Welcome To The Real Estate Underground Show #96!
Get ready for an exciting episode with our special guest, Trystan McNeill! Trystan is a part of the Heigh Capital Group and also has ties to eXp Commercial. After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2012 with a finance degree and a focus on risk management and insurance, he embarked on a typical job search. However, in 2017, Trystan decided to shake things up. He left his job and started contract consulting to explore his true passions.
While the first quarter was liberating without a boss to report to, Trystan still felt unfulfilled. He remembered his interest in real estate from a couple of years prior and decided to give it a shot. Despite initially failing the real estate class, he persevered and obtained his license within six months. Trystan began his career in residential brokerage but always had his sights set on the commercial side. He just needed to figure out the best path to get there.
In this episode:
If you want to learn more about Trystan and their firm, visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/trystan-mcneill-90bb3633/ Join us for an insightful conversation about turning finance skills into real estate profits!
Resources:
Additional Resources:
Welcome To The Real Estate Underground Show #96!
Get ready for an exciting episode with our special guest, Trystan McNeill! Trystan is a part of the Heigh Capital Group and also has ties to eXp Commercial. After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2012 with a finance degree and a focus on risk management and insurance, he embarked on a typical job search. However, in 2017, Trystan decided to shake things up. He left his job and started contract consulting to explore his true passions.
While the first quarter was liberating without a boss to report to, Trystan still felt unfulfilled. He remembered his interest in real estate from a couple of years prior and decided to give it a shot. Despite initially failing the real estate class, he persevered and obtained his license within six months. Trystan began his career in residential brokerage but always had his sights set on the commercial side. He just needed to figure out the best path to get there.
In this episode:
If you want to learn more about Trystan and their firm, visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/trystan-mcneill-90bb3633/ Join us for an insightful conversation about turning finance skills into real estate profits!
Resources:
Additional Resources:
And this is Real Estate Underground. Greetings and salutations, real Estate Undergrounders. This is Ed Matthews with the Real Estate Underground. Thank you so much for joining us today. Today is actually a fairly unique show because we're yes, we're talking real estate investing for sure, but the gentleman that has kindly lent his time to the show is one of the heavy hitters down in a place that I absolutely love Charlotte, north Carolina and the area as well, as I think you're in the DMV as well, at least to the Maryland part of it, right? So, tristan McNeil with High Capital Group, and I think you're associated with EXP as well. Welcome to the show and thank you for your time today. It's good to see you, my friend.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, Ed, and I appreciate you having me on the show and I'm ready to talk through all thing. Real estate.
Speaker 1:So, for those of you that are watching this on YouTube, there's a beautiful picture of the Golden Gate Bridge behind Tristan, but you're actually based in North Carolina, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's correct, ben. I actually just recently traveled to San Francisco. A couple months ago, the White Wolf and I were celebrating an anniversary, so actually it's been more than a couple months now. Think about it because we caught a San Fran 49ers game and we went to Napa out there.
Speaker 1:And it was her first time out there. Yeah, so I used to work out there and it's one of my favorite places on earth, and I always told my wife if I ever disappeared or ran away, I'd be easy to find. I'd be out there. So welcome to the show. So, for those folks that may not have come across you on LinkedIn or wherever else, that's where we met. But why don't you talk about your background and how you got to the position you're in now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. I actually originally, in 2012, I graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Like a lot of folks, it was kind of in that mindset of let me graduate, let me kind of find the job or the career that aligns with my degree, which was in finance, with a concentration in risk management and insurance, and from there I actually landed a position with Wells Fargo and their audit associate program. So I was actually in audit, risk management for quite some time. I did various positions, whether it was consulting, whether it was with public accounting and things of that nature, and come about 2017, into 2017, beginning of 2018, kind of get stuck in that lull and I was like, yeah, I'm not happy with what I'm doing. So actually up and quit my job that I was working at in 2017 and actually started a contract consulting to kind of figure out what I want to do in between that first quarter of that year it was good, didn't really have a boss to report to, et cetera. But at the same time I still wasn't fulfilled and I remembered at the time, a couple of years ago, I was interested in real estate and so I was like, well, let me do that Right, let me go try that. So I went ahead, registered for the real estate class, failed it the first time, actually had to retake the class and ended up getting my license within about six months.
