From Carpenter to $150M Deals: How This Man Built a Commercial Empire | Mark Vincent Fansler

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Entrepreneur DNA – From Carpenter to $150M Deals: How This Man Built a Commercial Empire | Mark Vincent Fansler

Host: Justin Colby
Guest: Mark Vincent Fansler
Date: March 7, 2026
Duration: ~40 min (content begins at 01:15)

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Episode Overview

This episode features the powerful entrepreneurial journey of Mark Vincent Fansler, who climbed from a humble background and a start as a carpenter to leading multiple integrated commercial real estate businesses handling nine-figure projects. The conversation explores Mark’s story of overcoming adversity, the value of community, insights into business structure, scaling nationally, making big deals, and the inner drive necessary for entrepreneurial success.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Mark’s Business Empire and Vertically Integrated Model

(02:19–04:45)

• Current Status: Mark runs a collection of vertically integrated companies within commercial and mixed-use real estate.
• Business Structure: Companies include real estate funds (both debt and equity), a national investment arm acquiring distressed or mismanaged properties, a realty group active in six states (with plans for Colorado and Texas), property management & maintenance companies, a steel-building manufacturer (servicing 13 states), and a marketing company dedicated to sourcing opportunities.
• Upcoming Educational Launch: Mark is launching an educational and mentorship program for commercial mixed-use ventures.

“All of my ventures cater to [commercial mixed-use]. I have two real estate funds, a debt and an equity fund...I have a real estate investment company that's national...” – Mark Vincent Fansler (02:19)

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The Power of “Bolt-On” Businesses & Revenue Streams

(04:52–07:24)

• Mark explains he didn’t intend to build such a broad structure; necessity and opportunity led to expansion.
• His original wholesale company generated leads that were being left untapped, which inspired him to build complementary “bolt-on” business units to catch and monetize every aspect of the value chain.

“I started tracking this stuff and what went to die on the vine...I got angry with myself...I took that stuff and built teams around it...you make it profitable, I'll put you in charge of the business.” – Mark Vincent Fansler (07:00)

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Scaling Nationally – Challenges & Solutions

(07:30–09:07)

• Mark and Justin discuss the logistical and human challenges of expanding operations out-of-state, especially the difficulty and cost of relying solely on one’s home team versus developing trustworthy local talent.
• Mark’s extensive corporate background aids his ability to identify and nurture key people in new markets.

“In order to use your own people, it gets pretty expensive to do that remotely...it's a challenge to find those people and put them into positions...” – Mark Vincent Fansler (08:14)

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The Role of Community, Mentorship & Relationships

(09:07–19:58)

• Mark shares powerful stories from elite communities — notably a private Philadelphia club and the West Point Society — that shaped his worldview and opened doors (including one where he didn’t know who paid his $30k joining fee).
• The value of belonging and mutual support: his peer groups actively solve each other’s business problems and provide mentorship.
• Mark credits these communities with accelerating his personal and professional growth, expressing deep gratitude.

“It was enough...it gets me even today that that happened.” – Mark Vincent Fansler (12:16)
“Somehow in the middle of it, I became the person that only saw the good in things...I only see the good. And it gave me an inner drive...” – Mark Vincent Fansler (14:41)
“That community that I got to be part of means everything. You know, you can't gain that kind of experience...it accelerates who you become if you know how to lean into that.” – Mark Vincent Fansler (18:58–19:38)

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Personal Adversity, Tenacity, and Mindset

(13:17–15:00)

• Mark discusses a challenging upbringing: abandonment at birth, adopted into a farming family, alienation from extended family, and grinding labor as a child.
• He reflects on turning hardship into a relentless fire for improvement, never succumbing to victim mentality.

“I was set up to fail from totally from the start...I became the person that only saw the good in things.” – Mark Vincent Fansler (13:17–14:41)

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From Corporate Burnout to Entrepreneurship

(20:10–27:09)

• Mark details his rise from carpenter to senior vice president roles, noting both the “meant for more” feeling and the soul-draining corporate battles—often battling pedigree biases without institutional sponsors.
• He left corporate work due to exhaustion and lack of growth, took a multi-year break, then reignited his drive with small projects.

“I was the kind of person, if somebody doesn't want me, I don't need you...but it was just so exhausting...I climbed to those spots. And it was exhausting.” – Mark Vincent Fansler (13:38 & 24:52)

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The First Steps: From House Flip to Luxury Brand

(27:22–28:40)

• Fansler’s entrepreneurial rebirth started with a $60,000 house flip — which doubled his investment — leading to more flips, a reputation upgrade, and ultimately the pivot to commercial and mixed-use projects once he recognized the limits of scaling high-end residential.

“I went and paid 60 grand for a house, I put 60 grand into it, and sold for two and a quarter.” – Mark Vincent Fansler (27:26)

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Big Commercial Ventures & Deal-Making Mastery

(29:36–36:07)

• Mark details a massive Colorado mixed-use development: hundreds of condos, 225,000 sq. ft. commercial, and a high-end hotel — landed via meaningful networking.
• He solves industry pain points creatively (e.g., leasing build-out condos to workers during mega-development so they have local housing, then renovating for luxury sales).
• He recounts partnering with two pediatric doctors for a national chain of large specialty medical centers; Mark’s companies handle real estate, development, management, and maintenance—50 locations nationwide, unlocking $150M in equity on one creative financing structure alone.
• His “vertically integrated” model — where all his companies are co-located, feeding off one another — amplifies efficiency, insight, and value creation.

