Career Advice: How To Break Into Finance With Former CNBC Anchor Louisa Bojesen

Okay, very good morning. It's Wednesday, 28th of April, and I'm absolutely thrilled to have someone who certainly I used to watch on CNBC very much early in my career. I used to see you every day, I think, Louisa, but Louisa Voisin. So absolutely great to have you with us, Louisa.

Anthony, thank you so much for wanting to chat. It's really kind of you, and I really appreciate it. Like anything that anything that we can do to help further this profession, I'm all in. So yeah.

And I know you and I have spoken a number of times. The real purpose of our conversation is, you know, a big part of what Amplify does is helping young people in a variety of different ways, but namely just trying to find their future in finance, whatever that might be.

I didn't have a defined career path. I thought I did, but that changed. So I'm Danish. I left for Chicago when I was barely 18, figured out how to get there myself, and figured out that if I went and I, and I worked as an au pair— I love children, so I thought I could, I could take care of a child who needs to go to school, and then I'll go to school at the same time— which was what I did. What I hadn't done before was arrange for university and things like that. So when I landed in Chicago, again barely age 18, I went out on the streets and I literally asked people on the street, what are the, the main 3 schools that you know of around here, the main 3 universities? And they would give me whatever names I checked out the main 3 that people kept mentioning. One of them was quite quick to enroll me, and that was how I started studying in Chicago. Now, I thought that I wanted to be a doctor, so I was kind of going towards there, but at the same time, Chicago— this was in the '90s, the mid-'90s, well, early '90s initially— and everything was booming. And I was really drawn to LaSalle Street, which is where the Chicago Board of Trade is. And I kept finding myself kind of around there, and I thought it would be fantastic if I could work in there. Now, in the end, what ended up happening was I did all my pre-med things. I put my way through school by working, taking care of senior citizens. I moved on from the au pair job after a year. I lived with and worked with 17 senior citizens in an organization called HOME, Housing Opportunities and Maintenance for the Elderly, all private money. But you had 17 grandparents and then you didn't pay rent, basically. So that allowed me to then work a million other jobs on the side. And those jobs were very geared towards kind of, I guess, my newly found interest for the this world of trading and stockbroking.

So even with that, just jumping straight in there, is that you obviously were doing a lot of that kind of volunteering work, paying your way to have the access to housing and things like that, whilst studying, whilst looking for a job. I mean, how was that, just managing that? Because I know a lot of students go through that.

Incredibly hard. But I thought it wasn't fair for my parents to pay for my schooling or my desire to go abroad, given that I was raised in Denmark where things are paid for through taxes. So I could go to school for free and dent for free through my parents' taxes in Denmark. And I just thought it wasn't fair. So in hindsight, it was insanely hard, insanely, insanely hard, including, you know, having to kind of catch some naps on benches and things like that between jobs because I was up so early and working so late and working so many jobs to kind of piece things together. So, you know, I always had a home, but, but I, you know, it was, it was hard. But I also think it teaches you a lot because basically whatever you want, just go do it, you know, just figure out a way to do it. So for an example, I worked at the Board of Trade twice over. So the first time it was a summer job and I was a runner, and then the second time I was— well, and that first time I was offered a— someone would sponsor a seat for me basically. So I'd be trained under this individual and hopefully one day end up, you know, being my own trader, basically. But I wasn't done with school, so I maybe foolishly, maybe smartly said no thank you to that opportunity in order to finish school. Once I was done with school, I thought I'm still not ready to go to med school yet. There was something that was kind of pulling me. And so I basically printed out— well, first I exhausted all of my contacts to get back into the Chicago Board of Trade, and it's difficult to get in. And then I literally printed out a very basic CV. I mean, at the time I would have been early 20s, printed out a very basic CV, and I stood at the door on LaSalle Street, you know, this massive skyscraper, and waited for everybody to come out. And when they came out after their day, I'd say hello to everybody and shake their hand and give them my CV and say, if you know of anybody who needs somebody to do something, please let me know. And eventually there was a man who said, you know, you're either smart enough or crazy enough to be standing here, and I think I might know of an opportunity. And that was how I got back into the Chicago Board of Trade the second time around. So again, it's— you really can do anything. You know, I want that to be the message to you guys who are watching this and who maybe just are starting out. It's just about figuring out how. So around the same time, when I then started the Board of Trade once again, I said, okay, this is an environment where I see myself in for a, for a certain time frame. It was insanely stressful. I loved it. I love the adrenaline. I love the trading. But I, but I kept seeing myself kind of, you know, years from now, I'm not sure I wanted to be in that really, really, really stressful environment. I learned loads, loads, loads, loads. And I really have that to thank for, you know, a lot of the almost 20 years that I since did at CNBC, from all those initial experiences and how the world works in, in terms of, of the markets, basically. So, but I said, I'll stay here for a certain amount of time. And if I haven't moved up, then I'll move out and I'll do something else. And in the meantime, I got a job at Merrill Lynch. Again, I was told— I applied to a job that I thought was interviewing to be a stockbroker. And it turned out that it was basically a meeting with a— what's it called— a job finder. Like, it was—

