May 8, 2025 • 42 mins
Ever wondered what happens behind the scenes to transform ambitious real estate visions into reality? This candid conversation between Paradyme founder Ryan Garland and his “secret weapon” – CEO Mike – pulls back the curtain on how successful developments actually get funded.
Recorded live from Desert Storm in Lake Havasu, with over 300,000 people in attendance, this unfiltered discussionreveals the financial engine powering Paradyme’s rapid growth. Mike shares his journey from managing funds for the Central Bank of China to joining Paradyme, where he now secures multi-million dollar commitments from major financial institutions – all while maintaining compliance in today’s complex regulatory environment.
The conversation dives into Paradyme’s evolution into a diversified real estate ecosystem spanning multiple market segments. Their flagship project, the Barn Caves residential development, has generated massive interest, securing over $1 million in deposits in a single day at the event.
But what’s truly groundbreaking is their plan to license proprietary building methods to developers nationwide, creating new revenue streams beyond traditional development profits.
Perhaps most compelling is their hybrid capital strategy. While building relationships with Wall Street, they continue to honor their retail investor base – what Ryan calls their "DNA," a community-driven army of people protecting and growing wealth by referring others to their products. With offerings like their Secured Income Fund delivering stable 10% annual returns, they’re attracting investors looking for safe alternatives in an uncertain market.
Want to see how smart money is positioning for the future? Tune in now to learn why having people who “understand the language of money” is crucial for turning transformative real estate concepts into reality.
Welcome to the Paradyme family.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey guys, Ryan Garland here, founder and
chairman of Paradigm, and, asyou guys know, I'm excited to
always bring good and the bestguests on and I'm always honored
to have the CEO of Paradigm andwe haven't really had him on
much and it's because he's mysecret weapon.
He's back there just makingthings happen and taking my
vision and monetizing it, butalso figuring out a way to make
(00:21):
it work for the world and ourinvestors and clients.
But I think I want to reallyhighlight his background during
this podcast and I think that'llkind of give you guys some more
color on what it is that we doand kind of the pedigree of
people that are involved here.
And obviously you guys havelistened to some of our past
podcasts with the people thatare involved in the development
side, but there isn't anyreality TV shows that talk about
(00:43):
how is the capital raised andhow do these deals actually get
done, when does the money comefrom, and if you don't have the
right guys back that understandthe language of money, you're
never going to get a deal done.
So, Mike, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Buddy, I appreciate it and thank you for being part
of my company.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
It's been an honor to be associated with Paradigm and
I was excited.
You know, our first meeting, Iwas like I was sold.
Oh well, yeah, within, likewell, by the second bottle of
wine I was sold for sure.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
At Europa Village.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
At Europa Village.
Good wine too.
It was good wine.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
For a California, southern California wine.
They do some pretty good.
They do have pretty good wine.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
It's hard to believe that was less than three years
ago.
Right.
Right from where we were.
One's basically ParadigmStorage.
I fell in love with ParadigmStorage and obviously the
Security and Income Fund.
Security and Income Fund for mewas like I understand that
completely, We'll go rip thecover off the ball on that one,
right.
Then I'm like Ryan, I haven'tdone real estate before.
That's not my gig man.
(01:36):
I'm private equity, I'minvesting in big institutional
money, but not a real estate guy.
You're like doesn't matter,Doesn't matter, no, Doesn't
matter.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
If you know how to move, if you know how to manage
money and can be compliant, youcan continue to raise more money
, yeah, and we can target theright clientele to really get to
where we're trying to go.
I know, and that's always beenkind of my model is you know, I
think there's a lot mindsetgoing into any project for real
(02:06):
estate, not just to make a bunchof returns right off the gate.
But how can we maximize returnsand then keep the money right?
It's one thing to make the money.
How do you keep the money?
Speaker 2 (02:15):
It's a real different gig.
So my gig prior to GermanParadigm was like I had a very
short my investors were all very, very short term.
It's like month, basically 30days.
How'd you do this month?
That's basically what a hedgefund looks like.
It's like if you don't make memoney month in and month out,
(02:36):
regardless of where the world'sgoing, then you're not going to
make it.
Coming from that where Istarted a trade and basically
it's a 50-50 bet.
On day one, I don't think it's50-50 because I'm not in it,
unless I think it's 80-20.
There's a skew to that outcome,but in reality it's 50-50,
right?
You just don't know.
There's too many variables inthe world, right?
So the timeframe when you and Istarted talking and from my
(02:58):
perspective, the timeframe andthe head start that we have
right just in the securityaccount, was like okay, we got
25 or 30 equity ahead of us.
That's a huge head start fromus.
From our perspective, in inmaking money, I'm like okay, so
stable, we got equity in.
I get that you're taking out at12 percent yeah right, we're
(03:21):
lending at 12 percent on average, right With a short duration,
asset of three, six, nine months, maybe 12 months, 18 months,
maximum right.
To me that was slam dunk.
That's where I fell in lovewith it.
And then we started talkingabout storage, and I love that.
I mean, I'm sort of a boat nerdtoo.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
You know that right Sort of grew up.
Well, you got your foil here.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
We're going to go wakeboard, so I love spending
time on the water.
So you're like, wow, wow, he'sgot a storage thing going.
I'm like, okay, that'ssomething we can scale.
Yep, and so that from myperspective, you knew your cost.
Like, yeah, I know how manyscrews go in my storage units.
I can, I can do this across thecountry.
Right, totally, and and yourvision has come to pass.
Right, we got goldman puttingin a half a billion dollars in
and I I don't really love whatthey're doing.
(04:05):
Right, because we can build50,000 square feet every 100
days.
Right, goldman's going to comein there with their people and
they're going to go for C typeof buildings and put money into
it.
Try to up it.
Right, but that takes a lotmore work and, by the way, you
know, I don't know what thoselease rates are going to be
after they're done.
Right, so we have a cleanproduct which we can build very
(04:25):
quickly.
I think that's the way to goFrom my perspective that's the
way to go.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Well, you know so.
By the way, we haven't eventold everybody yet.
On the podcast we're literallylive on McCulloch during Desert
Storm.
We are sitting on a trailerwith the podcast table why
there's a race simulator goingon behind us.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yeah, that's the noise, and there's 300,000
people walking by.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
I mean, how cool is that right?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
That's cool.
So 3.30 in the morning, we hadour guys here at 3.30, scouting
out where we are.
We got 110 feet right alongMcCullough Boulevard with guys
loving it.
I mean this is amazing.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
We didn't.
I felt like we missed theopportunity.
Yeah, we did.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Yeah, no for sure.
But you know, we're talkingabout the amount of people here
and obviously we're highlightingwhat we're doing out here
Havasu, the barn caves and theFamily Ops Society and you
announced things that I didn'teven know.
You announced yesterday, right.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
I kind of tested the waters.
Yeah, yeah, for sure We'll talkabout them too.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yeah for sure.
I mean that was amazing.
I mean just today I think weprobably had a million dollars
that came in from deposits inthe barn caves Plus what?
Speaker 1 (05:29):
20 more buyers for the barn?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
caves.
Yeah, I think we're probably upto 20, right, but 100,000 guys
we had at least that I talked to10 $100,000 guys today, right.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Yeah, and I probably talked to four or five.
A lot of the people have beenwanting to meet us.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
So this was a good call just to kind of create the
exposure and show people thatwe're the real deal.
You're not just talking tosomebody over the phone and
writing a check.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Well, I think your vision was let's get the model
of the barn caves out here sopeople can see it.
That was a disaster.
If they haven't seen the video,they need to go see the video.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
I'll post it more online, but for those of you
that don't follow me on socialmedia, I posted a video.
So we have a 4d rendering beingmade and it's a.
It's a, it's a.
It's a private practice.
That is kind of a dying breed.
And now having people custombuild every piece for a 4d
rendering so people can actuallysee what this thing is made and
(06:17):
how it's built, so it looksmore realistic for what it is
you're doing.
So it's actually a certainscale, but it's about 19 inches
tall, about 4 feet to 2 feetwide, and it was shipped in UPS.
Oh sorry, fedex.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
No, ups, was it.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
UPS and that came from North Carolina, and when we
opened the box it wasabsolutely destroyed.
I mean plastic was broken.
I mean it wasn't like it fellapart, I mean it was like
someone literally threw it offthe plane and it just destroyed
all the ground it was it lookedlike a tornado in a trailer park
.
The wood box was broken enough.
(06:52):
There were pieces were fallingout of the box.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
After you know, they dropped it off with footprints
on three of the sides of the box.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Gosh.
And so I, at that point man, Iwas frustrated, I was like I'm
done, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Yeah, you're like Rev , I'm just going to call this
thing off.
You're like that's it.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
It was done.
We're done, because the wholeidea behind this was to create
the awareness of the barclays,and so we ended up getting down
to it and we come back fromlunch and all the rest exactly
what this was with a bunch ofadults doing it Exactly right
(07:27):
and they did a great job.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Within three hours they had it basically rebuilt.
It was amazing.
So it was great Teamwork.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
So let's go back to a little bit about your pedigree
about your background, becausewe don't highlight a lot of you,
but I think it's important thatpeople really get to see you
know you really are dealing moreon the fund management,
portfolio management, dealingwith compliance.
You're talking about I don'tknow how many attorneys that
bill us every hour.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Yeah, a lot Every single day.
Yeah, as we get bigger, I toldyou, Ryan, you're going to have
more bills.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Oh, yeah, well, our attorney's fees are more than
our payroll Accountantsattorneys yeah.
So and that's how you know.
Let's talk a little bit aboutyour Wall Street days.
Let's talk about kind of howyou manage money, really, kind
of the nature of why you evenshifted from that to more of the
family office, more privateoperator fund management side
(08:15):
and just kind of doing exactlythat.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yeah, I did what a lot of people do when they come
out of college, like what am Igoing to do now?
Do you have a thing Right?
Where am I going to go?
Got to create finance from USC?
It's like, okay, what's thenext step?
So I ended up basically at abank City National Bank in
Beverly Hills and I was at onepoint I was slinging boatloads
down in Newport Like I can't doI can't do this anymore, I'm not
going to.
(08:39):
You know, I'm like nah, nextopportunity I got to get out of
here.
Right Ended up.
Basically a buddy of mine wasat First Interstate Bank and was
in the derivatives group, sothat's a real great entry.
At that point, derivatives werenew, so I was able to sort of
shimmy my way into that group.
(08:59):
I was actually started out asthe boss's typist.
