The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway - Protecting Your Portfolio in a Bubble, and Is a Move to America Worth the Money?

Episode Date: September 28, 2026

Starting this week, Office Hours features more questions per episode and airs exclusively on Mondays. Scott Galloway breaks down how to invest in an overvalued market, whether to leave Sweden for a... U.S. career, what he got wrong as a new manager, how to sell a small business at a premium, and how to succeed as an adjunct professor. Want to be featured in a future episode? Send a voice recording to officehours@profgmedia.com, or drop your question in the r/ScottGalloway subreddit. Plus, you can now call or text Scott a question at our new Office Hours hotline: ‪(201) 472-3656‬. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:01 hogging seats on a crowded train, not saying excuse me, watching videos on your phone with no headphones in. Sometimes it feels like we don't know how to act anymore. What we have been seeing increasingly is people breaking rules. Why should I play by the rules if nobody else is going to do that for me? This week on Explain It to Me, How to Mind Your Manners. New episodes, Sundays, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Office Service with Projee, where we answer your questions about this. business, big tech entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. If you have a question,
Starting point is 00:00:43 send us a voice reporting at office hours of Propton Media.com or post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit. We just might feature it in an upcoming episode. Question number one comes from whiskey, ejac. All right. Hey, Scott. Longtime listener and fan. For someone who has done all the right things in the realm of investment for my entire life, it's starting to feel like the American economy is a ticking time bomb. Can you give me some feedback on why that might be an irrational or emotional feeling. Even a diverse portfolio is starting to feel unsafe. I could handle a short-term 20% drop. How sure are you that we can bounce back and that a dollar-cost average approach can still be the right way to invest in the coming years? I think everyone's asking this question. But as my friends
Starting point is 00:01:26 at Ritholtz management, Barry Rittholtz and Josh Brown say, if you had bought stocks on days where they hit all-time highs, you'd be up. You would have outperformed the market. In other words, Yeah, is the market overvalued? Yes, but do we know when it's going to correct? No. And trying to time the market has proven to be impossible. And kind of the best strategy is to always be in the market, but perhaps when it gets this frothy by most traditional metrics or all traditional metrics, you may want to think about further diversifying such that if and when there is a correction, you have the Kevlar diversification. But trying to guess when the top happens is dangerous. Probably my biggest investment, mistake was the emotional reaction I had to the 2016 election of Donald Trump. I think that Donald Trump, and by the way, I've lost a lot of viewers here. I think it pays to be more tempered and not talk about politics on a show like this, but in some, I think the president is a fucking idiot and a stain on the American experience and that the grand sum of all of these head-up-your-ass economic and foreign policy decisions will eventually crash this economy or result in long-term structural damage
Starting point is 00:02:42 that will take decades, if not generations, to repair. So when he was elected in 2016, I sold all my stocks. That was stupid. The market ripped for the next year. There was so much insecurity about him actually winning that the fear had been priced in, stocks ripped up. The government is, or the economy is an iceberg where I think 90 to 95% of it is below the surface. And what the government does does matter, but the majority of the economy just grinds on regardless of who is tweeting what or not tweeting what or who has prostate cancer, doesn't have prostate cancer. By the way, that made sense for Joe Biden to run again. Who gets metastatic prostate cancer? Eighty-year-olds or 82-year-olds? When will these people just,
Starting point is 00:03:27 if all of a sudden, every person over the age of 72 had to resign, if we had to lose Netanyahu, Putin and Trump, would the world be worse off? Anyways, enough already. But what we had for me was an emotional decision and I sold everything. I had at that point a lot of capital gains. So immediately I lost probably 20. I was living in New York at the time.
Starting point is 00:03:48 So I lost probably a third of the gains to taxes. And then six months later, I ended up buying back in at a market that was 10 or 20 percent marks a much. So you could argue, at least notionally, that decision cost me 40 percent of my liquid net worth in stocks. So what do you do when you think things are way overvalued? You diversify.
