How to Look at Investments with Social & Environmental Values in Mind w/ ESG Expert Eddy Soffer

Show notes as a general guide below. Somewhat in order and not written in perfect grammar because we want you to actually listen to the show!

• Eddy’s last oh shit moment
• Eddy tells us how investing money has changed over the years
• Eddy explains the ESG world of investing
• How is ESG the future of investing? Is it just Gen Z & millennials? 
• Eddy walks us through a client journey who has social impact top of mind when investing.
• We talk about how the Impact app is impacting people’s lives through purpose-driven investments.
• The difference between investment guidelines in Europe vs USA
• Crypto investing vs Impact Investing
• Eddy talks about how the impact app gives something back to the community by planting trees and other initiatives
• Giving Vs enabling and donating time and love
• Has investing changed since all of the current talk about a recession 
• Eddy shares his top two traits for a conscious leader to embody

Check out interactivebrokers.com and connect with Eddy on LinkedIn!
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Below is a transcript of the video podcast created by Seb’s Robot buddy, Zekton. He tends to make mistakes so please forgive him if you find errors or some funky sounding sentences. For the real deal, watch the video or click on your favorite audio Podcast platform above! Enjoy!

Sebastian Naum:
What up fam today I had on Eddy, ESG manager at interactive brokers, which is one of the top online brokers in the world. ESG stands for environmental, social, and governance. So think impact investing in everything you’re having to do with social responsibility and sustainability. And he is one of the leads for IBS, ESG strategy and planning. He’s had a very unique and inspiring upbringing in Mexico. He started his financial journey over 20 years ago and he developed an affinity for sustainability and his journey inspired him and his team developed an app called impact. He values aligned training platform for the modern investor guys. The impact app is super cool, and you’re gonna learn more about it in the show. Eddy’s diverse background on culture experiences continue to fuel his career and passions and advocacy for more inclusive societies and communities and puts those core commitments into his life and into work.

Sebastian Naum:
You don’t wanna miss this podcast, guys, we dive into different financial aspects and what goes into investing your money into sustainable businesses. I wanna give a special thank you and shout out to the sponsor of today’s show. Conscious capitalism, Los Angeles, whose aim is to connect, inspire, and cultivate conscious business leaders in LA and is a key piece of a larger scale. Worldwide conscious capitalism movement. Guys, if you get value from the show, you dig in you like a little snippet from it, whatever it is, share it with a friend, tag me on social and definitely subscribe and means the world to me. I really appreciate you spending time with us. Enjoy the show. Eddy. Welcome to the show. My man,

Eddy Soffer:
Thank you for having me. I’m excited to be here.

Sebastian Naum:
It’s a pleasure having you, uh, you know, we were just chatting about some cold water dips right now. I had just jumped in the ocean. You were talking about how much you love going to the water. Why do you love that so much?

Eddy Soffer:
Because it really makes you feel alive. You know, it’s, it’s sort of like a shock to your system in a good way. And I think when you do it, you have to embrace it, right. Don’t go in like all afraid and stuff, just go for it. And, and once you come out, you’ll feel like you can conquer the world at least for a minute. And then you come back to work <laugh> but it’s, but it’s really, really an amazing thing to

Sebastian Naum:
Do. Yeah. I love that too. I feel the same. It totally makes you feel alive. And uh, I just finished reading, uh, this book called untethered soul, which is kind of like a 1 0 1 from a spiritual book standpoint. I feel like I should have read it 15 years ago when I read the four agreements. But, uh, you, for whatever reason, books come at you at different times, and one of those things is talks a lot about when you, uh, experience like discomfort emotions, um, to really just relax into them as opposed to fighting them. And I, I think about the same thing when I go into really cold water, it’s so natural to, uh, you know, and like as soon as, so if you just go for it and just relax, it’s like a totally different experience. And I think that that’s so many, so many things in life, it could go that way just like with, with cold water.

Eddy Soffer:
Yeah, I agree. And by the way, that’s an awesome book. I also read it. It’s really amazing. Lots of gems that come out of that book.

