Making Moves: How to Lead and Win

Hey, welcome to another episode of Making Billions, I'm your host Ryan Miller and today I have my dear friend Joel Friedland.

Joel has been involved in nearly 100 industrial property acquisitions and has raised over, get this 150 million dollars in private capital. But more importantly, Joel's experience and the lessons he's learned provide a one of a kind perspective on both entrepreneurship and debt.

So what this means is that Joel's cashflow first approach is extremely valuable to all of us, as well as to his hundreds of high net worth investors.

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[THE GUEST]: Joel has been involved in nearly 100 industrial property acquisitions and has raised over, get this 150 million dollars in private capital. But more importantly, Joel's experience and the lessons he's learned provide a one of a kind perspective on both

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Transcript

Ryan Miller  

My name is Ryan Miller and for the past 15 years have helped hundreds of people to raise millions of dollars for their funds, and for their startups. If you're serious about raising money, launching your business or taking your life to the next level, this show will give you the answers, so that you too can enjoy your pursuit of Making Billions. Let's get into it. 

Ryan Miller  

If you want to succeed and funds, family offices or any deal, you will need some luck, but also some leadership. Join me and my next guest as we chop it up on how to lead, how to get mentors and why your reputation relationships are the most valuable asset in your possession. All this and more coming right now. Here we go. 

Ryan Miller  

Hey, welcome to another episode of Making Billions, I'm your host Ryan Miller and today I have my dear friend Joel Friedland. Joel has been involved in nearly 100 industrial property acquisitions and has raised over, get this $150 million dollars in private capital. But more importantly, Joel's experience and the lessons he's learned provide a one of a kind perspective on both entrepreneurship and debt. So what this means is that Joel's cashflow first approach is extremely valuable to all of us, as well as to his hundreds of high net worth investors. So Joel, welcome to the show, man.

Joel Friedland  

Ryan, it is great to see you, I have to give you a compliment. First of all, I know your community is excellent and I want to tell you that I have enjoyed a lot of your podcasts. But in particular, there's a Chicago guy that was on by the name of Michael Episcope, who I think is great, from Origin Investments and then you had Adam Coffey, that might have been my favorite interview on any podcast ever, so great job.

Ryan Miller  

Thank you. Yeah, Adam was brilliant, Michael is brilliant and you're certainly numbered amongst those greats as well. So we've been very fortunate to be in the top 2% of the world, all because of amazing guests, just like you, Joel. So let's jump right into it. There's a lot of beginners out there, right now and back in the day, that was you, that was me, we were all just this full of, as we say piss and vinegar in Canada. We're just excited and we're ready to take on the world and do all these wonderful things. But sometimes through all of that exuberance, you can make mistakes, or you can miss the mark on getting some early points on the board because you're really shooting too high and going for this large ladder. So for the beginners out there, what advice can you give them from all of your experience on how to get some early points on the board?

Joel Friedland  

Well, what I did is I found a mentor, early on, I was 22, I graduated from the University of Michigan and I found a family in Chicago. Their last name was Podolski and I literally cold called them because I knew that they had 84 industrial buildings, and I wanted to have a mentor that really did great in real estate. I didn't know what industrial buildings were, but I knew that they had them. So I called up this this Milt Podolski and I said, Mr. Podolski, I'd like to be in real estate, I'd like to talk to you about coming to see you and coming to work for you and he happened to be interested in hiring a property manager, he was looking for somebody. He said, well kid, come on in, so I actually drove to his office that day and I sat down with him, and I sat down with his two sons and his daughter. It was a family business and they told me that, hey, it's 1981, interest rates are 17%, we own 84 buildings and we have a problem which is 10 are vacant, and it's hard to fill them because companies are not growing, they are really scared to death, because the economy's so bad. So what would you do to fill up the buildings? And I said, well, I want you guys to be my mentors and I want to show you what I can do. I would literally drive to the industrial parks where your buildings are and I would go door to door, walking in the door of companies where I've never met them before and tell them hey, I've got a building available for lease a couple doors away, would you like to consider moving? And Milt, who was just a big personality, looked at me says you're hired. So the answer is get a mentor, I worked for them for 10 years, and they taught me everything including, everything about industrial real estate, which is I think, an incredible asset class. I'm in it but I've learned a lot about it and it's industrials everywhere and it's always been there and people are just flocking right now to industrial. I learned from the Podolski's how to be a syndicator. They had brought in many investors into their deals and literally, I've done half a billion dollars worth at that time of syndication of industrial properties. And I just said to them, you've got a real great business here and I want to help you grow it. I didn't say I'm here to learn that they weren't looking for someone to learn on their dime, they were looking for someone to help them. 