Speaker 2:After that I started actually the residential brokerage space and even when I got into residential I always knew that I wanted to be a commercial but wasn't sure kind of what route I wanted to take. So in between that time, as I was learning residential side of business, I actually enrolled myself back into school into classes and started learning commercial real estate. I started learning actually the development side of things and economic side, but I never actually wanted to step into an analyst role. So in between there I was trying to figure out well, how do I get into brokerage? The brokerage that I was at, the owner at the time, just happened to have a family member that was in commercial real estate work for one of the big box firms but wanted to still keep some independence. So they started a commercial arm at that firm at the time and we actually had partners with some folks from some big box firms who actually taught us the training and the lay of the land in the commercial space.
Speaker 2:So I was actually able to do a fast track training on brokerage, which I'll be forever grateful for. And then over the last year my partner and I we actually transitioned to another brokerage that just was a little bit better fitting where we're currently at now for our business model and kind of where we want to go forward in the business.
Speaker 1:I gotcha, okay, well, hey, congratulations, that's a hell of a journey, yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1:It's interesting that I come from technology, you come from finance. There's so many different people with so many different backgrounds in this industry and one of the things that I've realized I was at MM5 down in Florida I guess I was earlier this year and you know one of the guys, that one of the people that spoke there was Bo Berry, who you may have come across in your travels because he's pretty active. I think he's further south, I think he's based in Florida, but one of the things that I learned there was, first off, how the I go to conferences to learn how people who are better at this business than I am, how they operate right, so I can get a little smarter. And one of the things that Bo had said and really stuck with me was all of the A players that he knows in the commercial real estate space work with brokers. Yes, they do direct mail and they try to create off market deals. Yes, they do digital marketing.
Speaker 1:But the big guys, every single one of them, has trusted relationships with brokers, and so that was one of the reasons why I wanted to have you come in to the show, because it's something that we're really looking at in terms of how to create awareness, build the relationships, ultimately build trust and then hopefully at some point earn the right to do business with guys like you, and so I wanted to pick your brain, which is why I invited you on the show, and the cool part about a podcast is that, although I think you would return my phone call, a lot of the folks that we have on here I get to do the same thing and pick their brains, and I learned from you and hopefully the audience learned from you. But if Ed Matthews lit up your mobile phone and you looked at it and you might not take my call, but you'll come on my podcast, so that's cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think it just depends, like you bring a valid point as it relates to building the relationship and returning the favor, because I know we were talking ahead of time. You come on our show and sharing your expertise and I think there's a lot of. I talked to a lot of brokers, I talked to a lot of business partners out there, a lot of owners in general, and I think we all have the same common mindset of just there's enough out there for everybody and everybody who's experienced abundance and success in this industry.
Speaker 1:Right, it's interesting you use that word abundance. The people that I have come across in my personal and professional life, the ones that come from a place of abundance, tend to be a lot more successful than the ones that don't, and the fact is that I view professionals like you, or even other investors, as future partners, not necessarily as competitors. I really don't have any competitors.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a solid point, I think. Even so, outside I actually do a little bit of mentoring as well, and so I actually had a conversation with one of my mentees earlier today and we kind of had that same conversation of just as it relates to competition. It's like there really isn't any competition, even the underlying competition. You have colleagues and you have competing firms and competing brokers, but at the end of the day, there's still business out here for everybody and it's like what you're going to turn that mindset off? Even after rejection and objections, it's really not that difficult to say what. Today's a new day. Let me try something different than I did. Maybe the day's the day that something unlocks and move forward with something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when I was in sales back a long time ago, I used to play the game of. I knew that I needed to make, let's say, 100 phone calls a day, and in that 100 phone calls I'd find five to 10 people that were willing to have a conversation, and a few of those would turn into deals at some point, and so I always looked at it as the next person, even if they say no, I'm one person closer to that yes, and it just gamified it. I had to gamify it, Otherwise a lot of cold callers struggle with the failure concept and you're not failing, you're just getting closer to your success, and so it's a big part. So let's talk about real estate. So obviously you're highly educated. You've been successful at a couple of different careers at this point, but you chose real estate as the vehicle to take the next phase of your life professional life in, and so I'm curious what was it about real estate that drew you in?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, that's a great question, I think, for me. I'm kind of nerdy when it comes to real estate. I'm pretty obsessed.