“You get through exploratory plan approval, I'll give you a corporate lease for the entire [project]...just the condo sales at the back end...$120 million in sales, just on the one job, plus the retail, plus the leasing.” – Mark Vincent Fansler (32:39)

“My collective companies are responsible for all of that...they have the network to fill every one of those buildings to 70% occupied before we start...First building for a partner, they get 15%. That's $4.5 million.” – Mark Vincent Fansler (35:02–36:07)

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Mindset, Vision & Self-Belief

(22:19–23:45)

• Mark describes a formative vision in his late teens: owning his car, a big property, and business—all his own—and how the dream persisted through uncertainty.
• Despite not “believing he deserved it,” he was driven to actualize this vision, multiple times over.

“When I was 17, 18 years old, I had a vision come to me...I had no idea how I was going to accomplish that. I just knew that I would get there. Didn't know how painful the path was.” – Mark Vincent Fansler (21:52–22:19)
“I never believed I deserved it. ...I just felt like I was wildly unprepared for that vision.” – Mark Vincent Fansler (23:41)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Community

“I became sort of a corporate cupid of sorts.” – Mark Vincent Fansler (17:35)

On Mentoring Culture

“Before we left, that guy had what he needed...that mentor was their mentor for the next 90 days until it wasn’t a problem for him anymore.” – Mark Vincent Fansler (16:07–16:23)

On Facing Barriers

“Where'd you get your degree?...I'm not blood, you don't have the pedigree. Don’t talk to me until you get a degree. Three months later, they would have to eat their words because what I told them happened.” – Mark Vincent Fansler (25:49–25:55)

On Opportunity and Value Creation

“You're here long term and you fix my problem.” – Mark recounting a developer's reaction (32:39)

On Vertical Integration

“We're all in the same building, and we all work together. We all see what's going on with each other and it creates this cyclone of energy inside itself, where we're feeding each other.” – Mark Vincent Fansler (34:13)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Time | Topic | |-----------|------------| | 01:15 | Justin introduces Mark’s story and journey | | 02:19 | Mark’s business structure (vertical integration) | | 04:52 | How “bolt-on” businesses evolved | | 07:30 | Challenges of national scaling | | 09:07 | Impact of elite networking and support communities | | 13:17 | Personal adversity and mindset | | 20:10 | Corporate burnout “enough is enough” moment | | 27:26 | First foray into real estate flipping | | 29:36 | Colorado and mega-development case studies | | 34:13 | Value of integrated business ecosystem | | 36:07 | Pediatric centers national rollout: $150M equity deal | | 39:32 | Mark’s view on big business and passion |

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Takeaways for Entrepreneurs

• Build Multiple Streams: Consider how each business can feed another, increasing revenue and efficiencies.
• Community is Everything: Surround yourself with ambitious, supportive peers and mentors; their belief in you can unlock major leaps.
• Solve Real Problems: Approach every opportunity by looking to add value, not just benefit yourself.
• Mindset Matters: See adversity as fuel, keep your vision close, and act even when you don’t “feel ready.”
• Big Deals Require Big Thinking: Be open, adaptable, and attentive to industry gaps, and invest time in deep, authentic relationship building.
• You Don’t Need the Perfect Pedigree: Tenacity, self-education, and the willingness to lean into community can outstrip traditional qualifications.

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Connect with Mark Vincent Fansler:

• Social / Web: Mark Vincent Fansler (all platforms)

Host: Justin Colby – The Entrepreneur DNA (Bleav Podcast Network)

Transcript

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[Justin Colby]

What is up the Entrepreneur DNA Family if you feel like you've reached the pinnacle of corporate world and you want to bet on yourself, you are going to want to listen to this. And by the way, if you're just an entrepreneur in general, you're going to want to know Mark Vincent Fanzler because his story is phenomenal. You're going to want to be here to listen to the whole thing. He was way high up on the ladder of corporate world and then said, I'm burnt out, I'm over this, I'm done. Leaves it and then starts his own thing. And it is incredible. Mark Vincent Fanzler is here. How are you dude?

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

I'm doing well. I really appreciate you having me here.

[Justin Colby]

I'm excited.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Looking forward to this.

[Justin Colby]

You are a very special human being. Right. Your story is unique and what you built is very impressive. So I think if anyone is an aspiring entrepreneur or, or maybe they're trying to get to a place of hundreds of millions, I think they need to hear what you have to say.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Yeah, I've been through a lot. I'm sure there's lessons that they could pick up on.

[Justin Colby]

All right, so listen, you have an incredible story, you've done a lot. But let's start out by what is your world look like today?