Sebastian Naum:
Ah, seriously. It really is. I I’m actually considering just rereading it like now, like just right away. Just rereading it again. Yeah. Anyway, so Eddy, I, I started all my podcasts by asking my guests, what was your last, oh, moment. Whatever comes to mind. It could be good. It could be bad.

Eddy Soffer:
Okay. Um, something did come to mind now. So I’m mostly a vegan and I was with, um, my spouse at this, um, fancy Asian restaurant recently. And so, you know, when you go to those restaurants, you have to make sure that they don’t serve anything that has stuff that you can’t eat or make sure it did that. So ordering a rice and I’m eating it and looking at it, I’m like, oh wow. You know, it has tofu. This is awesome. So I started like taking big bites and then I started chewing and I’m like, oh, it’s not tofu. It’s lobster. Um, so it kind of made me freak out because I never had lobster in my life. I mean, of course some people love it, but I just never had it. Yeah. And it was like robbery consistent. I was like, oh my God, what I gonna? So it’s kind of like what we just chatted about. So it’s like, you have to sort of relax into it, not tense up and say, okay, listen, this is a mistake. Somebody kind of messed up. And then, uh, we resolved it. The waiter came, he apologized and we had a free dinner and free dessert. So it all, it all worked out great. But yeah, that was definitely an an OS moment. It was kind of shocking to me. I was

Sebastian Naum:
Like, oh, that’s, that’s a perfect, uh, O moment right there. I, I, yeah, definitely. I’m actually not a fan of lobster either. I, I don’t really get the whole, all the, uh, the hype to be honest. It’s very rubbery. Like I said, <laugh> yeah. Um, so Eddy, you know, investing in financing, finance in general, it just could be such a dry subject to a lot of people. It could be very boring. Um, and frankly, I feel that, um, more recently in a more, in the more recent era it’s become pretty cool. It’s, it’s become different. And now you got all these young kids calling themselves investors at a really early young age, and a lot of ’em really are investors. Why do you think that’s happened? Uh, so much recently?

Eddy Soffer:
I think that there’s a number of reasons. I think that the newer generations or the younger generations, like millennials and gen Zs deeply care about this, it’s, it’s kind of like their genetic material honesty and, and you’re seeing it. Um, but more recently because of world events, everything that you see happening, we had the pandemic, right. Um, we had social justice issues. Um, we have a war going on now. We have climate change, all of this, in my opinion, wake up calls, uh, for earth. And all of us in this planet are really making people wake up and are really making people sort of take a step back and say, what’s really important to me. Um, and how can I express myself and my values through my investments? So through my money. And I think that’s why, especially now in the last few years, it’s really accelerated more than I’ve ever seen. And I’ve been looking at the social responsible investing for the last, you know, seven or eight years. So it’s definitely like, God like this. Yeah. Just the last few years.

Sebastian Naum:
So it’s a great thing. It’s not just the trend. It’s not just because somebody tried to make it cool. And it caught on it’s because people are caring more. So you’re seeing is truly a positive thing. Yeah,

Eddy Soffer:
Definitely. Yeah, definitely. And, um, I think it’s here to stay, honestly, it’s the world that we live in now and, uh, we’re seeing it, uh, just with everything like climate change. You’re seeing all look what’s happening in Europe. What’s happening here. Yeah. So it it’s things that we need to deal with.

Sebastian Naum:
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. At you’re an ESC manager, interactive brokers, interactive broker is one of the top brokers online in the world. Um, ESG is environmental, uh, social and governance. So, uh, to be honest, it’s something that I wasn’t really too aware of, but so what is exactly ESG?

Eddy Soffer:
Sure. And there’s so many ways to refer to ESG. So when you’re refer to like environment, social governance, as under each one of those buckets, there are a number of factors to consider. But basically I would say like a high level, um, definition is channeling resources or channel things that would help the planet, the earth and society and communities. So that kind of, uh, brings it to a very generic level. Some people call it, call it sustainability. You’re hearing a lot about that. Um, and so, yeah, that’s, that’s what ESG is all about.

