Episode 118: Joe Greco, Founder of Palio, From the NYSE Trading Floor and CNBC to Performance Coaching in the C-Suite on How We Can Optimize for Peak Performance
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The finance and investment industry is a tough club. It’s known for being money-centric, number-focused, aggressive… even cutthroat.
And few places capture that intense energy quite like the trading floor of the NYSE, where today’s guest, Joe Greco, cut his teeth.
He started as a floor trader and media commentator, appearing on CNBC and guiding real-time market decisions.
Today, as Founder & President of PALIO, Joe coaches executives in wealth, finance, and investing, helping them make high-stakes decisions with clarity, speed, and trust.
In this episode, Joe sits down with Stacy to discuss:
Why he left the chaos of Wall Street to coach the C-suite
How being a husband and father of five reframed his definition of success
What Wall Street taught him about leading with clarity and speed
The future of AI in Finance
More about Joe:
Joseph Greco is the Founder & President of PALIO, where he coaches high-performing leaders and teams in finance and beyond. A former NYSE trader and media commentator, Joe blends financial acumen with behavioral insight to drive growth, alignment, and leadership transformation.
He’s also an active investor in commercial real estate and global sports teams, including Campobasso 1919, Ascoli FC, and Brooklyn FC. Joe lives in Larchmont, NY with his wife and five daughters, and brings a spirit of faith, adventure, and continuous growth to everything he does.
Books Mentioned in This Episode:
Rerum Novarum: Encyclical Letter of Pope Leo XIII On Capital and Labour | https://a.co/d/dW1CdSU
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TRANSCRIPT
Below is an AI-generated transcript and therefore it may contain errors.
[00:00:00] Stacy Havener: The finance and investment industry is a tough club. It's known for being money centric, number focused, aggressive, even cutthroat. And the trading floor on the New York Stock Exchange epitomized that vibe. And yet, in that crowd and in that vibe, there was differentiation and learnings and skills that apply to how we manage our careers as founders and executives and how we lead our teams.
[00:00:31] Stacy Havener: That's exactly where my friend Joe Greco, performance coach and founder of Paleo comes into the mix. He works with a who's who in the wealth and finance space, and that background and story is part of what he'll share with us today. How can we become more aware of what we focus on and what we should toss?
[00:00:53] Stacy Havener: How behavioral forces impact our decisions and how we can be better, more successful in [00:01:00] our jobs and our lives? Fun fact. Joe went to college with my younger brother, so this is a homecoming reunion of sorts that I am thrilled to invite you into Podcast Motivation with Joe Greco. Game on. Hey, my name is Stacey Haner.
[00:01:20] Stacy Havener: I'm obsessed with startups, stories, and sales. Storytelling has fueled my success as a female founder in the Toughest Boys Club, wall Street. I've raised over 8 billion that has led to 30 billion in follow-on assets for investment boutiques, you could say against the odds. Yeah, understatement. I share stories of the people behind the portfolios while teaching you how to use story to shape outcomes.
[00:01:48] Stacy Havener: It's real talk here, money, authenticity, growth, setbacks, sales and marketing are all topics we discuss. Think of this as the capital raising class you wish you had in college [00:02:00] mixed with happy hour. Pull up a seat, grab your notebook, and get ready to be inspired and challenged while you learn. This is the Billion dollar Backstory podcast.
[00:02:17] Stacy Havener: Joe, thank you so much for being here and I'm gonna speed through this part. 'cause literally we're in the green room having this amazing combo and I said, shit, we're not recording. Let me turn this on. Exactly. So this is a joy to have you. You are a friend, you are an expert. Everybody grab your popcorn is what I'm gonna say because it's about to get real up in here and
[00:02:38] Joe Greco: something to drink
[00:02:39] Stacy Havener: and somebody drinking and we don't judge.
[00:02:41] Stacy Havener: So, Joe, you say here today as like one of the premier coaches. Thank you, but that's not always what you did. And in fact, what you did prior was also sort of premier and amazing and sort of classic OG, if I'm honest. [00:03:00] So can you take us back to how you got your start in this business? Did you know you always wanted to be in this business?
[00:03:05] Joe Greco: In the coaching business?
[00:03:06] Stacy Havener: No, in finance and investing.
[00:03:08] Joe Greco: Oh, in finance. Yeah. No, I, not at all. I wanted to, I wanted to go to the Naval academy and then I got stiff armed because I used an asthma pump, even though I was like a two varsity letter guy in high school. And uh, last minute. Found a great alum, a friend of the family that got me into RPI in engineering school, a little little nerdery up in Troy, New York as, as you're familiar with.
[00:03:31] Joe Greco: Yes, I am. Um, and yeah, I ended up going to engineering school thinking I was going to either design submarines or build bridges or Oh, okay. Something with a lot of computations involved. I got a summer internship on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange junior year, and I said, I need to change all my classes next semester because this is where I wanna go.
[00:03:52] Joe Greco: It was just so intense and you know, like you said, it was a point in time that doesn't exist now. I mean, paper was everywhere. People were [00:04:00] screaming and elbowing into the crowd. It was just so much more my speed, my vibe of energy and excitement and also quick thinking, which I greatly respected of the, uh, the open outcry market.
[00:04:11] Joe Greco: But I did not know when I went off to Troy, New York in 97 that I would meet your brother, or that I would, you know, coincidentally, or that I would end up on the Charles Bridge in the Czech Republic, or that I would end up, my gosh, on the floor of the New York. Yeah,
[00:04:27] Stacy Havener: I mean, it really is, you know, for those of us who have a few years under our belt, I mean, at the time it was normal.
[00:04:34] Stacy Havener: And now, like I said, it has a lot of nostalgia baked into it because it's gone. And so. You are there on the floor doing the thing that was the thing at the time. Did you sort of see the writing on the wall that things were changing and at the exchange, or like, what was the tipping point for you to say, okay, I need to embark on a whole new path?
[00:04:57] Joe Greco: Yeah. And here's the lesson. 'cause it, it took me a little [00:05:00] bit to learn it. Luckily there was so much money, so much margin Yeah. To still be made that I didn't impair myself. But the lesson to be learned is don't overthink it. When you, when you, when you sense that the wind is changing, like you're up in Newport when the wind changes, you know, when you see that cloud moving and don't overthink it.
[00:05:16] Joe Greco: Get back to safe harbor, right? Yeah. Um, so I came down to the floor having graduated with the first class that was required to have a laptop at college. Like think about how crazy insane now my kid is. It's insane. My kid doesn't even have textbooks in high school. They have, they have iPads, right? All the books are there.
[00:05:33] Joe Greco: So we bridge the gap from. Two computers in the freshman dorm for 50 guys to everybody gets a laptop. Mm-hmm. In one year, that changed. Wow. And so when I graduated, going down to the floor, just simply knowing that guy next to me, you hit 75 keys in a millisecond. Just let the computer breathe, let it catch up.
[00:05:54] Joe Greco: It's fine. That was like ama, I'd be like, get out of the way. You know, I did the grin, move, let, let the [00:06:00] wizard figure out what's going on here. And that was my job security for like two years, is that I understood that, you know, the all knuckles was just bouncing on the keyboard and, and the computer was like all frozen up and that was it.
[00:06:12] Joe Greco: But Paper and 16th went to. Digital and decimal. And then all of a sudden people were like a, I, I think it was a TH in there, like people couldn't even spell the word. And I understood algos because I took differential equations and modeling analysis of uncertainty at RPI. So it all kind of, at least logically it made sense.
[00:06:33] Joe Greco: I couldn't do the calculation. Yeah. But at least it made sense. And program trading, basket trading portfolio, all that. So I rode this wave and I was at the leading edge on the floor. One of the first traders down there with a Bloomberg terminal with three monitors. Vertical. People were like, who's the show off?
[00:06:49] Joe Greco: You know? And then they put me on TV because they were like, all right, obviously knows something. He knows what's going on here. And it was profitable and clients appreciated that I treated orders the way they [00:07:00] would, I wasn't just, you know, uh, as we used to affectionately called Floor Traders Monkey with a machine gun.
[00:07:06] Joe Greco: You know, I wasn't down there just, you know, butchering orders. I was actually thinking about it a little more like an upstairs buy-side mindset. So the market moved and I moved with it. And then ultimately, um, you know, I woke up, we were having a second kid one day, and I said, why am I going downtown from Westchester?
[00:07:23] Joe Greco: I should probably focus on the next burst of my career. So yeah, as luck would have it, good partners, good decisions. I retired from there and I launched, uh, a coaching business, which gave me flexibility and allowed me to flex some of the muscles from the trading floor and prior in helping others.
