← The Amazing Authorities Podcast
The Amazing Authorities Podcast
How Crisis-Proof Investors Win When Markets Turn Against Them
00:36:17
Loading summary
Transcript115 lines
- [00:02]
A
Welcome to the Amazing Authorities podcast where game changers, visionaries and category leaders share how they built their brands, platforms and global influence. Your host is Mitch Carson, international speaker, media strategist and creator of the Instant Authority system. If you're ready to learn from those who've done it and want to become the go to expert in your space, you're in the right place.
- [00:31]
B
My guest today is the oracle of Austin, all the way from Austin. I'm currently in Bangkok and he is a high energy man and we're gonna just dig in. Ari Rastager, who is the oracle of Austin. Ari, thank you for coming to the show. I mean, you, you, you're a man of choice because we're going to talk about media, a lot of topics because you've got it all. You've got a lot of arrows in your quiver.
- [01:00]
C
I think I've been called much worse. I appreciate it. Yeah.
- [01:03]
B
And you've got, you're an attorney, you're a real estate magnet, I would say, or mogul. Let's go right from the magnet to the mogul in Austin. You're the largest property owner in, in Austin, Texas, and you've done so well and you're not even 50, not even close to it. You know, the gray hair aged you a little bit, but I'm sure if you put some Clairol in there, it would put you in your 30s again. We had some nice chitchat before we began this, this recording, but I have to ask, how did you earn this distinction of the oracle of Austin?
- [01:36]
C
Well, it's, it's a great. First of all, Mitch, I love talking with you before. You're a cool, you're a cool guy and I thank you. That, that means, that means a lot to me.
- [01:44]
B
A lot of air conditioning.
- [01:45]
C
Yeah, it helps. Same here with some of the stuff. Mark Twain said, man is the only animal that blushes or needs to. So. So Forbes. A writer in Forbes. I got to know through a friend in Dallas when I was starting, when I was starting my business and very. Just kind of organic. I, the she, I knew her, she's kind of a lobbyist slash, knows everybody in Dallas, socialite, works with a lot of people. It's become a dear friend of mine. This was, I don't know, six years ago or seven years ago. I was working on a big zoning case into. There was a building in Dallas that 20 years ago was a nightclub that kicked me out for having dirty shoes. Okay. For having these white Air Force Ones. Twenty years ago, 15 years later, I went back and bought the building. And I still, I still have the shoes, by the way. I still have the shoes. I love that white Air Force One
- [02:47]
B
is great, isn't it?
- [02:48]
C
Yeah, it's, especially when it's, it happens serendipitously, you know. And so I bought the building and it's this, you used to be this nightclub and it didn't allow the height to build a super tall luxury apartment building. So I went through this comprehensive zoning case. We were able to change the zoning to build 400ft on this site in the, you know, and now directly across the street, and we didn't know this before, the New York Stock Exchange, Texas is going across the street. Goldman Sachs's second largest office in the world is going up across the street. Wow. And then, you know, in Austin around that time, I bought this 50 acres in about three weeks later, the gigafactory for Tesla announced it was going effectively across the street. And right around this time, it appeared that we had bought a bunch of stuff and some things had, for lack of a better word, mystically or prophetically had happened. And the truth of that, it became a cheeky conversation with this reporter, this, this journalist, Brilliant, brilliant journalist, very fam. In Texas. My name is Candy Evans. She had a column called Candy's Dirt in Dallas for 30 years. And she writes for Forbes and writes from other stuff. And it ended up being just kind of a meeting. And then over time she, we got to talk more. And kind of like you and I immediately, we just started just chatting about everything, went to dinner, talking. And then it turned into we should talk again. And turn it, we should talk again. She started looking at the deals and around that time Austin had just kind of a seemingly overnight went gangbusters. I mean, Tesla moved their global headquarters, Oracle moved their global headquarters. You know, this little company you might have heard of called Dell, you know, happens to still be here in Austin. And, and Austin, you know, I was born here. It's like a sleepy hippie town. Okay. You know, like it's not. The joke is Austin's not in Texas, you know, in the sense where, you know, there's lakes and trees and towns and you know, Dallas is like this metropolis flat. Metropol Houston is, forget about it. And Austin is like this oasis. And so we started buying all this stuff. And it appeared during that time, I assume, or what she tells me is that we had some foresight to buy a ton of stuff before, like almost right before these major announcements. I mean, you know, like the stock exchange, Goldman, the Gigafactory and we effectively started to look a lot smarter than we were, if that makes sense. And, you know, I guess a broke clock is right twice a day, too, so. So that confluence of. Of effectively of getting some things right on land purchases, and we ended up around that time, buying 318 acres just south of Austin in a town called. Called Kyle, Texas. So it's 20 miles south of Austin, 60 miles north of San Antonio. So as you can imagine, you don't have to be a real estate genius to know, or I would think, in between these huge Cities and in 2009, Kyle didn't even have a stoplight.
