← School of Hard Knocks Podcast
School of Hard Knocks Podcast
Todd Nepola | Founder of Current Capital Group - On Building a $100M+ Real Estate Empire & How to Start Investing in Commercial Real Estate
00:51:41
Todd Nepola is the CEO and Founder of Current Capital Group, a commercial real estate investing and property management company. Todd started out as a stockbroker in the 90's and at the age of 25 he invested everything he owned into his first commercia...
Loading summary
Transcript88 lines
- [00:00]
A
What's going on, everybody? And welcome back to the School of Hard Knocks podcast. I'm James, I'm here with Jack and Josh, and we have a very special guest. We're out in South Florida with Todd Napola, who is the founder and president of Current Capital Real Estate Group. You've been running the business for what, 30 years now? Something like that?
- [00:16]
B
25.
- [00:17]
A
You became a real estate mogul, you know, but for those that don't know you, could you give a little bit of a backstory on how you got into the business, your story, and once again, thank you so much for having us out to your office.
- [00:27]
B
Thanks for coming out here, guys. It's a pleasure to be with you guys. I enjoy your site. I love Hard Knock, so it's great to do this. A little backstory on myself. I'm Todd Nippola. At 25 years old, which was in 1998, I bought my first property, income producing property. It was a warehouse. I still own that property today and I continue to buy properties throughout. Before that I was a stockbroker. I was in the investment banking business and I wanted to find something that produced cash flow. So I went into real estate and I got addicted after the first one. And from the time I bought it to the time I refi'd it, cashed out, was cash flow positive, was six months. And I've been addicted to real estate ever since and been going strong.
- [01:03]
A
I love it. Now, you started out in finance though, so I wanted to ask you, and you were probably making some pretty good money at a young age.
- [01:08]
B
Yes.
- [01:09]
A
So, you know, what was that turning point like? Did you have a conversation? How did you ultimately pursue the real estate business for now, the last 30 years?
- [01:16]
B
You know, it's a great question because as I got involved in investment banking and finance and stocks at the time, the market was on fire. It's kind of like how the real estate market was a couple of years ago and everything you bought just went up and every deal you did made money. So you really weren't that smart. You were just lucky or you had to be patient. And it worked out. But the more money I was earning as a broker, the more I realized that this can't last. The more I realized that this was too good to be true. So I realized that one, it was entirely commission based. So it was based on me showing up for work every day, getting new clients, doing more trades, which you don't know. You could always do that. You can't miss a day's work because you can't earn any money. So that was out of the question. So I was drawn into businesses that would help me suffice. That shortcoming of not having to work for my money and looking into many businesses, I tell people all the time. I looked at payphones, ATMs, everything you could imagine. And I came up with real estate and I stuck to it ever since.
- [02:05]
A
Yeah, and you ended up buying that first property at a really young age. But you know, we talked about this before, but that was a massive risk at the time. And people looked at you, they thought that you were crazy. Can you kind of break down the decision process there and why you ultimately decided to buy that first piece of property?
- [02:19]
B
Yes. So the first property I ever bought, I bought it for 575,000, like I said, June 1998. And when I bought it, it was actually a property that another person had developed and went broke and lost it to the bank. So I bought it from a bank out of Canada called Gentra. And I think that he owed him about 1.2 or 1.3 million on the build and that was his debt. And I bought it for 575. They asked 600,000. When I bought it, I put every penny I had up. And I had never done a real estate closing, so I didn't really know how the numbers would work other than the down payment. What did I really need? So I was concerned. So I went out and applied for credit cards and I was willing to take credit card advances if I needed. Luckily, I didn't need it because I learned that you get credits back when you go to closing for security deposits and taxes and things like that. But I closed on that first property and I never looked back since then. But yeah, you're right, it was scary. A lot of people that were involved from co workers in the investment banking business and stockbroker world, they would laugh at me and tell me how stupid this is. Why would you put all this money into a property and you're going to make so little when you could buy a stock and the next day make a fortune? Which was true, partially. The real estate attorney who did the closing that I hired, he himself, who at the time was probably well into his late 40s, early 50s, he told me I was crazy and said this is not how real estate works. So everybody had this belief and maybe it was dumb luck or maybe it was not knowing too much, but I just really believed that I could turn this property around and rent out the vacancies and that it would certainly work. At the price point I bought and I was right. That's awesome.
- [03:53]
C
I'm actually curious. That was your first deal that you ever did and you did not know nearly as much as you know now. So I'm curious, what would you change or what was the biggest thing that you learned from that first deal?
- [04:03]
B
First thing I learned from that deal is don't listen to other people and certainly don't listen to people who are aren't doing exactly what you want to do. So the people who were telling me I was a fool to buy real estate didn't own real estate. The real estate attorney didn't own investment properties. So maybe if I had been speaking to real estate guys, they wouldn't have given me that advice and put the fear in me. But really don't pay attention to people who are giving you advice that really has no basis in credibility. So you really want to one of those people who are actually doing it.
- [04:29]
A
Never take advice from somebody that you wouldn't trade places with.
- [04:31]
B
Right. That's a good one.
- [04:33]
D
So how did you go from that first property to the next one and ultimately scaling up to where you're able to do big commercial deals today? What was the journey, the turning point from that first one carrying you to being able to acquire the deals that you're able to do at the level now?
- [04:46]
B
Success. Like I said, I bought my first property and it had a lot of vacancies. I put all the money down and my goal was to refi. To get my money back out, which back then you could take all your money back out of deals pretty easy as long as it cash flowed. So within the six month time frame, I filled three vacancies, resigned the leases on the four existing tenants because the foreclosure, the leases were voided out. So we resigned them. We cleaned the building up. I had some friends come help me, we painted it, we cleaned it, we made it nice. And when I refinanced that, I got 600,000 out of the property which covered all my closing costs. And I don't remember if the check was 8, 10, $12,000. But I got a check at closing plus all my money back and the property was going to throw off $5,000 a month that January. So once that happened, I said, huh, I'm on to something. So I took all that money and I immediately went and bought another property and it worked again. And truthfully, there's been up markets and down markets. There's been wars, there's been pandemics, there's been Recessions throughout my career, but truthfully, throughout time, they'll all work. The only way you get in trouble in real estate is if you have way too much debt. And as long as your debt is manageable, you'll be okay. But you can never time the market. But because I was successful when I bought, and I bought it a really bad time for real estate, those deals went up. It just became like I needed more, and that's how I kept going.
