Today, my guest is Nick Prefontaine with Wicked Smart Real Estate and Common Goal. And Nick's an author, a trainer and investor. And in just a minute we're going to speak with Nick about how you can overcome the challenging times ahead.
J Darrin Gross
I'd like to ask you Nick Prefontaine what is the BIGGEST RISK?
Nick Prefontaine
What is the biggest risk? So the biggest risk to me is not following that voice in the back of your head. Now I'd like to frame that in, in a few different ways if I can. So when I was in the hospital, that voice was no, they said, You're gonna make a full recovery. My parents were, that was their goal, you're gonna make a full recovery, I followed the voice that said, No, you're gonna run out, then all throughout my life, no matter what I'm doing, as a successful realtor, as a successful real estate investor. And then as I moved into being a coach, and a trainer with smart real estate coach, as well as still do deals, I've always had that voice in the back of my head, which has told me that I have to be speaking and sharing my story, and helping others that are going through a trauma life challenge or adversity and helping them get through to the other side. I think the biggest risk is not listening to that voice and rationalizing it away. Two years ago, I reached out, I got to a point. And I reached out to my mentor to have a to have a conversation with her and share my, my goals and my vision about what I wanted to do. And I said, What do you think I should do? She said, the speaker salon in New York City, our community for six weeks in a row in New York City. That was in the fall of 21. During that she presented or pitch the idea of working with her one on one, she helped speakers to build out their speaker platform and really fine tune their craft and their message. And I said, Yes, I didn't know how I was going to do it. But I said yes. And a week later, I walked in with her. And without her. And without listening to that voice in the back of my head, I wouldn't have common goal and the speaking Korea that I have to go stay. And she was one that actually helped me develop the step system, which I trust, which I touched on support, trust, energy and persistence. I know we didn't have time to really go over that today. But if any of your listeners are interested in downloading the free ebook step, where they're going to learn all about support, trust, energy and persistence, they can go to Nick prefontaine.com, forward slash step two, download the step system for free today.
Today, my guest is Todd Drouillard. Todd is the sector leader of the manufacturing and product development sector within the national architecture and engineering design firm H E D. And in just a minute, we are going to speak with Todd about how the pandemic has changed the supply chain.
J Darrin Gross
I'd like to ask you, Todd Drouillard, what is the Biggest Risk?
Todd Drouillard
The biggest risks that we face, right, right now, and it's, it's nearly on every project both large and small, it's the the actual long lead times to get either equipment or the materials. And what that comes down to is that, you know, it's really risk to both cost and to, to, to the schedule, you know, it's been, the biggest thing is, is the, so what happens is, you know, a project gets started gets planned, you know, you know, the architect has engaged, we're doing the work, the engineering has been done, the project goes out for, for, for, for, for a bid. And long Behold, some of the equipment that's been best supplied for the project, it could be things like roofing, insulation, roof deck, mechanical, electrical equipment here, and we find out that it that it's a long lead time, and it's beyond the project time. So you'll never get at level one was just a accident, you know, in the amount of time that you thought it would would take. So it's extending the schedules. And as everybody knows, time is money. Especially when you have, you know, you know, all the contractors with their hands in their pockets, you know, you need a you need equipment, you need goods, you need all this thing, all these things to put the pieces, you know, like in place. So, so the biggest risks that we're seeing now is lead times on really equipment and products. And there's ways so there's a couple things that that that we do in the, you know, they like industry to help to help I minimize that. And a couple things that that that we always try to try to try to sell is kind of doing you kind of plan from plan in from the from the worst case back. So it's kind of like planning in real Verse And here's a way to repurchase, or to pre, to pre to pre like, order all, all, all this equipment and have it brought brought to the site within, you know, blah, blah, blah reasonable time, so then it can get installed. So it's that, that idea of, you know, just in time, you know, if you can plan ahead, and, and it takes time, and it takes, you know, takes a, you know, it takes a good a good design team to kind of think ahead, but if that's all done, there's really no risk at all, you know, and it's really hard to kind of push off that, that risk when you're at the, the, the, the will of, of, you know, multiple, you know, folks trying to procure all like, all these things. And one way to do that, again, you know, this to pre pre, pre, like, ordered, you know, you know, these things. And, of course, there's risk in that and, you know, you know, you know that piece of well, because you have to have a lot of trust. But, you know, and there's really not a way, like out of it, unfortunately, until the lead times come come down. But you know, that, you know, that's probably the biggest risk that I face on on like a daily, you know, party, and I'm sure they can, you know, the owners can tractors and everybody else is having the same, you know, like the same like issues?
Today my guests are Shawn Buchheit is the chief operating officer for Fountain Life, and Gloria Caulfield. Gloria is the Vice President of Strategic Alliances for Tavistock Development Company. And in just a minute, we're going to speak with Shawn and Gloria, about how Master Plan communities can lead to healthier living.
J Darrin Gross
I'd like to ask you, Sean Buchheit and Gloria Caulfield, what is the Biggest Risk?
Shawn Buchheit
Well, for us, it's overextending, you've heard all the wonderful the ecosystem that's there at Lake Nona and Tavistock there's so many incredible opportunities to do exciting new things. For us, it's really important to us to remain focused on our core business, and while we are who we are, and prioritize all all the amazing opportunities that we have part of being part of an ecosystem like that, so just again, overextending for us and it would be our business, our biggest risk.