I was his secretary and I'mlike okay, I'm going to do as
good as I can, but I'm not toogood, so I want to, basically as
soon as I can get to thetrading floor.
That's ultimately what I want.
So in about six months theguy's like Doug's, like, yeah,
it's time for you to go to thetrading floor, your typing is
(09:20):
good, but it's not that good.
So, yeah, I ended up on thetrading floor and then I was
basically trading derivatives atthat time.
And then we had a group.
It was AIG Financial Products.
Most people will know who theyare, but big.
They were huge in derivativesat the time.
They stole our entire New Yorkgroup.
Oh wow, the entire sales team,yeah, the entire sales team in
(09:42):
New York.
And so Doug came out and said,look, I just lost the entire
sales team to AIG.
Who wants to go to New York?
And everybody else sort of doveunderneath our desk as quickly
as they could.
I'm like I was standing up witha phone in my hand going, yeah,
that sounds good, I'll do that.
Right, never been to New York.
So that was really my firstmove to New York and I was going
(10:03):
to go back.
I'm like, hey, new York, that'sa better education, let me go
to New York, right.
So that started me on the pathreally from.
I was there for 10 years, sawthe advent of the big hedge
funds.
They were just this is 86 to 96, that sort of time frame, right
.
So the big hedge funds weregetting going and I covered some
(10:23):
of those I was doing.
Of those I was, I was doing alot.
So it was sort of in in in theinside pocket for a lot of that
activity.
So I saw it and I'm like, yeah,that's really great.
But I was from a derivativeperspective.
I made a transition.
I went from just pure sales toreally I'm like, okay, let me go
look, just on the debt side,let me go work with the biggest
(10:44):
CEOs in the country, the chieffinancial officer CEOs, and
bring them creative financingopportunities right.
Swiss Bank had a great Eurobonddesk and I was the guy talking
to Coke and Pepsi and Ford andGM, the provinces up in Canada,
bringing them billion-dollarbond deals right, HSBC, that
type of stuff, yeah, yeah allthe big bars in the US.
(11:06):
I was covering them for the bankat the time, but then I got
bored it's not really what Iwant to do at the end of the day
and I sort of had this ideathat I'm going to start my own
asset management company.
And that brought me back to theWest Coast and then transition,
you know.
Then it became okay who are thefamily offices, who are the
(11:27):
institutional players in thismarket?
How do we break in?
And it was a really interestingtransition because we managed
money for the Central Bank ofChina when we first started up,
right.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Which is relevant for what's going on right now.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Oh, yeah, I had a.
I was.
I had a first class you knowticket into china from about 96
to 2010 wow, right.
So before china reallyorganized itself to a great
extent, I was working with thecentral bankers in China,
basically to help them writetheir securities laws.
(12:03):
Right, it was an amazing timeto be there.
But, like everything else, weended up starting a broker you
and I talked to do.
We need a broker dealer.
I had a broker dealer.
They were coming in through mybroker dealer to do bond
transactions.
So not only were we managingmoney, but we're also getting
some of those transactionscoming through my broker deal.
So really a great window intothe development of China.
(12:25):
But, to be totally honest withyou, I'm like we've created an
asset management group for thecentral bank of China.
That's what we've done and I'mfiguring, you know, by the time
we teach them how to do thisit'll be over.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
They take it.
They did it for everything.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
And that's exactly what they did, yeah.
And you saw that ahead of time,you saw it actually.
Saw it had to come and so weended up and one of the things
partnership went sort of thisway you take the China stuff,
I'll take a global macrostrategy to more private equity,
because these are late stageprivate equity deals that we're
doing inside of China, so you'reinfusing in growth, yeah, so
(13:09):
that got me really into theprivate equity side as well,
which is really relevant to whatyou're trying to build right.
So, managing money, sort ofhigh test.
I was dealing with the biggestbanks in the world, the biggest
issuers, the corporate side, sodealing all that at the same
time, raising capital like we'redoing now from some of the same
(13:29):
names that we're going afternow as an organization.
So, yeah, that was a really,really interesting time.
So that whole thing from when Iwas sitting down with you, I
mean, okay, what's Ryan's needshe's going to need?
How do you scale the company?
Yeah, and the last, before Ijoined Paradigm that's the last
thing I was doing was scalingmultiple companies, primarily in
(13:52):
Australia, taking those withvery like two employees, brought
it to 120 employees, broughtthe capital, the debt, the
equity to it.
So scaling those companies andbringing the right people into
the right slots and that's areal art in and of itself right.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
It really is, and I don't think a lot of people
understand how difficult thatreally is.
It's hard.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
I mean, that's what we do.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
It's hard and it's really two kind of departments,
if you will, two different paths.
It's raising capital and beingcompliant and building something
that's truly right for theenvironment and then obviously
then building it.
It's like, okay, cool, we gotthe money but how?
Do we actually park that money?
(14:34):
And so that's the idea.
It's how do we go from raisingthe capital to now developing?
The project.
And then obviously there'scompliance inside that
department.
So that's where I knew I havethe vision of the development, I
have the vision of where I wantto take the company.
But then now we're buildingsomething like, for example, the
barn caves.
It's so innovative.
(14:54):
Nobody's seen anything likethat yet.
Don't get me wrong, we're notinventing the wheels.
I've just kind of taken five orsix different.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
You don't want to invent the wheel.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
That's what you don't want to do, but we're just
ultimately taking proven modelsand we're just bolting it all
together and creating our ownbrand and marketing it to that.
So we just we understandmarketing and PR and that's how
we.
Let's say, all the fires in LA.
We all know about the insuranceon stick-built houses that are
(15:22):
going through the roof.
Now if you look at policies forstill-built homes, some of the
town homes policies aresignificantly lower.
So from an affordable side,that's important.
It's huge.
So, depending on thedemographics and location that
we're building these, that's oneof the most important things to
do Now I always tell everybody.
One of the other things is thatwe wanted to create a model that
is scalable, but we can whitelabel where other builders and
(15:44):
developers across the countrycan now buy our buildings, put
their name on it and they canbuild them anywhere they want in
the country.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
This is really an interesting point, right,
because what we're really sayingis we're going to build up a
whole bunch of IP in what we'redoing From an engineering
perspective, the way we designthese and, obviously, steven
Beagle fantastic.
So there's going to be a lot ofvery, very embedded IP, which
you talk about businessescreating moats.
(16:11):
That moat for us is going to beour IP surrounding how we
deliver 700 of these things tosomebody else doing another
project, but we're deliveringthe units or one right so that I
think exactly I think, I thinkwe're we're.
You know, the barn caves isproviding that for us.
So a lot of you know, yeah,it's an established product
(16:34):
we've engineered it down to, butthere'll be second and third
generation engineering aspectsfor this and that embedded IP is
going to be very valuable forus.
I see that as being that'salmost the killer app in a way
right.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Well, and now you're focused on the manufacturing
side.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
So that's additional revenue for the brand.
And that creates sustainability.
So ultimately, the takeaway forinvestors is to say look, they
really are a private equity.
They're rolling in multiplerevenue streams that all kind of
feed each other.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Well, and we're seeing.
I mean, look the conversationsI'm having I don't know if we
should say the name, but theconversations that we're having
with the big New York banks,they see that.
Yeah.
I had a meeting head of creditfor the entire bank, the biggest
bank in the US.
I took him through the businessmodel, what we're doing,
(17:22):
because I love it, I love it.
That's not normal either.
That's not normal.
No, it's not.
This is not normal, not at all.
He's like I love it.
I want to do something.
He bought into our vision interms of what we're doing and
the segment, whether it's barncaves or storage, that sort of
thing.
He loves the idea.
And then the strange thing ishe's like I love the secondary
(17:43):
markets totally.
That's where you guys are.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
I love that idea right he loves the fact that
we're focused on health care,retirement, baby boomers and
spending habits.
Yeah, the list goes on, andthen we're catering to almost
every demographic in essence,just depending on what kind of
finishes we want, how big theunits are so forth.
But I think he saw the value inkind of our target market and
was like that is right up theincome stream for mass
production and that is kind ofthat forward-thinking design,
(18:08):
knowing what needs to be inplace that we were able to
implement.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
But this is the most conservative bank in a lot of
ways, the most conservative bankin the US.
The other thing they did thatwas super smart is they went on
our website so they got a verygood picture very quickly of who
you are.
The second guy the guy incharge, put me to another guy
and then he did his.
He said I really like Ryan, Ilove what you're doing, the way
(18:32):
you put yourself out there andyou market, and that's
incredibly important.
And he bought into that.
From that perspective, Iunderstand your marketing right.
So for them it's going to be anumbers thing.
Okay, well, you know where arewe in this and what's the cost
per square foot of a juniorproduct and we're going to be at
, you know, x, whatever leveragethey're going to be at.
So, yes, ultimately it'll be anumbers game.
(18:54):
But the fact is I haven't seenthat before where they literally
just say I haven't seen thatbefore where they literally just
say and I told you, I like RyanI downplayed it because I
didn't like Ryan doesn't believeme.
Ryan's not going to believethat they're going to jump over
three hoops on this one, butthey did, yeah, they did 100%.
And then, yeah, we've gotanother family office looking to
do the same thing, but that'sthe next generation, that really
(19:21):
, from our perspective, we bringthe right debt piece and the
right equity piece to this.
And we've got, you know, fromthat discussion, another
discussion with the familyoffice in orange county.
They're like I love it, let'sgo out to three of my other
family offices and we'll be thefirst loss position.
So that's where that goes.
And then also, we got 100million dollars with the debt
and we got the equity and thenoff, we do right now our
pipeline pipeline is 300.
Well, it's more now.
It was $365 million worth ofprojects.
(19:44):
That's actually fine Beforethis weekend.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Yeah right, yeah Well , I didn't tell you about that
meeting I had with the city.
I was just going to feel themout.
I asked for everything underthe stars, yeah, but they bit
down.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
We would be the first mid-rise.
That doesn't change subjectstoo much, but I pitched a
550-unit project that's 100 feettall, seven stories, podium,
parking, retail at the bottom,trying to anchor with some sort
of grocery store, health store,sprouts, trader Joe's, that type
of thing and that's what peoplewant around here.
(20:19):
But we need that type of.
They're 12,000 units short here, based on the last market study
, so there needs to be morehousing.
They're 12,000 units short here,based on the last market study.
So there needs to be morehousing.
There needs to be more housingin that attainable level, but we
can design a product that justsupersedes anything else that's
out here.