- [06:04]
B
Oh, my gosh.
- [06:06]
C
And A town of 5,000 people now has 55, 000 people 17 years later.
- [06:12]
B
And we bought up this town.
- [06:14]
C
I did. I did. I did. And so all of these things happened in very quick procession. And in talking to her, I think she almost said it jokingly. And, you know, she's like, you know, the. Or, you know, the oracle of Omaha's warm bubble. You're like, the oracle of Austin. And I'm like, like, okay. Like, I was like, I'm a regular dude. I am not psychic. I am not, you know. You know, I'm just a regular guy delivering pizzas and flipping burgers through community college, like a few years. You know, it seems like a few years ago. And. And in that moment, it became kind of a joke. And I was stocked when it published in Forbes. And I saw it. I'm like, did you? She's like, I don't know. It sounded good. It was like, you bought all this shit? And you're like, like, how the hell. Like, how the hell did you. Like, Ari, how did you really do this? Like, I don't fucking know. It's like the Michael Jordan. I don't. Like, I don't fucking know. Like, we bought it. And our investors are the, you know, firefighter associations, insurance companies, hundreds of accredited investors that, you know, knocked on wood. You know, I've done very, very well. And. And so it's become something cute and, you know, whatever. But it was a. It was a very interesting time that, you know, I hate to say it, but we got very lucky. And, yes, was there some math in it? Was there some analysis? But I don't care how good you are at math. At analysis, luck and grace play a role and stuff too. I have a lot of construction workers and people that work very hard, and the gigafactory doesn't move across the street, so I feel very blessed. And, like, in not Being corny, but legitimately like. It was this overwhelming amount of things that happened that were seemingly so incredible that we didn't necessarily plan for, but it appeared, as I said, to make us look a fuckload smarter than we really were.
- [08:10]
B
Now I gotta ask Ari, where did you get. I believe luck is the definition of. Luck is opportunity plus action.
- [08:17]
C
Sure, you.
- [08:18]
B
You might have been in the right place, but you had the sure and you were able to look forward and think, okay, this is strategically located between two big cities, Austin and San Antonio. There's Kyle, Texas, which you were involved in directly to build up. That's not luck, that's opportunity. And you took decisive.
- [08:34]
C
I appreciate that.
- [08:35]
B
Yes. As. Where did you learn your work ethic? Because I don't think you're a lazy person and I know that you're not. Son of an im.
- [08:43]
C
Not.
- [08:44]
B
And your father probably had some influence. And to talk about that dynamic.
- [08:49]
C
Well. Well, I mean, I'm an Iranian American. You grew up in Beverly Hills in Tehran, Jeles. You know, so. So you're a good, bad or indifferent know the community. And to Iranians, if you're not a doctor or a lawyer, you know, you're a loser.
- [09:03]
B
Correct.