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Yeah. I have a series of vertically integrated companies, all real estate related specific to commercial mixed use real estate. For those who don't know what that means, Real estate. Commercial real estate is about 20, 30 different occupancy types. One's retail, one's office, one's something else. My ventures all have three or more occupancy types in it. So all of my ventures cater to that. All of my companies cater that. I have two real estate funds, a debt and an equity fund for people who want to invest in real estate but want to stay hands off. So we can provide, collect money, provide loans to the ventures or they can be partners in the venture. Right. I have a real estate investment company that's national, so we buy commercial mixed use ventures across the country that are distressed in a variety of ways. We buy large land development tracks, we buy decommissioned hospitals, hotels, projects that have been wildly mismanaged and turn to more profitable campaigns. I have a realty group that has a commercial division and a residential division and currently in six states and expanding, that's in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, North Carolina and Florida. Texas and Colorado are next because they're where my next two biggest ventures are and I want my teams in control of that. I have a property management company in Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania, property maintenance company the same states have a steel building business that produces steel in 13 states. I bought that so I can provide steel for my own ventures at cost. But we also cater to developers around the country so we can pick a place that's closest to them, manufacture the steel for their development for these kinds of buildings and then ship it to em from the closest place. And then I have a marketing company that originally started out as a wholesale business. You know, all the stuff that we all do. Right. That has become strictly a marketing company. All it does is market. It doesn't buy anything, doesn't do anything else.

[Justin Colby]

It just markets for opportunities that you try to figure out what to do

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

with it for real estate to acquire. Right. And. And then 21st of this month, we lost. We launch a educational and mentoring program specific to commercial mixed use.

[Justin Colby]

That's great. No one fills that space, by the way, that I'm aware of.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

There's a few, but they're there and some of them are pretty good, but none of them come with the kind of background that I come with.

[Justin Colby]

What you are doing. So one of the things that I want all entrepreneurs to hear, what you've done you vertically integrated. And so there's a lot of businesses and I'm. You can pick an industry. Right. It doesn't have to be real estate. There's a lot of bolt on businesses that accent what you're doing. So if your main vertical, whether it be real estate, maybe it's a hair salon, maybe it's. There's other businesses that you actually have as revenue streams.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Right.

[Justin Colby]

Right. And so I want people to just also listen. Like even if you pick an industry or a vertical real estate or otherwise start looking at things, this is what you've done brilliantly. Right. You have how many. How many? Seven.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Seven businesses? Eight. Eight on the 21st.

[Justin Colby]

And we call them bolt on businesses. They're revenue streams to the main thing. Right.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

And I can tell you how that came to be because I didn't set out to do this because I was in retirement. As you can remember, the first two companies were Invincible Assets and Painted Horse Properties. Painted Horse Properties was the wholesale business. And out of that we would pick and choose the stuff that. And Vincent wanted to buy and do the renovations and flips and burn holds and all that other sort of stuff. Right. And Vincent became the luxury brand. That's what people know is for. We do very big, very high end residential flips that led to commercial work.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Because when I first left my corporate life, I didn't have the funds to do the kind of stuff I'm doing now. Didn't have the backing. Yeah. So I had to start like everybody else in the. In the piece of the business that I could do it afford. Yeah. The wholesale business provided the. The leads through its marketing efforts.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

And I was concentrated only on the stuff I wanted to buy. I wanted to buy as much as I could. And I was passing on everything else I let die on the vine. Things that were retail leads, cars out of license. Why was I doing that? I had people that needed properties managed. I was managing my own properties. Why don't I start doing theirs? Right. And I would just go down the list. And I hired some people. You know, as you grow, you start hiring people. And I said, one of the things I want to do is I want to start tracking this stuff on Wet and die on the vine.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Very quickly. I got pretty angry with myself. Yeah.

[Justin Colby]

I was gonna say you just started counting the zeros and commas. You're like.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

So that that turned into opportunity and I took that stuff and I built teams around it from people that were within my existing companies and said, I see this as an opportunity. I wanna see if we can make a run at it. You make it profitable, I'll put you in charge of the business. So that's how they came to be.

[Justin Colby]

And then do you rev share with those individuals? I mean, incentivize to grow it?

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Some yes, some no. Yeah, yeah. It just depends.

[Justin Colby]

One of the things, someone, myself, I've grown a national presence in the real estate space. There are challenges. Right. And you're talking about you're opening up these new markets. Let's talk about some of the challenges by going outside of your own primary market. Again, we're talking real estate because that's where you and I thrive. But I think this is applicable to almost anything because you have to have a certain level of trust in people. Like, hey, I'm going to give you this opportunity. I think you said you're opening up Denver, Colorado or something. Colorado, you're not there.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Right.

[Justin Colby]

So you're gonna have to trust. Like. Let's talk about some of the upsides, slash, downside. I think the upside is obvious because I would say you're looking at it as an open market that you can create more revenue and more business. Great. Upside. Let's talk about some of the downsides. When you do these type of things and you go into different states markets.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Right. So in order to use your own people, it gets pretty expensive to do that remotely. Yeah, right. Because you got to put them all up, you got to send them back and forth and that stuff. And it just becomes very inefficient. Right. And far more costly. So it's, it's a challenge to find those people and put them into positions that you need them to be in.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

So that all you have to do is manage the reports of the business and deal with the person, let them deal with everything else. Right. I spent a life of that in commercial corporate life.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Right. I started as a carpenter, ended up senior vice presidents on all sides of the industries. So I've been very fortunate to find that kind of success. So I know what it takes to recognize in a person what I need out of them, give them what they need to be successful, and have that person be the person I can trust to do that. I've made a life.