Speaker 2:One of the most simplest things as a real estate is it touches everything, right? So I think that was the most fascinating thing for me is you literally cannot do anything without real estate in its simplest form, whether it's you have to park at your office, whether it's somewhere in which you have to live, whether it's your grocery store, the foundation of what we do on a day-to-day basis starts with real estate. And so, looking at it from that aspect, from a market standpoint, there's always going to be a need for a professional. There's always going to be transactions happening, there's always going to be something that impacts the economy, the commodities industry. It's always has a need base. And so kind of taking my previous skill sets, whether it's consulting, whether it's project management and stuff like that, and then either throwing it into the brokerage side of things or futuristic league, into asset management and some few proper management aspects, it's like, okay, I can take what I had previous career to basically triple and quadruple those skill sets as well as just a foundation and an impact on others.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now your firm focuses a lot on retail and multi-family, right, if I have that right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so our team particularly focuses on retail and multi-family, but overall we have folks in the firm that actually do specialized in all asset classes. So a couple of people are business with, they do office industrial. Some, I know, really just focus on landlord, tenant rep. But we've kind of home down our niche as multi-family and retail and then we do do a little bit of land here and there where we'll partner with some developer as well.
Speaker 1:So obviously I'm a multi-family guy, but I'm curious about the retail part. I want to ask a couple questions about that. First, so, with COVID, right, everybody read the Wall Street Journal or any of the local papers or whatever. And as we were going through COVID and coming out of COVID, I can't tell you how many articles I read about retail is dead. Right, retail is dead, it's over. And I pay close attention to the retweet guys and gals on Twitter and I have a lot of folks that I just shoot the breeze with at any given time and I'm picking their brains. Retail's not dead. They were wrong, right A lot. So I'm curious what you're seeing in the marketplace in terms of the opportunity in retail.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, retail is thriving and it's funny that you said, excuse me, retail is dead. I was listening to something last week and they were talking about, yeah, the mystery of this retail apocalypse. I'm not really entirely sure where folks have got that, but I mean, when you talk about national tenants and even local small business, retail has not been in a better position than it currently is. I mean, we've had spaces that can't stay off the shelf. The market rents are probably the best that they are at right now, like, for example, here in our local market and our major areas of Charlotte. It's not surprising to see retail rates at $35 a square foot with $5 and cams. I was actually looking at some space for two tenants yesterday and that's what the listing brokers came back and quoted me at.
Speaker 2:You see, one of the most popular national tenants actually here in Charlotte that have there is Dunkin' Donuts. You probably see almost as many Dunkin' Donuts as you do Starbucks and they don't really have a compete clause as it relates to mileage. So I think them it's like who can get the most, but Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks probably take up more space than all the McDonald's and Burger King's combined here, but you still have a thriving industry for small business like Charlotte is a very unique melting pot of not only professionals but people who want to live here because they still consider that as affordable, even though you know the cost of living has significantly increased over the last couple of years. It's still not in comparison to, you know, new York, chicago, california yeah, we're, I mean now we're probably still on the same level as Georgia, but Georgia is still probably probably twice the cost of living as it relates to, you know, your standard. You know middle income, family, house or whatever the case may be, but at the same time we don't have that same amount of space. So that's the kind of thing. You know we probably get the most complaints about trafficking, gas prices, but outside of, you know, livability and things of that nature is still a thriving city. So I think that's what excites people here.
Speaker 2:I think the last step 140 something odd. People move here a day. So if you do, you know some math on that. And then opportunities that lie. You know it is a great opportunity. You know people are. I think people are understanding we structure a lot better, whereas a lot of old operators have converted their modified and gross leases into triple net leases. These are that nature, and we're doing a lot of trading, so it's definitely a great time to be in retail.
Speaker 1:So, so let me ask you, just for the benefit of the audience triple net, when you're talking about that, what exactly are you referring to? Just for the absolute least.
Speaker 2:A triple net lease is where the tenant itself basically is responsible for everything, and the most simplest form. So what ends up happening is you'll sign a base rate. So let's just say that base rate is, you know, $30 a square foot and then you'll pay, as a tenant, a pro rat, a share of shared expenses. So say, if you and five other tenants occupy that property it's called taxes, insurance, common area maintenance, which is short for tie cams and basically think of it as if you live in an apartment complex or you know a town home where you got to share an expense of whether it's your outdoor exterior maintenance, signage, you know parking lot, structural HVAC, where the landlord will cover those major pieces, but you guys are paying into a portion, almost like an insurance pool, right? So a lot of times that's probably the one non-negotiable thing on a lease you can negotiate your base rate, but a lot of times the tie cams have already been spoken for. So you know, think about it as an additional insurance protection, even though it increases your rent amount per month, but at the same time that also means that you as the tenant are responsible for all your utilities. So sometimes you may see in a modified or gross lease where the landlord will package everything together and say, hey, you know, that's rent, water, electricity you got to get in it, right. But this is, truthfully, the cost of doing business.