[00:07:40] Stacy Havener: Is that really, like, were there lessons from the trading floor that inspired the coaching?
[00:07:46] Stacy Havener: I mean, to, to someone who was not on the floor and you know, doesn't know, has like a vision of what that dynamic and, and Sure. Interpersonal and communication must have been like, did that inspire [00:08:00] the coaching? Because they seem so different, but I bet to you the thread between them is actually quite clear.
[00:08:07] Joe Greco: Well, let's look at the current times. Half the world, 75% of the world. I don't know. Somebody told me that, uh, 73% of statistics are right, 48% of the time. I dunno. But the, uh, whatever the stat is,
[00:08:21] Stacy Havener: yeah.
[00:08:21] Joe Greco: People are fearing ai. Mm-hmm. They're gonna be replaced. It's gonna do every job. We're all gonna just, you know, either wake up and go to concerts and, and soccer matches every day, or we're gonna all be forced to plug our brains into the system and power, you know, the AI machines and whatever, whatever the case is, something I learned on the floor that is innately human and it's so intricate to how we do business.
[00:08:46] Joe Greco: Right. Your word is your bond. That was one of the most clear axioms from the floor. Your word is your bond. Well, I don't know if I trust the algorithms of social media. I don't know if I trust the programmers of the black [00:09:00] box ai. Mm-hmm. I don't know if I trust the LLMs or even the ones that are proprietary and, and they're not learning from.
[00:09:06] Joe Greco: Mm-hmm. What I put into them. I don't know if I really trust them.
[00:09:09] Stacy Havener: Mm-hmm. And I
[00:09:10] Joe Greco: dunno if anybody really trusts them. But what I do know I trust is when I meet Stacy. Mm-hmm. And when I see you out. I know I can trust you as a human. I know I've got a real person there, and there's limits to how evil you're gonna be.
[00:09:23] Joe Greco: There's limits to how like, and there, and there's maybe, there's boundless opportunity for how much fun you're gonna be, but I know I have a person and I can build a relationship, so I'm not as concerned about. Just like I wasn't concerned about the, you know, the, the Boolean search of Google replacing going to the library and looking up in an encyclopedia.
[00:09:42] Joe Greco: Um, I'm not really concerned about the wiping out of human to human interaction or even a lot of the service industry. I think if anything, it's a leveling up and it's an opportunity to really go back to the idea that your word is your bond. And if you're someone who totally believes and supports and leans into and honors [00:10:00] what you say and following up with what you do mm-hmm.
[00:10:03] Joe Greco: Based on what you said you would, then that's gonna always remain paramount. And, and that's gonna be the difference maker. You deal with a lot of financial advisors, you deal with the C-suite. I mean, we all walk on the plane and we look left. 'cause we still wanna see the pilot. We know that that thing flies itself.
[00:10:20] Joe Greco: We know that that plane doesn't need the pilot, but we wanna see the pilot sitting in the cockpit. The door's open, they're dressed nice and clean. Crisp shirt, right? We want the person, we want the humans still involved. And in the same way, trusting in a negotiation and a merger talk. You have people on here on your show that are talking about making these massive deals.
[00:10:39] Joe Greco: I mean, were you just gonna throw it in chat, GPT and have them negotiate for you? Like how's that gonna work? Like you need to trust the other person. Their word needs to be their bond. And any good deal maker knows the last thing you want is a crappy partner. The last thing you want is an untrustworthy, either trade partner or business partner.
[00:10:57] Joe Greco: So I think your word is, your bond is [00:11:00] a timeless one. And I've got a whole bunch I could talk about.
[00:11:01] Stacy Havener: Yeah. And I love the point that in some ways. Where the rhetoric is AI is replacing actually, is it creating an opportunity for the human elements to shine more, right? Yes. 'cause if we approached it the way that technology was designed to be, which is to make us more efficient, then does it allow us to sort of delegate or outsource some of the repetitive non-human, if you will, elements, but then really lean into the things that it can't replicate.
[00:11:38] Joe Greco: That's right. I, you know, not a political commentary, but a social commentary. Okay. How many government type offices, whether it's the d and, and I pity anyone who has to go to the DMV. I had to, I made my first visit in almost a decade, and I was like, wow, this talk about Nita.
[00:11:54] Stacy Havener: Yeah. This, yeah.
[00:11:55] Joe Greco: So I just felt all I could do was try to tell jokes and crack up the people that work there, [00:12:00] because I'm sure they just get, you know, it's bulged all day long.
[00:12:02] Joe Greco: Yes. It's, it's, it's just thankless. So I at least know I left with a few people chuckling. Yeah. So the idea that you use your brain for so many jobs out there is prohibited. It's like, you can't even utter the word, you know, I think we should do the words, I think we should do this. I think, and this makes sense, right?
[00:12:20] Joe Greco: You have to follow by the book. This is it. There's no authority. No, there's no supervisor, there's no escalation of phone calls on service lines. There's nothing. It's, it is what it is. And that's it. Deal with it. Go do business elsewhere. We don't care. So the advent of leveraging ai. And then taking this amazing, amazing, natural human intelligence and saying, does this make sense?
[00:12:42] Joe Greco: Mm-hmm. Yes, it does. And of the four bullets, I would've gotten all three anyway. But now it gave me this fourth talking point. Mm-hmm. And now as a human, I can quickly and productively and efficiently have a really robust argument instead of a 75% argument. Yeah. Because I only would've gotten three of them there.
[00:12:59] Joe Greco: So now I [00:13:00] can go out there even more productive, even more sharp. But it's because I get to use this. So we're seeing a turning of the tide, and I believe that we're seeing this is the unlocking of use your brain, use your head. Yeah. You, does it make sense? Does this smell right? Does this feel right? Yeah.
[00:13:16] Joe Greco: You know, does this marry up with what the other person or other team, or other client, or whatever it is saying to you, does, does it make sense that this is the next logical thing that you say, you present, you offer, you sell, whatever it is.
[00:13:30] Stacy Havener: So. Along those lines, this is making me think about sort of differentiation and authenticity and sort of taking what presumably AI is gonna give to anyone who asks a related question.
[00:13:44] Stacy Havener: A similar answer,
[00:13:45] Joe Greco: right? Does
[00:13:46] Stacy Havener: this also allow us to lean into our authenticity and differentiation? And my question is, going back to the trading floor again, you know, seeing it on CNBC or if you had a chance to visit it, you, it, it's a crowd. I mean, that was a [00:14:00] crowd of people down there. You know, the jackets I guess were a point of authenticity or differentiation.
[00:14:06] Stacy Havener: 'cause there were some jazzy ones. But like, was there a reason to, or an opportunity to differentiate yourself on the floor? Which seems like who had time. Yeah. And, and how does that kind of inform the leadership skills and coaching that you do with executives? Now
[00:14:26] Joe Greco: I'm chuckling because you really brought one of my favorite memories and I, it's, it's posted somewhere out there.
[00:14:32] Joe Greco: And if you've ever. When people first meet me and, and we're talking and they go, oh, you were on tv? And I say, you know, yeah, yeah. If you were, if you were ever have trouble sleeping at night, just Google Joe Greco, CNBC, and you'll be out within 10 seconds, you know? So, but one of those clips is exactly what you're talking about.
[00:14:50] Joe Greco: And. I wear it as a badge of simpleness. Yeah. You know, people say like a badge of honor. I'm so smart. I predicted, you know, Bitcoin at whatever. [00:15:00] Okay. Um, here's what I predicted. They asked, they had some fancy technical analysis, you know, some fundamental person up there, you know, talking about Amazon ahead of earnings.
[00:15:10] Joe Greco: And now we go to the, you know, the monkey on the floor, and Joe, what do you think? And I go, look, clearly they know what they're talking about and they can analyze all those charts and figures. I say, all I know is I come home and there's a box with a little smile face on it every single day. Yeah. And I pass about a dozen houses where that's the same thing.
[00:15:27] Joe Greco: So as far as I'm concerned, I'm guessing that Amazon's doing really well. I'm gonna buy here. And, and now a lot of people have said that, you know, it's the old like, yeah, go to the shopping, the parking lot of the shopping mall Totally back in the day and count cars and whatnot. But that's it. Like, it's, it's sometimes it's just so simple.
[00:15:44] Joe Greco: Yeah. And if you fight that because you wanna be, you know, something different, then you're not gonna come across authentic. Mm. And if, and if that's what you're relying on and you're making a good living at like the simple analysis of a, you know, how many boxes from Amazon you see your neighborhood every day, [00:16:00] well then share that with people.
