Rise and Prime: A New Approach to Success in Alternative Investing

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Samyr is the managing general partner at Freedom Trail Capital, a venture capital fund focusing on consumer tech and CPG investments, prior to working on Celebrity Ventures for Will and Jada Pinkett Smith at Westbrook and Roc Nation.

So what does this mean? Well, it means that Samyr understands venture capital and alternative assets, and he's about to teach you, and I, what it takes to win in this sector.

[THE GUEST]: Samyr Laine is the managing general partner at Freedom Trail Capital.

[THE HOST]: Ryan Miller is an Angel investor, former VP of Finance, CFO of an insurance company, and the founder of Fund Raise Capital,  https://www.fundraisecapital.co where his strategies helped emerging fund managers and deal syndicators to report raising over $1B following his strat

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• 13:51 (Cont.) Rise and Prime: A New Approach to Success in Alternative Investing

Transcript

Ryan Miller  

My name is Ryan Miller, and for the past 15 years, I've helped hundreds of people to raise millions of dollars for their funds and for their startups. If you're serious about raising money, launching your business or taking your life to the next level, this show will give you the answers so that you too can enjoy your pursuit of Making Billions. Let's get into it. 

Ryan Miller  

Most people think success is about grinding harder, but what if I told you everything you've been told about achieving your dreams is wrong. See, in this episode of Making Billions, you're going to discover the hidden playbook that transforms ordinary people into extraordinary fund managers. See, this isn't about working harder, it's about working smarter. It's about creating a vision so powerful that discipline becomes effortless. Stick around, because in the next half hour, we're going to reveal the exact blueprint that turns dreamers into fund managing legends. All this and more coming right now. Here we go. 

Ryan Miller  

Hey, welcome to another episode of Making Billions, I'm your host, Ryan Miller and today I have my dear friend Samyr Laine. Samyr is the managing general partner at Freedom Trail Capital, a venture capital fund focusing on consumer tech and CPG investments, prior to working on Celebrity Ventures for Will and Jada Pinkett Smith at Westbrook and Roc Nation, Samyr worked in the sports industry at Major League Soccer and Monumental Sports & Entertainment. So what does this mean? Well, it means that Samyr understands venture capital and alternative assets, and he's about to teach you, and I what it takes to win in this sector. So Samyr, welcome to the show, man.

Samyr Laine  

Yeah, I appreciate it, I appreciate it. Super happy to be here, big fan of the show, and also a big fan of the community you've built. So appreciate the light you're shedding on this space and venture capital and asset managers in general. 

Ryan Miller  

Yeah, awesome, man, yeah. We've been very fortunate to be in the top 2 or 3% in the world, it's all because amazing guests like you. So let's jump right into it. Man, if people are just starting out, or they want to start out in venture capital or fund management, how do they get early points on the board? 

Samyr Laine  

Yeah, yeah. You know, it's a great, great question. I think sometimes getting that low hanging fruit is the best way to get forward when you want to generate some momentum. For me, the first bit of advice is to win in this space, and in general, is to get good at sales, right? You realize that, as a fund manager, whether venture capital, it can be a real estate fund, a private equity fund, getting good at sales is the first step, right, and it's such a transferable skill set. And I always let people know that if you're selling a fund to that extent, you're selling yourself. You're selling your strategy, your thesis, your team, everything that goes into creating a fund and being successful, and convincing people to invest. Convincing people to want to back you and go on this journey with you, it's sales, it's all sales, right? So you know, first things first is get good at sales, take the necessary steps to acquire that skill and to hone it, and to get good, if not great, at right? So that means putting in the reps, it actually means practicing just like any skill set. It means practicing what you're selling, practicing different techniques, practicing being uncomfortable and getting comfortable and all that stuff. It means sometimes making a fool of yourself in the mirror, sometimes practicing with significant others. But the first thing for me, when people ask me, how do I win? How do I succeed here? And then again, it's so true, even beyond fund management and venture capital, is to get good at sales. The other thing for me, getting good at sales was just reading a lot. And I think even outside of sales, getting good and winning and venture capital putting early points on the board is to read everything. The Master Investor, the OG himself, Warren Buffett, will tell you that he's typically reading six to eight hours a day, like when he's in his office. He's just reading, he's reading everything. He's reading annual reports and quarterly reports and newspapers and science journals and all that stuff. So find some books where you can learn everything you can about sales. You know, I start with, and I read this book on an almost annual basis. I start with Think & Grow Rich, just to get your mind prepared to one and honed on what you want to achieve and how you want to achieve it and all that stuff. Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends & Influence People, is a big one for me as well. Not a, not a pure sales book, but can really, at some point when you're selling you are influencing people, right? So it may be a pure sales book than some folks think. Let's see, Greatest Salesman in the World, is kind of like an allegorical fable that's tied to being a good salesperson. And then Jordan Belfort has a book called ,The Way of the Wolf. Ryan, those are just examples, they are some of my favorites. And then the last thing I'll say about any skill, especially sales, just be persistent, right? Like, keep at it and I mentioned you've got to put in the reps, but it really is sometimes you'll get, especially in this space, especially in fund management venture capital, you get a ton of nos. But when you're selling anything, you're getting way more nos than yeses and so you got to understand, got to be comfortable with that, for sure. But then you got to be persistent at honing your skill, at becoming a better salesperson, at crafting your message, whatever your fund message is, at understanding what your strong suit is when you go to sell people. Selling is an uncomfortable skill because it requires you to communicate with people. Sometimes it does require public speaking, but getting good, if not, if not good, getting much better than you already are if you've never tried to work on being a salesperson. That's the first kind of like quick win, low hanging fruit that I had stressed to folks who want to win in venture capital, win and fund management and just in general, right? Like, sales is such a transferable skill that it's worth working on almost regardless of what you're doing, to be honest.

