Latest / The Hannah Hammond Show / How the Rich Think About Big Money | Jay Roberts

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How the Rich Think About Big Money | Jay Roberts · The Hannah Hammond Show

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Your life started at an orphanage in Korea.
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Growing up adopted from a young age, you, you know that you're
0:07
different. You also have a drive to prove
0:10
yourself. So that's kind of built into you
0:13
from a young age because you know that you're different,
0:15
you're different from the other kids.
0:17
Did you always have that entrepreneurial drive?
0:19
I got into sales door to door sales when I was in high school
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and that really taught me, you know, being influential and and
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determined. How do you go from investment
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banker to $2.8 billion in the past three years?
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Not only that, but in like the toughest few years in commercial
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real estate. Every day I drove around looking
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at deals, looking at sites, talking to brokers, learning the
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market. And I I assembled a full city
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block in downtown Tampa. My intention was to flip them.
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Interest rates were starting to go up and up and up and up and
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up. The equity markets dried up.
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This is a very tough time. Fortunately, I had great
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investors who came into the deal with me and they were patient.
1:03
There's trillions of dollars of capital in the world, but
1:05
there's just not enough people that are going out.
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Welcome back to the Hannah Hammond Show.
1:11
I am here in Miami with developer Jay Roberts, who is
1:15
the founder and CEO of the Prosper Group, who I've been
1:18
following you on social media for a while.
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And one of my brokers at HP Capital was like, you got to see
1:25
this guy, Jay. And I was like, I already follow
1:26
him, but he's amazing. But you have $2.8 billion of
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commercial real estate developments underway in Miami
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and Brickell, North Bay Village, different areas around here.
1:36
And you have just an incredible background and story and are
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truly a testament to the American Dream and what it takes
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to really overcome all of the things that life throws at us
1:48
and use it to your advantage and create whatever it is you want
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in this world. So welcome to the show and it's
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such a great pleasure to meet you.
1:55
Thank you for having me. It's great to be here.
1:57
Thank you. So I read about you that your
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life started at an orphanage in Korea.
2:04
That's right. And then you were raised by a
2:06
single mother who made very little money here in in was a
2:10
Honolulu in California. We moved.
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We moved to Honolulu. So I was born in Seoul, South
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Korea in 1985. My 41st birthday is coming up.
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When's your birthday? March 30th.
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I'm April 10th. You're in Aries.
2:23
Aries. Yeah.
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OK, that makes a lot of sense. There there was a guy on my
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podcast earlier today, He was right around April 10th too.
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He was turning 40. A lot of Aries, a lot of a lot
2:32
of good, good things happening right now.
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Yeah. So, So what was that like for
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you? Like, you know, growing up being
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adopted, I mean, what did that teach you in your life that, you
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know, no Business School ever could have?
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Growing up adopted, so from a young age, you, you know that
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you're different. And my, my parents, my mom, my
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family, they always made me feel special.
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So there's, there's you can think of it as as like a
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negative. You are abandoned.
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Your family couldn't afford to raise you or there were certain
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reasons that they had to give you up for adoption.
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So my family in Korea, from what I know, my parents, they were,
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they were very poor and they thought that I could have a
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better life if I was adopted. And so my adopted parents,
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American parents, they, my father was in the Vietnam War
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and he saw these orphans and they had the desire to adopt A
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son. And, and I have older sisters.
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So they adopted me from Korea. We were living in Hawaii.
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My family was living in Hawaii at the time and then we moved to
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Southern California. But growing up adopted, you feel
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this sense of, of purpose. You've, I felt very fortunate
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growing up. You also have a drive to prove
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yourself. So that's kind of built into you
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from a young age because you know that you're different,
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you're different from the other kids.
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So that's that's something that that is is pushed me and also I
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I, you don't feel I feel very blessed that I was chosen to
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move and grow up in the United States, even though my family
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wasn't rich. The opportunity here is just
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incredible. Yeah, it's so awesome because,
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you know, some people that you hear are adopted and they they
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struggle a lot in their life with this identity crisis or
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this abandonment or not feeling like they belong to the family,
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especially if they have other kids that are genetically
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related, right. Biological.
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Biological children, yes. I'm like, I don't have children
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clearly. I don't even know the terms for
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this stuff. But but you just have such a
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grateful heart. Were you always, did you always
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have that heart of gratitude towards it or did that come
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later in life when you look back and realize like, oh, this was
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the greatest gift that I ever had in my whole life.
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Growing up as a, as a kid, you know, my, my parents never, I
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never went without. So I never felt like we were,
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you know, we were poor. They, you know, my mom, my
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uncle, my uncle's like my father who raised me.
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They always made me feel special and they invested in me.
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And I think that gave me confidence and self belief that
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I could do anything that I wanted.
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But, and I, I don't say this a lot growing up with the question
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and, and if you were adopted or, you know, anyone who's adopted,
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people would always ask me like, do you want to meet your real
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parents? And I always felt like these are
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my real parents. This is my real family.
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So when you're, you're, you're navigating that as a young kid,
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you have the sense of identity that and you also have to become
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more self-sufficient when, when you're at a young age.
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So I think that helped at, at A at a young age kind of drive me.
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And then I did feel appreciative and thankful that, you know, I,
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I had this opportunity to grow up in America.
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And so were you always an overachiever?
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I mean, you went on to work for Merrill Lynch and represented,
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you LED a team that did the, at the time, the largest IPO, re
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IPO in U.S. history. And you know, you went to New
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York, NYU. Yeah, NYU.
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So you're very academically smart.
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Were you always like that growing up and did that?
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Was that just kind of natural to you?
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Or do you think that some of that came from either your
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parents leadership or that just need to prove your yourself
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because of the fact that you were adopted too?
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My mom always pushed academics in school and elementary growing
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up high school at a four point O GPA.
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And so I, you know, I, I did well in school, I played sports,
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I had a job and so so I in in that sense, I, I was, you know,
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an overachiever. I worked out, you know, worked
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out twice a day and played football.
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And the gift that my, my mom and my family gave to me was the
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love of hard work. So from a young age I had a, had
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a passion and a drive to really put in the hours where there
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was, it was, it was fitness at a young age, working out and, and
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studying. So I I've, I've had that
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internal drive to work hard from a very young age.
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Yeah, and you've just grown to love it.
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Yes, you probably feel uncomfortable.
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It's probably harder for you to not work than it is to work like
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it is me sometimes. Yes, you know, successful people
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were were wired to be productive and to always be going.
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So it's, it's, and I love what I do.
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I have the opportunity, we have the opportunity to do something
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really great. I'm an entrepreneur.
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I own my own business. And so every day I get to wake
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up and work and build on something for myself and, and
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for my team. And, and now I have a son.
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So I have a a family to, you know, to to work and and to
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support. Amazing.
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I was, yeah. We'll get into that later.
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But how your son, you know, has impacted you and and your work
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ethic and all that since since we're Aries, I feel like I
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already understand you. So I could probably know some of
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the things that you struggle with internally.
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But anyway, so did you always have that entrepreneurial drive?
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Because like for me, I was, I wasn't sure if I would lead a
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big company as a CEO or be an entrepreneur, right?