[Justin Colby]

Were you fortunate or did you just work hard? You work smart. You said fortunate. I sit here and I go, I don't know if a carpenter going to senior vice president means you're fortunate. I Think there's some things people need to learn about what it takes to get there.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Yeah. It's a lot of lessons, obviously.

[Justin Colby]

Sure.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Most of it. The fortunate part of it is the people that I got exposed to that taught me the certain things that I needed to be and that I was wise enough to recognize it when it was happening.

[Justin Colby]

That's it. Yeah.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

And pay attention to it and take it.

[Justin Colby]

That's right.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Right.

[Justin Colby]

That happened like this episode, by the way. You all, like, you're listening to the man who did it. Like, pay attention. Go ahead, keep going.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

So there are a couple examples of what that looked like that were like, sort of flashes in my life. Right. One of the occasions, there's a private club in Philadelphia that's the largest in the country and has sister organizations all over the world. It's not something that you can just go join.

[Justin Colby]

Right.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Somebody has to vouch for you. And back in the 90s, when I became a member, the person vouching for you had to pay for you. For the first year.

[Justin Colby]

Last commitment.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Back then, it was 30 grand. That's still commitment. Somebody. It was a couple people thought enough of me then to put me in a place that could do things for my career that I couldn't do on my own. Right.

[Justin Colby]

Can I pause you there for a second? I want to talk about that because you're leaning into what I believe to be my sweet spot. My secret to my success is why you're in my world is building community.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Right.

[Justin Colby]

Right. And DJ Kristen and so many people that we both know, we just. We have a mutual friend. Sky is out there. You know, I think people need to hear that again. And you don't have to resay it, but, like, rewind that. You had people that believed in you enough to help you going go into or pay for you to get into a community that. My guess, without you even having said, the people that then were in that community continued to lean into you, push you, elevate you, push you up. Ready to get to right, guys and girls. Like, listen to this man. Like, this is everything in life. Keep going. I wanted to really highlight that, though, because that is everything.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Yeah. So throughout my life, I didn't have that. I had to sort of go into everything myself, learn it the hard way. I got beat up a lot, lost a lot. But in the middle of it, I ended up with a tenacity that just sort of carried me through. I don't have an off switch. There's. It was this inner drive that I really couldn't Contain. I didn't know how to harness it yet. It was places like this that I began to learn how to do that. These people put me into this place and it was sort of like a jag hearing when I. When they put me in and they vouch for me. You walk in, it's this big dark library. They're sitting at the other end, this ominous desk with these presents on the other side. And I'm sitting in the dimly lit side of the room.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

And they're firing questions at you because they're wanting to test your character, who you are and how, you know, how you respond to things. I managed to get past it and they accepted me in. I. I can never repay that because 1. I don't know who they are. It was enough.

[Justin Colby]

You don't even know who sponsored you.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

No, no. Yeah. It. It gets me even today that that happened.

[Justin Colby]

Wow, bro, that's phenomenal.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

And the fact that it was like 30 grand in the 90s, that's a lot of money.

[Justin Colby]

Oh, I don't think today it's a lot of money.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

And it's not like. And I didn't know who they were, so it's not like I could give them business back.

[Justin Colby]

Right.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

To. To re. To thank them. It was just.

[Justin Colby]

They literally thought high enough of you

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

was just a gift. How do you repay that?

[Justin Colby]

Yeah, you pay attention and I can see the emotion on you and that's great. And I love that because really, that is what we're all. Listen, we've all have our stories. Your story is more extreme than mine. But I have a story. I had alcoholic parents. They left. You know, I'd come home, they're passed out in the kitchen at two o' clock in the afternoon. And you have an extreme story. I don't want to take away from where we were going. What, what, what keeps you going? Like. Because people could easily become the victim of that story and then lean into alcohol, drugs and otherwise and become a total.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Right.

[Justin Colby]

You know, why did you not.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

I don't know that I have an answer to that. Because I was set up to fail from totally from the start. You know, off screen, we talked about this. You know, I was abandoned at birth. I don't know who my biological father is. Never met the man, really never had a desire to meet him. Because I was the kind of per. I'm the kind of person, if somebody

[Justin Colby]

does it, you don't want me. I don't need you.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