Sebastian Naum:
And it’s essentially, uh, impact investing, right? I mean, it’s what a lot of people call impact investing. So one way or another, it’s a positive impact in the world through finance and investments.

Eddy Soffer:
Yes. And so there’s also like social responsible investing. There’s impact investing. There’s a responsible invest. There’s so many S many ways to define it, but it could be a part of it, but yeah, ultimately again, is channeling resources for the better of the planet and our

Sebastian Naum:
Creatives. That’s awesome. So Eddy how’s, how is ESG or impact investing the future of investing and is that just millennials and gen Z that we’re talking about here?

Eddy Soffer:
So I’m revealing my cards here. I’m not really a millennial. I’m a little older than that. And I care deeply about that. So yes, I think the driving factor this day step is, is definitely millennials and gen Zs, as I was mentioning before, because it really is something that they deeply care about. Um, but it’s also for, for other generations like myself, I was, I’ve been in finance for so many years and I’ve always been working on that and always trying to find, okay, what is the, the ultimate goal and purpose of, of this finance? How are we helping the planet? How are we, are we doing something to assist others? And that’s how I discovered, um, ESG. So I think it’s also for people like myself, and I think that’s growing more and more as we see what’s happening in the world, it’s making us all reflect. Yeah. So many generations are also jumping on board.

Sebastian Naum:
That’s a great thing. That’s a great thing. What can you walk me through? What, uh, a real life client would be like in the ESG sector, right. You get somebody in, it’s got several million to invest, or maybe not several million dollars to invest or something small. Does that change if somebody comes in with 10 million to invest versus somebody that comes in with a hundred grand, for example,

Eddy Soffer:
Absolutely not. Um, we had interactive brokers, you know, especially, and we’re, we might talk about this a little bit later through the impact app. It’s open to anyone, you know, we don’t have sort of like a, a threshold ative threshold for you to come in. Right. And, and basically what we do with, with the app is we allow you to invest with what you care about most mm-hmm <affirmative> right? So like you talked about ESG and, and I referred to it also sustainability everyone’s definition of it is different, right? So you might care more about clean oceans and I might care more about gender equality. And so we allow the opportunity for all of our potential investors and existing clients to select what things really resonate with them, their personal values. We have 13 of them that fall into the bucket of environment, social and governance.

Eddy Soffer:
Mm. And then with that, we have what you, what we call an impact lens. So it’s a customized investing experience where you’ll be able to go in and take a look at how your existing investments align with your values. Um, and if you’re just getting started, we can also give you a hand. Right. So you’ll be able to see on the app, okay. This particular securities align the most with the values you just entered. Right. So we, we kind of give you an opportunity to also research and to look at more things into how you can get started in, in social responsible investing.

Sebastian Naum:
That’s great. And it’s very easy. What’s the minimum for someone to get started, for example?

Eddy Soffer:
Well, it could actually be as low as, uh, as a hundred or, or $50 account. Yeah.

Sebastian Naum:
Oh, that’s awesome. That’s great. So really

Eddy Soffer:
The app itself, correct. Go

Sebastian Naum:
Ahead. Most people have the ability to say, Hey, I’m gonna save a hundred dollars this month and I’m gonna start investing it in something I care about. And that impacts the world. And that’s, that’s awesome. They can do that.

Eddy Soffer:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and we also have the ability for people. This is called like fractional shares and a lot of our peers in the industry, see, it’s like, you know, some stocks are just really expensive. Like one share would be a thousand, 3000, 4,000. Yeah. So you have the ability to what they call fractional shares is to not buy the entire share yeah. By a percentage of it. And that way you can definitely also be a contributor if you really like that company and you feel it aligns with your values, right. You can, um, make a, make a, an investment in that

Sebastian Naum:
Too. That’s great. Um, Eddy, from my understanding Europe and the us are different in how, um, they disclose sustainability practices and investment guidelines and things like that. What, what are the main differences there?