Speaker 2:So a lot of times people newer businesses and small businesses are discouraged by that, mainly because they're like what's the tenant, what's the landlord going to do for me? And you know, in the most respectful way, I let them know hey, this is still an investment for the landlord, who has to make money. So you need the space. If you didn't need a space, they wouldn't be leasing it. And if you feel otherwise, let's go look at you to purchase something You're not in the position to purchase. Let's get you in that position to what you want to do in the future and you become the landlord, right. So you got to kind of play that game with folks to let them know and educate them. And then once people kind of figure out, is this the norm? And they realize it is, they're a little bit more comfortable with signing those papers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what's the landlord going to do? For me, nothing. He or she created the building and owns the building and keeps it upright, and your job is to do everything else. Right, right, all right. So let's talk multi-family. So you know, one of the things that I've seen in the North Carolina market, particularly in the area kind of, where you tend to hunt tons of development, tons of development, and so you know I'm curious what's driving that? Is that affordable housing? Is that luxury and mid-level housing? You know, I mean, it's just mind boggling how many construction sites there are. I landed in, so I was down there a couple of few months ago and came in through Charlotte and drove out to Chapel Hill and stopped me a couple of stops along the way. I have family in Chapel Hill and the Charlotte part was business, and so I was dumbstruck with how many construction sites I drove past just in that. You know it's a long stretch of highway, but it's. You know. I couldn't believe how much construction is going on down there. So what's driving it? Yeah?
Speaker 2:So, before I answer your question, the running joke in the Charlotte area is we probably have too many apartment complexes and breweries that are going up. But you know, I was like, okay, well, if you're tired or that you know, build something else that's more suitable in your mind, or what people demand for, yeah, I'm okay with breweries too. What's driving that, though, in truth, is part of it? So maybe not so much affordable housing all the time, but the need for housing. So when the pandemic hit, I'm not sure how it was for you in Connecticut, but our housing supply dropped down from roughly 6.7 months to 0.3 months, right, so it barely had availability. And so what happened was we were fortunate to where. We just have a lot of trees around us. So a lot of people had just been sitting on land for a while, and then, essentially, you know, you know that bubble kind of just burst, where it's like, hey, you got these trees, we need to build these homes, what's it going to take for us to buy? So a lot of developers came in with big bags and said, hey, here you go, we want to buy your land. So that's part of it. And then again, you also have a lot of people of you know, older generations that are phasing out, that are just ready to sell, may not have anything to pass on to them. There's some benefits of the city as a late stuff for housing, but you know it kind of goes back to the statistics of the amount of people that are moving here. So you may not be able to build new neighborhoods as fast as you could build, you know, we'll say another five to 700 apartment complex unit, especially closer to you know, our center city, our thriving areas such as South End and then just some other areas where people want the kind of the walkability and the small neighborhood lifestyle.
Speaker 2:Charlotte is still unique in a space where it's not the biggest of cities but it's big enough to where, when something is built, no matter whether you live center city or you live on the outskirts, everybody wants to kind of feel the same way. So if I can come out of my apartment and I can walk the tropical smoothie or I can, you know, take a short ride to Publix or Harris teeter, everybody kind of wants that small neighborhood right, work, play like, feel. So that's what's generated a lot of it. But you know I was at an event with co-star a couple weeks ago and you know things that they were projecting which you could possibly see through construction is that you may get to a point in the next couple years where we may have too much supply, right. So you were trying to combat and be reactive from what happened during COVID to the point where you may have too much supply and we may see, you know, apartment complexes going back to given concessions may see a little higher vacancy. But Charlotte is such a unique market they don't project it.
Speaker 2:Slowing down, I think it will, you know, kind of be even kill and just feel normalized as it relates to, you know, availability. But you know, I think it's just one of those things. It's like a wait and see type deal because even once the apartments go up, they're you're like, okay, that was ground level. Six months later they have a sign out there now leasing and they're leasing five building. They're not waiting to finish like the old days and you know they like half the parking lot still has to be paid and the pool's not built. But he's like you can live in building one on floor two and three. We got to paint three, but you know you can move in today.
Speaker 1:So they're not. They're not waiting. Yeah, that's for sure. Yeah, so it's. It's interesting because you know, from an affordable, affordable housing perspective here in Connecticut we are last I read, it was like 25, 26,000 units behind where we needed to be in 2030.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, yeah.
