Geoffrey Diem is our second pick of the 2021 Supersub draft. After a successful career as a FMCG executive in Ghana, Geoffrey decided to reshape his path and take a new turn by moving back to his home region of Alsace (France), where his heart belongs. His objective: bust the myths of wealth management and support younger generations in making sound investments, in line with their life aspirations.
The locker room speech
How is investing in 2021 looking like? The pandemic has highlighted the paradox between the stock market’s dynamics and what’s observable in the “real” economy – this inconsistency makes it difficult for novice investors to decipher this complex world, understand where value lies and how to make investments decisions in a sound way.
What Geoffrey tells us is that there are ways to leverage basic market rules and historical trends to achieve this and ideally profits too.
In his own words: “Investing in 2021 is about maximising returns within an acceptable level of risk. I will help you in building and in managing your portfolio with a clear gameplan with a blend of top-performing funds”.
Carpe Diem!
Can you tell us more about yourself?
I am a Certified Personal Advisor and the founder Carpe Diem Patrimoine, a wealth management company based in Strasbourg (France). I am on a mission to empower people through financial education, helping a maximum number of young people in achieving financial independence.
Why? To allow them to focus on what really matters to them in their life.
The first question people often ask is: “What exactly is it you do on a daily basis?” I usually answer: “I just take your money, invest it, wait for it to make more money. I then give it all back to you”.
Goal here is to help achieve financial independence, but also unveiling any mystery around wealth management and making it accessible to everybody.
What pushed you to start such an ambitious project?
Curiosity. I have always been a curious person by nature. Whenever I come across a topic or field that strikes me as original and authentic, I get drawn to it.
After spending 7 years in Africa, 2 as a top executive for an international conglomerate and 5 as recklessly ambitious entrepreneur, I felt like I needed a renewed sense of purpose. I was going to get inspired during a road trip around the world but destiny changed the game plan.
I then decided to move my passion for investments (that I usually used around friends and family members) to the next level and make it a career change. I’m aiming to bring ambition and a positive mindset to impact as many people as I can.
What is your strategy to win?
Educate the audience and provide people with good investments. Leveraging webinars to help people sailing through challenging times, especially Millennials.
How is the general feeling and feedback from your customers now?
“Uncertainty” is a perfect word to describe how people feel about the current situation and its eventual outcomes. This leads to two opposing reactions:
- “Freezing” which is essentially putting on hold any major decisions until times are more certain.
- “Overreacting” by panic selling or engaging in gambling in assets they seldom understand.
Reassuring our investors and guiding them through market rules and history: That’s my job.
What is the special ingredient or technology you use to be successful ?
Interpersonal relationships being paramount to our activity, any technology that can bring people closer together in a manner that feels “natural” will positively impact our industry.
Videoconferencing technologies such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams have enabled us to keep interacting with our clients during the pandemic. Electronic signatures through platforms such as Universign or DocuSign are another example of a technology that has definitely transformed the landscape, namely the speed with which transactions can be finalized.
What market trends are you observing since the beginning of the pandemic?
A striking trend is the rise of open trading platforms such as Robinhood that have massively disrupted the industry.
Retail investors now represent nearly 13% of volumes transacted on major stock markets such as the NYSE or Euronext. This trend is likely to continue as investing and trading is being democratised.
That is why we need to educate as many young Millennials as possible so that they can make informed decisions when taking positions in these stock exchanges.
Any advice for our audience?
A really simple one: Start a business. Preferably an online business that does not require massive upfront capital.
Most service-based businesses can now be started with less than 1000€ in initial capital. Whatever skills you currently have, there is most definitely someone out there looking for that skill, you just need to be patient to become rich!
To find out more about these “basic rules” I mentioned, feel free to read this post I recently published.
