November 12, 2024 • 44 mins
Rachelle Strole shares her approach to success, detailing her background and the origins of her company. She discusses overcoming challenges in commercial real estate and emphasizes the role of failure in fostering innovation and sustainable development. Rachelle redefines success by balancing business achievements with personal well-being. She highlights the importance of building a strong team and fostering leadership, while also acknowledging how personal interests can influence professional growth. The episode underscores the value of collaboration and continuous learning, offering insights into how these elements contribute to both individual and organizational success.
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(00:00):
I mean, do we all do we what car do we all needto drive?
(00:03):
Like, hopefully, my kids are gonna have tocare.
But, you know, it's it's I think the definitionof success has been tied way too much to how
much money you make.
And I gotta be honest with you.
I met a lot of people with a lot of money, andI don't find many that are happy.
So, I think there's that's I think there therewould be this way that I would have to stand on
a 1,000,000 soap boxes to teach, but successdoesn't have to do with this buck.
(00:26):
And then the buck is just chasing the buck andthen life becomes just chasing bucks.
Have you ever wondered how successfularchitecture, engineering, and construction
companies scale their business?
Or have you ever wanted guidance on how to getmore growth, wealth, and freedom from your AEC
company?
(00:46):
Well, then you're in luck.
Hi.
I'm Will Foratt.
And I'm Justin Nagel, and we're your podcasthosts.
We interview successful AEC business leaders tolearn how they use people, process, and
technology to scale their businesses.
So sit back and get ready to learn from theindustry's best.
This is Building scale.
(01:09):
Hey, listeners.
It's Will here.
Our mission is to help the AEC industry protectitself by making technology easy.
If you've ever listened to our show, then youknow that the 3 pillars of scaling a business
are people, process, and technology.
So if you suspect technology is your weekly,then book a call with us to see where we can
help maximize your company's IT cybersecuritystrategy.
(01:33):
Just go to building scale dot net slash help.
Hey, everybody.
It's Justin Nagel here from Spot Migration.
Welcome back to another episode of buildingscale, specifically the building connection
series where we partnered up with Keymakers,out in Arizona, where I am from, even though
(01:54):
today I am not currently there.
They're essentially a high level networkinggroup that gets deals done, and opens all the
doors that, you need in in your business.
This is where I met the amazing, RochelleStroll, who is, the guest that we have on
today.
(02:14):
She's the owner of Capital Asset Management orCAM as they like to call it.
She's got a rich background in banking,development, real estate.
And with that diverse history, and experiencemanaging the 1st FDIC structured sales
portfolio holding, 700,000,000 in commercialassets.
(02:35):
She was able to cofound camp, in 2008, which isis really cool.
And she consults and mentors and advocates forcommunity, improvement balancing family life,
that work home balance, we talk about that,philanthropy.
And she's just a lot of fun.
Like, there's there's there's few people thatyou initially meet, and you're like, man,
(02:57):
you're just you're just a ton of fun, silly inin the best amazing ways.
And, yeah, it's it's been fun getting to knowher over the past few months, and, this is one
of the conversations we had for you.
So, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, andhere it is.
(03:17):
Yes.
So, Rochelle, the I am very, very excited to,kinda share this, this conversation with other
people because, every time I've talked to you,I've smiled most of the conversation.
So that's always an awesome thing.
And your stories are unbelievably fascinating.
In addition to this wealth of knowledge youhave in the business world.
So this to me is it this is just easy.
This is just a pleasure for me.
(03:38):
So,
fun stuff.
It it's totally fun.
So, for for listeners, tell tell a little bitof your story.
What what's the background here?
And and so we can just kinda get into somenitty gritty stuff.
Business wise.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Kind of a a weird story.
Was a 16 years government underwriter, FannieFreddie stuff, you know, you know, a whole
(04:01):
another story of how we got involved with the fd c FDIC structured sale portfolio.
Next thing you know, we're forming a company tofigure out what the heck we're gonna do with
$780,000,000 of commercial real estate.
And, the funny part of that is the list theygave us, like, this little, like, old tiny 9
point, you know, Excel spreadsheet was, like,90% inaccurate.
(04:22):
So it was like they're like, oh, you know,there's this lot in Las Vegas and, you know,
and I had to go travel to see.
There's only, like, 54 units in the wholething, but it was a, you know, large project.
So I had to go see each one, and I'd be callinghim, like, you know, this is a 1935 storage
unit right off the strip.
And they're like, no.
That's a piece of dirt.
Like, no.
I'm standing right here.
(04:43):
Yeah.
And I'm looking at it, and then, no.
It's a piece.
So it kinda went like that, and it was dogs andcats too.
I mean, it was car washes, half built malls.
It was just a freaking blast.
Let's just put it that way.
It was just, like, if you went you know, whenyou're a kid and you could pay $2 for a grab
bag and you just didn't know what was in it,That was that just at a very big level.
And then for up until the day, we still havesome of the assets.
(05:06):
It was nice.
Your day planned you.
You didn't plan your day, and you had your cutelittle book about you're gonna get done.
And you got there, like, 8:10 in the morning,and then it was like, oh, rip that shit up
because that's what happened.
You know, you just jumped through the window ina casino in Vegas and landed on a dead guy.
Oh, he's been dead a while.
You know?
Oh, let's build this into a Walgreens.
(05:27):
You know?
It it's so, the whole company was formed, withthe purpose of knowing that the, you know,
these the people in charge were just muchbigger than day to day stuff.
So, you know, who's gonna cut the lawn?
Who's gonna collect the rents?
Who's going to unbuild something that shouldn'thave been built?
Who should build something that shouldn't bebuilt?
(05:48):
Who should get rid of the dead guy in the oldcasino?
You know?
So we put together this company, 2,009, withtrying to, like, fit all the pieces together
because you knew you're gonna have theseconference calls with, like, 30 people on them.
Yeah.
And if they ever had to divert to someone elseor, like, a third party, the call was just
gonna be that much longer.
Uh-huh.
And, you know you know, god help us.
(06:09):
Patients can only be you know, even with kids,it was like, really?
We need a 3 hour phone call?
So, so we had kind of everything.
We have development, and we have management,and we have acquisitions and dispositions, and,
just every bit of what would take if you gothanded a grab bag of commercial real estate and
you had to figure it out.
It's like the world's biggest puzzle, in thesouthwest only, which was kinda cool.
(06:32):
So yeah.
So that was how this whole crazy ass stuffstarted.
So in 2009, you just had the you obviously wereyou were working, with the government, but you
had this vision of, like, hey.
We could we should just go do this thing.
Like, we that was that the thought process?
I I I think it was more like, we're gonna dothis and you were gonna fix it.
(06:53):
Oh, okay.
Okay.
I'm not sure we were I think we were weluckily, the the group that actually was the
partner with the fed were probably the group ofthe best humans I've ever met or worked with.
And they were more of the people that said youyeah.
What you what you're thinking sounds good.
Go ahead and do it.
Okay.
(07:13):
It was just like a freedom of all kinds, andthen we just started making shit up.
I mean, all day every day.
I mean, it was like because this stuff doesn'thappen.
Right?
Yeah.
So it it was it I mean, in all honesty, I mean,we I think we had a good background.
We had the best people.
We still have the best people on demand, but wereally were making stuff up, yeah, on a daily
basis.
(07:33):
But that's that is entrepreneurship.
Right?
Like, that is owning a business.
It is a lot of Fix it.
Building building the plane as it's as it'sgoing down.
Right?
Like, it's like, is it gonna work?
Well, we hope it does before we get to thebottom, kind of a thing.
Right?
All the traveling I do, I do not wanna hearhear you say that ever again.
Sorry.
Won't bring up any more plane stories.
No.
No.
Crash in place.
(07:53):
But, so you're you're going through this, andthen it's like all these properties that
somebody said there's nothing there, there arestuff there, then then what what hap what do
you do with those assets?
Like, what happens then?
It's like, you say that there's this is dirt.
I see that it's a storage unit in in one of theexamples.
Like, what does that mean?
What what
what then happens?
(08:15):
What you don't do is say, hey, Pawn Wars reallywants to put this on a show.
Should we do that?
And we're like, 1930s to 50s storage unitblocks all rested.
In Vegas.
I
don't wanna open that on TV.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's gonna be nothing but barrels, and we'renot opening those either.
(08:35):
You know?
But, no.
I mean, you know, it it actually you know,like, well, you know, how do you eat an
elephant?
You know, one bite at any time.
So we just, you know, started siloing them intowhat they really were.
You
know, car washes here, retail here, you know,god knows what here.
You know, put them in their buckets, figuredout who could figure them out the best in the
(08:55):
bucket, and they just went for it.
You know, it's just you couldn't leave it.
So I was just trying to figure out what thebest what should it be when it grows up if it
even should have been born?
It was
kind of fun.
You know, like, what should this have been?
What could it be or should it have ever been?
Like, for example, water park in Yuma, Arizona.
(09:18):
Probably a misstep on that one.
Right?
Just maybe just a little bit of a think thatagain.
Alright.
Yeah.
You know?
So and you could just go on and on about that.
But that was kind of the steps, and it was, itwas fun.
Because just, like, now that we're indevelopment in any you know, even if looking at
raw dirt, if you just go sit there long enough,you just, like, you know what?
(09:38):
This would be cool.
You know what's needed here?
You know, you just kinda this is like being alittle kid again.
I got my imaginary friend.
I just get to build it.
So what's, a lot A lot of companies, that theyeither start with a vision or eventually a
vision becomes, part of, the ethos of, of anorganization.
(09:59):
What does that look like maybe when youstarted?
And then in comparison to now, what does thatlook like?
Obviously, doing development and, like, saying,like, hey.
We we want this makes sense to be here.
And, like, those things, like, do you have abigger grander idea of, like, hey.
We we're trying to leave a stamp.
We're trying to leave a legacy.
We're trying to leave some of those things.
No question.
(10:20):
The more you get into commercial real estate amatter of fact, we did a Forbes Magazine thing
that they end up calling us the dinosaurslayers.
And I just love that because I love Game ofThrones.
So I was like, yes, we are.
You know?
But, the the antiquated state that commercialreal estate is in, because we weren't that was
(10:40):
in our background, just kind of blew our minds.
It's like we're still doing things like ourgrandpa's grandpa did.
Why?
Like, I mean, I'm talking from software to, howwe manage things to how, you know, checks are
collected to how we build.
And it was just mind blowing that everything wetouched was something my great grandpa probably
(11:01):
did.
And with the same sticks, with the same tools,with the same vendors, with the same whatever.
And I think we decided early on, like, yeah,this is just stupid.
I mean, that I mean, we're paper we'repaperless, and it just blows people's minds.
And I'm like, what do you need paper for?
We don't accept checks.
We scan everything.
You know, we we got our all of our engineersare on, you know, different, software systems
(11:24):
to allow them to do things.
