speaker 1: networking with all these builders and owners and investors. It
Speaker 1: just gives you such a unique insight. And I love
Speaker 1: to get that perspective. Invest in what you know, investor
Speaker 1: your network, follow the team, right, So, um, where do
Speaker 1: people find out more about you and follow you? Maybe
Speaker 1: some of these events your newsletter you talked about, etcetera. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so all of the content that we publishes on Cambridge
Speaker 1: House dot com. I, uh, all my freeings letters are
Speaker 1: up there. And then um, our YouTube channel is is
Speaker 1: Cambridge House and you search Cambridge House YouTube. You'll fund
Speaker 1: all of our concert and up there. Um. I should
Speaker 1: be more active on Twitter, Mark, I'm trying to take
Speaker 1: one from you here and get more active on the platform.
Speaker 1: But we're at Cambridge. Anything that I'm posting up there
Speaker 1: usually announcing any content we're putting out and uh, companies
Speaker 1: are really excited about and all that. But so cambrage
Speaker 1: dot com, website at Cambridge on Twitter, Cambridge Shoes on YouTube. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so for everyone listening, I'll link to that in the
Speaker 1: in the show notes, so make sure you go and
Speaker 1: check that out. He's got some great content. I've been
Speaker 1: watching some videos on his YouTube channel as well, so um, yeah,
Speaker 1: great stuff. Jay. I appreciate you sharing with us, taking
Speaker 1: the time. Thanks for having me on Mark, it was
Speaker 1: great chatting with you,