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And that shifted over time. But were you just you knew you
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had big dreams for yourself, but or did you always know that you
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were going to have your own company?
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I did have an entrepreneurial spirit in, in high school.
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So, you know, I, I, I had jobs I had, I, I worked in a Mexican
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restaurant, Yucatan Grill in Seal Beach was my first job.
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I bus tables. I worked at a physical therapy
8:28
clinic. And then I, I got into sales
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door to door sales when I was in high school.
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And that really taught me, you know, being influential and, and
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determination. I, I joke and, and some people
8:44
know this, but when I was a junior in high school, I sold
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senior trips to Cancun and I sold so many senior trips that,
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that they sent me, you know, with, with the seniors when I
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was a junior. And there was, there was
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thousands of people that went. So I learned sales from a from a
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young age, I used, I also used to go at the mall, sell day spas
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and to walk up to people and, and sell.
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So selling is really an important skill that I learned
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early. And then I also, I was kind of
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the social person at my school. So I organized everyone and I
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was influential in that way. OK.
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And did that come naturally to to you or did you know, like I
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need to learn how to sell? That came natural that that
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wasn't something that like my mom wasn't, wasn't that way, my
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uncle, my sisters weren't that way.
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It just was in my personality. Yeah.
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To do that. And then I've also from a young
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age been self-sufficient. So working for myself was
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something that that I always felt that I would do.
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Yeah. Long term, yeah.
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Not rely on anybody else and just be self-sufficient.
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Yeah. So you go to NYU and you studied
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finance because you went to work for Merrill Lynch.
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Finance and real estate. Finance and real estate, OK,
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yes. What gave you the bug to be in
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real estate? So taking taking the step back
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before NYU, I went to UC Santa Barbara for undergrad.
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Gotcha. And my fraternity, they had an
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internship and they would pick two juniors.
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The seniors would pick two juniors to to intern.
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And I was selected to intern at a place called Pacifica
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Commercial Realty in Santa Barbara.
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And that's really where I fell in love with real estate.
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And there was there was the owner of the company back then,
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his name was Jerry Beaver. And he bought and invested in
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office properties up and down the West Coast.
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So he had a private equity arm, he had an asset management arm,
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and he had a brokerage arm. And I started in, in the
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brokerage arm. And on, on the wall, he had
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pictures of office buildings that he had acquired over the
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years. And it started with a $2,000,000
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office building, then a $4 million office building,
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6,000,008 ten, then 22 and then 60 million.
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And so you could see the trajectory of his, of his growth
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in his, his acquisitions. And I said, Jerry, I want to be
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you when I grow up. How do I do that?
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And he said, well, you know, Jay, son, it's, it's, it's,
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it's, it's a long road to, to get here.
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And it doesn't happen overnight. I recommend you move to a big
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city. We were in Santa Barbara at the
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time, Montecito, and he said Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara is
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a place that you want to end up, not where you want to start your
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career. So you know, I'd recommend going
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to LA, work for a broker, learn the business from the ground up
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and that's what I did. In 2007.
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I graduated from UCSB and I started working on a multi
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family investment sales team, cold calling five days a week
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and walking my market areas on Saturdays and Sundays.
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So I I really learned the business from the ground up.
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Cold calling in in the in the very beginning.
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Wow. And then you went to get your
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masters in New York. What made the shift to go over
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there? I had a a vision and and dream
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to live and work in New York City.
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Don't ask me why no one from my family was in New York.
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I didn't have like a big network in New York, but I knew this was
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also when after my my mom had passed away, that I wanted
12:09
something more for my life and for my career.
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So I applied to business schools.
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I got a scholarship to go to NYU and I moved to New York City in
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2013. And that completely changed my
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life. That really opened up my eyes to
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the what was out there and in New York City, it really shapes
12:26
you. It's one of the most competitive
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cities in the world. You go there to learn, you go
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there to get, you know, beat up you, you go there to really
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compete at the highest levels. And so I I'm thankful for my
12:38
time in New York City. What was it like to lose your
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mom and your senior year of college?
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It it was, it was, it was tough. So I, I lost my uncle and my mom
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in 2007 within a few months and was, it's really a crossroad.
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So if, if any of you have lost parents at a young age, you, you
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have to rely on yourself. So you know, I mentioned that a
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few times, you look at yourself and you say I really have to
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improve and be the best person that I can be.
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So this goes into the realm of self, doing self work and
13:14
working on yourself to be the best that you can.
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So for young, you know, any listeners out there really self
13:21
improvement books. So at this time in my early 20s,
13:24
I was really devouring as many books, studying the subconscious
13:29
mind, studying the secret, studying all of these things,
13:32
think and grow rich, Napoleon Hill, the laws of success in 16
13:35
lessons and incorporating that into my belief system.
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And that has really helped me in my career and in my life in, in
13:44
in the trajectory of where I've gone.
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Yeah, the personal, I mean, it's an inside game.
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You know, the external success is 90% an inside game in my
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opinion. And that took me a while to
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dive. And I didn't start diving into
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personal development until I was about 25.
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I'm about to be 30. And it changed my life.
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It changed my business, it changed my life.
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It changed my happiness, it changed my relationships.
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It changed everything. And so, yeah, for those
14:06
listening, and I know if you listen to my show, you know, I
14:09
talk about this stuff all the time, but the business tactical
14:11
stuff, you know, you can now you can learn tactical stuff pretty
14:15
easily. Go on and it's Claude or ChatGPT
14:18
and you can learn the ABC's of how to do anything, but it's the
14:22
inner battle and learning how to get through hard times and being
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resilient and taking accountability and seeing the
14:28
forest through the trees and knowing why you're creating what
14:31
you're trying to create. And really being like connected
14:34
to yourself and having the confidence and the self worth
14:38
that you actually are deserving of the things that you want to
14:40
create in your life. And I know it's something that I
14:43
struggled with a lot growing up, you know, was just that that
14:47
feeling of am I deserving of this or the fear of taking the
14:52
risk to do it and not having the skills to be able to create the
14:56
things that I wanted to create and all of that.
14:58
So that's really cool that you've been going down the
15:01
personal development path and have been for a long time since
15:04
you were in college. What was the most impactful
15:10
lesson you learned in that path that you could take away?
15:13
Like, you know, was there a a specific book or specific
15:18
message that really transformed or was it just a series of of
15:23
events and continuous learning that you continue to transform?
15:25
Hannah, that's a great question. You know, it, it, it's a series
15:29
of things that you you learned that I learned and, and anyone
15:33
is learning out there. So it's, it's studying, it's
15:35
reading books, it's, it's looking up to business people
15:39
and, and really being a student of other successful business
15:44
leaders. So I read a lot of biographies
15:47
of, of business leaders at a young age and, and applied that.
15:51
And it's, it's the advice that you get or, or the lessons that
15:54
you get when you're 40 are different than when you're 20.
15:56
You're still trying to figure out the world when you're in
15:58
your, in your 20's. The most important book that I
16:03
recommend out there is the laws of success in 16 lessons by
16:09
Napoleon Hill. So most people out there have,
16:12
if you're in sales, you're you know, you've done any self self
16:15
improvement, have read think and grow rich and and think and grow
16:20
rich is a great book. I've read it.