And because of how much energyis going to the north side, they
were like this is impressive,especially when 600 acres just
got sold yesterday for $10million, right next to us.
(20:46):
That's a big deal, but thereason why I think they approved
it or are interested to approveit, is the fact that there's no
other homes in the area to tocomplain about the height or
yeah, product we're buildingwhat's the right spot yeah, and
it's inside the same parametersof the mall and retail feeds off
body count and foot trafficcorrect so to see that mall
thrive, bringing in that much,that many bodies, that many
souls, really creates a buzzaround town.
(21:07):
And you know, some of the guyswere just walking there.
Hey, buddy, what's going on?
Were you really serious?
I'm like, how did you know?
I pitched that.
Nobody even I'm so the city'sso small city was talking about.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
They're going out talking about.
Yeah, yeah, for sure, citytalked.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
So I mean it's kind of impressive to hear we have a
good reputation.
That goes a long way.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Well, I think that's a lot of it too.
They've seen our product,They've seen what we're doing
out here and they love the BarnCaves project number one.
So I think that goes a long way.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
And, let's face it, it does go a long way, and they
underwrite their underwritingguidelines is rather it's strict
.
Yeah, and they do care aboutculture.
They want to know how manypeople have been in your company
and how long it's been withyour company and they want to
just kind of understand yourculture.
They want to look at yourlongevity, they want to look at
your sustainability, they wantto just kind of get a better
feel of who we are as well.
So, even though, yes, they're anumbers game, they do.
(21:57):
Yes, they're a numbers game.
They do care about a lot ofother things like what's your
relationship to the city?
How are your approval process?
Oh yeah, how many projects haveyou done with them?
For sure, do you have anypolitical relationships?
It does matter.
Yeah, and a lot of people don'tknow that, but it's true.
And that's where I see a lot ofguys out there trying to get
into the game, and I try to telleverybody it's 100, here's your
staff employees.
(22:18):
You know, with the city, thecommunity, you have to play that
card too.
So if you're not playing, ifyou're not doing all of the
things that it takes, they'regoing to see that, and so that's
why family office does, andthey understand they're not dumb
.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
These are very sophisticated people, no very
smart guys, but at the end ofthe day, I think everybody
underestimates the amount ofenergy and time and commitment
it takes to build a business.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Oh it takes to build a business.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Oh yeah, and that's.
I think it's literally thehardest thing in the world to do
is to take something fromnothing and build a successful
business around it.
It doesn't happen.
It never happens with one guy.
No, Right, it just can't.
You've got to have a visionaryand you've well, energy and
vision, right, that's what ittakes.
And sustainability.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
And tenacity.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
You've got to wake up every morning and think about
what you're going to do, how webuild it.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
It's a 24-7 process and you've got to be patient.
And you've got to dream aboutit.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
You've got to be patient and you've got to dream
about it.
How many times in conversationswe've had it's like Ryan was in
the shower and something cameto him.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
It's like, okay, this guy's thinking about it all the
time On a.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Exactly so.
That's what it takes, and Idon't think they're, and that's
why people give up.
They don't have that.
They don't have that drive tobe able to, and they you know
people you fail, right.
So I think that's a big part ofit.
You just have to have themindset that I'm going to make
this work, and then you have tobring people around you that can
elevate what you're doing, andthat's where I'm really looking
(23:38):
forward to sort of taking thisfrom where we are now and really
sitting down with you.
Okay, now we've got another twoor three huge projects out here
we're going to have, so we'regoing to take this company and
we're going to turn it overagain.
Oh, yeah, Right oh 100% andwe're just going to grow, keep
growing, getting the rightpeople in and develop.
Our development side of ourbusiness is incredible right now
(23:58):
.
It's incredible we developmentside of our business is
incredible.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
right now it's incredible.
We have an amazing team.
I mean everybody that's on ourdownline from architects,
engineers, and our engineer didthe, you know, the Dallas Cowboy
Stadium you know down to you,know our architect.
Pentagon.
I mean it's just wild.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Yeah, we do have the right pedigree and it was funny.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
I was talking to a guy earlier just kind of, hey,
where did you get the idea?
How did you?
Because maybe he had listenedto a couple of podcasts
previously.
And I said, look, I think a lotof operators, guys like me,
they don't understand theimportance of hiring a really
good architect.
So, yeah, they may cost youmore money on the design side up
front, but they're going to getthings done on time normally
and then they're going to cometo you with different building
methods that will actually saveyou millions.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Yes, in the long run yes, because they've done it
before.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Yeah, they've seen all the things that are wrong
and they've worked with so manydifferent contractors and
everyone kind of has them.
They're like, they're likeartists, they're tattoo artists.
Almost everyone kind of hastheir own way of doing things
and and when you have anarchitect's been in business
since the 70s, yeah, and he has.
He's bought multiple companiesand seen different you know
brands around the country andcertain areas work and things
don't work and he's bringing allof that knowledge to the
(25:06):
forefront and going hey, this iswhat you're paying me to do is
create something that you wantto see be done, but here are
other ways that you can build itand save money, and in this
environment, that is absolutelykey.
And so people go well, man,you're spending a lot of money
on the front end.
Yeah, planning is where youmake your money.
And so people go well, man,you're spending a lot of money
on the front end.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Yeah, yeah, planning is where you make your money,
yeah, your acquisition and yourplanning is where you make money
.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
If you aren't planned well, you're going to have a
problem, correct?
So, yeah, I think.
At the end of the day, I think,our support, though you know
all the people that come by.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
I mean, our tent has been busy all day, all day long,
for 12 hours this thing has notbeen stopped or slowed down.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
So I think, ultimately, you know, we're not
only getting a ton of support,community support, the people
that have seen us wanted to seeit live in real time.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
People that are like, oh my gosh, now I can see what
the vision is and I'm interestedto dive in, but I think also
the way that we've we and you'rethinking about things in in
which I think is the correct way, you're building an ecosystem
around Paradigm, right.
So you've got the storage,you've got the barn caves, which
is housing.
You're going to do the familyoffice society, which is a
private membership club.
(26:08):
We're going to have an amazing32,000 square foot gym that's
going to bring in outside peopleprivate membership gym, right.
All those people become part ofyour ecosystem, the Paradigm
ecosystem.
And they feed on one another.
You're in the family officesociety.
It's going to be.
You know the wealthy people outhere and there's a lot of money
in Havasu that want to have aplace to go.
(26:29):
Hang out, put an office there.
Hang out with our golfsimulators, the F1 simulators.
So you're creating basicallylike Apple would call it,
ecosystem, where you stay withinthe Apple system and you're
doing the same thing and we'redoing the same thing here, with
Paradigm in terms of ourprojects right.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
I don't know if I ever told you this.
Maybe I have.
But one of the reasons why Ithink the gym's close to my
heart.
No, I love health and wellness.
I've been working out my wholelife?
Yes, and so in 2008, when themarket crashed to this day, I
tell everybody, the reason why Iwas able to put food on the
table is because I had builtrelationships at the gym, where
I would go to the gym and all ofus would talk and they would
(27:08):
send me a deal here and there,and I was literally surviving on
deals.
I was making fun of tips.
Well, you're hilarious at thegym.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
by the way, you're hilarious.
You can spend.
You know I work out whetherit's back in Tennessee or out
here.
Literally you're on the phonethe entire time oh yeah, the
entire time.
Or people are interrupting you,wanting to talk to you.
I'm like he's got less workoutthat I've ever seen anybody
spend an hour and a half at agym.
He's done like four exercises,been on the phone the entire
(27:35):
time, right?
Speaker 1 (27:36):
I just throw in the towel.
I'm like, okay, I'm out of here.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Yeah, it's a relationship builder for you.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
The only thing I can get 100% of is people overhear
my conversations, yeah, orpeople know who I am and they're
kind of wanting to listen.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
And then it gives them an in to have a
conversation.
It's crazy because a lot ofpeople they can relate when
they're in the same, similarbusiness, and so I couldn't tell
you how many people were likehey, ryan, I'm a framer or I'm
through this, you know what,send a bid marketing side of you
(28:08):
.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Where did you develop ?
Speaker 1 (28:09):
is that something?
Speaker 2 (28:09):
you develop.
It's something you already have.
So you're, you're a guy thatpeople well, first of all people
are attracted to you anyway,naturally, right.
So that's great, okay, you'vegot the charisma and you, you're
open.
Yeah, you have sort of thatopenness about you, right.
But but you develop, youdevelop relationships very
quickly.
People trust you and and ofcourse, they've seen you but
where did that come from?
I mean, is that something thatyou've had?
Speaker 1 (28:29):
uh, I think I, I, I, I genuinely uh, enjoy marketing.
Yeah, I, I love that.
I love getting behind a camera.
I like deep goofing off, I liketo build memories yes so that
was kind of.
I'll kind of give you maybe adeeper dive background, but as
my mother, my mother left when Iwas six months old.
I reconnected with her in 2017.
(28:51):
And I documented that that wasreally.
I really started truly lovingmarketing as I documented this
journey of mine.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Why did you, why, why would you document that?
Speaker 1 (29:03):
At that time I was flying back and forth a lot to
Santa Monica because I was doinga lot of stuff in Beverly Hills
.
So instead of drive three hoursfrom Temecula to Beverly Hills
and then come back like threedays a week.
I had a guy who worked for methat also was and this was in
the real estate lending space healso was a pilot for Virgin, so
he's like hey, dude, I've beenflying forever, I can do sticks
and we all actually help you getyour license and we'll do all
(29:26):
of our flights and we'll do allof our stuff and kill two birds
with one stone right likeperfect yeah so I was flying
from Temecula 12 minute flight.
From Temecula to Santa Monica 12minutes, and so this is.
I love you so yeah the point isis that when I I I was having my
, my second son yeah and I kindof have this kind of Jesus kind
of thing and I just thought likeif I'm traveling all the time
(29:47):
in a little plane and I die, Iwant my kids to know what
forgiveness is.
At that time I was kind ofgoing through this forgiveness
thing.
Okay, yeah.
And I wanted my kids to knowthat, and so what I did is I
reached out to my mother and Idocumented the whole entire kind
of story of me reconnectingwith my mother.
Yeah.
And I had her come out and Ipicked her up at the airport.
(30:08):
When I picked her up, I mean Ihad the whole camera following
me, the whole thing.
Yeah, what happened was it wassuch a cool video that the way
it was edited it came out betterthan my memory of the actual
event.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Okay, interesting, and so.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
I can look back at that and I can feel that memory.