[00:16:01] Joe Greco: 'cause people are gonna be like, wow, that's cool. I mean, with all due respect, how many podcasts are there out there right now? Right. Where people want super successful guests. Totally. And, you know, talk to them about their keys to success and this and that. Yeah. But Stacey Haner is not doing it the way everybody else is.
[00:16:17] Joe Greco: Yeah. And your personality is unique and you're not super scripted. Thanks, I've gotta hit all these beats. I, I need to tee up this and make sure I sell this for them. No, you have a real conversation and if it flows off the course that you kind of thought it was gonna go, it's, that's what's gonna happen.
[00:16:32] Joe Greco: And that's why people really enjoy being on this show. Oh, I love that. That's. The authentic, you know, nature is gonna always prevail over being like super buttoned up and scripted.
[00:16:43] Stacy Havener: It's a good point. I really want people to hear this because again, there's a storyline or a narrative that plays in our head of what we should do, think or say, who we should be, how we should show up, what we should wear, and all that stuff.
[00:16:59] Stacy Havener: [00:17:00] And I think that's exactly what your story illustrates, right? Like that what you said in that CNBC clip was unexpected. It was simple. And because it was those things, it was different. And you didn't have to try and you didn't like do what everyone expected you to do. You just showed up as you were and what you thought and you shared it.
[00:17:20] Stacy Havener: And this is something that's very challenging probably for all of us, but for sure in the investment and financial services space because there's a central casting character. That is the successful hedge fund manager or the successful, you know, CEO of a wealth management firm. How do you help clients shake that?
[00:17:45] Stacy Havener: How do you help them own their story? Their story?
[00:17:49] Joe Greco: That's a, a really important question, and it opens up the idea that the door has to close, the [00:18:00] humility has to rise, the humbleness has to rise, and the barriers have to completely lower. And so whether it's one-on-one, whether it's small team, at some point, everybody who wants to get the word out about what they're doing has to, I mean, you obviously, you have to be compliant.
[00:18:19] Joe Greco: You know, you can't, you can't make promises, data's inaccurate like that in. People don't there. How many tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of advisors and tens of thousands of funds and RIAs and whatnot are out there. They're all playing with the same stocks and assets. I mean, why do some people go with the, the 6.73% return annualized versus 6.78% return?
[00:18:44] Joe Greco: They could do better across the street. Well, the reason is, one, they trust the person. Two, they might have been there and the paperwork's a lot. Um, three, it's probably because there's a connection. So it's not just they trust the person, but there's a connection to what that person's about. And in the end, we all [00:19:00] know that like eight bips, 20 bips, even 50 bips, is probably a rounding error total to like knowing and trusting and wanting to do business.
[00:19:11] Joe Greco: A real counterparty. Mm-hmm. And a team that you can call on and that is there for you. And when the proverbial is hitting the fan, that's what you're gonna reach for. You're not gonna call and be like, you know, we're in crisis mode here. Like, who got us an extra eight bips last year? Let's call them first.
[00:19:29] Joe Greco: Yeah. Like, that's not the way it works. That's not
[00:19:31] Stacy Havener: the convo.
[00:19:31] Joe Greco: Yeah. So when the door closes and when we sit down, we have to get to, in our experiences, we have to get to. For any success to happen. Why are they in the business? Why is the advisor in the business? Why is the CEO in the seat? Why are they hiring the way they're hiring?
[00:19:48] Joe Greco: Why are they raising capital the way they're raising capital? And to really understand what their journey has been, even to this point before we could start to say, what do we need to reach? What do we need to, you know, keep toss at what do we need to keep? [00:20:00] Meaning this is what you're known for and what you wanna polish up and hold by.
[00:20:03] Joe Greco: Mm-hmm. What do you need to toss? Because it's getting in your way. You've gotten feedback about it. You know your website's horrible. Okay, we know we need to do it, but we don't have time, and now we're taking time. So now we're addressing, okay, we're tossing that. And then what do we need to add? Well, we've never done podcasts.
[00:20:16] Joe Greco: We've never done conferences. Okay. Well, again. What are we doing well and how are we gonna approach going on the road, being visible on a, on a more consistent basis, and to, to architect a plan that works, that's authentic, that inspires people. It oftentimes, it's simply that story. Like you ask me, how did I end up?
[00:20:34] Joe Greco: Did I always know? Yeah. You know, asking a starter question and you find out that a founder grew up in another country, totally had a, like a factory business. Mm-hmm. Because that's what was available for them to go into out of university, even though they took an economics, you know, course road. Yeah. And they were wondering, working in some odd manufacturing business in another country, then they move to America and decide they want to be like [00:21:00] a financial advisor, and now they have 20 billion of other people's money.
[00:21:02] Joe Greco: Right. How did that happen? You know?
[00:21:04] Stacy Havener: Yeah. And
[00:21:04] Joe Greco: when you hear what they really did to do it and you say, holy cow, you have a website. That uses all the buzzwords. Mm-hmm. You have marketing material that everybody's wearing the same gray and navy suits, and everybody has like the, you know, the fancy skyscraper and the art collection behind them.
[00:21:22] Joe Greco: Why are you not telling this story? Why are you not pointing out that for 30 years, you're 30 years in the making? I mean, I, I, look, I have a lot of friends and, and even more clients, well, no more friends than clients, but I have a lot of friends who have been, you know, Forbes top 50. I'm not disparaging it, but like, that was just today.
[00:21:41] Joe Greco: Like, what have you done to get there? Yeah. What, what have you done for 30 years leading up to it? Or five years, however long you're in whatever business it is, but what have you been doing? And that's gonna tell me a heck of a lot more on whether I should care if you're on the Forbes or the Barons or the Journal or whatever, or.
[00:21:58] Joe Greco: If you're actually right for me [00:22:00] now. Yes. I'm not, I'm no, I'm not the guy who tells you where you put your money, how you spend your money, like you do what you do. You, you know, but there are, there's a big chunk of people who really would be better off and would, and, and I don't mean better off returns wise, I mean like better off sleeping, better off living, better off bequeathing to G two, G three, G four, whatever.
[00:22:20] Joe Greco: If they spent just a little bit of time getting to know their advisors and the team around them on a deeper level. And that requires not just the investor, but that requires the advisors to be open to it and working with people to develop that story, to, to, to speak it articulately and to not, you know, bore them to death.
[00:22:38] Joe Greco: Of course. Yeah. So,
[00:22:40] Stacy Havener: Ooh, that was so good. And, you know, yeah.
[00:22:42] Joe Greco: You've got a whole business model about this. I mean, it's, and this is what you do. So,
[00:22:46] Stacy Havener: and, and it's, and then they don't wanna share it because they don't think anyone cares. And that's because the industry has held up this idea that people don't care.[00:23:00]
[00:23:00] Stacy Havener: And so I think God like hit rewind on this part and play it back because it is so powerful and so true. I also like what you said about, uh, I like so much of what you said, but there was a part towards the end where you said, you know, we are asking these clients of ours to tell us their hopes, their dreams, their fears, all of these things.
[00:23:26] Stacy Havener: Really authentic, you know, vulnerable conversations that we want these clients to have with us. And yet. We are unwilling to do that for them. And to me, one of the keys to authentic leadership is being willing to go first. Yeah. Yeah. If you want someone to open up to you, the easiest way to do that is open up to them first.
[00:23:49] Stacy Havener: Show them be what you're asking them to be. And I don't think enough advisors embrace that. It's like, go ahead, tell me everything about you and your life and all this [00:24:00] stuff. And they don't wanna say like.
[00:24:03] Joe Greco: I'll caveat that. Yeah. As the coach. As the coach on the call. Okay. Please coach me. Is there, is there a, in the house, is there a coach in the house, please?
[00:24:09] Joe Greco: I'll caveat that mostly because the population of fas
[00:24:14] Stacy Havener: Yeah.
[00:24:14] Joe Greco: In, in Larchmont where I am today versus endow in newbie is probably significantly denser. And I don't think we would confuse any fa with the inability to tell you about themselves. So I, it's a little bit of a, there's a little bit of humor in there, but I know they, and they're, they're friends and they're gonna bust my chops about this.
[00:24:33] Joe Greco: But it's true. I don't necessarily think that's it. It's what they say though. They feel compelled, to your point, they feel compelled to say the wrong thing. So talk about That's what I mean. Exactly. And it goes Right. Exactly what I mean into Yes. No, I know. I know. But that's, that's exactly it. So going first, right.
[00:24:47] Joe Greco: If the takeaway is to, is to feel comfortable to go first and be vulnerable first, because that then invites others to do it. Yeah. If you set that stage, I would agree. What I would also make sure you are very, very diligent about is [00:25:00] saying. Hey, look, oftentimes, you know, we can start this relationship however you like, but it's gonna be a longer term relationship for us to be successful.