- [06:04]
A
Now, you went all in on commercial real estate, and a lot of people will advise, you know, people that when you're first starting out in real estate, they think that you should go the residential route. So I'll first ask you, why did you decide to go all in and find that, you know, commercial real estate was your bread and butter at an early age? And for people that are pursuing real estate today, do you think that they should start in residential or does it really matter?
- [06:24]
B
You should go where you like, the property type you like. I was driving by this property all the time, and back then there was just a for sale sign out front. So I called and I said, that's a really nice building. I can't believe this thing is for sale. When I got the story on it, I wanted it. Multifamily was never for me, but it's a tremendous asset class. What I've learned over doing this, like I said over 25 years, is that most people think that they know a multifamily because, well, I understand it because they live in a house. So how much different can it be? Multifamily, industrial, retail, office, they're all pretty much the same. But I think most people think that that's the inevitable step to start with multifamily, it's a great asset class. It's just not one I liked and never pursued. But there's nothing wrong with it at all. You pick whichever one you like.
- [07:05]
A
And I wanted to kind of ask you, so when you first started out in commercial real estate, at what point did you start Current Capital Group? Because, you know, did you always know that you were going to be an entrepreneur within this business and end up building your own company? Or, like, what was the first step that you made towards building that company?
- [07:21]
B
I'm glad you asked that question because I love to tell guys your age the story. And the answer is no. So today I'm very lucky that I sit here and I have this tremendous company with tons of employees, and we do great. We manage and lease properties for clients, and we manage and lease the properties we own as well. But no, I didn't set out to do that. In fact, I didn't know even when I bought my first property that real estate would be my career. And far too many people at a very young age say, you know, like that question I hear them asking high school kids sometimes, what do you want to do for a living? Is insanity because you just don't know. You just got to kind of roll with it and find where your joy is. So even after I bought my first, my second, my third properties, I was still the stockbroker having a lot of fun. And I wasn't going to give that up because I was with a great group of guys having a lot of fun. Every Friday at 3 o' clock, we were out to the golf course. I couldn't have had that in real estate, but the real estate portfolio was building. So what happened is in 2000, the tech bubble burst and nobody wanted to touch stocks. And I was actually paying people to manage my properties more than I was able to earn. And I said, well, that's kind of nuts, I'm not going to do that. So that's when I pivoted over and said, I'm just going to manage my property full time. I'll get a real estate license, I'll go out and I'll do it myself and own and operate properties. But it kind of happened because the stock market blew up and that's how I went there. So when you're an investor, actually when you're an entrepreneur, you don't necessarily know what the next step will be. You just got to keep taking steps and it'll lead you there. Now to fast forward. Once I got in it and I started taking over, I knew I had to do more and people asked me for help and I started Current Capital Management back then over 20 years ago. And I did more and more and more and I loved it. And there's nothing else I would do. And people ask me, is there something else you'd want to do? Absolutely not. But if you asked me this when I was 22 or 23, I wouldn't even known real estate. That's the truth.
- [09:04]
D
It seems like a lot of the properties that you bought early on were buy and hold to be able to help build that portfolio. So what would your advice to be for people getting into real estate investing that are looking to either buy and hold or just do fix and flip?
- [09:16]
B
Alright, fix and flip is not investing. You could fix and flip anything. I know a guy who flips his boats. I know a guy who sells watches. I know guys who fix and flip anything. So that's a sales thing. There's nothing wrong with that because you got to make money. Investing in real estate means you're buying properties and you're holding them. That's investing. So that's like, I could relate it very simple to stocks. If you tell me you bought Amazon this morning and sold it tonight, you're not an investor in the company, you're a day trader. So it's the same thing. Neither one is wrong, they're both right. But to invest, you need patience. And if you want to build generational wealth and you really want these properties to mature, you have to be willing to hold them. And yeah, that property, like I said, that I purchased, I refinanced it for 600,000 and it appraised for 800,000. So I very easily could have been a 25 year old kid and said, you know What? It's worth 800,000. If someone gives me 800,000, I bought it for 575. Maybe after commissions and everything, I'll clear 175. That would have been a lot of money to clear and I would have been out, but I didn't do it. And that same property pays me almost triple that a year right now in cash flow. But it takes time, so you have to have some patience.
- [10:20]
A
So you brought up patience and I wanted to ask you, like, what has been the importance of learning to have that delayed gratification with everything, especially in today's world with kids our age? You know, you see the 20, 30 year olds that are, that are driving around the Lamborghinis and it's easy to get discouraged. And we talked about this a lot, about how, you know, you don't want to necessarily like, focus on what other people are doing and just focus on what you're doing. But how important has that delayed gratification been and how important is it to develop that into your skill set?
- [10:47]
B
That's a great question and I'm glad you actually asked it because delayed gratification is, it's one of the most important things when you're investing. And it's funny because now I'm kind of to the other side of the spectrum. Obviously I was your age and I went through this. I'm only giving my opinion and my experience. But so many people think that when they start to make it, I got to go out and buy a fancy watch or I got to go out and buy a car because I want to look as if And I want to impress people, and I'm going to tell you, nobody's really impressed by your car because you have it. And I know this now, too. When I was young, I would look at people in fancy cars, and I didn't really know what the guy was or the girl driving it was, I want to know, how do I get that car? So I was more impressed with the car than the person having it. So people get caught up in buying stuff. But if you ever figured out what even just buying yourself a $10,000 watch is going to cost you at 25 years old, when you could have invested that money, it's insanity. So you've got to delay these kind of things until you could really afford them. And there will come a time, and the sooner you start investing your money, the sooner you'll be able to have it forever. And here's where the other side of the cycle is. So now I'm 50 years old, and I could buy any damn thing I want. And I sit here now, and I don't even wear a watch. It's unimpressive. So once you can have everything you want, material objects will mean nothing to you. No one's going to impress me by pulling up on a fancy car. It just doesn't mean anything. What will impress you is when you know that you could help so many people and you could take care of so much stuff. Because, you know, every month, your investments, whether it's real estate, you know, index funds, whatever it could be, is going to give you so much money you couldn't possibly spend it. That's you want to flex. Know that when your kids are going to go to college one day, no problem, your parents need help, no problem, a Lamborghini. Go rent it for the week and get it out of your system.