Yeah, you know just likewedding videos or photos.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
You look back and it's so impactful, you know.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
You put yourself back in those pictures, you put
those in your memories and it'svery.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
it's very fragile yet , so it's very.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
But from an emotional level that's a really deep
place to be emotionally Right.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
So even having that a lot of times, there's a purity,
to that humbleness, and to thatbrokenness right and what
happened was when I went livewith it and I put it out in the
world to see, it took root and Igot like 20 million views in
like four days.
But the amount of responses andmessages that I got I tried to
(31:05):
read all of them it was Iinspired people to go do that
for themselves.
Whether it's a brother, theirfather it's completely authentic
.
Yeah, it was just inspired and Iso that the the ending part was
I'm so glad that I did it.
Yeah, regardless of the outcome, I wanted to know.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
I'd rather know than not know, you know and that put
you in front of the camera forthe first time?
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Yeah, it did, and so being vulnerable is very hard.
Yeah, because you knowmarketing and being vulnerable
it's just hard, no matter whatRight, but you've got your best
friends.
It's hard to be vulnerable infront of your best friends.
Yes, so to do that to the world, knowing I'm going to be judged
from every which way on Sunday,but it was really for me and
ultimately it was for my kids.
But I did put it on social mediabecause I knew I had a lot of
(31:46):
people that I think wouldappreciate it and it just took
root.
But I never got negativefeedback, it was just such all
positive feedback.
So that's when I knew mybusiness exploded from that
personal side.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
And.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
I was like wow.
I mean I got probably 30 or 40loans.
I built real estaterelationships across the country
.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
So what year was that ?
I've built real estaterelationships across the country
, so what year was that?
Let's put it up that was in2017.
2017.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Okay.
So, and then I'm like cool, andnow I start raising capital.
People are like I really likethis guy as a person.
Yeah, I want to invest.
And that's what happens Peopleinvest into you.
That's trust.
You know people invest into you, but they ultimately invest
into the operator.
You can invest into anything.
There's so many things on socialmedia.
(32:29):
You can find a guy invest inthese departments, invest into
this, invest into that, but whatyou realize is these people are
investing into us.
So I knew that by beingvulnerable and being okay with
the negative impact of somepeople negative responses.
It's because people are bad,horrible sometimes, but I get
more positive than negative.
So, knowing the impact of mybusiness exploded.
(32:49):
I mean, I made a milliondollars that year, yeah, you
know, and that was reallyawesome and that really kind of
helped me jumpstart the growthof the company, because I'm like
, well, shoot man, if I justkeep this up, where am I going
to grow?
And that's what I did.
Okay.
And so it really started with myrelationship with my mother,
yes, and then being okay withputting it out there, but really
(33:10):
kind of making it set up for mykids.
So if I were to again, if Iwere to pass away, die in an
airplane, they're like this iswho dad was.
So the documentary was longerthan just my connection with my
mom.
It was about who I am, you know, and so I have a longer version
.
But then when I did that and itwas so, it really changed the
way I looked at how to scale mybusiness and it was free.
(33:31):
Yes.
You know that was a post onsocial media.
The power behind social mediais undeniable.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Well, that's what you said when we first met.
Yeah, You're like Wall Streethasn't caught on to the chat.
They are now though Streethasn't caught on to the chat.
The crowdfunding side theydon't quite get it and that's an
opportunity.
It's an opportunity.
Then I'm like, okay, becausethat wasn't part of my world,
right.
And you said, no, this isimportant.
This is how I built thebusiness, how I scaled and no
(33:59):
matter what happens globally,whatever, this is another source
of capital for the company.
It's not going to go up anddown.
It's not a numbers thing asmuch.
I think people see through thecamera lens to you and it's an
authentic thing and that's theway they build trust with you.
You go to Wall Street andthey're going to say, oh, where
are the numbers here?
(34:20):
They'll bust it down nine waysto Sunday and then they won't
invest.
That's typically what happens.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
You're going to have to have 18 or 20 or 30 of those
meetings.
Yeah, and you're going to gothrough the attorneys and the
CFOs and this and that right.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
So that's a whole other sales pitch.
Okay, they're bigger chaps,right, and at some point the
pipeline just gets you there.
They can't say no anymorebecause you're pipeline and
you've delivered for yourclients.
So that becomes a transition.
Right, it's, we're going to gothrough this, you're going to
raise your money and then,ultimately, from there these are
10, 15, 20, $30 million checks.
(34:55):
You'll come from there, right?
So that's where we are rightnow as an organization.
Right, we've made thattransition to something
different and we are gettingbigger checks.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Oh yeah, but we're never going to stop building
relationships in the way wewould.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
I don't think you can stop yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
I don't want to say a lifeline, it's like our DNA,
you know really our business hasbeen around the smaller retail
investor that doesn't reallyknow what to do and doesn't
really trust a lot of people,people.
But they can reach out andtouch us and they know Lake
Havasu and you know, and so theybelieve in the community and so
on, and so forth.
So my family's here, my dad'son site, all the time we call
him the Karen right, he carestoo much.
He's out there picking upcigarette, butts and so forth.
(35:39):
It's making the place look good.
Honestly, my dad is great.
Yeah, he's awesome and my dadraised me, so it's always nice
and that's the best part is like.
It's also a family-orientedbusiness and I think a lot of
people connect with that too.
So but again, you know, goingback to the you know smaller
retail investor, the familyoffice, it is again in our DNA
and I don't think I would everwant to get away from that
because I dedicated people Justbecause it was a smaller dollar
(36:03):
amount doesn't mean anythingreally, these, but they're our
biggest sales team.
These guys are out therepitching paradigm and hey, you
got to buy one of these barncaves, or hey, you got to buy a
storage unit, and then it's justlike you nailed it, it's
created an economy.
Now we're creating a militaryof people that are protecting
their money by referring peopleto our product when we're on the
(36:23):
exit, and now you just have ahuge.
I mean, think about it.
Any company that has 400employees is pretty sustainable.
That's what we have is 400people that love what we're
doing and have supported us andwe create a high level of
transparency so it makes themtrust us.
So you know, I think.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
But also the cool thing too, ryan, and I think you
hit on this earlier on it'slike they're also sort of our
family.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Oh, yeah, for sure, from a trust perspective.
Well, we say in every emailwe're like welcome to the family
.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Yeah, no, we know everything about these.
Well, not every one of ourinvestors, because we have way
more now than we had previously.
But a good percentage of theseinvestors we really know pretty
well.
We're having multipleconversations a year how many
kids, what year, how many kids,what's the wife's name, all this
stuff.
Basically, we know which youknow is great from from that
(37:10):
perspective, right, if it's a,if it's a 15 million dollar or
20 million dollar, check out ofwall street, yeah, who cares?
Right, that those aren't thediscussions that you have.
It's like how did you do lastquarter?
Speaker 1 (37:19):
well, you know and I you know, so that's another part
of the conversation.
I don't think I've ever broughtup on a podcast.
I think we do it internally.
So you know what's happening isbecause our I would say our our
team is so involved in theday-to-day, even from the
investor relations side they'rehaving conversations with these
investors and buildingrelationships and you can't help
(37:40):
if we've all.
We've all have our hardships andwhen these investors open up to
you, you can connect to them,especially if you've had similar
hardships divorces, death inthe family illnesses, cancer,
scares, cancer you know, it'sjust really hard not to connect
and have compassion for people'shardships and everybody has
(38:02):
hardships and I think what'shappening is the team is waking
up every morning with a purpose.
It's not just about you gettingup and going to a job and
making a salary and going home.
There's no real meaning to thatanymore.
People want more and our teamdefinitely is not that team.
These people want to elevatetheir lives.
They are go-getters in theirown personal lives, they work
(38:23):
hard, they build businesses.
I mean, these are all trulytop-notch people.
Yeah, and there is nothingbetter than that in my opinion.
Yeah, and I think right now,ultimately, what we need to do
is just continue to buildawareness on all the stuff that
we have cooking and, and justcontinue to build these
relationships and tell peoplewho we are, what we're doing,
and just welcome people withfamily and and these and again,
(38:43):
our team's just waking up everymorning with a purpose and with
that, that in essence,bulletproof vest, we've got to
fight for our people every day.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Well, you're right.
Even here we saw it with aninvestor that we've been.
You know.
He's like I just don't.
I had to come here and see it.
Yeah, totally, I don't want tobe on a phone call, I don't want
to be on an email, I and see it.
So he shows up, he takes a lookat the barn caves he's got it.
It's like I'll get it, I get itnow, I'm going to get.
(39:12):
I won't say the number, buthe's like I'm in, and then his
buddies standing right behindhim and say wait, you're in.
What is this?
Okay, I'm in too.
Right, police firefighters, youknow that's and that's amazing,
right, those, those and, likeyou said, those are your best
advocates Once they trulyunderstand what we're trying to
do.
And it's not a cookie cutter.
We're not building 1,900 homesin Ontario or something like
(39:33):
that.
We're building something thathas a personality, it has a
presence.
It's really cutting-edge stuff,which is what I love too.
I love being at the sort ofcutting edge of what we're doing
.
If we're not innovating, we'regoing to fall behind.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
Yeah, exactly, we have to be innovating.
The world's moving too fast.
I use that as an example In2020, look how fast the world
moved.
Yeah, if we aren't moving thatfrom our business side.
If you look at politics ingeneral, they're moving
mountains Right, mountains everyday.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
we're going to fall behind and I I think too, if you
look at the geopoliticallandscape and this is what I do
I mean I did that, for I spentall my career looking at 24, 7,
what's happening around theglobe and where the risks are I
mean, I don't know how manytimes we wrote in our sif
write-ups about hey, this isgoing to be about hard assets.
You know these you're going to.
If you got to transition awayfrom financial assets, they're
(40:25):
expensive.
You've got to go back to thebasics.
Let's get real estate.
It's got to be whether it'screating income from it or
investing in it, putting yourmoney there.
We were pushing this prettyearly on, seeing sort of where
this was going to go, and we'reseeing it now, right, so people
have come to us and said look, Ijust don't want the volatility
man.
I can't take it anymore.
I just don't want thevolatility man.
I can't take it anymore.
Yep, oh, you're going to giveme 10% per annum on security
(40:47):
income fund.
I like that idea.
Tell me more about it.
Yep, you're going to 2.2 timesyour capital in the barn caves.
That's a four-year investment.
You know what I like that?
Because I don't have to dealwith the volatility.
A track record.
I get it right, yep, so theydon't have to worry about this
stuff, right?
