How Allies Should React to Trump, How to Calm Your Nerves, and First-Time Board Advice

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Welcome to Office Hours with Prof G.

This is the part of the show where we answer your questions about business, big tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind.

What's happening?

A little different today.

We're coming to you on a Monday, and going forward, you'll be getting office hours twice a week, every Monday and Friday.

Why?

I don't know.

I don't know.

I just go where they tell me to go and release pods when they tell me to release them.

That's right.

Double the episodes, double the questions, double the Prop G.

If you'd like to submit a question for next time, you can send a voice recording to officehours at profgmedia.com.

Again, that's officehours at profitmedia.com.

Or post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit, and we just might feature it in our next episode.

What a thrill.

First question, I have not seen or read these questions.

Our first question comes from 6P on Reddit.

They ask,

How should America's traditional allies, including Australia and the UK, be responding to the U.S.

at the moment through the remainder of the Trump years and once Trump has left office?

Huh.

I think Carney's doing it right, forcefully I dignified.

I thought his answer in the Oval Office when President Trump suggested that we might buy Canada.

So first off, that's just so fucking stupid.

No Republican administration, Congress would never want to buy Canada because guess what?

If we bought Canada and made them citizens, you'd have democratic policies for the next 50 years.

Because guess what, folks?

Canada is bluer than New York or California.

So all this bluster all this sticking up the middle finger and being condescending and ignoring a nation's sovereignty it's just stupid and what did carney do he came down and he said well as you know

as you know from real estate there are some places that uh are never for sale that's true uh we're sitting in one right now you know buckingham palace that you visited as well that's true uh and um having met with uh the owners of canada over the course of the campaign uh last several months uh it it's it's not for sale won't be for sale that's a polite way of saying go fuck yourself, which I think a lot of leaders would be tempted to say, but Mark Carney is not like that.

He's much smarter than me or most leaders.

And he said, as you know, some assets are not for sale.

And I've been traveling around Canada talking to the owners.

I love that.

God, that guy's good, right?

I think you're forceful, you're dignified.

I hate to say this.

You probably use this as an opportunity to reestablish or strengthen trading partnerships with non-U.S.

entities.

You're seeing it all over.

Europe is in open talks with Latin America.

Japan, South Korea, and China are having trilateral talks for the first time in a long time going, okay, this rich uncle of ours called Uncle Sam has gone fucking crazy.

Maybe we should all talk about how we can make more money together.

So it presents an opportunity for non-U.S.

nations to develop trade agreements.

Global trade unlocks tremendous prosperity.

Does it leave certain people behind who get hurt?

Absolutely.

But if you look at...

the trajectory of global trade and free trade and you correlate it, there is a strong correlation with stock markets and prosperity and wages.

Global trade is kind of one of the premier post-World War II unlocks.

But let's go back to the 1890s.

Wouldn't that be nice without Netflix or Novocaine?

Anyways, I think you're forceful yet dignified, and you take advantage of the tumult and how disgusted people are in the world with America.

You want to hear a scary stat for the first time in history.

More people globally think of China as a force of good than America.

So you take advantage of it and reach out to who have been traditional adversaries or competitors and said, hey, why don't we see what kind of trade deals or cooperation we can put together to increase the prosperity?

And essentially, you have what is a $27 trillion economy, kind of a yard sale right now, because I think a lot of our great academics, our great researchers, our great supply chain relationships, our great alliances, our great trade deals are kind of up for grabs right now.

It's the world's biggest lawn sale because, well, Granddad isn't dead.

He's gone fucking crazy, and we're going to start picking off his assets one-on-one.

How much for that desk?

How much for that desk?

Thanks for the question.

Our second question comes from Jay from Florida on Reddit.

He asked,

Prof.

G, I was wondering if you could share some tips on calming nerves before important meetings.

As an entrepreneur, your story is filled with meeting important, wealthy people and impressing them so much that they lend you loads of money.

I would imagine being calm and collected is one of the most important things.

As a young entrepreneur, one of the scariest things is the nerves and fear right before a presentation or sales pitch.

Any advice or techniques would be appreciated.

Thanks, Jay from Florida.

There's no getting around it.

I think if you want to be successful and punch above your weight class economically, even romantically, you have to have a good rap and be confident to speak in front of people.

And it's supposedly the biggest fear, you know, the Seinfeld joke that people's biggest fear is speaking in front of others.