16:21
It's it, it's the abridged version of the laws of success
16:26
and Napoleon Hill, he studied some of the most successful
16:30
people in the world and really create a scientific program that
16:34
if you follow these laws in the world, you're no, there's no
16:40
question that you will be successful.
16:42
So this is something that I incorporated into my belief
16:45
system, the 16 laws, having a definite chief aim, doing more
16:50
work than you're paid for and and many of the other lessons
16:55
that that they teach in in here. And and so I would say that
16:59
book, if you're looking to go out and and learn something
17:02
today and or buy a book, that is the book that absolutely changed
17:05
my life. I love it.
17:06
Thank you for that one. I actually don't think I've read
17:08
that one yet so Think you'd grow Rich of course is one of my
17:10
favorites, but that's a good one.
17:13
Did you ever read rich dad? Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.
17:15
I did read Rich Dad. Poor Dad.
17:17
I read Why We Want You to Be Rich, Robert Kiyosaki and and
17:21
and Trump. So, yeah, was, was a big fan
17:24
growing up. Yeah.
17:25
Yeah, he's, he's a good friend of mine in his book.
17:28
I reread it quite often. But it's such good principles.
17:32
OK, so you graduate NYU and then you get a job for Merrill Lynch.
17:36
And what was your thought process at that time?
17:38
Like did you have plans to become a massive developer like
17:40
you are today? No, definitely not.
17:44
So moved to New York City and it's fast-paced.
17:49
There's really smart people, really well, world travelled
17:54
people, international people competing.
17:56
There's families that have have generational wealth that you're
18:01
exposed to that you meet when you're in New York City.
18:05
I had this itch to go into investment banking and growing
18:10
up when you're in finance, you work in real estate.
18:12
You know, I had friends that went into investment banking
18:14
right out of undergrad and as as analyst, and that's kind of, it
18:19
used to be one of the, the, the best moves that you can make for
18:22
your career. Now today it might be working on
18:24
a tech company, working on AI or starting your own company as
18:27
some of these young, young kids are doing it right out of school
18:31
investment banking on Wall Street.
18:33
So I, I joined the real estate investment banking group at Bank
18:36
of America Merrill Lynch, worked for a, a, a man named Jeff
18:40
Horowitz. He was the head of the group.
18:42
He is now the chairman. And it was intense.
18:47
Investment banking is very intense.
18:50
So we work long hours. You're there.
18:54
We worked on average, and I said this on on other other podcasts,
18:58
but on average from 9:00 AM till 3:00 AM in the morning 0.
19:02
My God. Yeah.
19:03
So this isn't like one day that those are your hours, those are
19:06
your hours at least in our group was 5-6 days a week and we were,
19:11
we were usually working seven days a week, so.
19:14
And you guys are on Commission. No, we were.
19:17
So this was salary. OK.
19:18
So we were on salary. We were doing mergers and
19:20
acquisitions and IPO's, public and private raising public and
19:23
private equity and debt for Reit's.
19:25
So real estate investment trusts.
19:27
We covered data centers, we covered multifamily, casinos,
19:31
offices, self storage, every asset class.
19:34
And so when publicly traded companies or companies that want
19:37
to go public want to access the capital markets, they come to an
19:40
investment bank like Bank of America.
19:42
Bank of America had a big balance sheet so we could access
19:45
and we could raise this capital for them very quickly.
19:49
So this was investment banking is a learning ground.
19:52
You learn to be fast, you learn to be responsive, you learn how
19:56
to raise capital on an institutional level.
19:58
So we were helping companies get ready to go on their roadshow.
20:01
You go on a roadshow when you're going.
20:04
When you're getting ready to go public, OK.
20:06
And so you're building the story of your business, you're looking
20:09
at the the fundamentals, you're looking at the trend, you're
20:12
looking at the growth rate. And so you really have to have
20:15
an in depth analysis and focus and identify research and, and
20:20
have a really high rigor in the quality of the work that you're
20:23
doing. You cannot have mistakes.
20:25
And that's one of the reasons that you work so late is that
20:27
you're working on financial models, you're working on
20:29
investment presentations, you're working on S1, which are the
20:32
documents that you file to go public, public and you're
20:35
refining and, and editing and making sure there are no
20:38
mistakes in these documents. So it's an iterative process
20:42
over and over and over. And Wall Street's a very
20:45
competitive place. So we're, we're competing, we're
20:48
also working, collaborating with Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Credit
20:52
Suisse, Barclays and these other banks.
20:54
And if you don't do the work and you don't stay till 3:00 AM, the
20:58
next banker at the next bank is, is, is working that late.
21:02
So it's, it's, it was really a training ground and the speed
21:07
and repetition and, and taking that now and applying that to
21:10
what I'm doing at Prosper Group move down to Miami.
21:13
And we're just moving at such a a fast pace and our output is
21:18
really high. So that's that's what investment
21:22
banking helps you do. That was that was a lot.
21:24
Yeah, because you you knew that everything is urgent, right?
21:27
Urgency is important. I did a a short form video on
21:30
that. It's like time kills all deals.
21:32
Like you have to act with urgency non-stop.
21:34
And if, if a league comes in or an opportunity comes in front of
21:36
you, you have to act on that opportunity.
21:38
And just doing that will set you ahead of so many of so much of
21:41
your competition because people move so slow and time kills
21:45
deals. And that's why we try to make
21:46
negotiations quicker and communications quicker and make
21:50
just decisions quicker because so many people waste so much
21:53
time just in speed to execution, right?
21:56
So because you started your development company Prosper
21:59
Group in 2020 right in COVID? Really 2022?
22:03
2022. So COVID, after that's I moved
22:06
down to Miami, was doing deals with other developers.
22:11
A developer asked me to help him raise capital.
22:13
OK, so let's back up. So, yeah, because I'm like, how
22:16
do you go from investment banker to $2.8 billion in the past
22:20
three years? Well, I guess four years and
22:25
well, yeah, yeah, 3 full years. And not only that, but in like
22:29
the toughest few years in commercial real estate that
22:32
we've had in since you. Know the interest rates?
22:35
Yeah. Right.
22:36
Yeah. OK.
22:37
So so you you quit Merrill Lynch.
22:39
So you you to walk us through that process, you start working
22:42
with a developer down here. Like how did that play out?
22:44
Moved down to Miami two weeks into COVID.
22:47
New York was a ghost town and Miami was was a better place to
22:52
quarantine at the time. We all remember like where we
22:55
were at during this. Quarantine in Miami.
22:57
Quarantine social distance. And so I, I was down here in, in
23:02
Florida opened up earlier than than the New York and
23:06
California, which which states closed and, and this is part of
23:09
the, the reason now we see the trends that are happening and
23:13
people have left New York and they've left the States and they
23:16
moved to Florida, they moved to Texas and, and these other
23:19
places. So I moved down here.
23:21
I did know some people, I knew some real estate developers and
23:23
they said, Jay, you worked on Wall Street, you managed a lot
23:25
of people. Can you help me raise capital?
23:28
And in the real estate business, you know, Hannah, capital is
23:33
everything everyone needs capital to do deals to invest
23:37
in, deals to buy, deals to develop deals.
23:40
So capital really is cash is king, cash is king.
23:45
So help the developer down here raise capital as a senior
23:49
construction loan for his project.