[00:25:07] Joe Greco: It, it has to happen that way. Yeah. We're not gonna be successful quickly. We're gonna need to build a relationship. Yeah. And to do so, we gotta, we have to learn each other. I know that that might not be something you are ready for yet. So let me tell you a little bit about myself. Yeah. That can give you like beyond, you know, the Acme, you know, bank international brand.
[00:25:24] Stacy Havener: Yeah.
[00:25:25] Joe Greco: I'd like you to know a little bit about me and what got me into this profe whatever you're gonna talk about. What got you into the business, the, the hardship that you face, uh, uh, a pivotal moment, whatever the talking point. Yeah. That, you know, your group helps them redefine, they say it and then, and you know, two, three minutes and then done, and then say, you know.
[00:25:43] Joe Greco: How does that inspire you to share, or, I hope that inspires you to share a little bit about you. I'd, I'd be interested in hearing your story. How did you get into this business? Yes. How, how was it working? You work with four close family members in my family, that would be a nightmare. [00:26:00] We would totally wouldn't, it would forget about the fact that we argue at Christmas, how are we gonna handle nine to five?
[00:26:06] Joe Greco: Right. Whatever. Whatever it that is. So totally key. So you did nail it. I just add the coaching element of like, well I love this. So this is,
[00:26:14] Stacy Havener: this is so great. 'cause now we're turning into the coach and the storyteller here, which is amazing because actually I prefer not to go. So when I said go first with the authenticity, and then you were like, oh yeah, well they're happy to talk to you about inauthentic things and they're happy to go first, which is so spot on.
[00:26:32] Stacy Havener: So here's the thing, if I were to run a meeting, if I pretended I was an advisor, I would not tell my story. First. Tell me what you think about this. And this is what we coach our, our fundraisers to do. I already agree. I already agree. Okay. So I would Socratic method opener of like, so here we're like, what's going on?
[00:26:48] Stacy Havener: Just this is, you know, what's going on with you? What's, what's hap like? Get them talking. Knowing that they're probably not gonna just sort of like bear their soul. Right, right. Okay. [00:27:00] So the go first on authenticity for me is then when you speak and you're gonna say, oh my gosh, you know, that reminds me of something like, da da.
[00:27:09] Stacy Havener: And you tell something about you. That's where you say all the real stuff, the authentic stuff. Yes. And then the person goes, I see what we're doing here. Yes. And usually they'll come back in and sort of go deeper on what they've said at a surface level, because they go first and they're gonna tell you what you, they think you wanna hear.
[00:27:33] Stacy Havener: So someone has to break that shit. Sure. Or we're just gonna sit here and volley back and forth all the, the BS buzzwords and it's gonna be like, just blank.
[00:27:43] Joe Greco: So the constriction to all this, right? Yeah. To, to use the SAT word for the studying for this fall. Um, the constriction around that is. I have to have 40 meetings, you know, and, and this amount of time, and you know, I, I, I, I have six touch [00:28:00] points or two touch points, which is a nightmare.
[00:28:01] Joe Greco: Six is good. Um, I need to have this many opening meetings, closing meetings, uh, annual review. Uh, I'm, I'm trying to integrate my, and it's, it's a nightmare. And, and people inherently don't wanna be handled like the meat at the slaughterhouse, you know, like chopped packaged, shipped off into the freezer, into the display case, you know, thrown into the bin.
[00:28:26] Joe Greco: They don't wanna be handled like that. They wanna be, they wanna go through an experience. Mm. And I don't know what the answer is, but I would suspect if I had to really make like a, like a macro call, and I know it's already started, but I would suspect that we, we start seeing higher, uh, fees. Not as a percentage of assets.
[00:28:47] Stacy Havener: Love it. So,
[00:28:48] Joe Greco: hi. Because, because reality is, I don't want, okay. And I'm a consumer, all right? Mm-hmm. I'm a target, I'm an investor, I'm a client and I'm a pain in the ass. But, um, but I want [00:29:00] to know that I have your attention. Mm-hmm. And just like if I was doing a real estate deal or buying a business, you know, with the, in the family office or whatever we're doing, I don't want someone running that who's like worried about getting paid every month or, or needs to get paid every week and is constantly making decisions with that frame of Yeah.
[00:29:20] Joe Greco: You know, mind and pressure and whatnot. So if somebody is totally aligned because they're only making when I make money and then losing when I lose money, I don't really think that that's entirely there because they still need to churn and churn numbers of accounts. Yeah. Not churn the accounts. I'm not suggesting anybody does that, but, um.
[00:29:40] Joe Greco: So they still need to get new, you know, new assets, you know, more clients and growth, and then segment their book and hand it off to a junior and hire and train the junior. And it's a nightmare. We could talk about that for days. Yeah. That struggle. But the idea is I would rather know that I'm paying a little bit more, I don't look at it as a function of what I have, but I look at it as a function of what I [00:30:00] get in return.
[00:30:01] Joe Greco: Mm-hmm. And that's a tough one, man. 'cause the, the business is not designed that way. No. So for them to crack through that. But people are doing it and the more the fiduciary rule and, you know, you know, being paid, you know, flat fee business and whatnot. And then that allows you to then streamline your revenues and then invest in other ancillary business.
[00:30:18] Joe Greco: You see these multifamily offices, the really good ones are adding in smart accretive verticals. Yes. They're growing the right way. And lo and behold, surprise, surprise, the little old RIA that just bought an accounting firm and a law firm and, and a planning group. Every one of them was aligned. They wanna serve their clients.
[00:30:38] Joe Greco: Mm-hmm. They want, they themselves want g two of their family to come into the business and serve clients. And they all take an attitude of service, not of, let me tell you how great I am. 'cause I have the corner suite and the, and you know, the, I get first look at the US open tickets 'cause I'm at the top of the, you know, the pool.
[00:30:56] Joe Greco: Um, sorry guys. I appreciate you guys hosting me last week, by the way, if you're [00:31:00] listening, it was awesome.
[00:31:01] Stacy Havener: Yeah. It was
[00:31:02] Joe Greco: 23 honey juice. Unbelievable. Same, same, same exact ingredients from 10 years ago. And it was only 11. Uh, brilliant marketing. The, um, but that model is being revisited and, and you're seeing more intelligent consolidations, more intelligent mergers partnerships and more intelligent sunsetting of the advisors who realize, you know what, I'm not.
[00:31:26] Joe Greco: Too old for the game, but I've done my job, like I've done a great job and, and the last thing I need to do is make sure my book, my clients, my relationships get handed off to the right people. Yeah. And that's such a focus now. And the only way that you can do that comfortably, confidently and and to the liking of the client is to have a model of compensation, a model of services, and a model of duty to the client that isn't fitting with authenticity and, you know, longevity and longer thinking.
[00:31:55] Joe Greco: So not to disparage, you know, the quick hits, the brokers and, and there's still a space for everybody to [00:32:00] do it. Yourselfers still have a, an opportunity in the market, right? Um, they just have to pick the right, you know, shit coin to invest in. Um, but that's how you align your interest. You don't just like go along on growth because the market went up, you know?
[00:32:13] Joe Greco: So I
[00:32:13] Stacy Havener: love that your background is in trading and so much of what you talk about is long term.
[00:32:19] Joe Greco: Yeah. Yeah, right. Trading and investing is not the same thing. You're right. The same. It's the same. I appreciate you calling that out. And
[00:32:24] Stacy Havener: it's amazing that you could have both of those skillset, right? Because it, I mean, you tell me like what makes a good trader?
[00:32:34] Stacy Havener: Does that make a good executive coach? Like, I mean there's some really, it's so, you're very interesting Joe. You're like an enigma. Wow. We're going deep here. I mean, because like everything you've said from start to finish has been long-term, long-term strategy, partnership, et cetera. But when you're on the floor, that is like fast.
[00:32:56] Stacy Havener: Well, it's fast. Economics happen quickly, but [00:33:00] also the thinking is super quick. It's really, at first
[00:33:03] Joe Greco: you have to be right in the at last, you know, in the you, right At first, you. Well, if I think this stock, you know, I think the stock's going up. I'm reading the market, I read the charts. Whatever your basis, whatever your thesis was, if your basis, if, if your prediction right, your, your action was to buy because you want it to go up, well, as a trader, if you're wrong and, and, and you have full ego, well then you're gonna really suffer.
