Latest / Industrial Advisors / Inside the Industrial Engine: Trends Driving U.S. Logistics and Manufacturing

Transcript

Inside the Industrial Engine: Trends Driving U.S. Logistics and Manufacturing · Industrial Advisors

• 0:00
  Ultimately, I think the biggest concern is just the general economic
• 0:05
  and supply chain disruption that's kind of been going on for a bit.
• 0:09
  Supply chain disruption is the biggest thing because it affects both the
• 0:13
  occupiers and the owner investors.
• 0:30
  Welcome to our Industrial Advisors podcast.
• 0:33
  We're live at IMC in Indianapolis, and you have Bill and Matt.
• 0:37
  And we have Stephanie Rodriguez, our National Director of
• 0:41
  Industrial at Colliers.
• 0:43
  And I will start by saying, and I, and I mean this, you are the best
• 0:45
  person in the industry at your job.
• 0:47
  There's nobody better than you.
• 0:49
  Thank you.
• 0:49
  Thank you.
• 0:49
  Thank you for joining us.
• 0:51
  Yeah.
• 0:51
  Well, I feel like somebody paid you some money to say that, isn't I?
• 0:54
  No, I mean it, it's true.
• 0:55
  Um, but that's not your only job.
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  So tell the listeners.
• 0:58
  Yeah.
• 0:58
  Right.
• 0:59
  And you, by the way, Stephanie's been on our podcast before.
• 1:01
  It's been one of our best, most listened to podcasts.
• 1:04
  So great to have you back on.
• 1:05
  Thank you.
• 1:06
  Especially live.
• 1:06
  So tell us about all the roles that you do for us at co. Sure.
• 1:10
  So the, the first role I was hired for, of course, was the national director role.
• 1:14
  So the head of industrial, yeah.
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  Matt was on the search committee for that.
• 1:16
  By the way, Matt was on the search.
• 1:17
  He didn't like me.
• 1:18
  Well, I did.
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  Like you did.
• 1:20
  He did.
• 1:20
  He did.
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  Like you.
• 1:21
  I told you I was wrong.
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  You were my second choice.
• 1:24
  You did.
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  And I was like, you did.
• 1:25
  I'm, I'm first to admit I was wrong.
• 1:27
  I was like.
• 1:28
  This other guy has this long resume and I was totally wrong.
• 1:32
  Resume.
• 1:32
  Yeah.
• 1:33
  Come on.
• 1:33
  Who needs one?
• 1:33
  I didn't even have a resume.
• 1:35
  I'm gonna be honest.
• 1:36
  Yeah.
• 1:36
  They created one off of my LinkedIn profile.
• 1:39
  I really did not have a resume.
• 1:41
  Yeah.
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  Because I hadn't looked for a job in like 18 years.
• 1:43
  Right.
• 1:44
  So because you were at Duke forever?
• 1:45
  I was, yeah.
• 1:46
  Yeah.
• 1:46
  So, um, having come from the, the development side of the business for a
• 1:50
  long, long stint, so I was hired for the national director role and about nine or
• 1:54
  10 months in, we had a little bit of a shakeup in our, uh, brokerage leadership.
• 1:59
  And one of our regional presidents left to pursue an opportunity on his own.
• 2:04
  So Gil called and said, Hey, would you like to dabble in
• 2:08
  managing some brokerage for us?
• 2:10
  And so I picked up overseeing all of the state of Florida.
• 2:14
  And, uh, for all, which is a full-time job in and of itself.
• 2:18
  It is for sure.
• 2:19
  Yeah.
• 2:19
  It's, hasn't that gone back and forth a couple of times?
• 2:22
  So I've had that role, but I also have lost some market leaders in
• 2:28
  addition, you know, so we had one in Miami who was moved to Chicago.
• 2:32
  Yeah.
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  So we had to backfill that role.
• 2:33
  So I assumed running the South Florida market for about five months until
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  I hired a market market leader.
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  Then my Jacksonville leader left to pursue a really good opportunity for himself.
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  So I'm still filling that role.
• 2:47
  So it's just been a little, you know, a lot.
• 2:50
  Yeah.
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  But it's fun.
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  I get to do a lot of different things every day.
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  No two days are the same.
• 2:55
  Yeah.
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  And I'm constantly trying to figure out where does my
• 2:58
  attention go at any given moment.
• 3:01
  So, yeah.