23:51
And that's why I started getting exposed to the development
23:55
business was in this was in 2021.
23:58
You were just helping him on the debt side get a senior
24:00
construction loan. Yes.
24:01
OK. So like what I do?
24:02
Yes, Right. OK.
24:04
And so from there, like you said, it was competitive.
24:07
Everyone's moving down from New York.
24:09
I didn't want to compete with all of these New Yorkers and
24:11
established players in Miami. And I saw a trend and I was
24:15
doing a lot of research and I saw that Tampa was growing so
24:18
Tampa. So Bill Gates and Jeff Venick
24:21
were investing $4 billion to develop something called Water
24:24
St. which you may have, you may have heard of, completely
24:27
gentrify and create a whole new downtown in Tampa.
24:30
So I moved to Tampa in 2022, bought a house, moved there,
24:34
moved to Davis Island. And every day I drove around
24:37
looking at deals, looking at sites, talking to brokers,
24:40
learning the market. And I, I assembled a full city
24:43
block in downtown Tampa across from Water Street, where Bill
24:47
Gates and Jeff Finnick were developing.
24:50
And as a real estate developer investor, we know that you want
24:54
to be in the path of growth. And if there's capital coming
24:57
in, it's going to improve the neighborhoods.
25:00
So we, we, I did this deal, signed the contracts to to buy
25:04
these sites and I signed them. My contract price was 22.7
25:10
million and my intention was not to develop them at the time.
25:14
I do my research upfront and then we put the money in and
25:19
often times we'll release it to the seller.
25:21
I have conviction when I do a deal, we're going to close so.
25:26
Then they were allowing you to keep extending because they have
25:28
you, you know they have you at that point.
25:30
Once you have hard they. They want to.
25:33
They want to sell. Yeah, but they can also keep
25:35
your three mil and just not give you an extension.
25:39
They, they could, they could, they were one of one of the
25:43
things that I've learned is working and building a
25:45
relationship with sellers. So if you're listening to this
25:48
and you're in real estate, you can have a good relationship
25:53
with the seller. And it's important when you have
25:55
these long, long contracts and you're doing big deals, you
25:58
actually it's good to have a relationship because they need
26:02
you and you need them. Buyers want to buy.
26:04
Sellers won't sell. They want this big payoff, so
26:07
they want me to be successful. I put my my money in.
26:11
We put our money in and we we gave a financial commitment.
26:15
So they said, look, we, you put your money up, all right, we'll
26:19
work with you, OK, Most people are sensible and they'll work
26:22
with you. So we extended the contracts.
26:24
We actually extended them 18 months.
26:26
And so we had to be patient during this time.
26:29
And I, I met my current development partners, Arc Realty
26:35
through an introduction and through a call.
26:38
And I had a call with, with Abed Chaudhary, who's now my
26:41
development partner, and also Luigi November.
26:45
Abed and I, we hit it off. He was a former investment
26:48
banker. He was the head of sales and
26:49
trading at Bank of Montreal in Toronto.
26:53
And so we, we looked at a deal very quickly and the only thing
26:56
that underwrote at this time, multifamily did not underwrite
26:59
and it's not underwritten for the last few years was was
27:02
condo, condo hotel. And Abed and Luigi had just
27:07
completed three successful condo hotel developments.
27:10
So they said, we love your site. We were looking at a site that
27:13
was in a much worse location. We love what you've done.
27:16
Let's team up and let's partner. So we put this deal together.
27:18
We launched sales of Aura Hotel and we've sold over 200 million
27:22
in the 1st 12 months and the project's going really well.
27:28
Oh my gosh. OK.
27:28
So you already built the project when you're in pre selling,
27:31
you're in pre sales, yes, OK. And so this was in when did you
27:35
you lock this up in 2020? In 22. 2022, yeah.
27:39
And you're in pre sales right now, yeah.
27:41
So how did you, because obviously, you know, equity's
27:44
been tough, equity's really tough.
27:46
Debt is debt and debt, it goes through phases where it's really
27:51
tough and really easy and all that.
27:52
But right now equity is the bigger pain point than debt.
27:55
So when you left Merrill Lynch, like how did you, because you
27:58
said you raised capital to tie up this land and put the
28:01
$3,000,000 hard and obviously you had capital investors to
28:05
acquire the land. How, how did you go about
28:08
raising equity right off the bat with no experience as a
28:11
developer? You never, you had no like track
28:13
record of a successful deal and you would just left your New
28:16
York job and just but you weren't even from the area like
28:20
you just come rolling in. So where'd you build those
28:23
relationships? So going back to even high
28:26
school, as I mentioned earlier, I've always had this influential
28:31
Dr. and then combine that with investment banking, Wall Street
28:34
experience and analysis. I could, I can lay out an
28:37
investment that makes sense and the research, the comps and the
28:44
the exit in the process. So what what you learn
28:47
investment banking is financial modelling.
28:49
You learn investor presentations.
28:51
So could look at a deal and the deal penciled.
28:55
So that's the most important thing is that will does a deal
28:59
make money? And if you could present it to
29:01
the right people and do these deals coming off of Wall Street
29:06
investment banking, you, you do have credibility that you know
29:10
how to execute and you know how to get deals done.
29:14
So with, with these guys, we worked really fast.
29:19
We did a deal, we also had both worked in investment banking.
29:21
So we understood each other and we closed the JV pretty quickly
29:26
from first meeting to closing the deal in 90 days.
29:31
We ended up closing on, on all three parcels, all cash, no
29:34
loans and funding, all pre development cash really with no
29:39
outside major investors. And it's a, it's a $650 million
29:43
project. As I mentioned, we've sold over
29:45
200 million. So being able to put put things
29:48
together and figure it out is is something that I've developed
29:51
over the years. Wow.
29:53
And how did you meet this partner, your development
29:55
partner and like how did you vet them that because are they your
29:59
core partner and everything you're doing?
30:00
They're my partner in Tampa. In Tampa, OK, Yes.
30:04
And then you have one other partner in Miami or do you have
30:07
multiple different development partners?
30:08
We have, we have multiple partners.
30:11
So prosper groups strategy is we're, we're good at finding
30:16
land, we're good at securing it. We're good at underwriting,
30:19
bringing in an architect, a brand, a sales team and we team
30:25
up with experienced developers. So there's, there's another
30:28
great developer investor Isaac Toledano of BH Group.
30:32
He has over 30 deals and what he learned was partnering with
30:36
other developers who can carry the do some of the heavy
30:40
lifting. OK, 1 + 1 = 5.
30:43
And so that's, that's been our strategy is to come in, secure
30:48
some of the best sites and then bring in package it and bring in
30:52
an experienced partner so that we can team up and we can share
30:55
the load. So in Tampa, we and again going
30:59
back to Wall Street investment banking, you learn analysis, you
31:03
learn how to underwrite deals, you learn how to do JV
31:06
agreements, operating agreements, do due diligence,
31:09
get to the numbers, get to the sales comps.
31:13
So we spent a lot of time together.
31:15
We toured their properties that they had completed and chemistry
31:18
is really important when you partner with with people.