Eddy Soffer:
So you’ve done your research. Um, yes, Europe is definitely far ahead than the United States. It’s been like that. Um, you know, for quite some time. And so the regulatory environment and the interest and, and sort of the awareness of sustainability is definitely more pronounced than in the United States. The us is definitely starting to catch up more. And I think it’s because of all the things that I mentioned before, how the gen Zs and millennials, or others are starting to demonstrate what they care about through the power of the wallet. And so the disclosures tend to be a little more strict in Europe where you have to start sort of saying, okay, this particular fund does invest in sustainable, um, companies, and you have to disclose what, and what they’re doing. The us is catching up fast. So good. Some of the agencies are also starting to, to realize, okay, this is important. And there’s a lot of players on ESG here in the United States now, too. And everybody’s jumping on that bandwagon, but we all need to make sure that it’s done in the, in the most honest and

Sebastian Naum:
Transparent way. I’m glad to hear that. I was afraid you were gonna say that we’re still way far behind and not catching up fast. So that’s a good thing. Definitely. <laugh>, that’s great. Eddy, there’s so much talk about, um, cultural diversity and inclusion lately, everywhere it’s been happening, uh, over the last, uh, couple years. How do companies make it so that it’s not just talk,

Eddy Soffer:
You have to demonstrate through your actions and your facts and your figures. Right. And that, and I think we need to, to, um, demonstrate through act to what I was mentioning, like getting involved in your communities, like helping to support diverse communities, uh, charitable donations as well, I think is very, very key to demonstrate that you are aware of the diverse communities in which you operate, hiring, recruiting talent, you know, bringing people that have diverse opinions, even that on the board itself, you need to start hiring more diverse members, more females, more people with, uh, with racial differences, with, uh, different sexual orientations. So I think action is just as important as just talking about it and we’re seeing more and more companies doing that. And we’re starting to do that at our firm as well.

Sebastian Naum:
That’s great. Yeah. I can imagine, actually you just mentioned on the advisory level that that’s probably a, a level that’s way less diverse probably in general, I feel

Eddy Soffer:
Yeah. Yeah. In, in financial services just overall, you know, I think there was sort of like a, um, a way that things operated that is, that is also changing fast. So you’re seeing a lot more emphasis on, on having more diverse boards, more diverse executive members, um, more diverse CEOs. And I think that’s, that’s a wonderful thing, cause it just brings much more wholesome opinions and ways to do things that probably were not entertained doing before. And by doing that, people that are wanting to, um, that are looking for jobs will want to join a company like yours, uh, that is really open to embracing all sorts of cultures and, and races.

Sebastian Naum:
So yeah. I’m gonna ask a question in Spanish. So if you only speak English, you can skip it a few seconds, Mexico, the

Eddy Soffer:
Are person open, sleeping.

Sebastian Naum:
Good. It is a culture shock.

Eddy Soffer:
And so,

Sebastian Naum:
Yeah. Yeah. All right. We’ll switch back up here. Um, so Eddy, you were a big part in launching impact, which is an app, um, for interactive brokers specifically, um, for, for that impact investing and in ESG. Um, you wanna tell us a little bit about that product specifically? Hey guys, I just wanna remind you that you could get more content like this@sebastiannom.com. That’s Sebastian a U m.com. And you can also get a ton of other marketing resources from myself and my agencies ranging from SEO to social media, influencer, marketing, branding, animation, web development, and more again, that’s Sebastian nom.com. Thank you and enjoy the rest of the show.

Eddy Soffer:
Certainly. So as you mentioned, um, very excited to have been a part of that project. We launched the app, um, back in November of 2021 to our us clients and then in December to all of our global clients. And it’s a very unique, unique app. Um, I don’t think there’s any app like that out there in terms of sustainable investing and trading, because it, it really packs so much in there. And, you know, I can sit here and talk about it for hours, but at a high level, I was kind of alluding to it earlier, is that it allows you to invest with what you care about most with your personal values, right? And that’s how we start off in the app. So you go in and you select things that really matter to you, things that you really wanna invest in and, and with the power of your money to, to express yourself through them.