And and there are still people just writing,like, you know, work orders on a piece of paper
and then sticking it on a cork board andsaying, oh, you know, this commercial site over
here has got a water leak.
I mean, what?
You know, I mean, just just, you know, justsimple things like putting, you know, drip
systems in that tell you when it's leaking.
You know, it it's just like things that arejust so easy.
(11:46):
So I think our goal in our real merge throughlife now is and our whole motto for the company
is commercial real estate, better.
Okay.
Simple.
Like, just just do it better.
Bring it up.
Just just just bring it up to 2,000 for god'ssake.
And then, you know, take it year by year.
But, so I think that it's been who we'vemorphed into and what we really are attempting
(12:06):
to become is, like, it's just logical, it's
more efficient, and it's better.
It's better for your clients.
It's better for you.
It's better for your development.
It's developments and better for your tenants.
Just embrace it.
Don't be scared of change.
Go for it.
Dive in.
Fail.
Fail for god's sake.
It's not gonna kill you.
It's not the worst effort we've all heard.
I mean, it's a good one.
Embrace the fail.
(12:27):
You know?
I mean, at least you tried.
You know?
Or you can just sit back and do it like greatgrandpa did.
You'll make money, but what we
Is, fail, we we talk about innovation a lot.
And when I think of innovation, right, right,it's just it's just failing a lot.
Like, that's what innovation is.
It's like how like how like Edison made like999 light bulbs for the one that he made that
(12:51):
worked, right?
Like that's like that's innovation.
Like that is that's the part that nobody talksabout.
They say, oh, look it.
We have a, you know, new electric car orwhatever it is.
Right?
And it's like, look how innovative we are.
It's like, yeah.
But, like, how many prototypes were butcheredin the time to get that to be thing that
eventually was, you know, the creation.
Like it that's that is it.
And I think a lot of people fear failure, whichis unfortunate because that's how we get
better, how we evolve, how like even asindividuals, right?
(13:14):
Like, I'm not I'm a better I'm a better dadtoday than I was a year ago because I did dumb
shit.
Like, I did things that didn't make sense.
Right?
And, like, now I look back and I'm like, well,that didn't work and that was that was dumb.
So, like, let me try something else.
So let me evolve into something.
(13:35):
Diaper goes on the other end.
Nobody told me that.
You know, I would like to say there's no books,but there's like a trillion books.
So Yeah, no joke.
When so when I when I think about this, like,why do you think that, like, it's just so far
behind?
We see it in construction for sure.
There's like technology behind processes behindcommercial real estate in general, though.
(13:57):
Why why do you think it's so behind?
Is it just the fear of failure of or is it justlike, well, the money's there.
So what do I care?
Oh, sadly.
Yeah.
Sadly, I would say that it's a very lucrativebusiness.
And I think a lot of people are like, you know,why break it?
You know what?
The wheel, you know, and I'm like, well, thewheel's broken.
(14:18):
You just haven't seen the the the 3 of the 10spokes are gone.
And then soon, 8 of the 10 spokes will be gone,and it'll still roll for a little bit.
You know, but, it it is and it's just again,it's it's also becomes just a disservice to
everyone.
You know, like, we are our our tech and ourproperty management side is so top notch, and
the profitability of each of those propertiesgoes up just because the tech is better.
(14:42):
And, yeah, it sucks to send spend moneytraining 52 people on some new software.
It does.
And it costs you money to do it.
And it's like, well, why would you send, youknow, 30 of your people off to a class to learn
about, you know, some new forecast managerthat'll teach people how to make their property
better when I could just collect rents, take apercentage, and pay myself.
(15:04):
Right?
I mean, you can see you can see, and you won'tfail because you're not changing anything.
You know?
And then, like, with the development side,that's where it really takes you to the next
level because you try building with differentproducts and you that saddest part of that is
we're very sustainable driven.
You you you can't even get lending for it.
Like, we had some a new system that we couldput together that literally was faster.
(15:28):
It was r 30 going in.
No bugs, no mold, fireproof.
I mean, build it and soundproof.
Build that in the if I had had that in college,because I can tell you that my colleague the
guy who lived next to me in my condo in collegewatched movies till 4 AM.
Do you want me to tell you each one?
Because I listened to every word of everyoneevery Friday night.
(15:48):
The poor guy needed a date.
I think I probably fixed that for him.
But I mean, you know, it's the there's, youknow, build better, but then you take it out.
And even if your numbers work, you'll have alender that'll be like, well, but, you know, if
you cut a tree down and make it a stick, we wecan underwrite that shit right there, like,
right now.
Or you wanna go educate our, you know, 70 yearold underwriter who's been underwriting sticks
(16:12):
and, you know, sticks and stones for the last20 years.
And it there's the there's what we have tothrough and find ways to make it economical.
I think this summer in Arizona may, like, helpin the fact that you build with stucco and
sticks and asphalt and concrete and sprawl andthen wonder why the temperature doesn't go down
(16:33):
at night while every succulent plant that'slived in the desert is dying.
And you don't think to yourself, wow.
If I just put those white tile roofs on or, youknow, use a material that doesn't hold heat in
or it's r 30 so you don't have to crank yourair.
Do you know that they fire up jet engines tokeep our power going in the summer?
(16:54):
I did not know that.
That's Yeah.
So make yourself ill by thinking about whatkind of fuel that burns through.
Oh my gosh.
That's great.
Think of just keep thinking of how gross thiscan get.
But yet, if you say I have a way to do this,and I'll take the hit.
I'll pay the extra $2 a square foot.
I, as a developer, will take that hit.
I will take it, and I will smile about it.
(17:15):
My kids will be proud of me, and they're stillgoing, but, you know, if you cut that tree down
and made it into a stick, you can do it forthis.
It's it's the the things are changing to thepoint of an extreme where I think these
conversations won't be that hard.
Yeah.
Because Arizona is continuing to grow.
We are not gonna cool off at night if we keepbuilding like we're building.
(17:36):
You can't have concrete asphalt in buildingsthat just hold heat all day, all night long
with roofs, which, by the way, roofs are ourbiggest problem.
And you can't even say, you know, in an HOA,how about we use this new tile that actually is
reflective?
Because what's not pretty enough?
Oh, well.
Okay.
When you're paying a $1,000 a month to keepyour house cool, I might think what's pretty.
(17:57):
Yeah.
Anyway, I didn't think
Pretty compared to function.
Please.
No.
No.
No.
I love it.
Pretty compared to function, there there one,there is balance.
Right?
So there is a balance to design and function.
No question about that.
But, in this scenario, I I would throw whitetile on my roof.
I wouldn't have any there would be I would haveno issue doing that.
(18:18):
Thank you.
I I would too.
Right?
When you take it out and you bring it up topeople, they're like, well, you know, even, you
know, people that don't have anything to dowith it.
Like, the guys just doing the construction one.
It's like, really?
Are you sure that's not gonna hurt your impact?
And I'm like, you know what?
I can tell you this.
With the young groups in that are young andrenting, if I said to them, if you stay here,
your power bill will be lower but yet you'rechanging the environment and my rents are the
(18:42):
same, I promise you they'll pick me.
Give them the chance because they will becausethey're young and they wanna change the world.
They don't get tainted until we all tell themthat they can't, you know, or that there's no
little step or no little step matters.
But they're young enough to be like, yeah.
I'm I'm gonna go there.
I'm gonna live there where I can tell myfriends I'm doing something that's better for
the world.
And then we get, you know, 30 and we're like,I'm not doing nothing.
(19:06):
Nothing's changing nothing.
You know, we get so cynical and shitty, andit's like, no.
You're wrong.
Keep trying.
Fail for God's sake.
Before we start recording, we're talking about,my my son being 4 and, like, he's, like, just
very empathetic and inquisitive and, like, allthose things that we, beat out of not
literally, but we, you know, we beat out ofchildren.
Right?
(19:26):
Like, saying, no.
Don't do it.
Do it this way or do that way or think about itthis way in comparison to letting them just be
and express because it's harder for us.
Right?
We got schedules and we got we got
shit to do.
Right?
But
Right.
Like, for them, they're just, you know, they'retrying to figure out what makes the most sense.
Right?
Like, I'm I'm in full learn mode.
(19:46):
I don't have any of these stresses.
I'm, like, totally able to language.
If you threw me down for an hour a day, I wouldI would be able to speak that language in, you
know, a month and a half.
And like, it it's just it's very wild, thatthat's the reality.
And as you can know, as you point, when you get30, you're not the same person as you were when
you were, say, 22.
(20:08):
I would also I mean, I would challenge mychallenge, I think, and I've I've got a 15 and
16 year old is defining success to these youngpeople.
Like, I think my life was defined that successwas a financial thing.
Like, you know, I mean, I was I mean, itdoesn't matter.
I mean, I was an art kid.
I loved art.
I loved all this.
And my folks are like, that's so sweet, andyou're good at it.
(20:30):
But you will never make any money doing that.
How about you get into banking?
You know?
I'm like, no.
No.
I'm getting, like, straight a's at ASU.
I'm fine.
And they're like, oh, that's so cute.
Now get a real life.
You know?
But and I would have been I don't need a bagwith a name on it.
You know?
But we I think we we also need to morph the waythat we teach young people success because
success can't be tied to dollars because thenthe happiness goes away.
(20:52):
And then you're chasing you can never chase thealmighty buck big enough because there's always
someone that's got more, and it's bigger andit's more and it's bigger.
How about if you your success was happiness andand giving back and feeling good and and doing
the right thing and all that?
And you know what?
I mean, do we all what car do we all need todrive?
Like, hopefully, my kids don't even have tocare.
(21:13):
But, you know, it's it's I think the definitionof success has been tied way too much to how
much money you make.
And I gotta be honest with you.
I've met a lot of people with a lot of moneyand I don't find many that are happy.
So, I think there's that's I think there therewould be this way that I would have to stand on
a 1,000,000 soap boxes to teach, but successdoesn't have to do with this buck.
(21:34):
And then the buck is just chasing the buck andthen life becomes just chasing bucks.
How do you, take that concept, which I verymuch agree with you?
How do you take that conch, concept and thenput it into the business?
Because, obviously, business needs to makemoney.
Right?
Like, we you know, we're in business because weare looking to to make a profit.
Right?
And and do that.
(21:54):
But there how do you balance those concepts of,like, what does success look like, you know,
for an individual that you are a leader of inin the business?
You know, I I will tell you, and I think Imentioned this to you, and I get all goofy
about it.
We won something a couple years ago about justbeing a great culture.
I can't remember what the award was.
But of all the things that we received, it wasthe one that really made me happy.
(22:18):
I mean, like, truthfully, joyful Because, we dotalk to these we have every age group, by the
way.
But we do talk about happiness and life balanceand dogs and cats come to work.
I have an I have a new leopard kitten, by theway.
So he can eat every dog that comes in, but, youknow, I bring this crazy kitten in on Fridays.
And we bring in food, and we we remodeled andbuilt a big ass bar.
