Ep. 84 - Niche Down to Scale Up

What happens when you focus deeply on a single service instead of trying to be everything to everyone in real estate? Brian Clark of ABC Property Management reveals the power of being "a mile deep and an inch wide" in property management.

Brian's journey from finance graduate to successful property manager wasn't without detours. After learning real estate fundamentals over a decade at a local company, he took a surprising turn into corporate retail as an associate buyer at Walmart. This "retail boot camp" instilled a work ethic, sense of urgency, and organizational skills that would become his secret weapons when launching his own business after COVID hit.

Starting with just one single-family home from a friend, Brian built his company to 260 units across residential and commercial properties. His growth hack? Something refreshingly simple: actually answering the phone. "My first 10 clients hired me because they called two other property managers and nobody answered," he shares. This responsiveness, combined with systematic processes and technology adoption, created a competitive advantage in an industry known for mediocre service.

As his business grew beyond what one person could handle, Brian faced the classic entrepreneurial evolution – building a team, implementing systems like Yardi for property management, and even launching a vertical integration maintenance company called Make Ready Services. His experience highlights the transition from small business operator to true entrepreneur, focusing on building long-term value rather than just maximizing short-term income.

Whether you're in property management or any service business, Brian's approach demonstrates how specialization and excellent execution can create outsized success in a competitive market. If you're looking to build a business with staying power, this episode delivers practical wisdom from someone who's doing exactly that.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I want to be a mile deep and an inch wide in
property management.
Got it Doing.
That has allowed me to, like,really stay focused on.
I'm property management focusedbecause you can get lost and
you see a lot of people in realestate.
They can be really successfulor just getting started and they
still can get lost with oh,we're doing, we offer everything
in real estate.
Well, there's a lot of platesthat are spinning there this is

(00:35):
another episode of big talkabout small business.
What you think about that one,brian, was everyone is different
every where I've listened to afew and everyone you guys got a
little.
It's not like you're justdefault playing the sound.
No, no, it's creepy.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
No way, no God.
We could do that though.

Speaker 4 (00:51):
At the same time, it wouldn't be Slither Episode A
big talk about small business.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
I'm going to fall asleep.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
This has been brought to you today by oh, we don't
have a sponsor sponsor, oh, dangof it.
What is wrong?
I mean numbers keep going up.
No, I don't know.
They should be beating down.
This should be, this should beanyway.
Hey, today in the studio we'vegot brian clark with us yes, we
do, who I just learned.
Um had uh, been in my houseyears and years ago with one of

(01:21):
my older daughters, when he, Iguess, he was a college student.
Then when did you graduate,brian 2012.
?
Oh yeah, he was definitely.
He was probably like asophomore or something, freshman
maybe, because I got rid ofthat house in 09.
Probably a sophomore 10, maybe,Mark.

Speaker 4 (01:38):
I've been to your house a lot of times, too, when
you're not there.
What are you talking about?

Speaker 2 (01:46):
good lord, um, anyway , um.
So I knew brian looked familiarto me.
Yeah, he's a big um, eric tellsme you're a big fan of the show
yeah, I listen to it quite abit, do you?

Speaker 1 (01:58):
um, yeah, it's been mostly driving around.
Uh, I'm in the car a lot.
I'm, like man, tired oflistening to the same music.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Could use my brain to maybe get smarter, so well, I'm
not sure this is the place weappreciate that.

Speaker 4 (02:16):
Nevertheless, maybe you can, like you can, resonate
with us about when we complainabout things continuously that's
when the, that's when the.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
You know I gotta get out of the car and then I I get
back in the car and spotifykicked it to the next episode.
So it's like I get to listen tolike a lot of episodes.

Speaker 4 (02:31):
But yeah, okay, if I really like when I go back hey,
as long as you let that keepplaying, so our numbers look
better.
That's right.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah, exactly whatever wow, man, I mean just
keep it going.
Turn down, but just keep itrunning.
No, brian is an interestingbackground.
I know you got your degree fromU of A in finance and then you
went out and worked in corporate.
America, yep.

(02:58):
And you've had severalbusinesses, I guess, since then.
One recently started.
So tell us a little bit aboutyourself.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah.
So I, uh, I look back and I kindof real estate's my passion and
that's what I kind of I've beenanchored to, um, and and really
got to learn real estate from alocal company at Lindsay, um,
for about a decade and reallywhere I got to learn like, okay,
I like what this is, get tolearn kind of all phases of real
estate.
Got to learn like, okay, I likewhat this is, get to learn kind
of all phases of real estate.

(03:26):
Got to learn real estate, uh,the leasing side, management
side, uh the selling of just ofa home side and and really kind
of got to see, okay, I reallylike this management stuff and
uh, did that for a good minuteand um, and then, and then I
just took a wild turn and, um,walmart I was able to get in
with Walmart and got to be anassociate buyer up there for a

(03:50):
couple of years and I call thatretail boot camp because I
thought I was successful in realestate before I got to Walmart.
Hard uh, and work at adifferent pace and get into the
details, sense of urgency,report to a lot of people like
taught me more than I everthought I would.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
it's good stuff yeah, people need that, that sense of
urgency.
Yeah, so funny.
We just had this discussionthis morning, my wife and I.
Yeah, it was about somebody Isent an email to yesterday and
one of the companies I'm withI'm at 9 30 and then I heard
back this morning.
I'm like that's not acceptable.
I mean seriously, but she goes.
You know, this person asked mewhat the person's background was

(04:33):
.
They never worked in corporateamerica.
Yeah, they never worked in areal business.
Yeah, they don't understandthat.
That's part of what you got todo yeah, and it goes a long way.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
And so halfway through I was at walmart yeah,
if I could do this, I take thistype of work ethic that I've
learned, that I can do, andwalmart kind of pushed it out of
me like I can go do real estateand I can do well, yeah and uh,
that's.
That's pretty much kind of likethe like the starter per se of
how I said, okay, I'm gonna, I'mgonna do this.
And then then COVID came along2020 and said, okay, now it's

(05:06):
time to 2021.
Now it's time to just start it.
And it was tough at first.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
What did you start exactly?
Tell us about the business.
I mean, there's a lot of thingsyou can do with real estate,
obviously.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
Yeah.
So when I was at Walmart, so Ileft Walmart and then I realized
, okay, I got to get back intoreal estate.
Estate, um, and I guess thatwas 2020, it was 2021, I believe
is when I really got back intoit and, um, really, it was just
like going to the basics, like,okay, gotta get a website, um,
gotta make sure that, um,everything's up to date with the

(05:40):
state, and and then just getout there, start networking,
calling old people that knewthat I was in real estate before
and really built my businessoff of networking and referrals
so what services are we talkingabout?

Speaker 2 (05:52):
were you selling?

Speaker 1 (05:53):
yeah, uh, so just property management.
So property management I'mgonna be.
I'm gonna be if I I stole thisfrom eric, yeah, he's told me
several times and, and it's beensomething that I really tried
to hang my hat on is I want tobe a mile deep and inch wide in
property management got it doing.
That has allowed me to, like,really stay focused on I'm.
I'm property management focused, because you can get lost and

(06:13):
you see a lot of people in realestate.
They can be really successfulor just getting started and they
still can get lost with, oh,we're doing, we offer everything
in real estate.
Well, right, there's a lot ofplates that are spinning there.
Yeah, exactly, that's why I wasasking.
So I've learned, okay, if Ifocus really into property
management, I'm going to referout things that come and I get

(06:34):
referrals in as well, and then Istay focused on property
management.
And so that's really how Ibuilt and kind of got going from
.
Picked up my first single familyhome from a buddy.
He was like, hey, I don't wantto manage it, I'm like, dude,
I'll manage it.
Kind of got my my rhythm goingand then I'm like, okay, uh, now
I need to make sure I have agoogle page.
Now I need to make sure I havea website.