Ryan Miller  

Brilliant. So getting good at sales involves a lot of reading, gave some advice on some of the things have really helped you to connect with people and to convince them to find a better or higher path. Putting in the reps. I know in my community of Fundraise Capital, we have that where we actually encourage people to book a call and do these faux pitches to each other, and then put in the reps, especially from people who've been trained on how to pitch and do that like you're you're saying and then being persistent. Obviously, you can't get too far if you give up on the first first no or the first headwind. What else can you advise people who are just jumping into venture capital or aspire to be what are some other pieces of advice to really get started, get some early points on the board.

Samyr Laine  

Yeah, my time as a professional athlete and being an Olympian all that like, I took a lot of what works for me to to get to that level, to achieve at that level, and I apply it now. But again, a lot of it is transferable. But to winning in this space, I try to systematize things right? Create processes, create systems, create it can be a checklist or whatever it is, but really just figure out how to build and keep track of and maintain a process that keeps you disciplined and keeps you persistent, right? So we talked about persistence when it comes to being, being an improved salesperson, but just in general, in this fund management space, when, whether you're fundraising, which requires a ton of discipline and persistence and and stick to itiveness and all that stuff. But even you, when you get over that first fundraising you close your first fund, or whatever it is having, those processes still are going to pay dividends for you down the line, right? It's the process of when you are vetting companies or diligence opportunities, when you're looking for new opportunities, when you're networking and doing all that stuff.

Samyr Laine  

 And so for me, a lot of what it meant as an athlete was what's the process that keeps me consistent and keeps me motivated, it keeps me striving to improve on a regular basis. I was a triple jumper, right? So I could measure my improvement one centimeter or a quarter of an inch, depending on where you are, but one centimeter at a time, right? So, but that process meant I'm tracking how I'm doing and how I'm feeling and how my workout went and what went well, what didn't go well. And tracking my competitions and how I felt throughout, so I apply a lot of that to what I do now, I've applied it throughout my entire career. And you know, when I left college, I wasn't competing at an Olympic level, right? So, but for me to get there, and again, I sometimes think in books, right? But there's another book called Atomic Habits. And you know what is broken down in that book and what I've been able to apply is the idea of the, it becomes easier to do the thing if you figure out what the process is to get there, and then, you know, I've got, I've got two kids. So sometimes I say, and, you know, like when I say this, but my five year old, I say, well, how do you eat an elephant? Right? It's one bite at a time and so accomplishing anything, accomplishing closing your first fund, or raising a second fund, or being a lead on a big deal, whatever it is in this venture fund manager space, it still requires systematizing or creating processes that keep you on track. And sometimes that means bite sized chunks of what you're trying to approve, to achieve. And if you can create the bite sized chunk, figure out what the process is in each bite size and link those together, you can actually achieve the thing, right? And so, yeah, you want to have the big outcome and the big result in mind. But the idea is, what's the process that gets you there? What is the ritual that gets you there? What's the habit that, if you can link things together, what gets you there? And so, you know, the second thing, first is, get great at sales. The second thing is, just find out, what are the little processes that you can, on a regular basis, utilize to make sure you stay consistent. You're always digesting in companies, the same way you're going through the process, or even if you know when you're fundraising right, like, what is your morning routine? What's your daily routine, what's your week look like? How do you figure out when you following up with potential LPs? When are you hanging back, when you all of those things? Or what is the process so that you can systematize the path that you're on to get to that bigger thing. Because the bigger thing is going to be daunting, it's closing that first fund. It's closing that first deal, it's, whatever it is on your journey as a fund manager, as a venture capitalist and as an investor. What are the processes, they're going to be multiple processes, but what are those processes that you can link together to make sure that you stay, stay disciplined and persistent. Because if you don't have it, it's, and it's just like working out right? Like it's, it's, if you don't have it, the thing that you can do on a regular basis to get you primed to go work out at 5am in the morning or the night before, ritual that gets you ready to do those. Everyone knows that those processes and rituals go a long way. It's no different, different as VC, fund manager space. It's because you're trying to achieve something worth achieving, right and so figure out what helps you stay disciplined and persistent and link those wins together. Because that's how you get the big prize down the line. Whatever that big prize is.