I don't need you. But, But I also didn't realize the effect that was, the toll it was taken on me throughout my life was adopted into a killer family. The guy that I call my pop is just a stellar guy. I can't say enough good about him. But during the course of my life, I went through a lot of that sort of stuff. And somehow in the middle of it, I became the person that only saw the good in things. I didn't focus on the negative. I didn't lean on the fact that I was abandoned. I didn't lean on the fact that I, you know, worked in a chicken house as a child because that's what my parents did for a living. You know, walking in crap and having your hands in crap, collecting eggs every day. Ye know, it can be a pretty driving force to want something better. Yeah, right. So it doesn't. It didn't matter whether, you know, you were inner city or a chicken farmer. Where you want to go is up to you. For me, I got to see. I somehow only got to. I got to a point where I only see the good.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Now, that doesn't mean I ignore the bad, but I only see the good. And it gave me an inner drive that just was something I didn't really know how to contain. It's like a wild mustang. Yeah, they're beautiful. It's fun to watch. If you got on its back before you had any kind of real training, it was a ride. Oh yeah, that was my ride.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Right. And then you get to these places like the Union League, that these people did this. For me, the one thing that I wished had happened that didn't is they put me in the middle of all this greatness, but they didn't teach me how to be in that space. What it was good to me though, was they involved me into two round tables. They helped me pick the ones, put me in places where they thought it could be the most good. Back then, I really didn't know what to do with it, but here's what I got in the table. And I'm very good friends with all of these people today. Still great that we would sit around and after we knew each other because I was new, so they'd have to introduce themselves, I'd introduce myself. And then once we got past that, every time we came it was like, you know, how's your kids? How's your wife? What's going on? You know, is there anything personally you need help with? We were just that kind of support for each other and that business, what's going well and what's going wrong. Right. And at the table, this was back in the BlackBerry days. Yeah. We would. Somebody would say, I'm struggling. You know, my lead service, my leads just turned off. I can't figure out why my phone won't ring.

[Justin Colby]

Yep.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

We would all start messaging everybody we knew. Yeah, my boy needs your help. We need this, we need that. Before we left, that guy had what he needed. That's great. And the person that was at the table that was the best at that thing was their mentor for the next 90 days until it wasn't a problem for him anymore.

[Justin Colby]

That's how it was set up.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Most powerful group of people I've ever been involved with. That setup was insane.

[Justin Colby]

And that mentor didn't ask for anything. That was just the expertise. So if you're like, I need to create a podcast, you'd say, justin, I need. Right. But I wouldn't do anything.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

You wouldn't.

[Justin Colby]

I would lean into you and there

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

was going to be a time you needed it, and I'd do the same for you. Love that.

[Justin Colby]

What a great economy.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

The second thing that happened that was like that. The only two times that this happened in my life because I didn't have mentors, I didn't have business people around me when I was growing up. I didn't have any of that stuff. New college degrees in my family, you know, so I didn't have advanced degrees to lean on or any of that stuff. It wasn't until this, and this was very late in my life, you know, my careers at that point had the same thing happen. This person I did know was a union, a West Pointer, and he was part of something called the West Point Society of Philadelphia. We met at the Chart House in Philadelphia. Every month, instead of a table, we took over the restaurant. Nobody that was there was there other than staff and us. There wasn't no other patrons to say on these days. Same thing. They had to vouch for me to the head table, which is all West Pointers, you know, high level West Pointers. And they paid my annual membership the first year, same setup. They accepted me because somehow I had managed to become sort of that insider circle. When you needed something done in Philadelphia, I was one of the people that you called. That's right. Right. I became sort of a corporate cupid of sorts.

[Justin Colby]

Sure.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

In about three months, there was two tables, them and what they called the movers, the shakers table. Within three months, I was at that other table.

[Justin Colby]

Wow.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

We would do the same thing. The whole restaurant. While they were serving the food, they would set Stand up. This is who I am, this is what I do, and this is what I need. Hands would go up in the room. When you were done, you say, I'm going to sit in this chair right here. You don't go to the bathroom. You don't start a conversation with anybody. You don't do anything. Go to that spot and you wait. Because if they come to help you and you're not there, they're gone.

[Justin Colby]

Wow.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

They would do the same thing they did at the Union League.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Just incredible. These two places changed the way I do business. Since I left my corporate life, I have not found that. So I created it. We have a private peer group. People fly in from all over this. The eastern side of the United States once a month.

[Justin Colby]

To me, that's phenomenal.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Yeah. It's a powerful cast of characters.

[Justin Colby]

Oh, yeah. I can only imagine.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

So that community that I got to be part of means everything. You know, you can't. You can't gain that kind of experience. I don't care how long you live, you can't. You can't learn all that enough. Right. It gives you an opportunity to be in front of the people that are doing all of the things that you want to do that have already worked out the books.

[Justin Colby]

Yep.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Gives you an opportunity to be in front of people that have learned things that you will never have the time to learn.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

And it accelerates who you become. If you know how to lean into that. I can lean into it. I can learn it. I just didn't know what to do with it.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

I didn't know how to leverage all that back then. It's a different story today. But them. These are lessons that took a lifetime to learn. Yeah. And it, you know, it led to what I do now, you know, because I didn't start out to run seven companies.

[Justin Colby]

Right.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

To be 62 years old and get ready to start another one for Christ.

[Justin Colby]

God bless you.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

You know, but the thing is, I love this business. I don't consider any of it work. Yeah. It's just inner stress because the money's big and. And stuff like that. But I love what I do. Sure. And I'll do it until I don't enjoy it anymore. Yeah.