(06:54):
Yep, and then really it wasjust I.
Just I kind of look backbecause it's just a huge
blessing.
I just answer the phone, mywork ethic, with sense of
urgency, and what I've learnedat walmart even though retail
does not correlate to realestate, but the work ethic does,
and how I and the process, yeah, and organizations like I.

(07:15):
I didn't really know how to workexcel and outlook and all those
.
Before I went to walmart andthen walmart that's pretty much
you have to know how to workthose tools, sure, then leaving
and okay, I got it.
I tried to make my tools workwith Google.
I was like this isn't working.
I had to pay a bunch of moneyand say, okay, I got to go back
to Outlook because that's how mybrain works and calendar
scheduling, going throughnumbers and being able to talk

(07:38):
to people, answer them.
I mean it's crazy.
I've repeated seven times.
It's crazy.
I've repeated seven times it'sanswering the phone and
responded A lot of times.
My first 10 clients were on aFriday at three.
Oh well, I'm going to hire you,because I've called two other
property managers and nobodyanswered the phone.
Oh, it's so true.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
And I've had bad experience with most property
managers.
I've had good and then I've hada lot of bad.
Yeah, and there definitely isan opportunity for somebody.
That's good and, as you say,being responsive.
It's just so critical.
Well and.

Speaker 4 (08:06):
I would say that, like it's becoming more critical
because, you know, honestly, wehave access to all this
information, right?
You know AI, everything that'scoming in.
Our patience is getting thinnerand thinner and thinner, and we
expect, our level ofexpectation is extremely high.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
Yeah, and I've taught my team, because now I'm trying
to make sure that my teambecause I bootstrapped it to I
figured I kind of bootstrappedmy company to about 150 units I
was like, okay, I can do this.
Well, after 150, I'm just goingto go crazy if I keep doing it
by myself and so I teach my teamall the time.
We have a good team now.
It's like like answer the phone, be responsive, don't just send

(08:46):
a text message, don't just sendan email.
Do all three, yeah, and makesure you respond to all three,
and we can get lost in the toolsof all the other stuff as we do
.
Yeah, it's like we got tocircle back to well, if it's a
really urgent and you send thema text and it's two hours gone
by you didn't hear from, justcall them and not everybody
communicates the same way.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
That's what I always tell my students you've got to
find out, like, how some peoplewant to call, some want to email
, someone to text someone tovisit.
I mean, you got to figure thatout.
Yeah, that's, but that's,that's awesome.
So how many um units are youmanaging now?
So we're about 100 about 260units.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
Okay, and it's a good split between residential is
about 50% and then commercialand multifamily is about 50%.
Do you call like, if you?

Speaker 4 (09:32):
have a multifamily unit.
I mean, is that one unit?

Speaker 1 (09:36):
So I call a multifamily a duplex or more.
Right now we have apartments aswell.

Speaker 4 (09:43):
But you consider every one of those little, every
door.
I see every door, every door isa unit.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
okay, I also talk kind of in the commercial world.
I talk more about squarefootage, right, um, but yeah, I
still think units have a door.
Uh, I have an office over inspringdale and you know there's
like 20 doors.
It's one building but there's20 doors that we can rent, so
it's 20 units over there and socommercial kind of changes it up

(10:08):
.
Single family is pretty muchyou got one single family home.
That's one unit.
But I'm a little different.
I've kind of gotten a funnyfeedback throughout the industry
and residential, because youdon't see a lot outside of this
area, you don't see a lot ofpeople doing residential and
commercial, and that might besomething that I changed one day
, um, but I've really gotteninvolved in like the national um

(10:32):
, like just differentorganizations about property
management and learning andworking with those guys and it's
been interesting because youknow it's all they're just
focused on residential and notdoing commercial.
But I would not have the growththat I've had without saying,
hey, I know I can do commercial,I enjoy that side of the
business, I learned it and Ijust love it, don't?

Speaker 2 (10:53):
you think, though, that commercial is just less
hassle Because people don't livethere.
The numbers are bigger, youknow, like if I'm going to rent
a space like this, I'd probablybe paying $12,000 a month or
something, correct?
Yeah, so the numbers are bigger, or whatever it is, and then we
don't live here.
Yeah, correct.

(11:14):
That makes things maybe lesstragic.
Well, yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:19):
So my wife, you know I talked with her about real
estate.
She's learned a lot since she'sbeen married to me.
It's like, I think, there'sless emotion, no matter whether
it's selling or managing.
There's less emotion incommercial versus residential.
So I do, and that's why I enjoyit.
But it's a hard.
I've noticed it's tougher forme to teach commercial at the

(11:41):
beginning.
You have to already have a goodunderstanding of real estate
because there's a lot more stuff.
There's triple net leases,right.
There's modified gross, there'sbasic gross leases, and then
you're dealing with repairs thatare different.
You're not just fixing how youjust, you know, call an ac guy
and get it fixed.
No, you might be dealing with acomplex hvac unit or a complex
boiler or a complex elevatoryeah and then it's.

(12:04):
It's a whole nother ball game ofworking through, uh, all that.
But I've enjoyed it and I thinkthe number side attracts me,
even though I'm not I don'tthink I'm like a number driven
person, but the numbers are justlike getting into the details
and talking with people,business owners um, I I do enjoy
and that's why I've been likeman.

(12:24):
I'm not going to give up thecommercial aspects and it's been
a blessing that I've had it,because we're not growing the
way I've grown without both ofthem.

Speaker 4 (12:33):
So tell our listeners a little bit about when you say
property management services.

Speaker 1 (12:37):
Yeah, what does that mean?
So I consider myself a thirdparty property manager.
So you own a house and youdon't want to deal with the
headache of dealing with thetenant, legal signing of leases,
all that.
You hire a third party propertymanager.
We're going to make sure thatwe put a good tenant in there.

(12:57):
If we have to kick a tenant outunfortunately we can also do
that and then just workingthrough the whole process,
making sure that you get paidevery month, you get a report
every month, and then you'regoing to get inspection reports
throughout the year, making sureyour property is taken care of.
And so that same mentality goesto commercial as well, whether
it's single family, a warehouse,office space, that's unusual.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
So you go out and you take a look and see what's
going on at the property.
Yeah, so we're back.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
That's, that's nice, I like that.
So we, I've I've been.
When I first started I was likethat's kind of what I love to
do.
I was like, okay, you know Igot 50 units and okay, today I'm
gonna go spend all day in thefield because I like being in
the field and it's like.
But then as we've grown, it'slike okay, I can't be in the
field 24 7, but we've gottentools that we can go on our

(13:48):
phones and put a report togetherand like say what's going on.
Obviously we'll get tenantrequests saying hey, fix my you
know my leaking sink or whatever.
Sure, um, and then, but othersometimes, like we've had one
issue a while back where it waslike a fireplace, well, we had
to go check it out.
Uh, go check out what's goingon, not just uh, thank you, and

(14:11):
then, and then move on.
So do you do?