- [09:04]
C
So I am. I am an attorney, admittedly. Or rec. Attorney, I should say. Sure. I'm still in my ten step program. And attorneys are trained for things to go wrong. You know, entrepreneurs jump off the side of a cliff and build a plane on the way down, you know, so, you know, so. So the. So it's almost like two people live in my house.
- [09:24]
B
The dichotomy of that, isn't it?
- [09:26]
C
It's profound. But, but as an investor, if you have someone and everybody on their board or has the friend that's the naggy accountant that says everything's going to go wrong and the world's going to blow up and don't do anything, don't even leave your house poisoned. Our air is poisoned, there's chemtrail, you know, everything is horrific, you know, and then you have this eternal optimist. Nah, it. It'll be all right. But as an investor, in all seriousness, you have to focus on how you could lose money. Like focusing on what are all the things. Because amateurs focus on how much money they're going to make. And I've been there, you know, and, and I also wrote a book called the Gift of Failure of all those businesses that blew up, by the way. And. And what I learned from them. But, but as an institutional investor, when you manage other people's money, which is no Joke. You have to think of how the you could lose money. Like what are.
- [10:16]
B
Well, that's the attorney in you too.
- [10:18]
C
You have to look the attorney and you look at those things. And so I'm very grateful to have that structure. What is the downside? What are all the things could get wrong? How are we going to get sued? Because not if, when. What is that going to mean? And then as an optimist and a community builder, I got to look of how can we shape this city and where is the puck going? And how do we change the zoning? How do we change the entitlements? And there's a level of hope and a level of optimism. And if you do that together, finance calls it risk adjusted returns. Managing the downside, tapping the upside. Call it a hedge fund, whatever term you want to use mitigation. So haphazardly, you know, or almost accidentally, I fell into risk adjusted returns just by nature of my own psychology and my education, because there was a boldness in me. There was an insatiable hu hunger, you know, to go do something. And yes, I am a hard worker. And everything in nature works hard. You know, the birds, the bees and the trees work hard. And I am. So does Ari. And Ari, you know, has a mild form of, you know, madness that goes into the level of reading and, and, and curiosity. I'm a very curious person. And at this point in my life, the only thing I know is that I'm going to be wrong. And knowing that I'm going to be wrong, you know, I continuously put myself in a situation to stay curious and learn and unlearn and relearn. And in that process of this insatiable appetite. And you wonder why the second generation, you know, doesn't have the drive or the ambition is because they're not hungry. Literally not hungry. Their stomachs have been full. So you yell at them and say, why aren't you getting off your ass? Well, they're not hungry. I was fucking hungry and now I have a tapeworm in my stomach. So matter what I eat, you know, something is just eating it in real time.
- [12:03]
B
So I got to jump in before we get down that, because we could talk all day. I'm sure that you said something profoundly mature as a business person and as an attorney. It's not if but when you get sued because you have to prepare. The old adage is prepare or plan for the worst or no, hope for the best, plan for the worst, hope for the best, plan for the worst. And that's about litigation. And that's a hard pill to swallow for somebody that's all pink rainbows or rainbows and pink elephants.
- [12:38]
C
It's not. It's not candy canes and lollipops. And I, like I said, I was a litigator. My father went to law, law school later on in life and, you know, as a student, you know, a lifelong student of life, of philosophy, of history, of great businesses, you know, there's 60 autobiographies or biographies. You know, they're sitting on my desk over there. Of all the people you would think about. World leaders, hist CEOs, and in learning, seeing all their lives, they all got sued or they all almost went bankrupt, or they all. And as a lawyer, I already see the world through this vantage point of litigation, of contracts and of, you know, and so once that happened, and anytime you do anything of merit, anything of merit, there is going to be conflict, inherent conflict. Whether you're breaking the norm, you're a contrarian investor. Getting married is a contract. Getting divorced is a nolay, is a nullifying contract. I mean, I'm being cheeky, but it's. It's really the truth. As a real estate person, you have so many things. Leases, property sale agreements, roofing. Someone dies in a fucking pool, an investor gets pissed, the bank gets restructuring. So if you're doing something and you're shaking things up or building something, things are going to happen, feelings are going to get hurt, contracts are going to be fucked up. And once you are prepared, as you said, for that preparedness. You know, the old thing they say about lawyers, it's like. They're like pigs, is that, you know, you roll around with the pig in the mud. You know, one. At one point you realize the pig likes the mud, you know, and so,
- [14:14]
B
yeah, you got to. You've got to be in that position. It's a mature perspective. It's a mature lens of going through battle scars. I mean, you learn, you earn captain status, colonel status, general status.