[00:33:27] Joe Greco: You're gonna buy more and more and it goes against you. Yeah. You're gonna, you're gonna dollar cost average, you're gonna do all the stuff that's, you know, just like wipes you out. It's gonna be a bad, you know, a horrible story. But if you realize you were wrong quickly. And you don't have the ego about being right at first, and instead you're like, I just gotta be right when I close this position out in the end when I'm done with it.
[00:33:48] Joe Greco: Well then you could sell the position, go short and ride it to the bottom and then cover your short at zero. I mean, so, but that would take humility. That would take no, like eliminating the desire to [00:34:00] say how smart you were at first and maybe even also keeping your mouth shut at first so you weren't married to the initial call.
[00:34:06] Joe Greco: You know, I think, I think a lot of people, I know, a lot of people do very well because they're stock pickers or they're directional and in times of easy to read markets or easier to read markets. I mean, that's all you hear about, right? The, the country club stink of everybody's, you know, the breadth of how smart they are or how good their, their guy or gies and they're in Mad Saturn over desk.
[00:34:30] Joe Greco: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Um, but it's so wide. You very rarely hear about how they got, you know, their teeth kicked in on some other position that they, they had such a heart about and they wanted to be Right. 'cause they read that one article. Right. So I think longevity comes in right around like the fourth daughter, Stacy.
[00:34:48] Joe Greco: Yeah. I started to really think longer term, the first three. I was like, I got this. I, it's fine. I got this. Well
[00:34:53] Stacy Havener: now you have to say, 'cause I mean your girl dad at an extreme level.
[00:34:57] Joe Greco: Five x. Yeah.
[00:34:59] Stacy Havener: It's so [00:35:00] good.
[00:35:00] Joe Greco: It's, it's nuts. It's great. It's
[00:35:01] Stacy Havener: so good.
[00:35:03] Joe Greco: Yeah.
[00:35:03] Stacy Havener: Okay, I wanna talk. This has been fantastic. I wanna talk a little bit, I wanna go back to your career.
[00:35:09] Stacy Havener: Because it fascinates me. So, you know, I think in another, well, it can't be in another life, but if I, there was a point in time where I thought trading would be super cool. It's like obviously not that ship sailed on so many levels, but it's a really interesting high pressure job and Oh yeah. Requires a certain type of personality.
[00:35:30] Stacy Havener: And I feel like as an outsider, you'd think that as to be a successful trader, you need to be aggressive. And I'm putting air quotes if you're not watching this video, right? Yes. Is that true or is it actually more about the risk management? Because the story you just said about the humility and sort of, you don't have to be right at the beginning, but you need to be right at the end.
[00:35:52] Stacy Havener: Like, what is the skillset?
[00:35:54] Joe Greco: Oh man. Uh, well, did the wire hit yet? Because if I tell you this, I need to [00:36:00] make sure that I'm properly compensated for the secret. Um, so no, I, I, if, if it came down to it, yeah. Um, it's probability, right? If, if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're 51% of the time, you have a slight advantage, but you gotta do a lot.
[00:36:16] Joe Greco: You gotta be at, you know, at the table, in the game, a lot of iterations for it to work out. And you have to have some strategy on, on leveraging that because mm-hmm you're never gonna be far enough ahead, right? So you've gotta increase the probability of your success. And so eliminating. All of the factors that are either distractions or likelihoods.
[00:36:39] Joe Greco: Mm-hmm. You know, that, that you wanna wish away or ignore. Right. And if you studied for CFA level one, which I did at the time, and I think I said that right. So I'm not gonna get in trouble for you have to, you, there's only certain terminology say I know. Yeah. You gotta say,
[00:36:52] Stacy Havener: yep, you did it. Right.
[00:36:53] Joe Greco: So I remember they talked about like all the, all the, um, uh, what's it called?
[00:36:57] Joe Greco: Data mining and, and you know, all the aspects [00:37:00] that make for poor analysis, right? Mm-hmm. And if you can, you can read through a report and an an and analysts report. Mm-hmm. And you can pretty much sniff out quickly if this is like, if there's a bias to it or not. Hopefully there's not too much of that floating around there.
[00:37:17] Joe Greco: But as the probability says, um, back to probability. So let me give you an example, right? Yeah. We're about storytelling and that's when people retain most of the information is when they hear a good anecdote. So the last day of trading, 2008. World's on fire. Everything's melting down. Banks are being smacked together with, you know, glue between Popsicle sticks.
[00:37:39] Joe Greco: Uh, Jamie Diamond is buying Bear Stearns over his birthday dinner at Avra. All the iconic stories right now, it's the end of the year. Mm-hmm. And the merger, the pairing up of Bank America and Merrill Lynch.
[00:37:52] Stacy Havener: Mm-hmm. That
[00:37:52] Joe Greco: deal is gonna close. Okay, it is done at the closing bell. Those two stocks, their last prints will be their last prints [00:38:00] separately, and then the first print on January 1st, or the, you know, the first of the year will be the new entity's first day of trading, right?
[00:38:06] Joe Greco: Even though it would keep the ticker b, a c. So anyway. Semantics. The closing bell on the New York had such imbalances and it largely because they were very widely held stocks anyway. They were in a lot of indices and whatnot. So there were different forces that were at play. Some indices needed to sell all of their Merrill 'cause the stock was gonna cease to exist.
[00:38:28] Joe Greco: Some of them said, well, we're gonna get Bank America stock anyway. And then others said, well, we need to hedge that and we need to trim. So for many reasons there was huge volume and imbalances in each stock. Okay. Now what a deal is gonna announced, there's usually a discount. Mm-hmm. Time regulators, shareholders, there's a whole bunch of reasons the deal may never close.
[00:38:47] Joe Greco: As the deal gets closer, the two stocks, the target and the acquirer come closer to the ratio, meaning there's no discount. If you sell short mm-hmm. The target, or you sell short the acquirer and you buy the target, they [00:39:00] will merge together and you won't make any money, but you won't lose any money. Most deals the day they close.
[00:39:05] Joe Greco: That's exactly what happens. In this particular instance, I'm standing in the crowd and I have my data feed, and they're like right across from each other on the floor. And I mean, it's panic mode. I've got a, you know, we've got an eight o'clock dinner reservation, we're gonna be drinking champagne all night.
[00:39:19] Joe Greco: It's New Year's Eve and, you know, all the priorities are in order. Yeah. And I, and I'm sitting there, uh, no, of course I was concerned about everybody. The whole world melting. Yeah. But I'm looking at the two numbers, and I'm saying this is gonna close at a discount and it's not gonna be a small discount.
[00:39:34] Joe Greco: It's gonna be a big discount. Like, we're gonna be able to make some money here. Client gave me an order. Uh, actually I'm past the statute. I called the client, told them this. Mm-hmm. So I, I got the order, a million shares, let's set up a million shares of the deal. It closed at a dollar 20 discount. So if you don't have your calculators at home, a dollar, 20 times a million shares is $1.2 million.
[00:39:57] Joe Greco: I didn't even have to close the damn position because by [00:40:00] virtue of the bell ringing, it closed itself. Yeah. So it was one trade, one time, whoop, $1.2 million in profit for the client. Right. And then he addressed the fact that I'm, you know, a nice, uh, execution broker on the floor of the New York, uh, separately.
[00:40:15] Joe Greco: But the reason why I say this is I don't think I'm special.
[00:40:20] Stacy Havener: Yeah. But
[00:40:20] Joe Greco: back to the earlier comment, like I didn't overthink it. I saw it and I said, this isn't gonna, this is not gonna close at a premium, something off. The probability of it closing at a premium is like 0.1. And I'm willing to take that and have to go to my client and say, I don't know how we lost, how we lost a penny.
[00:40:37] Joe Greco: It's 10 grand, but don't pay me commission for a month or whatever. Right? Mm-hmm. But in that moment, I said, the greater probability. And then I looked at the order book and then I, and then I did the kind, and I said, the probability just keeps increasing. You know, when you see the, the World Series of pro poker, the probability starts to go up and then they throw that last card, and all of a sudden it's like 92 6.
[00:40:57] Joe Greco: Mm-hmm. And everybody feels bad for the [00:41:00] poor, the poor person that has a 6% chance of winning. Right. So, I, that, to me, the probability is, is really the delta is under truly understanding the probabilities and being humble again, being humble enough to know when you are skewing the probability, when your bias, mm-hmm.
[00:41:16] Joe Greco: When your instinct is dull or when you're thinking about something else. And it really shouldn't be a factor in the decision, or it's weighing too heavy on your decision making that increases or decreases the probability of the outcome you want.
[00:41:31] Stacy Havener: I love that you shared that because of course you went where I was going, which is, okay, so now how does that thinking apply to us in our roles as founders or C-suite or advisors or whatever?
