Podcast Of The Week: Matt Breitfelder – Investing In Human Capital

Matt Breitfelder was interviewed by Ted Seides on Capital Allocators and I think this one extends beyond his HR work in the investment field. 

Matt and Ted’s talk isn’t just another culture-building checklist – it’s a talk about self-awareness, and how the cultures that have shaped us can be as useful as the cultures we want to help shape others. At life and at work.

Matt talks about how he’s a mix of his parents. Dad’s jazz/entrepreneurial spirit and Mom’s therapy practice, both rubbing off on him more than he could know while growing up. Middle school MBA stuff.

How he didn’t know “organizational psychology” or “behavioral finance” or any of today’s buzzwords were things when he was figuring out college and beyond. It shows why directional orientation matters more for our focus than perfect specificity (sometimes at least).

How his wife Jen sent him back to the drawing board on his first big idea for work. A truly compassionate “I know you and this isn’t you so maybe try again” moment.

How he wrote down a description of his impossible-to-find/non-existent dream job and got a headhunter cold call for it a week later.

How humor is still one of his most effective problem-solving skills.

Yes, the “two things that work at every company to measure and help build culture” stuff is all in here too. I’ve got notes to prove it. But the human side, that Ted makes sure he highlights from Matt’s knowledge and experience, it’s profound.

Bravo to Matt and Ted for making this talk so much more.

With a little self-awareness and a human touch, we can all shape our cultures (and sub-cultures, and families, teams, companies, etc.) to drive positive results.

Check out the Capital Allocators podcast episode, “Optimizing Investment Performance through Human Capital With: Matt Breitfelder”

Self (Podcast) Promotions:

Wondering what’s going on with inflation, recession fears, market valuations, Artificial intelligence, and geopolitics? So are we. Check out me talking macro on The Education of a Financial Planner. Oh, and I name a song for each topic.