Eddy Soffer:
Right? And so that’s, that’s right off the bat. We created 13 values inspired by things that we’re seeing around the proprietary to IBKR and, and that kind of alluded. We have LGBTQ inclusion, gender diversity, racial equality, clean air, sustainable business models. And so that really gives it a different spin than what you see out there. Because a lot of different apps will probably just give you thematic, which is not a bad thing. Okay. You wanna invest in climate, you wanna invest in this, but this is like your own, it’s kind of, of a fingerprint, right? You make it what you want to make it. Um, and then the app itself will give you a score. How close are your existing investments? You get an, a, you get a, B or a C. Um, and then you can even drill down by value. If you know, you select a clean air, gender equality, LGBT inclusion, but you really, really care about mostly clean air. Then you can go into the clean air section and take a look at, okay, how am my investments doing from a clean air lens, right? And if some of your investments are not necessarily aligning very well, then the app will also tell you, okay, this is an opportunity for you to improve your score by looking at other companies. That’s

Sebastian Naum:
So interesting. That’s that is really unique. Yeah.

Eddy Soffer:
Yeah, yeah. And, and we’re so excited. I, we wanted to make it really personal. Um, yeah. And the other exciting thing about it stuff is that we added a feature that we called give, right. Which is not just about investing, but you also wanna give back to your communities. Yeah. Right. And so by you selecting your values right up front, you also have a personalized and customized donor experience. So once you go into the gift section, you’ll see charities listed under clean air or the ones that you selected, LGBT inclusion and others. So you can also give back if you make a nice little profit, take that money and give it back, or you can donate whenever you want, if there’s something happening in the world and you really feel like, wow, I really wanna do something. I don’t know what, but okay. Let me, let me give some money and you don’t have to give that much.

Eddy Soffer:
I think the minimum, um, a charitable amount is $10. Yeah. Um, and so it’s, it’s a wonderful thing to do. And we also added cryptocurrency for any regeneration. We added also a way for you to offset your personalized carbon footprint. Right. And also off, um, um, portfolios, pre-made portfolios, if you’re not really very knowledgeable in social response investing, but you care about, um, racial equality. We have a racial equality portfolio of securities that’s already done for you, so you’re able to invest. That’s awesome. So the combination of those things make it very unique and we’re very proud of it. We won a couple of awards, so we’re

Sebastian Naum:
Very excited. That’s awesome. Eddy. Yeah. Congrats. That’s really cool. Uh, you know, you, me, you mentioned, uh, crypto and I, I already, I was gonna ask you about it. So I’ll ask you about it right now. How do you see crypto investing in relationship to impact investing in sustainability and things like that?

Eddy Soffer:
Definitely. And that, that’s something that’s been on the news, um, quite a bit, because it’s not the most sustainable way of doing things, right. There’s data mining that goes behind crypto and I’m not an expert at all. Bitcoin

Sebastian Naum:
Particularly is the one that, that has that wrap

Eddy Soffer:
Ex. Exactly. And so I think that the, the market is gonna change where there’s gonna be availability to be more sustainable on the crypto side. And that there are those, some discussions of some markets that are already looking, uh, to become more sustainable. Um, for the reasons you just mentioned, cuz there’s a lot of data mining and, and emissions that come as a result of that. So I think in, in the future, we’re definitely gonna see a change.

Sebastian Naum:
I also feel that crypto enables so much more freedom in so many ways. So people can actually, you know, cause more impact too that are maybe in places, the world that otherwise wouldn’t have been able to invest in things that they care about, uh, through maybe their bank. Um, and, and they can do it now because of crypto, they have a different type of reach, you know,

Eddy Soffer:
The accessibility is definitely opened up much more.