[00:41:43] Stacy Havener: And I think when you were first talking, it hearkened back to what you said before of how you walk clients through like what are you gonna toss and whatcha gonna keep? It was almost like the exact parallel, which was fascinating. And then this probability analysis, [00:42:00] the bit that's resonating for me is that it wasn't some mathematical calculation that you did.
[00:42:06] Stacy Havener: Like you Yeah, you, you literally said something, I was big enough. Something is off enough. Yeah,
[00:42:11] Joe Greco: yeah.
[00:42:11] Stacy Havener: I don't need to do a calculation. Something is off. Not that it's trusting your gut, it's also like experience and you know, calculations you're doing in your head, I'm sure. But point being, I would think that those skill sets and those probabilities weigh in when you're coaching.
[00:42:29] Stacy Havener: People like me, like fund managers, like advisors. How do we sharpen that skill of understanding what you just described?
[00:42:38] Joe Greco: So there's a third dimension, and this is amazing that you're, you're going this deep. Um, there's a, there's another dimension of understanding your behavior patterns, right? Mm-hmm. So now we're going into like the psyche.
[00:42:49] Joe Greco: Yeah. And we talked about this in the green room. Yeah. Um, and understanding your behavioral preference, really becoming self-aware. People talk [00:43:00] about EQ and, or they're oblivious. They don't even know how arrogant or ignorant they are, whatever. The opposite of all that, the opposite of low eq, the opposite of being completely oblivious, right?
[00:43:11] Joe Greco: Is being self-aware, is being able to identify the behavior patterns in others, not just the one-offs, not just during the best times or the worst times, but also in between. What's the pattern, what's the probability that someone. A group will behave in a certain way, which allows you right to adjust accordingly or behave in contrast accordingly.
[00:43:38] Joe Greco: When the markets are moving and there's, it's a slow news day, they kind of just drift volatility's low. No one's really excited about trading. They run stories about, uh, you know, the cat stuck in the tree, whatever. When there's uncertainty in the market, people don't know about tariffs. People don't know about, uh, civil unrest.
[00:43:57] Joe Greco: All of a sudden people are nervous. They don't know what's gonna happen. [00:44:00] They're not sure, right? Volatility shows up. So there's variation in the marketplace. Identifying for yourself. Mm-hmm. How strong am I in a moment of stress and what do I do when stress is around? So use the example if you're an analytical style, right?
[00:44:17] Joe Greco: Anybody who's done like a, a social style is a disc assessment. Anything that looks at, like what type of behavioral pattern, communication style, if you're more analytical. On New Year's Eve, you were in the crowd with me. Mm-hmm. You would have to figure out the exact amount of discount. Yes. And you know what?
[00:44:34] Joe Greco: You're not paying for champagne tonight. Yeah. 'cause you didn't even put the trade on. And then the opposite, the red, aggressive, dominant style. They're like, this thing deals always close at parody. I'm gonna buy this one before the bell and I'll close out my position on the bell. So then they miss out because they did their position too soon.
[00:44:58] Joe Greco: Now I don't know where I am. I'm not [00:45:00] divulging where I am on that. That's not the point. But the point being in that moment to bring it home at what you asked for is. Understanding where you are. So you can start to flex away from that and you can become more versatile and make a decision more quickly in the moment.
[00:45:14] Joe Greco: Because I don't know if it's gonna be a 20 cent discount or a 75% discount, but in both scenarios, I'm happy, my client's happy, we go home with a little more money. Right? Yeah. Like that's the whole point of being here versus the other one who says, well, yeah, you might be done with the trade, but then you still miss out and are you gonna be upset that you missed out?
[00:45:31] Joe Greco: And that style typically will kick themselves for like approximately one and a half years before they finally stop telling the boohoo story that they missed out on the trade that the other guy got. Right. So being aware, being self-aware, going through the rigors of really learning yourself, accepting who you are.
[00:45:47] Joe Greco: Yeah. And not thinking you're so unique. But then also then building yourself back up to be a unique specimen that can think for yourself. I mean, this is all, this is a thread through everything we're talking about today. You know, thinking for yourself, using your [00:46:00] brain, not overthinking it, and also just being humble enough to say like, okay, good enough.
[00:46:04] Joe Greco: I'm going,
[00:46:04] Stacy Havener: yeah. It's fascinating the way that you used EQ there. To me, I often think about EQ in terms of awareness of others. I'm in a conversation, I'm in a a room, I'm reading the room, I'm understanding, I'm put, I'm inverting, I'm understanding what I'm trying to figure out what other people are thinking.
[00:46:27] Stacy Havener: What I love that you did is you, you turned it internal. You turned it inward and said, okay, there's a component to EQ that is self-awareness and being okay again with the quotes of what that reality is. Because if you can't admit it, how are we gonna solve for it? How are we gonna put the right people and resources around you so that you can exceed any level of success you even thought you could [00:47:00] possibly do?
[00:47:01] Stacy Havener: To me that is so key in the work that you're helping clients do. It's the internal stuff as much as it's the external. Is that, am I reading that right?
[00:47:11] Joe Greco: Absolutely. Absolutely know thyself. Yeah. Know thyself. I could, uh, uh, raised a civil servant household, you know, at the time. Middle income, it would be low at, at this day and age and, you know, but good core family values.
[00:47:27] Joe Greco: I had no business being on Wall Street. I didn't have anybody in the business. I didn't have any, you know, college roommates. I didn't go to an Ivy or where they recruit for, you know, like all the consulting and, and engineering companies recruit at RPI. So I had no business being there. Right. I didn't shy away from that as my story.
[00:47:46] Joe Greco: I didn't shy away from that as like a challenge for me to build out a relationship, being known for producing value, being, being proud of what got me there, and then that will get me to the next level, the next level. I'm not patting myself on the [00:48:00] back, but what I'm saying is there are people who won't ever be able to succeed as much as they could.
[00:48:04] Joe Greco: They might be successful, but they won't ever fully reach their potential because they hold back from like opening that up and, and accepting it and talking about it and, and breathing air to it. Go the other way. The third generation banker wall, Streeter, Ivy Leaguer trust fund, you know, $2,000 loafers, $6,000 suit, uh, you know, on their graduation day from college.
[00:48:29] Joe Greco: I'm not disparaging 'cause they exist. I have friends with, you know, like them and they're actually great friends 'cause they have memberships at clubs that I could never play golf at without them. But, um, but they're, they're, they're real people too. And, uh, those individuals probably shy away from telling the story.
[00:48:44] Joe Greco: Yeah. And you know what? That means they miss out because people at their level want to know that, they want to know that they have that history, that lineage, that whatever, there's a, you know, a shoe for every foot, there's a sock for every foot, right? So that in and of itself, they then shy away from that story and then they miss [00:49:00] out on their potential.
[00:49:00] Joe Greco: And then there's those who would, however they arrived at somewhere, they, they have a background. They've got a, a criminal record. They've cleaned themselves up. They're, they're not married. Alternative lifestyle, you could just go on and on. So there's a lot that everything has its time in place.
[00:49:14] Stacy Havener: Mm-hmm.
[00:49:15] Joe Greco: There's enough people in the world and there's enough people with money that need help. And, and there's certainly is enough awareness around needing to hire a financial advisor. So find the market that works best for you, and then you play best too, and be comfortable in that if you're chasing somebody else's market.
[00:49:34] Joe Greco: Well, they're gonna have your lunch. You're never gonna get them. But if you take some lessons from here and there and you cobble together a business model, a team, a story to tell, and, and a way of approaching financial advisement, planning, accounting, lawyering, you know, representation, whatever it is, you will find a market that in this day and age, I mean, there's no excuses between LinkedIn, social media [00:50:00] channels.
[00:50:00] Joe Greco: There are no boundaries. There is no opening closing bell to generating relationships around the clock systems. Everything can really help you. That can make it happen. So, you know, that's, that's a reality in the world.
[00:50:13] Stacy Havener: It's a reality in the world. Okay, but here's the thing. I could talk to you for hours, but um, we could, so this would be a good episode.
[00:50:21] Stacy Havener: It's gonna be a great episode. You're fantastic. So let's go back. So let's end with. Advice you have because you're an entrepreneur, which we didn't talk a ton about that journey, but I mean, in addition to the craft that you practice as a coach. Yes. You're also building a business, you're an entrepreneur.
[00:50:41] Stacy Havener: Like what advice do you have? What have you learned on this journey from the floor, uh, to the, it's not really the, the sofa or you sound like you're a therapist, but my gosh, you could be. You could be.
[00:50:53] Joe Greco: But my sofa is, it's like, uh, it's almost works as quick as watching an old clip of me give market [00:51:00] commentary.