Ryan Miller  

Brilliant. You know, you bring up a couple of good points. So one thing we have a list of like, 20 family values in our home and the Miller family home. So it come into the world, but one of them is consistency beats intensity every time. So that was one of the things that you talked about, which kind of comes into discipline. And, you know, we talk a lot about, you mentioned Atomic Habits. Another word for habits might be rituals, right, or a different flavor of habits might be rituals. What I found is, when I focused on discipline, makes discipline more difficult. But if I have rituals, I don't know for some reason when, when I put in rituals, it tends to take discipline as this big scary thing, or, I don't know if it's scary, but this thing that is actually quite good, but very difficult. What are your rituals, rather than just discipline, focus on rituals that then feed into the consistency. So now, right? Instead of being the, this intensity, instead of consistency, or, for example, instead of rituals, you have say, discipline. So you're focused on discipline, you're focused on intensity, right? We have a lot of social media influencers yelling at other dudes for quit being a wimp and get after your money. And okay, fine, I get the spirit of that, but that's a very you gotta be disciplined. And I'm not saying discipline doesn't matter, I'm just saying there may be another approach to almost back into discipline by having rituals, which then leads to a very disciplined approach. So when I focus on discipline, I don't find I'm very disciplined, but when I focus on rituals, the thing I want to be disciplined in tends to happen consistently. Hopefully these dots are connecting and so focusing on those things really tend to help to do that. And then it goes back to what you said as an Olympian, you really learn to be consistent to practice, to measure your performance, even if it's, you know, a quarter inch or a centimeter, or whatever you want to call it. And you can really see how that consistency shows up, those rituals in your diet, when in your exercise and everything, it really leads to, at the end of the day the same result, which is consistent and measurable performance.

Samyr Laine  

Yep, no, that's spot on and I think a part of it is because discipline is, is the big, daunting thing, right? When someone tells you just be disciplined, you're like, Well, I don't know what that means, I don't just turn on this discipline switch, right, it's all of a sudden become disciplined. But those rituals allow you to link things to habits or just practices together, get processes together that in the end you end up being disciplined, because you've got these rituals that you file follow like clockwork, right? And so when you look back, you're like, oh, it's pretty disciplined on but it's not just like, I'm going to magically become disciplined, because that is the end result. And there are processes to even do that, right? So it's not like, I'm on December 31st like I'm going to be disciplined and I'm going to go to the gym four days a week for four months straight when you haven't been doing anything close to that. It's not like I'm gonna think myself into discipline. It's to your point, what are the rituals that you can each and every day, maybe each night, or whatever it is to get to there? When you look back, you're like, wow, that has, I've now become discipline. Or that was a tremendous example of discipline. But if you just try to will yourself to be disciplined, it's, it is even more daunting, exactly like you said.

Ryan Miller  

That's right and so I've shifted from this old adage that you would hear on YouTube and like, I joke about these influencers yelling at young men to rise and grind. You ever hear that saying, rise and grind? You gotta grin, you gotta grind. And I'm like, that does not sound fun. Yeah, what I do instead was rise in prime and so when I wake up at five in the morning, it's just getting myself in a place where success just tends to happen, a little bit more effortless, a little more natural. When you've primed your mind, your body and your spirit, think about when you compete in the Olympics, right? Like you, most people like physically, are they trained? But it's also your mind and your soul that you're going to bring to really achieve world records. And if we're at that level, and fund management definitely would be one of those, those really big league type of things. Yeah, you need to be primed up, because things can come at you. Sometimes they're great, sometimes they're annoying, either way, it's just business. But if you're primed, you can handle it, and you're more than willing to be consistent, more than willing to do the plan, more than willing to do what is required, what is necessary. So now getting early points on the board, that's one thing, right? Your rituals and all that stuff, please rise and prime. I get it, but there's also downside risk, and so I'd love to explore just the other side of that coin is to say, when you're starting out in venture capital, what are some of those cautionary tales that you would say to someone who maybe wants to jump into venture capital, but maybe they just they haven't put in the reps to know the downside risks that they're up against. So be a big brother put your arm around someone and just say, let me help you out, young buck, like, what are we dealing with here? So what are some of those downside risks?