Speaker 4 (14:13):
any repairs yourself or you like contract that out so
, yeah, so, uh, up until a yearago.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
Yeah, I, and that's probably the biggest, I would
say it's in mark, I'm sure youhave an opinion on this.
I would say property management.
One of the toughest parts ismanaging and getting repairs
done.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
Yeah, yeah, and I've dealt with all sorts of people,
all walks of life and, uh, italways seems to there's always a
letdown here's my favorite one,brian my light bulb in my in my
stair my light bulb in mystairwell is my light in my
stairwell won't work.
Have you changed the bulb in it?

(14:49):
Yeah, I changed the bulb, itstill won't go on.
Yeah, you go over there and youchange the bulb and it goes on.
Yeah, they didn't want to do it, right.
Okay, have you ever had those?

Speaker 1 (14:59):
Yeah, and I've had air filters too.
Oh yeah, filters too oh yeah, Idon't want to change the air
filter like, uh, that's yourresponsibility.
It says in the lease that yougotta change the air filter.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
Most of them never will change there they won't do
anything.
When you something, don't readleases, but we try.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
Well, it's true if you teach the tenants that, hey,
if you don't want your ac goingout, uh, on 100 degree day, on
a sunday and in summer, youshould change your air filter.
If you don't want your AC goingout on a 100-degree day on a
Sunday in summer, you shouldchange your air filter.
If you don't want your heatergoing out when it's negative 5
in January, on a Sunday, youshould change your air filter.

(15:34):
And that might help it.
Not 100%, but keeping thosecoils clean and keeping that
machine clean does go.
So we try to remind people ofthat.

Speaker 4 (15:44):
It might keep your bill down too.
Do you?
Do you actually fix any?

Speaker 1 (15:48):
so me personally, no, okay.
But back to your question.
So, uh, but I recently starteda company to where I have guys
working directly for me, okay,that are out in the field and
working through.
Like then they're reporting tome on hey, yeah, we've painted
this property or we've gottenthe floors done.
Yeah, um, kind of like your ownlittle handyman.
Yeah, but I'm not going toexpand it outside of abc.

(16:11):
We have so much work.
Yeah, but maybe one day wewould.
But but that's been a a journeyof, like, another business,
vertical integration, verticalintegration, creating another
business.
Uh, some days I'm like why did?
Did I do this?
Yeah, I do that we sell thatevery morning, but at the end,
and especially when we can'thandle all the work, it's like,

(16:32):
oh man, my expectation is high.
My expectation is higher thanthe owner's.
Some owners don't think thatbut it really is.
And if my expectation is notgetting hit, that's why I
started this other company.
It was a side hustle.
Until now I've got two guysworking for me and maybe have
three Building up.
That whole process has been.
I think I've learned more aboutbuilding a business than I did

(16:53):
when I first did ABC propertymanagement, because there's so
much more Because the revenuewith.
I called it, so my handmadecompany is called Make Ready
Services.
Okay, good.
It's a simple portion becauseyou're going to do a make ready
when it comes out.
And the make ready side, theincome is so different than

(17:13):
property management where it's.
In property management youpretty much know you have a good
idea of what you're going tomake the next three months and
it's not going to be Make ready.

Speaker 2 (17:22):
You don't know what you're going to find until you
get over there, right?

Speaker 1 (17:28):
Yeah about it.
Yeah, uh, and it's not going tomake ready.
You don't know what you'regoing to find.
You get over there, right?
Yeah, you don't know.
You don't know how long thejob's going to take.
You don't know if you haveenough money to pay for the high
material bill and you got to gotalk to the owner.

Speaker 2 (17:33):
You're making my heart rate go up right now.
We used to have these 16townhouses we rented out
students three bedroom, two anda half bath, uh, over by the
university.
Yeah, and I think it was likejuly 28th.
The leases ran out, okay, andthen you'd have three days to go
into these things and therewere it's always like eight at a

(17:53):
time and they all needed to berepainted.
They're 1500 plus square feet.
They'd need new carpet.
We'd be throwing theirrefrigerators away and stoves
because they don't maintainthose, replacing the blinds,
replacing all the bulbs, and mywife would be so pissed off for
those three days because shewould be over there and people

(18:15):
are on our hands and 24 hours aday.
Okay, yeah, and she's haulingthe crap out to the dumpster and
when they take the trash out,they don't even put it in the
dumpster.
Yeah, they set it all aroundthe outside.
One time she had maggotscrawling in between her toes and
she was.
I was out of seen it all.
She was very.
That is so hard.
People don't understand theturnover time.

(18:37):
No, so having some control yourown people is essential yeah,
it's essential.

Speaker 1 (18:42):
You still get the stress.
I know you still get the stress.
I know, especially in that'shard summer is probably the
hardest to hit because you dohave yeah, june, july or high
season and I tell people this alot of times even owners coming
in and explaining how theseasons work, because the
seasons are so important tounderstand yeah.
May, june, july, august.

(19:03):
You better be ready, and yougot to have high turnover.
You also be better be ready formarketing, because you're going
to get all the calls in,capture them then work through
them, because if you don'tstressed out about your business
, why the heck yeah?
I mean hey, man, this is theway that, the way that I've
looked at, as I've made ablocker right now or something

(19:23):
to slow my heart rate down.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
You're bringing back, you're traumatizing me.
Did you hire a property manager?
You know, I had three differentsetups in my business.
For all our rentals we had twodifferent property managers and
some we did on our own Sure.
Actually, we had four becausewe had commercial yeah, that was
a separate property manager,sure, and in some cases our own,

(19:46):
yeah.
So, yeah, we had all variantson it and, like I said, a good
property manager is invaluable.
Yeah, we always had good tenants.
We had 100 occupancy.
We got paid quickly yeah, noissues.
Bad property manager paidslowly.
Bad information yeah, uh, stuffis being done and we're paying
too much for it and it's notdone properly.

(20:07):
Yeah, we bought a 20 unitapartment building and we found
out after we bought it that theprior property manager, who we
inherited with sure, in myopinion, was stealing money from
the owner.
Okay, by having services thatthey were paying somebody to do
that were either either werenever done or done wrong, and

(20:28):
maybe there were kickbacks.
I don't know.
But we ended up with two unitsthat had through the wall um
split system, hvac systems andat many splits, and two of them
they had no heat.
They only were air conditioningbecause the property manager
didn't make sure that they putsplit systems in.

(20:50):
They just replaced it with anac unit.
So the winter comes and peopleare like how do I turn the heat
on.
Yeah, like what do you mean?
You turn the thermostat, theyput heat in.
They're like no, it doesn'twork.
Okay, what do you think of that?

Speaker 1 (21:04):
uh, I think of that.
I think of then.
You're making my heart racewhen I think about pipes
freezing, because pipes freezingyou can have the best heater or
the worst.
But now it goes back to justlike double checking what you're
doing and making sure that yourguys communicate on what's
going on.
And that's why I started thisother company.
Yes, you had to have a littlecontrol and I have a little bit

(21:26):
more.
I think it's still at times I'mlike man, we got to do more.
I need another me.
I don't know what that lookslike.
I got to just keep planning outmore processes, more procedures
to make things better.
But it's still tough becausethen it all relies on workers
Making sure you take care ofyour workers and work through
that, and that's a wholedifferent way of business than

(21:47):
what I did with ABC or what I'mdoing with ABC property
management.
So it's just I have to look atit as a fun way to work through.
It's all connected.
But at the same time you haveto check what you're doing and
then, if you don't, what I't?
I've made a few mistakes and ifyou don't, you've got to own up

(22:08):
to what's going on and then Iwill lose money and that's okay,
but I will gain it back downthe road.
But if there's something thatwe did that wasn't done, right,
well, then I need to own it andthen move on.
Wow, that's unusual.