Sebastian Naum:
Yeah, super interesting. I love that. Um, I read on an article Eddy that every $1,000 invested impact will plant 25 trees. Uh, is that a, I, I read that somewhere. Is that something you guys are doing or are there any other initiatives you guys are doing specifically as a company from a sustainability standpoint?

Eddy Soffer:
So yeah, that, that’s something that, uh, that we definitely, um, help our, our investors with is we, we do care obviously about the environment and we wanna do something about it too. So that’s an opportunity once you join, um, the app to do something like that. But also as a firm, we are committed to giving back to, to our communities. And, um, during the pandemic, for example, we did give out, uh, $5 million to, to quite a number of charities, um, across the, the United States and also to, to make an impact in our community. So we have to demonstrate, um, you know, that we also care as a firm and we’re doing, um, a lot to, to emphasize that to,

Sebastian Naum:
Yeah, that’s awesome. You know, there’s, um, there’s this sort of thing that’s a bit controversial in regards to giving versus enabling, right. And sometimes if, you know, because that, first of all, giving back is a thousand X better than not giving, not caring about your communities or the problems around you and all that. Um, and then there’s also a lot of people that say that, you know, just giving, uh, and not enabling, um, causes, you know, issues. Right. Um, how do you feel about that in terms of giving versus enabling or giving to enable versus just donating? For example,

Eddy Soffer:
My personal opinion said is that I think it’s, it’s important to give, but I think it’s important to also give time and volunteering, not just money mm-hmm <affirmative> because to roll up your sleeves and actually make an impact that you’re seeing it, it’s, it’s really very fulfilling, but you also can change lives sometimes giving and not sometimes, but you know, a lot of the time you give and, and you’re hoping, and, and I’m sure that that the funds get to what you want, but to actually see the people behind it and to actually see them smile or to thank you for your time. And thank you for being here, it means a lot goes a very long way. Yeah. So I I’m for just not writing a check, but for really finding local opportunities to, to give your time and to, and to really make, make an impact that way.

Sebastian Naum:
Yeah. At the end of the day, what you’re giving in those situations is love and that’s what we all need the most. So yeah.

Eddy Soffer:
Yeah. Absolutely. It goes a very long way.

Sebastian Naum:
Yeah. That’s awesome. Um, Eddy, everyone is talking about a recession coming, right. It’s already kind of here, it’s coming, it’s getting worse. Nobody knows. There’s so much uncertainty. Uh, we had a pandemic and real estate shot up. Nobody knows what the heck’s going on. Um, you know, how do you, how do you feel about this? And, and first of all, yeah. How do, how do you feel about this, all this talk about a recession and how does that impact particularly impact investing in general? Do you think that impact investing is a bit more protective, more protected, excuse me. Or it’s the same as everything else? And if everything else kind of goes down, it’s gonna go down and then, you know, wait till it goes back up. I thing.

Eddy Soffer:
Sure. So, so I will give you my personal opinion. This is not a company. Sure. Um, answer, cuz then I’ll get in trouble. Um, but I, I can tell you, I mean there, there’s definitely a lot of chat about a recession. I think it’s very difficult to tell. I think a lot of us can sit here and guess, but we don’t really know. Um, and I think we, we are facing circumstances that are so unusual because I think the pandemic kind of threw us off. Uh, it was totally unexpected. And then all a sudden the, the house prices shut up out in the suburbs. And, but now that the fed is coming in and I think there’s gonna be another reduction, I’m sorry, an increase in, um, in, in rates. Right? Yeah. So I think that’s gonna definitely shock the markets, um, is a recession coming.

Eddy Soffer:
I have no idea. So I, I wish I could tell you, I, I don’t know a specific answer. I know some companies are taking protective measures to, to start doing that, but I do think it’s not personally like a recession from back in 2008 where things were really, really, really bad. And we’re talking about bankruptcies and, and really, really severe scenarios. I don’t think it’ll be like that. Um, in terms of the, the protection of impact investing, I do think that that impact investing is kind of like a, a longer term play as well sometimes. Yeah. You know, and, and I think we have to start thinking of, of looking into companies that are helping with the transition. Right. We can’t just discard everything. Okay. If there’s a company that is in the fossil fuel industry or doing something you can’t just say, oh, forget them.