(22:42):
And you know what?
I love that big ass bar.
And, but we talk a lot about, you know,extremes, overworking, enjoyment.
We have a book club.
We have a fantasy football league that abusesone another.
We go to quarterly charity events because youknow what?
Everyone can tell you, oh, god.
I did it.
And you know what?
They all leave happy.
(23:03):
They all leave different.
They all feel touched.
They all have touched.
I mean, it's it's a cultural thing.
I mean, you have to and I've been in othercompanies.
You know?
It's just like, you know, how much did youmake?
What are your goals?
What's your deal day?
You know?
I had one person that started with our companywhen we purchased Zelle and and she's just so
motivated and amazing.
But she wanted to meet every week to talk aboutwhere she was in her goals.
(23:24):
And I'm like, that's awesome.
But then we had to morph that from a financialgoal to a success goal.
And it was really, like, kind of what?
You don't wanna talk about my numbers?
I'm like, I do wanna talk about your numbers.
I absolutely wanna talk about your numbers.
Number 1, I wanna talk about why you have thesenumbers where you have them.
And then let's talk about your life becausethey might not match.
(23:45):
You know, the number you're striving for maytake joy out of your 3 little kids.
Let's talk about that part of it.
Like, what is good, what is great, and what ishappy?
You know?
I mean, can can we find that spot?
And we still talk every single week and we haveour scheduled time.
But now we talk about way more than how manybucks did you make, how many bucks you're gonna
(24:05):
make, how are you gonna end the year.
That's important.
Of course, it is.
Yeah.
She's goal driven and she's amazing.
But, also, we talk about the kids and the tripsand the vacations and the things that I don't
know she would have taken if the goal had beenjust this financial goal.
Yeah.
It's important.
It's it's interesting because, you know, wetalk about in business, we talk about outcomes.
(24:28):
Right?
Like, what's the outcome that we're trying todeliver for our clients or what's the outcome
we're trying to get from, a partner or or, youknow, whatever that is.
And, the outcome if the outcome is you, youknow, diving into a pile of money, I guess the
money's important then.
But, like, the outcome is usually not that.
Right?
Like, it's usually not that imagery.
It's usually like, I want, you know, my kids tobe happy.
(24:51):
I want my, you know, I wanna I wanna, you know,have time with them.
I want to, even like it's self things of like Iwanna, you know, read, read more.
I wanna, learn a new hobby.
I wanna lose some weight.
Whatever the thing is, right?
It's usually not like, total money is thesolution.
It's like, can money help you aid on some ofthose things?
(25:13):
Absolutely.
And like, that's a tool to get you to thoseoutcomes.
But it's not That isn't the money isn't theoutcome.
Money is a tool that should be used to get youto the outcomes that you're looking for.
Well, and the biggest lie in I think thebiggest lie in life, and maybe I'm just getting
older, is, well, I'm just gonna work so hardand make so much money that I'm just gonna do
all those things when I retire.
(25:33):
Yeah.
I'm gonna I'm gonna go on a I'm gonna playtennis.
I'm gonna travel the world.
I'm gonna do that.
And it's like, man, I didn't know that you Imean, you have that much control over the
future.
Right?
So you have many friends I have.
And, again, I'm at the age where, you know,people are retiring all that.
That, you know, 2 years after they retire, I'vegot this wrong with me.
And, you know, there's stress related.
There's heart conditions, stomach conditions,all these things.
(25:55):
It's like, yeah.
Because you did nothing fun.
You did drive yourself like crazy.
And you probably have just a a you can diveinto that bag of money.
And guess what?
It's gonna be a death by a 1,000 paper cutsfrom each one of those bucks.
But yet none of the things like, my dad, myparents are in their eighties, and all my mom
ever wants to do or wanted to do is travel.
So now they have the money.
We have the ability to take them and do, butthey have a hard time.
(26:17):
Yeah.
It's hard to walk that many miles.
You can't, you know, Rome is not a lot of funon a bike when you're 83, you know, 84 years
old.
So that all these years of trying to make ourlives great in all the time that they wanna do
and now are they gonna get to?
You know, are they gonna get to do thosethings?
And they did it all for us, and I appreciateit.
Like like, no one's business, but the dreamsthat they have are, they're not going to get,
(26:42):
I'm not gonna miss and my kids aren't either.
And so you must feed that in through life.
Take the flipping 2 week vacation for god'ssake.
The world is unless you are actually a brain oror a heart surgeon, pretty much you can be gone
for 2 weeks.
And if you can't, your company's in a bigshivel, And you better figure that out.
Because if you can't leave for 2 weeks, you donot have the right folks.
(27:03):
Yeah.
But do it.
Take it.
Live it.
Come on.
I, I I literally wear a necklace every day thatsays memento moron.
Right?
So Oh.
Remember death.
Right?
And Yeah.
Because you can you can leave this this thisworld, this rock at any time, like, that nobody
knows.
Yep.
Not only you, but the people that in your lifeyou care about.
Right?
Like, that that could be gone.
(27:23):
So waiting until that right time or ratinguntil you hit x amount of dollars, could could
be the end of that because you may not thosemay never, you know, cross paths, in regards to
what you wanna do.
So I totally completely agree with you.
Couldn't believe more.
Frogger probably once a week to run acrossCamelback to Hillstone, and I'm pretty sure I'm
(27:46):
taking my odds down to, like, getting to 80,like, damn fast because that is not an easy
road to run across.
Yeah.
In heels.
I stopped wearing
heels.
Of course.
Yeah.
Of course.
So there you go.
So you gotta keep it keep it close.
Yeah.
So, speaking of people.
Right?
So, like, you you have the great the greatestpeople is what you said or the best people.
(28:07):
How 1, how do you found find the best people?
Because, you know, everybody wants the bestpeople.
How do you find them?
And then how do you keep the best people?
Oh, so I can tell you how you find them.
You take a patient's pill.
And you you, like, seriously take it everyfreaking morning because, you know, you have a
hole in the company.
Right?
And you wanna fill it because everyone else isis helping to fill it.
(28:29):
So then you meet somebody that's kinda there.
And you're you're just like, they're they're ohgod.
They're close.
Like, they're so close.
We can mold them into it.
We're gonna we're gonna we're gonna just bendthem into this.
That is complete bullshit.
I mean, they you are who you are, who you are,and you know what you want.
Mhmm.
You have the patience to find the one thatfits.
(28:50):
And if it sucks, it sucks.
But once they fall in and they fit, and I meanthat culturally too.
And I mean that more than anything culturallythat they fit the family.
We call our company the Cam Fam, our group, ourthe Cam Fam.
Cam Fam.
If you if you fit into this Cam Fam, you fit inin every way by the music, the food, the fun,
the events, the work, the, you know, the farmbox we dig into every Thursday.
(29:12):
I mean, if there's a you fit in, but but yourtemptation always when you have a hole that's
or someone's moving on or leaving, and you'relike, I gotta fill that.
No.
You don't.
No.
You don't.
You got a whole family that's gonna fill inuntil you find the right person.
Then when you find those people, you make sureevery single day you have the sniff test.
And you go in every morning, and you say hi toevery single person and see what you get back.
(29:36):
And you very I mean, empathy is the key to allsuccess.
You come in.
You it's just a 10 second sniff test.
Hi.
How are you doing today?
You're gonna know within 5 minutes who's okayand who's not.
And sometimes you can help, sometimes youcan't, but you at least cared.
And they feel it, you feel it, and then youalso have like I said, you got the team.
I mean, I I can't tell you how proud I am ofthe group we have, but I care about them very
(30:01):
much.
But the way they care about each other is evengreater.
I mean, I get texts.
I get texts at night.
Hey.
Did you hear, you know, so and so's dog passedaway?
Hey.
Did you hear that you know, hey.
Did you hear that so and so's got, you know,he's been coughing in their office with the
door closed for a day?
Hey.
Do I mean, they they care about each other, andwe care about them.
(30:21):
And I think it really it it here's the deal.
Work is hard.
Business is hard.
But when you're working with people you reallycare about, it's not so hard.
It's not so hard at all.
It's actually a freaking blast.
I mean, we give each other crap 247.
It is wrong for room in here And but everybodyfeels loved, cared about.
(30:43):
They they matter.
They mean something.
And and you just gotta keep reminding them.
No.
That's, it's interesting because we at Spot,we've been talking about empathy a lot in
leadership.
Right?
Like, you just you have to have empathy as aleader.
Like, there's there is no other path to that.
At least that's certainly what we're what webelieve, and, hitting right on what you're
saying.
(31:03):
Like, yeah.
Like, you have to care, and and when you do it,it makes a huge difference when you find the
right, you know, family member or the CAM fammember.
Right?
So,
no.
If you don't have empathy, I mean, you walkinto a room with your own agenda and you're you
had a 5050 shot.
Right?
Yep.
You walk into a room and you just sniff out theroom and kinda figure out what everybody wants
(31:25):
and you don't spit out what you want, your yourodds go up exponentially because you're not
here's what I want.
You get you kind of feel whatever everyone'sangie about what?
Oh, I hope I get this contract.
Oh, I I hope they like my plan.
Oh, I don't like their plan, but I don't wannatell them.
If you can fill that out in the first fewminutes, your your odds of success are so much
(31:45):
better than when you walk in and it's like,here I am and here's what I want.
You've shut it all down.
No empathy.
Just a boss.
Never wins.
No.
I I totally.
I want a question I I need to ask is is aboutyour you mentioned the leopard cat.
It's been on my brain after you said it.
So when you say a leopard cat, do you mean aspotted cat, or do you mean, like, no.
(32:09):
This is like a leopard that I own, that I bringit.
So Yeah.
So just to be clear, I I was I grew up in farmcountry.
So my house if I lived the the bigger my house,the more animals that would be in it.
I mean, we have an eel for god's sake.
An eel.
Like So Like So there's nothing
like that.
Like an eel in the ocean?
Yes.
Okay.
Thing that I I have a hard time finding housesitters,
(32:32):
and
that's because my mom must feed the freakingeel.
And I'm like, it's it it can't walk.
It's not going to be showing.
The odds of it, like, jumping out of the tankto follow you down the hall are 0 minus 0.
But, yes, I see why you don't want a house atmy house.
So yeah.
So we end up my one of my greatest guys here'swife is, like, a habitual rescuer of all
(32:53):
things.
Yep.
And she sent a video of this kitten.
My daughter just happened to I happened to makethe mistake of sending it to my 16 year old.
And the next thing you know, it's coming tovisit.
And you know what happens when a kitten comesto your house?
It doesn't leave.
It stays.
That's what
happens.
Yeah.
But I have a 115 pound German shepherd, a 70pound husky, 2 other cats, whatever.
And this thing comes in.
(33:14):
It is cute as hell, but it is not a cat.
Like, the minute we gave it food, it was like,I'm like, what are you doing?
My other cats just, like, backed away slowly.