Speaker 2 (22:22):
Pass it on to the owner it's not my problem, but
you can't do that it seems to bemy life.
We just deduct it from yourincome this month.
That's right, yeah.

Speaker 4 (22:34):
Yeah, you get a statement.
Yeah, you get that statement.
The best is a statement.

Speaker 2 (22:37):
They just deduct it.
It's totally out of yourcontrol.
Yeah, just on certain repairs,but and it's not something that
I'm like, oh, that's, that's,that's not.
No, I'm sure you communicate,but, yeah, yeah, so well, that's
interesting.
I mean, it's these kinds ofbusinesses fascinate me.
Yeah, you know, because you'renot inventing anything new.

(22:57):
There's a lot of providers outthere that do what you do, but
they're all bad or a lot of themare right.
You know what I mean, and thisis just to.
It's just the greatest.
This is why small business isso great.
Yeah, there's always anopportunity to improve on what's
out there, and you don't needto sell people on the idea that
they need a property manager.

(23:17):
I mean you, if you got amillion, you know we had like 67
rentals or whatever, pluscommercials.
Yeah, we can't do that.
Right, we need help.
Okay, you don't have toconvince me, we need it.
So I love businesses wherepeople know they need it and
then all the or the majority ofproviders are mediocre.

Speaker 1 (23:37):
Absolutely, and you have.
I had to learn this the hardway at the beginning, cause at
the beginning I thought I had tosell every tom, dick and harry
that they needed me, yeah.
But we're at a point now wherewe they know they do, we need to
, I need to know who I'm workingwith and if we're a good fit.
If we're not a good fit, let'snot get into it exactly a mess
down the road, and I've had tolearn that the hard way, um, but

(23:58):
now I know, and I'm, when we're, when I'm talking to clients or
anybody, not just someone thatmight be a client it's like we
want to be a good fit.
If we're not a good fit, hey, Iwant to help you.
I'll tell you what.
Maybe we should do, sure, but,um, send you to somebody else.
Forcing the situation is a baddeal.

Speaker 4 (24:14):
Well, I think that, like starting a business, you
have these phases, right like inthe beginning.
You should take everything thatyou absolutely yes, yes every
revenue.
Yes, yes, yes, yes everythingyou can and then you then you do
start peeling out and gettingmore defined about how your
audience is, what your serviceis over, you know, and you start
finding those niches.

(24:34):
And you know, because I'd likeI've seen some folks that uh, it
drives me crazy, like when youget like a subcontract or not
subcontract but solepreneursright, that are maybe doing a
specific trade and they gotthese.
You know, I get paid $150 anhour and I need at least five
hours of guaranteed work and Ineed these kinds of parameters

(24:56):
and it's like they built thisthing right, like they're like
they are Walmart, you know, butyou're not.
You know, you're one person andI'm just calling bull crap on
the 150 an hour, like.
I mean what overhead do you have, you know?
So you basically want to work40, you know that's how I always
did business, so I don't know,but I mean, but you're right, I

(25:16):
hear you, but it's like you, you, you box yourself in to begin
with and right.

Speaker 2 (25:21):
You've limited your opportunities in the process.

Speaker 4 (25:23):
I did a really interesting exercise a few weeks
ago that fascinated me.
I added up, I looked at,because I got mad about a
contractor that needed $150 anhour and I'm like you have no
overhead, I'm like it would benice, I would like to make $150
an hour.
Right, no overhead, right,right, exactly, that sounds
fantastic.
But I did a calculation.

(25:44):
It looked like my time at whitespider and I never made 150 an
hour there, right, I mean, I wasprobably paying for a lot of
the work that I was doing.
But I added it up from fromthat time, like what was my
hourly rate after we sold thebusiness?
And it was very much worse andit it was over $150.

Speaker 2 (26:03):
Obviously.

Speaker 4 (26:03):
Right, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (26:05):
Right, you were building a business.
Right, that's entrepreneurship.
Right, that's my point, that'sthe point.

Speaker 4 (26:11):
Like dude, I would take a job for $20 an hour.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
Yeah, you know, because you got the long game in
mind.
Yeah, man, that's the wholepoint.
Get the snowball rolling.
Yeah, but see right there, eric, that is the difference between
small business andentrepreneurship.
yeah, you can do either yeah, asmall business is all about how
much money can I get out of thisthing, this right?
Okay, yeah, the entrepreneur isnot thinking that.

(26:35):
The entrepreneur is like whatis this going to be worth in
five years?
There you go.
Okay, I'll do all this stuff,make all these sacrifices along
the way for the big payday.
I will die for you client.
The small business owners likespend money on marketing.
My god, that will reduce my paythis week.
I will not.

Speaker 4 (26:54):
I tried that once and it didn't work and I won't be
able to do my vacation in june,yeah, and january and april
expensive oil it's it's.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
It's a short-term orientation versus law and it's
a.
It's a hamster wheel it is.
You'll never get off it.
As soon as you stop, the wholething ends, the party crash and
then it's over.
It doesn't work done.

Speaker 1 (27:15):
Yeah, this week you're talking about, um, what's
your worth?
And uh, that's recently.
I've had to kind of digest allthat because I've recently hired
an office manager and I'm like,okay, what's that worth?
Well, it's worth a lot, becauseI can't be in every little
admin detail and now I'm workingfaster, we're working better,

(27:36):
and what is it?
I think it's the book Buy Backyour Time and I think that's the
book.
I might be saying it wrong, butworking through that process
has been like, okay, what, whatare you worth and what are your
people worth?
And then making sure you builda good team around there, and
that's been something that evenlike a year ago, I didn't really
fathom.
But now it's like, okay, whatam I building to make sure we

(27:57):
move the right?

Speaker 2 (27:58):
way right.
You're thinking like anentrepreneur you gotta make
these investments and there's a.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
I guess there's a transition.
I don't know when I hit thattransition, but there is one.
Some people never hit it.
You can drive down fayetteville, springdale, rogers, sure see.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
But um well, yeah, I'm glad you brought that up,
though, because when you thinkabout it, property management is
a recurring revenue business,right, yeah, what are those
businesses worth?
What do they trade at?
Have you looked into that?
Uh, yeah, three multiple ofthree ebit or revenue.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
Uh, revenue, well, across the country I've seen
revenue and then I've also seenebit as well.

Speaker 2 (28:31):
So okay, um I would think three times revenue would
be totally possible, thatrecurring revenue stream.

Speaker 1 (28:37):
It seems that depending on how well you're
keeping your clients, I followpeople across the country and,
um some and some of those, theyseem to move pretty quick.
It seems like a lot of themmove without even hitting a
business broker or any knowingabout it.
Eric's been bothering me forfive years that he wants to buy
my company and I'm ready tofinally kick back.

(28:58):
Has he been?

Speaker 2 (28:59):
No, oh, You're going to surprise me.
Guy seems like he's buyingeverything.

Speaker 1 (29:05):
In general, I hear stories.
I hear more stories like thatthan if I go on the hunt to try
to find one to buy.
It's like I've got to go doorknocking every property manager
and I get door knocked all thetime by property managers.

Speaker 2 (29:17):
Are there private equity firms out there that are
consolidating these?

Speaker 4 (29:22):
Yeah, yeah, some of them.
I know there's a lot of PEfirms that are buying properties
, so they have to be buyingmanagement.
Well, it's a steady piece.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
It's pretty steady overall.
You forecast what you're doing,you put policies, procedures in
place and it should run well.
Now, if you add more, you gotto build more, but that's what I
got to learn quickly workingwith some mentors across the
country and locally.
Locally is how to build it theright way, and I got to learn
really well from the people atLindsay.