Speaker 1:And so I don't know if that's. I know that there's, you know, three and a half to four million units that were short over the over the, you know, across the country, but I don't know what the frankly, I don't know what the affordable housing situation is in North Carolina. It looked to me like a lot of that stuff was was, you know, not workers workmen's housing, but our affordable housing. It looked like it was, you know, you know market level housing, right.
Speaker 2:And I think that one of the things too and I don't know, you know how it is up North one of the things that we've struggled with and we're kind of getting there but we're still kind of behind is wages catching up with affordability right. So, whereas you know folks from up North, they come down here and obviously if you've made a certain amount of money or your profession commends a certain type of value, you're going to keep that. When you come down here, like you're not going to, you don't have to take a pay cut or a few job transfer fees or your business transfer. You don't have to worry about that because you're already accustomed to what your you know what value brings to you. But for those, like when we saw a significant increase in the cost of housing, even rent, a lot of people couldn't afford it because you know, they might be in the same job, where they may have a small raise, but that small raise doesn't equiviliate to, you know, the value of housing.
Speaker 1:Yeah right on, it's not overcoming the inflation of the housing costs over the last three years. So I'm curious, you know, obviously, in the broker business, you know, one of the reasons that I value the brokers that I work with is, you know, every day they're talking to the building owners that I want to talk to, right, and so they get. You know, they get a once a month. They get a postcard or a letter from me and a phone call, a couple phone calls a month from me, and but the brokers are the ones that are playing golf with them and taking them out to breakfast and taking them out to lunch and you know whatever else. And so you know that, going back to that Bo Berry thing, you know one of the things that you know brokers are world-class, great at is deal flow, right. And so you know, I'm curious, in terms of your business, how does your firm generate deal flow? You know, obviously it's the oxygen that keeps you cooking.
Speaker 1:So you know, what kinds of things are you doing to get the attention of building owners who may be, in some timeframe, thinking about selling their property?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. So I think you hit on a couple of those. Things were right there. So you know if we already have an existing relationship or somebody in our sphere has an existing relationship. You know a lot of that may be hand-to-hand. You know word of mouth introduction, whether it is coffee, whether it is golf course dinners. You know networking events. You know kind of the typical mantra of getting that face-to-face. But you know the other classic way is cold calling. So you know a lot.
Speaker 2:We do do a lot of calling a little cold, a lot of cold outreach. You know the benefit of technology and skip tracing. Now it allows us to get multiple forms of context. So whether it's email or those multiple numbers and you know just doing outreach that way, I think the biggest thing that I'm always a component of is you know what value are we going to be able to provide to those that we're reaching out to?
Speaker 2:I think you know it's hard to say hey, I'm reaching out to say do you want to sell your property? But you know at the same time, if you hadn't done any previous research on the property, like, hey, I see you own 15 units, the property down the street sold for you know similar, maybe a couple million dollars, not sure if you knew that. Or just saying, hey, you know, here's what the market's doing, maybe you're interested in this. Or flip it around, say, we see you own this, you see you have a portfolio. Are you looking to purchase as well? So hitting it from a few different angles, also kind of letting people know that we've done business in that area. Or, you know, here's some services that we offer that are unique to what we do as a whole, especially in our marketing suite.
Speaker 2:So one of the things that we pride ourselves very, very wonderfully in is our marketing suite, as well as our negotiation, and a lot of times we also tell people that, hey, we're not. We'll evaluate the property, we'll underwrite the property for you. You know we'll do the dirty work and afterward, if it doesn't make sense, we're going to tell you it doesn't make sense, because if you remember in your head that you want to sell it for, but we know it's going to sit, we're not going to waste your time, right, there's no reason to waste everybody else, whereas I know a lot of people will take on something just to say they have it and then just go off the. You know the strength of what their client wants them to do. We're blessed in that way, so that's awesome.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I mean, EXP as a company has done a really nice job of creating that platform. Right, and you know? The fact is that, you know, the thing that I heard that I was hoping you would say is that there's no magic wand, right, there's no secret, it's just flat out cold calling digital marketing, you know, and shaking hands and creating awareness and ultimately building trust to the point where you're in the right to do business with them. Right, that's it.
Speaker 2:Right, right. And I tell, I tell new brokers all the time, like you know, when you get into this business as a whole, it doesn't matter what side of the business you're on is kind of have an open mind and have an open canvas, like you just basically have a wall, link wall and start throwing paint at it, and until you come up with this beautiful picture that is your pipeline and your business, and even when it, when it turns out to something you like, do another one right, right, until you feel comfortable that you're going in the right direction and that you actually enjoy what you're doing.