[Justin Colby]

Amen to that. So what, you know, you. You had this trajectory in the corporate space. Yeah. When was enough enough? You know, I think there's a lot of people out there that are. They know they're meant for more. And I think your exit, and you can talk about your story, but your exit was probably More burnout than it was like. I know I could. I'm. I could be doing more for myself, but I still want to talk to the same type of person. Right. There's the people out there that know they're meant for more and they just need the mark behind them. And then there's people like, I'm so burnt out, I've lost my marriages, my kids. Don't know who I am, whatever those things are. Right, right. Talk about that journey for you.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Yeah. It was a bit of both. Because what took me from being a carpenter to the senior executive positions is that these are. I know that I'm meant for more piece of me. Right. There's. There's a bit of that in everybody. They just maybe do. They don't recognize it because they're hung up on the negative things in their lives instead of the positive things. Yeah, but I had a lot of that going on. I spent, you know, so much time perfecting what I was doing only so that I could use it to recharge. Yeah, right. Everything that I did, I knew when I stepped into that role, it wasn't the end. That was just next for me. Right. Yeah. Because the thing for me is When I was 17, 18 years old, I had a vision come to me. And I don't have vision. So this is. This is why. It's. I can remember it so vividly that I had driven up on a job in a car that I couldn't afford. Stepped out on a job that had always been someone else's. People working, that would normally work for someone. All of it was mine. I owned a car. 17, I was 17 years old. 17, 18 years old. Had this vision that I'd driven upon a job. The car I got out of was mine, and it was a nice car. The business, the property that I was getting out to walk was mine. The people working there was mine. For the company, that was mine. All of it was mine. I had no idea how I was going to accomplish that. I just knew that I would get there. Didn't know how painful the path was.

[Justin Colby]

That gives me shivers.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

And here I am, 40 plus years later, and I've not only done it once, I've done it seven times at the same time.

[Justin Colby]

And you are here, frankly, you have done that transition. Wildly successful. That is why you're in. The seat you're in is because, again, someone vouched for you to some extent today. Justin, you need to have my friend on. And then I got to know you a little bit and we geeked out for God. Long call. And, you know, so there's all this cool stuff, but it's this. This vision and belief that you had in yourself at 17 that, you know, and again, we can kind of go into your real business now so people know exactly what you're doing. Because what I would tell you is make sure you go look up Mark Vincent fans are everywhere. Connect with them. You can see he's a real guy. You can see he's. He's just here to give for all you. But that belief, seeing before you, you know, you re. You saw it before it was actually visual, right? Because it was. It was a mental thing. But, like the belief that one day I can go do that. How far did that. Like, was that something that was always in the back of your head, like, one day I need to go do this?

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

No, actually, I. I never believed it.

[Justin Colby]

I never.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

I never believed I deserved it. Let me put it.

[Justin Colby]

Okay, I can appreciate that.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

So, you know, I'm coming from the life that I had been abandoned in. I didn't have any kind of formal education. I didn't have people around me that could keep me on the right path, any of that sort of stuff. I just felt like I was wildly unprepared for that vision. Yeah, right. I didn't have any of the stuff that I needed for that to happen other than the vision. And I didn't. I didn't know the first thing about making that happen.

[Justin Colby]

So when you. You get to a point of breaking in the corporate world and. Or just tight, like, I'm dumb, right? I don't know if you broke per se, but you reach senior VPs. I mean, you have it. You have the corporate. Everyone wants that thing. You say, I'm out. How the hell did you even start your first venture?

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

It was. I needed some. I needed a break first, you know, because I had spent so much time fighting everything to get to those spots. The companies didn't want me in their spots. I sort of forced my way into their spots. I had people above me, trying to keep me below them. Everything else.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

And over the years, gradually, I climbed to those spots. And it was exhausting. It. It just. Christ, it was just so exhausting. You know, it's. And it was wild that my corporate life in many ways mirrored my personal life. You know, I had an adopted family. The father, my pop, really poured a lot into me, but his family didn't accept me. They would tell me, you're not. But, yeah, yeah, they use the words. So as a child that's devastating. Well, of course, in my corporate life, similar things would happen, and I would know, because of my experience, that what they wanted me to do wasn't going to work. It had no bearing on how much pressure, time and effort I was going to put in it. Yeah. How much skill I'd put in it. It wasn't going to work because I knew fundamentally it was bad idea. And they would look at me and say, where'd you get your degree?

[Justin Colby]

Same kind of idea. Same like, who are you?

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Yeah, you don't. I'm not blood. You don't have the pedigree. Yeah.

[Justin Colby]

We don't belong here.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

And don't talk to me until you get a degree. Three months later, they would have to eat their words because what I told them happened. Yeah. You know, so it was just an exhausting period to go through all of that, because every time I would go somewhere, that would be my ceiling. Because in real estate and construction, particularly if you're very good at a role, they don't want to move you out of it.

[Justin Colby]

Right.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Because you could step up into another role and suck at it. And then the person they put in your position could not be as good as you. Now they've screwed up two positions.

[Justin Colby]

That's right.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

So it's very hard to make that move. So part of it is I just needed a break. I went through a lot, and I thought, okay, what's next? And I didn't know what that was. Yeah. I just knew that what I was doing was no longer working for me. I wasn't learning anything from anybody. Yeah.

[Justin Colby]

So you exited.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

So I got out. I took a couple years to myself. Went through, you know, a bad relationship that. That ended. Met someone who's my wife now. Just a fantastic lady.

[Justin Colby]

Congratulations.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Yeah, thanks. She's great. She's got a doctorate in neuroscience and psychology. How I got past that, no idea.