- [14:26]
C
You see this gray hair?
- [14:27]
B
Exactly.
- [14:27]
C
This gray hair.
- [14:28]
B
Those are battles.
- [14:29]
C
Gray hair.
- [14:29]
B
Those are.
- [14:30]
C
I earned this gray hair. I earned all this gray hair.
- [14:33]
B
You certainly did. And it's. And it's so true because we. It isn't lollipops and pink, you know, and rainbows and all this.
- [14:40]
C
And life isn't fair, Mitch.
- [14:42]
B
We both have been divorced.
- [14:44]
C
Life is not fair. It never was. It never will be. Life is in. In, by the way. That is reality.
- [14:52]
B
Mary Poppins doesn't exist, Ari.
- [14:55]
C
Well, I. I thought like. Well, Dick Van Dyke does at the Very least. And he's a hundred years old, still kicking, and his wife, I think, is 50 years younger than him, by the way. But. But awareness, the lawyer in me, I think, has given me a. A healthy dose. I don't want to say cynicism, because I'm not a cynic. I do believe in people and I. I do believe that the future is brighter than the present and the past. I do believe that. And I do believe that technology and AI and all this is going to do more good than harm. So I am, as an entrepreneur and inherent optimist, but it is just tempered with a wild sense of realism, of hyper realism, of, this is what it is. You climb up the flagpole, your asshole's exposed, someone's going to come after you. No one did anything without getting shot at. Like, look at any. This is just the truth, you know. And so once you know that's going to happen, the charge is a little bit depleted. Not to mean I still get hurt when I get stabbed and shot and bruised, but I'm not surprised.
- [16:00]
B
There you go.
- [16:01]
C
That.
- [16:01]
B
Let's talk about that. You can't go in with. I mean, this is the big takeaway because you're an attorney and you understand this, but you've also earned this. The battle scars. You've. Like you said, you mentioned your, Your gray hair through the experience of all the real estate that you own and were insightful. Somebody gets dissatisfied.
- [16:24]
C
Yeah.
- [16:25]
B
You made somebody a million dollars and they expected 2 million.
- [16:28]
C
Doesn't matter. Exactly. Right. You nailed it. And in the investment business, not every deal makes money. I'm not a fucking oracle. I'm not a psychologist.
- [16:38]
B
You don't have a crystal ball.
- [16:39]
C
I don't have a crystal ball. I have mathematics. I have some intuition, I have some stones, if you know what I mean, to go out and do whatever. But in a portfolio, okay, diversification, you know, you hear these terms and whatever. Do you think every stock Warren Buffett bought went up?
- [16:58]
B
No.