Joel Friedland  

Which reminds me of the Sam Zell story, if you watch, Sam Zell recently passed away, he was a Chicago legend, one of the great real estate people of all time. And in his podcasts in later in life, he gave a lot of credit to, having gone into the office when I went to Podolski, he went to Jay Pritzker from the from the Pritzker Family who owned the Hyatt hotel chain and he went to Pritzker and he said, I'm going to help you. He didn't say I want you to teach me, he said I'm going to help you, and in exchange, I'd like you to teach me. It was a bargain, it was a transaction and Jay Pritzker said, Sam, you're hired and so you're talking about two sets of billionaires. Sam is a young man who started with nothing, his parents came over from Europe during the Holocaust and he built a business from nothing. Because he started with a great mentor and so that's the answer a young person in the business today should figure out what they want to do and figure out who is great at it. And they should go meet that person, walk in their office, don't take no for an answer, and just get hired. 

Ryan Miller  

I love that. So getting early points on the board, essentially your pedigree is your power. So you look at Sam Zell and then he went to Jay Pritzker and right and so this, this pedigree of these billionaires, I did the very same thing when I started. So as the story goes, many of you who've been following the show for a while know that I had a dream to work on Wall Street, and I finally got my first job, my first offer Merrill Lynch in 2008, literally the worst year to do it, so it lasted for about five seconds. And so, I was heartbroken when that happened and so I went out, and I had to learn and scrap on the streets to figure this out. And one of the first moments where it turned for me was when I got a mentor, and I learned the three principles or as I call the three disciplines of capital raisers, which is never eat alone, always ask about their story, and be generous. And so I did that I took them out, I bought, I still remember what he ordered and we, Tim Hortons, right, classic Canadian cuisine. We went out and I learned he was building 132 megawatt power plant and I said, holy cow, I just finished grad school, I can build you the best financial model you've ever seen and I made that right and never ate alone. I asked him about his story, I learned about what deals he was working on and I made a generous offer. And just to your point, Joel, and thank you for bringing that up, because this is important and I love the stories that you told, is you don't say, hey, man, I just graduated, and I need something from you, literally the worst thing you could say to a billionaire. 

Joel Friedland  

Yeah, because, you know, they, if someone comes into me, and they say, I want you to teach me because I want to learn. I'm trying to figure out well how many years will it take before they go start their own business and compete with me? That's number one. And number two, why, why would I want to hire someone who's going to leave so quickly after, even if they go to somebody else to work, I like them to stay with me. I don't want them to learn, I want them to say I want to come work for you and make it long term and do great things together. 

Ryan Miller  

That's right. 

Joel Friedland  

That's the message. 

Ryan Miller  

That's the message and so you just offer to help out and so I had a skill because I wanted to be an investment banker, since I was like 12 years old. I had that skill and I generate on building financial models, which is typically what you're hired to do and so I would take night classes, I would do all this stuff. So I had that skill. But the market didn't hit the way that I needed to. Okay, fine, everything happens the way, exactly as it should, I believe. And so here I am in this moment, and I said, hey, I've got one literally one skill, but that skill can help you and so I built a financial model, and I go into his office, right, because these guys, they do want help, but you better friggin follow through man. And so I did and guess what, I won't say the names, but I walk into the office, literally, this boardroom, biggest boardroom I've ever seen in my life. And filled with the finance emissary, the Saudi Crown Prince and these billionaires, this family that just sold their oil company for about $21 billion, all sitting there, like I'm in my 20s. There's no way I would have ever been in a room with these guys had I not decided to just not eat alone, ask somebody about their story and make a generous offer. And so getting a mentor can literally put you on the fast track and more importantly back to the original point, it makes your pedigree your power. And so you can try and knock out more degrees, more certifications, okay, I am actually a big fan of education, however, there's a point where eventually you're going to need interaction more than education. You need interaction with the right people and those people back to my ethos, your reputation, your relationships are the most valuable asset in your possession. And you're building relationships with these folks by doing something generous and helping out not asking, but giving my goodness that accelerated my career more than anything ever, even since then.