- [12:32]
C
That's amazing. I feel like a very common thing that a lot of people are told, especially growing up, is like, should you buy or rent a home? And people are like, oh, I'd rather buy, you know, buy my house because I'd rather pay my mortgage than pay someone else's. Pay someone else. What are your thoughts on buying your home? And just kind of like that debate.
- [12:50]
B
You know, I get that to this day. I presently rent my apartment where I live. I've been renting now for over 10 years. The last home I owned is when I had little kids. So a home serves a purpose because at some point you may want to have kids and, you know, maybe you want stability. Don't like to move. A home is a Nice thing to have, but it's certainly not an investment. Now, I'm not anti home ownership. I'm anti being delusional, thinking it's an investment. And I hear the same thing, and people say it to me, and I can't even imagine the effect it has on someone young and just coming up when they're, like, outed for being a renter. Because sometimes people come to like, oh, you're a renter. I'm like, I'll tell you what, let's pull out deeds. Let's see how it's working out for you and me. But when you're younger, you get insecure about this kind of stuff. But all these people who own homes, they don't own the homes. They're just renting them from the bank. The bank owns the home unless they own it free and clear, which, would, again, not be a good investment either. But if bank of America has a mortgage, there's no damn difference between you giving it to bank of America or me giving it to a landlord. Either way, there's a cost to own the house. It's not wrong. Some people say the house will appreciate. It will. But historically, not as fast as other investments will. But also, you have to really want to live in this house for a different purpose. It's not an investment. If it goes up, that's great. But you paid it off. My commercial properties, these are paid for by the tenants. So if I want to go ski for two weeks or go to Bali, Bali for two weeks, whatever I want to do, my tenants will pay rent. You still have to pay the mortgage on your house, so it's not an investment.
- [14:17]
A
Wow. And I wanted to ask you. So you were almost treating real estate initially, when you were still a stockbroker, as if it was kind of like a side hustle, but you were treating it as kind of like a baby. You were feeding that baby constantly. You were getting money, and you're putting it into real estate. So for someone out there who maybe they're working a job right now, they're starting to make some good money, make some good income, what would you say are some of those first applicable moves that they can make in their career to start creating wealth in real estate? So maybe they can't go carte blanche and go all in, but there is a misconception in today's world that you have to have a ton of money to start buying property, Getting into real estate, what are some of those first steps and applicable steps that people can implement to what they're doing in their career to really start building a solid real estate portfolio.
- [14:55]
B
You're entirely right. It's not easy or cheap to get into real estate. And if it was, everybody would do it. So it's not easy, it's not cheap. The first thing you got to do, and I tell everybody this before you go buy yourself a fancy watch or car, go invest in yourself, go learn skills, go invest in programs, go read books, you know, take masterminds, whatever you got to do to learn. Because what you learn will pay you back tenfold. So I know it's not as sexy to go Maybe spend your $10,000 on some sort of course to learn how to do something. But if it's teaching you or starting a drop ship business or but get side hustles if you want to get into real estate, I tell everybody the easiest way to get into real estate, and especially when you're young like you guys, right now, you don't have as many responsibilities. There's no reason why you guys wouldn't get real estate licenses and learn how to lease and broker deals because that is what an investor is ultimately going to do down the road. So you could do things like that. Now you could go out and source deals for people and you might not be the owner of them, but you're learning how to do it. So if you're learning, there's, there's always someone who will buy a deal from you, even if you're not a broker. You could wholesale the deal, but you could also put groups of people together and get your family, your aunt, your uncle, your cousin to all chip in and buy the property. There's a million different ways to skin the cat when you want to buy a property. But you don't have to go out and look at this beautiful $20 million property and say, I'm going to start here. You could buy a little $300,000 property. So if you could have bought a house or you could have bought an investment property, I would choose the investment property any day of the week. But it's not going to be easy. But yeah, but there's a million ways to get it done. Just start small.
- [16:21]
A
For somebody watching this, they have no money and they're like, you know, real estate, something that they're passionate about, that they've heard about and they want to go all into the business. One of the things that you talked about is one of the most important things that you can bring to somebody that has money is bring them that deal. So like, what advice would you Give to someone who is trying to find deals and how have you throughout your company, throughout your 30 years in real estate, what are some of those things that you've seen that led to success for people that are trying to acquire actively and build deals that have came to you?
- [16:46]
B
Alright, so if I was starting over again and I was not in real estate, had no experience in real estate, what I would absolutely want to do is learn the business. And if you want to be in real estate or whatever business you want to be in is really irrelevant. But if you want to be in real estate, for argument's sake, you got to immerse yourself in the real estate world. So what would you do if you had the money to buy the property? And that becomes a question. So maybe you can't, but start playing games. Like when I was a little kid, I used to love to play Monopoly. I really couldn't do anything but play the game and then pack it up at the end of the night. But go out and underwrite deals and figure out what deals make sense. Start reading the local business newspapers for real estate deals. What deals are working, who's buying what, why are they buying it? Get out there now. I would even take it steps further if you're really serious, not just doing this as a hobby, but if you're really serious, you got to get out there and get in the game. And by getting in the game, start start talking to brokers, finding out what's for sale. Start calling about properties that are off market and putting deals together. Now it's very easy to go into any community and find out who the real estate players are. Because if you're reading the news, I can tell you who everybody is. It's all public information. So if you know I buy this type of property and you come across one, all you got to do is call and say, todd, I'm not licensed in real estate, but I know this property is for sale and I'd love to be a partner on the deal. I have an offering and blah blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, like maybe I'll give you a partnership, maybe I'll give you a part of the deal, maybe I'll just find a way to pay. There's a million ways to get in the game, but start acting as if you could do the deal and it'll start to happen for you.
- [18:13]
C
One of the best ways to get deals is off market deals. How can someone go about obtaining those deals and just getting those contracts in?