Samyr Laine  

That it's also right, like the path is well trodden enough that people have made mistakes, including myself. So, you know, I think the first thing is just watch out for people who are promising you the moon, right? And it's all that is, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. Is if it walks like a duck and a clock like a duck and a mongoose or whatever, whatever it is, right? But you get a lot of people, especially for emerging managers, a lot of people come out the woodwork and will promise to raise on your behalf, or they've got this introduction, that introduction to make, or whatever it is. It is not to say that there aren't people who can be great sources of introductions and so on, and so there are. But then you'll get people who are especially for those emerging managers, like I said, I'll raise this much for you, and I just need this percentage, and so on and so forth, right? And so aside from the fact that you get into sticky legal territory.

Ryan Miller  

Yeah, that's I was gonna say, that's not legal. 

Samyr Laine  

Yeah, yeah exactly.

Ryan Miller  

So if someone wants you to pay them for raising capital and they don't have licenses, walk away. Be compliant and obviously Samyr and I are suggesting that you follow the law, we would never suggest otherwise. But, yeah, you're right. You get these people that'll promise you the moon. And surprisingly, a lot of people don't know about that one rule that you can't pay people to raise for you unless they're a licensed broker dealer. I love it. You're echoing the point of just be careful of those people that because they can get you into some tough spots. Is that what we're saying here.

Samyr Laine  

They absolutely can, they absolutely can. Then, you know, the other piece of it is, even if they have that, that broker dealer license, you still want to ask enough questions, right? And so you're asking, literally asking a ton of questions, right? Like, how have they handled things in the past, and what's worked and what hasn't worked, and what was the experience of other people that they've worked with, and how does it, and so on and so forth. And you know, aside from the fact that it's not legal you want to avoid anything that is illegal. There's also some people you just get taken, like, pay me a retainer, and I'll do this then, and third for you, and so on and so forth, right? And you get taken advantage of, and there are a lot of people who are looking to prey on emerging and early fund managers and it happens all the time. I've got these family office intros I can make and then it's this, and then third, right? So ask a ton of questions, ask more questions you think you should ask, and then even be more skeptical than that. And you know the other thing, believe none of what you hear and half of what you see, right? So you gotta, especially in this territory with people just coming out of the woodwork and promising things. 

Samyr Laine  

And then if you do feel like, whether they're a broker dealer or it might be, it might be another an advisor or something that someone who you think you might want to enlist the help of legally get a ton, get a ton of references right, and not just like first degree references. Hey, who else have you helped with this in the past? First, second and third degree references, right, who else have you helped with this in the past? Are there folks whom you tried to raise on their behalf, and it didn't work out? What was there, what was that like? I want to know the folks who you've raised, who have they invested in? Because I want to know what type of people are in your are your orbit? So I'm going to speak to you know, if you're someone who's helped a fund one raise capital in the past, and that fund one has made 10 investments, I want to speak to some of those portfolio companies, right, because I want to know, do these people pay on time? Are they CDN and so on and so forth, right? And so and then beyond that, I want to ask questions anybody who's in that orbit, even the LPS who are in this fund that you have raised, I want to ask them about you, right? So I want to know, hey, how'd you meet this person, how'd you get in there, and all that stuff. So if you get references, and even their broker, licensed broker dealer, it's not just like, hey, can I get a reference of the funds you've helped in the past? It's, can I get a reference of the funds and some of their portfolio companies and some of their LPs? And I want to ask all of them about these funds that you've helped, and I'm asking about you, and I want to connect all those dots, and then I'm going to think long and hard about it, and I'll probably still say no, but yeah, that's you know how, because we're talking about how to not lose, right and so avoid folks like that.