Joel Friedland  

And today, I am a mentor and I have been since I was probably right around 27. It's the long term relationship that is built from these positions of mentorship. The Podolski family is very interesting. Steve Podolski, the son, is still an investor with me 43 years later, even though he works in a different place than I do. He's mostly retired but I don't do any deals without Steve Podolski investing and also chiming in you, he never stopped being my mentor. He always kids around, I taught you everything you know, but I didn't teach you everything I know. 

Ryan Miller  

I love that and you know, so moving along on this, it's one thing to get some early points on the board. So in our case, mentorship or even like you talked about or Sam Zell, that's, that would be more apprenticeship. But either way, you really got to get into the orbit of these people who are making things happen. As I like to say, never take advice from someone you wouldn't trade places with, so make sure that you're hitting it up people who are on that path that you want to do, just like your Joel. 

Ryan Miller  

Thank you for watching, if you've made it this far, we must be friends. So don't forget to like, subscribe and click that notification button. Now let's get back to the show. 

Ryan Miller  

But that's not enough to get some offense, you need some defense and so we got to make sure that we don't do stupid things that knock us out of the game you've been doing this for over four decades. So what would you say would give people some good, beginner some good defense on just avoiding making dumb mistakes that would wipe them out too soon? What would you say? 

Joel Friedland  

Well, first of all, to this day, I have a group that I call my advisory group and I can tell and I'm sure you know, this, too. When I put a group of investors together, there's some people who don't read the document, they don't ask a lot of questions, they just say yes because they trust me and I've got a lot of those people. But I've got a handful of investors that do ask probing questions, and do read the documents and they are very careful. And they ask questions that even I wouldn't think of, they, like open my mind to questions and I listened to what they say. And it's very interesting, there's one guy who will send me when I send him a private placement memorandum, he will send me 15 questions, and maybe half of them are questions where I'd say, gee, that's really an insightful question and I better take my time and figure out the answer. And what I do is I put together when I, when I do a new deal, we do deal by deal, we don't do funds. So I might raise like $12 million for one deal and we do them all cash, no mortgage, that's our thing. 

Ryan Miller  

Right.

Joel Friedland  

And I'll get into why we do something as crazy as that, but these folks that go in, we put them, a lot of them, they want to be on a zoom call together, where I let everybody listen to everybody else's questions. And these are the smart folks who are sort of educating the ones who don't know what to ask and that makes us better during our due diligence while we're under contract to buy a property. And very often we will see that a property isn't the right property when we have that group because as a, almost like a classroom, some of these people are smarter than I am, which is great. I don't have to be the smartest person in the room, I just have to know them, they have to be my partners. And so that's the first one is get great advisors, you don't have to necessarily pay them, it doesn't have to be my lawyer, it doesn't have to be my accountant, although I always have them on the calls also, because they have technical knowledge. 

Joel Friedland  

I think that the biggest issue though, is how person makes decisions and what I have studied. My dad was a psychologist and my mother was a therapist, and my daughter is a therapist. Mental health matters. So I have a scale that I want to talk to you about, this is something you probably haven't heard, I think I kind of came up with it or maybe I heard it somewhere. People are subjected to their moods, you make decisions, sometimes based on how good you feel, or how bad you feel. When you pick a college, you go to a school, the person who's giving you the tour is a cool person, it's a sunny day, you go to a different school, it's a cloudy day, the person giving you the tour isn't interesting, they're not exciting to you. You pick based on emotion sometimes and I think it's dangerous to make decisions on emotion, and not on the math and on the due diligence. And I think a lot of times people who get in trouble, certainly when I've gotten in trouble, and I made mistakes in 2008, I owed $70 million in personal guarantees to seven banks. How did I get there? How did that happen? Luckily, we worked our way out of it and now we don't deal with banks. But there's a scale that I use, if you're making good decisions, I think you're not elevated in your mood, and you're not low in your mood. 