It doesn't matter what'shappening between the US and
(41:10):
China, right, right, and I thinkthat's the way.
From my perspective, that'ssmart investing.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
Right, yeah, agreed.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
Right.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
So all right, buddy.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Well, let's good.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
We'll get some feedback from all of our
followers and go from there.
But hey guys, if you guys want,you know.
First of all, thanks forlistening.
Thank you for all the support.
If any of you guys want to hearanything specific that you want
us to talk on, we can dive intoany type of weeds you want,
whether it's tariffs, politics.
You know there's ways.
Things maybe a little different, but we are data nerds in
(41:45):
reality.
So thank you guys all for yoursupport.
We love you very much.
Welcome to the family if you'renew to the team, and I hope to
see you guys soon.
Hey guys, Ryan Garland here, founder and
chairman of Paradigm, and, asyou guys know, I'm excited to
always bring good and the bestguests on and I'm always honored
to have the CEO of Paradigm andwe haven't really had him on
much and it's because he's mysecret weapon.
He's back there just makingthings happen and taking my
vision and monetizing it, butalso figuring out a way to make
(00:21):
it work for the world and ourinvestors and clients.
But I think I want to reallyhighlight his background during
this podcast and I think that'llkind of give you guys some more
color on what it is that we doand kind of the pedigree of
people that are involved here.
And obviously you guys havelistened to some of our past
podcasts with the people thatare involved in the development
side, but there isn't anyreality TV shows that talk about
(00:43):
how is the capital raised andhow do these deals actually get
done, when does the money comefrom, and if you don't have the
right guys back that understandthe language of money, you're
never going to get a deal done.
So, Mike, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Buddy, I appreciate it and thank you for being part
of my company.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
It's been an honor to be associated with Paradigm and
I was excited.
You know, our first meeting, Iwas like I was sold.
Oh well, yeah, within, likewell, by the second bottle of
wine I was sold for sure.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
At Europa Village.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
At Europa Village.
Good wine too.
It was good wine.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
For a California, southern California wine.
They do some pretty good.
They do have pretty good wine.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
It's hard to believe that was less than three years
ago.
Right.
Right from where we were.
One's basically ParadigmStorage.
I fell in love with ParadigmStorage and obviously the
Security and Income Fund.
Security and Income Fund for mewas like I understand that
completely, We'll go rip thecover off the ball on that one,
right.
Then I'm like Ryan, I haven'tdone real estate before.
That's not my gig man.
(01:36):
I'm private equity, I'minvesting in big institutional
money, but not a real estate guy.
You're like doesn't matter,Doesn't matter, no, Doesn't
matter.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
If you know how to move, if you know how to manage
money and can be compliant, youcan continue to raise more money
, yeah, and we can target theright clientele to really get to
where we're trying to go.
I know, and that's always beenkind of my model is you know, I
think there's a lot mindsetgoing into any project for real
(02:06):
estate, not just to make a bunchof returns right off the gate.
But how can we maximize returnsand then keep the money right?
It's one thing to make the money.
How do you keep the money?
Speaker 2 (02:15):
It's a real different gig.
So my gig prior to GermanParadigm was like I had a very
short my investors were all very, very short term.
It's like month, basically 30days.
How'd you do this month?
That's basically what a hedgefund looks like.
It's like if you don't make memoney month in and month out,
(02:36):
regardless of where the world'sgoing, then you're not going to
make it.
Coming from that where Istarted a trade and basically
it's a 50-50 bet.
On day one, I don't think it's50-50 because I'm not in it,
unless I think it's 80-20.
There's a skew to that outcome,but in reality it's 50-50,
right?
You just don't know.
There's too many variables inthe world, right?
So the timeframe when you and Istarted talking and from my
(02:58):
perspective, the timeframe andthe head start that we have
right just in the securityaccount, was like okay, we got
25 or 30 equity ahead of us.
That's a huge head start fromus.
From our perspective, in inmaking money, I'm like okay, so
stable, we got equity in.
I get that you're taking out at12 percent yeah right, we're
(03:21):
lending at 12 percent on average, right With a short duration,
asset of three, six, nine months, maybe 12 months, 18 months,
maximum right.
To me that was slam dunk.
That's where I fell in lovewith it.
And then we started talkingabout storage, and I love that.
I mean, I'm sort of a boat nerdtoo.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
You know that right Sort of grew up.
Well, you got your foil here.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
We're going to go wakeboard, so I love spending
time on the water.
So you're like, wow, wow, he'sgot a storage thing going.
I'm like, okay, that'ssomething we can scale.
Yep, and so that from myperspective, you knew your cost.
Like, yeah, I know how manyscrews go in my storage units.
I can, I can do this across thecountry.
Right, totally, and and yourvision has come to pass.
Right, we got goldman puttingin a half a billion dollars in
and I I don't really love whatthey're doing.
(04:05):
Right, because we can build50,000 square feet every 100
days.
Right, goldman's going to comein there with their people and
they're going to go for C typeof buildings and put money into
it.
Try to up it.
Right, but that takes a lotmore work and, by the way, you
know, I don't know what thoselease rates are going to be
after they're done.
Right, so we have a cleanproduct which we can build very
(04:25):
quickly.
I think that's the way to goFrom my perspective that's the
way to go.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Well, you know so.
By the way, we haven't eventold everybody yet.
On the podcast we're literallylive on McCulloch during Desert
Storm.
We are sitting on a trailerwith the podcast table why
there's a race simulator goingon behind us.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yeah, that's the noise, and there's 300,000
people walking by.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
I mean, how cool is that right?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
That's cool.
So 3.30 in the morning, we hadour guys here at 3.30, scouting
out where we are.
We got 110 feet right alongMcCullough Boulevard with guys
loving it.
I mean this is amazing.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
We didn't.
I felt like we missed theopportunity.
Yeah, we did.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Yeah, no for sure.
But you know, we're talkingabout the amount of people here
and obviously we're highlightingwhat we're doing out here
Havasu, the barn caves and theFamily Ops Society and you
announced things that I didn'teven know.
You announced yesterday, right.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
I kind of tested the waters.
Yeah, yeah, for sure We'll talkabout them too.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yeah for sure.
I mean that was amazing.
I mean just today I think weprobably had a million dollars
that came in from deposits inthe barn caves Plus what?
Speaker 1 (05:29):
20 more buyers for the barn?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
caves.
Yeah, I think we're probably upto 20, right, but 100,000 guys
we had at least that I talked to10 $100,000 guys today, right.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Yeah, and I probably talked to four or five.
A lot of the people have beenwanting to meet us.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
So this was a good call just to kind of create the
exposure and show people thatwe're the real deal.
You're not just talking tosomebody over the phone and
writing a check.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Well, I think your vision was let's get the model
of the barn caves out here sopeople can see it.
That was a disaster.
If they haven't seen the video,they need to go see the video.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
I'll post it more online, but for those of you
that don't follow me on socialmedia, I posted a video.
So we have a 4d rendering beingmade and it's a.
It's a, it's a.
It's a private practice.
That is kind of a dying breed.
And now having people custombuild every piece for a 4d
rendering so people can actuallysee what this thing is made and
(06:17):
how it's built, so it looksmore realistic for what it is
you're doing.
So it's actually a certainscale, but it's about 19 inches
tall, about 4 feet to 2 feetwide, and it was shipped in UPS.
Oh sorry, fedex.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
No, ups, was it.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
UPS and that came from North Carolina, and when we
opened the box it wasabsolutely destroyed.
I mean plastic was broken.
I mean it wasn't like it fellapart, I mean it was like
someone literally threw it offthe plane and it just destroyed
all the ground it was it lookedlike a tornado in a trailer park
.
The wood box was broken enough.
(06:52):
There were pieces were fallingout of the box.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
After you know, they dropped it off with footprints
on three of the sides of the box.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Gosh.
And so I, at that point man, Iwas frustrated, I was like I'm
done, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Yeah, you're like Rev , I'm just going to call this
thing off.
You're like that's it.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
It was done.
We're done, because the wholeidea behind this was to create
the awareness of the barclays,and so we ended up getting down
to it and we come back fromlunch and all the rest exactly
what this was with a bunch ofadults doing it Exactly right
(07:27):
and they did a great job.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Within three hours they had it basically rebuilt.
It was amazing.
So it was great Teamwork.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
So let's go back to a little bit about your pedigree
about your background, becausewe don't highlight a lot of you,
but I think it's important thatpeople really get to see you
know you really are dealing moreon the fund management,
portfolio management, dealingwith compliance.
You're talking about I don'tknow how many attorneys that
bill us every hour.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Yeah, a lot Every single day.
Yeah, as we get bigger, I toldyou, Ryan, you're going to have
more bills.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Oh, yeah, well, our attorney's fees are more than
our payroll Accountantsattorneys yeah.
So and that's how you know.
Let's talk a little bit aboutyour Wall Street days.
Let's talk about kind of howyou manage money, really, kind
of the nature of why you evenshifted from that to more of the
family office, more privateoperator fund management side
(08:15):
and just kind of doing exactlythat.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yeah, I did what a lot of people do when they come
out of college, like what am Igoing to do now?
Do you have a thing Right?
Where am I going to go?
Got to create finance from USC?
It's like, okay, what's thenext step?
So I ended up basically at abank City National Bank in
Beverly Hills and I was at onepoint I was slinging boatloads
down in Newport Like I can't doI can't do this anymore, I'm not
going to.
(08:39):
You know, I'm like nah, nextopportunity I got to get out of
here.
Right Ended up.
Basically a buddy of mine wasat First Interstate Bank and was
in the derivatives group, sothat's a real great entry.
At that point, derivatives werenew, so I was able to sort of
shimmy my way into that group.
(08:59):
I was actually started out asthe boss's typist.
I was his secretary and I'mlike okay, I'm going to do as
good as I can, but I'm not toogood, so I want to, basically as
soon as I can get to thetrading floor.
That's ultimately what I want.
So in about six months theguy's like Doug's, like, yeah,
it's time for you to go to thetrading floor, your typing is
(09:20):
good, but it's not that good.
So, yeah, I ended up on thetrading floor and then I was
basically trading derivatives atthat time.
And then we had a group.
It was AIG Financial Products.
Most people will know who theyare, but big.
They were huge in derivativesat the time.
They stole our entire New Yorkgroup.
Oh wow, the entire sales team,yeah, the entire sales team in
(09:42):
New York.
And so Doug came out and said,look, I just lost the entire
sales team to AIG.
Who wants to go to New York?