(29:49):
They were great teaching me howthat worked.

Speaker 2 (29:51):
Yeah, I mean, lindsay's got what 40,000 plus
units out there, lord, do theyreally?
Yeah, 40,000 plus, yeah, allright, they know what they're
doing.
Yeah, I mean, people are alwayscritical of Lindsay know what
they're doing.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
Yeah, they absolutely mean.
People are always critical oflindsey.
They're so big because if thebigger the property management,
the more problems and criticsyou're going to have it's
amazing what they do and they're.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
I will say one thing about lindsey too their property
landscaping is always bettermaintained than anybody else's.
I always see that it's got tobe because of the golf course
sort of background of lindsey.

Speaker 4 (30:23):
Well, they probably realize that it's got to be
because of the golf course sortof background of Lindsay.
Well, they probably realizethat it's a big selling point it
is.
It's a big property valuation.
I mean curb appeal is a bigdeal Like if you're shopping for
a house to rent, I'm tellingyou or anything, and it looks
nice.

Speaker 2 (30:38):
I go over there to Pinnacle, which is our nicest
mall.
For those of you who don't know, and you go by, dillards and
the shrubs are so freaking giantand overgrown they stick out
into the sidewalk like threefeet.
It's like I gotta walk into theroad and I can't believe that
somebody doesn't go cut thesedamn things down, because if I

(31:01):
was managing that and I haddillard's I would go over there
and go.
This is crazy.
How did this get this overgrown?

Speaker 4 (31:08):
I wish you did own it .
I'm lobbying for you to own it.

Speaker 2 (31:12):
That's the nicest mall we have and the landscaping
is not maintained.

Speaker 1 (31:18):
Somebody's probably pushing that property manager to
say keep costs low, no matterwhat, because no matter what
keep them low.
But the same thing.
You drive by these walgreensthat are going on, yeah, and you
can see the ones.
I mean no wonder these areclosing down.
There are corner lots, majorcorner lots throughout all of
this area sure they always gohigh traffic on both lanes or
both roads and looks like theyhaven't mowed the grass in three

(31:40):
weeks, and so you judge a lotby the character of landscaping,
and I've learned that too withmultifamily.
People in multifamily typicallydon't keep things clean and
nice, but if you keep them cleanand nice, then you have more
people coming in.
So true, and it's like holy nowyour occupancy rate will stay

(32:02):
high, and which is what you want.
It's an investment, your valueis going to stay high.
You're able to get them in quickinstead of having to go and
show the property 10 times.
Then you're wasting more time,then you're losing money.
It's so true, property 10 timesand working through that.
So then it's been a a marriageof working with how we kind of
get that together, a marriage ofworking with how we kind of get

(32:25):
that together, because it's notyou.
I can't just go to mr owner andsay, hey, let's spend top
dollar landscaping and let'smake it happen.
But maybe teach them and walkthrough like, hey, here's an roi
that we can get to, but we gotto do this, this and this.
We can take your rents from 500a unit to a thousand.
Then now we're talking, it'sgoing to raise your value, it's
going to raise raise your morale.
You're going to maybe getbetter tenants.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
My theory always was you want to be in the top 10% or
15% price-wise for whatever youhave.
So that means you've got tomaintain it better than anybody
else.
But then you get a bettertenant who's more likely they
recognize that they're going topay the premium.
They're more likely to paybecause they're quote a better
tenant.
They're less likely to destroyyour place.

(33:07):
Yeah, all that filters throughthe whole thing.
So I just wanted to beexpensive.
Yeah, no, it makes sense, youknow, but keep your tenants.
But, like you said, I mean you.
You, you have to be really ontop of the properties, you.
To do that, yeah, you have togo look at it, not just I,
exactly, but that's where Ican't look at it if I'm not

(33:28):
doing this in my hometown.
So I need somebody like you.
Yeah, it's gonna go over thereand go.
You know what you really needto do x, y and z for sure, and
then that's why we created this.

Speaker 1 (33:36):
We have these, this inspection, all these.
I feel like someone said theyjust joined my team, like we
have a lot of tools, and we dohave a lot of tools compared to
a year ago, and one of the toolsthat I'm really fond of is this
inspection report.
I can pull my phone out andmake an inspection report on a
small one bedroom home, or I canpull it out, make it on a 5 000
square foot.
You know, mansion, sure, bothyeah, and then I can share, I'm

(34:01):
gonna.
I can share it to the owner sothey understand.
Then I can share it to themaintenance guy, who he's like
okay, he can digest what's goingon, it's documented what needs
to be done, yeah oh yeah,pictures of it, yeah, that's
great.
Wow, that goes a long way.
I used to bet that does, andvideo's okay, but it's harder,
yeah, to keep up with.
Then I was trying to save itand then I was losing my links

(34:22):
and inspections and it staysthere on the file.
So we get the report from theinspection report, we save it
and then in two years, hey, what, we had to briefly look when
that person moved out, or orthey moved in.
Oh, here we go and then we getto use tenant like inspections
as well.
We can say hey, mr mark, pleasefill out the inspection report.
Now it's not all.

(34:42):
They can hide stuff but, you canalso get at least an idea of
what it looks like.
So it's been.
That's one of the things thatI've had to plug into the
business to make sure that, okay, I can't do it all, but we can
have tools and people to makesure that we take care of things
man, in today's time too.

Speaker 4 (34:59):
It's.
It's insane the amount of newtools that are coming to the
market, I mean continuously.
It's.
It's insane the amount of newtools that are coming to the
market.
I mean continuously.
It's overwhelming.
But I think that you have to beable to continuously adapt to
that and involve with whatever'salong the line, because if you
don't, you get like I mean youcan get knocked back.
I mean saving yourself a toweryou know on every single unit

(35:22):
that you're going to, or 15minutes like that pressure to
continuously innovate.
That technology is imperative.

Speaker 2 (35:30):
I'm glad you brought up the tools thing because in
property management inparticular, there really have
been some great advances there.
Have you know?
So you can.
Someone can apply online, youcan check their credit, you can
vet them out.
That way you can collect theirrent electronically.
Boy, is that a better thanchasing them for checks.

(35:54):
Okay, that's a huge deal.
And then you can document alltheir complaints and then how
long it takes you to respond.
Kpis, yeah, I mean.
I think all those and thosetools are very affordable.
Now, what do you use for that?
I use KPIs.
Yeah, I mean I think all those,those and those tools are very
affordable.
Now, what do you use for that?

Speaker 1 (36:06):
I use Yardi, Um, and they're the one of the bigger
property management tools outthere.
Um, I chose Yardi cause I Ireally like commercial.
So Yardi, when I first started,allowed me to add some
commercial clients in thebeginning and allowed me to plug
in there with working throughcommercial leases and all those
things.
So I use Yardi for all mytenant owner portal and, yeah,

(36:30):
every morning that's what I loginto and see how we pay our
vendors, how we pay ourselves.
That's fantastic and keep trackof everything.
There's a lot of tools, andsome are better than others.
That I've been learning moreabout are the ones and sometimes
you know, I get upset withyardie or others like I'm gonna
switch.
Well, that's a nightmare.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
It's so mission critical you can't pull the pull
.

Speaker 4 (36:50):
That's the reason for the 8 to 10x multiple.
Is that's so god dang sticky.
It's really unhook.
You cannot, I think so I lovethat.
They love that stuff.
Right, we got you now youalready.

