Have you met Jill Schlesinger yet?

She’s a television star, let’s start with that. Effectively every business story on CBS gets the Jill treatment when America needs to understand what’s going on. She’s also a veteran radio broadcaster, a top-selling personal finance author and she has a daily (yes, you read that right, daily) podcast called Jill On Money.

But more importantly, she’s your new best friend. You can call her to talk about your money questions, problems, concerns, successes, etc. And she’s ready to listen and respond. Nobody does it better. Jill’s website is here.

And the even more exciting news is that, this weekend, Jill officially joined The Compound network as we host her new weekly YouTube show. It’s Jill On Money powered by The Compound and I promise you’re going to love it.

You can watch the pilot episode below:

Great Leap Forward

This new programming represents a great leap forward for our media business. Jill is the first non-employee of Ritholtz Wealth Management to get a spot on the content platform we’ve built. She’s an established broadcasting talent and a natural fit for our audience - smart, funny, knowledgable, connected, entertaining and empathetic.

During her first appearance with us, a March 2023 episode of The Compound and Friends, we got the full origin story. Jill’s dad was a trader and she got her start trading precious metals in the commodity pits of yore - a former student athlete elbowing her way into the action. She subsequently became the part owner of an RIA in the very early days of independent advisory, helping investors with their porfolios and their financial lives, something she never lost the passion for. In the aftermath of the financial crisis, TV and radio came calling - everyone was looking for answers both macro and micro and Jill had them. You can listen to the whole episode here.

Which brings us up to the present. Jill’s show will air on YouTube every week. Duncan and the Compound media team will be bringing you the best of her conversations with listeners, interviews with guests and much more.

My Secret

For the first episode, I sat with Jill and gave her a glimpse into the way I think about financial media and how it relates to the work we do for clients of Ritholtz Wealth. I share my secret to staying steady in volatile markets. I must keep myself calm despite the fact that, in a business the size of ours, we can see account balances of hundreds of millions of dollars shifting higher and lower right before our eyes. Being the rock for others is my life’s work.

A lot of financial advisor commentators exhort their followers to plug their ears, cover their eyes and “tune out the noise” - a nice idea in theory but very much impossible in real life. You cannot tell an investor with millions of dollars at risk that you have no idea what’s going on in the market and that it would be great if he or she didn’t either. You can maybe do this with clients under 35 years old or investors who haven’t yet accumulated their first $100,000. Beyond that, it’s an unserious notion and a strategy destined to fail your clients at precisely the wrong time. No one wants to hear unqualified ambivalence in the depths of a 25% correction. “Stay the course” is good advice, provided it can be backed up intellectually in conversation.

But! But how do you know when you’re paying too much attention to the markets? How much is too much? Surely there is a risk in this direction as well. What if we overreact to the wrong information or interpret its meaning incorrectly? This happens every day, all over the world. Investors of all skill and experience levels tend to do more stuff than necessary, so the constant stimuli of economic data, analyst research, pundit commentary and breaking news can’t possibly be helpful, can it?

Maybe it can. And this is my secret. Watch this episode for my take on the age-old conundrum.

And remember, no matter what happens, The Compound has your back. We’ll be here for your all week, every week, as you build your wealth. To become a Compound Insider, register here.

Josh