Samyr Laine  

And then second thing is giving up too early. I think in a lot of cases, that's an entrepreneurship thing, as opposed to just VC and fund management, but you are an entrepreneur. When you launch your own fund, or if you're a GP, or whatever it is, you get the story of prospectors who came out west looking to mine for gold, right? And they've mined for weeks and for months, whatever it is, and they quit. And at some point they quit, when they're like, a half an inch from the gold vein, right, if they just kept mining. They would have struck like gold and then hit the vein, and they would have had unsold riches and so this isn't to say that you plow through and it's irresponsible to do so, right? If you've got, you know, you don't have the savings to continue, or you don't have a sign off or consulting, whatever it is, and you got kids and whatever, you have conditions that preclude you from continuing. By all means, you got to, like, be real with yourself. But you know, we, in my mind, is something like, you could create a quit list, for example, right? And it's a list of a checklist of things that you know you have to do before you actually, like, call it quits.  Is everything, nearly everything on the planet, that if you check these boxes in your mind, you're like, hey, if I check these boxes, it's gonna work, right? This thing should work and so in your quit list, it's like, check all the boxes, and then there are probably some ancillary, like tributaries, off of some of the things on your list, right? It's like, point 1, point 1A, point 1B, right? So that first instinct we were like, this is too tough, I got too many no's, I haven't raised a single dollar. I just need to go back to whatever my nine to five, or I need to go whatever you want to go back to, or what you want to lead from. The first insight that is like, just pushed right in my mind, is like, the first time you feel it, you feel butterflies. You're like, man, this is tough. Like, I don't feel comfortable, I've missed a car payment, whatever, whatever you're like, this is a little bit tougher than I thought. Get back in the fight, right? Because every entrepreneur, every entrepreneur, has that. Then the second time you feel it, go into your quilt. List and say, like, have I done everything on this list and I told myself I would do. Have I got become a better salesperson and a better storyteller and a better speaker? Have I created processes and rituals that are going to get me there? Have I gone to these conferences? Have I done whatever is on your quit list? Go back to a list and make sure you've checked every box, and if you haven't, get back in the fight and do some more. And if you have, are there 1A's, 1B's 1C's, that you can kind of bounce off of what's occurring on your list, right? And so, and then, of course, there's going to come a time, there may come a time where you do everything on the list, and then you add to this, you do everything on the additional list, and you're looking at it, and you're like, I can't. And also, I've got, I've got student loans bouncing up, and I got whatever it is that you have to at that point. You can, you can really and truly say that you've done everything you can walk away from it with your hand held high. But, you know, giving up too early, right, because no one said it was gonna be diff, it was gonna be easy, just that it was gonna be worthwhile, because you owe it to yourself to keep at it. You owe to yourself to, you know, keep chasing and keep pushing.

Ryan Miller  

Brilliant man a quit list. I've never heard of that before. It sounds like I think you mentioned it's really just a success list, but you're just saying I will not give up until I have at least accomplished those things. Is that what we're saying?

Samyr Laine  

That's exactly right, that's until I have checked every box on this list and then added more boxes and checked all those boxes, I'm not going to give up. I owe to myself, my family, my last name, my legacy, whatever. You owe it to yourself to make sure that you're not giving up prematurely.

Ryan Miller  

And you owe it to people who believe in you and are supporting you right now, often when you're the fog of war, to put a dramatic spin on it, but when you're in the middle and you're in the trenches, you're raising or doing deals, or likely both. There's also a lot of people that are supporting you, be it parents or someone else. There are people who believe in you, whether you know it or not, and so to give up too easily is almost an insult to their belief in you as well. So with that, I'd love to switch a little bit to the market. What are you seeing right now? What's, what's going on in the market? What's Samyr paying attention to? 

Samyr Laine  

Yeah, well, like everyone else, all the uncertainty and tariffs and the up and down. But for me, personally, Ryan, as a fund manager looking at venture, I think first of the fact that venture has long, quote, unquote, long, fallen out of favor, right? It's been a couple of years now where venture capital as an asset class, private equity, at some extent, because venture is a subset of private equity, has just fallen out of favor, right? Whether it's the interest rates or it's people's appetite for risk, has declined people's patience, because ventures a little bit the longer game, you do get better returns, but it's a longer game. A lot of it is just venture fallout of favor. Some of it's cyclical, some of it is macroeconomic issues. And so for me, what I'm looking at is still out of favor, but it is turning the corner to some extent, right? You get this public market uncertainty like Wall Street is all over the place, where some folks, some, some family offices, some corporate VCs, some folks are still putting cash to work in VC and so I'm waiting for that tide to shift, where people's risk appetite comes back, where people realize that, hey, in the private markets, you can get returns that aren't correlated to Wall Street, or aren't correlated to all the all the stuff that that's, you know, has Wall Street going crazy. And you can actually just, just do some really fun, really innovative, really profitable things in the venture space. And so I'm waiting for it, I'm waiting for it. It's been a few years now I think, you know, in Q1 of 2025 the deal appetite was both in dollars fundraised and dollars invested in VC deals started to come back. I'm hoping that it becomes, you know, Q2, you get the same trend Q3 and onward, but it's not quite all the way back. So I'm waiting, I'm waiting and so especially in the consumer space, right? Because we're a consumer, and so we are, even at this point, we're even less, less beloved than other spaces in venture right? You got an AI fund, and we're doing AI deals. It's, I think it's okay for some folks and health, health tech and defense tech, but consumer VC is probably, will probably have the toughest sledding of all the categories at the moment, but, but I suspect it'll turn. I've seen some signs that it is turning, but it's something that I'm absolutely keeping an eye on. And yet, the tariffs and the interest rates, all those things have an impact on it as well and so we're keeping a close eye on for sure.