31:21
So we had great chemistry. All my partners, we have great
31:24
chemistry, transparency, sharing information and when you align
31:28
interest, you go a long way. Yeah, it's so important because
31:32
I think, you know, partnerships will make or break you and
31:36
anything that you do and in the business that you ran partnered
31:39
and you probably run, I'm assuming a pretty lean in house
31:41
team, right, because you're just partnering with these
31:44
developers. How many people do you have in
31:46
house? We have 6 people.
31:47
Yeah, that's about right. Like every big developer I know
31:50
they're like, you know, three to six people, which is all you
31:53
need, which is amazing in house. But yeah, I think, you know,
31:56
something I learned and something I've been diving into
31:58
a lot this year is my values, my core values and really
32:02
evaluating like why did previous relationships, whether
32:06
personally or professionally or employees, you know, team
32:09
members, partners, why were they successful or were they
32:12
unsuccessful, right? And I think it really comes down
32:15
to my mentor taught me this as it really comes down to an
32:18
alignment or a misalignment of your core values.
32:20
And so being able to instead of look at the opportunity of the
32:24
dollar sign behind this potential partnership is taking
32:27
a step back and looking at the forest, you know, through the
32:31
tree, not being in the trees, right, But actually be able to
32:33
zoom out and look at the forest of what is this person's values
32:37
and what is their culture and their their values within their
32:40
organization and their people. And are they aligned with my
32:42
values? And is this actually going to be
32:44
a successful relationship? Because if you get, you know,
32:46
get get married to the wrong partners, it's going to be a
32:49
pretty brutal Rd. So that's cool that you've been
32:52
able to identify great partners and how, how have you identified
32:57
these great partners? Like did you just start with
32:59
research and reputation and you just have a meeting and you feel
33:02
that chemistry or do you have a process to really vet if you
33:07
want to partner with these individuals?
33:09
It's really a, a learning process and you learn from them
33:13
and you, you look for patterns. So pattern recognition is, is
33:18
really important. And I've done a lot of
33:21
introspection in, in looking at, at my career, where we want to
33:25
go, who are the best people that we've worked with and partnered
33:28
with and, and what values do they have?
33:31
And what values do people appreciate in having long term
33:35
marriages, having long term friendships, having long term
33:38
business partners. And I started my podcast and we,
33:43
I named it the long game because business is a long game.
33:48
And so we're not, I'm not out here.
33:50
We're not out here to make the last dollar and this is the last
33:55
transaction of the last deal that we're doing.
33:58
I'd rather give more, invest in the relationship knowing that we
34:02
have the opportunity to work together for 20 or 30 years.
34:06
And so when you, when you approach business, you approach
34:08
partnerships, you approach relationships that way, you look
34:11
for really high quality, high integrity people to work with.
34:15
And and then again, there's, there's patterns, something that
34:20
I, I publish and I put out there, when we look at
34:22
partnerships, having low ego is really, really important.
34:28
You don't want someone who always wants the attention they,
34:31
they need that they're going to try to outshine you.
34:34
So you want people who are secure with themselves.
34:38
You want people who are transparent.
34:41
Transparency is really, really important in real estate and all
34:44
business. Sharing information, even with
34:47
my, you know, my wife's significant others, we're just
34:49
doing the deal. These are the cost of the deal.
34:52
We're all going to review each expense, each line item in the
34:56
budget in the deal and operate that way.
34:59
And it builds a lot of trust with people.
35:02
And it's, it's, it's a really healthy way to operate the
35:05
business. I love that.
35:07
Because most people, they, they don't want to share that
35:10
information and they feel like they're, it's it, they might be
35:14
exposing themselves. But actually, the more
35:16
information you share in, the more transparent you are, the
35:19
more trust that you build and the faster you build trust.
35:22
Yeah. And with capital raising,
35:23
everything is trust, you know, and in these deals, it's not
35:27
like you said, it's the long, if you're developing, it's the long
35:29
game. And you can't predict.
35:31
I mean, we don't know what the heck is going to happen three
35:33
years from now and you're doing a development project that's
35:35
three, five, 710 years. So there's got to be a level of
35:40
optimism and a level of trust and a level of commitment to be
35:42
able to hold out through those Black Swan events or Michael
35:46
market cycles because we don't really know.
35:48
We might catch an amazing, you know, rates lower and as the
35:52
values go up and everything's amazing and we might catch war
35:55
and you know, it rates are high and remain high and it's who can
35:59
sustain. Like real estate is the long
36:01
game and who can sustain? Because most people that they
36:04
don't have enough working capital to sustain, then they
36:07
lose it and then somebody else gets to take advantage of that
36:09
opportunity. It's not a bad deal.
36:11
It's just the capital stack didn't work.
36:13
They weren't able to sustain that in the time being.
36:16
Yeah, that's that's really, really incredible.
36:19
So you didn't end up wholesaling the deal.
36:20
You ended up partnering up, you develop it.
36:22
And then so that was kind of your first taste of, oh, instead
36:25
of flipping these, why don't I just develop, actually develop?
36:28
We've assembled some amazing projects, some great partners
36:31
and we may have six people internally, but there's 100
36:37
people that are working on a project from our architects, our
36:40
structural engineers, our brokers, the brands, the we have
36:44
a design architect, we have a architect of record, we have
36:47
people who are are doing our MEPs life safety.
36:50
So there's really a, a, a, a bigger team, of course.
36:54
Yeah, Yeah, you're just smart and you don't need to have them
36:58
all on your payroll, right, right.
36:59
You share in the, the, the upside and you, you outsource
37:02
everything. I think we're getting more to a
37:03
world of that too. It's like I try to outsource as
37:05
much as possible and certain organizations you have to bring
37:09
things in house. But we are becoming more of an
37:10
entrepreneurial world where you can have more, you know,
37:13
independent contractors and you just partner with people and you
37:15
don't need to keep them on your overhead.
37:17
And it reduces your risk too. And they're, they all have their
37:21
expertise. And so like, why go buy all
37:23
these development firms when you can outsource it and have good
37:26
partners? And that allows you to scale
37:28
because you could go in different regions, in different
37:30
areas. So what has been your like
37:32
secret sauce to finding these deals?
37:35
And I mean, you saying you assembled a city block across in
37:38
the past of growth in a weekend. Like what, how, how are you
37:42
doing that? And, and, and you identify like
37:44
beachfront properties, like really incredible properties.
37:47
And you're also competing with, because you are in Miami now and
37:51
you are competing with Wall Street and, and big New York
37:54
money and all of that stuff. So like what's your approach
37:56
there? Everything that we do is off
37:58
market. So all the sites that that we
38:00
buy secure are are off market. We know what we want.
38:06
So we're a prosper group. We're looking for the best of
38:09
the best sites and we're looking for sites on the water.
38:13
And we know and, and also to secure and buy the best
38:17
properties of the best, the best properties, you have to have
38:20
really high standards. You have to have a lot of
38:23
discipline, you have to have patience and you have to say no
38:28
to almost everything and, and look for that, that diamond in
38:33
the rough. So that is, is, is like, is my
38:36
playbook. So any for anyone who's who's
38:38
listening out there, who, who wants to follow, you know, it's
38:41
Isaac Toledano. He says the same thing is he's
38:43
looking for waterfront. He's looking for one of one.