okay.

Yeah, so I went to this job agency and the person I spoke to tore me apart. A girl around my same age at that time, she tore me apart and told me that I would never work in the industry. And I left there and I crossed the street and I walked into Merrill Lynch and took the elevator up and I asked if there was somebody I could see about possibly starting at Merrill Lynch. And the next day I started at Merrill Lynch. So again, it's really down to, you know, the worst that can happen is that they would have said no. You know, it was a strange person standing here wanting a job. But sometimes it pays off to be hungry for something because people feel that, you know. So I worked at Merrill Lynch, and I ended up also working as a day trader where we were a team of 4 trading, well, someone's positions basically. So it was a young guy at the time, and he was an independent trader. And so we were a team of 4 trading his money basically. So I then went to med school, went back to Denmark to do that. Did half of it and was just insanely unhappy with that decision. So I love taking care of people. I, you know, I loved the experiences I had with the senior citizens. I thought I was, you know, really wanted to do psychiatry or psychiatric type of work. But in the end, I still had this pull towards the markets. And that was then where I started CNBC in Copenhagen back in the year 2000, as it were.

So what was that decision then? Because you're going from like a market— you're a market participant directly, almost actively like taking positions, to then working on the CNBC side. So what was the decision not to go back there, to actually go over to financial media, so to speak?

I think it was opportunity at the time, because sometimes, you know, you said you always have a plan, and sometimes we might think we have a plan. Oh, I want to do exactly this. But don't say no to other things that might come your way. Because, you know, I'd never thought of working for a group like CNBC, you know, but when the opportunity opened up and, you know, it was phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal. And it was the best thing I've ever, ever done, the best jump I ever did, the best decision I ever made, and the best opportunity that I ever had thrown my way as well. So, so it was It was, it kind of seemed like it was a really good mix for me to both have the creative side of being your own master a very large part of the time within this really fantastic organization that, you know, it's like, it's a real name, CNBC, to work for. And at the same time, you know, you have the creative side, but you also at the same time, you have to, you know, you really have to think on your toes. So you're definitely using, you know, your brain daily. You know, it's not sitting interviewing somebody about, you know, eating peanuts or, you know, you, you know, it's exciting and you have to constantly learn. And I love that element of hearing things that I didn't know. So regardless of who you talk to in that position, if you're open to it, you literally learn things daily. Literally. Yeah.

One of the— when we've spoken in recent weeks, one of the things that really I guess surprised me a lot was when you said you still get nervous, like whenever you— like if you're doing a, I guess, a bigger platform, you're speaking to a lot of people and so on, or even just, I guess, live TV. And you still, you're still active now doing stuff. So talk me through that. I mean, how, how does someone still be nervous after 20 years?