Speaker 1 (37:05):
I'm like man well, I just gotta figure out how to get
.

Speaker 4 (37:07):
There's no way I'm gonna change it but you know the
value back to your kind ofrecurring thing, like if you're
using really good tools that areproviding you know substantial
value time and you apply that toyour clients.
You become sticky along withthose tools.
You see what I'm saying you doyes.

Speaker 1 (37:24):
And now, yeah, my tenants are ingrained in them,
my owners are ingrained in them.

Speaker 4 (37:29):
Yeah, they're used to that.
Yeah, because if I had Brian asmy property manager and I got
mad at him and I want to firehim, and I talked to another
property manager and I reallylike this inspection report,
sure, exactly, and I'm talkingto you and I'm like, so how do I
get my inspection reports?
Oh well, I mean, I'll get thatto you once every three months.

(37:49):
You know well how do you send?
it to me.
Well, I'll, I'll have to meetwith you and I'm like with mine,
because that point, yes, yes,yes, I love it yeah, no touch.

Speaker 2 (38:03):
Why aren't we in the property management business?
I don't know, maybe we shouldjust make.
Let's get rid of all this othercrap that doesn't make money
we're gonna call it CBA propertymanager.

Speaker 4 (38:13):
What's that?
The opposite of ABC yeah, solove it.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
You know, let's call it A-A-B-C, then we're.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
I called my ABC because one it's simple and I
didn't want to put my name on it.
Yeah, and then my wife's nameis Erin and my name is Brian
Clark, so I was like oh.
Oh, how sweet.

Speaker 2 (38:35):
Isn't that nice.

Speaker 1 (38:37):
But it's simple, so sweet, instead of like Clark
Real Estate, where's Clark,where's he at?
I don't know where Clark's at.

Speaker 2 (38:42):
Well, there's other Clarks around here too, in this
town.

Speaker 4 (38:46):
Well, no, but it also allows you to.
I mean, you know, that's onething is like having a business
name.
Like I've always been abeliever of that, I've never put
my name on a business Right.
Because business right?
Because you, you create that sothat the entity becomes
something other than you.
You're just a part of it andyou can sell a daggum thing
without it having that's such agreat point.

Speaker 2 (39:04):
I mean, like, mark's, why gank our building and
development company?
I mean we never even tried tosell it.
It's too tied to me.
We had assets.
We had assets though.
Sure, yeah, but but you'reright, I mean it's.
It's a really good point, yeah,and so it's awesome.
I mean so what are your plansultimately for this business?
Do you plan on ramping up to acertain point and exiting?

(39:27):
You have other verticalintegration.
My plan has been.

Speaker 1 (39:31):
when I started was you know, let's just keep this
and roll it and keep it goingfor generations or whatever, but
that's changing.
Especially with some of thestresses that I've had Life's
too short I say, well, I've beentelling myself or I told this
to myself last year I'm in thisbusiness because I get to spend

(39:52):
more time with my family.
Yeah, I know, not true.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
Not really.
They're here in the room withme, but I'm on the phone.

Speaker 1 (40:02):
Yeah, my brain is over here.
I'm waking up at three in themorning, got this going on.
I don't, I don't have a like adirect.
Right now it's like keepgrowing it, I think right now
it's like massaging it, likemaking sure that we get it to
where it needs to be.
Yeah, uh, definitely gonna be.
There's gonna be some thingsthat got to decide which way we
want to go.
Cause, right now it's likecommercial, residential, that's

(40:25):
that's rolling.
Residential is easier to get.
Commercial is more relationshipdriven.
I enjoy commercial, but I can'tdo everything and so it's
changing as we speak.
I mean I think it's like Ithink still, I think I, so it's
changing as we speak.
I mean I think it's like Ithink still, I think I want to.
I want to be in real estate, Iwant to be in property
management, but besides that, Idon't have like a.

(40:46):
I mean maybe I'd sell it oneday yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (40:49):
Well, I mean, I think you know, as long as your key
point's growing it right, youjust keep growing and growing
right.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
Whatever you do, whether you keep it or sell it,
the same things apply, right?
Yeah, if you just grow it.

Speaker 4 (40:59):
You have options.
Yeah, exactly you know.
Yeah, it's more work and itmight become more intense, but
you should be.
It may not be more work.

Speaker 2 (41:07):
I mean, if you get there because you can afford to
get the right people, yeah, andthen it takes some of the stuff
off your plate.

Speaker 4 (41:13):
You're gonna have to grow with it as the business
owner, entrepreneur, right, andI mean that can be a little bit
intimidating, but I mean itusually doesn't, it usually
benefits in some way or another,I tend to just like the make
ready business that I created.

Speaker 1 (41:30):
my brain keeps going that way of like okay, I have
ABC, I have make ready.
I'm like, well, what else can Ibuild?
And all kinds of things pop inmy head and I didn't have that
mentality or that entrepreneurspirit, I would say, until a
couple years ago.
Because I was building this one, I didn't think, oh, I'm going

(41:51):
to create ABC and then I'm goingto do all these things.
No, I just thought, real estate, stick with it.
But now it's like I have allthese experiences from my past
even from, like, being a tellerat a bank and being a fly
fishing guide and all thesethings of years ago, it's like.
So my brain goes more towardswell, what can I build next?
Or what can I build?
You're sticking like anentrepreneur.

Speaker 2 (42:08):
Yeah, I love it.
It's me excited as hell you'vemade the transition.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
I'm sorry.
Thanks, jeff, I got a badge,yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
That's like my wife's ex-husband, who's a really good
friend both of ours when we gotmarried.
I don't know if I told youabout the text he sent me.
He goes.
I don't know whether tocongratulate you or send you my
condolences.
Yeah, I bet it's false.
But then he also said in allcaps gabby is not my dog,
exclamation point.

(42:41):
Exclamation point because hedidn't want the dog.
But yeah, it's kind of likethat.
Welcome to the world ofentrepreneurship.
Yeah and um, there's pros andcons associated with it.
There is, but the opportunitiesthat you've created for
yourself now and the lack ofdependence on your employer with

(43:04):
all these different clients.
You can get fired by somebodyand brian's still in business,
yeah, if you get fired bywalmart, so you're you're out.
Yeah, you're out of business.
You're on on the street.
Yeah, exactly, I mean, that'svaluable, isn't it?

Speaker 1 (43:22):
It is At the same time my wife's like well, you
know, all my owners are myemployer, Sure, so some are
worth more than others, Yep, andI take all of them serious.
So it's like, man, when I havea hard conversation.
Oh yeah, so the pendulum swingsboth ways, that's true.
I can't do that man like yeah,you know, this owner calls me

(43:43):
and I'm like, okay, this isimportant.
Or this client and I'm an owner, so it works back and forth
no-transcript.

Speaker 4 (44:04):
I think that, like you starting this, you know you
had some comfort because I meanone smart thing you did and I
encourage, like my girls, likethey're talking about getting
jobs in the summer or whateverbetween school I'm like get
something you're passionate andinterested in Amen, yes, jobs in
the summer or whatever betweenschool.
And like get something you'repassionate, interested in

(44:25):
learning, man, yes, you know, Imean just like like you did with
lindsay.
Like I mean like, okay, you'reinterested in real estate, so
you'll work for a real estatecompany and stay in it and stay,
yeah, stay in it.