It's not even death.

So the guy giving the eulogy is worse off than the guy in the box,

at least in terms of fears.

I think this is hugely important.

First off, as a parent, I think it's really important that your kids be in a school that values public speaking.

At my kids' school, every eighth grader, every eighth grader has to present to the entire school and their parents.

It's their eighth grade speech.

And my son did his on Nantucket.

And it's one of those moments where I filmed it and I'll watch it over

the few days before I'm dead.

Anyway, communication is incredibly important.

So what do you do around nerves?

First off, I struggle with this.

I spoke in front of, I don't know, 800 people about an hour and a half ago and I was fine.

And I'm usually fine.

I spoke in front of 11,000 about three weeks ago in Hamburg, Germany.

God, I'm boasting.

Fucking 60 years old and I'm still insecure and desperate for your affirmation.

Anyway,

what I do is on a regular basis, and this isn't a tip, but just to give you some, I don't know, context, I have a panic attack.

I'll get in front of a bunch of people.

I can't figure it out.

I don't know if jet lag has something to do with it or something else is on my mind.

And I get on stage and I get nervous and I start sweating and I start gulping for air.

And I look up and I see, you know, 200, 2,000, 10,000 people worried that i'm having a heart attack on stage it's happened probably

three or four times in the last 10 years and it's frightening i feel like i'm going to die i feel embarrassed i mean not like i'm going to die from embarrassment like i literally feel like as if i'm dying and so how do i get around it so the obvious one is practice practicing in front of your mom or your husband or your friends

And practice and knowing the information is obviously going to make you less nervous that you're just sort of on rails.

I always have slides because I use it as just sort of an anchor for me.

And I have a great creative team, which adds to the context.

Also, I think especially some of the tricks are the following.

Imagine that you have real insight into something and it's going to benefit the people.

And you imagine that you're doing them a favor, that you're excited to tell them what's going on, right?

So that you have real insight, real interesting information that they're going to want to hear, and you're going to deliver it.

Some crutches are slides.

Obviously, nothing replaces practice where you're just confident, where it's like, okay, I can do this on rails.

Beyond that, I have taken beta blockers.

And no one will admit that, but supposedly like a third of the people that testify before Congress take beta blockers.

It suppresses the fight or flight sympathetic response.

And right after I have a panic attack, I'm so freaked out about having another attack that I take one before I speak just to calm my nerves.

And once I go three or four talks without a panic attack, I stop taking them.

I don't think you want to become dependent on any one drug.

By the way, a lot of concert

musicians, violinists, whoever use these things because it supposedly calms their nerves and kind of makes them sort of cool as ice.

I also find it deadens me a little bit.

I'm a little, nah.

And this is why AI companies are overvalued.

It's sort of, I lose a little bit of that edge.

I get very emotional on stage a lot, and I think people like that.

It grabs their attention.

I think a little bit of emotion in your voice is fine.

Anger.

I don't know if I get emotional whenever I talk about my boys or the lack of opportunity.

Anyways, but look, boss,

nothing's easy and

nothing replaces just doing it as much as you can and force yourself.

You know, it's doing the hard stuff, the uncomfortable stuff that translates to progress.

Take every chance you can in safe environments to present or speak such that you get less and less freaked out by the prospect.

But I appreciate the question, and it's something everyone struggles with, including yours truly.

See above, panic attacks.

We'll be right back after a quick break.

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Welcome back onto our final question.

Good morning, Scott.

This is Jason from the Lower Hudson Valley of New York and have been a longtime fan.

Some context before my question.

I am a stay-at-home dad of a 17-year-old and twin 15-year-olds, all boys.

In addition to all that goes on with having teenage boys and getting ready for college, side note here, I've been especially appreciative of the ground you've been covering on this front.

One of our guys is severely autistic and was admitted to a residential program.

There was a lot to reconcile leading up to this decision, but we understood the impact this would have on his life and ours.

The decision was transformational, and as a result, I became engaged with his school, and as a result of that engagement, I was recently appointed as a board member of their foundation, which leads to my question.

Having spent the better part of the last, let's call it, 12 to 13 years of my life as as a straight up 100% dad and having never been on a board, what the hell am I supposed to do?

Again, as a longtime listener, I know as the new guy, I should just shut up, listen, and learn.