Ryan Miller  

So so with that you're seeing, you're seeing signs that are turning. Where do you think it's going to go? Where's the smart money headed? Looking forward, just in your opinion, obviously, it's not financial advice, but what are you seeing out there? Where's the smart money? 

Samyr Laine  

Yeah, look for me. I think there's, there's a place where people, not all together, where people are looking to diversify away from public markets, to some extent, not, not entirely away, but diversify in addition to, I should say, right? Because you get the S&P 500, especially after it was, it was running hot, it was ripping for a bit, and you get this mean reversion that takes place where, again, I mentioned Warren Buffet earlier, right, where, in his quote is it's a tough place to be if you're betting against America and the American stock market. And it's true, it's because in the long run, you'll get that 7, 8, 9% and we've been ripping way hotter than that. And so at this point in time, it is reverting to the mean, which is somewhere around that 8% and so I think what I see is you'll get alternative asset classes like Venture, like PE, like, whatever you get debt funds and credit funds and all that other stuff. I do think that those alternative asset classes are going to have their moment in the sun, or a golden golden age of some sort, right? So I we are hoping to ride the venture capital wave as part of that golden age. But, but a part of it is like, yeah, the Wall Street and the S&P 500 has been running super hot. I think that it is slowing down or will slow down, doesn't mean that you know, find a place that you don't have to be. And this is not financial advice by any stretch of imagination, but you probably still want to be in the public markets. But for someone who is in the alternative space and private markets, I do think that we'll have our own, our own golden age of sorts, right? And so not only will, I mentioned before that ventures unloved now, and I think the tide is turning. Not only will that tide turn all the way, I think it'll even beyond turning. I think folks are going to really look to get into these alternative, alternative spaces. And so it's because, and again, as an emerging manager, I also think that the earlier and smaller funds, you get even, that's what the alpha is, right, even aside from your billion dollar venture funds, which are necessary to some extent. But as an emerging manager, that's what the alpha is, you're closer to the streets and the community, you're closer to deals. You can see what's trending and what's not trending, and all that good stuff and so yeah, that's what I think is coming. I think a part of it is just because the public markets are cooling off a little bit, so people are looking for alpha. And for alpha and other places and the alternative asset, those alternative asset funds, are where you're going to get and see, it's VC, it's whatever it is. But that bucket, I think we've got some, some great years ahead of us.

Ryan Miller  

Brilliant man. Now, as we round third base, what would be say, I don't know, three or four pieces of advice that you can give someone a deep competitive advantage. What would you say?

Samyr Laine  

Yeah, let's see. First, I mentioned Think and Grow Rich before, but like for me, is just understanding and appreciating how powerful a vision is and setting your intentions on achieving something right. And so I've always been big on vision boards, and I've always been big on just writing down what your objective is, and yes, there are processes to achieve it, but you still want to think of that, that big goal down the line, and be crystal clear and as tangible, as posh as possible, and what your vision is, and what it looks like, what it feels like, what it sounds like, maybe what it tastes like. And you know, you might close your fund for and it's $150 million fund, and you're popping some champagne, all of those things, right? Just understanding how powerful and vision is, and really thinking about achieving it and what it looks like. And so once you set that vision, and once you are concrete, and again, whether it's through a vision board or journaling or whatever, modeling, and there are a ton of ways to build again. It's probably worth reading how to do it for me, it's Think and Grow Rich the power of big thinking or magical thinking big and there's a ton of different books, right? But once you set that vision and it is concrete and it's steadfast, you'll be surprised at how your mind figures out ways and processes like and rituals like we talked about, figures out ways to get you to that vision, whatever it is, and so just on a regular basis, revisit every morning, every night, revisiting what you're trying to achieve, what the vision is, and having that vision board so that when you wake up, you're seeing the things that are a part of your vision, and so on so forth. So for me, and it's also what helped me get to the Olympics, like I said, when I finished college, I was an NCAA all American, and I left college with the school record and the triple jump and that's that school record still stands. But by no means was I top 10 in the world, which I ultimately was able to achieve. And a lot of that was just to just having a vision and sticking to that vision and understanding how powerful it is that the idea of not, not manifestation, where, like, I think of it, and it's in my hand, but really like I think of it, and I'm going to figure out ways to make this thing real, and you understand that it's something you can see yourself achieving before you actually act. 