Starting point is 00:04:07 But I think you always want to be in the market. If you wanted some insurance, you could try and get sophisticated and buy some long-dated or maybe sell covered calls against your existing positions. But generally speaking, I think what you want to do is diversify and recognize that just being in the S&P is not diversification because 40% of it is in a small number of companies. Valuations are elevated. The CAPE ratio, that's the price of the market. divided by 10 years of company earnings, suggested for inflation.
Starting point is 00:04:35 It's meant to smooth out spikes. It tells you how many years of profits you're paying for a dollar of earnings. The long run average is about 17. And get this right now, it's 41. That's the second highest in 145 years. Guess when the highest was, you got it, December of 1999. However, it's a bit of a poor timing signal, again, because when it's high, sometimes it goes much higher. I think you want to stay in the market.
Starting point is 00:05:02 The current economy has been described as K-shaped. The line for wealthier households invested in the stock market is going up, end of the right, and the line for everyone else is flatter going down. In other words, wealth concentration may be an argument for owning productive assets, not abandoning them. You want to be part of that upper part of the K and in assets, be an owner. The biggest difference in our economy is we keep transferring wealth and opportunity from the owners to the earners.
Starting point is 00:05:27 At some point, that is going to collapse on itself. How confident should you be in a bounceback? Recovery isn't always quick. It took about four years after 2000 and about four years after 2007. And we've had decades through the latter half of the last century where the market was essentially flat. But the evidence is clear. Continuing to buy beat stepping aside and over the medium and long term, you want to be in the market, just diversified. Having said that, I am taking down my leverage. Leverage is how smart people go broke, and I'm being diversified. And right now, I'm in a different stage of life. I'm not looking to get rich. I'm looking to not get poor. I try to not have more than 5% of my assets in any one thing.
Starting point is 00:06:18 I'm over-invested in real estate, but I have no leverage on the real estate so I can endure a down cycle, and I'm fairly diversified across asset classes. I try to diversify out of America, and quite frankly, that's been a bad strategy so far for me. Those stocks are down. But I've decided that I want to sleep at night and I want to diversify. Most people get wealthy through concentration of their human capital and they go 110% all in on one thing. But once you get an asset base of any real wealth, I would argue that the most underappreciated word in the English and investing language is the following diversification. Thanks to the question. Question number two comes from opposite speaker 8200 on
Starting point is 00:06:59 Reddit. They say, hi Scott, I'm 41 in living in Stockholm with my wife and two young children. I have a PhD in life science and about seven years of commercial experience working in sales towards pharma and biotech. I keep coming back to one question. Should we make a big move to the U.S.? If you were in my position 41 years old with two young kids, a solid career and a comfortable life in Sweden, would you take the risk and move to the U.S. in pursuit of greater opportunity or except that the grass may simply look greener from Stockholm? Thank you for a great show. Okay, so without knowing your specific situation, the kind of the tradeoff of the fulcrum here is that the U.S. offers a much larger life sciences market and potentially greater financial upside, specifically stock options and a more robust private equity-driven market in pharma, right? You'd rather be good to great in the U.S. than average in Stockholm. And by the way, the majority of us are average. The U.S. is one of the world's largest biopharmaceutical markets in the global leader in research and development.
Starting point is 00:08:01 U.S. biopharmaceutical companies spent 96 billion on R&D in 2020 and counting for over 20% of total sales. In 2025, the U.S. biotech sector hit $232 million in revenues, with over 72 different companies generating more than $500 million in sales. However, Sweden also has a significant life sciences industry. The sector accounts for about 10% of the country's exports, and its market size has doubled since 2022 to $470. 74 billion or about 50 billion U.S. I know, is that Kroner? What are they called? Is it a Kroner up there? By the way, I was just in Stockholm.
Starting point is 00:08:33 Jesus Christ, so is there in July? I'll move. Let's swap. Oh, my God, that's a beautiful city. Jesus Christ. On their bikes roaming around, everyone's, Hi, how are you? Yeah, I'm great enjoying all this free health care.