38:45
He's looking for these, these best sites.
38:48
So it's talking to a lot of people.
38:49
It's putting together the mosaic of information, the pattern
38:53
recognition and then developing relationships and being someone
38:58
the owners trust, they like, they want to do a deal with you.
39:03
Having a, a good personality with something from the laws of
39:06
success, develop a pleasing personality is if people want to
39:11
want to work with you, if you're nice to them.
39:13
And so that's a, that's a competitive advantage and it's
39:16
helped me win deals and, and keep deals on track.
39:20
So really looking for, for the best of the best and keeping
39:24
your standards high and then doing your homework, knowing the
39:27
numbers, knowing the zoning and working really fast, being able
39:31
to work seven days a week, call someone, just outmaneuver
39:36
whoever you're competing with. And when you find that right
39:39
opportunity, moving extremely fast and making the process
39:42
simple to sign. Yeah.
39:44
And I mean, because there's only so many large, you're doing
39:48
large developments, there's really so many large waterfront
39:50
properties available. So I'm sure you're not the only
39:52
one competing on these deals, are you?
39:55
No, there's, there's people have seen deals and for those that
40:00
are listening. Like related related group in
40:05
Miami, they probably have 40 deals at at right now.
40:09
Russell Galbit, you know, 20-30 plus deals.
40:13
These are 500 million billion dollar deals.
40:17
So no matter who you are, your, your bandwidth and capacity is
40:22
maxed and stretched. So these are while these are
40:26
large deals and it is highly competitive to to move and buy
40:30
$100 million site or a $50 million site or now at the
40:33
waterfront sites are half a billion dollars for, for just
40:37
the land, just the waterfront dirt.
40:40
There's not a lot of people, one, that can compete and, and
40:42
capitalize those kind of deals. And then two, it, it, it doesn't
40:47
happen that fast. You do have to do the work and
40:51
and and and and underwriting and and put the pieces together.
40:54
It's not a single family wholesale deal or you're just
40:57
like, yeah, here's my 2000 earnest money, let's flip it
41:00
today. Yeah, yeah.
41:02
I think that was. I think there's a piece of
41:04
waterfront land in Miami that's going for like, I think they're
41:07
asking like, billions. Yeah.
41:09
For the piece of land, yes. That's insane.
41:11
Crazy. And you do mostly luxury condos
41:14
and hospitality too, right? Luxury, luxury hospitality.
41:18
Luxury and hospitality. OK cool.
41:20
What's the average size of your projects?
41:22
Tampa 650 million N Bay Village 550 million beside 1040 S Miami
41:29
Ave. That sell out in the current
41:32
design is a billion dollars on the Miami River on the
41:36
residential tower, 600 million. We're in about an office
41:41
separately. So they're they're big.
41:44
That's insane. Yes, Hannah, it might sound
41:48
crazy to the average real estate investor or person that's out
41:53
there, but an important concept that that I want people to
42:00
understand yourself anyone listening is that capital is
42:05
scalable, OK. And a deal is a deal a a single
42:09
family home that's $500,000 and a $200 million investment
42:16
property. The $200 million investment
42:18
property could be a good deal. The $500,000 home, just cuz it's
42:22
smaller doesn't mean it's a good deal, can be a bad deal.
42:25
And these are just numbers and capital, there's trillions of
42:29
dollars of capital in the world, OK Capital wants high returns,
42:33
They want good deals. So my strategy and philosophy is
42:38
to do good deals and do bigger deals.
42:41
And the bigger, more interesting, more complicated
42:44
deals that you do, you will attract higher caliber people
42:48
because the best people in the world, they want to work on the
42:51
most exciting projects. So if you are growing in your
42:55
career and you and you want to make more money, focus on larger
43:00
projects, focus on instead of $1,000,000 deal, focus on
43:04
$5,000,000 deals. Instead of a $5,000,000 deal,
43:06
focus on a fifteen $20 million deal.
43:09
Instead of $100 million deal, focus on a $300 million deal.
43:13
The work is the same. Buying the land, designing the
43:16
property is the same. Yes, it's at another level.
43:20
You have to, you're not going to do this overnight, but you have
43:22
to become someone who who understands this.
43:25
Don't be scared, you deserve it. You can do it, but there's
43:28
capital everywhere, Grant Cardone says this.
43:31
And there there truly is money everywhere.
43:33
There's just not enough people that are going after it.
43:37
Yeah, but how are you structuring your deals like So
43:41
First off, how are you, are you, do you have a fund or are you
43:43
syndicating every deal? And then second, we'll actually
43:46
we'll start there. No fund, I don't, I don't like
43:51
funds. I like deal by deal.
43:52
So each development deal is its own business, OK, is its own
43:57
standalone, has its own standalone P&L.
44:00
OK, here's the cost, here's the sellout, here's the profit.
44:04
And structuring is something that if you want to be in real
44:07
estate, you have to get good at. You really have to understand,
44:10
you have to review your documents.
44:13
You have to review your operating agreement.
44:15
I read all of my my agreements. I'm on the phone with multiple
44:19
attorneys daily who are reviewing these things.
44:21
So you want to be able to structure capital like speed it
44:24
like simplicity. Sometimes you have to have
44:26
complex documents, but the way you do business is through
44:29
contracts. Obviously you have to disclose
44:31
the risks. We've been.
44:33
Talking about the deals, it's it disclosing the risk factors.
44:37
I was telling my team like this is the most important.
44:40
You have to be transparent not only with the money, you have to
44:42
be transparent with the risks. Yeah.
44:45
But I, I mean at the size deals that you're doing, are you, I'm
44:50
like that's institutional size capital.
44:52
So are you using your Merrill Lynch relate like are you mostly
44:55
raising from institutional capital?
44:56
Are you raising from retail? Are you doing a blend of both?
44:59
It's it's a blend. It's a blend in in Miami.
45:03
Fortunately, it's one of the strongest real estate markets in
45:07
in the world right now and I would say has has some of the
45:12
best demographics. Yeah, you guys have billionaires
45:14
moving here left and right. It's crazy.
45:17
I know. Mark Zuckerberg just bought that
45:19
$170 million house unfinished and was a star island that they
45:23
all live on. Or is it?
45:24
Indian Creek. Indian Creek, OK, can't keep
45:26
track of my Miami islands. But yeah, let's talk about that
45:30
a little bit like the inflow of Miami real estate because I have
45:32
some concerns about Miami. I love Miami, but then it's like
45:35
the Hurricanes. Every time I'm on the news, it's
45:37
like there's a hurricane in Miami and people dropping
45:40
insurance or this and that. And so it scares me a little bit
45:44
to, you know, just just the market here with that and and
45:49
yeah. So what are your thoughts on all
45:50
that? Like how does how do those
45:51
numbers pence a lot and like you guys play on that risk if you're
45:54
doing this big project and then it gets wiped out by a hurricane
45:57
or something? Or is that not really a valid
45:58
fear? There's always.
46:01
There's always those kind of risks.
46:04
In South Florida we have hurricanes.
46:07
In California, LA, they have fires.
46:09
Other places they have tornadoes.
46:11
Arizona, there's nothing. You guys, it's it's over 100°.