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Speaker 2 (44:49):
Everybody asks me that.
You know I mean, I teachstudents.
They're generally seniors.
Most of them don't know whatthey want to do.
Like what's your best advice?
Tell them these two things Adecide, know what they want to
do.
Like what's your best advice?
I would tell them these twothings a decide what industry
you want to go into and take anyjob in it, yeah.
B decide where you want to liveand go there okay, yeah, it's
true, because then you'rebuilding yeah, you know you're

(45:10):
building your network and you'rebuilding your knowledge of the
industry yeah, and don't get ajob where you're telling you're
chilling, chilling, yeah,chilling'.

Speaker 4 (45:18):
In the summer I'm like I get a chillin', chillin'.

Speaker 2 (45:22):
Chillin'.
Okay, come on, man.
I couldn't understand what youwere saying.

Speaker 4 (45:27):
When you're just chillin' out, yeah, yeah, you
think about okay, I'm going toonly do two hours, I'm going to
be able to do this, forget that.
You know, like those days areover.
You've limited yourself toomuch 100 and then yeah, but you
got this, you got interested,you, you found out that you're
actually enjoying it.
You go work for walmart, youtake that, apply to it, and then
you have the confidence, yeah,to say you know what.
I can do this, like I'm.

(45:48):
I have the tools, the knowledge, I have the baseline, and then
you get into it.
But then this business has thenexposed you to even all kinds
of other things.
Right, like you just startpopping out the ideas.
You're getting excited.
That is a good life, my friend.
Being excited about what thehell you're doing, amen, that's
good stuff.
That's why entrepreneurshiprocks and rolls.

(46:10):
Yeah, I'm still excited.
You're not sitting in a cubicledreading what you're doing,
feeling like you're stuckWaiting for the weekend, right,
waiting for the weekend, right,waiting for the weekend, yeah,
man, I mean.
And like you don't have to dothat, and you know we've talked
about this before.
But I think the big, the bigproblem is is that we think that
that's what work is when it'sactually only been like that for

(46:30):
about 100 years.
Before that.

Speaker 2 (46:32):
You did what you were good at doing yeah in most
cases, and usually you like whatyou're good at.
Yeah, you notice that yeah,yeah, absolutely 100 usually you
like what you're good at too.

Speaker 4 (46:39):
You ever notice that, yeah, yeah, absolutely A
hundred percent, because youfeel like you're contributing,
which is what everybody wants todo.

Speaker 1 (46:45):
For sure.
If you're students, that'swhere hiring too People.
I've had successes and failuresof hiring interns, and the ones
that are successes they have apassion.
They don't know anything aboutreal estate.
Right for it.
If you have passion, you got tofeed it, and if you don't, then
well, go find your passion.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
I think, too, though, that you know we've hit on
something that's really critical.
There's a difference in havinga passion for a discipline
versus having a passion for anindustry.
Yeah, to me, the industrypassion is better, because you
navigate it.

Speaker 4 (47:17):
Yeah, you can navigate, navigate.

Speaker 2 (47:19):
You can move within it.
If you're, though, all aboutthe discipline like I love IT or
I love accounting, I can doaccounting for anyone.
You will not have the samecareer trajectory.
That's true, because you'vesort of defined what your role
is.
Yeah, instead of when you focuson the industry.

Speaker 4 (47:40):
Like, if you like, accounting or finance, but I
want to do retail Right.

Speaker 2 (47:44):
Define what your role is instead of when you focus on
the industry, like, if you like, accounting or finance.
But I want to do retail Right.
Focus on retail.
Now you know retail accounting.
Yeah, you've got your entrypoint into retail.
But learn the retail industry.
Maybe you can go beyond that.
Yeah, that's good.
You know Hell, yeah, yes, well,this has been a fun
conversation.

Speaker 4 (48:00):
Yeah, man, brian, congrats on everything.
Brother, I mean encouraging tohear your story.
I'm sure people that arelistening will be encouraged too
, because you know what I likeabout this.
When you were coming on I wastalking to Mark, I mean that you
know, a few years into it.
It's neat to you know for folksto hear that, because there's a
lot of folks out there thatlisten to us, that are toying

(48:22):
with the idea.
Yes, right, and I mean ifyou've been like I love your
story about walmart, you knowtwo years, the associate buyer
which I think is fantastic buyeris I've got business.
If I could rewind and dosomething, I would absolutely
100 go choose to be a buyer Iget it too, if you could.

Speaker 2 (48:39):
I mean, you've got to be good.

Speaker 4 (48:41):
Oh yeah, no for sure, but what you learn in that?
I mean like I've met some ofthe most incredible people, and
every buyer that I've met fromWalmart is like there's
something about their work ethic, their mindset.
It's just like man, they'rejust good.

Speaker 1 (49:04):
They just know something that most other people
don't know it's, it's a, it's a.
You can't describe it untilyou're like yeah, do you there?
It's, yeah, I.
I just keep calling it retailboot camp and I will forever.
I mean, it taught me more thanI knew that I could learn, and
knew that I could do.

Speaker 4 (49:12):
And I would say it's also about the way the company
that you know, specificallywalmart buyers Because of how
the company was built upon that,how that you know those buyers
are like, they're the heartbeatof that organization, yeah, and
everything that they do issignificant to the greater good

(49:32):
of that organization.
It's just a fantastic.
I mean, what a privilege.
You know, like I was talking tomy middle girls, like she
pulled up last night with herfriend and I walked out there
Because they had their freaking.
They pulled up to the front.
She pulled up to the front door, had her headlights beaming
into my house.
Did she run over like sprinklerheads or anything?
I mean, dude, it was like, like, don't do that.
She basically almost parked onthe bush.

Speaker 2 (50:05):
You know, in the front door and I and I'm like
what the hell I didn't know whoit was and I'm walking out there
like it was like aliens orsomething.
Did you I did?
Did you have like your shotgunhat ready?
My dad would greet me like thatat the top of the stairs when I
was a kid.
Like 2 am, he's completelynaked.
He's got his double barrel lcsmith.
Halt who goes there, you know?
No, he didn't.
Oh, he did, I do not.

Speaker 4 (50:21):
You'd walk in at like 2 am 2 am after hanging out.
Yeah, you're out there.

Speaker 2 (50:26):
So you want to sneak in, or what?
No, I didn't have to sneak in,I didn't ask.
Did he say halt?
Yes, halt, who goes there?

Speaker 1 (50:39):
Identify yourself.
That's great.

Speaker 4 (50:41):
Identify.
But anyway, I was going upthere.
She was just out there with herfriend and she was talking
about if she's going to go tothe U of A, if she's going to go
to Ole Miss, you know, and prosand cons.
I was like y'all don'tunderstand where you live and
the college that you're talkingabout.
So it's such a good college inthe sam walton college of

(51:04):
business.
It's such a fantastic direction.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
We just keep getting better and better on our
rankings and the offerings getbroader and broader.
You, the people you meet here Iknow it's network is strong
people don't realize that.
It's like they don't.
Yeah, listen, I just got back.
Last weekend I was in southernillinois for my alma mater, siu
salukis.
Baby, that's right, and youknow that's where your dad came.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and, and soyou know.

(51:30):
But carbondale has declined.
It's gone the other way andit's a shame.
But the reason is where theyare.
They are too cut off fromindustry.
The industry we were close towhen I went there in the
seventies was coal mining.

Speaker 4 (51:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:44):
Needless to say, that's not gone up.
Okay, yeah, we are here in theheartbeat of America with
fortune number one andeverything that comes off of
that, and you're so right.
I mean you want to be here oryou want to be in Mississippi.
I'm sorry, I don't want to rundown Mississippi, but I mean
there's just going to be moreopportunities here.