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  What's your favorite part about what you do?
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  Oh, the people?
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  Interacting with.
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  Just everybody.
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  Everyone.
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  Yeah.
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  Our clients, our broker teams, our support teams.
• 3:11
  We've got so many great people that we get to interact with every day
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  and that's, that's the fun of it.
• 3:16
  Yeah.
• 3:16
  So I gotta ask, so you know, I did the player coach thing for a long time.
• 3:19
  Yes.
• 3:20
  And he, and he was great at it, by the way.
• 3:21
  Uh, maybe, maybe not, but um, one of the things I enjoyed the interactions with
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  everybody, one of the things that I just did not have patience for was people
• 3:31
  like coming in and just complaining.
• 3:32
  Oh, yeah.
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  Right.
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  In particular, like if a broker's not producing.
• 3:35
  Yeah.
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  Like, and not the effort, it's your fault.
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  It's like, the company's not doing this, this, and this.
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  And it's like, well, what are you doing?
• 3:42
  Yeah.
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  You know?
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  So how do you, how do you manage.
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  But you kind of can't even say that.
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  Yeah.
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  'cause then they get offended.
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  Yeah.
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  And you know, because it's a tough role to be in.
• 3:52
  Yeah.
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  Because you're being a steward of the corporate strategy and you know,
• 3:57
  we're in a business to make money as a company, but we also have brokers
• 4:01
  who want to maximize the amount of money going into their pockets.
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  Of course.
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  So it's just like a really, it's a delicate balance on a daily basis.
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  But to your point, the least favorite thing is you're the head
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  of the complaints department.
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  Yeah, 110%.
• 4:15
  Right.
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  How many calls a week?
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  Well, yeah, because you're national, because I will say you
• 4:20
  and I talk probably once a week.
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  Yeah.
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  And to your credit, you're always happy.
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  Is he one of the guys that complains?
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  Kidding?
• 4:28
  I mean, I week to complain more resources.
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  Sometimes we do have some heated conversations where we're not
• 4:34
  exactly aligned and then you're like, I'm gonna call Bill.
• 4:38
  Yeah, exactly.
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  Bill would be nice.
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  Bill might be able to be Switzerland in this case, but no, it's, um, I
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  don't know how many calls a day I get.
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  I mean, so during the keynote for today Yes, I had, which was great by the way.
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  It was fantastic.
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  Yes.
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  So I, and I had a lot of little nuggets that I wrote down Yeah.
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  That I'm gonna put on post-it notes on my monitor.
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  Yes.
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  But yeah, I would say I'm on the phone or on a video call all day every day, which
• 5:03
  leaves very little time to handle my in.
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  And that's probably one of my biggest challenges.
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  Yeah.
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  On the daily is just, you don't have anybody looking at that part?
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  No.
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  Okay.
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  I, and I don't have anyone booking my travel and I'm on planes.
• 5:15
  Wow.
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  Almost every week.
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  So those things get done on airplanes.
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  Yep.
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  You know, more, more often than not.
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  Yeah.
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  So it's just hard to find enough hours in the day to.
• 5:25
  Because I wanna be effective in all of my roles.
• 5:28
  Yes.
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  But you know, I have 250 ish brokers in Florida and 730 roughly just
• 5:36
  focused on industrial nationally.
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  And then I get pulled into Mexico and Canada and all, you know, so
• 5:42
  it's a lot of, a lot of people who I serve believe leader.
• 5:45
  Do you get pulled into recruiting too?
• 5:47
  I do.
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  You do?
• 5:48
  Yeah.
• 5:48
  Okay.
• 5:49
  That's fun too.
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  Yeah, I bet that is the, that's was my most enjoyable part of that.
• 5:54
  Yeah.
• 5:54
  The other thing too that, um, piggybacking on the industrial side of things
• 5:58
  and, and just how big your role is.
• 6:00
  I mean, it is the, in my opinion, the best part of Collers
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  is our industrial platform.
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  Right.
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  I mean, it's just like we have such great talent and great people across the board.
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  Yeah.
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  So it's fun to be in space and we're super flat, which is great.
• 6:12
  Yeah.
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  Like access to you.
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  Access to Gil, whoever.
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  Yeah.
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  It's a super flat organization.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  It, it's, um.
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  I take great pleasure in being able to talk about who we are.
• 6:23
  Yes.