- [17:00]
C
And same thing. You buy these properties, some go up, some go down, and then you get kicked in the teeth with a global pandemic and then fucking interest rates fly through the roof and these unexpected things happen. But how you manage that circumstance psychologically and from a business operation standpoint is the difference between being a fucking professional and being, you know, a deal maker or a playboy or a, you know, or an amateur. And I'd like to believe that at this point in my life, I'd like to. If I give my, you know, one of my old, you know, friends you know, partners used to say, if you ever say anything good about yourself, you have to say, if I do say so myself. So if there's good. So if there's anything that I do well, if I do say so myself, is I'd like to believe I'm a professional, you know, and how, how I, how I deal with these things. And, and that separates the pack big time. When is hitting the fan. And that's why the, the best investors are the richest people that I know. And I, you know, I'm close to a lot of billionaires, legitimate billionaires with a beat. All they look at during the pandemic and rates, when all this stuff has been going wrong is looking at me saying, so, well, let's see, I was gonna, let's see what you're gonna do with it. Once you've gone through a pandemic or a recession, then call me. And then I looked at you, I was like, well, we didn't make as much here. He's like, Everybody else lost 50%, you were up seven. He goes, Give this man a billion. Do you know? And so I thought it was, oh, I have to make these exorbitant returns. But in reality, the smartest money in the world was looking at, what did you do when the building was burning down? Like, what did you do when everything was going to hell? How did you mitigate? How did you mitigate? How did you become creative? What did you do to, how did you extend that loan? How did you go back out to the partnership and deliver what was bad news and then make lemonade? And, and that is what being an investment manager means. And that also, that skill set is what I also makes. A beautiful life is when you inevitably deal with tragedy and loss and suffering and health and whatever, what are you going to do about it? And I happen to believe someone that believes in that Emersonian, Emersonian self reliance. Like, I'm going to put it on me. Not that I do it alone. Life is team sports. I am not Mother Teresa, but my work is my worship. Like, this is. I'm here to contribute. I'm here to do something. You know, whether I make another $5 billion or not, I'm eating the same fucking cheeseburger. Like, it's like, like, you know, there's only so much going to make a
- [19:31]
B
difference in your life.
- [19:31]
C
You're gonna buy 14 Ferraris. Yeah, there's like, give me a break. So I have to do something that is in pursuit of something meaningful, pursuit of something contributory in some capacity, whether on behalf of my clients, we have on the neighborhood, the city of Kyle. And in that, I have an insatiable appetite. But it comes from that desire to go do something for others. And again, not as a fucking charity, not as a humanitarian, but just simply wanting to do more. And that is a pull, not a push. That is something that I believe is a gift that I cherish.
- [20:16]
B
Well, I want to bring up something, and I'd love to get your comment. Two things you're supposed to not talk about are religion and politics. But given that we're both Americans, and this is the number one question I get asked living overseas is, what do you think about Donald Trump? What I want to ask, not that question, but specifically about grit and toughness. He's endured more peltings, beating, slappings, kickings. Whatever he's guilty of or not is not sure.
- [20:46]
C
I'll tell you. I'll tell you. I'll talk, but I want to get
- [20:48]
B
your spin about how he managed toughness and so pelting and how you.
- [20:53]
C
I'm with you. So I appreciate that. And I think that's a. That's a. I'll tell you two pieces before I answer that question. There's an old country song in Texas. Okay. And the premise of the song is the. The artist says, there's only three things that I don't talk about. Politics, religion, and her. Okay, so. So. So in fairness, these are the three topics that publicly I ref. I. I won't. I talk about usually, but in this instance, I'll humor it. Is they. Michael Jordan and Barack Obama, being from Chicago, were good friends. Okay. And Obama, you know, again, forget about politics. Just the person is. Loves basketball. It's very public that he likes basketball. He grew up in the Michael Jordan era, clearly loves Michael Jordan. Jordan, Chicago obvious. And Obama asked him, and I fucking love this story. If you haven't heard this, it's unbelievable. Obama asked him on behalf of, like, the Democratic Party for Jordan to basically endorse him.
- [22:03]
B
Sure.