But beyond the theoretical advocacy for stakeholders, what does active engagement specifically for a foundation look like from your perspective?

I appreciate the time and a shout out to the entire Profit Media team.

Thanks.

First off,

I'm really moved by your commitment to your kids and also just how difficult that decision must have been and just how difficult it must be to have a young man who is facing struggles.

And that's not to say, really pissed me off when RFK Jr.

said the autistic person will never get married, never pay tax.

Bullshit.

I think a lot of our most successful people are autistic.

It sounds like your son has real struggles and that you and your partner have made a difficult decision around what's best for that person.

And I think that at the end of the day, our prosperity means nothing.

Our intellect, our strength, our resources we aggregate mean nothing if we don't protect.

That's the whole point of all.

That's the whole shooting match is such that we can protect others.

And it sounds like you're doing that.

And your son is really lucky to have you and your partner.

Anyways, on a board, nonprofit boards are a little bit different.

The board of a

private or a

corporation is essentially there to hire and fire the CEO and make sure and represent be a fiduciary for shareholders.

And that is make difficult decisions around where they invest such that you can allocate capital to a better return than your competitors and the stock will go up.

That's primarily what boards do.

Now, how that translates to day-to-day

is they're there to decide if and when to sell the company if there's an offer, and they're there essentially, their primary job is to hire and fire the CEO.

A bad board can ruin a company with a good CEO, but a good board cannot save a good company with a bad CEO.

Your most most important job, and I think this is true in nonprofits.

I was on the board of my kids' school, which is a nonprofit, is to make sure you have the right guy or gal in the top seat.

That's it.

And now let's assume you do.

Then your job is to be supportive.

What often happens on nonprofit boards is a lot of people are on that board because they want to project importance in their board.

So they go on the board of nonprofits and they think because I'm on this board and I have opinions that I'm going to express those opinions and concerns and they become just liabilities and they just heckle from the cheap seats.

And that is, I find the most effective board members are the board members who the head of your foundation would call you and ask for your advice around a specific domain, ask good questions, but you're there essentially to be a resource for the CEO because you're not working there full time.

And what you don't want to do is consistently forward ideas and ask questions and pretend.

I was a shitty board member.

I went on my first public board about 25 years ago.

And I thought it was my job to give the CEO a hard time and play stump the CEO and ask the CEO hard questions.

No, that's not your job.

Your job is to be supportive of the CEO until you don't think they're a good job and then replace them.

But until that point, you're there to be supportive of them.

So what is that?

Try and offer up your domain expertise, ask thoughtful questions, not to listen to yourself speak in the board, but to try and be helpful and think through things.

I think you're smart in your first couple of board meetings to just listen

such that you establish some credibility.

You know, I find the most powerful board board members are ones who don't speak very much, but when they speak, kind of everyone nods and listens because this person doesn't waste other people's airtime, kind of an economy of words.

And then hopefully that person begins to call on you.

Also on a nonprofit board, there's just no getting around it.

I would say half of nonprofit boards, if not 80%, are just fundraising vehicles.

I remember the first meeting I had,

I was asked to do the strategy for my kids' school.

And I'm like, okay, this is the strategy.

We have a bunch of wealthy parents.

We have a big endowment.

We're going to raise a shit ton of money because everything around diversity or after-school programs or all the cool ideas that everybody has, all reverse engineer to one thing, and that is money.

And that's our competitive advantage here: we have a bunch of wealthy parents.

And I also said, and everyone on this board either needs to have specific domain expertise around education or be giving a shit ton of money.

And everyone was horrified.

Well, that's what, quite frankly, that's what nonprofit boards, many of them are there to do.

Does that mean you need a lot of money and to give a lot of money?

Not necessarily, but be thoughtful around finances and how you guys are going to raise money and how you can tap into wealthy donors.

But if you wanted to be a great board member, help your CEO on specific issues where you have domain expertise, be supportive of that CEO, be seen as an asset, not someone they need to manage, and quite frankly, help them find the resources they need to execute against their vision.

Let me finish where I started.

I think your son is lucky to have you, and you're doing, you know, my boys have given me purpose.

And I imagine that your boys give you purpose.

And

wish you the best.

That's all for this episode.

If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehours at propagandmedia.com.

Again, that's officehours of propgmedia.com.

Or if you prefer to ask on Reddit, just post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit and we just might feature it in an upcoming episode.

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