46:15
But there's no risk. There's no risk to property
46:17
damage. There's no storms, there's no
46:19
natural disasters. The heat doesn't hurt anything.
46:21
I haven't been to Arizona in in a while, but I'm sure it's a
46:25
great market. It is, yeah.
46:28
Are you in Scottsdale? Phoenix.
46:30
Scottsdale, OK, yeah, it's new. Builds in Paradise Valley now
46:33
are almost like 2000 a foot. That's crazy.
46:36
Yeah, but you know, we don't have the same level of Bill.
46:40
We do have billionaires moving in to Arizona and people
46:44
becoming billionaires that live there, but not to the same
46:47
capacity as like Austin, TX and Miami.
46:50
It seems like those are the two big spots that people are
46:52
moving. But yeah, it's from a real
46:55
estate perspective we don't have.
46:57
I guess you would say the risk in Arizona is water.
47:01
That would be our our main risk. But I'm sure they'll solve the
47:04
water problem. If we could put people on Mars,
47:06
I'm sure we could figure out, you know, where to pull water
47:09
from. But.
47:09
You have you have heat, you have really crazy heat.
47:13
But so does Miami, and the Miami summer's here.
47:16
We have the beach it. Feels hotter here than in
47:19
Scottsdale in summer. I don't.
47:21
I don't, I don't know. I I have cars Melt in Arizona.
47:25
No cars. They don't.
47:28
We'll. We'll leave that there.
47:30
But anyway, yes, Miami, yeah. So, yeah, let me explain what we
47:36
see, what I'm seeing. We're seeing fundamental,
47:41
fundamental political tailwinds for Florida, tailwinds for for
47:48
Texas, tailwinds for for Tennessee.
47:50
So This is why we're seeing so many people move to Florida.
47:54
We're very business friendly and it's a great lifestyle.
47:58
We have the water, we have the sun, we have the beach and
48:03
people down here relaxed and they and they want to do
48:05
business and they want you to be successful and they're positive
48:08
and people are optimistic and we're building and we're
48:10
investing. So these billionaires, they want
48:13
to be part of that that growth cycle.
48:15
Right. Yeah, what about the Hurricanes?
48:18
They happen, they happen. We haven't had one in here in in
48:21
Miami. I I haven't seen a hurricane
48:24
since I've been here in five years.
48:25
Really. Yeah.
48:26
They've been mostly on the other coast.
48:28
What was that? There were a couple hurricanes
48:30
that hit the West Coast. OK, yeah, because I'm like, I
48:33
definitely, I feel like every summer I see that there's a
48:35
hurricane. But then again, it's like the
48:37
news over dramaticizes everything.
48:39
You know, it's on the news. It was saying, oh, Puerto
48:42
Vallarta is all burning down. And then I'm talking to my
48:44
friend that lives out there and he's like, it's really not
48:46
totally, really fine. Like there's been a couple
48:49
whatever attacks, but we're, we're safe, we're good, you
48:51
know, so it's hard to really know what to believe.
48:54
And obviously tons of money is moving here and it's a great
48:57
place. And I, I think I've already been
48:59
out here five times this year and it's March.
49:02
Yeah, so I'm, I'm here a lot, but yeah, that, that's super
49:06
awesome. And so how are you?
49:08
So you're, you're structuring them on a deal by deal basis.
49:12
And you say you tell people to focus on bigger deals, but you
49:15
know, I help with capital, advise on capital and place
49:18
capital and all these things. And you know, generally an
49:21
institutional group will want you to bring in on a big deal
49:25
like that, at least 5% of the deal.
49:27
So as the sponsor, you that's a big chunk of change, right?
49:32
So that can sometimes limit the size of the deal that people can
49:35
go after. And then also the experience.
49:36
I mean, not everyone has a investment banking on Wall
49:39
Street background like you do. But like, are you raising 100%
49:42
of the deals? Are you putting skin in the game
49:44
like the 5% as you or, or how are you structuring them?
49:47
And then are you structuring like are you, what's your
49:50
waterfall? Yeah, all waterfalls are are
49:54
different. Every deal is different, every
49:57
different parts in the cycle. Investors are looking for
50:01
different things. They have different risk
50:02
tolerances. Every deal is different.
50:04
How we're capitalizing the deals so prosper, yes, we put in our
50:07
own capital. We put up the risk capital in
50:10
the beginning and then we raise capital around the deal
50:14
depending on the timing. That's pre development.
50:16
If it's capital to close on the site, we might have an
50:19
acquisition loan and then there's funding all the way
50:22
through launching sales, building out of sales center,
50:27
hiring the team. So there's a lot of stages of of
50:31
raising capital and you have to have those relationships.
50:34
You have to have high quality deals, you have to team up with
50:37
people who have experience. So it's it's not, it's not easy
50:41
as as you know, and raising capital is, is, I think one of
50:44
the hardest skills in the world to get people to part with their
50:49
money and in invest with you. But if you can learn that skill,
50:53
it really becomes a superpower. And the biggest, the something
51:00
else for the listeners is that to be successful and to really,
51:04
really scale, you have to raise capital.
51:08
Now, yes. Are there families who've been
51:11
operating for 50 years? They never raised a dollar.
51:13
And of course, are those those stories about the guy who
51:16
bootstrapped and now he's got a $50 million a year revenue?
51:19
Yes, those are few and few and far between.
51:22
But if you look at Blackstone, you look at Elon Musk, you look
51:26
at ChatGPT, Sam Altman, Sam Altman, you look at at Uber, all
51:33
of these companies, they raise money as Robert Kiyosaki and
51:39
Donald Trump teach OPM, other people's money.
51:44
Even publicly traded companies are raising capital.
51:49
OK, So at every level people are raising money.
51:52
It's just what level are you? Are you playing at, Right?
51:54
So it's developing those skills, going bigger, doing better
51:58
deals, getting to new networks, working on yourself, having a
52:02
better pitch, building a track record.
52:04
These are all things that will help you go to the next level
52:06
and, and grow the amount of capital that you're raising.
52:10
So this is all some of the things that I recommend.
52:12
And then what I, I would also say is, is say no.
52:15
So set a limit. Don't do small deals.
52:18
Small deals, yes, in the beginning you need them to, you
52:22
know, to sustain yourself and pay the bills.
52:26
But they're not exciting and they're not going to move the
52:28
needle. And it's just going to be small
52:30
deal to small deal to small deal.
52:33
You want to work on something that's exciting, that's going to
52:35
have huge payouts. Right.
52:37
What is your advice? Because that's what Robert
52:39
Kiyosaki teaches is like the three most important skills are
52:42
sales, public speaking and capital raising, right, Which
52:45
obviously you've mastered all three I.
52:48
Would I'm definitely not mastered.
52:49
Yeah. Well, on the continuous
52:52
improvement every day and I, I would say you have, but I know
52:54
that's all relative, right. So for people who are learning
53:00
how to raise capital or starting and raising capital and don't
53:03
have extensive relationships and they are wanting to go for
53:06
bigger deals that need bigger capital, like what's your number
53:08
one piece of advice for how to raise capital?
53:11
It starts with the deal. It starts with the deal, so.
53:14
If you have a good deal, then what?
53:17
If you have a good deal, you need to control the deal.
53:20
OK, so with your contracts, you need to control the deal.