- [22:03]
C
You know, to publicly say. And Jordan's answer was so brilliant. That he's a brilliant guy. He is. For a variety of reasons. And by the way, there's a book called Relentless, written by Tim Grover, who is his personal trainer, who also trained Kobe Bryant, that I recommend to anybody to read on the subject of grit, relentless, from good to great to unstoppable. And he trained Barkley, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and Dwayne Wade. Those was literally his only client. So imagine. And he started with Jordan, and he wrote this book about what and it's mind bendingly incredible. So he asked him and Jordan said no. And he was like, okay, well do you mind if I ask why? And for whatever he said, yeah, because Republicans buy sneakers too. Yeah. And so, yes. And so in my mind when I think about the, the, you know, Donald Trump as an example. Donald Trump is a re, is a real estate guy, typically a marketer or. Right. You know, forget about politics. As a salesman, politician, you know, the guy, you know. And again, I don't, you know, I actually know, I actually know President Trump, you know, so it's a little bit different, you know, for me. I wouldn't say we're friends, but we've spent plenty of time in person, you know, together over the years. But basically what he has done as an individual, be 80 years old to just simply enduring the days, these 18 hour days, as long as he has the stuff that he did with television in terms of networks, the brand that he built in casinos and real estate and the amount of attacks, whether deserve it or not, that's another discussion of whether or not he did them. I don't know to the specifics of it, I don't care. But to endure the level of pain and suffering that he's enduring, whether self inflicted or not, I'm not going to pontificate about any of that. Is a level of toughness that we have not seen maybe in my adult lifetime to be able to endure that and continue to effectively win at the highest level. Yes, half the people may hate him. So I, I think in the exercise of resilience and grit and the ability to sell a dream, make America great again. First of all, make America great was Ronald Reagan. Okay, Ronald Reagan, as we know from California was the governor of California, was basically a movie star. Before that from a story brand standpoint was an unbelievable pitch because it made the American people the hero to make America great again. That tagline and that sales pitch might be up there with just do it or got milk? I mean is it such a high level of achievement? So whether you like them or not, whether you agree with this politics or not, the can sell the best seller and is putting a master class, is putting on a clinic for sales. And as we know, not all products that sell are great. The Apple iPhone, which I'm on now, okay, is technologically not superior to the Samsung yet their marketing is better and good, bad or indifferent. Whether you like them or not. Not the can sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell and they keep buy in all different modalities, media crypto, the presidency, real estate, casino, nightclubs, you name it. So if there's anything else, if you hate the guy, if you were in business and anything else, or you are just a person studying some of those tactics, good, bad or indifferent, I think somebody can learn something. But for me, you know, I got clients that are Democrats, I got clients that are Republicans. I have clients that are Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Zoroastrian. So for me, my language in that regard is building the business to build communities.
- [26:16]
B
And you have to answer and, and I would tend to agree with your opinion. I mean, he's probably the toughest individual that I've ever met in my life. And I'm not referring to physically. I mean, he's not a Navy seal. He doesn't have that kind of trait training. But mentally, to be Teflon. We've talked about the Teflon don that was around. No Gambinos.
- [26:37]
C
It's insane. And he's been able to, he's been
- [26:39]
B
pelted and he just.
- [26:42]
C
Yeah, and he, you know, he's, he. And you know, I saw Elon talking the other day too, and the, the reporter or the interviewer, whatever, I forgot the forum basically said, you know, you know, we need more Elon Musk's, you know, more people, you know, we need more entrepreneurs, more people. Like, and the look on his face, he did the. I don't know, I don't know. I don't think people understand that the level of pain and suffering that I endure. And you know, and he's like, people have, running a business. He said, I equate it, you know, to eating glass and like hoping you don't die or something like absurd, you know, and, and so I think the, and by the way, 99% of businesses or 90% of businesses fail in the first year, year 99 or something. And I'm flubbing the numbers, but bear with me. 90% fail in like the first year, 99 fail in the first two, and 99 to infinity have failed by 10, you know, so that to be in business for 10 years and endure that type of thing, if you are not pulled, genuinely pulled by something greater than you, you will not make it. It will not work. No amount of draw to just money, selfishness, egotism will take you to race far enough. In my, in my opinion, I'm in my 11th year, is my 11th year under Rastagar Capital. We've been in 38 cities, 13 states, 7 different asset classes. I own 100 of my business. You know, I never raise Capital at the corporate, at the corporate level. Although we will soon. And I can tell you that it has been the absolute most difficult. If I knew it was going to be this hard match, I don't know if I would do it. I thought it was going to be so much easier than it was, but I was already pregnant that, you know, I was gonna just keep going, you know, but it, but it's, but it's. You couldn't abort me? No, no, it's my baby, you know, I'm keeping it, you know, and I, and, and we built it and now it's, you know, my baby is in fifth grade. 11 years old is basically in fifth grade. You know, she's starting to grow up a little bit. And it's, you know, it's, it's, it's. I don't think.