- [18:23]
B
Network, network, network. It's who you know that's an expression when I was a kid, I remember this big Everyone would say, it's who you know, not what you know. And I think they told me that to make me feel better because I was terrible in school. So they don't make me feel like totally failing. So I would go meet everybody. And the more people you know, the more access you have. So if you want to be the best realtor selling luxury houses, you need to know everybody in that market. And I'm not just talking about the brokers. You need to know the doormen in the buildings. You need to know the golf pros, because the golf pro is going to find out that this couple is getting divorced before anybody else. The trainers, you need to know everybody who's involved in that area because they'll give you leads. And it's great to meet other realtors, but now they're your competition. But some of you might have just laughed when I said that. Go meet the golf pro and the trainer. But I got news for you. The trainer isn't training the poor person. The trainer is training the multi millionaire. And she's sitting there telling her trainer, I'm divorcing this bum. I'm getting out. I tell my friend who's a realtor, so you can get the listing on your house. It's really true. That's what happens. So surround yourself with people who have access to these. Wealthy people, boat captains, everybody.
- [19:27]
D
I want you to walk us through real quick the story about, you know, you going to Virginia to meet this, you know, your mentor. So, like, could you walk us through that story of how you found your mentor and any advice you would find for people to be able to go find a mentor out there?
- [19:42]
B
Well, the first answer to that is me. Two parts. Because the first answer is everybody could be your mentor. And what I love about programs like this and social media is you could follow people, stalk them on social media, see everything they're doing, and if they're doing what you want to do, like I always say, if you want to be in shape, find a guy or girl who's doing what you want to do is fit the way you want to be fit. And you can follow. They're usually giving it to you for free. They're showing you their workouts for free. So that is a mentor without even speaking to the person. That person is your mentor because you're following them. When I found my first live mentor, so to speak, was kind of on accident, too. I was at a real estate conference, which is, again, putting yourself where you're supposed to be. And I went to one of the courses and the guy was speaking in the program. It was a 45 minute, one hour lecture. And at the end of the lecture, he said, what I'm going to do is I leave my cards in the front and the back and the sides of this room. And there must have been 4, 5, 600 people in the room. And he said, I leave the cards. He goes, from experience, I've been doing this a long time. All the cards will be gone and none of you will call me or email me. But really, guys, if you want to reach out to me, I'm happy to help you guys. And he was about 25, 26 years older than me. And this was years back. So he was at the point where he wanted to give back. He was already very, very rich. So I said, I gotta meet this guy. He does everything I want to do. He runs a management company, he buys properties, he does it all. And I was like fanning. So I said, I gotta meet him. So I followed him in the convention to where his company had a booth. And I was watching him, and people would come by, and I knew a lot of people like, what are you doing? I'm like, I'm waiting for him. And like, why? I'm like, because I wanted to go talk to him. Like, okay. And be like, that's weird, but okay. And I just stood outside his booth waiting because I didn't want to walk up to the booth and say, I want to speak to him. Because they'd say no is what I thought. In which case I was sent away. So I stood there and waited. And the second he was done talking to someone, it was only about 10, 15 minutes, I made a beeline right for him. And I introduced myself and I said, hello, Mr. Rappaport. My name is Todd Nippola, and I'm doing what you do, but just a miniscule amount compared to you. And I'm so intrigued by what you run and your operations. I said, it would mean the world to me if I could come meet you in your office one day and take you to lunch and see what you do. And you give me some advice. And he said, well, where are you coming from? And I said, florida. He goes, well, I'm in Virginia. I said, I'll fly up. And he said, if you fly up, I'll buy you lunch. I said, okay, deal. So I came back from that was a Vegas conference. I came back, got on a plane, flew up to Washington D.C. i took my wife with me. So it was a nice weekend as well. And then I took an Uber over to his office and he couldn't have been kinder. And he didn't spend five minutes with me. He brought me into his office, he toured me. It was a two story building. He had probably a two story office. And an office building had at least 150 employees. And these people do this and this one does this. And it made what I do so much easier because I said, now I see he's really doing everything that I'm doing, just bigger. That's it. It's the same thing I'm doing. He's just had more time and he's doing bigger deals. So it made me build my company easier. And we spent all this time together and I'm saying hours and hours. We went to lunch. He did let me buy him lunch. I insisted on it. And we went back and the guy must have given me five or six hours one on one time with him just because I asked. That was it.
- [22:50]
A
Now, you had a mentor who was a billionaire and you spent the entire day with him. When you flew out to Virginia to meet him, what was the number one lesson that you learned from him? Like, what was the best piece of advice that you received from this billionaire mentor?
- [23:01]
B
Can't remember exactly how he put it, but the gist of his thing was, don't hold back. Too many people hold back from going for the bigger deals and you get in a comfort zone. So if you're used to buying deals that are 10 million and 10 million and 10 million, maybe you go to 11 and 12. He's like, push it, go harder because what you're doing is right. And the same way, well, real estate's an easy one to align it to the same way. My company has 30 employees and his has 150. I know how to push it to 150 now because I know how to. I saw it. I actually witnessed it being done. And it's no different than what I do, just bigger. It's the same way I can go from a $10 million property to a 20 to a $50 million. You just got to push it. Because the $50 million property is run the same way the $10 million one is. The 150 employees is run the same way the 30 is. So the illusion became reality.
- [23:47]
A
And I had one more follow up question because you brought up networking, one of your previous answers, you talked about whatever industry that you're in, you need to meet the top people in your city. And what industry that that is. But it's one thing to meet these people, but what is something that you see when people come to you that makes them stand out? So, like, how can someone, you know, when they're trying to establish and build these relationships, what is something that you see? If it's a skill set, if it's a mindset that you see in people that shows the value in them and that makes you willing to continue to connect with that person, I guess the.
- [24:16]
B
Answer that probably authenticity. You know, are they really looking for help or they really just lost in looking for a therapist? And I'm not a therapist, I'm not in that business. But if after speaking to someone or texting or DM with someone for a very short time, I know if they really want to do this. Now, they may have no clue how to do it, which is fine, but I could tell. And if I really think I could add value and help them and motivate them, I want to do that. That's the same thing my mentors have done for me. And not just in that business. Many people have done this. I've been having people my whole life that would give me good advice even though I had no interest in their businesses. But if I know somebody really wants to do this, I'm more than happy to help them. Also make it easy for the person who you want help from to give you the help. Don't make it hard. Don't ask them to. Can I invite you to dinner? That's hard. Like, they don't know you. Like, they don't have time for that, really. And I hate to be rude, but what's in it for them? So you want to make yourself accessible to them. And what I mean is a lot of people ask me different things, like, oh, I'd like to invite you to dinner at this fancy restaurant. I don't have time to leave my wife and kids to go meet a stranger. I really don't. If I did that for everyone, I'd never see my family. But when someone says, hey, can I just come by your office, bring you a cup of coffee and meet you for 15 minutes? It's never been 15 minutes, but I'm always thinking, I got 15 minutes for everybody. But it'll never be 15 minutes. So make it easy for that person you need help from. Do you give you the help? And even though you have great intentions and you want to do something nice, recognize that it's very nice gesture. But it's complicated for that person. So make it Easy for them.