And everybody else sort of doveunderneath our desk as quickly
as they could.
I'm like I was standing up witha phone in my hand going, yeah,
that sounds good, I'll do that.
Right, never been to New York.
So that was really my firstmove to New York and I was going
(10:03):
to go back.
I'm like, hey, new York, that'sa better education, let me go
to New York, right.
So that started me on the pathreally from.
I was there for 10 years, sawthe advent of the big hedge
funds.
They were just this is 86 to 96, that sort of time frame, right
.
So the big hedge funds weregetting going and I covered some
(10:23):
of those I was doing.
Of those I was, I was doing alot.
So it was sort of in in in theinside pocket for a lot of that
activity.
So I saw it and I'm like, yeah,that's really great.
But I was from a derivativeperspective.
I made a transition.
I went from just pure sales toreally I'm like, okay, let me go
look, just on the debt side,let me go work with the biggest
(10:44):
CEOs in the country, the chieffinancial officer CEOs, and
bring them creative financingopportunities right.
Swiss Bank had a great Eurobonddesk and I was the guy talking
to Coke and Pepsi and Ford andGM, the provinces up in Canada,
bringing them billion-dollarbond deals right, HSBC, that
type of stuff, yeah, yeah allthe big bars in the US.
(11:06):
I was covering them for the bankat the time, but then I got
bored it's not really what Iwant to do at the end of the day
and I sort of had this ideathat I'm going to start my own
asset management company.
And that brought me back to theWest Coast and then transition,
you know.
Then it became okay who are thefamily offices, who are the
(11:27):
institutional players in thismarket?
How do we break in?
And it was a really interestingtransition because we managed
money for the Central Bank ofChina when we first started up,
right.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Which is relevant for what's going on right now.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Oh, yeah, I had a.
I was.
I had a first class you knowticket into china from about 96
to 2010 wow, right.
So before china reallyorganized itself to a great
extent, I was working with thecentral bankers in China,
basically to help them writetheir securities laws.
(12:03):
Right, it was an amazing timeto be there.
But, like everything else, weended up starting a broker you
and I talked to do.
We need a broker dealer.
I had a broker dealer.
They were coming in through mybroker dealer to do bond
transactions.
So not only were we managingmoney, but we're also getting
some of those transactionscoming through my broker deal.
So really a great window intothe development of China.
(12:25):
But, to be totally honest withyou, I'm like we've created an
asset management group for thecentral bank of China.
That's what we've done and I'mfiguring, you know, by the time
we teach them how to do thisit'll be over.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
They take it.
They did it for everything.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
And that's exactly what they did, yeah.
And you saw that ahead of time,you saw it actually.
Saw it had to come and so weended up and one of the things
partnership went sort of thisway you take the China stuff,
I'll take a global macrostrategy to more private equity,
because these are late stageprivate equity deals that we're
doing inside of China, so you'reinfusing in growth, yeah, so
(13:09):
that got me really into theprivate equity side as well,
which is really relevant to whatyou're trying to build right.
So, managing money, sort ofhigh test.
I was dealing with the biggestbanks in the world, the biggest
issuers, the corporate side, sodealing all that at the same
time, raising capital like we'redoing now from some of the same
(13:29):
names that we're going afternow as an organization.
So, yeah, that was a really,really interesting time.
So that whole thing from when Iwas sitting down with you, I
mean, okay, what's Ryan's needshe's going to need?
How do you scale the company?
Yeah, and the last, before Ijoined Paradigm that's the last
thing I was doing was scalingmultiple companies, primarily in
(13:52):
Australia, taking those withvery like two employees, brought
it to 120 employees, broughtthe capital, the debt, the
equity to it.
So scaling those companies andbringing the right people into
the right slots and that's areal art in and of itself right.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
It really is, and I don't think a lot of people
understand how difficult thatreally is.
It's hard.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
I mean, that's what we do.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
It's hard and it's really two kind of departments,
if you will, two different paths.
It's raising capital and beingcompliant and building something
that's truly right for theenvironment and then obviously
then building it.
It's like, okay, cool, we gotthe money but how?
Do we actually park that money?
(14:34):
And so that's the idea.
It's how do we go from raisingthe capital to now developing?
The project.
And then obviously there'scompliance inside that
department.
So that's where I knew I havethe vision of the development, I
have the vision of where I wantto take the company.
But then now we're buildingsomething like, for example, the
barn caves.
It's so innovative.
(14:54):
Nobody's seen anything likethat yet.
Don't get me wrong, we're notinventing the wheels.
I've just kind of taken five orsix different.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
You don't want to invent the wheel.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
That's what you don't want to do, but we're just
ultimately taking proven modelsand we're just bolting it all
together and creating our ownbrand and marketing it to that.
So we just we understandmarketing and PR and that's how
we.
Let's say, all the fires in LA.
We all know about the insuranceon stick-built houses that are
(15:22):
going through the roof.
Now if you look at policies forstill-built homes, some of the
town homes policies aresignificantly lower.
So from an affordable side,that's important.
It's huge.
So, depending on thedemographics and location that
we're building these, that's oneof the most important things to
do Now I always tell everybody.
One of the other things is thatwe wanted to create a model that
is scalable, but we can whitelabel where other builders and
(15:44):
developers across the countrycan now buy our buildings, put
their name on it and they canbuild them anywhere they want in
the country.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
This is really an interesting point, right,
because what we're really sayingis we're going to build up a
whole bunch of IP in what we'redoing From an engineering
perspective, the way we designthese and, obviously, steven
Beagle fantastic.
So there's going to be a lot ofvery, very embedded IP, which
you talk about businessescreating moats.
(16:11):
That moat for us is going to beour IP surrounding how we
deliver 700 of these things tosomebody else doing another
project, but we're deliveringthe units or one right so that I
think exactly I think, I thinkwe're we're.
You know, the barn caves isproviding that for us.
So a lot of you know, yeah,it's an established product
(16:34):
we've engineered it down to, butthere'll be second and third
generation engineering aspectsfor this and that embedded IP is
going to be very valuable forus.
I see that as being that'salmost the killer app in a way
right.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Well, and now you're focused on the manufacturing
side.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
So that's additional revenue for the brand.
And that creates sustainability.
So ultimately, the takeaway forinvestors is to say look, they
really are a private equity.
They're rolling in multiplerevenue streams that all kind of
feed each other.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Well, and we're seeing.
I mean, look the conversationsI'm having I don't know if we
should say the name, but theconversations that we're having
with the big New York banks,they see that.
Yeah.
I had a meeting head of creditfor the entire bank, the biggest
bank in the US.
I took him through the businessmodel, what we're doing,
(17:22):
because I love it, I love it.
That's not normal either.
That's not normal.
No, it's not.
This is not normal, not at all.
He's like I love it.
I want to do something.
He bought into our vision interms of what we're doing and
the segment, whether it's barncaves or storage, that sort of
thing.
He loves the idea.
And then the strange thing ishe's like I love the secondary
(17:43):
markets totally.
That's where you guys are.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
I love that idea right he loves the fact that
we're focused on health care,retirement, baby boomers and
spending habits.
Yeah, the list goes on, andthen we're catering to almost
every demographic in essence,just depending on what kind of
finishes we want, how big theunits are so forth.
But I think he saw the value inkind of our target market and
was like that is right up theincome stream for mass
production and that is kind ofthat forward-thinking design,
(18:08):
knowing what needs to be inplace that we were able to
implement.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
But this is the most conservative bank in a lot of
ways, the most conservative bankin the US.
The other thing they did thatwas super smart is they went on
our website so they got a verygood picture very quickly of who
you are.
The second guy the guy incharge, put me to another guy
and then he did his.
He said I really like Ryan, Ilove what you're doing, the way
(18:32):
you put yourself out there andyou market, and that's
incredibly important.
And he bought into that.
From that perspective, Iunderstand your marketing right.
So for them it's going to be anumbers thing.
Okay, well, you know where arewe in this and what's the cost
per square foot of a juniorproduct and we're going to be at
, you know, x, whatever leveragethey're going to be at.
So, yes, ultimately it'll be anumbers game.
(18:54):
But the fact is I haven't seenthat before where they literally
just say I haven't seen thatbefore where they literally just
say and I told you, I like RyanI downplayed it because I
didn't like Ryan doesn't believeme.
Ryan's not going to believethat they're going to jump over
three hoops on this one, butthey did, yeah, they did 100%.
And then, yeah, we've gotanother family office looking to
do the same thing, but that'sthe next generation, that really
(19:21):
, from our perspective, we bringthe right debt piece and the
right equity piece to this.
And we've got, you know, fromthat discussion, another
discussion with the familyoffice in orange county.
They're like I love it, let'sgo out to three of my other
family offices and we'll be thefirst loss position.
So that's where that goes.
And then also, we got 100million dollars with the debt
and we got the equity and thenoff, we do right now our
pipeline pipeline is 300.
Well, it's more now.
It was $365 million worth ofprojects.
(19:44):
That's actually fine Beforethis weekend.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Yeah right, yeah Well , I didn't tell you about that
meeting I had with the city.
I was just going to feel themout.
I asked for everything underthe stars, yeah, but they bit
down.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
We would be the first mid-rise.
That doesn't change subjectstoo much, but I pitched a
550-unit project that's 100 feettall, seven stories, podium,
parking, retail at the bottom,trying to anchor with some sort
of grocery store, health store,sprouts, trader Joe's, that type
of thing and that's what peoplewant around here.
(20:19):
But we need that type of.
They're 12,000 units short here, based on the last market study
, so there needs to be morehousing.
They're 12,000 units short here,based on the last market study.
So there needs to be morehousing.
There needs to be more housingin that attainable level, but we
can design a product that justsupersedes anything else that's
out here.
And because of how much energyis going to the north side, they
were like this is impressive,especially when 600 acres just
got sold yesterday for $10million, right next to us.
(20:46):
That's a big deal, but thereason why I think they approved
it or are interested to approveit, is the fact that there's no
other homes in the area to tocomplain about the height or
yeah, product we're buildingwhat's the right spot yeah, and
it's inside the same parametersof the mall and retail feeds off
body count and foot trafficcorrect so to see that mall
thrive, bringing in that much,that many bodies, that many
souls, really creates a buzzaround town.
(21:07):
And you know, some of the guyswere just walking there.
Hey, buddy, what's going on?
Were you really serious?
I'm like, how did you know?
I pitched that.
Nobody even I'm so the city'sso small city was talking about.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
They're going out talking about.