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  And when I was looking for a new role, when Matt almost didn't hire me, yeah.
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  I was very concerned about where I went next because I was at my prior job for 15
• 6:32
  years and it felt very much like we were all kind of rowing in the same direction.
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  Everyone was working equally hard.
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  But you know, like with anything, I had a lot of layers to get through there.
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  So when I came to Colliers, and Gil is my boss.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  He's our CEO.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  So I don't have that to navigate any longer, which has been so refreshing.
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  Right.
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  And then that's a big selling point for recruiting, especially
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  from our large competitors.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  It's that ability to kind of tout how.
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  We can make decisions very quickly.
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  We're nimble.
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  There's not a lot of red tape, and that's been really fun for me too.
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  Yeah.
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  So where do you see the growth with Colliers?
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  Like what, what particular segments and, and market and
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  where do you see opportunity?
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  You know, we are very strategic about that and I won't give away all
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  the secret sauce 'cause God knows who's gonna tune into your podcast.
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  People.
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  It's so popular.
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  Really important.
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  People listen to our podcast, you know, I think that there's a lot of of room to
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  grow in all sectors, even in industrial.
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  But certainly I won't touch on the other ones since this is an industrial podcast.
• 7:38
  Yes.
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  But you know, there really matters much.
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  There are definitely markets where we can deepen the bench.
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  Yeah, yeah, that's right.
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  Yeah.
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  You're, you're interacting with clients constantly, like what are their
• 7:48
  biggest, the pain points right now?
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  Or what, what is their worry?
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  What are they worried about right now?
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  I think it depends on the client.
• 7:55
  Yeah.
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  But I mean, ultimately I think the biggest concern is just the general economic.
• 8:01
  And supply chain disruption.
• 8:02
  That's kind of been going on for a bit.
• 8:05
  Supply chain disruption is the biggest thing because it affects both the
• 8:08
  occupiers and the owner investors.
• 8:11
  Yeah.
• 8:11
  So you're hearing, you know, a lot of chatter, even today in the news, there
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  was some conversation about, you know, the immigration policy that we've been
• 8:18
  seeing, and I'm not getting political, but it's affecting trucking through Laredo.
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  So Mexico's now our number one trade partner.
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  Yeah.
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  It was China, but goods are coming from China, still to Mexico.
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  Mexico to us for sure.
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  Yes.
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  And now that trade route is even being disrupted because of ice,
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  because of language barrier, lack of labor down the road.
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  Um, so you know, drivers are being apprehended because
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  they're not fluent in English.
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  Wow.
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  So it, there is a complete shift in our supply chain and I think that is what
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  everybody, occupier, owner, investor, everybody's keeping a close eye on.
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  Yeah.
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  So I think that's the biggest thing.
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  Yeah, that makes sense.
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  Yeah.
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  And what are you seeing for growth in the US on industrial?
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  And maybe if you can touch on power.
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  Yeah.
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  If you're up speed on it.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  Well that's now the number one driver for sure for locations.
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  Yep.
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  You know, so it used to be labor was the biggest thing.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  It's still very important, but truly power is now everybody's first question.
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  Yeah.
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  So that's, you know, those almost tertiary, not tier one markets.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  That used to not get so much attention because they have power.
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  Because they have labor and the real estate is less expensive, let's be honest.
• 9:30
  Yeah.
• 9:30
  It's getting a little more attention from people, but there's a lot
• 9:33
  of runway for manufacturing.
• 9:35
  Yeah.
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  But not, you know, we're not putting together toasters kind of manufacturing.
• 9:39
  Right.
• 9:39
  It's really that more, um, you know, pharmaceuticals, think things,
• 9:44
  you know, technology related where it's more educated workforce.
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  I think there's a lot of room for growth there in the us.
• 9:51
  Yeah.
• 9:52
  On the technology side, are you seeing a lot with Colliers on the microchip
• 9:56
  plants on any of that innovation?
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  You know, we're hearing some, we do have some data center, uh, focused, uh,
• 10:03
  professionals who are pretty busy and I think our number one producer right now.
• 10:07
  Yeah.
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  Our number one producer is the data center expert.
• 10:10
  Yeah.
• 10:10
  Um, and here's not over, just, just saying.
• 10:13
  Yeah.
• 10:13
  Yeah.
• 10:14
  Hey, now you guys have been quickly ratcheting because for the last three
• 10:19
  years since I've been at Colliers, I've seen you move up in positions.