And so he tells me to say, oh, yeah.
That's a Savannah.
And I'm like, what does that mean?
And he's like, well, it's half serval, halfcat.
And I'm like, what point and when were yougoing to say that?
(33:34):
So now I tell Aaron all the time the joke issomeday in a couple years, we're gonna come
home from vacation, and there might be ashepherd left.
They'll just be, like, half of an eel, and thecats will just be gone, you know, in this big
serval.
We've just laid on the couch patting its biground fat belly.
Yep.
So odds are good.
Yeah.
Got it.
(33:55):
Yeah.
That's a that's a real that's a real deal, cat.
Not not that's not a house cat.
Well, it is a house cat, but it's not a not atraditional house cat.
No.
No.
I think things are gonna die.
My my daughter has a a rescue Dijon, which bythe way
is half
pigeon, half dove.
So do you think that thing said, yo, I gotrescued?
That that didgen is going, what did I do wrong?
(34:17):
Like, I was a rescue.
But then this came home.
Yeah.
So my didgen is probably seen it's it's justthinking it's seen its last days.
Yeah.
No.
I I bet.
Oh, man.
Okay.
So weird.
It was certainly a little bit off point, but Iwas like, I need to ask about this leopard cat.
(34:38):
Oh.
So yeah.
So, our our connection was through Keymakers.
So let's let's talk a little about Keymakersand, what what that experience looks like and
and what you've had and and good, bad,otherwise, ugly, all that kind of stuff.
It was kinda nuts.
You know, so I I meet these guys, and I don'teven know where it started, to be honest.
(34:59):
And I get this email, and it says, hey, come tothis Keymaker happy hour.
Well, if you ever hear me say no to a happyhour, come check for a pulse.
Must be sick.
Yeah.
It must be sick.
Yeah.
Very, very ill.
Like, super, super ill.
Like yeah.
So, the first thing I went to was, just a happyhour.
And I walk in, and it was like, you know,people from every gamut.
(35:22):
Right?
But everyone was like, you know, you go to ahappy hour.
You don't know anybody.
And you're just like, you kinda key intosomeone you might kinda know.
I mean, people were just coming over just oneafter the other.
Hey.
I'm so and so from this.
I'm so and so from that.
I'm so it was so it's just like a super warm,fuzzy, you know, instantaneously not
uncomfortable situation.
Obviously, I'm not don't don't I'm not shy atall, but But you don't say.
(35:44):
Yeah.
There was a day.
There was a day.
But, yeah.
So it was just a really it was a reallyfriendly, situation to start.
But then I was like, the next couple days sothey sent off then, like, here's everybody that
was there.
And you're like, oh, that's what that personoh.
Yeah.
And within days, I was getting emails frompeople saying, hey.
(36:07):
I do this and you do this.
I think we could do something cool like this.
You know, just I'll give you all kinds ofexamples.
But it was just instant, you know, crossing ofgoods, let's just say.
Or, you know, I I do this and I saw that youguys do this.
And I'm like, god.
This is, like, the fast track to a lot ofthings that you question.
Right?
General contractors.
(36:27):
You know, you have to bid out 3 things.
So now I've got one that I've met that I've hada few drinks with this.
Tell me what's going on.
You know, restoration company.
I mean, we manage 10,000,000 square feet ofstuff.
You don't think that we have crap that goes on?
You know, it's just it was super neat, but thenjust the different things they come up with too
are just fun.
It's not like you're sitting in a room with,you know, tablecloths around a round table or
(36:49):
everybody gets you missing cheese and crackers.
And and then you might you're scared to ask forthat 3rd glass of wine because everyone's gonna
say, oh, god.
Did you say she had her 3rd glass of wine?
You know?
It was just fun people.
And it's it's so far I've been to quite a fewevents.
And every time I meet someone new, and most ofthe time, something ends up happening where we
all benefit.
So I've been I've been very impressed and didnot know what I was to I didn't know what to
(37:11):
think to start.
Yeah.
I literally heard this quote today.
Somebody said collaboration is the new currencyin regards to like
Oh, it's good.
You it was you know, when I heard it, I Iliterally wrote it down in my journal.
I literally wrote it down immediately because Iwas like, oh, god.
It's so true.
Like, you know, obviously, like, buildingscale, like, we like, hey, we're collaborating
(37:32):
with people to just tell stories, right?
Because it's like Yep.
How do you learn, right?
You learn from other people's experiences and,like, you collaborate with them that way.
And then it turns into, hey, I heard somebodyon on the show that I really would love to
meet, that I think that there's a lot ofsynergy and like that happens.
And and key maker is insane where it's like youjust find yourself in a room with other people,
like minded human beings that are doing thingsthat totally crossover where it becomes, oh,
(37:56):
man, Like, that's that those are the rooms youwanna be in.
How many of those rooms can I be in?
The better I'll be because, you know,collaboration is totally the new currency.
So, that top of mind
I love that.
I think that is absolutely beautiful.
I think I think the other thing that I findthat I keep telling the younger groups that we
have that I think sometimes it's taken wrong,but I do mean it wholly is you can't replace
(38:18):
life experience.
Oh, no.
You can't.
I mean, so so if if I hear someone talkingabout something and I've done it wrong, which
is a lot, by the way.
A whole shit load of bad and wrong.
But Yeah.
Being in a room with people that have hadenough life experience that you're like, hey.
Have you ever I'll give you an example.
Great guy.
So I'm talking about this land auction.
(38:39):
And I've never done a land auction.
I've been around them.
I've And he he said, what are you doing?
I said, land auctions.
Oh, I've done, like, 50 of them.
He said, you wanna have lunch?
I'm like, Yeah.
Yeah.
So yeah.
Yes.
Maybe I do.
And and for an hour and a half for no reasonother than to be helpful because of life
experience, he guided me through everything Iwould have done wrong.
(39:01):
And you can't put a dollar on that.
Right?
You can't put the time on it and putting, youknow, putting people in a room that all have
different life experience and then bring in theyoung ones.
You know, bring in the younger ones and letthem listen to the stories and then that grows
into questions.
And those questions come into other questions.
And those people that are too shy to ask themcan email later.
And, but life experiences, I don't you know?
(39:24):
Yes.
You can be, you know, you know, MIT grad at 22years old, but you haven't had the shit kicked
out of you yet, bud.
So I think that's where a lot of thiscollaboration stuff really pays off.
I completely agree.
As, I very much wanna learn all the time.
Both at Spot, one of our core values iscontinuous improvement.
(39:45):
And then in in my home, our core values are onthe wall, 1% better every day.
Right?
So, like, the very much that's the that's how Iwant to live, both professionally as well as
personally.
So I find myself I'm in a lot of rooms that I Iam not the expert in any way, shape, or form
because I wanna be in those rooms.
But I'm starting to see, I was literally in a adesign, a design build, roundtable earlier this
(40:11):
week.
And it was very much, I got questioned aboutsomething and I'm like, oh, yeah.
I know I know stuff about lean constructionthat I've I've never been in construction
sites.
Like that's not my thing, but I've now talkedto 120 plus professionals that are in the space
and I've learned at least something from them.
Like I've, you know, I've been listening asI've been doing interviews.
So like I was able to like, hey, like here's anexample of it when it's not technical.
(40:35):
Like, you know, it's easy when you talk aboutlike big BIM and all these different things
you're building data center and all this stuff.
But like, what does that mean when you juststart putting a truck together?
And like, why is that truck set up the way itis?
And is it set up exactly as the other 10 inyour fleet?
And what does that look like?
And, like, an inventory system, even if it'smanual, like, what that looks like.
And it was just cool to share those thingswhere it was just like, I'm not the expert in
(40:57):
the room by any means of the imagination, but Inow have I'm gaining so much experience and
knowledge because I'm I'm putting myself inthose scenarios to learn.
But I feel like, I I just have to applaud thethe leaders like yourself that allow me to talk
to you and and learn stuff from you becausethat's that's just the only way I get better is
being able to see it done or obviouslyexecuting it myself.
(41:20):
You to be my partner if we ever playcatchphrase.
Because between the 2 of us and all the littletidbits and stuff we know a little a little bit
about
Oh, yeah.
And nothing really.
Yeah.
Because I'm I'm in.
I'm in.
We'll be the best at that game ever.
I love that.
I I agree.
I feel that I know a little bit about a lot.
At least that's that's what I think.
(41:40):
And I I just try to continuously learn stuff.
Currently, I'm learning about, ultra processedfood.
That's a thing that I'm I'm currently learningabout.
Oh, that's hot topic, man.
Very hot topic.
Somebody recommended a book.
I recommended him a a book, and then theyrecommended me a book.
So that was the whole concept.
And very eye opening, very lots of wild, wildstuff in that regard.
(42:01):
But like, I'm never gonna be in the foodindustry, at least I don't think so.
I don't that's not the path I think I'm evergonna be, you know, creating food and labs.
But, just really or farming for that matter,like the actual real food.
But I don't know.
Just for me, it's just intriguing to learn newstuff.
It's beautiful.
Everybody should feel that way.
Yeah.
(42:22):
But this has been a ton of fun.
So, I I'd love, you to tell tell the goodpeople, how they could get ahold of you or, if
you wanna, you know, hey, I'm doing this thing.
I'd love more collaboration on that, that too.
Or if you're just looking for the right personor type of company, now is your time to shine
to just, you know, have an ask, if you will.
(42:42):
Oh, I I love that.
I mean, I think so we've got a a new marketingteam that are just amazing.
So I think if and it the the best way to knowwhat we're doing, what we're looking for, and
the crazy stuff that's going on is our LinkedInpage now, the camCRE, LinkedIn page.
It it also shows our stupid I mean, you know,we're gonna have a Halloween thing on
Halloween, and it it just shows our dump.
(43:04):
But, but it also, you know, tells you we'relooking for certain employees.
We've got this thing going on, differentdevelopments we're working on.
We have no problem posting things about, youknow, does anybody think, you know, like, my
white reflective ceiling tile, you know, doesthat or or roof tile.
Does that make sense to anybody?
So we really try to beef that up so that wecan, I'm I don't have any social media at all,
(43:26):
so I'm a district loser.
So we brought in this group who taught me thatI am such that big loser and but they have
really ramped that up.
So I think that Capital Asset Management onLinkedIn is by far the best way to see
everything that we're doing.
Okay.
And then and I'm easy to, hook up or, you know,just pushing someone smarter than me and we'll
say, hey.
You should call this person.
(43:46):
Okay.
That's awesome.
Any other parting words for our listenersbefore we say our goodbyes?
Come to a Keymaker event.
Have some fun.
Oof.
Love that.
Yeah.
Listeners, this has been a blast.
I hope you had a good time.
I know I did.
I love these, Keymaker ones where it's prettyrelaxed and, just a fun conversation.
So until next time.
(44:08):
Adios.
Thanks for listening to Building Scale.
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Remember, the 3 pillars of scaling a businessare people, process, and technology.