Speaker 1:So more Jackson Pollock than Monet or Manet? Then right, oh yeah, absolutely, there you go, I get it All right. So you know, one of the things that I'm always curious about is is mentors, right, and so you know, I'm sure you've had your mentors along the along the way, and so I'm curious about the advice that they've given you, and what is the best advice you ever got, and and who gave it to you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I would say mentor Shipping has been an interesting journey for me, because even when I got into the business I didn't have direct mentorship right away. I had probably folks that have been in the business that I picked brains with and stuff like that. But it wasn't probably until I partnered with my current partner, dewayne that I got true mentorship, and he has a statement that says cold call cures all, and so it's just one of those things where it's like you can do anything and everything that you want to do, but if that pipeline is dry, pick up that phone and start calling. But I think it's just a mindset thing, right, I think? Outside of that, I think the biggest shift was going back to the abundant statement of just knowing that there's everything out there for anybody who wants to go for it, and also try not to compare yourself to everything and everything that everybody else is doing.
Speaker 2:When I first got into the business, I heard that it takes three to five years to really get those gears going to where you have a consistent pipeline, where you feel like an expert in the business, and so even in the first year I would beat myself up, just like anybody, that I'm just super hard on myself thinking, oh man, when is a breakthrough going to happen? When is my deal flow going to be consistent, where I'm closing something every month, and things of that nature. But then what I started to change my focus on is when I first got into the business I was thinking more like a broker. Now I think more like an investor, and so hearing different stories of the journeys that people have taken like even some of the most successful brokers that I've talked to had it rough for the first couple years and then it was that breakthrough they had, or.
Speaker 2:But it was like okay, what's the work ethic right? So I'm really big on when I talk with people understanding their work ethic, understanding their methodology and going from there, opposed to saying well, you know, this person over here drives that nice Porsche, I want a Porsche, but you know why am I trying to rush to get the Porsche if I'm not putting the work in right? So it's like trying to put yourself in the mindset of focus, consistency and discipline. And you know work a little bit every day, and so my big thing is I may not necessarily get a lead every day or write a contract every day, but if I do something real estate related, brokerage related. Every day, you know, it's like chipping away, chipping away their goal and I feel like something's accomplished.
Speaker 1:So get one percent closer to your goal every day, right? I mean it's just incremental, incremental progress, right?
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So. So, in terms of you know how you, as they say, you know, sharpen the saw right Now when you're taking in information. You know, I know, you know leaders tend to be readers, right, and so you know I'm curious about you know, obviously you, you come from a you know an interesting background in terms of finance and then moving on from consulting to to to the real estate world. So I'm curious, you know obviously a lot of that. You know, yes, a lot of its classroom talk, but a lot of.
Speaker 1:It's not right. And so I'm curious about you know what kind of stuff? And and I say reading because it's it's just the colloquialism, but you know, the fact is that people these days they take in information on YouTube and podcasts and audio books and physical books, and you know whole host of other ways of getting smarter and sharpening the saw, as they say.
Speaker 1:So, I'm curious. You know two things really. You know one is how do you tend to consume information right when you're looking to learn about something? And then I'm also curious about you know the authors and or creators that you're paying attention to these days?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So for me, I guess probably the biggest thing that I consume is podcasts. Now I probably listen to more podcasts than I do actual watch TV or anything of that nature. So you know a couple of ones that I listen to now, like the Commercial Real Estate Academy by Ralph Colasmo. I also listen to CBR CBRES podcast and CREXY's podcast, because they have different market update as well. When it comes to books, you know I kind of read a lot of more so leadership and you know kind of mindset books, so I just read. Well, I just finished the gap in the game. I forgot the author on that.
Speaker 1:I have to go back, but that one really Kind of check it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the gap coming in. That really teaches you kind of what we're talking about before as it. When you're kind of evaluating yourself, a lot of us we always focus on where we're not right. So, for example, if something happened to you and you didn't really get all the calls that you wanted to get through, but you made three or five, a lot of us will focus on. If the goal was 100, we focus on the 95 that we didn't get and so we don't. But so we know we got the five but we don't show appreciation toward that five, and so it's really focusing on, you know, celebrating your small win and you know realizing, hey, you actually started something, you did accomplish something. Go with that and use that as your momentum moving forward. Yeah, so that's, I'm all.
Speaker 2:I just started reading Into the Black by T Dallas. He owns one of the largest commercial real estate firms in Atlanta. And then I actually had a book come in. Tdjx actually just recently wrote a book called Disruptive Thinking. So that one is again. It's that book that's focused on.