Starting point is 00:08:45 How about you? Anyway, UNICEF ranks the U.S. 40th out of 41 wealthy countries for the quality, accessibility and affordability of its child care system. And some, if you don't have a support system or the money to hire a support system, the U.S. sucks to have kids. Nordic countries ranked near the top. Sweden also devotes a much larger share of its economy to early childhood education and care, one and a half percent of its GDP compared with just a quarter of a percent in the U.S.
Starting point is 00:09:10 Look, this is what it comes right down to. The first is, do you have alignment with your partner? I'm in London. I don't want to be in fucking London. It's raining outside in 55 degrees, see above London. But my partner really wanted to live here. And I figured out early that my role in life is to make my kids and my partner happy, not because I'm a good person, but because it makes me happy when they're happy.
Starting point is 00:09:32 Do you have alignment with your partner? Does she really want to go? Does she have a great support system in Stockholm and is going to be upset living in the U.S.? Or is she ready for a new adventure? Like get alignment with your partner. That way, if it doesn't work out, that's okay. You both agreed to it. And if it does work out, you can both celebrate your collective victory.
Starting point is 00:09:51 Do you have the money or the professional current? to get the kind of job that's going to help you make up for the socialist gap, the socialist gap being free health care and child care. That's real cabbage. If you got a great offer from Pfizer or Merck or some cool or Gilead or whatever, that's not going to be an issue. You will have the cabbage to do it, and there is more upside for the extremely talented and or the extremely lucky in the United States. The reason why Nordic countries always score towards the top in terms of a general happiness across their population, is that in America, we've decided the key to happiness is how much shit you have. Whereas the Nordic countries have figured out that happiness
Starting point is 00:10:33 is not only a function of your stuff, but it's a function of an absence of anxiety of things being taken from you. So if you have the alignment and the market currency to get the cabbage in the U.S. to fill in that socialist gap and take away that anxiety, then brother, at 41, if you have alignment, I say roll and call. come to the U.S. In general, after having molested the earth for the last 35 years as a strategy consultants and investor, my reductive analysis of the world is the following. The U.S. is the best place in the world to make money, and Europe is the best place to spend it. It sounds as if you're still in the making money part of your life. So if you have the opportunity and the currency and the
Starting point is 00:11:16 offer, do it. Also, let the market decide. You're going to need more money in the U.S., substantially more money. Do you have an offer for more money? If you do, then boom, America, here we come. If not, then it's great to live in Stockholm with a wife and kids. This is the mother of all good problems. Do I stay in one of the most beautiful, empathetic cities in the world with a wife and kids and have a lovely life? Or do I go for it and move to the U.S.? And if things don't work out, you can always pull the rip court and move back still as a fairly young man with a young family to Stockholm. Again, what's the fulcrum here? The market. Got to get alignment with your partner, but assuming you have that, does the market value your currency, your professional
Starting point is 00:12:02 currency enough in the U.S. to make up for that gap in social services? Thanks to the question and best luck to you. We'll be right back after a quick break. Support for the show comes from built. Everyone loves points. It's like a little gift from your past self who spent money on things you need it. So why not get rewards from something that's typically a thankless expense, your rent or mortgage? Build has your back for exactly that. They've expanded from their original rent or rewards program, and they have a lot more going on for members now. For one, members can earn points on mortgage payments too. Every housing payment earns you points.
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Starting point is 00:13:06 at joinbill.com slash provg. That's J-O-I-N-B-I-T dot com slash provchee. Use our links so they know we sent you. Support for the show comes from superhuman. Does this sound familiar? You're working on incorporating AI into your workflow, and you have a project you need help with, so you go to the AI platform, open a new tab, start from scratch, and re-explain everything from the top every single time.
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Starting point is 00:14:10 You can try Superhuman Go from the makers of Grammarly. Find more at superhuman.com. Support for the show comes from Gusto. When you run a small business, you don't just do the job, you are the job. You're the hiring manager, payroll department benefits team, maybe even the custodian. It's time to let Gusto take a few of those off your plate quickly and seamlessly. Gusto is online payroll and benefits software built for small businesses. It's all in one, remote-friendly, and incredibly easy to use so you can pay, hire on board, and support your team from anywhere.