And our mission is to help the AEC industryprotect itself by making technology easy.
(44:30):
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Keep building scale.
Scale.
I mean, do we all do we what car do we all needto drive?
(00:03):
Like, hopefully, my kids are gonna have tocare.
But, you know, it's it's I think the definitionof success has been tied way too much to how
much money you make.
And I gotta be honest with you.
I met a lot of people with a lot of money, andI don't find many that are happy.
So, I think there's that's I think there therewould be this way that I would have to stand on
a 1,000,000 soap boxes to teach, but successdoesn't have to do with this buck.
(00:26):
And then the buck is just chasing the buck andthen life becomes just chasing bucks.
Have you ever wondered how successfularchitecture, engineering, and construction
companies scale their business?
Or have you ever wanted guidance on how to getmore growth, wealth, and freedom from your AEC
company?
(00:46):
Well, then you're in luck.
Hi.
I'm Will Foratt.
And I'm Justin Nagel, and we're your podcasthosts.
We interview successful AEC business leaders tolearn how they use people, process, and
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So sit back and get ready to learn from theindustry's best.
This is Building scale.
(01:09):
Hey, listeners.
It's Will here.
Our mission is to help the AEC industry protectitself by making technology easy.
If you've ever listened to our show, then youknow that the 3 pillars of scaling a business
are people, process, and technology.
So if you suspect technology is your weekly,then book a call with us to see where we can
help maximize your company's IT cybersecuritystrategy.
(01:33):
Just go to building scale dot net slash help.
Hey, everybody.
It's Justin Nagel here from Spot Migration.
Welcome back to another episode of buildingscale, specifically the building connection
series where we partnered up with Keymakers,out in Arizona, where I am from, even though
(01:54):
today I am not currently there.
They're essentially a high level networkinggroup that gets deals done, and opens all the
doors that, you need in in your business.
This is where I met the amazing, RochelleStroll, who is, the guest that we have on
today.
(02:14):
She's the owner of Capital Asset Management orCAM as they like to call it.
She's got a rich background in banking,development, real estate.
And with that diverse history, and experiencemanaging the 1st FDIC structured sales
portfolio holding, 700,000,000 in commercialassets.
(02:35):
She was able to cofound camp, in 2008, which isis really cool.
And she consults and mentors and advocates forcommunity, improvement balancing family life,
that work home balance, we talk about that,philanthropy.
And she's just a lot of fun.
Like, there's there's there's few people thatyou initially meet, and you're like, man,
(02:57):
you're just you're just a ton of fun, silly inin the best amazing ways.
And, yeah, it's it's been fun getting to knowher over the past few months, and, this is one
of the conversations we had for you.
So, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, andhere it is.
(03:17):
Yes.
So, Rochelle, the I am very, very excited to,kinda share this, this conversation with other
people because, every time I've talked to you,I've smiled most of the conversation.
So that's always an awesome thing.
And your stories are unbelievably fascinating.
In addition to this wealth of knowledge youhave in the business world.
So this to me is it this is just easy.
This is just a pleasure for me.
(03:38):
So,
fun stuff.
It it's totally fun.
So, for for listeners, tell tell a little bitof your story.
What what's the background here?
And and so we can just kinda get into somenitty gritty stuff.
Business wise.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Kind of a a weird story.
Was a 16 years government underwriter, FannieFreddie stuff, you know, you know, a whole
(04:01):
another story of how we got involved with the fd c FDIC structured sale portfolio.
Next thing you know, we're forming a company tofigure out what the heck we're gonna do with
$780,000,000 of commercial real estate.
And, the funny part of that is the list theygave us, like, this little, like, old tiny 9
point, you know, Excel spreadsheet was, like,90% inaccurate.
(04:22):
So it was like they're like, oh, you know,there's this lot in Las Vegas and, you know,
and I had to go travel to see.
There's only, like, 54 units in the wholething, but it was a, you know, large project.
So I had to go see each one, and I'd be callinghim, like, you know, this is a 1935 storage
unit right off the strip.
And they're like, no.
That's a piece of dirt.
Like, no.
I'm standing right here.
(04:43):
Yeah.
And I'm looking at it, and then, no.
It's a piece.
So it kinda went like that, and it was dogs andcats too.
I mean, it was car washes, half built malls.
It was just a freaking blast.
Let's just put it that way.
It was just, like, if you went you know, whenyou're a kid and you could pay $2 for a grab
bag and you just didn't know what was in it,That was that just at a very big level.
And then for up until the day, we still havesome of the assets.
(05:06):
It was nice.
Your day planned you.
You didn't plan your day, and you had your cutelittle book about you're gonna get done.
And you got there, like, 8:10 in the morning,and then it was like, oh, rip that shit up
because that's what happened.
You know, you just jumped through the window ina casino in Vegas and landed on a dead guy.
Oh, he's been dead a while.
You know?
Oh, let's build this into a Walgreens.
(05:27):
You know?
It it's so, the whole company was formed, withthe purpose of knowing that the, you know,
these the people in charge were just muchbigger than day to day stuff.
So, you know, who's gonna cut the lawn?
Who's gonna collect the rents?
Who's going to unbuild something that shouldn'thave been built?
Who should build something that shouldn't bebuilt?
(05:48):
Who should get rid of the dead guy in the oldcasino?
You know?
So we put together this company, 2,009, withtrying to, like, fit all the pieces together
because you knew you're gonna have theseconference calls with, like, 30 people on them.
Yeah.
And if they ever had to divert to someone elseor, like, a third party, the call was just
gonna be that much longer.
Uh-huh.
And, you know you know, god help us.
(06:09):
Patients can only be you know, even with kids,it was like, really?
We need a 3 hour phone call?
So, so we had kind of everything.
We have development, and we have management,and we have acquisitions and dispositions, and,
just every bit of what would take if you gothanded a grab bag of commercial real estate and
you had to figure it out.
It's like the world's biggest puzzle, in thesouthwest only, which was kinda cool.
(06:32):
So yeah.
So that was how this whole crazy ass stuffstarted.
So in 2009, you just had the you obviously wereyou were working, with the government, but you
had this vision of, like, hey.
We could we should just go do this thing.
Like, we that was that the thought process?
I I I think it was more like, we're gonna dothis and you were gonna fix it.
(06:53):
Oh, okay.
Okay.
I'm not sure we were I think we were weluckily, the the group that actually was the
partner with the fed were probably the group ofthe best humans I've ever met or worked with.
And they were more of the people that said youyeah.
What you what you're thinking sounds good.
Go ahead and do it.
Okay.
(07:13):
It was just like a freedom of all kinds, andthen we just started making shit up.
I mean, all day every day.
I mean, it was like because this stuff doesn'thappen.
Right?
Yeah.
So it it was it I mean, in all honesty, I mean,we I think we had a good background.
We had the best people.
We still have the best people on demand, but wereally were making stuff up, yeah, on a daily
basis.
(07:33):
But that's that is entrepreneurship.
Right?
Like, that is owning a business.
It is a lot of Fix it.
Building building the plane as it's as it'sgoing down.
Right?
Like, it's like, is it gonna work?
Well, we hope it does before we get to thebottom, kind of a thing.
Right?
All the traveling I do, I do not wanna hearhear you say that ever again.
Sorry.
Won't bring up any more plane stories.
No.
No.
Crash in place.
(07:53):
But, so you're you're going through this, andthen it's like all these properties that
somebody said there's nothing there, there arestuff there, then then what what hap what do
you do with those assets?
Like, what happens then?
It's like, you say that there's this is dirt.
I see that it's a storage unit in in one of theexamples.
Like, what does that mean?
What what
what then happens?
(08:15):
What you don't do is say, hey, Pawn Wars reallywants to put this on a show.
Should we do that?
And we're like, 1930s to 50s storage unitblocks all rested.
In Vegas.
I
don't wanna open that on TV.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's gonna be nothing but barrels, and we'renot opening those either.
(08:35):
You know?
But, no.
I mean, you know, it it actually you know,like, well, you know, how do you eat an
elephant?
You know, one bite at any time.
So we just, you know, started siloing them intowhat they really were.
You
know, car washes here, retail here, you know,god knows what here.
You know, put them in their buckets, figuredout who could figure them out the best in the
(08:55):
bucket, and they just went for it.
You know, it's just you couldn't leave it.
So I was just trying to figure out what thebest what should it be when it grows up if it
even should have been born?
It was
kind of fun.
You know, like, what should this have been?
What could it be or should it have ever been?
Like, for example, water park in Yuma, Arizona.
(09:18):
Probably a misstep on that one.
Right?
Just maybe just a little bit of a think thatagain.
Alright.
Yeah.
You know?
So and you could just go on and on about that.
But that was kind of the steps, and it was, itwas fun.
Because just, like, now that we're indevelopment in any you know, even if looking at
raw dirt, if you just go sit there long enough,you just, like, you know what?
(09:38):
This would be cool.
You know what's needed here?
You know, you just kinda this is like being alittle kid again.
I got my imaginary friend.
I just get to build it.
So what's, a lot A lot of companies, that theyeither start with a vision or eventually a
vision becomes, part of, the ethos of, of anorganization.
(09:59):
What does that look like maybe when youstarted?
And then in comparison to now, what does thatlook like?
Obviously, doing development and, like, saying,like, hey.
We we want this makes sense to be here.
And, like, those things, like, do you have abigger grander idea of, like, hey.
We we're trying to leave a stamp.
We're trying to leave a legacy.
We're trying to leave some of those things.
No question.
(10:20):
The more you get into commercial real estate amatter of fact, we did a Forbes Magazine thing
that they end up calling us the dinosaurslayers.
And I just love that because I love Game ofThrones.
So I was like, yes, we are.
You know?
But, the the antiquated state that commercialreal estate is in, because we weren't that was
(10:40):
in our background, just kind of blew our minds.
It's like we're still doing things like ourgrandpa's grandpa did.
Why?
Like, I mean, I'm talking from software to, howwe manage things to how, you know, checks are
collected to how we build.
And it was just mind blowing that everything wetouched was something my great grandpa probably
(11:01):
did.
And with the same sticks, with the same tools,with the same vendors, with the same whatever.
And I think we decided early on, like, yeah,this is just stupid.
I mean, that I mean, we're paper we'repaperless, and it just blows people's minds.
And I'm like, what do you need paper for?
We don't accept checks.
We scan everything.
You know, we we got our all of our engineersare on, you know, different, software systems
(11:24):
to allow them to do things.
And and there are still people just writing,like, you know, work orders on a piece of paper
and then sticking it on a cork board andsaying, oh, you know, this commercial site over
here has got a water leak.
I mean, what?
You know, I mean, just just, you know, justsimple things like putting, you know, drip
systems in that tell you when it's leaking.
You know, it it's just like things that arejust so easy.
(11:46):
So I think our goal in our real merge throughlife now is and our whole motto for the company
is commercial real estate, better.