Joel Friedland  

So my scale is one to 10. One is someone who's so depressed, that they can't get out of bed, they can't function. Someone who's a 10 is so elevated and so manic, that they're going to do the dumbest things for stupid reasons and you don't want to ever make a decision when you're a ten. So this mental health thing, I believe that there is a healthy range, which is between four on the scale and six, if you're not overly enthusiastic and optimistic and unrealistic, maybe you're at a six? I, I try to function at about a six because I don't want to be a five, a five is a little bit too low. You know, you sort of know when you talk to a person and they're down, it's like, yeah, okay, you know, they may be at a two or three, they they're not in a position to make good decisions. And a person who's even a seven or an eight, I would not trust them. So if I hear somebody who's really like manicky and elevated, I'm not investing with them and I need to be careful if they're advising me not to take their advice. 

Joel Friedland  

So how do you stay in that range? And the answer is to be very, very self aware, maybe have a therapist who knows you and can advise you when he sees you going up and down. Maybe your wife, my wife says to me, sometimes, you know, Joel, you're a little elevated now you're kind of excited. I know these good things are happening, but you need to slow it down to make your good decisions, right? And the answer is yes, the answer is yes, so when I'm listening to my advisors, and we're talking, if I'm at a five, I'm going to listen to them and I'm not going to talk over them and try to convince them how right I am, I'm actually going to listen to their advice, and that's how we make our best deals.

Ryan Miller  

There was a funny quote from Charlie Munger who, it's something along the lines that lady's, liquor and leverage are the three areas that he sees most funds or investments fail. And while he's saying that funny and those guys joke around, they say funny stuff. But what they're really talking about is exactly what you're talking about, Joel is tapping into wisdom of not only Joel Friedman, but Charlie Munger. So those minds are alike and what they're saying is, that's all symbolic of, A: Risky behavior and B: Poor judgment. And you know, poor judgments can be a leading indicator, but hard to spot and so failed businesses, you might say, oh, we didn't sell enough, or we didn't market, or we did this bad deal and it went sideways, whatever it is. But really, if you can swim upstream and me being a recovering CFO, we follow the data and really understand what's going on, it's a filthy habit, but sometimes we do it is we really want to understand what was the process? What was the mechanism that was playing out in that moment that led us to that decision, because we want to learn. It's not a gotcha thing, we just want to get better and often failed companies failed projects, losing money is less to do with the deal and more to do with a decision to go ahead or not. And so what Joel was talking about, which I wholeheartedly can back is your decisions, matter. 

Ryan Miller  

Now, I know I sound like a, maybe your dad or something that says that stuff, you become your decisions, I literally tell my kids that. But the point is, is that you can't run your business like a casino, you can't just go around and invest, you need to do your due diligence, you need to understand things. But more importantly, even before all that you need to manage your state, you need to manage your mental health what Joe's talking about. And so by managing your mental health now, this is the thing I don't tell a lot of people, but I'll I'm about to, is on our fund, I actually have a therapist, and I said, hey, man, he was a good friend and everything and I said your job is to make sure that we make good decisions. That we do the right thing, no matter what, no matter how hard it is, we were always honest, not that that's a problem. But you're bringing in partners and it's, it's a lot, we got a lot of funds, a lot of investment thesis. And so we just said, look, our mental health matters, this is a hard game and if you can have all the education and be the smartest guy in the room, but if you're at a two or a ten, you're in trouble. Your education is not going to matter because your emotional state is going to trump that, so I absolutely wholeheartedly not only agree, but support everything that you're saying, Joel. So thank you for reminding us that it's important to take care of your health. 

Ryan Miller  

And the final thing I will mention is a little bit dark, but that was one of the upsets in, where I'm at, in Canada, there was a huge fund and one of the head guys ended up taking his life. This is a very serious thing that you're talking about. Not to take it down in the dumps, but we're keeping it real is to say, look, man, it's not worth it. No amount of money, like yes, make money, do your thing, kick ass we'd like to dominate, we're listening to Making Billions, because we're on that path and we're all about it. But at the end of the day, certain things are not worth putting on the sacrificial altar and the certain things that are not worth putting on a sacrificial altar are your family, your friends, and your mental health and your very soul. So make sure that not only do you do good deals, but you do good, you do right by yourself.