- [25:45]
C
That is awesome. And mentorship, I feel like, comes in a lot of forms. There's people, there's social media. There's also a big one, which is books. And I know you love to read, and I'm just curious, what would you say has been the most impactful book that you've read just throughout your life?
- [26:00]
B
Okay, so I've read hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of books since I was probably about your age is when I started really getting hooked on books. Probably my early 20s, 21, 22 years old. Prior to that, I never read any books in school. I was supposed to, but we didn't really read. The number one book that had the biggest impact on me, for me personally, was Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within. He really made me believe that anything was possible. And it didn't matter to me, honestly, if I went into real estate or. Or I wound up running an investment fund or I became a textile magnet or a shipping magnet. It didn't matter because I didn't know what I was going to do at that point anyway. I was a stockbroker. But he makes you believe, and it's not some foo foo motivation that goes away. He makes you realize what you're capable of accomplishing if you follow routines. So that book had the biggest impact on my life. I'm a huge fan of Tony Robbins for those reasons. I've had the gift and pleasure and honor meeting him and. And in person, he's even way more sincere than you could ever imagine. But there's tools like that. After that, I started reading everything. And I tell people, it depends on what your mood is of the day. So if I want to learn about business, I'll read business books. If I want to learn lessons from businessmen, I'll read about people who have run businesses, even if they're no longer on this earth, like Carnegie or Rockefeller. I want to learn how they built their business, so I want to learn about that. If I'm. I would say if I'm having a fight with my wife, maybe I'll get a book on relationships. If I want to learn more about running, marathons and triathlons, I'll get a book on fitness. So reading is like when people say, what's the hack? The hack is reading, because every book will give you about 25, 35 years of experience from an author that you could get in 200 to 300 pages. And they're going to give it all to you there because they want their book to sell, so they're going to give you everything they got in 200 pages, approximately. And if you're a fair reader, you should be able to get that done in two weeks. So he could read 26 books, 24 books a year. I mean, it's tremendous, but reading is the shortcut.
- [27:52]
A
You brought up reading, and that's one of the most fundamental skills that someone will develop in school. And I wanted to ask you, because you also brought up Rockefeller, and he was one of the guys who created the origins of the school system. Are there any changes? Let's say that you were in charge of the education system. What changes would you make to it today? For kids that are going through middle school, high school, and college today? Is there anything that stands out that you would do completely differently and that you think schools are doing wrong?
- [28:14]
B
Great question. So I'll be careful how I answer this because I love educators and I love teachers, but I really don't love the system. A guy like me when I was a kid was canceled out of the system. And today they'd say I have ADHD because I just talk too much. The truth is, I was just bored. And back then they did want to drug me, but there was no thing for it, you know, just to calm your child down. So he just, you know, conform to what the school wanted you to do. My parents didn't go along with that. I was bored, I was uninterested. And there was really nothing the school system had for me because I wasn't interested in learning about geometry. I didn't really care about a shape. I mean, I still to this day don't have any use for an isosceles triangle. So you didn't stimulate my brain.
- [28:55]
D
That was a good one.
- [28:57]
B
So we have to learn that today on your little cell phone, the greatest mind on the planet couldn't remotely keep up. So we have access to things. So you just need to learn how to use the things more so learning how to learn it. So it's just a different system. And although I give teachers a lot of credit, I find that there are a lot of teachers, unfortunately, that just want to go with the program. They're more concerned with their school getting good rankings and getting good funding and not what's best for the kids. And, you know, I've heard stories of kids that want to apply for colleges, and maybe it's a reach, and the schools actually say, no, you can't even apply to those colleges. And some schools have a say where you could apply. So I think a lot of teachers, unfortunately, maybe they're tired of the career, I don't know what it could be. But the system as a whole isn't teaching what a lot of people need to know. And the school system in Beverly Hills shouldn't be teaching the same thing necessarily as the school system in a very poor neighborhood. Because these poor kids need to learn a lot of different life skills than the kid who's coming from a multi millionaire family. And although they both have to learn math and science and all that kind of basic stuff, there has to be different fundamentals. And so many kids, you know, these young kids from these poor schools, I hear about all the time. And I'll compare them to the rich kids schools. The rich kids, they have tutors, they have coaches. I mean, I see kids that are 12 years old with coaches and they want to play football. Like, where do you think you're going with that? Like, you get coaches for football already for $200 an hour. It's insane. Yet you go to the poor neighborhoods, these kids don't have SAT coaches. They can't afford courses, they can't afford tutors. They got to struggle. So more has to be done to that side to level the playing field, so to speak. They have to learn different skills. Because when the rich lawyer is going to send this kid to college, he's going to hire the best college counselor and he's going to pay thousands and thousands of dollars, but the poor kid's not even sure he can go to college. The school system has to be designed to help everybody. And it's really not. It's one program. You learn this stuff, you get to this grade, then you graduate, and then you're on your own. And that's not gonna work.
- [30:57]
D
I wanna circle back real quick to the book aspect more so in the sales department. So you've heard a couple people, they talk that like, hey, if you wanna learn sales, don't necessarily look to sales books. You gotta actually put in the reps and go learn through that way. So I'd love to get your perspective on if someone's getting into sales today. They're in a sales role or they're running a company. You gotta be good at sales. Should you look to books? Should you look to just getting on the phone, start cold calling. People learn through that way. And, and if books is the route, what's your top sales book recommendation?