J Darrin Gross
Gloria, anything from you, or,
Gloria Caulfield
Yeah, I mean, I think our biggest risk is not being true to our mission. I mean, in, you know, we, we have this whole mission and vision statement that I mentioned earlier, to create the ideal place to inspire human potential through innovative collaboration. And when you have a mission statement like that, I mean, it's, it's a pretty lofty goal. And, but it also is a filter for us. Like it's a filter of organizations we want to be associated with or not associated with, you know, the types of businesses that really are good fit within this, because it's really the sum total, but it's going to ladder up to fulfilling the mission. And, you know, real estate development is tricky. I mean, it's always fraught with various challenges. But at the end of the day, are you able to really fulfill the dream that you've created or not? And, to me, that's the biggest risk. And so far, I think we're run a phenomenal path to continue to do that.
Today my guest is Adam Sharif. Adam is the founder at nxt CRE an open bank FinTech supporting the CRE market. nxt CRE partners with lenders to enable them to keep a line of sight on their borrowers activities, who are paying off a loan and seeking to enter a 1031 exchange. And in just a minute, we're going to speak with Adam about how FinTech can help you find 1031 buyers for your property.
J Darrin Gross
I'd like to ask you, and I'm sure what is the biggest risk?
Adam Sharif
for us is the biggest risk for anyone else. And that is uncertainties. Okay, no one no uncertainties. It's the opposite of having a line of sight, right? There's no one, no one can sit there and tell you exactly what's going to happen. Everyone can guess. So that's one of them. But I liked it recently. One, this question was asked of Warren Buffett. And and I love his answer. Basically, he said political risks international political risks, like wars, and Ukraine, and such, and, and maybe the next pandemic, those are what he worries about the most, those are the things that he can't control. Those are things that that could create even greater uncertainty all over the place. So I'm gonna go with that answer. I like, personally, anyway. And when he when he gave that answer, I thought it was fantastic. We can we can talk about the micro, the, you know, the interest rates, and, and, you know, all kinds of stuff, inflation and deflation, we can do all that sort of stuff, but answers got to be things you can't see, you know, things you can't do anything about, those of those are the biggest risks and, and they're not always very, they're not transferable. Those are nervous, you can transfer to other people, those are the ones that you're going to have to, you know, handle yourself. And which makes business very exciting. And also, you know, stressful.
Today, my guest is Chris Larsen. Chris is the founder and principal of Next Level Income he has been investing in and managing real estate for over 20 years. While still in college. He bought his first rental at the age of 21. And from there Chris expanded into development, private lending, buying distressed debt, as well as commercial offices and ultimately syndicating commercial properties. He began syndicating deals in 2016 and has been actively involved in over 1 billion real estate acquisitions. And Chris is passionate about helping business investors become financially independent. And in just a minute, we are going to speak with Chris about why and how he invest in cash flowing businesses like car washes, in addition to real estate.
J. Darrin Gross
I like to ask you, Chris Larsen, what is the Biggest Risk?
Chris Larsen
Yeah, so I think everybody's talking right now out there, and about interest rates and cash flows. And you can mitigate those, you can lock in interest rates, you can set money, you can increase your reserves that you have out there. And those those are all good things. For sure. But I think the biggest risks that that we face, and we kind of talked about this in an indirect manner. It's people, it's people, you know, do you have the right people on the team? If you're an investor? Are you investing with the right people? Are you investing with somebody who's just a sole operator without partners? What if something happens to them? Obviously, I'm acutely aware of that I lost my father at age five, I lost my best friend in college at the age of 18. So I know that, you know that there's, there's things you need to put into play. So things like life insurance, estate planning, are probably more apparent to me when it comes to that. But if you're if you're an investor, I would ask that question. I would say, hey, you know, Chris, how Are you addressing this issue? How was the team built out? So if something happens to that fantastic operator that you have that came from the medical production facility, you know, how's the team structure, something happens to him? You know, where's the point of failure when it comes to that? What we do we put systems in place. So I really, I really like kind of the methodology of optimizing the solution, and then automating that solution and ultimately outsourcing that solution. So again, that's optimized, automate, and outsource. And if you do that, that doesn't mean you release control of it. But after I opt, optimize or iterate, you know, engineers, they iterate right, you iterate, you get better, you get better. And then you figure out how do you how do you automate that and oftentimes with automation, it's it's bringing on technologies that may be better than people. So we have we have certain technologies that we use, like our, our customer, our CRM system, where it automates responses, and it's able to check logs, and then it's able to say, Okay, did did, did we check this box for Darren yes or no, and then maybe it moves it to an individual so that, you know, a human can address that situation. And then finally, that outsource piece, if you can, if you can automate something, and then outsource it, that means that, you know, if, if something happens to me, then my partner or one of our employees can address that situation. And I think that's, that's really important, because it handles two situations, one, immediate downside risks there. But it also reduces your upside risk. And what I mean by that is, as you scale, quality can go down. So how can you scale a business, but increase the quality and increase the benefits that you get from scaling? And I think that is really, you know, talking about the risk, but also talking about how you can use that as a competitive advantage as well.