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Starting point is 00:15:09 Try Gusto today at gusto.com slash propchi and get three months free when you run your first payroll. That's three months of free payroll at gusto.com slash propchi. One more time, gusto.com slash propchi. Welcome back. Our next question comes from our listener who texted us. They say, you, Scott. I recall from a previous episode that you would describe yourself as a bad manager when you first found yourself in those roles. What do you think you did a bad job of and how would you have done things differently now? Any advice for new managers? I think I was so self-absorbed that I thought that people would just take for granted that I would do the right thing, that I did need to outline their career for them, that I would do the right thing and be generous when, you know, if things worked out and they should just keep their head down. I didn't take enough time. to kind of sit down and really focus on, quite frankly, on them.
Starting point is 00:16:05 What are you hoping to achieve here? This is what we have planned for you. This is the career path. This is how the company is doing. This is why the company's success is going to translate to your success. I looked at people as a transaction. And a lot of this is out of necessity. If I didn't have more money, if I spent more money than I took in when I started my first strategy firm,
Starting point is 00:16:29 I was closing the company. I didn't have rich parents. I didn't have any money saved. Now I have a lot of cushion, and I can, quite frankly, I can overcompensate people. But what I didn't do that I could have done was a better job of outlining objectives, ensuring they understood I've had a better feel for what was important to them. I assume that everyone was like me and wanted to be rich and awesome. That's all I've ever wanted to be. And then what you realize is you get older, some people want flexibility. Some people want to manage others. Like they get really excited about the opportunity to manage somebody, even if it's them managing the office manager. Some people want their name and lights. And if the New York Times calls and asks for a quote, we used to do a lot of content marketing, turning it over or referring it to one of the analysts, the younger analysts, it just makes their day. Praise. I didn't invest enough in praise for God's sakes. Young people need watering, telling people they're doing a good job. I just, I was so self-absorbed and assumed that everybody just thought, oh, he's awesome, and when he gets successful, he'll be nice to all of us. I should have done a much better job, understanding their priorities, investing in their desires, really taking time to
Starting point is 00:17:34 understand what their unique needs were, outlining what was going on in the company and how that success was going to translate to their success and proving to them with my actions that I understood their priorities and I was trying to adapt to it. One thing I did do well. In the 90s, before it was cool, I hired a lot of mothers, a lot of women with graduate degrees from Darden, from Tuck, who had left the brand management world, corporate America, Nestle or PNG or Clorox, my company was in San Francisco, and I would say to them, come into the office two days a week, and you can stay at home three days a week and be with your kids and work remotely. This was, like, really innovative at the time.
Starting point is 00:18:15 This was sort of unheard of. Nestle wouldn't allow them to do that. And what I found is there is no one more productive than a mother. They got to get home. Like the babysitter is leaving it sick. They don't have time to mess about at work. And I found that there was this talent pool. I didn't do it because I was progressive or a feminist.
Starting point is 00:18:38 I did it because it was an untapped labor pool of exceptionally talented people who wouldn't go to work. You know, I could compete with Nestle or P&G or Google because I was offering the flexibility that those firms didn't. That's an example of a good manager. Also, something I also got right as I got older. I was talking to my partner in the business, Catherine Dillon. We've always been a little bit, our employees, the team's going to love to hear this. We've always been a little bit the island of misfit toys.
Starting point is 00:19:09 We just have some really fucking strange people working with us. And that's okay. They don't fit. A lot of them don't fit the corporate mold in terms of how they look, smell, or feel or the way they behave. We have had some real pieces of work to be kind. And the one thing they've all had in common is that they're all talented. They're all good at what they do.
Starting point is 00:19:31 And if they're a bit odd, a bit socially awkward, that's fine. And that was also a key advantage early on was pulling together this kind of this, I don't know you would call it, Island of Mistfit toys. But it not only made for an interesting organization, but it not only made for an interesting organization, but also I think it made for a high-performing organization. We didn't need, you know, you walk into any company I started, it does not look like Goldman Sachs. It's people from unknown colleges. It's people who just wouldn't, I don't think,
Starting point is 00:20:07 desire nor be appreciated in a more traditional corporate world. So I do think that's something we got right. What is the key to being a good manager? One, you have to demonstrate excellence. And that is not only you have to be really good at something, You have to be willing to do anything you would ask of anybody else. And that is demonstrate excellence. I call it player coach pulling up a chair, showing them how to do something.