- [31:27]
B
First off, great question, and I understand that too. People say, no, you got to go out and do it. But that would be like me trying to tell you, like, okay, I'd like you to create all the stuff that has been done for you and not take advantage of what's done. So if the best sales coaches have written books and they have online audio courses and there's so many, because sales isn't new. I mean, some of the biggest books on sales were written in the 1930s because sales has always been a thing. Why would you not want that shortcut? I mean, why would you not want that? It's like you could be someone who's never gone to the gym and say, I'm going to go to the gym and figure out how to use this stuff, and you're going to get hurt. But yeah, you can put in the time and eventually you're going to get really good at it. Or you could go there with a trainer and be an expert in a couple of weeks. So you want to utilize all those tools. You want to take advantage of everything people have learned that they're willing to share with you to expedite it and get it done faster, you will learn it. It's true. You could just go out there and fumble and bumble, or you could read a couple of books and take a few sales courses and get ahead of the game. As for sales coaches, sales does a lot of psychology. So there's a lot of books you could read. There's so many that you could look at. But when it comes to reading, I always tell people the best thing to do for reading because they're so many great books. I couldn't even think of 100 on the top of my head. But go on Amazon, look up sales books, look for covers that catch your attention, and then you can go into the book and you can read the first couple of pages. And if you're not going to read, audio book is fine here, too. Listen to it in the car. But see the way it's written and the way it's going and if it resonates with you, if it does, that's the book. But there's a million people, and I won't say names because I don't want to say one and someone will say something else. But there's so many books on sales and psychology of selling, you'd be a fool not to use that.
- [33:11]
A
And I wanted to ask you, since we're kind of talking about sales, you've been able to close some massive deals over the last 30 years. You know, throughout your career, you've closed some pretty amazing deals. But in order to get people to sign the dotted line, to trust you through negotiations and all that they have to ultimately trust you. They have to. They have to. People buy from people that they like and that they trust. So how important has it been being able to build? Being able to build, like a personal brand for yourself that's, you know, made a lot of people not only respect you, but also trust you to work with you.
- [33:38]
B
Well, your reputation is everything. I tell people it takes a lifetime to build a reputation and one stupid mistake to ruin your reputation. So be careful with that. But you're always selling. And I'm no different than the billionaires buying real estate today that are buying, you know, I'm buying properties for tens of millions, and they're buying properties for, you know, Blackstone, those guys, for billions. They have to sell the seller, then they got to sell the investor to invest, and then they got to sell the banks to lend. So it's always going to be a sale. And guess what? Then when they want to go build a building, you can think of your biggest developers. You don't just have to sell the cities and the counties and the towns the right to build this building. And for permission, you now got to sell the whole neighborhood. And why your building is going to be a plus for the community. So the larger you are and the more wealth you have and the more responsibility you have, the more you have to be selling. Everything is a sale. So you have to learn how to sell yourself. And the best way to sell is to sell the truth. That's it. Tell the damn truth and it'll help you out so much. But selling is everything at every level of the game.
- [34:38]
C
I just want to hop back, back to the books just for one second. And I know books have been pivotal throughout your lifetime. And you actually have a copy of your book right here on the table.
- [34:46]
B
Show that to the camera.
- [34:47]
C
So could you go ahead and tell us a little bit about that book? And after that, I also like to hear maybe your advice. Maybe someone who aspires to be an author one day or maybe write their own book.
- [34:56]
B
All right, kind of goes back to we said earlier, never dreamed I would be an author. And I actually wrote this. This was before ChatGPT came around. So I really wrote a book. And like I said, I never even read books until my twenties. But what happened for me was I was helping a lot of people in real estate, and it was really beneficial and rewarding. So I say, great. So from there, I started doing some podcasts. They said, wow, it's a bigger audience. I said, I should write a book. So I'd come into this office right here and sit down and start working on this book. And I'd come to work beforehand. I would come here on Saturday and Sundays, and I had the whole book. And I hired an editor and I did everything and I sent him. He said, you, book is so good. And he sent me the book back and I read it and I said, and that sucks. And I started all over again. And then someone gave me a tip and said, you got to write the book as if you're writing to someone. Who are you writing it to? So I rewrote the whole book basically, as if I was writing it to someone who's never been in real estate. So I wrote this book for that belief that this isn't just. If you want to learn about what I do, this is to tell you every different way you can invest in real estate. Whether you want to buy stocks that invest in real estate, you want to invest in someone else's deal, you want to buy triple net properties, you want to buy multifamily. Just my opinion, but because I wanted to give back and I'm a real estate guy and I'm not trying to be an author and make a lot of money, I said, to be authentic with this book, I don't want to make any money. So all the proceeds of this book go to charity. So the last batch that I sent went over to Crew Network, which gets minorities and females involved in commercial real estate. So I don't want to make anything off the book. So when people read my opinion, they know I just offered this for free. It actually cost me a lot of money to write this book and a lot of time. But that's the value of reading. Someone could read this book and they say, oh, you know, they want to come meet me. And I always say, did you read my book? Because this is a better way to meet me. This will answer everything I could think of that took me about 18 months to write, which I can never tell you in four hours. So if you want to sit down and start reading it. Day one.
- [36:43]
D
Yeah. I think one of my favorite pictures I've ever seen is Todd recreated the money Mayweather the money table. And he just replaced all the money that Floyd had on the table just with books. I think that's legendary. Really metaphorical, honestly. It's just like before you get to that picture, you got to have this one.
- [37:02]
A
But keeping it real on commercial real estate, maybe your top three takeaways to someone that ends up reading that book. It took you 18 months to write it. But if you could give three big takeaways that somebody's going to get out of that book, what would you tell them?
- [37:13]
B
Biggest takeaways is I'm an amazing author, took a great picture. I'm kidding. Now, the biggest takeaways from the book is that anyone could do real estate. And, you know, I tell people about my past. I said, I didn't come from a broken home and I heard hardship stories. I didn't have any of that. I came from a good family. My parents were always involved. I was very lucky. But I wasn't into school. And many teachers said many things to my parents and myself about my future, which was not, not very optimistic. But I did it. I went to community college. And here I am today, like I said, At 50 years old, with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of real estate. And I have bankers and lawyers and everybody. And I kind of joke around that. I'm like, it's funny because I have people from Harvard working for me now, but Harvard wouldn't even let me come visit the campus if I wanted to. So real estate is accessible to everybody now. You don't have to want to be me, and you may not get addicted to it, but if you just own one or two investment properties, great. So takeaway number one is real estate's for anybody. Takeaway number two from the book would be, if it's not going to be real estate. This will open your mind up to figure out something that will benefit your future. Because I talk a lot about that in the book, too. How it's great to have a fantastic job and be the best lawyer, the best doctor, the best scientist, and God willing, you're making millions of dollars. But that's going to stop. Unless you don't want to stop. But at some point, you're all going to stop, whether you want to believe it or not. And then what? So you have to take financial responsibility for yourself, for your future down the road. And take away number three would be. Is it's easy. It's really, really easy to own and operate property. And I spell it out in a book. It's easy. People over complicate it. They overthink it.