Joel Friedland  

I agree with that. We just recently bought a property in Chicago. We bought three properties, three industrial properties on the Chicago River, 1200 feet of river frontage, and they're occupied by companies that are in the fruit juice concentrate manufacturing business. And we were under contract and I did go to my advisory board and I took all of them through the buildings. I took all of them to the site to look at the site to see the river to see how we think it's going to be converted one day into condos with a river view. With, because it's an area that is rapidly turning into residential  upscale in the city, which the city tends to do. And before we spent $12 million, I wanted to make sure that we're making a great decision. So, I do go every other Saturday to see somebody who I talked about my marriage, I talk about my kids, I talk about my friendships, and I mostly talk about my business. His name is Joel, which is a funny coincidence, I say, I have to go ask Joel. You have to ask yourself and I say Joel, how do you feel before I buy these properties? How do you think I'm doing in terms of my mood level? Am I over excited about this? Am I pushing it because of something other than the facts and the dollars and the math? Or do you think I'm pretty steady and I feel pretty good to you after knowing me for 15 years since 2008 when we went through the tough time and he tells me. He gives me that answer and I have to listen to him very carefully. 

Joel Friedland  

Now, I also have that group of investors that looked at it and we had all the questions, we did our due diligence. We brought civil engineers, we brought structural engineers, we brought roofers, HVAC contractors, we wanted to make sure we're trying to get ourselves a nice 8% return cash on cash, we hate debt. We like safety, we like staying power, and all those elements were there and we took our time and we didn't rush into it and we read our documents, and we were very careful and we bought the deal. And I really attribute a lot of that to this going at the pace of care, it's the pace of care, not the speed of mistake. And so yeah, I'm very very into that and I preach it to my employees and, and I watch them carefully to make sure that they don't get too excited about something and say, Joel, this is great, we should do it, it gets, I don't want a person who's at eight telling me I should do something, I want a person who's steady at five and has figured it out, and is really looked at the facts and figures. 

Ryan Miller  

I love that and just to kind of put a final pin in this part, this is something that matters a lot to me, a lot. And one thing I've learned is I've been through all the right and wrong in my leadership and my growth through my careers from my early 20s, all the way to where I'm at now. And I would say the number one thing, and often they're like, oh, he's like a nice guy and he's a great leader and it's like, it's because I genuinely care. And the reason why not to toot my own horn, I'm trying to teach a principle from my story, there's lots of stories, my is the only one I know so. But the point is, is that the reason why I care, is because if I'm going to produce the A team, as best as I can, as a leader, if I'm going to elevate people who come in as a B grade employee, and I can turn him into an A, or whatever it is. The point is, is that more than anything, withdrawal is talking about folks more than anything, their emotional state matters. And so when you're in my company, I will just constantly walk around and be like, how are you doing? Do you have everything you need to succeed? How can I serve you? We call it servant leadership. 

Ryan Miller  

But more importantly, the reason why you do that is to show people that they are supported, that they belong, and that they care and that they're cared for. Right, not in a way that your family does or doesn't, but what I'm saying is in this place, if I'm going to have at scale, people very competent, enthused at a six, maybe even a seven, we're burning hot, but either way, I need people to make good, not only good financial decisions, but good moral and ethical decisions. And typically, if you're burning too hot or too cold, not likely and so even if for those of you who are listening, I know we have family office managers, we have people all over the world listening to this, really understand and maybe that's not your style, that's okay. What we're saying is how are you people doing? How are you doing? It matters, it matters for your business, the mental state of the people in that collective mental state does reflect in those micro and macro decisions that your company makes as a whole. I absolutely love that, we could talk about this, this is in the psychology podcast, we're talking about Making Billions, what are we talking about our mental state? Guess what, if you believe the universe is mental, then this is certainly one of those things that you can work on, on your leadership. 