[00:51:00] Joe Greco: I am out if, if, I mean, when I stop moving, if I sit down, listen, no one has more
[00:51:05] Stacy Havener: energy than you.
[00:51:06] Joe Greco: That's it. Well, and it just ends and that's it. Yeah. Like I run out of a battery and like my wife and I first started dating. I warned her, you know, I said, look, when I, when my battery hits e we're done. Yeah.
[00:51:16] Joe Greco: And the girls think it's, they're like, it's amazing. You know, like, it, I'll, I'll wake up and I'll be wondering where I am. Like, was I, you know, crime scene drinking? Like what was going on here? What you knows happened to me all contort. That's just how
[00:51:28] Stacy Havener: roll Joe.
[00:51:30] Joe Greco: That's it, man. So the couch, that's, no, no, no.
[00:51:31] Joe Greco: I'm definitely not on the couch. No, you're not. And certainly not until, but
[00:51:35] Stacy Havener: it does feel therapy ish. You know what I mean? Like there's an element to what you do, I think, because it requires such vulnerability from the people that you're helping. Mm-hmm. Even just the way you speak as someone who's been in therapy and appreciates a good therapist, like you have good energy, same, but you have a lot of softness and acceptance to how you work with [00:52:00] clients in addition to meditations and motivations.
[00:52:03] Joe Greco: So. Yeah. Look, you, you know, it's, I, I, I appreciate you saying that. I have a client, uh, he's a partner at a client firm. I've done a lot of work with their Yeah. Partner level, their director level and whatnot. You know, helping him get up to the next, I had never met this man.
[00:52:18] Stacy Havener: Mm-hmm.
[00:52:19] Joe Greco: And he had already, he put the trust of me helping develop three of his people on a colleague's recommendation.
[00:52:25] Joe Greco: Mm-hmm. But we had never met. And after the second call. I was speaking with him about one of his team members that he wanted me to work with, just to be clear. And he, he said, you know, he heard how I spoke and, and talked, and he goes, I got it. He goes, you're just enough street Yes. To balance out the fact that you know what you're talking about and you care about what you do.
[00:52:47] Joe Greco: Mm-hmm. And what I, and, and honestly I was like, choked up. It was so, I was so like, oh, he's speaking. It's so spot on. What, what? It's, and you know, I probably don't make a big enough deal about that for me because look, I, I have a great [00:53:00] business. I have awesome clients relations. We're a referral and, and growing and it's just so, and I'm having so much fun and I do respect every opportunity to help people get to the other side.
[00:53:11] Joe Greco: I, I don't know if I'm billing people, I'm not billing people or we meeting for lunch. Because you're a, a client, I totally get that. I've known you like, I just, I take up meetings with people that I know. I can somehow do something with or want to and need some help or whatever. So maybe it's the Catholic in me, maybe it's the little Italian guy in me.
[00:53:28] Joe Greco: I don't know. It's a blend of everything.
[00:53:30] Stacy Havener: Yeah. But the
[00:53:31] Joe Greco: advice that you're looking for. Yeah. And the thing that I would say, you know, departing this call is to not shy away. I don't wanna preach or direct, but to not shy away from what you think about most, because here's the thing. Okay. The best ideas, the ones that people are like, um, yeah, just came to me, whatever.
[00:53:53] Joe Greco: No, they were thinking about it for about 10 years
[00:53:56] Stacy Havener: in the shower
[00:53:57] Joe Greco: on the way to get in, in the most [00:54:00] inopportune moments of their life. Every week they were thinking about it, but they never breathed enough life in it. They never spent time executing. They never, or, or planning, they never spent time like really sharing it or writing it down, molding it, messing with it, smashing it, and starting over.
[00:54:16] Joe Greco: They never spent the time to do that, but they have been thinking about it. Whatever you're thinking about. If your gut, if your thoughts are around, you know, doing a service differently or integrating clients on this, do it. Just do it. Do it sloppy, do it messy. Do it budget, do it. Whatever you have to do to get the repetitions in, because if you make a mistake going a hundred miles an hour, my high school football coach would say, make a mistake going a hundred miles an hour.
[00:54:44] Joe Greco: My, you know when, when you get hurt, when you get injured, when you go like 50% because you're not sure if that's the whole or that's the route. When you go a hundred miles an hour and everyone's going a hundred miles an hour, it works out when you stutter and when you, and when you like, aren't sure, that's when bad things happen.
[00:54:58] Joe Greco: Mm-hmm. And so bad [00:55:00] things for professionals can be that you don't. Deliver a service that you don't react to something somebody told you because like, well, they just mentioned it offhand at a cocktail party. They mentioned it because whether they know it or subconsciously, they want you to deliver that.
[00:55:16] Joe Greco: Yeah. And if you wait on that, someone else is gonna do it eventually. Yeah. And then you're gonna be left with no more relationships. So whatever it is, if it's leave the business, if it's, take it in a new direction, if it's breakout on your own, and launch an independent, whatever it is, if you've been spending time thinking about it, then give yourself the respect to, to work it through.
[00:55:35] Joe Greco: Find a buddy, a friend, a a, an old friend, a coach, whomever, and just someone you trust and just talk it through.
[00:55:43] Stacy Havener: Yeah.
[00:55:44] Joe Greco: Work it through, draw it out sloppy or not, and just, and breathe life into it because that's innovation that is truly leading edge. And that will be your story. To the next group of people who are gonna help you get to that X level, they're gonna know that you were really the [00:56:00] architect and you weren't just the order taker or order filler,
[00:56:03] Stacy Havener: and that's no regrets, which I love.
[00:56:05] Stacy Havener: That was great. Okay, so we're not ending on that though.
[00:56:08] Joe Greco: Okay.
[00:56:09] Stacy Havener: Because I have some questions for you that just let us get to know you a little bit more and I'll be fast. All right. Are you ready?
[00:56:16] Joe Greco: Yeah, let's go. Yeah. Speed round.
[00:56:18] Stacy Havener: Speed round. What book inspires you?
[00:56:22] Joe Greco: It's a very short book. I'm reading it right now.
[00:56:24] Joe Greco: It's the only one that keeps coming to mind. Rum Novarum. And I'm gonna prove to you that I have it. It's the writings of a pope. No way. Uh, it's, it's not necessarily religious, but it's written in Latin and English and it's only about 60 pages. I'm just about done. I was given it to you by my friend, but Rum novarum is a turn of the century Industrial Revolution time analysis of.
[00:56:48] Joe Greco: Job of, of, uh, fulfillment, employment, wealth status society in 60 pages. So that, to me, right now, I am like, it's, it is a [00:57:00] perfect application to where we are with AI and how that's changing the world. And for that brief amount, it's, it doesn't talk. It doesn't, it's not preaching, it doesn't talk about the religion.
[00:57:09] Joe Greco: It's a very, very intelligent,
[00:57:11] Stacy Havener: fascinating essay.
[00:57:12] Joe Greco: Yeah. Are you reading the
[00:57:13] Stacy Havener: Latin?
[00:57:14] Joe Greco: I am trying to go. Thank you. I am trying to go back and read and compare, and my daughter is fairly proficient, proficient enough in Latin. So I'm, I'm getting there. But do not, please do not ask me to speak anymore. I will
[00:57:25] Stacy Havener: not, but you know it.
[00:57:27] Stacy Havener: So I have another guest, and I won't throw her under the bus, but who also like studied Latin. So I'm gonna think that this is starting to be like a requirement to come on the pot.
[00:57:36] Joe Greco: Maybe I'll, I, I'll underwrite, I'll underwrite a dozen of these. I'll give you a dozen of these. I, I'll send them to you. I'll send you So fascinating.
[00:57:46] Joe Greco: I love this. And you can send them to clients so
[00:57:47] Stacy Havener: much. Okay, next up, we're going from books to places. What place inspires you?
[00:57:55] Joe Greco: My backyard. Oh, I like that. It's, it's not [00:58:00] fancy, but we've got a climbing wall. We've got a little fire pit, you know, covered in melted marshmallows from s'mores. We've got a big long table.
[00:58:09] Joe Greco: We've got gardens, we've got a little lounge area. I got a grill that I can cook for the 700 family members that we, you know, have dinner with every Sunday. Um, yeah, it's just, it inspires me. I, I love sitting there. I love playing with my kids. I love squirting 'em with the hose until they tell me to stop.
[00:58:26] Joe Greco: Yeah. I mean, it's, yeah. That's my backyard.
[00:58:28] Stacy Havener: Yeah. That is inspiring. And also when we travel, isn't it crazy how much we appreciate? Like, you're like, I love that I went on whatever trip and I love that I'm home.