- [38:44]
D
Yeah. I think one of the cool things people that follow you on Instagram will frequently see. And you brought this earlier. It's really cool that you give the proceeds away, the book, to charity. It's a way for you to give back your knowledge over 25 years of commercial real estate. But for people that follow you on Instagram, they'll frequently see people flying to your office, coming and meeting with you. Why do you do that? Why do you take the time to allow people to just come from all over and come meet you that they might not have achieved an enumerate amount of success? Maybe they're hustling, they're going, but they haven't made it yet. Why do you take the time out of your day to be able to meet with them and invite them to come meet with you?
- [39:23]
B
I'm probably more in the phase of my life now where giving back is more fun than even earning and growing my own business at this point. I've been doing it so long, there's no shot I'm slowing down in business. But it's really, really rewarding to help other people. And when you see that they really want something to get them on the straight course and to help them out, everybody has time to help everybody. And like my quasi, idolize my older brother because he gives so much time to charity his whole life. He's an attorney by trade, but 80% of his day is spent giving back. This guy every weekend is giving back. I mean, he went to Habitat for Humanity. He traveled for a week to go build houses, and I don't do that. And I would look at him and he'd go clean the beach, and he'd go load dumpsters, and I don't do any of that. And I'd say, man, I suck. I got to do more. But this is a way for me to help people because my value isn't cleaning the beach. My value is trying to be an educator, which is why I wrote the book for two, Charity and Give Back. So I want to use those skills. But it's very, very rewarding when people come in here and they really want to learn something and, you know, you have good intentions to help them. I always tell them it's just my opinion. Take all the good and anything you don't agree with. And they're like, just keep moving. Just take all the good out of it and go. But it's really a pleasure to work with young people. And it's. You learn a lot from them, too. It's very rewarding for me, too. I hear things and learn things about towns and places I never plan on going. And it's really exciting. So. So it's a win for both of us.
- [40:42]
A
Now, I had a question for you. So, you know, you've bought. You've sold tens of millions of dollars in real estate throughout your career, and you've had an Extremely successful career. You built a real estate empire in South Florida. But every successful entrepreneur will tell you that there's tons of challenges that come with that. And failure is very common in entrepreneurship. You know, there's times where you don't get the deal that you wanted or certain market crashes where you were investing or looking to buy and sell property in. How have you been able to overcome setbacks and challenges throughout your career? And any entrepreneur out there, a young entrepreneur who's dealing with some adversity, Any advice to them going through the storm right now?
- [41:20]
B
Yes, answers. The first thing I would say to that is, did you really get a setback or did you just not get what you were trying to get as easy as you thought? And, you know, I relate us to a lot of things and. And I actually made a video on this and I said my daughter would be mad because she studied for her real estate course and she failed. You need a 75. She winds up with the 74 and she's like, God, I didn't pass. So what? You just didn't get it today? Get back to work. And she got back and she studied and a week later she passed it. She did not get it the first time. She just didn't get it as easy as she thought. It required more work. And most very successful people will tell you it's just a little extra push that will make all the difference in the world. Most people will give up. Most people will hit adversity and stop. Most people do not want to fight, but that's what it takes to win. I mean, that's really what it takes. I know you guys are big into baseball. You fail 70% of the time and you're a superstar hitter, but you're going to miss 70% and you're the best. So you are not going to get everything you want in business. I still don't get everything I want. Not even a remote shot. And let me tell you, the more deals I want to do, the more I'm not going to be able to get. It gets harder and harder, but you cannot get hit down one time and just say, okay, that's it. That was it for me. I give up. I'm done. I'm going to go home. You can't do that. You got to keep fighting through. Never give up.
- [42:44]
C
Something I find that's very interesting about you and how you personally invest in real estate is you really only invest in real estate that's close to home and really in South Florida. Why is that? And what advice would you have for someone in picking their own real estate.
- [42:58]
B
Market, exactly the same. Stay close to home. Stay out of South Florida, because I'm there. No kidding. Stay close to home. That's your edge. Certainly in the beginning. Now, I could obviously go buy a property, anybody could 2,000 miles. Or I could buy a property in a foreign country, but that's even riskier. I don't know anything about those countries. But for me to have an edge on real estate, it has to be in my neighborhoods. And, and it doesn't mean my neighborhood where I live, but the state of Florida is what I call my neighborhood. I understand the politics, I understand the weather patterns, I understand the economies. I understand everything. I can't know everywhere. So if I was to want to go out and buy a shopping center in Cleveland, Ohio, I don't know anything about Cleveland, Ohio. Maybe the center is beautiful, but I didn't know that right down the street they're about to knock things down and build a prison. I mean, I don't know this stuff, but I know in my home state what's going on. So the biggest edge you'll have is to buy in your own backyard, so to speak. So my thing is I gotta be able to leave my house in the morning, drive to my property and just be home for a late dinner. So I keep everything about zero to 400 miles away.
- [43:57]
D
Yeah. And so, you know, you brought up that your daughter's getting into real estate. I'd love to ask you just, like what, like, as a. Like, what would be your best advice for people that are, you know, fathers out there? Maybe they're entrepreneurs, maybe they're not, but they're high level individuals and they're building families. What would your best piece of advice for, you know, people that are young and they want to start a family and just fatherhood advice. What's your best advice as a father?