Ryan Miller  

And just to round us out, here's my final note on leadership. It's not about getting people to do what you want them to do, it's about getting them to do something they never thought they could. And a lot of that comes from how you can help them to manage their state and their decisions, I absolutely love that. And I could geek out about psychology and leadership and maybe we'll start another podcast on that. But because I don't have anything to do, but in all seriousness, we got a lot to talk about. So leadership, we've covered so many things about your pedigree, being your power, and just taking care and good mental health and decision making absolutely matters. But what I'd like to move on to is the market. There's people are making moves, they're Making Billions, what are you seeing out there right now in the market? As far as you understand, it's not financial advice, I just love to hear your opinion on the market. 

Joel Friedland  

Well, I listened to a number of podcasts that are about the economy and I believe that the economy's heated up and I think it's been too good for too long. And I think that the lag effect from the increase in interest rates has not altogether hit the economy yet. So I think that we're really overly frothy from the standpoint of the whole economy and I can only speak to the industrial real estate business with authority because it's what I've been doing for 43 years. The industrial world is booming because the internet changed the way people buy products. And so when you drive along the highway or the Tollway in any city in any country, there are big industrial buildings that are out there that have been recently built. They're 100s of 1000s of square feet, even a million square feet occupied by companies like Amazon and logistics are trucking companies and manufacturing companies. And there's also a lot of manufacturing coming back to the US, Mexico and Canada from overseas because the supply chain disruption during COVID taught many companies they can't rely on ships coming from someplace else. So industrial is booming. 

Joel Friedland  

In my particular part of industrial we're in what's called Class B infill, which is not one of those big buildings way out on the outskirts of town. We don't compete with the owners of those buildings, we're primarily pension funds and insurance companies who have billions and billions of dollars. My group will buy buildings that are in the city, or that are in the near suburbs near O'Hare Airport which is really important. That's a very critical amenity to be near O'Hare and to be near all of the hotels and the office buildings where corporate headquarters are located and also near restaurants and they're the parts of town where there are conventions and things like that. Industrials along the tollway and our stuff is really close in and I'm very concerned that the big industrial stuff is getting over built. I think that there have been millions and millions and millions of square feet built on speculative, on a speculative basis, which is like build it, and they will come, there's no tenant, they just build it and they've been filling up for a long time. But there's a lot of money being thrown at that and developers will take the money and build those things, even if the market may not be strong enough to go into the occupancy level that they're hoping for a retail, maintain the occupancy level that we've seen lately. 

Joel Friedland  

In our world we do infill, these are buildings that cannot be replaced. They're smaller, they are leased to entrepreneurial companies and big corporations and in Chicago, we've got 15,000 industrial buildings, and three quarters of them are in the size range that we operate in. And right now we're comfortable with high prices, little worried, they're very high compared to ever, they're at an all time high, but they're not replaceable. Nobody's building these small ones that cost too much. So I think that the office market, you've seen it, it's a disaster because people work at home and offices are empty everywhere. Retail is troubled, malls are in trouble, hotels have been struggling because of occupancy issues and interest rates are very high. So what we do is so different, so I can tell you my opinion about the economy, but if you three, talk to three economists, you'll get seven opinions, and only one of them will be right about one of his opinions. You don't know who to trust. 

Joel Friedland  

But in our particular case, because I'm scared to death of downturns because I got so badly hurt during four of them in my career. We just do these all cash deals where there's no bank, and we can't be foreclosed upon, and very wealthy people who are older, not younger, but older people who are, say 40, and above 40, 50, 60, even I've got a 96 year old partner, they like safety. They are not looking, first of all, they know that I'm not one of these high flying eight mood people who's trying to sell them something. And secondly, what they like about our deals is with no mortgage, there's cash flow, even if the deal is partially empty, because we don't have to pay the lender, because there is no lender. So that's all I can speak to and I believe that we're gonna hit a downturn even in what we do. So we're being extra careful and I think that anybody who's out there and believes that Bitcoin is going to go to a, to a million and who thinks that industrial real estate that selling for $100 a square foot is going to go to $200 anytime soon? I think they're wrong. I think that it's overly optimistic for them to be looking at things that way and we're being super careful.

Ryan Miller  

Yeah. All right. So a lot of overbuilding, there's a few things are happening, but industrial, especially in Chicago. Sounds like it's still very promising but other areas, I know we spoke offline a little bit about the smile states is a little bit over-built in your opinion.