Samyr Laine  

The second thing, man is just this 10,000 hours of practice idea, right and so I think Malcolm Gladwell is the one who made it popular with his outliers book, and the idea people have, to some extent, quote, unquote, dumbed it down a little bit, where they're like, takes 10,000 hours to be an expert, which is mostly true, right? But there are nuances that people forget, and one of those nuances is, and there's the quote, which is, practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect. And so with this 10,000 hour rule, people don't realize that it is 10,000 hours of deliberate practice that makes you an expert. Right? What is deliberate practice? It is having a consistent feedback loop. It is having, again, is also having a vision of what you're trying to achieve on a regular basis. It is having rituals and processes. And so when you take 10,000 hours, each hour of that 10,000 looks like, Hey, I'm going to wake up in the morning here's what I'm here's here's what I want to achieve. And then this is literally what I did while triple jumping in training, right and the morning, the night before, I'd write the goal for the next day what I want to do a practice. I wake up and I look at it like, here's what I'm going to try to do in today's training session. I get to the training session, I want to revisit it. Here's what I'm trying to and it's, it's some, sometimes just a bite sized thing. I just want my arm to do this one and this is like, on Tuesday, that's what I'm working on. Then after training session, you're revisiting, did you achieve it? Didn't you achieve and why didn't you achieve it? What can you fix next time to make sure you achieve it and so on and so forth. And do that each and every day and at the end of the week, I'm looking back on the week, right? Did it go well? Why didn't it go well? What can I do better and so on and so forth and so deliberate practice, the most powerful piece of it is that feedback, especially after a competition. I would go to a competition and say, here's what I want to do. After the competition, I would write it look it would look like an essay. Be like four or five pages I'm typing right? It's what went well. What didn't go well? Why didn't it go well? The things that went well, why did they go well? What am I going to do on Monday, just start working on things. What am I going to do better? How did I steal all of that? What was the atmosphere all of that goes into for me as I was competing my after action report.

Samyr Laine  

And nowadays it's very similar, right? Like just understanding that becoming a great fund manager, become a great salesperson, all becoming great processes. Those are skills, and it takes it, it does take 10,000 or whatever ends up being, become an expert, but it's 10,000 hours of deliberate practice and getting that feedback loop and understanding. You know, as a fund manager, do you have mentors? Do you have advisors? Who are you getting feedback from? Do you have team, a team, right? And sometimes looking yourself in the mirror, right, like that pitch didn't go well. Why didn't it go well? What happened, what didn't go, happened? How can I have proof next time and all of those things, right? So when we do a deal, what you know, why do we do that deal? What's the process? What are the questions? What went well? What didn't it go well? If we pass on an investment, then the investment ends up IPO, right? Like, man, we got to do our after action. Why do we pass? What did we miss? What didn't we see? Same thing with pitching investors and all that stuff. So, yeah, vision, I think those two, you know, talked about deep competitive advantages that have worked for me, that I can kind of lend to folks. I think the power of vision is somewhat linked to that 10,000 hours of deliberate practice, because you're putting in 10,000 hours to achieve and to get to whatever that vision ultimately is that you have in your mind.

Ryan Miller  

That's brilliant. You know, in this industry, we talk a lot about money, you know, right? Fund Management is just managing capital on behalf of people. There's a lot of things when it comes to capital, to money, whatever it is you want to call it. And I've, I've been fortunate to coach and mentor 1000s of people, no exaggeration, 1000s of people on fund management and the dead giveaway of people who will make it versus those who won't. There's many, but one that was consistent based on a fairly good sample size, is those who I think really will struggle when it gets hard, are those who almost seem to make money their God. And so they hear I want to be in a fund, or I want to flip houses in a syndication, whatever that is. Both, both are fine, whatever is right for you, or, more importantly, whatever your lawyers are telling you to do. But above all, those who make money their God, I really concern. I did grow increasingly concerned about people who are just focused on capital. Now, I'm not saying that there's any shame in money, but I'm saying it's there's layers, this is multi layered. Success is not the one thing, there's many layers to success in fund management. What would you say to those who maybe a little too oriented to just making money? What would you say as far as it relates to this industry?