Yeah, yeah, for sure, citytalked.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
So I mean it's kind of impressive to hear we have a
good reputation.
That goes a long way.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Well, I think that's a lot of it too.
They've seen our product,They've seen what we're doing
out here and they love the BarnCaves project number one.
So I think that goes a long way.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
And, let's face it, it does go a long way, and they
underwrite their underwritingguidelines is rather it's strict
.
Yeah, and they do care aboutculture.
They want to know how manypeople have been in your company
and how long it's been withyour company and they want to
just kind of understand yourculture.
They want to look at yourlongevity, they want to look at
your sustainability, they wantto just kind of get a better
feel of who we are as well.
So, even though, yes, they're anumbers game, they do.
(21:57):
Yes, they're a numbers game.
They do care about a lot ofother things like what's your
relationship to the city?
How are your approval process?
Oh yeah, how many projects haveyou done with them?
For sure, do you have anypolitical relationships?
It does matter.
Yeah, and a lot of people don'tknow that, but it's true.
And that's where I see a lot ofguys out there trying to get
into the game, and I try to telleverybody it's 100, here's your
staff employees.
(22:18):
You know, with the city, thecommunity, you have to play that
card too.
So if you're not playing, ifyou're not doing all of the
things that it takes, they'regoing to see that, and so that's
why family office does, andthey understand they're not dumb
.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
These are very sophisticated people, no very
smart guys, but at the end ofthe day, I think everybody
underestimates the amount ofenergy and time and commitment
it takes to build a business.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Oh it takes to build a business.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Oh yeah, and that's.
I think it's literally thehardest thing in the world to do
is to take something fromnothing and build a successful
business around it.
It doesn't happen.
It never happens with one guy.
No, Right, it just can't.
You've got to have a visionaryand you've well, energy and
vision, right, that's what ittakes.
And sustainability.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
And tenacity.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
You've got to wake up every morning and think about
what you're going to do, how webuild it.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
It's a 24-7 process and you've got to be patient.
And you've got to dream aboutit.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
You've got to be patient and you've got to dream
about it.
How many times in conversationswe've had it's like Ryan was in
the shower and something cameto him.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
It's like, okay, this guy's thinking about it all the
time On a.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Exactly so.
That's what it takes, and Idon't think they're, and that's
why people give up.
They don't have that.
They don't have that drive tobe able to, and they you know
people you fail, right.
So I think that's a big part ofit.
You just have to have themindset that I'm going to make
this work, and then you have tobring people around you that can
elevate what you're doing, andthat's where I'm really looking
(23:38):
forward to sort of taking thisfrom where we are now and really
sitting down with you.
Okay, now we've got another twoor three huge projects out here
we're going to have, so we'regoing to take this company and
we're going to turn it overagain.
Oh, yeah, Right oh 100% andwe're just going to grow, keep
growing, getting the rightpeople in and develop.
Our development side of ourbusiness is incredible right now
(23:58):
.
It's incredible we developmentside of our business is
incredible.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
right now it's incredible.
We have an amazing team.
I mean everybody that's on ourdownline from architects,
engineers, and our engineer didthe, you know, the Dallas Cowboy
Stadium you know down to you,know our architect.
Pentagon.
I mean it's just wild.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Yeah, we do have the right pedigree and it was funny.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
I was talking to a guy earlier just kind of, hey,
where did you get the idea?
How did you?
Because maybe he had listenedto a couple of podcasts
previously.
And I said, look, I think a lotof operators, guys like me,
they don't understand theimportance of hiring a really
good architect.
So, yeah, they may cost youmore money on the design side up
front, but they're going to getthings done on time normally
and then they're going to cometo you with different building
methods that will actually saveyou millions.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Yes, in the long run yes, because they've done it
before.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Yeah, they've seen all the things that are wrong
and they've worked with so manydifferent contractors and
everyone kind of has them.
They're like, they're likeartists, they're tattoo artists.
Almost everyone kind of hastheir own way of doing things
and and when you have anarchitect's been in business
since the 70s, yeah, and he has.
He's bought multiple companiesand seen different you know
brands around the country andcertain areas work and things
don't work and he's bringing allof that knowledge to the
(25:06):
forefront and going hey, this iswhat you're paying me to do is
create something that you wantto see be done, but here are
other ways that you can build itand save money, and in this
environment, that is absolutelykey.
And so people go well, man,you're spending a lot of money
on the front end.
Yeah, planning is where youmake your money.
And so people go well, man,you're spending a lot of money
on the front end.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Yeah, yeah, planning is where you make your money,
yeah, your acquisition and yourplanning is where you make money
.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
If you aren't planned well, you're going to have a
problem, correct?
So, yeah, I think.
At the end of the day, I think,our support, though you know
all the people that come by.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
I mean, our tent has been busy all day, all day long,
for 12 hours this thing has notbeen stopped or slowed down.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
So I think, ultimately, you know, we're not
only getting a ton of support,community support, the people
that have seen us wanted to seeit live in real time.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
People that are like, oh my gosh, now I can see what
the vision is and I'm interestedto dive in, but I think also
the way that we've we and you'rethinking about things in in
which I think is the correct way, you're building an ecosystem
around Paradigm, right.
So you've got the storage,you've got the barn caves, which
is housing.
You're going to do the familyoffice society, which is a
private membership club.
(26:08):
We're going to have an amazing32,000 square foot gym that's
going to bring in outside peopleprivate membership gym, right.
All those people become part ofyour ecosystem, the Paradigm
ecosystem.
And they feed on one another.
You're in the family officesociety.
It's going to be.
You know the wealthy people outhere and there's a lot of money
in Havasu that want to have aplace to go.
(26:29):
Hang out, put an office there.
Hang out with our golfsimulators, the F1 simulators.
So you're creating basicallylike Apple would call it,
ecosystem, where you stay withinthe Apple system and you're
doing the same thing and we'redoing the same thing here, with
Paradigm in terms of ourprojects right.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
I don't know if I ever told you this.
Maybe I have.
But one of the reasons why Ithink the gym's close to my
heart.
No, I love health and wellness.
I've been working out my wholelife?
Yes, and so in 2008, when themarket crashed to this day, I
tell everybody, the reason why Iwas able to put food on the
table is because I had builtrelationships at the gym, where
I would go to the gym and all ofus would talk and they would
(27:08):
send me a deal here and there,and I was literally surviving on
deals.
I was making fun of tips.
Well, you're hilarious at thegym.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
by the way, you're hilarious.
You can spend.
You know I work out whetherit's back in Tennessee or out
here.
Literally you're on the phonethe entire time oh yeah, the
entire time.
Or people are interrupting you,wanting to talk to you.
I'm like he's got less workoutthat I've ever seen anybody
spend an hour and a half at agym.
He's done like four exercises,been on the phone the entire
(27:35):
time, right?
Speaker 1 (27:36):
I just throw in the towel.
I'm like, okay, I'm out of here.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Yeah, it's a relationship builder for you.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
The only thing I can get 100% of is people overhear
my conversations, yeah, orpeople know who I am and they're
kind of wanting to listen.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
And then it gives them an in to have a
conversation.
It's crazy because a lot ofpeople they can relate when
they're in the same, similarbusiness, and so I couldn't tell
you how many people were likehey, ryan, I'm a framer or I'm
through this, you know what,send a bid marketing side of you
(28:08):
.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Where did you develop ?
Speaker 1 (28:09):
is that something?
Speaker 2 (28:09):
you develop.
It's something you already have.
So you're, you're a guy thatpeople well, first of all people
are attracted to you anyway,naturally, right.
So that's great, okay, you'vegot the charisma and you, you're
open.
Yeah, you have sort of thatopenness about you, right.
But but you develop, youdevelop relationships very
quickly.
People trust you and and ofcourse, they've seen you but
where did that come from?
I mean, is that something thatyou've had?
Speaker 1 (28:29):
uh, I think I, I, I, I genuinely uh, enjoy marketing.
Yeah, I, I love that.
I love getting behind a camera.
I like deep goofing off, I liketo build memories yes so that
was kind of.
I'll kind of give you maybe adeeper dive background, but as
my mother, my mother left when Iwas six months old.
I reconnected with her in 2017.
(28:51):
And I documented that that wasreally.
I really started truly lovingmarketing as I documented this
journey of mine.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Why did you, why, why would you document that?
Speaker 1 (29:03):
At that time I was flying back and forth a lot to
Santa Monica because I was doinga lot of stuff in Beverly Hills
.
So instead of drive three hoursfrom Temecula to Beverly Hills
and then come back like threedays a week.
I had a guy who worked for methat also was and this was in
the real estate lending space healso was a pilot for Virgin, so
he's like hey, dude, I've beenflying forever, I can do sticks
and we all actually help you getyour license and we'll do all
(29:26):
of our flights and we'll do allof our stuff and kill two birds
with one stone right likeperfect yeah so I was flying
from Temecula 12 minute flight.
From Temecula to Santa Monica 12minutes, and so this is.
I love you so yeah the point isis that when I I I was having my
, my second son yeah and I kindof have this kind of Jesus kind
of thing and I just thought likeif I'm traveling all the time
(29:47):
in a little plane and I die, Iwant my kids to know what
forgiveness is.
At that time I was kind ofgoing through this forgiveness
thing.
Okay, yeah.
And I wanted my kids to knowthat, and so what I did is I
reached out to my mother and Idocumented the whole entire kind
of story of me reconnectingwith my mother.
Yeah.
And I had her come out and Ipicked her up at the airport.
(30:08):
When I picked her up, I mean Ihad the whole camera following
me, the whole thing.
Yeah, what happened was it wassuch a cool video that the way
it was edited it came out betterthan my memory of the actual
event.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Okay, interesting, and so.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
I can look back at that and I can feel that memory.
Yeah, you know just likewedding videos or photos.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
You look back and it's so impactful, you know.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
You put yourself back in those pictures, you put
those in your memories and it'svery.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
it's very fragile yet , so it's very.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
But from an emotional level that's a really deep
place to be emotionally Right.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
So even having that a lot of times, there's a purity,
to that humbleness, and to thatbrokenness right and what
happened was when I went livewith it and I put it out in the
world to see, it took root and Igot like 20 million views in
like four days.
But the amount of responses andmessages that I got I tried to
(31:05):
read all of them it was Iinspired people to go do that
for themselves.
Whether it's a brother, theirfather it's completely authentic
.
Yeah, it was just inspired and Iso that the the ending part was
I'm so glad that I did it.