I mean, well, nervous slash excited. Yeah, because we're all human, right? So we all have bodies that function pretty much the same. You know, you have adrenaline, you have cortisol, you have testosterone, you have all kinds of things in you, you know. And I say testosterone because they've done all these interesting studies about if you're about to go perform, that your body kind of battles between, you know, testosterone, which is that kind of feel-good, manly hormone, right, for lack of a better word. And then you have cortisol, which is the stress hormone. And you have these studies that have been done where Basically, if you make yourself small physically— so for an example, you're going into a job interview, or you need to do something really important, or you need to give your very first or your biggest presentation. And what's natural to do these days, it's, you know, you sit on a couch in the waiting room or in the green room, and you're on your device, and you're closed. You know, you're looking down, you're closed. But actually, what you should be doing is making yourself expansive, like really big. You know, think Arnold Schwarzenegger. Like, this is the whole— you know? And we kind of were taught— I guess, especially in our society that you don't do this type of stuff, right? We're supposed to be small and quiet. But actually the bigger you can be and the more expansive you can make yourself, you know, like think of the All Blacks, the New Zealand rugby team, right? Like before they go into play, they're doing their dance there. I mean, they're massively expanding themselves. They're sticking their tongue out there, you know, here I am, because they don't want cortisol. They're not, you know, why would they want like a nervous hormone? That's like when they're going out to, to to play. They want, you know, testosterone. So, and it's the same thing that you need to think about when you go on stage. So you actually want to expand yourself physically, make yourself as big as possible. And then the other thing is that if you're not expanding yourself, concentrate on what's happening. You know, that's the other key, that if you do get nervous, which ties into those Lehman days, for an example, right, where concentrate on who you're talking to, concentrate on what the subject matter actually is, and you forget about yourself. You know, you forget about, oh, I'm nervous, or I can't— whatever— concentrate on what it is that you're actually doing. And that also carries a long way. But ultimately, I think it's only natural, you know, so to be nervous and/or to be excited. And oftentimes also, I think because it's finance or because it's business, we maybe subconsciously or inadvertently are taught like it's serious. Yeah, manly. You need to get people, you need to say a lot of things like abbreviate stuff and, you know, sound like you know what you're talking about. It's not about that, you know. Oftentimes when you think about the people who you admire the most in the industry, they simplify really difficult stuff and make sure that everybody in the room is along.

Confidence is one of those things that I'm not going to say you either have it or you don't, but I guess some people have a great ability to turn it on and be able to be in a situation where they can just trust themselves and reflect the best them. But that's not the case for everyone, and certainly a lot of people that we interact with haven't been the ones who've just gone in the front door at Goldman Sachs or Bank of America Merrill Lynch and just got the job, and they feel a little bit knocked down on the back of that, and they're kind of fighting to find their way. Do you have any kind of advice about If it isn't natural, how can you kind of— what would be a practical way of trying to build that up? Is it just putting yourself in those positions again and again to just build up a tolerance, or is there any input you have on that?