Samyr Laine  

You know what? I think, if it is like, look, you're a fund manager, you have an investor, so to some extent, you've got this fiduciary duty to be a good steward of folks money and to try to make them more money. But to your point, it's if money is the end all be all. Oddly enough, it becomes more difficult to make more of it right. If you can figure out the ways, the things that motivate you, the things outside of, hey, I just want to make more money, but you figure out the ways that you can do so and have an impact. You figure out the impact that you want to have, that you want your fund to have. What do you want to stand for? What you want other people to think of when they think of your name and your fund, those things, I think, begin to resonate, and they begin to snowball, right? And so you do good rate, you do good work. You do right by people. You figure out ways to be impactful and innovative, and all of those things add up to, hey, I'm going to make more money. But if money's the end all be all and it's the only target you have, oddly enough, it becomes more difficult to make more of it, and people just don't realize. And so that's why, when you have you launch your fund, it's like, what's the thesis? What's the strategy? How are you differentiated? How do you want to be impactful? How do you understand all of those things. Because if you don't check those boxes, making money is going to be the toughest thing. If you're like, I'm in it because I want to make money in 10 years, I'm going to do it, it becomes a lot tougher. Then the flip side of that is, as you're fundraising, don't take anyone's money, right? So, like, not all money is good money, and so you've got to have the right LPs. Don't be afraid to walk away from potentially bad LP, don't be afraid to sort of prioritize relationships, right? If you're like, hey, I don't want to mess up this relationship, so I'm not going to ask you to invest in the fund, whatever it is, right? So I think just understanding that it's okay to walk away from money that you think is going to be problematic for whatever reason, right? It could be just an LP is gonna be problematic. It could be is gonna mess up with relationship. It could be the LP isn't the right fit, leaving the strategy to understand the strategy, whatever. And so those are the two things I'd say about money, right? Like it can't be the end all be all.

Ryan Miller  

Yeah, brilliant. So before we wrap things up, any, any, any ways, if people want to learn more, how do they get a hold of you or anything at all?

Samyr Laine  

Yeah, I think look the closing thing for me, and it's difficult, because I think a lot of what we talked about was super serious and sometimes difficult to create those processes, but have fun. It is intended to be half is intended to be fun, right? It's for me, I always take learning a new skill or achieving something new, achieving something that seems super difficult to achieve, it's fun, right? So just learning and growing as a person and as a professional, as a fund manager, as an investor, all of those things should be fun. So yeah, have fun while you're at it, have fun while you're reading on how to improve. Have fun while you're practicing your sales pitch. Have fun on all those things, right? Because it is supposed to be difficult. Like I said, no one said it was gonna be easy, just that it was gonna be worthwhile, but it should also be fun. And then for me, I'm primarily on LinkedIn, but also on Instagram and on Instagram, it's, I am Samyr Laine on LinkedIn, it's just linkedin.com/in/samyrlaine/. S A M Y R, L, A, I, N, E, and then you can always check out news on our fund, Freedom Trail Capital, at freedomtrail.capital, you can see our portfolio there. It'll be more on our thesis and all that good stuff, and then news on myself and our fund and our other GPS and our portfolio as a whole. Reach out, I'm always excited to meet folks, especially if they're coming from Making Billions community.

Ryan Miller  

Brilliant man. So just to summarize everything we talked about, don't underestimate the power of a vision. If it's strong enough, you won't need discipline. The vision will pull you the other thing is, don't underestimate those 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. Put in the reps, be absolutely gritty, persevere and put in the reps to get good at that, whether it's sales, whether it's raising capital, whether it's doing deals, whatever that is. Don't underestimate the power of rituals and putting in that deliberate practice. Then remember, don't make money your God, while capital is good, it is only a tool. It is useful, we care for it, we care for our LPS capital, but it is not our God, we are here to do something bigger. And hopefully, through that vision, you can help you and your team to transcend beyond just making money, where you're actually making a pretty cool impact. And then finally, don't take any money, make sure it makes sense on both sides of the aisle. You do these things, and you too will be well in your way in your pursuit of Making Billions.

Ryan Miller  

Wow, what a show, I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. Now, if you haven't done so already, be sure to leave a comment and review on new ideas and guests you want me to bring on for future episodes. Plus, why don't you head over to YouTube and see extra takes while you get to know our guests even better. And make sure to come back for our next episode, where we dive even deeper into the people, the process and the perspectives of both investors and founders. Until then, my friends, stay hungry, focus on your goals and keep grinding towards your dream of Making Billions.