[00:58:39] Joe Greco: Well, I mean, look, let's not disparage, you know, the Four Seasons and, and these major properties very fancy and fun.
[00:58:45] Joe Greco: You stayed for no doubt. But there is nothing like getting home. Mm-hmm. And really feeling, you know, that cup of coffee in the back the morning. I mean, especially me. I'm up, I'm up super early, you know, like I, I feel like I know the birds that are [00:59:00] chirping. You know? It's, it's, yeah. You're like, what's up
[00:59:01] Stacy Havener: Charlie?
[00:59:02] Stacy Havener: Yep. No doubt. Exactly. Okay. This is a good one. I can't wait for this actually. So you're giving a talk in a stadium. You get to pick, it's probably in New York, you're about to take the stage. Stage. What song is your walkout anthem? What's your hype up song?
[00:59:18] Joe Greco: Wow. Um, this is, I swear this isn't political, but it, I have to answer the question truthfully.
[00:59:24] Joe Greco: And I was just thinking about Rome and, and I was actually gonna say nema, which. I, I just swear it's not political at all. Now you're showing
[00:59:34] Stacy Havener: off
[00:59:34] Joe Greco: too, with all the Latin. Not at all. Not at all. Not at all. Not at all. It's just the opera was in my mind, we had seen it last year and, and you asked me, and when you said place, I can't stand getting stuck in a major arena.
[00:59:48] Joe Greco: Like I actually adore them. It's
[00:59:50] Stacy Havener: agoraphobia is real. Yeah,
[00:59:51] Joe Greco: totally. Yeah. Like, I'm out, but I, I immediately thought of like, you know, some amphitheater in, you know, in the outskirts of Rome or [01:00:00] something or, or wherever. And I like this. This is a good vision.
[01:00:02] Stacy Havener: Yeah. Yeah.
[01:00:03] Joe Greco: I think having that come on because it's so powerful and it's so moving and the emotion of the song allows someone who can't understand the words to still feel, oh, that's great.
[01:00:18] Joe Greco: The emotion of the song.
[01:00:20] Stacy Havener: I love that answer Joe. I'm also slightly heartbroken that as like a former club promoter in college, um, that we didn't get some sort of rap. But you know what? I still love you and I'll tell Brandon that this is what you said,
[01:00:36] Joe Greco: that's, he's gonna be like, what the clown? So no joke.
[01:00:42] Joe Greco: I've had hearts on fire from Rocky already queued up. Rocky four. This
[01:00:50] Stacy Havener: is so you okay. It's just so you come on a hundred
[01:00:53] Joe Greco: percent. The lights. The lights on the Ferrari pickup and he revs the engine. He just got into a fight with Adrian is like you. I'll show you. [01:01:00] It's so you can't win. I'll show you. That is exactly, I had that queued up.
[01:01:04] Joe Greco: That's, I literally just had the press play. I had that queued up. 'cause until we went into the green room, we were hanging for a bit. I was, I was gonna just hit play on the call. So that's funny that I, I forgot I did that because I was so moved by, uh, the opera. So
[01:01:16] Stacy Havener: funny. Okay. Yeah. Next up, what profession, other than your own, other than the ones you've already had, 'cause you've had many, would you like to attempt?
[01:01:25] Stacy Havener: What profession other than your own would you like to attend?
[01:01:30] Joe Greco: Interesting one. So I really would like to be an astronaut. I want to go to outer space. I want to push out the frontier. I want to know what we can learn from, you know, being off and out of the gravitational pull of planet Earth. And yeah, I mean, I, I really, I really, I don't, I don't think the metaphorical ship has sailed on that.
[01:01:57] Joe Greco: I think the opportunity's probably coming sooner [01:02:00] than, than going away. But yeah, I would love to be a space explorer.
[01:02:05] Stacy Havener: I'm having anxiety attack thinking about that.
[01:02:10] Joe Greco: The scene, the scene where Sandra was just like, she floats away from the camera. That's it. She disappears in space.
[01:02:17] Stacy Havener: I love that. You are just, you're amazing.
[01:02:20] Stacy Havener: Okay. I don't even know what to expect here on this next one. What profession would you not like to do?
[01:02:26] Joe Greco: Uh, I, I do not, I would never wanna be a school teacher
[01:02:30] Stacy Havener: that's come up. Um, so many times.
[01:02:33] Joe Greco: I have so much respect for them. Totally. It's not a, a knock on the school teacher. Just the opposite. It's like, I love my friend's kids because I can get the heck out of there and not have to deal with them for hours and hours of emotion, of rainy days of I forgot my lunch of this one, took my whatever, or high school, which is crazy drama.
[01:02:55] Joe Greco: I would not wanna be a school teacher and have to deal with all that.
[01:02:59] Stacy Havener: They're doing God's [01:03:00] work for sure. They, they
[01:03:01] Joe Greco: need, we, I don't, I mean, there's many things we could talk about solving for, you know, healthcare being one of them. Yeah. And, but teacher compensation. Hello. Yeah. Like that. How do we not take a couple billion from the department of whatever and slide it right into, you know, a comp for teachers and, and skilling up, educating Yeah.
[01:03:19] Joe Greco: Healthcare and self-care for them as well. Yeah.
[01:03:22] Stacy Havener: Amazing. Okay. Last but not least. Also a long time from now. What do you want people to say about you after you've retired or left the industry?
[01:03:33] Joe Greco: Ooh, interesting to say about me. Look, I, I don't, I don't mind, I don't need them to say about me. I'd like them to think about me when they do something that we worked on.
[01:03:46] Joe Greco: Mm.
[01:03:47] Stacy Havener: And I'd like
[01:03:47] Joe Greco: them to share it with someone else. You know, I want them to share it like I gave it to them because somebody gave it to me. So they have have to give it to somebody, pay it forward. That's it. Like I, I say it all the time, like, I didn't come up with this. I just package it [01:04:00] better for you.
[01:04:00] Joe Greco: And therefore you can hear it in my voice on my slide or however we're engaging. But yeah, I, I would just hope they don't have to gimme the credit. I just want them to share those things forward. And that's, that's it. That, that would be it. Yeah.
[01:04:13] Stacy Havener: I'm sure there are a lot of people who are giving you the credit because you do deserve it.
[01:04:17] Stacy Havener: You have been fantastic. Joe.
[01:04:20] Joe Greco: Thanks so much for having me. This has been awesome. Oh
[01:04:21] Stacy Havener: gosh, so fun. How can people connect with you? I mean, you know, I'm gonna have to do a video clip with the hat because it's like you, it's your staple. It's you do. So your staple, it started as just a fun gig. You actually needed to bring a hat to this.
[01:04:34] Stacy Havener: I should have told you that. Where can they connect with you?
[01:04:37] Joe Greco: Our website is polio inc.com. P-A-L-I-O inc. IN c.com. Just like the horse race, I am on LinkedIn. So if you search LinkedIn and you see this face, or you see Girl Dad in the writeup, that's me.
[01:04:53] Stacy Havener: Or a hat that's coming up with a or a hat down in a video.
[01:04:57] Joe Greco: Yeah. Video. And uh, and you know, if you're in the Westchester or New [01:05:00] York area, I respond to people hitting me out and saying like, Hey, I'm gonna be in town. Can you grab coffee? And, and if you're flexible, usually I find a way to do it. Um, so yeah, I, I love meeting in person with folks I put out there when I'm traveling.
[01:05:13] Joe Greco: I love meeting in like the hotel bar or the cafe. Mm-hmm. Or in the gym or at the pool, whatever. You know, activity is always the best way to connect with people. Right. Do something with somebody. So yeah, people can connect. I'm definitely not hidden, that's for sure. Yeah.
[01:05:25] Stacy Havener: You're not, you are a joy. Thank you so much for being here.
[01:05:30] Joe Greco: Uh, likewise, Stacy, this is wonderful and I hope to help. Oh, thanks. Bring these stories up because these backstories are, they're, it's gonna be a trillion dollar backstory show someday. Yeah, and it's gonna be great that you led the charge. Yeah. Thank you. No, it's, thank you so much.
[01:05:45] Stacy Havener: This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.
[01:05:51] Stacy Havener: The information is not an offer, solicitation, or recommendation of any of the funds, services, or products, or to adopt any investment strategy. Investment [01:06:00] values may fluctuate and past performance is not a guide to future performance. All opinions expressed by guests on the show are solely their own opinion and do not necessarily reflect those at their firm.
[01:06:10] Stacy Havener: Manager's appearance on the show does not constitute an endorsement by Stacey Haven or Haven, or Capital Partners.
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