Speaker 2:You know, if you want to do something great or if you say, hey, I want to do this with my life, you can't do it the traditional way. You got to take those risks. So that's something I'm reading now. If I'm not reading real estate books or, you know, reading articles, then I'm huge into sports. So you know, first take is probably one of my favorite shows out there right now. I do watch a lot of golf. I think that's more of the calming of just kind of mindset thing, but and then just from an entertainment standpoint, kind of get it got that balance. So you know, I listened to the Breakfast Club, I listened to Bring Idiots and the Flagrant podcast as well, and that creates a balance of just hearing not just you know what's going on in different industries, but also people that are working hard as well to accomplish their goal.
Speaker 2:So a lot of the folks on radio, you know, people think, oh, this lot of stuff is pre-recorded or they just go live. Some of it is and a lot of it is. But you know you have people that get up at four o'clock in the morning to be in the studio at five and they're literally working from five to nine am and then they basically studio hop all day and these are the same people kids, families and stuff like that. So kind of goes back to what I was saying before, as it relates to work ethic.
Speaker 2:And you know, I'm the type of guy that I think we all, you know we all get tired, we all kind of have those lazy days, you know, from time to time and it happens and I think that's just showing yourself grace. But I'm also the type of guy that I'm not going to make excuses for what I can't do. You know, at the end of the day I know what I need to do and I know that I have flaws and weaknesses, just like the next person. But I'm not going to sit there and just sit on and say you know what I can't do it, I'll find a way. It may take time to get it done, you know, begrudgingly sometimes, but you know, at the end of the day it's like things kind of focus back on your why and it'll kind of help you get to where you're trying to get to.
Speaker 1:And that's tremendous advice, right? Is that? You know, when being clear on your why is so important. Yeah, I struggle with the same thing, right. I mean, there are days I get up and I'm like, oh man, I just, I just don't want to, not today, right. And but I'm crystal clear on my why.
Speaker 1:You're, you're obviously crystal clear on your why and the. You know, that's kind of the fuel for perseverance, right, and in terms of being able to say nope today's, you know, I've got to go make progress. I got to move that ball, you know, a few yards down the field today, right, and whether I want to or not, it's got to happen. So, because I have, you know, team members, employees, investors, residents, you know, you know you're going to be my family I got to eat dinner with my board of directors, namely my wife and two daughters, and I need to be able to tell them that I got some stuff done today, right. And so I hear you, oh, yeah, that's horrible, yeah.
Speaker 1:The other thing that you one of the themes that I'm hearing in your comments, which is really interesting is from an abundance perspective. You look at it from a different way in terms of comparisons, and I view that, as I'll steal the Nick Saban's term rat poison right Looking at the guy with the Porsche or the lady with the huge portfolio, or whatever. I think if you focus on comparing you to the rest of the world, all it does is slow you down. My daughter taught me something a long time ago that I still try to use, and I'm a we're all competitive in this business right.
Speaker 1:And so the she was a competitive swimmer in high school and she would swim and she would work her butt off and but she, she wouldn't. She wasn't a superstar, right In fairness, and she would tell you this too. I'm not speaking out of school, but the thing is that I'd be like I had asked her a question around being competitive and doesn't that drive you? And, and you know, she looked me right in the eye and she said I couldn't care less if I win the race, I just want to get a little faster. So if yesterday I swam at 35 seconds, I want to swim it in 34 today. Right, and she goes, that's all I care about. Like, oh, okay, and it reminded me of you know what you were saying in terms of, or what you said reminded me of that story, and that you know incrementalism, right, get a little bit better every day. 1%, 1%.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think for me and I don't I can't remember the, the, the moment that had happened, but I think you know, ultimately, when you don't, when you get to a point where you feel like you don't have to, I would say, do things for others right Like it's. It's one thing to do, like have your motivation for your family, for example, you know my wife, my daughter, you know the people around me that are in my circle. That's one thing you know. We kind of have our own fun in games and it's like, yeah, you know what, I'm going to get the bigger car next year.
Speaker 1:So you know, catch, catch, fun right.
Speaker 2:Right. But I think when you're not doing it for external validation, then there's a whole different thing. So, like once you're going to figure out what those internal validations for yourself are, that's when, to your point, you you're not as worry-free, you're not as stress-free. Obviously you want to make sure, keep food on the table, keep the lights on and all that stuff, but you're not. You don't feel like you're having to validate yourself to the world by you know what you drive or what you're wearing.