- [44:21]
B
Kids learn by example, so you could tell them anything you want. They're not listening, they're watching. So my kids, in a sense of business, have had a very good upbringing because they've watched me work. They're at this point pretty well aware that I don't really need to work. They've done internships here, they've done everything in my company, they've worked here. But since the time they were this big, they're only a year and a half apart, I would take them to job sites, they'd see it, they were too young to understand. I would take them when I would go collect rents or meet someone I'd make them sit in meetings. We have Monday meetings here. I'd bring them in when they didn't have school. They'd sit in the Monday meetings when they were very, very little. So they were always raised around that environment, and they watched how I behaved. And from working here when they were older, obviously, the older you get, the more you figure out wealth and money. They figured quite a bit out, and they look how I live, and they mentor that, they model that, and that's what they're going to do. So a lot of people may think I'm wrong, but I tell my kids yes to almost everything because I want it to be their life. It's not my life. I'm not going to live vicariously through my kids. I'm going to live my own life. I just want them to go out and take risks, try things. If they're going to do something stupid, I'm going to stop it. But at this stage, they're, you know, 17 and 19 years old. They got to go figure the world out. It's on them. And if they go out and try something and don't like it, I'll help them fix it, but it's on them. But when it comes to business, the greatest advice I have for everybody is from the time your kids are little, bring them to work. I tell everybody in my office, bring your kids to work. And some of them don't believe it at first. Like, well, you mean I could have them come here instead of aftercare for an hour or two? I'm like, absolutely. And I have kids in here. I can show you my desk right now. I got kids making me little pictures because they're just coloring because one of them's like seven years old. They come here, they're watching their parent work, and they're building a new level of respect for their parent. And that carries a long way as they get older, saying, now I realize what you did, and they'll model it, but they'll also model the bad behavior, too. So make sure you make them see the good stuff, too.
- [46:19]
D
Yeah, absolutely. And so, like, bringing that up, you know, you allowing people to bring their kids to the office similar to how you did as an operator. What has been the leadership techniques that you have implemented within current capital with your team and your employees here that you would give to other people, like, leadership advice for an operator.
- [46:40]
B
Leadership to me means that I help everybody be better at their job. Now, I could obviously do everybody's job here because I've done it for so long, and this is what I started in. I just couldn't do it as well as them anymore because they're experts at it. And at our company, there's obviously a leasing team, a property management and a field team, a property management in the office team, an accounting team, an operations team, a lease renewal team. There's many different components, and they're all experts. So my only job is to make them better. Same as my kids, where I let them say yes to everything. I am the anti micromanager. I tell them, figure it out. And when you come to me, I don't want to know the problem unless you have the solution. And you better have one or two options if it's a big problem. I need multiple choices to get out of this mess. But I just want to motivate them to be better at their jobs. I'm not the boss. I'm not looking for credit. In fact, I don't even do the work here per se. I just assist everybody. So I'm kind of on the sideline. And people will come in and out of my office all day long asking for things. But ultimately they're running the company, not me. So leadership really is making other people better at what they do.
- [47:44]
D
Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, it's really cool that, you know, we always talk about business and on these side of things, but, you know, you've also, you've had some time being on TV as well. What has that process been like? You know, like, do you ever get recognized in public for, you know, being on tv?
- [48:03]
B
Oh, yeah, of course. Especially with my wife. We get recognized all the time with her, and she tries to be nice to everybody when she can. Obviously, at some point you might get a little tired, but, you know, you got to treat every fan her world. You know, she's the star of that show, so she gets that attention. But interestingly enough, you do get recognized. The best part about the show is it teaches you you better be nicer to people because you really don't know if the person knows who you are. It doesn't mean they want to talk to you. But I always say it's kind of like I know who my guy is on the news at night with a sportscaster. If I see him somewhere, I'm not going to say anything to him, but I know it's him because I've seen him. So, you know, you're recognized and you know, people know who you are. So you got to watch your behavior. The downside is I'm on a show where they want to preach all the bad stuff. So unfortunately, there's a downside. So you're always explaining stuff, but there's a good and bad.
- [48:52]
D
Yeah, it's a neat experience that not everybody, you know, is able to partake on. Yeah. Yeah. All right. I'm going to just ask you a few rapid fire questions that I think would be cool to know. So first one is favorite restaurant in Florida.
- [49:06]
B
Favorite restaurant in South Florida right now for me would be Carbone in Miami Beach.
- [49:10]
D
Awesome. Favorite country that you've traveled to in the last decade?
- [49:14]
B
Italy. Italy. Italy. Over and over and over again.
- [49:16]
D
Do you have any advice for anybody going to Italy?
- [49:18]
B
Go to Italy. Every part of Italy is fantastic.
- [49:22]
D
Favorite movie.
- [49:23]
B
Favorite movie for me would probably still be Wall Street.
- [49:26]
A
Wall Street, Yeah.
- [49:27]
D
Wow.
- [49:27]
B
The original number one.
- [49:29]
D
And then last question would probably just be, how do you want to be remembered?
- [49:34]
B
Ah, that's a hard one. I want to be remembered as someone who really cared about people and gave back. That's the legacy that I'm a great dad and I cared about people and I served a purpose here. Way bigger than real estate, because ultimately nobody will care about the real estate a few years later. So ultimately I'll make sure I made a difference in some people's lives.
- [49:51]
A
Awesome.
- [49:51]
D
Beautiful.
- [49:52]
A
And we always end these off with kind of like one last question. But if you have any guiding principles out there, what is the best piece of advice that you would tell to the younger generation today? What's the blueprint to creating and living a successful life? If you can leave them off with some guiding principles that can you see led to your success, to all the people in your circle that have, that have really created some of the most successful people, what does it take?
- [50:14]
B
The best advice I could give young people won't be the fluff of saying, work hard, because we all know that would be focus on your mindset. You know, don't beat up on yourself. You're not doing anything wrong. Have some patience. Don't compare yourself to people 10, 15 years down the road. You'll get there. So have a little patience. But stay positive and stay motivated and stay committed. You know, it's not going to be easy, and I don't care what it is in life. It's not going to be easy to join a gym for the first time. It sure as hell isn't going to be easy to become a millionaire. So stick with it, Stick with the program and stay true to your mindset. Because if you start beating up on yourself and start getting negative, you're going down the wrong hole. Continually stay positive.
- [50:51]
A
I love it. Guys. That wraps up today's episode. It was awesome to come out here to shoot with Todd. Man, we always love connecting with you, but be sure to leave a like and subscribe for amazing content on the way at the school of hard knocks and Todd. For those who don't know, not only everybody keeping it real on commercial real estate, but where can everybody find you outside of this podcast?
- [51:10]
B
You can find me on social media through Life according to Todd. You could find my books on for sale anywhere you can go on my link. It's available there. You can get it through Amazon, Target. Everybody has the book available. And if you really do need help in real estate, you can reach out to me at toddc-reg.com you could call my office at 954-966-8181. And I'll definitely be mentoring more people in the future and we'll keep doing that and we'll keep posting videos to show what we're teaching these people.
- [51:37]
A
I love it. Everybody tap into Todd and we'll see you guys on the next one. Let's go.
- [51:41]
D
Thanks, guys.