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  So like it, it's, it's been fun to watch.
• 10:25
  Yeah, thank you.
• 10:25
  That's also a fun part of my job.
• 10:27
  But yeah, so data centers certainly as far as like microchip manufacturing and things
• 10:31
  like that, we're seeing a lot more of that in like the Phoenix market for sure.
• 10:35
  But labor is an issue there.
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  Because some of those deals for those plants are tied to using local labor, and
• 10:42
  it's very important for those companies to see is that local labor even here.
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  Because there have been delays in some of those facilities opening up
• 10:51
  because they didn't have the labor.
• 10:52
  So, yeah.
• 10:53
  I have another question for you.
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  Okay.
• 10:55
  Penn State alum Uhhuh.
• 10:57
  Yeah.
• 10:57
  What hat's going, what's going on with what's going on with
• 10:59
  a football program there?
• 11:01
  Yeah.
• 11:01
  Well, who's gonna be their next coach?
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  How about that?
• 11:03
  Yeah.
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  So I was just asked this question at lunch.
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  Well, there you go.
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  Your prep.
• 11:06
  And then I had, were you at the Oregon game?
• 11:08
  Uh, no.
• 11:09
  No.
• 11:09
  Okay.
• 11:09
  I was.
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  Thinking about going.
• 11:11
  Okay.
• 11:11
  And then I was like, uh, no.
• 11:14
  UCLA put me over the edge.
• 11:15
  Okay.
• 11:15
  That one put me over the edge.
• 11:17
  I put a lot of people over the edge for sure.
• 11:18
  And I, I texted my dad and I said, I am not watching any more college football
• 11:22
  this season, because after that I can't.
• 11:25
  Yes.
• 11:25
  I, I just can't, it was too heartbreaking for me.
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  So I don't know who our next coaches.
• 11:29
  Yeah.
• 11:29
  I really don't.
• 11:30
  They'll get somebody big.
• 11:32
  Yeah.
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  But it's gonna be a very rocky.
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  Spell.
• 11:37
  Yeah.
• 11:37
  I mean, we lost my one this weekend.
• 11:39
  Yeah.
• 11:39
  I did not watch the game.
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  I chose to hike instead.
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  Good.
• 11:43
  Yes.
• 11:43
  Like, but yeah.
• 11:43
  Speaking of hike, you sent me a picture.
• 11:45
  Where was that?
• 11:47
  Uh, Rocky Mountain National Park.
• 11:49
  Okay.
• 11:49
  'cause it was fall.
• 11:50
  Beautiful.
• 11:50
  Oh yeah, yeah.
• 11:51
  But it was snowing.
• 11:53
  So on Saturday it snowed on me.
• 11:56
  Oh my gosh.
• 11:57
  Yeah.
• 11:57
  So it was, it was great.
• 11:59
  But yeah, that's a passion of mine.
• 12:01
  Yes.
• 12:01
  So, you know, can't be upset about being in the mountains if I'm
• 12:04
  not watching my college football.
• 12:05
  Yeah.
• 12:05
  So you live in Florida and then you have a place in Park City, right?
• 12:09
  I do, yeah.
• 12:10
  And you're very outdoorsy.
• 12:11
  Yes.
• 12:11
  Lots of hiking.
• 12:12
  Yes.
• 12:12
  And we follow you on Instagram.
• 12:15
  Lots of workouts.
• 12:16
  Yep.
• 12:16
  Tell us about your regimen.
• 12:18
  Five days a week, at least.
• 12:19
  Strength training in the gym.
• 12:20
  Yep.
• 12:21
  Not just like baby dumbbells.
• 12:23
  I do not own serious stuff.
• 12:24
  Dumbbells.
• 12:25
  Yeah.
• 12:25
  No, I like lifting heavy weights.
• 12:27
  Yes.
• 12:27
  So it's, it's for my mental health.
• 12:30
  I schedule it in my calendar every morning, so usually when Matt's
• 12:33
  calling me at 9:00 AM I've already had my workout and my shower and my
• 12:37
  second coffee and I'm ready for Matt.
• 12:39
  Yeah.
• 12:39
  So.
• 12:40
  But, uh, yeah, no, I love doing that.
• 12:42
  And then I run a little, I don't run races like I used to, but
• 12:46
  Florida is miserable for running.