Speaker 2:Now, granted, I'm a car guy and I always have been a car guy. So you know, I have certain, you know plans and goals of what vehicles I would like to own. I'm also a shoe guy. So I I start, you know I have a very vast sneaker collection. But for me I also that's part of branding for me as well. So it's not necessarily oh, I have this, but for the branding purposes. Now people know me, as you know a broker that has sneakers, so they're like okay, well, what shoes are you wearing today? And that's part of not necessarily a floss, but it's more of a branding and image. So, you know, you kind of be able to set yourself from oh yeah, I know such and such. That's the guy that always has the sneakers on. So you think about realistically how do you position yourself for those conversations, or you know when people are, when you're not in people. So I think that's kind of my aspect on certain things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree. I mean whatever you can do to stand out from your competitors, right? You know, dial in for dollars when the phone rings. There's no differentiation, right. Everybody's commoditized to that phone until you make that connection right, whatever that is, yeah, yeah. So, tristan, I've really enjoyed our conversation today and thank you again for joining us. So I'm curious about a couple other things, though, before we go. You know, in terms of spending time with your wife and your daughter and your friends and family, what do you like to do outside of real estate? That is fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say probably the biggest thing for me is traveling, even before we. So my daughter turns to next month and so before then we were big on traveling. We probably go somewhere, maybe every couple of months or so, whether it be a quick road trip, maybe a bigger trip once a year, but I think we're just naturally explored and so I have some conferences I'm going to this year in different places. So one of the things that once we had our daughter I was like some people frown upon it, some people are not for it, but I'm like I would rather her travel with us or with me or whatever the case may be, so she can see what we see. Obviously, the flip side of that is now you have to go everywhere with a toddler, but I mean it doesn't bother me, I kind of embrace it. Of course, we'll still need our alone time and we have things set up for that. But that's probably my biggest thing. We love food, so I'm always trying out different restaurants.
Speaker 2:During the pandemic I started collecting bourbon. I was already drinking bourbon before, but I started collecting things. But, like I said then, sports is probably the biggest thing. So sports it doesn't matter. For the most part. I'm not the biggest in hockey, but every other sport I'm pretty good on. Again, that's kind of really I'm pretty simple. I used to game. I ran out of time for that. I have the systems. They probably collect just as much dust as my ceiling fans. But yeah, I mean. And then when I can spend time with friends and family that are in my circle A lot of my brothers they're entrepreneurs, some travel for work, some are local, and so a lot of the times it had to be like three or four months and then it's like everybody's in town at the same time, so we kind of drop everything to get together. And then I'm heavily involved in my fraternity. So I'm a member of Phi Beta Sigma and I actually serve on our local executive board as the first vice president. So I have quite a few responsibilities with that.
Speaker 2:Here's my heartlet, and then a couple of other boards that I sit on.
Speaker 1:So Okay, so you're on all these boards. You're a broker. You're a family man. You like to. When do you sleep?
Speaker 2:I mean I do sleep between the hours of two and seven, but that's probably my biggest weakness is not going to bed. It's like somehow, shape or form, you know you'll get tired and then you catch a second wind and then my brain will keep going. But I'm working on better balancing that out. I recently kind of changed my diet a little bit, like I've never been bad at dieting, but I noticed, like you know, maybe incorporating more yogurt, more water, more probiotics in the morning, that don't have, you know, a longer lasting kind of natural energy throughout the day. Yeah, right on, but yeah.
Speaker 1:I find the seed quote. Oh, go ahead, you heard a quote. Yeah, no, I was like.
Speaker 2:I found some people believe that you should sleep, Some people believe that you shouldn't. But I think it's just more so when those things just kind of find the balance of what works for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I'm wired similarly to you. If I'm in bed at 10, I sleep through the night, right, and I get up around five, 30 ish. But if I don't go to bed, if my eyes aren't closed by about 10, 15, I'm up till two. Like I get that second wind. It's a new list, starts cooking and yeah, I'm like exact same way.
Speaker 2:So well, hey.
Speaker 1:Tristan, thank you so much for joining us today. It's a pleasure to see you and, you know, once we hit the pause button on this record, I'm gonna catch up for your deals that you have cooking down in your neck of the woods. But so in the meantime, Tristan McNeil from High Capital Group, thank you so much and it's really good to see you, my friend.
Speaker 1:Thanks, Ed I appreciate you having me on the show. Yeah, likewise, this has been the Real Estate Underground podcast. Thank you so much for listening. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe. It helps us grow. Until next time, happy investing.