Joel Friedland  

I think the smile states are a lot overbuilt. 

Ryan Miller  

Yeah. Okay, well, that makes sense. So, you know, as we round third base on that, and thank you for your analysis on the market, it's always good to hear what pros that are deep in their sector, what are they seeing in that market and give us a pulse on every sector on every episode that we follow. So thank you for providing us that analysis on the industrial market. So, you know, as we round third base, I'm just curious if you would have like one or two things, some competitive advantages after over four decades in this industry. I mean, you've been in the game a long time man, there's a lot of people that were just praying to God, wishing that they had your background, what would you tell them? What competitive advantages can you leave behind for people that are like, this Joel guy is preaching some common sense, man, if I can only pick his brain, what would you tell him?

Joel Friedland  

There's only one thing, relationships of trust. That's it, if you have a problem, and I've had plenty of them, who do you call? Who do you call, you call someone who's got the experience and the money to help you solve your problem, and they have to trust you to want to do it. That's the whole thing for me and in my little corner of the world, which is industrial in Chicago. I've got currently 70 active investors, I can call any of them anytime. They will take my call, they'll know my voice, they don't have to wonder who I am. We know each other, we do the lunches when they go to Florida or if they're snowbirds, we do the dinners down there when I go to Florida in the wintertime. I know their kids, they know my family, it's deep. These are deep, long term relationships and I can't think of anything else that's any better than that.

Ryan Miller  

I love that. So building relationships, and as I like to say, as your reputation as well, those two seem to go like a hand in glove. He's really building those out and like I was saying, those are the most valuable assets in your possession, your reputation and relationships will take you further than any financial model or any partner any of that stuff. It can literally knock down almost any door depending on your relationships and reputation. So, I jokingly say when people ask my advice, they'll say you think Warren Buffett's knocking on doors? No, people are coming to him, why? Because he's got the reputation relationships and so keep building that out. And not, it's not just Warren Buffett, it's a lot of people, even in their careers, people you've never with no notoriety. They're just really good at what they do and people around that know it and so building that out. I absolutely love that, any other piece of advice you'd like to share?

Joel Friedland  

Well, I do a lot of reading, a lot of reading these days, a lot of listening to podcasts, watching podcasts, I think being educated and understanding the macro and the micro is really important. And perhaps the number one thing that for me has been my watchword, is learn about a particular business and stick with it, and be the best at it. And there are people who are serial entrepreneurs like you are, and there are people and by the way, listen, you're younger, you can do it in my age, I'm not going to be a serial trier of new things and put everything on the line, right. But, I think if you go into a business, and you saturate your team and yourself in the facts, the knowledge and that business and stick with it, you find the way to be successful one way or one way or the other by persevering. And so for me, I've really been an extreme player in that realm sticking with industrial real estate in Chicago, infills, you know, B, Class B. I'm an extreme, but I think that that's for sure the thing that is so important. 

Ryan Miller  

I love that. So as we wrap things up, any way that people can get a hold of or learn more about what you do any anything at all, closing remarks?

Joel Friedland  

Sure. britproperties.com is our website b r i t with one t, britproperties. We named our company. We sold a company years ago we were, we had a capital event, a liquidity event and I went and restarted the same business. I still had a lot of properties, but we started a new company, we needed a name. Our property manager's name was Brad and I like to make people feel really important when they are and so we named Britt for Brad. Brad really is terrific!

Ryan Miller  

Yeah, that's awesome. Man, that's a great name, there's some definitely thoughts and in homage paid in that one. So just to summarize everything that we talked about, find a mentor, work on growing your reputation, your relationships, take care of your mental health, and if you do these things, and you too will be well on your way in your pursuit of Making Billions.

Ryan Miller  

Wow, what a show, I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. Now, if you haven't done so already, be sure to leave a comment and review on new ideas and guests you want me to bring on for future episodes. Plus, why don't you head over to YouTube and see extra takes while you get to know our guests even better. And make sure to come back for our next episode where we dive even deeper into the people, the process and the perspectives of both investors and founders. Until then, my friends, stay hungry, focus on your goals and keep grinding towards your dream of Making Billions.