Okay.
Simple.
Like, just just do it better.
Bring it up.
Just just just bring it up to 2,000 for god'ssake.
And then, you know, take it year by year.
But, so I think that it's been who we'vemorphed into and what we really are attempting
(12:06):
to become is, like, it's just logical, it's
more efficient, and it's better.
It's better for your clients.
It's better for you.
It's better for your development.
It's developments and better for your tenants.
Just embrace it.
Don't be scared of change.
Go for it.
Dive in.
Fail.
Fail for god's sake.
It's not gonna kill you.
It's not the worst effort we've all heard.
I mean, it's a good one.
Embrace the fail.
(12:27):
You know?
I mean, at least you tried.
You know?
Or you can just sit back and do it like greatgrandpa did.
You'll make money, but what we
Is, fail, we we talk about innovation a lot.
And when I think of innovation, right, right,it's just it's just failing a lot.
Like, that's what innovation is.
It's like how like how like Edison made like999 light bulbs for the one that he made that
(12:51):
worked, right?
Like that's like that's innovation.
Like that is that's the part that nobody talksabout.
They say, oh, look it.
We have a, you know, new electric car orwhatever it is.
Right?
And it's like, look how innovative we are.
It's like, yeah.
But, like, how many prototypes were butcheredin the time to get that to be thing that
eventually was, you know, the creation.
Like it that's that is it.
And I think a lot of people fear failure, whichis unfortunate because that's how we get
better, how we evolve, how like even asindividuals, right?
(13:14):
Like, I'm not I'm a better I'm a better dadtoday than I was a year ago because I did dumb
shit.
Like, I did things that didn't make sense.
Right?
And, like, now I look back and I'm like, well,that didn't work and that was that was dumb.
So, like, let me try something else.
So let me evolve into something.
(13:35):
Diaper goes on the other end.
Nobody told me that.
You know, I would like to say there's no books,but there's like a trillion books.
So Yeah, no joke.
When so when I when I think about this, like,why do you think that, like, it's just so far
behind?
We see it in construction for sure.
There's like technology behind processes behindcommercial real estate in general, though.
(13:57):
Why why do you think it's so behind?
Is it just the fear of failure of or is it justlike, well, the money's there.
So what do I care?
Oh, sadly.
Yeah.
Sadly, I would say that it's a very lucrativebusiness.
And I think a lot of people are like, you know,why break it?
You know what?
The wheel, you know, and I'm like, well, thewheel's broken.
(14:18):
You just haven't seen the the the 3 of the 10spokes are gone.
And then soon, 8 of the 10 spokes will be gone,and it'll still roll for a little bit.
You know, but, it it is and it's just again,it's it's also becomes just a disservice to
everyone.
You know, like, we are our our tech and ourproperty management side is so top notch, and
the profitability of each of those propertiesgoes up just because the tech is better.
(14:42):
And, yeah, it sucks to send spend moneytraining 52 people on some new software.
It does.
And it costs you money to do it.
And it's like, well, why would you send, youknow, 30 of your people off to a class to learn
about, you know, some new forecast managerthat'll teach people how to make their property
better when I could just collect rents, take apercentage, and pay myself.
(15:04):
Right?
I mean, you can see you can see, and you won'tfail because you're not changing anything.
You know?
And then, like, with the development side,that's where it really takes you to the next
level because you try building with differentproducts and you that saddest part of that is
we're very sustainable driven.
You you you can't even get lending for it.
Like, we had some a new system that we couldput together that literally was faster.
(15:28):
It was r 30 going in.
No bugs, no mold, fireproof.
I mean, build it and soundproof.
Build that in the if I had had that in college,because I can tell you that my colleague the
guy who lived next to me in my condo in collegewatched movies till 4 AM.
Do you want me to tell you each one?
Because I listened to every word of everyoneevery Friday night.
(15:48):
The poor guy needed a date.
I think I probably fixed that for him.
But I mean, you know, it's the there's, youknow, build better, but then you take it out.
And even if your numbers work, you'll have alender that'll be like, well, but, you know, if
you cut a tree down and make it a stick, we wecan underwrite that shit right there, like,
right now.
Or you wanna go educate our, you know, 70 yearold underwriter who's been underwriting sticks
(16:12):
and, you know, sticks and stones for the last20 years.
And it there's the there's what we have tothrough and find ways to make it economical.
I think this summer in Arizona may, like, helpin the fact that you build with stucco and
sticks and asphalt and concrete and sprawl andthen wonder why the temperature doesn't go down
(16:33):
at night while every succulent plant that'slived in the desert is dying.
And you don't think to yourself, wow.
If I just put those white tile roofs on or, youknow, use a material that doesn't hold heat in
or it's r 30 so you don't have to crank yourair.
Do you know that they fire up jet engines tokeep our power going in the summer?
(16:54):
I did not know that.
That's Yeah.
So make yourself ill by thinking about whatkind of fuel that burns through.
Oh my gosh.
That's great.
Think of just keep thinking of how gross thiscan get.
But yet, if you say I have a way to do this,and I'll take the hit.
I'll pay the extra $2 a square foot.
I, as a developer, will take that hit.
I will take it, and I will smile about it.
(17:15):
My kids will be proud of me, and they're stillgoing, but, you know, if you cut that tree down
and made it into a stick, you can do it forthis.
It's it's the the things are changing to thepoint of an extreme where I think these
conversations won't be that hard.
Yeah.
Because Arizona is continuing to grow.
We are not gonna cool off at night if we keepbuilding like we're building.
(17:36):
You can't have concrete asphalt in buildingsthat just hold heat all day, all night long
with roofs, which, by the way, roofs are ourbiggest problem.
And you can't even say, you know, in an HOA,how about we use this new tile that actually is
reflective?
Because what's not pretty enough?
Oh, well.
Okay.
When you're paying a $1,000 a month to keepyour house cool, I might think what's pretty.
(17:57):
Yeah.
Anyway, I didn't think
Pretty compared to function.
Please.
No.
No.
No.
I love it.
Pretty compared to function, there there one,there is balance.
Right?
So there is a balance to design and function.
No question about that.
But, in this scenario, I I would throw whitetile on my roof.
I wouldn't have any there would be I would haveno issue doing that.
(18:18):
Thank you.
I I would too.
Right?
When you take it out and you bring it up topeople, they're like, well, you know, even, you
know, people that don't have anything to dowith it.
Like, the guys just doing the construction one.
It's like, really?
Are you sure that's not gonna hurt your impact?
And I'm like, you know what?
I can tell you this.
With the young groups in that are young andrenting, if I said to them, if you stay here,
your power bill will be lower but yet you'rechanging the environment and my rents are the
(18:42):
same, I promise you they'll pick me.
Give them the chance because they will becausethey're young and they wanna change the world.
They don't get tainted until we all tell themthat they can't, you know, or that there's no
little step or no little step matters.
But they're young enough to be like, yeah.
I'm I'm gonna go there.
I'm gonna live there where I can tell myfriends I'm doing something that's better for
the world.
And then we get, you know, 30 and we're like,I'm not doing nothing.
(19:06):
Nothing's changing nothing.
You know, we get so cynical and shitty, andit's like, no.
You're wrong.
Keep trying.
Fail for God's sake.
Before we start recording, we're talking about,my my son being 4 and, like, he's, like, just
very empathetic and inquisitive and, like, allthose things that we, beat out of not
literally, but we, you know, we beat out ofchildren.
Right?
(19:26):
Like, saying, no.
Don't do it.
Do it this way or do that way or think about itthis way in comparison to letting them just be
and express because it's harder for us.
Right?
We got schedules and we got we got
shit to do.
Right?
But
Right.
Like, for them, they're just, you know, they'retrying to figure out what makes the most sense.
Right?
Like, I'm I'm in full learn mode.
(19:46):
I don't have any of these stresses.
I'm, like, totally able to language.
If you threw me down for an hour a day, I wouldI would be able to speak that language in, you
know, a month and a half.
And like, it it's just it's very wild, thatthat's the reality.
And as you can know, as you point, when you get30, you're not the same person as you were when
you were, say, 22.
(20:08):
I would also I mean, I would challenge mychallenge, I think, and I've I've got a 15 and
16 year old is defining success to these youngpeople.
Like, I think my life was defined that successwas a financial thing.
Like, you know, I mean, I was I mean, itdoesn't matter.
I mean, I was an art kid.
I loved art.
I loved all this.
And my folks are like, that's so sweet, andyou're good at it.
(20:30):
But you will never make any money doing that.
How about you get into banking?
You know?
I'm like, no.
No.
I'm getting, like, straight a's at ASU.
I'm fine.
And they're like, oh, that's so cute.
Now get a real life.
You know?
But and I would have been I don't need a bagwith a name on it.
You know?
But we I think we we also need to morph the waythat we teach young people success because
success can't be tied to dollars because thenthe happiness goes away.
(20:52):
And then you're chasing you can never chase thealmighty buck big enough because there's always
someone that's got more, and it's bigger andit's more and it's bigger.
How about if you your success was happiness andand giving back and feeling good and and doing
the right thing and all that?
And you know what?
I mean, do we all what car do we all need todrive?
Like, hopefully, my kids don't even have tocare.
(21:13):
But, you know, it's it's I think the definitionof success has been tied way too much to how
much money you make.
And I gotta be honest with you.
I've met a lot of people with a lot of moneyand I don't find many that are happy.
So, I think there's that's I think there therewould be this way that I would have to stand on
a 1,000,000 soap boxes to teach, but successdoesn't have to do with this buck.
(21:34):
And then the buck is just chasing the buck andthen life becomes just chasing bucks.
How do you, take that concept, which I verymuch agree with you?
How do you take that conch, concept and thenput it into the business?
Because, obviously, business needs to makemoney.
Right?
Like, we you know, we're in business because weare looking to to make a profit.
Right?
And and do that.
(21:54):
But there how do you balance those concepts of,like, what does success look like, you know,
for an individual that you are a leader of inin the business?
You know, I I will tell you, and I think Imentioned this to you, and I get all goofy
about it.
We won something a couple years ago about justbeing a great culture.
I can't remember what the award was.
But of all the things that we received, it wasthe one that really made me happy.
(22:18):
I mean, like, truthfully, joyful Because, we dotalk to these we have every age group, by the
way.
But we do talk about happiness and life balanceand dogs and cats come to work.
I have an I have a new leopard kitten, by theway.
So he can eat every dog that comes in, but, youknow, I bring this crazy kitten in on Fridays.
And we bring in food, and we we remodeled andbuilt a big ass bar.
(22:42):
And you know what?
I love that big ass bar.
And, but we talk a lot about, you know,extremes, overworking, enjoyment.
We have a book club.
We have a fantasy football league that abusesone another.
We go to quarterly charity events because youknow what?
Everyone can tell you, oh, god.
I did it.
And you know what?
They all leave happy.
(23:03):
They all leave different.