Starting point is 00:20:29 You have to demonstrate excellence. People want to follow success. Two, accountability, a willingness to fire people. Everyone talks about strategic hiring and all this bullshit, hippie-dippy-dippie, Brooklyn-sandled bullshit of, oh, they're in the wrong role. No, fire them. In a small company, if they're not working, get rid of them. And that may sound Darwinian and horrible, fine.
Starting point is 00:20:50 You're not doing anyone any favors by letting someone's career go sideways. Be generous once you decide to shed them. But everybody in the organization doesn't need to like each other, but they need to look left and look right and say, okay, I get why they're here. They're good at what they do. And when you don't hold the underperformers accountable, the upper performers, the top performers, stop working as hard and go somewhere else where they can be rewarded for their outperformance. And then finally, and this is where I fucked up, empathy. What is it you want out of this job? I know you're like me, concerned with your own success and your own economic security, here is how you're going to get there, here's how the company is doing, here's maybe your share of the profits or your equity, but always giving them a sense that they're appreciated and that they're part of something. And, you know, creating an environment also, something I learned, where young people can be social and enjoy themselves. It's a little bit harder with a remote work, but I think we're a social animal and giving kids an excuse to gather or do fun or social stuff together. All of our team is going to the U.S. Open.
Starting point is 00:21:56 I think that investment has a huge R.O. Because I think especially if you have a younger popular, I just want to go home. I don't. But what you realize is young people want to meet, they want to hang out, they want to make friends. I think that's also kind of a hack if you have a young organization. Anyways, hope that helps. But, yeah, I would describe myself as a B-minus manager. I think I got to B-plus, but I was smart.
Starting point is 00:22:18 enough to know what I didn't know, and I've always hired and held on to people who are good managers. Thanks for the question. Our next question comes from long-jumping ant 570. I forget these names. On Reddit, they say, Hi, Scott, I own a small manufacturing business that builds a niche consumer product. We have a company interested in acquiring us. They are a larger and more well-known brand manufacturer who builds a complementary product.
Starting point is 00:22:42 We are smaller than we could be, but we have a number of strategic advantages, such as being the only manufacturer of our product outside of Europe, U.S.-based, I believe that if this company acquires us, the strength of their brand would lead to a 10x of sales almost overnight. It would not be practical for them to build our capabilities on their own. My question is, do you have any advice on getting a buyer to value a small company based on its strategic positioning and future earnings as opposed to more traditional valuation methods such as a multiple of past EBITDA thanks? Yeah, the way you get them to appreciate your future earnings and you get what I'd call and a rational multiple is with a second bidder.
Starting point is 00:23:19 And that is where hiring a banker pays off. And I don't know if you're big enough to afford hiring a banker or sometimes I just hired a very good deal attorney. But your ability to create the illusion of multiple bidders is the only way you're going to get your price up. I mean, obviously you want to put together a good data room and a good book. But if they're already interested in you, they already see the potential here. And obviously, you're going to want to sell it hard.
Starting point is 00:23:41 But there's only two things you have to remember in a negotiation. one, don't turn it into win-lose, right? No, there's nothing wrong here. You're good, we're good. There's just not a fit, right? And looking at, you know, trying to get the better of people. I've always left a little bit of money on the table in negotiations because what I realize is you don't want the other partner to feel like they lost or to feel like they've been abused
Starting point is 00:24:02 or be an asshole about it. Whenever I was selling a company, I was just, I don't know, I was sort of a win-lose. And then you realize that you want to sell the smart people. Anyways, what do you want to do here? Potentially find a banker that can create. If they're the only potential buyer, they smell it, and it's not as much in negotiation as it is just sort of, they'll keep grinding you down until you walk away.