Eddy Soffer:
They’re the wrong. No, I mean, they’ve been around for a long time and they, if they are making efforts to transition, if they are really taking some of the profits from their legendary businesses and plowing them into renewable energy or into good causes, then let’s, let’s give it a shot. Right. So I think it’s kind of like a longer term play and, and it’s important for all of us as human beings to realize that that, that people change companies change and we have to give it a shot, uh, cause we’re all in it together. But I, I definitely think that it’s, it’s a longer term play. And then we’re seeing, as I was saying, like climate change and other things are definitely gonna put more emphasis on, on impact investing and it’s, it’s giving a huge focus on it right now.

Sebastian Naum:
Yeah. Yeah. That’s, I think that’s great advice. Uh, that’s a bit of how that was my sentiment around impact investing in general. I feel that it is a longer term play in general, depending on what the industry is. But a lot of it seems to be a, a long term play. It’s not the same as someone going, oh, I think the, you know, Amazon shares are gonna shoot up to this based on this quarters earnings or something like that. This is more of like a five to 10 year plan type thing. Right. Um, or longer, you know, a retirement type thing. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. So I think that that’s definitely important for, for people to consider and, and for young ones to consider too, for those young investors that, that are excited about investing. It’s not necessarily that, that you’re gonna cash out in three months or six months kind of thing, you know? So, um, but Hey, look, if I, I think at least two, if there is some sort of a recession that those are the best times to invest, and those are the best opportunities, you know, because it’s not gonna go away. Um, and so I, I think that the, the fear around it is probably the worst part about it’s the psychology around it, you know? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Any, um, before you leave, I, I gotta ask you, what do you think are the two most important traits that a conscious leader must embody?

Eddy Soffer:
Good one. Um, I would say that as a leader, you always need to look at the people that have helped you get there, or look at the people that are assisting you right. And to help them also rise. Right. I, I don’t think that you can just, uh, continue to, to work independently and continue to go up the ladder or do your thing. You have to recognize people around you and recognize what they’ve done. And I think to, to become a mentor is so key and it’s so important. Um, you know, I think that’s, that’s key. And the second thing I would say is, and I’m gonna give you three transparency is so important, you know, to let people know where you’re coming from, the rationale behind some of the decisions that you’re making, why you took that step. That that is just key. Um, and, and communication always have the door open, always allow people that are working for you or are working in parallel with you to, to provide feedback and to provide advice or guidance on things you’d be doing. So I think those three elements really make for a, for a very good conscious leader. Um, and I think that that only helps everybody, uh, around you and yourself.

Sebastian Naum:
Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. I’m a big believer in transparency, in communication, um, with everyone around, you know, the company and in, from the highest to the, up to the, to the junior level positions and, and being able to express even things that are unrelated to work, if you know, that people can come in with, with some of their, with some of their troubles and just be like, you know, I’m having a, a bad day to do this and that and, and be able to express that and feel, you know, that love internally. And I think that the more communication there is like that, um, the more comradery and then, and people are actually more efficient and then the companies can grow better and, and have more profits and also impact more because more profitable companies can further impact the world.

Eddy Soffer:
Definitely. And then you get loyalty, which I think is so important. Right. Right. And people will stick around much, much longer, um, and will do all the things you just mentioned. Absolutely. I think

Sebastian Naum:
Is great. Absolutely Eddy. Well, you truly are a conscious leader yourself. So please keep being you and doing you really appreciate you being on. And, and, uh, yeah. I’m excited to share all the links in the podcast here for everyone to, to check out interact brokers and, and impact the app. I’m excited to check it out. So, um, really appreciate having you on today. Eddy. Thank you very much.

Eddy Soffer:
Thank you, Seth. This has been awesome. Love your podcast. Big fan, and continue doing the good work too.