They all feel touched.
They all have touched.
I mean, it's it's a cultural thing.
I mean, you have to and I've been in othercompanies.
You know?
It's just like, you know, how much did youmake?
What are your goals?
What's your deal day?
You know?
I had one person that started with our companywhen we purchased Zelle and and she's just so
motivated and amazing.
But she wanted to meet every week to talk aboutwhere she was in her goals.
(23:24):
And I'm like, that's awesome.
But then we had to morph that from a financialgoal to a success goal.
And it was really, like, kind of what?
You don't wanna talk about my numbers?
I'm like, I do wanna talk about your numbers.
I absolutely wanna talk about your numbers.
Number 1, I wanna talk about why you have thesenumbers where you have them.
And then let's talk about your life becausethey might not match.
(23:45):
You know, the number you're striving for maytake joy out of your 3 little kids.
Let's talk about that part of it.
Like, what is good, what is great, and what ishappy?
You know?
I mean, can can we find that spot?
And we still talk every single week and we haveour scheduled time.
But now we talk about way more than how manybucks did you make, how many bucks you're gonna
(24:05):
make, how are you gonna end the year.
That's important.
Of course, it is.
Yeah.
She's goal driven and she's amazing.
But, also, we talk about the kids and the tripsand the vacations and the things that I don't
know she would have taken if the goal had beenjust this financial goal.
Yeah.
It's important.
It's it's interesting because, you know, wetalk about in business, we talk about outcomes.
(24:28):
Right?
Like, what's the outcome that we're trying todeliver for our clients or what's the outcome
we're trying to get from, a partner or or, youknow, whatever that is.
And, the outcome if the outcome is you, youknow, diving into a pile of money, I guess the
money's important then.
But, like, the outcome is usually not that.
Right?
Like, it's usually not that imagery.
It's usually like, I want, you know, my kids tobe happy.
(24:51):
I want my, you know, I wanna I wanna, you know,have time with them.
I want to, even like it's self things of like Iwanna, you know, read, read more.
I wanna, learn a new hobby.
I wanna lose some weight.
Whatever the thing is, right?
It's usually not like, total money is thesolution.
It's like, can money help you aid on some ofthose things?
(25:13):
Absolutely.
And like, that's a tool to get you to thoseoutcomes.
But it's not That isn't the money isn't theoutcome.
Money is a tool that should be used to get youto the outcomes that you're looking for.
Well, and the biggest lie in I think thebiggest lie in life, and maybe I'm just getting
older, is, well, I'm just gonna work so hardand make so much money that I'm just gonna do
all those things when I retire.
(25:33):
Yeah.
I'm gonna I'm gonna go on a I'm gonna playtennis.
I'm gonna travel the world.
I'm gonna do that.
And it's like, man, I didn't know that you Imean, you have that much control over the
future.
Right?
So you have many friends I have.
And, again, I'm at the age where, you know,people are retiring all that.
That, you know, 2 years after they retire, I'vegot this wrong with me.
And, you know, there's stress related.
There's heart conditions, stomach conditions,all these things.
(25:55):
It's like, yeah.
Because you did nothing fun.
You did drive yourself like crazy.
And you probably have just a a you can diveinto that bag of money.
And guess what?
It's gonna be a death by a 1,000 paper cutsfrom each one of those bucks.
But yet none of the things like, my dad, myparents are in their eighties, and all my mom
ever wants to do or wanted to do is travel.
So now they have the money.
We have the ability to take them and do, butthey have a hard time.
(26:17):
Yeah.
It's hard to walk that many miles.
You can't, you know, Rome is not a lot of funon a bike when you're 83, you know, 84 years
old.
So that all these years of trying to make ourlives great in all the time that they wanna do
and now are they gonna get to?
You know, are they gonna get to do thosethings?
And they did it all for us, and I appreciateit.
Like like, no one's business, but the dreamsthat they have are, they're not going to get,
(26:42):
I'm not gonna miss and my kids aren't either.
And so you must feed that in through life.
Take the flipping 2 week vacation for god'ssake.
The world is unless you are actually a brain oror a heart surgeon, pretty much you can be gone
for 2 weeks.
And if you can't, your company's in a bigshivel, And you better figure that out.
Because if you can't leave for 2 weeks, you donot have the right folks.
(27:03):
Yeah.
But do it.
Take it.
Live it.
Come on.
I, I I literally wear a necklace every day thatsays memento moron.
Right?
So Oh.
Remember death.
Right?
And Yeah.
Because you can you can leave this this thisworld, this rock at any time, like, that nobody
knows.
Yep.
Not only you, but the people that in your lifeyou care about.
Right?
Like, that that could be gone.
(27:23):
So waiting until that right time or ratinguntil you hit x amount of dollars, could could
be the end of that because you may not thosemay never, you know, cross paths, in regards to
what you wanna do.
So I totally completely agree with you.
Couldn't believe more.
Frogger probably once a week to run acrossCamelback to Hillstone, and I'm pretty sure I'm
(27:46):
taking my odds down to, like, getting to 80,like, damn fast because that is not an easy
road to run across.
Yeah.
In heels.
I stopped wearing
heels.
Of course.
Yeah.
Of course.
So there you go.
So you gotta keep it keep it close.
Yeah.
So, speaking of people.
Right?
So, like, you you have the great the greatestpeople is what you said or the best people.
(28:07):
How 1, how do you found find the best people?
Because, you know, everybody wants the bestpeople.
How do you find them?
And then how do you keep the best people?
Oh, so I can tell you how you find them.
You take a patient's pill.
And you you, like, seriously take it everyfreaking morning because, you know, you have a
hole in the company.
Right?
And you wanna fill it because everyone else isis helping to fill it.
(28:29):
So then you meet somebody that's kinda there.
And you're you're just like, they're they're ohgod.
They're close.
Like, they're so close.
We can mold them into it.
We're gonna we're gonna we're gonna just bendthem into this.
That is complete bullshit.
I mean, they you are who you are, who you are,and you know what you want.
Mhmm.
You have the patience to find the one thatfits.
(28:50):
And if it sucks, it sucks.
But once they fall in and they fit, and I meanthat culturally too.
And I mean that more than anything culturallythat they fit the family.
We call our company the Cam Fam, our group, ourthe Cam Fam.
Cam Fam.
If you if you fit into this Cam Fam, you fit inin every way by the music, the food, the fun,
the events, the work, the, you know, the farmbox we dig into every Thursday.
(29:12):
I mean, if there's a you fit in, but but yourtemptation always when you have a hole that's
or someone's moving on or leaving, and you'relike, I gotta fill that.
No.
You don't.
No.
You don't.
You got a whole family that's gonna fill inuntil you find the right person.
Then when you find those people, you make sureevery single day you have the sniff test.
And you go in every morning, and you say hi toevery single person and see what you get back.
(29:36):
And you very I mean, empathy is the key to allsuccess.
You come in.
You it's just a 10 second sniff test.
Hi.
How are you doing today?
You're gonna know within 5 minutes who's okayand who's not.
And sometimes you can help, sometimes youcan't, but you at least cared.
And they feel it, you feel it, and then youalso have like I said, you got the team.
I mean, I I can't tell you how proud I am ofthe group we have, but I care about them very
(30:01):
much.
But the way they care about each other is evengreater.
I mean, I get texts.
I get texts at night.
Hey.
Did you hear, you know, so and so's dog passedaway?
Hey.
Did you hear that you know, hey.
Did you hear that so and so's got, you know,he's been coughing in their office with the
door closed for a day?
Hey.
Do I mean, they they care about each other, andwe care about them.
(30:21):
And I think it really it it here's the deal.
Work is hard.
Business is hard.
But when you're working with people you reallycare about, it's not so hard.
It's not so hard at all.
It's actually a freaking blast.
I mean, we give each other crap 247.
It is wrong for room in here And but everybodyfeels loved, cared about.
(30:43):
They they matter.
They mean something.
And and you just gotta keep reminding them.
No.
That's, it's interesting because we at Spot,we've been talking about empathy a lot in
leadership.
Right?
Like, you just you have to have empathy as aleader.
Like, there's there is no other path to that.
At least that's certainly what we're what webelieve, and, hitting right on what you're
saying.
(31:03):
Like, yeah.
Like, you have to care, and and when you do it,it makes a huge difference when you find the
right, you know, family member or the CAM fammember.
Right?
So,
no.
If you don't have empathy, I mean, you walkinto a room with your own agenda and you're you
had a 5050 shot.
Right?
Yep.
You walk into a room and you just sniff out theroom and kinda figure out what everybody wants
(31:25):
and you don't spit out what you want, your yourodds go up exponentially because you're not
here's what I want.
You get you kind of feel whatever everyone'sangie about what?
Oh, I hope I get this contract.
Oh, I I hope they like my plan.
Oh, I don't like their plan, but I don't wannatell them.
If you can fill that out in the first fewminutes, your your odds of success are so much
(31:45):
better than when you walk in and it's like,here I am and here's what I want.
You've shut it all down.
No empathy.
Just a boss.
Never wins.
No.
I I totally.
I want a question I I need to ask is is aboutyour you mentioned the leopard cat.
It's been on my brain after you said it.
So when you say a leopard cat, do you mean aspotted cat, or do you mean, like, no.
(32:09):
This is like a leopard that I own, that I bringit.
So Yeah.
So just to be clear, I I was I grew up in farmcountry.
So my house if I lived the the bigger my house,the more animals that would be in it.
I mean, we have an eel for god's sake.
An eel.
Like So Like So there's nothing
like that.
Like an eel in the ocean?
Yes.
Okay.
Thing that I I have a hard time finding housesitters,
(32:32):
and
that's because my mom must feed the freakingeel.
And I'm like, it's it it can't walk.
It's not going to be showing.
The odds of it, like, jumping out of the tankto follow you down the hall are 0 minus 0.
But, yes, I see why you don't want a house atmy house.
So yeah.
So we end up my one of my greatest guys here'swife is, like, a habitual rescuer of all
(32:53):
things.
Yep.
And she sent a video of this kitten.
My daughter just happened to I happened to makethe mistake of sending it to my 16 year old.
And the next thing you know, it's coming tovisit.
And you know what happens when a kitten comesto your house?
It doesn't leave.
It stays.
That's what
happens.
Yeah.
But I have a 115 pound German shepherd, a 70pound husky, 2 other cats, whatever.
And this thing comes in.
(33:14):
It is cute as hell, but it is not a cat.
Like, the minute we gave it food, it was like,I'm like, what are you doing?
My other cats just, like, backed away slowly.
And so he tells me to say, oh, yeah.
That's a Savannah.
And I'm like, what does that mean?
And he's like, well, it's half serval, halfcat.
And I'm like, what point and when were yougoing to say that?
(33:34):
So now I tell Aaron all the time the joke issomeday in a couple years, we're gonna come
home from vacation, and there might be ashepherd left.
They'll just be, like, half of an eel, and thecats will just be gone, you know, in this big
serval.