[Justin Colby]

Honey, do you know who my child. You know. All right, well, that's been. I mean, by the way, super interesting. I love that stuff. And so.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

And then I started doing stuff because I couldn't not do anything. We're just. I just. I just. I've been built to do stuff.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

You know, so couldn't not do anything.

[Justin Colby]

What was your first venture? What was the first thing? You're like, how many was it this?

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

It was a house just to flip a house. Just to flip a house. I went and paid 60 grand for a house. I put 60 grand into it and sold for two and a quarter.

[Justin Colby]

And then what did that lead to

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

that led to another one and another one and then several of them and then several of them and it led to, it led to, it led from market rate housing to luxury housing because that became the brand we were known for.

[Justin Colby]

Remodeling million dollar homes plus whatever.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Yeah, we were just, we were doing level of finishes that people just don't see.

[Justin Colby]

How did you. Part of that transition and part of

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

that comes from corporate life. The standards are very different than they are in residential.

[Justin Colby]

Oh yeah, right.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

So I just brought that corporate standard, commercial standard to the residential platform. And you know, we got to the point that people were waiting, like when's your next one? I got people waiting for your house. Yeah, right. So that was, that was kind of cool. But you can't do, you can't scale that. Right. They're just, and they're not big enough to make enough money when you can't scale a product to make it wildly successful. So I got back to my roots, started doing commercial stuff, started doing mixed use stuff. And that's when it happened. You know, everything in my business changed at that moment.

[Justin Colby]

And that was your strong suit, that was your expertise. That's my lean into it.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

That's my wheelhouse, a big business. Because I was doing little business. And you know, the challenge is when you step into a company that already has the marketing and the money and the staff and processes and procedures and guidelines, all that's in place, I can step into that and I can make anybody better. I just have a gift for that.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

A company that's struggling, that's in crisis, crisis management, I can deal with that. But when you start a company from scratch, dude, that's a different thing entirely. I've never done that. Yeah, you know, you kind of got to do everything yourself until you're making enough money you can start to pay those people to sort of get from nothing to where it was. Yeah, that was a struggle. Yeah. But we got there. So now here we are. You know, I do commercial mixed use ventures. So I'll give you an example of a couple of them.

[Justin Colby]

Sure.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

I've got a property under contract in Colorado. It's the largest undeveloped tract of commercial real estate within 100 miles of itself. It's a beast of a project. The it's going to be mixed use. It'll have 350 to 400 condos on it. It'll have 100 225,000 square feet of commercial mixed use retail on it. So it'll have, you know, stores and restaurants and all kinds of different things. And then with the leftover piece of land and that it wasn't big enough for a building, but it was sort of at the end of a weird shape. I'm able to buy the piece next to it. If I put those two pieces together, I could put like 150 room Hilton Garden in style hotel with it. So that's the, that's the cross population of the occupancy types. Right. Killer deal. I got it under contract. The guy that's in it likes what I'm doing and says, only give me this much, I'll stay in as a partner on the back end. I don't want to do anything, I don't want to hear anything. I just want you to show me the reports. I want to be able to log in and see what you're doing. And if I have any questions, I'll call you. Otherwise you won't hear from me. Cool. It was like 25% of the venture he was willing to leave behind.

[Justin Colby]

Wow.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Kill or do. I met that person at an exp event, oddly enough. And when you meet these people and you know something's happening. Yeah. It's like the rest of the room goes away.

[Justin Colby]

That's right.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Right. You pay attention to it. I gave the guy like three hours and like a month later he called us. Dude, I got it. I got a venture I think you're. You should be interested in was this deal. It gets bigger around the corner from this property. A national developer out of Texas just won a 40 year legal battle from with an environmental company because he's going to redo 300 acres on top of a mountain, put in 1700 ultra luxury homes in 225,000 square feet of commercial retail to support that pocketbook. Because these people are loaded. These are people that have two, three, four, five houses already. They want another one so that when they go ski they can stay in their own house and they don't want anybody else using it when they're not there. That kind of money. So we spent some time talking and I'm asking a bunch of questions and he says, dude, you're asking me a lot about my business. Why are you asking me so much? And I told him what I'm getting ready to do. Yeah. And I said the next thing. What I, what I did also was I looked at your business to see what you needed. When I see you have a problem and you haven't fixed it in your own development, he says, what's that? So there's no place for the next 10 to 15 years. For the people that are going to come build your stuff, there's no place for them to stay. He says, yeah, no, we can't figure it out. So I got an answer for you. I'm going to take my condos. I'm going to condo the docks. So everything's legit. I already negotiated with the municipality to treat them as apartments as long as I own them.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Tax. From a tax perspective, he said, I'll fit the inside out, builder grade. I'll lease them to your people so that you can build your stuff. And when they're done, I'll renovate them into luxury condos and I'll sell them off. He said, you're the only person that's come to me since we won this bagel, that's this legal battle that hasn't wanted to be in on my venture, wanted to ride our coattails or just wanted to do a land grab. You're here long term and you fix my problem. He said, I'll tell you what. You get through exploratory plan approval, I'll give you a corporate lease for the entire project. No, he's going to want a discount. Of course, we'll have to battle over that. But he says, and I'll go one farther. I have commercial retail in my space, but I'm not a commercial guy. Would you be interested in partnering up and you take over the commercial piece of mine? One relationship, two deals which will lead to more. The just a condo sales at the back end of the deal. After all the other monies made is $120 million in sales just on the one job, plus the retail, plus the leasing for the.