Starting point is 00:24:27 And that's the second part around not making it a win-lose. The number two thing is always show a credible willingness to walk away. Yeah, we'd love to get the deal done. You're the right partner. You'd be great for us. We'd be great for you. but maybe there's just not a fit here. Very few deals get done at a good number
Starting point is 00:24:44 where one or both parties didn't walk away at some point. When I sold L2 to Gardner, they came back and they made another acquisition and said, well, we want to keep the deal in place. We just want to extend the closing period for six months. In other words, they wanted a free option to lock in a price for another six months while we were growing, but then five and a half months in,
Starting point is 00:25:05 they could walk away. And I said, fuck you. and we're out, and I sent them a letter saying the deal is over, the exclusivity period is over, and we're going to go to one of many other suitors. By the way, we started with three suitors. One pulled their LOI, one pulled their term sheet. I think was Anderson or Accenture, one of those big firms that pays their top person 40 million and everyone else, $4 in India. And then the second company was, God, I forget their name. I'm going to hate myself.
Starting point is 00:25:37 They were this great little firm that did surveys in D.C. Not great. They were a big firm. They got acquired by Gardner, who was a third bidder. So I went from three bidders to one overnight. And all of a sudden, my negotiating leverage went way down. But the acquired didn't know that. And I said, I'm out, I'm done.
Starting point is 00:25:54 And they came back and ultimately acquired us at eight times revenues, which was a very rich multiple at the time. And there's a whole list of things you do to get your multiple up, which I'll go into another podcast. But one, don't let it be win or lose. Two, always show a credible willingness to walk away. And if you're looking for a valuation, you're going to do a good job of showing why you're special. They probably already know that. But at the end of the day, your valuation is a function of what the seller and the buyer are each willing to pay. And the buyer's willingness to stretch is going to be based on one thing mostly, and that is the perceived or the perception
Starting point is 00:26:27 that there are multiple bidders for your company. So what do you want to do? You want to figure out a way if you can manufacture a second and or third bidder. And that is reach out to a potential universe of acquires and say, and always tell the truth. I find that the truth has a nice ring to it. Say we have a credible inbound opportunity for acquisition. We thought we would talk to you before doing a deal. Now, if you're in an exclusive and they have a preemptive strike,
Starting point is 00:26:53 that's basically saying, all right, take us off the table at a good number. If they don't get to a number, then say you're going to open up the process to multiple bidders and then go out with that, are you interested, speak now our first, ever hold your piece. But the way you get an irrational number, and that's what every seller wants, is an irrational premium on the company, is to create the perception or an actual feeding frenzy where there's multiple bidders. Anyways, good for you. It sounds like you're going to sell. I can read from the body language here that you think this is a good idea. Also, based on a previous question, multiples in the market across every sector are probably a little bit artificially
Starting point is 00:27:28 inflated. No one ever feels as if their company is overvalued right now. And I don't know. of the specifics of your deal, but I think it's safe to say in general valuations are lofty right now. In other words, it's a really good time to be a seller. Thanks to the question. We'll be right back after a quick break. Support for the show comes from SOFA. Education can be one of the most valuable investments you can make in yourself, but figuring out how to pay for it is a huge financial decision. The good news is you have options at every stage of that journey.
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Starting point is 00:30:18 Now available in Canada and the UK too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com slash prof-Chi. What does a sunny getaway with Air Canada sound like? Sunny Jamaica moves to its own. rhythm. Rio comes alive long after the sun goes down. Philippines slows everything down. And just when you think you've heard it all, there's sunny Lima. However you imagine your sunny escape, Air Canada can take you there. Book hot fairs and vacation packages today. Nice travels. We're back. Our final question comes from Oscar de Grouch on Reddit. It's
Starting point is 00:31:08 Genius. Provji, what advice would you give to a new but old adjunct professor? I'm a corporate guy who recently started teaching a 200-level operations management class at a local university. Based on your experience, what are some key do's and don'ts? So I joined the faculty at NYU as an adjunct professor in 2002. I was paid $12,000. I taught Brian's strategy. You get a rating at the end of the course. I think 22 people signed up for my class, and I got a 4.7. And the head of my department, called me and said, we're going to give you one more shot, but if you don't get your ratings up, we're going to, you know, we're not going to be able to renew your contract, great contract at $12,000 a year. And I absolutely molested the comments, tore them apart, figured out what I was doing right, what I was doing wrong. And quite frankly, as an adjunct, your power is simple. The dues are the following. Put more butts and seeds. Get really good at teaching. There is no silver bullet. figure out how to turn it into an outstanding iconic class. Over the course of the next, I'd call it three to five years.