I completely get it. I mean, confidence is— it's so hard, you know, it's so hard and it's so interesting. And it's so interesting, the, the element of resilience and how you build confidence. I get it, I get it, you know. And some days for all of us, our confidence is lower than other days, and some days, you know, we can jump over the moon and other days we can't, you know, and I get it, we're all human. I think it's a mixture of training and of initially when you're first starting out being your own kind of pat on the back a little bit in terms of visualizing what you would like. Or at least that's what helped me early on. I also found and identified consciously that I could do with a couple of mentors along my way. And early on, initially, I met a couple of people who I just clicked with, you know, and I would have been again 18, 19, 20, and they would have been in their 40s. And they had their families of their own and their jobs of their own, but they listened. And they somehow were able to just— you know those pieces of advice where your parents or somebody else could say exactly the same thing and you wouldn't hear it, but from somebody else it kind of stuck with you, you know? And I kind of made a conscious effort of keeping in touch with these people because I felt they were amazing. And without them, I don't know where I would have been. But they were really amazing. So— oh, and also just to follow up on kind of being your own pat on the back, I don't mean it in the sense of, you know, "Oh, you can do it." stuff like that, but more take a quiet moment daily, close your eyes, give thanks, which is what I've done from about age 12 or 13. I give thank you to all kinds of things in life. You know, I'm so, so, so grateful for the things I have. And then I ask, it's a meditation to, you know, help to guide me in the right direction, you know, help me to be strong in this and this area. Help me to be able to do this and this. Help me to learn more about this and this. And that talking to yourself is almost like it's somebody saying, it's okay, you can do this. And over time, if you do this daily, I promise you, if you just talk to yourself 2 minutes a day in the morning before you get out of bed, on the bus, you know, between the commercial breaks of whatever you're watching, you know, wherever it is, it doesn't matter. Just take 2 minutes and talk to yourself about where it is that you want to go. And be thankful. Because when you start being thankful for what you actually have, you kind of realize, like, wow, I'm pretty lucky. Like, I actually have a lot, you know. And okay, so I have this, so now what can I do to keep building on this? Um, but, but it's difficult, you know. And also, like you say, I think that there's, there's a lot of truth to what you say, that you keep putting yourself in those positions. I mean, the amount of auditions for all kinds of other things and, you know, trials and whatever that I've tried out for where you've gotten a no— lots. Lots, lots, lots. But I mean, you will talk to any big entrepreneur who has big companies and they always say, you know, I got 12 billion nos before I got my yes.

Right. So, so the, the core underlying theme here is it's okay to fail, which I think is a massive thing that we see because we have such interactions.

Not failure. It's just, it's just an experience. Okay. Now I'm gonna do something else. It's not failure.

You know, one of the things I've identified, even from when I graduated in the early noughties is that it seems now the levels just keep going up academically. Everyone's very strong now. So you need that differentiator. So what's your advice into kind of standing out in that respect?

Yeah, I mean, it's a tough one. You know, there's, there's a lot of competition for sure, but I do think be yourself. And again, try to find that space of, I know it sounds really airy fairy, but it's true. If you can identify and find that space within of connecting and happiness, and, you know, talk to yourself, meditate a little bit every day, just like, just talk to yourself 2 minutes and kind of, and you can bring that out in whatever you're doing. You're already 50% further ahead than everybody else who just kind of goes through the motions, you know, like Anthony Cheung, again, it's, it's very obvious when you, when you talk to you, you're personable, you bring something more to the table. You're not afraid to share a bit, you know, like, so I would say again, like just to stand out, Really rest in yourself. Like, you are enough in yourself. And find ways to figure out how to really believe that. If you don't believe that already, find out how— like, work on it. Work on how— you know, find someone who tells you that you're enough in yourself, because you are enough in yourself, you know? And every day, if you build that onto yourself, you end up standing out because you're not trying to, you know, be a peacock when you're a field mouse. Like, a field mouse is a perfectly good field mouse as a field mouse, you know? We want a field mouse to be a field mouse. A field mouse, not a peacock, you know. So, so I figure out really who you are, and that takes you, you know, more than halfway. And then of course determination as well, as we were talking about, like persistence and determination to stand out from the competition, you know. If you start at a, at a retail, uh, like a retail store, you know, selling clothes, you'll, you'll have to fit into a structure also there, you know. That, that's just how companies operate, you know. So, you know, investment banks, it's just a name, you know. It's really just a place where a lot of people work, just like anything else. Else, you know. So, and they're literally human, and they go home and they cry, and, you know, they're afraid of whatever presentation they have to give tomorrow too, and they're busy, and, you know, and they like birds, and, you know, I mean, they're literally human. So, you know, really remember that when you reach out to people and when you're having these interviews.

Yeah, well, look, good way to finish, because that coming from you, and you having met some of the most influential people literally in the corporate world, in the political world, I think says it all. So Louisa, thank you very much. It's been an absolute pleasure having you with us.

Anthony, pleasure's all mine. Thank you so much for reaching out. And, uh, and genuinely, I wish everybody the best, like, uh, everybody watching. And just please, just, just go do it. You know, it's really exciting. Like, you can do it.