(52:06):
Yeah, there is as a place tostart to establish yourself.
Plus, it's a whole lot moreconvenient.

Speaker 4 (52:11):
You save a lot of money.
You know, you're the weather,weather's better.
God it's there's.
There's creeks with rocks inthem, yeah, instead of mud.

Speaker 2 (52:20):
You know what I'm saying I mean, I'm sorry,
there's not like cotton driftingacross the road that looks like
litter, right, okay, it's just,I'm sorry, I know, don't tell
them smart up, girl don't telleverybody though well, no why
not you'd be like that, becausethat means we're for your empire
it's.

Speaker 1 (52:37):
It's funny because I go to these conferences and they
look at me like you're fromArkansas.

Speaker 2 (52:42):
Yeah, you don't seem like a hillbilly.
You've got shoes on and allyour teeth.
Wow, don't you miss that?
I still get it.
I get it too.

Speaker 1 (52:51):
When I go to these conferences I meet someone new
and they're like okay, yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:03):
Like, yeah, don't come here, thanks, california,
thank you.
It's so true that thatstereotype it's just awful.

Speaker 4 (53:06):
I love the stereotype it's like you, you're sneaky.
I like talking a deeper countrydraw.
I'm talking about you down bythe area because then I can
sneak around.
Yeah, they don't see you.
They don't see me coming like ashadow, phantom, ninja hey,
brian, where'd you grow up?

Speaker 1 (53:22):
springdale.
Oh okay, so you're myspringdale kid and that's kind
of I.
I started my business and wewere found a small little office
that in fayetteville and then Ihad the opportunity to move to
springdale and it's been great.
Now I get to kind of watchwhat's going on springdale's
awesome springdale's growing Ican, can walk to downtown Emma
Nice Getting involved in thechamber really well, trying to

(53:43):
really put my roots inSpringdale.
There's a lot of areas you canput your roots Eric's got some
properties down there.
I know he does.
Yeah, yeah, I'll talk to youabout that one.
I know which property it is.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
Okay, well, let's chat about that.
I saw it myself the other dayDowntown Springdale is.
We have the greatest time whenwe go down there yeah, yeah,
great so there's.
It's just amazing, it's sotrans it.

Speaker 4 (54:01):
It's awesome talk about a transfer that part more
years yes, I know even more itjust keeps getting better part
they put down there, the george,is a george suther park, it's
called.

Speaker 2 (54:09):
It's fantastic, it's beautiful, it's right behind my
property, yep and all thoserestaurants and everything and
the whole streetscapeimprovements.
It's just all for my property.

Speaker 4 (54:19):
it's not added to the value yet, Not yet.

Speaker 1 (54:22):
Not yet, but we're going to fix that.
Yeah, and you got some funnyneighbors, but that's okay, I do
.
I love them all On Springdale.
The last thing about Springdaleis like I went down there two
weeks ago.
My buddy said, hey, you want togo have dinner?
I said, sure, let's go todowntown springdale to have
mexican food.
And then we walk out, we'redone, and there's a crick race
going on and they're racingbikes.

(54:42):
Well, this is kind of cool.
You didn't see this like fiveyears ago?
Oh no, I mean, when I was inhigh school my parents were like
don't go down.
Yeah, don't go down, go downthere.
And now it's like, holy smokes,you can walk down there and I
know like, actually, so, havesomething going on and there's
lighting and it's nice.
And there's going to be evenmore in a couple of years when
they build a hotel and then morebusinesses coming in, more

(55:04):
apartments.

Speaker 2 (55:05):
Higher apartments are going in.
It's going to be fantastic.

Speaker 4 (55:08):
Go straight from a building.
Yeah, good investment it is.
Yeah, I'm just keeping my weedsdown.

Speaker 2 (55:15):
I went and sprayed and weeded it the other day,
like 20 years ago, I could havebought those buildings for like
ten thousand dollars.
I mean, that's when we allshould have bought that stuff,
but it's still it.
It's.
It's got so much potential.

Speaker 1 (55:28):
It's the next hidden gem in this area, I think it is
that everybody knows thatbentonville fable has been there
, rogers is where and sit in themiddle of it rogers downtown
too.

Speaker 2 (55:36):
I think it's great.

Speaker 1 (55:37):
It's got a lot of potential uh, but it's just
great to see, I mean it's, it'sthis whole area.
That's why there's like I'veheard okay, you know, springdale
is going to get to where itneeds to be, and then right,
something else is going to popup.

Speaker 4 (55:47):
You know what?
I got something to admit.
What's that?
I like the roundabouts androgers.
Now, oh my gosh, I do, I do.

Speaker 2 (55:55):
It actually helps with traffic well, actually I, I
hear what you're saying.
I mean at least they'reproperly designed.
Some of the ones we have inFayetteville are so small that
you cannot drive a normal likeF-150 around, the damn thing.
I mean it's like they've got tobe designed properly.
Yeah, they do here.
They're big enough that you canactually use it like it's

(56:15):
intended.
I love it.
And there's like seven round ofoh, there's so many of your
house I'm able to not like I getdizzy.
I mean I'll never forget I hadmy.
I had the very first gps systemfactory available in a 1997 bmw
740.
Okay, when I got it it didn'thave any manuals or anything on

(56:39):
how to operate it, but anyway,eventually, after like a couple
weeks, we figured out how to useit.
We were in Cambridge and we goton in Massachusetts.
We got on this traffic circle.
It couldn't keep up, so it justkept us driving around and
around finally, we're like stopthe car if you can.
Okay, let this thing figure outwhere the hell we're going.

(57:01):
Just had you in this circle,just had us stuck in a perpetual
circle.
We just after like five times.
We're like, will you please?
I mean, it could not keep upbecause of the circle.

Speaker 4 (57:13):
The service.
They didn't have 5G back then.
No, they didn't.

Speaker 1 (57:17):
I don't know what it was.
Sounds like some of the smartcars these days.
Uh, so the cars are so smartthese days.

Speaker 4 (57:22):
It's, uh, yeah, it's a whole nother animal but well,
this has been a lot of fun.
It has been.
Thanks, brian, for your time.
Congratulations to you, man,yeah thanks, brian.

Speaker 2 (57:29):
We appreciate your comment and uh, for those of you
who uh would like to talk tobrian, what is your web address?

Speaker 1 (57:37):
um, yeah, abc, my website's abc-managercom.
That's the simplest way.

Speaker 2 (57:43):
All right, abc-managercom is the way to
reach Brian Clark.
That's it, and it's been agreat show.
It has been, and I will see youall or we will be back with you
.

Speaker 4 (57:55):
What was that?
I will see like, am I out?
I was talking to you guys here.
I felt you.
What was that?
I will see like, am I out?
I was talking to you guys here.
I felt like you're talking tothe audience, so mark you start
your own big talk about some.

Speaker 2 (58:05):
No, I couldn't possibly do that without you.
I gotta have you here.
Thank you, um.
So no, it's been great and welook forward to uh, hearing more
about your success.
Thank you, and we look forwardto being together again next
week.
Yes, thank you, and we lookforward to putting out another
episode of Big Talk About SmallBusiness.

Speaker 5 (58:36):
Thanks for tuning into this episode of Big Talk
About Small Business.
If you have any questions orideas for upcoming shows, be
sure to head over to our website,
wwwbigtalkaboutsmallbusinesscomand click on the Ask the Host
button for the chance to haveyour questions answered on the
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Stay connected with us onLinkedIn at Big Talk about Small

(58:57):
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