Yeah, regardless of the outcome, I wanted to know.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
I'd rather know than not know, you know and that put
you in front of the camera forthe first time?
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Yeah, it did, and so being vulnerable is very hard.
Yeah, because you knowmarketing and being vulnerable
it's just hard, no matter whatRight, but you've got your best
friends.
It's hard to be vulnerable infront of your best friends.
Yes, so to do that to the world, knowing I'm going to be judged
from every which way on Sunday,but it was really for me and
ultimately it was for my kids.
But I did put it on social mediabecause I knew I had a lot of
(31:46):
people that I think wouldappreciate it and it just took
root.
But I never got negativefeedback, it was just such all
positive feedback.
So that's when I knew mybusiness exploded from that
personal side.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
And.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
I was like wow.
I mean I got probably 30 or 40loans.
I built real estaterelationships across the country
.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
So what year was that ?
I've built real estaterelationships across the country
, so what year was that?
Let's put it up that was in2017.
2017.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Okay.
So, and then I'm like cool, andnow I start raising capital.
People are like I really likethis guy as a person.
Yeah, I want to invest.
And that's what happens Peopleinvest into you.
That's trust.
You know people invest into you, but they ultimately invest
into the operator.
You can invest into anything.
There's so many things on socialmedia.
(32:29):
You can find a guy invest inthese departments, invest into
this, invest into that, but whatyou realize is these people are
investing into us.
So I knew that by beingvulnerable and being okay with
the negative impact of somepeople negative responses.
It's because people are bad,horrible sometimes, but I get
more positive than negative.
So, knowing the impact of mybusiness exploded.
(32:49):
I mean, I made a milliondollars that year, yeah, you
know, and that was reallyawesome and that really kind of
helped me jumpstart the growthof the company, because I'm like
, well, shoot man, if I justkeep this up, where am I going
to grow?
And that's what I did.
Okay.
And so it really started with myrelationship with my mother,
yes, and then being okay withputting it out there, but really
(33:10):
kind of making it set up for mykids.
So if I were to again, if Iwere to pass away, die in an
airplane, they're like this iswho dad was.
So the documentary was longerthan just my connection with my
mom.
It was about who I am, you know, and so I have a longer version
.
But then when I did that and itwas so, it really changed the
way I looked at how to scale mybusiness and it was free.
(33:31):
Yes.
You know that was a post onsocial media.
The power behind social mediais undeniable.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Well, that's what you said when we first met.
Yeah, You're like Wall Streethasn't caught on to the chat.
They are now though Streethasn't caught on to the chat.
The crowdfunding side theydon't quite get it and that's an
opportunity.
It's an opportunity.
Then I'm like, okay, becausethat wasn't part of my world,
right.
And you said, no, this isimportant.
This is how I built thebusiness, how I scaled and no
(33:59):
matter what happens globally,whatever, this is another source
of capital for the company.
It's not going to go up anddown.
It's not a numbers thing asmuch.
I think people see through thecamera lens to you and it's an
authentic thing and that's theway they build trust with you.
You go to Wall Street andthey're going to say, oh, where
are the numbers here?
(34:20):
They'll bust it down nine waysto Sunday and then they won't
invest.
That's typically what happens.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
You're going to have to have 18 or 20 or 30 of those
meetings.
Yeah, and you're going to gothrough the attorneys and the
CFOs and this and that right.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
So that's a whole other sales pitch.
Okay, they're bigger chaps,right, and at some point the
pipeline just gets you there.
They can't say no anymorebecause you're pipeline and
you've delivered for yourclients.
So that becomes a transition.
Right, it's, we're going to gothrough this, you're going to
raise your money and then,ultimately, from there these are
10, 15, 20, $30 million checks.
(34:55):
You'll come from there, right?
So that's where we are rightnow as an organization.
Right, we've made thattransition to something
different and we are gettingbigger checks.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Oh yeah, but we're never going to stop building
relationships in the way wewould.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
I don't think you can stop yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
I don't want to say a lifeline, it's like our DNA,
you know really our business hasbeen around the smaller retail
investor that doesn't reallyknow what to do and doesn't
really trust a lot of people,people.
But they can reach out andtouch us and they know Lake
Havasu and you know, and so theybelieve in the community and so
on, and so forth.
So my family's here, my dad'son site, all the time we call
him the Karen right, he carestoo much.
He's out there picking upcigarette, butts and so forth.
(35:39):
It's making the place look good.
Honestly, my dad is great.
Yeah, he's awesome and my dadraised me, so it's always nice
and that's the best part is like.
It's also a family-orientedbusiness and I think a lot of
people connect with that too.
So but again, you know, goingback to the you know smaller
retail investor, the familyoffice, it is again in our DNA
and I don't think I would everwant to get away from that
because I dedicated people Justbecause it was a smaller dollar
(36:03):
amount doesn't mean anythingreally, these, but they're our
biggest sales team.
These guys are out therepitching paradigm and hey, you
got to buy one of these barncaves, or hey, you got to buy a
storage unit, and then it's justlike you nailed it, it's
created an economy.
Now we're creating a militaryof people that are protecting
their money by referring peopleto our product when we're on the
(36:23):
exit, and now you just have ahuge.
I mean, think about it.
Any company that has 400employees is pretty sustainable.
That's what we have is 400people that love what we're
doing and have supported us andwe create a high level of
transparency so it makes themtrust us.
So you know, I think.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
But also the cool thing too, ryan, and I think you
hit on this earlier on it'slike they're also sort of our
family.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Oh, yeah, for sure, from a trust perspective.
Well, we say in every emailwe're like welcome to the family
.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Yeah, no, we know everything about these.
Well, not every one of ourinvestors, because we have way
more now than we had previously.
But a good percentage of theseinvestors we really know pretty
well.
We're having multipleconversations a year how many
kids, what year, how many kids,what's the wife's name, all this
stuff.
Basically, we know which youknow is great from from that
(37:10):
perspective, right, if it's a,if it's a 15 million dollar or
20 million dollar, check out ofwall street, yeah, who cares?
Right, that those aren't thediscussions that you have.
It's like how did you do lastquarter?
Speaker 1 (37:19):
well, you know and I you know, so that's another part
of the conversation.
I don't think I've ever broughtup on a podcast.
I think we do it internally.
So you know what's happening isbecause our I would say our our
team is so involved in theday-to-day, even from the
investor relations side they'rehaving conversations with these
investors and buildingrelationships and you can't help
(37:40):
if we've all.
We've all have our hardships andwhen these investors open up to
you, you can connect to them,especially if you've had similar
hardships divorces, death inthe family illnesses, cancer,
scares, cancer you know, it'sjust really hard not to connect
and have compassion for people'shardships and everybody has
(38:02):
hardships and I think what'shappening is the team is waking
up every morning with a purpose.
It's not just about you gettingup and going to a job and
making a salary and going home.
There's no real meaning to thatanymore.
People want more and our teamdefinitely is not that team.
These people want to elevatetheir lives.
They are go-getters in theirown personal lives, they work
(38:23):
hard, they build businesses.
I mean, these are all trulytop-notch people.
Yeah, and there is nothingbetter than that in my opinion.
Yeah, and I think right now,ultimately, what we need to do
is just continue to buildawareness on all the stuff that
we have cooking and, and justcontinue to build these
relationships and tell peoplewho we are, what we're doing,
and just welcome people withfamily and and these and again,
(38:43):
our team's just waking up everymorning with a purpose and with
that, that in essence,bulletproof vest, we've got to
fight for our people every day.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Well, you're right.
Even here we saw it with aninvestor that we've been.
You know.
He's like I just don't.
I had to come here and see it.
Yeah, totally, I don't want tobe on a phone call, I don't want
to be on an email, I and see it.
So he shows up, he takes a lookat the barn caves he's got it.
It's like I'll get it, I get itnow, I'm going to get.
(39:12):
I won't say the number, buthe's like I'm in, and then his
buddies standing right behindhim and say wait, you're in.
What is this?
Okay, I'm in too.
Right, police firefighters, youknow that's and that's amazing,
right, those, those and, likeyou said, those are your best
advocates Once they trulyunderstand what we're trying to
do.
And it's not a cookie cutter.
We're not building 1,900 homesin Ontario or something like
(39:33):
that.
We're building something thathas a personality, it has a
presence.
It's really cutting-edge stuff,which is what I love too.
I love being at the sort ofcutting edge of what we're doing
.
If we're not innovating, we'regoing to fall behind.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
Yeah, exactly, we have to be innovating.
The world's moving too fast.
I use that as an example In2020, look how fast the world
moved.
Yeah, if we aren't moving thatfrom our business side.
If you look at politics ingeneral, they're moving
mountains Right, mountains everyday.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
we're going to fall behind and I I think too, if you
look at the geopoliticallandscape and this is what I do
I mean I did that, for I spentall my career looking at 24, 7,
what's happening around theglobe and where the risks are I
mean, I don't know how manytimes we wrote in our sif
write-ups about hey, this isgoing to be about hard assets.
You know these you're going to.
If you got to transition awayfrom financial assets, they're
(40:25):
expensive.
You've got to go back to thebasics.
Let's get real estate.
It's got to be whether it'screating income from it or
investing in it, putting yourmoney there.
We were pushing this prettyearly on, seeing sort of where
this was going to go, and we'reseeing it now, right, so people
have come to us and said look, Ijust don't want the volatility
man.
I can't take it anymore.
I just don't want thevolatility man.
I can't take it anymore.
Yep, oh, you're going to giveme 10% per annum on security
(40:47):
income fund.
I like that idea.
Tell me more about it.
Yep, you're going to 2.2 timesyour capital in the barn caves.
That's a four-year investment.
You know what I like that?
Because I don't have to dealwith the volatility.
A track record.
I get it right, yep, so theydon't have to worry about this
stuff, right?
It doesn't matter what'shappening between the US and
(41:10):
China, right, right, and I thinkthat's the way.
From my perspective, that'ssmart investing.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
Right, yeah, agreed.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
Right.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
So all right, buddy.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Well, let's good.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
We'll get some feedback from all of our
followers and go from there.
But hey guys, if you guys want,you know.
First of all, thanks forlistening.
Thank you for all the support.
If any of you guys want to hearanything specific that you want
us to talk on, we can dive intoany type of weeds you want,
whether it's tariffs, politics.
You know there's ways.
Things maybe a little different, but we are data nerds in
(41:45):
reality.
So thank you guys all for yoursupport.
We love you very much.
Welcome to the family if you'renew to the team, and I hope to
see you guys soon.
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