- [28:56]
B
Have you thought about showing it? Have people made a place? Yeah.
- [29:01]
C
Oh, yeah, yeah. In real estate, because you own so many different properties, you sell the property. Like you sell the individual property, not necessarily the corporate business. But now that we're here, the stuff that we're doing in data centers now, the stuff that we're doing with, you know, new prop tech, the stuff we're doing with bill pay, the stuff we can do because real estate is quite literally the foundation. Everything is real estate. You're sitting in real estate and I'm sitting in real estate. Cars are on everything. And so it's literally foundational. Rockets take off from a landing strip on real estate. You know, the cloud, you know, is a server and a rat building. It's tangible. And once you own that scale, because most people don't hit this critical mass that we own until their 60s or 70s. You know, I was crazy enough to do it at 40. We can now add on all these other ancillary complementary businesses, from banking to technology to bill pay to solar paneling to, I mean, all these other things to where all these other plugins are going to be the next five to 10 years of how this business evolves. And since we're here, this is my life. It's not my business. Like, this is who I am. Like, so sell. It's like saying, would you, Would you sell? Would you sell yourself? I was like, no. Like, this is me. I couldn't sell it because it's me.
- [30:16]
B
She was really pretty. You would.
- [30:18]
C
If she's really pretty, probably.
- [30:20]
B
Okay, Sorry. I, I saw the opening and I went for it.
- [30:28]
C
I got it.
- [30:29]
B
Smile shows you're guilty as charged.
- [30:31]
C
You're a good Mitch. I don't care what they say about you. I like you.
- [30:34]
B
Yeah. Thank you so much. I paid you well to say that. So that's.
- [30:37]
C
You did.
- [30:38]
B
Always appreciate it. Oh, my God.
- [30:39]
C
I'm gonna. I'm gonna come visit you, but. Yeah, this is.
- [30:42]
B
All right, let's see your book. Show me your book. Show me your stuff, bud. I want to.
- [30:47]
C
Gift of failure.
- [30:48]
B
The gift. Oh, there is a gift. There's the.
- [30:50]
C
Yeah.
- [30:50]
B
The gift of failure. Failure. The gift of failure. Ari Rasta.
- [30:54]
C
Yes, sir.
- [30:54]
B
And that's. Yeah, you can get it on Amazon
- [30:56]
C
and you can buy it on Amazon. You can listen to the audio on Audible or Spotify. I did the recording, which was painstakingly annoying, by the way. Like, ungodly.
- [31:06]
B
Why did you do that? Not hire somebody, by the way.
- [31:09]
C
I don't. Because I'm masochistic, Mitch. Because I enjoy enduring pain. Because I. I like to just beat myself. Be right.
- [31:17]
B
I knew that you were flogging yourself by doing.
- [31:19]
C
Yeah, I was. Was. I was. And. And the worst was I had an awful speech impediment growing up, so I had to go to seven years of speech therapy just to learn how to talk, by the way. So, you know.
- [31:32]
B
And now you're an attorney and. Can't shut you up.
- [31:34]
C
Now. I can't shut me up. I mean, you know, my. You know, that's. There's one of, you know, one of my, you know, exes. All my exes live in Texas, as the country song George Straight Song goes. Used to say. You know, Ari couldn't talk for most of his life, but when he learned how, he never shut the fuck up.
- [31:50]
B
Up. That's funny.
- [31:51]
C
In your sleep. That's. That's great, Ari.
- [31:54]
B
You've been a great guest, man. So where do they get in touch? The. Well, the book is the best. Best.