• 12:48
  I'm sure.
• 12:48
  When you're my age.
• 12:49
  I'm sure.
• 12:49
  Utah's great though.
• 12:49
  It gets worse.
• 12:50
  Yeah.
• 12:50
  Trail running is awesome.
• 12:51
  Yeah.
• 12:51
  Yeah.
• 12:52
  So, well, and Florida's hot and like sticky for sure.
• 12:54
  Yeah.
• 12:54
  Yeah.
• 12:54
  It's terrible.
• 12:55
  Yeah.
• 12:56
  Yeah.
• 12:56
  So we saw, uh, maybe the most inspiring keynote this morning.
• 12:59
  Yeah.
• 13:00
  With.
• 13:00
  The Iron Cowboy.
• 13:01
  Yeah.
• 13:02
  Iron Cowboy maybe needs to speak at a Colliers event.
• 13:04
  Oh, okay.
• 13:04
  Yes, he was great.
• 13:06
  Yeah.
• 13:06
  Yeah.
• 13:06
  Maybe one of the best ones I've seen.
• 13:08
  Okay.
• 13:08
  Yeah, he's good.
• 13:09
  Anything take away for workouts?
• 13:11
  Are you guys suddenly gonna do something crazy?
• 13:14
  No, but I, you know, I, he got to 101 full Ironmans and one.
• 13:17
  Yeah.
• 13:17
  No, I'm, I, some may say I'm certifiable, but I'm not that crazy.
• 13:21
  You know, I think like my big takeaway from him is that your
• 13:24
  human will, your mind is the only obstacle you really have to overcomes.
• 13:29
  So you can do anything, but it's what's going on in here, that negative self-talk,
• 13:35
  that the things that you say to yourself that you're, you know, anybody around
• 13:39
  you, you wouldn't let them say to you.
• 13:40
  Yeah.
• 13:40
  But you say it to yourself all the time.
• 13:42
  Right.
• 13:43
  So I really took like a lot of notes from a lot of the quotes of
• 13:46
  thi, the nuggets that he dropped throughout that talk today.
• 13:49
  Very inspiring.
• 13:50
  Yeah.
• 13:50
  Because we all have those days where you're just like, oh, oh for sure.
• 13:53
  He said, your only limit to greatness is saying no.
• 13:56
  Yeah.
• 13:57
  Right.
• 13:57
  So I sent that to my kids and wife.
• 13:59
  That's where I'm like, this is, you know, to stuff that we talk about.
• 14:02
  Right?
• 14:02
  Yeah, yeah.
• 14:02
  Yeah.
• 14:02
  So, and then he also made the interesting point of that 0.24% of his overall Yeah.
• 14:09
  Mileage was.
• 14:11
  Inside you had to Yeah.
• 14:12
  Because of a typhoon.
• 14:12
  Yes.
• 14:13
  Because of a typhoon.
• 14:13
  Right.
• 14:14
  And it's like, and so people wanna focus on that negative, whatever it is.
• 14:19
  Right.
• 14:19
  Focus on all the positive.
• 14:21
  That's right.
• 14:21
  Right.
• 14:21
  Things.
• 14:21
  Yeah.
• 14:22
  Like, do you let people judge you by just one little moment in time?
• 14:27
  Yeah.
• 14:27
  Right.
• 14:27
  Yeah.
• 14:28
  So, yeah.
• 14:29
  I mean, we're all humans.
• 14:30
  We all have, you know.
• 14:32
  Things that happen from time to time.
• 14:34
  But no, he was really fantastic.
• 14:36
  I enjoyed him.
• 14:36
  Yeah, he was great.
• 14:37
  For sure.
• 14:38
  So, well, thanks for joining us.
• 14:40
  My pleasure.
• 14:40
  Yeah, thanks for leading the charge.
• 14:42
  Happy to be on at Colliers and doing such a great job.
• 14:44
  And yeah, thanks for your leadership, uh, your friendship too.
• 14:46
  Thank you.
• 14:47
  Oh yeah, no, thank you both.
• 14:47
  I going to work every day is fun when I get to work with people like you guys.
• 14:51
  So.
• 14:51
  Awesome.
• 14:52
  Thanks a lot.
• 14:53
  All right, well we got a good rest of the conference ahead of us.
• 14:55
  Yeah.
• 14:55
  Excited to see it.
• 14:56
  Yeah, happy Friday.