[Justin Colby]

From one convention. You went to one person being intentional with communicating this person for three hours.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Yep.

[Justin Colby]

Not looking to take. Looking to add value.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Interested.

[Justin Colby]

Asking questions. Three months later leads to this deal, which leads to this opportunity. Now with this text developer, which leads to hundreds of millions of dollars. And I will say it for you, it's about the people you know and the handshakes you make.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Exactly. That's one. I have 13 deals like that. One of the other ones, the one I'm most excited about is my companies collectively because we're all vertically integrated and work so close together. Well, let me. Let me start with this. The reason I vertically integrated instead of just hiring out to other companies. Yeah. Is because we're all in the same building and we all work together. We all see what's going on with each other and it creates this cyclone of energy inside Itself, where we're feeding each other. Hey, I heard you had that going on. I got your answer. I got yes. Right. Instead of having separate companies all over the place, this happened after all of this sort of materialized. My companies got introduced to two guys. They're a team of doctors. They had a vision and I like the vision. What they want to create is on five acre parcels around the country. 55,000 square foot facilities. They already got the building designed. They just need to do the foundations down in the site, work for each location. All pediatric related pediatric dentistry, pediatric or surgery, pediatric, pediatric, general physicians, and all the specialty therapeutic areas. 50 locations. 50. My companies are responsible for locating the real estate, negotiating them, tying them up, getting them through the entitlements. I'm a development partner with them, so I own the real estate with them, not the business. Yeah, we manage the facility and maintain the facility. My collective companies are responsible for all of that. Wow, one client.

[Justin Colby]

That's insane.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Best thing is they have the team of doctors around the country. They have the network to fill every one of those buildings to 70% occupied before we start the last 30%. I'm holding reserve to negotiate with local Healthcare systems. Yeah, because I want them to be able to come in and do outpatient surgeries and stuff like that.

[Justin Colby]

Sure.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Right. So we can include, you know, local presence. So that's 50 locations. We're raising capital for both of those deals. This one we have 100% financing for. They want a 25% surety on the first building. I only got one capital call. I got 50 buildings financed. I need one capital call. $8.5 million. The eight and a half million dollars for this one gets held as a surety in the form of a CD and it's held in escrow for 36 months. At month 37, they get the money back, they get the interest from the cd, which is only about a half million dollars. That's not the exciting piece. First, that surety sets behind my payment and performance bond. So I would have to fail, which I've never done, and Fidelity Bonds would have to fail. That's who my bonding company is. Oh, not going to happen. Never going to happen. Because a bond steps in and finishes a job, that's what it's for. So they get their money back at month 37. The people that invest, let's say it's one person or one family office or one hedge fund, they get 15% of the first building and 10% of the next 49. So what does that look like? This is the creative finance stuff that I love, this is what I. Right. They get. If we're using Wilmington, Delaware as an example of the national average average for construction costs, leasing and all this stuff that goes into real estate, you can expect that these numbers are going to balance out across the country. Averaging this, knowing that if I did one down here, it's going to be a lot higher. If I did one in Kentucky, it might be lower, something like that. Right. But the numbers look like this. From acquisition to stabilization. That's when I turn it over to a permanent asset manager. If it's not in my region, that's entitlements. Construction, filling the building, operating it, everything. 70% complete. The building is $35 million. All of that, the land, everything, approvals and everything. The building's worth 65, 30. 30 million in equity per building. First building for a partner, they get 15%. That's $4.5 million. On top of getting their money back at month 37. On top of the half. Half million dollars in interest on the CD interest. Four and a half million dollars plus 50% of the net revenue after debt service on the first building and 10% for the next 49. That's 3 million a building plus the revenue. It's 152,5 just in equity for one $8.5 million investment. They get back at month 37. This is what I do.

[Justin Colby]

That is exciting. Makes me question what I do.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

It's just different, dude. You know, so this is, this is what I love.

[Justin Colby]

Yeah.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

You know, I, I, I find opportunities where something's missing. Yeah. And I build something big around it.

[Justin Colby]

Love it.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Big business is what I do best.

[Justin Colby]

You're an incredible human man. It is going to be a fun journey to be friends with you and do a lot of business together.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Yeah. I look forward to this.

[Justin Colby]

Will be good.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Yeah.

[Justin Colby]

Guys, this is Mark Vincent Fanzler. I am Justin Colby. If this was helpful, please share this with at least two of your friends. You can find him everywhere. Mark Vincent Fanzler. All over the Internet, all over social media. You're an incredible business owner. You're incredible, dude. Appreciate you.

[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

Thanks, man. I appreciate you having me here.

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[Mark Vincent Fanzler]

you don't change the game without asking big questions like what would you like the power to do? My answers motivated me to help lead the first U.S. women's national team and bring home two FIFA Women's World cup

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[Justin Colby]

Nice.

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