53:24
And if it's a good deal and you're able to share it with it
53:27
with enough people and they trust you, you know you should
53:32
get your deal funded. But really there's too many
53:36
people going after bad deals and deals that aren't that exciting.
53:39
They're not that unique, they're not that interesting.
53:41
What what everyone has to understand is that we are
53:46
inundated with information. We are today, we have access to
53:52
crypto, we have access to private equity deals.
53:55
We have access to be in the in the, in the SpaceX IPO and in
54:00
invest in that you have. Access.
54:01
I wish I was in that one to to. To real estate deals and and and
54:06
so your deal has to be compelling.
54:09
So do better deals, understand what is a good deal, do the
54:13
extra work. Don't settle for some of these
54:15
mediocre deals. That's step one.
54:17
Step 2 find a mentor. This is really, really, really
54:21
important because like you're not going to learn some of these
54:24
things on your own. Pay for pay for coaching hire
54:28
coaches. You know, Grant Cardone, he
54:30
coaches, there's other coaches. I don't coach, but it's, it's if
54:35
you can find mentors who you can learn from and teach that's or
54:39
who will teach you these things. That's really important.
54:41
Partner up with someone who has more experience.
54:43
You can leverage their track record and their experience.
54:46
And and don't don't be greedy. Don't fight for the last dollar
54:50
in in these deals. Be open.
54:54
Don't think of it as doing just one deal.
54:55
Think about and building a a reputation where you're going to
54:58
do many deals over time. Yeah, that's good stuff.
55:01
Do you prefer institutional retail from where you're at?
55:05
I mean, because you've like what?
55:07
Both are good. Both are good, yeah.
55:09
What would you say your allocation is from institutional
55:12
to retail? Because institutional, like they
55:14
want voting, right? Like you kind of have a boss at
55:19
that point, right? Retail you have more control,
55:21
but it's harder to raise at scale because they're smaller
55:23
checks. This is what this is, this is my
55:26
advice for for those out there is that some people will will
55:30
shy away from as as you, you know said having a boss.
55:35
If you, if you want to do anything of scale, you have to
55:39
adhere to certain standards and you have to be OK with the
55:43
people looking over your shoulder.
55:45
If, if, if they're going to give you $100 million of equity or
55:48
they're giving you a $300 million construction loan,
55:52
you're going to have to sign documents and you're going to
55:54
have to adhere to to, to the standards and you're going to
55:58
have people that have oversight. That's not a problem.
56:01
That is not a problem. You can get bigger money if
56:05
you're OK with that. Of course there's benefits of of
56:08
working with retail, but I also think that people get into
56:11
trouble with that because it's more loose and there's less
56:13
oversight. So what I tell people is don't
56:16
be, don't be scared of oversight.
56:19
Don't be scared if we're going back.
56:21
To just follow the rules. Follow the rule and and and and
56:24
set the transparency from the beginning And, and you can go
56:29
retail and you can go institutional.
56:31
I like both. I like grant is gone retail.
56:36
I think you can go bigger if you if you do like look, Blackstone
56:40
is institutional. They're overseeing a trillion
56:42
dollars. So being able to manage and
56:46
navigate both and ultra high net worth families international
56:49
capital. That's that's my I like, I like
56:53
raising capital is, is is good. So.
56:55
And we got to wrap up here, but one last question I want to ask
56:58
before we do rapid fire is you've built a large social
57:01
media presence, which is not common in our world of
57:04
commercial real estate and capital freezing and things like
57:07
that. So you have almost 200,000
57:09
followers on Instagram and and that's been built over just a
57:12
few short years. I just started my one year.
57:15
OK, perfect. So I started a year ago too.
57:17
So that's amazing. So, yeah, how is that like?
57:20
How does that play into what you're building and how is that
57:22
benefited you and your business? Focus on giving value and people
57:29
as, as you know, as a, as a social media creator, you have
57:33
to give give people value. These days there's, there's so
57:36
much content on the Internet. There's bad content, there's
57:40
there's I have 3 rules in making content.
57:42
If it's if it's cringe or or you don't want to watch it, don't
57:45
make that kind of content. The second rule is don't make
57:47
ego driven content of a look how cool look, how rich look, how
57:50
successful I am like people don't care.
57:53
The third is to give value and and to to educate and teach so
57:56
that the viewer leaves smarter after watching the the content.
58:01
So that has been successful and I'm playing the long game in
58:07
hopefully giving value to my followers and and overtime, let
58:11
that compound and opportunities can come, whatever that is,
58:15
whether that's investors, that's deals, that's future team
58:19
members. So, so getting the word out
58:22
there today eyeballs, viewership is it's a currency, it's an
58:26
asset. And you know, in being
58:29
transparent in my deals is, is, is been beneficial.
58:32
And there's, there's, as you mentioned, not a lot of other
58:34
developers, investors that are that are doing it.
58:36
So, you know, we're, we're going to, we're going to keep growing
58:39
and, and keep stay focused on it.
58:41
Perfect. Cool.
58:42
Yeah. I love it.
58:43
I thought I found the same thing.
58:44
And it really attracts the people that are aligned with
58:45
your values and it repels the ones that don't like, if they
58:48
don't like you, they're not going to reach out to you,
58:49
right? But they really get to build
58:50
that relationship with you on the front end.
58:53
And it is a lot of work, a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot
58:55
of dedication. But I I love it.
58:57
And it really fulfills the impact version too, because, you
59:00
know, you're helping elevate humanity and helping people
59:02
accomplish their goals too. So.
59:04
All right, rapid fire before we. Oh, yeah, we'll end with that.
59:08
So rapid fire School of hard knock style.
59:10
OK, OK. How old are you?
59:11
And you became a millionaire. I was. 30.
59:16
And what business are you in? Real estate.
59:19
What's the number one book you advise everyone read?
59:21
The laws of success in 16 lessons.
59:23
Who is your hero and why? I'm thankful everyday.
59:27
I love my family. I love my wife Brooke.
59:29
I love my son. So, you know, and our two dogs.
59:33
So I'm very thankful, very blessed.
59:35
We have such a great life. We're very fortunate.
59:38
It's, you know, we have peace. And yeah.
59:41
So I would say my family, yeah. What's the best advice you ever
59:45
got? Getting advice all all the time,
59:48
but it's to don't take shortcuts.
59:50
Focus on the long term and invest in yourself.
59:54
And if you could leave one message to the younger
59:56
generation, what would it be? Be focused.
59:58
There's so many opportunities out there.
1:00:00
There's so many different ways to make money and to be
1:00:03
productive that pick something and stick with it.
1:00:07
And switching is quitting. So if you start something and
1:00:11
you switch to something else. That is the same as quitting.
1:00:14
It doesn't happen overnight and and really put in the work.
1:00:19
Get experience early in your career and the success comes.
1:00:22
The money comes over time. Love it.
1:00:24
Well, thank you so much. How can people get a hold of
1:00:26
you? You got to follow him.
1:00:27
He's a beast. He's amazing.
1:00:28
He puts out tons of value on social media too.
1:00:31
So. At Jay Roberts on Instagram.
1:00:33
Awesome. Thanks for coming on, Jay.
1:00:35
Thanks, Anna.