Starting point is 00:32:11 I became one of the ringers. What's a ringer? We have 190 faculty at NYU Stern. There are kind of five or six professors that are ringers that everybody takes, regardless of whether they're interested in that field or not. Every finance person took brand strategy, my course, every marketing major took valuation with Aswat the Motorin. There was a small number, and everybody knew them, and I became one of those.
Starting point is 00:32:34 So my classes went from 22 people to 180, only because that's what the maximum of the class held. And I consistently scored in the kind of low sixes. And that was my power. And slowly but surely I went from adjunct or associate adjunct to adjunct to instructor to associate instructor to associate clinical, then to clinical. And now on NYU's website, I got the ultimate promotion. It just says, professor of marketing. Academia is the only industry where they take away titles and prefixes as a promotion. And by the time I left, when I say I left, in 2017 I sold L2, and I gave back all of the compensation I'd received to that point because I didn't want, I like higher education, I like NYU, I like the people there, I had money, and I just like the idea of teaching out of love, out of concern for society.
Starting point is 00:33:30 But anyways, I gave all the money back, and I've never accepted a dollar of compensation since then, which is also wonderful because I have absolutely no leverage over me. They literally have to ask me to do anything. They can't tell me to do anything. I used to teach five courses a year. So basically, I just kind of do what I want. But by the time I left, in addition to me bragging, I was making around $200, $2,000 a year. Plus I had the biggest benefit. I had a three-bedroom in Washington Square Village, is how it's called? It's this building. It's this giant super blocks in Soho that look like public housing in G'dance, Poland. But I had a three bedroom with two terraces basically for free, which I figured it was about $150,000 or $200,000 benefit. So anyways, all in, you could argue I was making somewhere between call it $350 and $500,000 a year. And it was a great platform for me, and I really enjoyed it. I still enjoy it. So I went from $12,000 a year to much more than that. Why? I was able to put butts in seats. School is a business. When I walk in, if there's 180 kids, that means every night the school is charging about $100 to $110,000 for me to deliver two hours and 40 minutes on brand strategy. They know that. That is really good for them. That helps them support a lot of useless tenured professors and a lot of administrative bloat where people on the 12th floor of Stern think big thoughts about things like student engagement. So they need those ringers. So this is what you want to do. You want to tear apart your student evaluations. Obviously, being kind of a player in the private sector helps, but that's much harder. And you want to just become a great professor that becomes a great teacher. You're not tenure track. Research isn't going to do anything. You know, I don't, you're a little bit older, so trying to become more, have greater presence in the private sector is probably going to be difficult at this point. In some, you just have to be great in the classroom. It helps to be
Starting point is 00:35:27 engaged and helpful in office hours and try and be thoughtful and help people, you know, whatever it is, find jobs or understand the topic better. But at the end of the day, boss, you are an adjunct. Two-thirds, by the way, of professors and universities are adjuncts because they underpay us. See above University of bloat and tenure. But the silver bullet here and the only silver bullet is you got to be great at what you do. And at the end of the day, you're an adjunct. You're there to teach full stop. Thanks for the question. and good luck. That's all for this episode. To submit a question for next time, email a voice recording to Office Hours of ProptoMedia.com. Again, that's Office Hours of Prop2Media.com
Starting point is 00:36:07 or post it on the Scott Galloway subreddit. This episode is produced by Jennifer Sanchez, Laura Jeneer and Asher Schwartz. Our editor is Brad Williams, Cammy Rieke, is our social producer, Drew Burroughs is our technical director, and Catherine Dillon is our executive producer. Thanks for listening to the Prop G pod from PropG Media.

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