We've just laid on the couch patting its biground fat belly.
Yep.
So odds are good.
Yeah.
Got it.
(33:55):
Yeah.
That's a that's a real that's a real deal, cat.
Not not that's not a house cat.
Well, it is a house cat, but it's not a not atraditional house cat.
No.
No.
I think things are gonna die.
My my daughter has a a rescue Dijon, which bythe way
is half
pigeon, half dove.
So do you think that thing said, yo, I gotrescued?
That that didgen is going, what did I do wrong?
(34:17):
Like, I was a rescue.
But then this came home.
Yeah.
So my didgen is probably seen it's it's justthinking it's seen its last days.
Yeah.
No.
I I bet.
Oh, man.
Okay.
So weird.
It was certainly a little bit off point, but Iwas like, I need to ask about this leopard cat.
(34:38):
Oh.
So yeah.
So, our our connection was through Keymakers.
So let's let's talk a little about Keymakersand, what what that experience looks like and
and what you've had and and good, bad,otherwise, ugly, all that kind of stuff.
It was kinda nuts.
You know, so I I meet these guys, and I don'teven know where it started, to be honest.
(34:59):
And I get this email, and it says, hey, come tothis Keymaker happy hour.
Well, if you ever hear me say no to a happyhour, come check for a pulse.
Must be sick.
Yeah.
It must be sick.
Yeah.
Very, very ill.
Like, super, super ill.
Like yeah.
So, the first thing I went to was, just a happyhour.
And I walk in, and it was like, you know,people from every gamut.
(35:22):
Right?
But everyone was like, you know, you go to ahappy hour.
You don't know anybody.
And you're just like, you kinda key intosomeone you might kinda know.
I mean, people were just coming over just oneafter the other.
Hey.
I'm so and so from this.
I'm so and so from that.
I'm so it was so it's just like a super warm,fuzzy, you know, instantaneously not
uncomfortable situation.
Obviously, I'm not don't don't I'm not shy atall, but But you don't say.
(35:44):
Yeah.
There was a day.
There was a day.
But, yeah.
So it was just a really it was a reallyfriendly, situation to start.
But then I was like, the next couple days sothey sent off then, like, here's everybody that
was there.
And you're like, oh, that's what that personoh.
Yeah.
And within days, I was getting emails frompeople saying, hey.
(36:07):
I do this and you do this.
I think we could do something cool like this.
You know, just I'll give you all kinds ofexamples.
But it was just instant, you know, crossing ofgoods, let's just say.
Or, you know, I I do this and I saw that youguys do this.
And I'm like, god.
This is, like, the fast track to a lot ofthings that you question.
Right?
General contractors.
(36:27):
You know, you have to bid out 3 things.
So now I've got one that I've met that I've hada few drinks with this.
Tell me what's going on.
You know, restoration company.
I mean, we manage 10,000,000 square feet ofstuff.
You don't think that we have crap that goes on?
You know, it's just it was super neat, but thenjust the different things they come up with too
are just fun.
It's not like you're sitting in a room with,you know, tablecloths around a round table or
(36:49):
everybody gets you missing cheese and crackers.
And and then you might you're scared to ask forthat 3rd glass of wine because everyone's gonna
say, oh, god.
Did you say she had her 3rd glass of wine?
You know?
It was just fun people.
And it's it's so far I've been to quite a fewevents.
And every time I meet someone new, and most ofthe time, something ends up happening where we
all benefit.
So I've been I've been very impressed and didnot know what I was to I didn't know what to
(37:11):
think to start.
Yeah.
I literally heard this quote today.
Somebody said collaboration is the new currencyin regards to like
Oh, it's good.
You it was you know, when I heard it, I Iliterally wrote it down in my journal.
I literally wrote it down immediately because Iwas like, oh, god.
It's so true.
Like, you know, obviously, like, buildingscale, like, we like, hey, we're collaborating
(37:32):
with people to just tell stories, right?
Because it's like Yep.
How do you learn, right?
You learn from other people's experiences and,like, you collaborate with them that way.
And then it turns into, hey, I heard somebodyon on the show that I really would love to
meet, that I think that there's a lot ofsynergy and like that happens.
And and key maker is insane where it's like youjust find yourself in a room with other people,
like minded human beings that are doing thingsthat totally crossover where it becomes, oh,
(37:56):
man, Like, that's that those are the rooms youwanna be in.
How many of those rooms can I be in?
The better I'll be because, you know,collaboration is totally the new currency.
So, that top of mind
I love that.
I think that is absolutely beautiful.
I think I think the other thing that I findthat I keep telling the younger groups that we
have that I think sometimes it's taken wrong,but I do mean it wholly is you can't replace
(38:18):
life experience.
Oh, no.
You can't.
I mean, so so if if I hear someone talkingabout something and I've done it wrong, which
is a lot, by the way.
A whole shit load of bad and wrong.
But Yeah.
Being in a room with people that have hadenough life experience that you're like, hey.
Have you ever I'll give you an example.
Great guy.
So I'm talking about this land auction.
(38:39):
And I've never done a land auction.
I've been around them.
I've And he he said, what are you doing?
I said, land auctions.
Oh, I've done, like, 50 of them.
He said, you wanna have lunch?
I'm like, Yeah.
Yeah.
So yeah.
Yes.
Maybe I do.
And and for an hour and a half for no reasonother than to be helpful because of life
experience, he guided me through everything Iwould have done wrong.
(39:01):
And you can't put a dollar on that.
Right?
You can't put the time on it and putting, youknow, putting people in a room that all have
different life experience and then bring in theyoung ones.
You know, bring in the younger ones and letthem listen to the stories and then that grows
into questions.
And those questions come into other questions.
And those people that are too shy to ask themcan email later.
And, but life experiences, I don't you know?
(39:24):
Yes.
You can be, you know, you know, MIT grad at 22years old, but you haven't had the shit kicked
out of you yet, bud.
So I think that's where a lot of thiscollaboration stuff really pays off.
I completely agree.
As, I very much wanna learn all the time.
Both at Spot, one of our core values iscontinuous improvement.
(39:45):
And then in in my home, our core values are onthe wall, 1% better every day.
Right?
So, like, the very much that's the that's how Iwant to live, both professionally as well as
personally.
So I find myself I'm in a lot of rooms that I Iam not the expert in any way, shape, or form
because I wanna be in those rooms.
But I'm starting to see, I was literally in a adesign, a design build, roundtable earlier this
(40:11):
week.
And it was very much, I got questioned aboutsomething and I'm like, oh, yeah.
I know I know stuff about lean constructionthat I've I've never been in construction
sites.
Like that's not my thing, but I've now talkedto 120 plus professionals that are in the space
and I've learned at least something from them.
Like I've, you know, I've been listening asI've been doing interviews.
So like I was able to like, hey, like here's anexample of it when it's not technical.
(40:35):
Like, you know, it's easy when you talk aboutlike big BIM and all these different things
you're building data center and all this stuff.
But like, what does that mean when you juststart putting a truck together?
And like, why is that truck set up the way itis?
And is it set up exactly as the other 10 inyour fleet?
And what does that look like?
And, like, an inventory system, even if it'smanual, like, what that looks like.
And it was just cool to share those thingswhere it was just like, I'm not the expert in
(40:57):
the room by any means of the imagination, but Inow have I'm gaining so much experience and
knowledge because I'm I'm putting myself inthose scenarios to learn.
But I feel like, I I just have to applaud thethe leaders like yourself that allow me to talk
to you and and learn stuff from you becausethat's that's just the only way I get better is
being able to see it done or obviouslyexecuting it myself.
(41:20):
You to be my partner if we ever playcatchphrase.
Because between the 2 of us and all the littletidbits and stuff we know a little a little bit
about
Oh, yeah.
And nothing really.
Yeah.
Because I'm I'm in.
I'm in.
We'll be the best at that game ever.
I love that.
I I agree.
I feel that I know a little bit about a lot.
At least that's that's what I think.
(41:40):
And I I just try to continuously learn stuff.
Currently, I'm learning about, ultra processedfood.
That's a thing that I'm I'm currently learningabout.
Oh, that's hot topic, man.
Very hot topic.
Somebody recommended a book.
I recommended him a a book, and then theyrecommended me a book.
So that was the whole concept.
And very eye opening, very lots of wild, wildstuff in that regard.
(42:01):
But like, I'm never gonna be in the foodindustry, at least I don't think so.
I don't that's not the path I think I'm evergonna be, you know, creating food and labs.
But, just really or farming for that matter,like the actual real food.
But I don't know.
Just for me, it's just intriguing to learn newstuff.
It's beautiful.
Everybody should feel that way.
Yeah.
(42:22):
But this has been a ton of fun.
So, I I'd love, you to tell tell the goodpeople, how they could get ahold of you or, if
you wanna, you know, hey, I'm doing this thing.
I'd love more collaboration on that, that too.
Or if you're just looking for the right personor type of company, now is your time to shine
to just, you know, have an ask, if you will.
(42:42):
Oh, I I love that.
I mean, I think so we've got a a new marketingteam that are just amazing.
So I think if and it the the best way to knowwhat we're doing, what we're looking for, and
the crazy stuff that's going on is our LinkedInpage now, the camCRE, LinkedIn page.
It it also shows our stupid I mean, you know,we're gonna have a Halloween thing on
Halloween, and it it just shows our dump.
(43:04):
But, but it also, you know, tells you we'relooking for certain employees.
We've got this thing going on, differentdevelopments we're working on.
We have no problem posting things about, youknow, does anybody think, you know, like, my
white reflective ceiling tile, you know, doesthat or or roof tile.
Does that make sense to anybody?
So we really try to beef that up so that wecan, I'm I don't have any social media at all,
(43:26):
so I'm a district loser.
So we brought in this group who taught me thatI am such that big loser and but they have
really ramped that up.
So I think that Capital Asset Management onLinkedIn is by far the best way to see
everything that we're doing.
Okay.
And then and I'm easy to, hook up or, you know,just pushing someone smarter than me and we'll
say, hey.
You should call this person.
(43:46):
Okay.
That's awesome.
Any other parting words for our listenersbefore we say our goodbyes?
Come to a Keymaker event.
Have some fun.
Oof.
Love that.
Yeah.
Listeners, this has been a blast.
I hope you had a good time.
I know I did.
I love these, Keymaker ones where it's prettyrelaxed and, just a fun conversation.
So until next time.
(44:08):
Adios.
Thanks for listening to Building Scale.
To help us reach even more people, please sharethis episode with a friend, colleague, or on
social media.
Remember, the 3 pillars of scaling a businessare people, process, and technology.
And our mission is to help the AEC industryprotect itself by making technology easy.
(44:30):
So if you think your company's technologypillar could use some improvement, book a call
with us to see how we can help maximize your ITcybersecurity strategy.
Just go to building scale dot net slash help.
And until next time.
Keep building scale.
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