- [31:58]
C
Yeah, the book is the best way. Or you can. I mean, you can Google my name. You can go to. At Rastagar on Instagram. You can look us up on LinkedIn. You can go to Rastagar capital.com if you want to look at our love stuff. But good, bad or indifferent, it's pretty public what we've done, and you can find us if you want to.
- [32:14]
B
Yeah, I got one question. Didn't get to cover because we're close to about time. But it's so important. How important is exposure in media and what has that done for the Rastagar brand?
- [32:27]
C
It's. It's. I think it's absolutely mission critical, especially if you're starting. You're. You know, there's no nepotism and you're starting your own thing and you're in a new industry, you know, because capital goes to attention. Follow the Googles of the world or the social media networks. They literally have an algorithm on your attention, you know, and they're buying attention. That's effectively what they're doing. And if you can get attention and you have a meaningful product and you can get eyeballs, however, you do that with paid advertisement, with social media, with earned media, and you have trust and you have credibility and you have attention, you can sell your product. Jack Welch used to say that the sales department is not the whole company, but if the sales department isn't the whole company, you don't have a business. And so, and so, so I believe that brand equity, being out there talking, educating, meeting journalists, you know, being on the, the networks and being proud to showcase our product in so many different areas that eyeballs can see it. I don't think we'd have a business if we hadn't done it.
- [33:38]
B
That's, that's fantastic. I know you're everywhere and I, I look forward to, to seeing this because you've been in every major publication. You are, you're a Fox News regular guest contributor, which is huge in itself. You've been on cnbc, which is.
- [33:53]
C
I'll be on, on Sunday too. If you're watching Mike Emanuel, Mike Emanuel on Fox National, Fox in Washington, live from Washington D.C. this Sunday. I don't know when this will come out, but if you're watching, his show is from like 12 to 2 Eastern time. He's a good friend of mine. I'll be on this Sunday. And I again, I talk about finance, I talk about interest rates, I talk about housing, real estate, private equity. And yeah, and it's, it's been a great way to talk to a lot of people and, and, and get the message out there. Something that I'm genuinely passionate about. Like I said, this is my, this is my life, you know, this is my, this is what I do. This is what I was born to do. And that's to put unity back in community, you know, to build things, to see them through and all the things that go along with it.
- [34:41]
B
Well, just stop being so lazy, Ari. I mean, when are you gonna get up to something? I mean, come on, man. Loser.
- [34:47]
C
Yeah, you know, it's funny. So. It's funny. High performing people always wonder why they're not doing enough and low performing people always think that they've done plenty. So there's something like some weird, you know.
- [35:01]
B
Why isn't your hair fully gray? You still got some dark, you know. No.
- [35:05]
C
By the way, you don't know. I might be doing the magic trick with the lighting here.
- [35:10]
B
Just.
- [35:10]
C
And I shaved my beard or else there was plenty coming out of my chin.
- [35:14]
B
Oh, okay. Well, I'm glad you. You cleaned up and. And you're not lazy.
- [35:19]
C
Well, they want to see, like, all the big institutional investors, all our big, you know, pension funds, they need to say there's some gray hair on the operation.
- [35:26]
B
Right.
- [35:27]
C
They need to see. Shows the maturity that you need to see.
- [35:31]
B
Yeah.
- [35:32]
C
Pelted and survived. You've survived, you know, bruised, sore, but still standing.
- [35:39]
B
Ari, fantastic. Loved it. We could go on for hours. This has been a great.
- [35:43]
C
I know. And you have. You have my number. Reach out to me. We'll talk soon, buddy.
- [35:47]
B
Okay.
- [35:48]
A
Thanks for tuning in to the Amazing Authorities podcast. If today's episode inspired you, take a moment to subscribe, rate and leave a review. It helps more experts like you. You rise to the top for behind the scenes access and free resources to boost your authority. Head to mitchcarson. Com. Until next time, stay amazing.