John Casmon interviews James Faillettaz, a Minneapolis-based investor who scaled from five units in a spreadsheet to restructuring an entire real estate company after an ambitious early strategy nearly collapsed. James shares how he over-hired, over-built, and over-extended while trying to operate like a Silicon Valley startup—then completely rebuilt his structure with the help of mentors and mastermind groups. He walks through how he created new momentum by taking over distressed properties through master lease with purchase option agreements, ultimately acquiring 101 units with zero money down. James also breaks down the value he brings to sellers, how he structures creative deals, and the lessons he learned from reinventing his model the hard way. James FaillettazCurrent role: Founder, Verus Praedium Holding / Revolution Renting, Investing, Construction & RealtyBased in: Minneapolis–St. Paul, MinnesotaSay hi to them at: https://veruspraediumholding.com Alternative Fund IV is closing soon and SMK is giving Best Ever listeners exclusive access to their Founders’ Shares, typically offered only to early investors. Visit smkcap.com/bec to learn more and download the full fund summary. Join us at Best Ever Conference 2026! Find more info at: https://www.besteverconference.com/  Join the Best Ever Community  The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria.  Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow. Apply now at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠⁠ Podcast production done by⁠ ⁠Outlier Audio⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matt Faircloth interviews Christian Macellari, Head of Acquisitions and CIO at RSN Property Group, about how their team has grown more than 20% in the past 15–16 months by staying disciplined, data-driven, and relentless in sourcing opportunities. Christian explains how RSN underwrites roughly 400 deals a year to close just a few, why top-down market conviction matters before drilling into individual assets, and how their team blends off-market outreach, broker relationships, and distressed-debt conversations to secure deals. He also breaks down RSN’s buy box, when they’ll consider heavy-lift opportunities, and why Chicago is the market he “loves to hate.” Christian and Matt wrap by discussing JV/co-GP equity structures and how operators can realistically partner with larger institutional groups. Christian MacellariCurrent role: Chief Investment Officer & Head of Acquisitions, RSN Property GroupBased in: (Not explicitly stated in transcript)Say hi to them at: https://rsnpropertygroup.com | LinkedIn Alternative Fund IV is closing soon and SMK is giving Best Ever listeners exclusive access to their Founders’ Shares, typically offered only to early investors. Visit smkcap.com/bec to learn more and download the full fund summary. Join us at Best Ever Conference 2026! Find more info at: https://www.besteverconference.com/  Join the Best Ever Community  The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria.  Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow. Apply now at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠⁠ Podcast production done by⁠ ⁠Outlier Audio⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pascal Wagner breaks down how the IRS categorizes income into three buckets—active, portfolio, and passive—and why high-income earners often misunderstand how tax write-offs actually work. He explains common investor mistakes, including expecting real estate depreciation to offset W-2 or stock-market gains, and shares the simple rule that changed his entire tax strategy: “you can only offset like with like.” Pascal also walks through exceptions such as oil and gas, real estate professional status, and opportunity zones, along with how wealthy investors intentionally shift income toward passive buckets for long-term tax efficiency. This episode teaches investors to stop chasing IRRs and start choosing deals based on what problem they solve in their tax plan. Alternative Fund IV is closing soon and SMK is giving Best Ever listeners exclusive access to their Founders’ Shares, typically offered only to early investors. Visit smkcap.com/bec to learn more and download the full fund summary. Join us at Best Ever Conference 2026! Find more info at: https://www.besteverconference.com/  Join the Best Ever Community  The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria.  Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow. Apply now at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠⁠ Podcast production done by⁠ ⁠Outlier Audio⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amanda Cruise and Ash Patel interview Jeremy Barker, a former firefighter turned serial entrepreneur who has built a nine-figure net worth through value-add industrial and office deals. Jeremy walks through how he bought nearly vacant, 100,000+ square foot assets, pre-leased them during due diligence, and created tens of millions in equity with very little cash out of pocket. He shares how going bankrupt twice, living in his truck, and then rebuilding through Murphy Door and commercial real estate reshaped his relationship with money, risk, and failure. Jeremy also talks about chasing “shiny objects” like short-term rentals, the hidden costs of wealth, and the challenge of raising grounded kids when your life includes private planes and big headlines. Jeremy BarkerCurrent role: Founder & CEO, Murphy Door Inc.Based in: Ogden, UtahSay hi to them at: https://jeremybarker.com | YouTube | LinkedIn Alternative Fund IV is closing soon and SMK is giving Best Ever listeners exclusive access to their Founders’ Shares, typically offered only to early investors. Visit smkcap.com/bec to learn more and download the full fund summary. Join us at Best Ever Conference 2026! Find more info at: https://www.besteverconference.com/  Join the Best Ever Community  The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria.  Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow. Apply now at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠⁠ Podcast production done by⁠ ⁠Outlier Audio⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week’s episode, Joe Fairless interviews Jeffrey Brogger. Jeffrey shares practical ways to revive “dead” contacts using AI voice agents that hold natural two-way conversations and surface real buying signals. He explains where these tools outperform blast emails and basic SMS, why latency and compliance matter, and how he builds lower-cost, highly customizable stacks with VAPI, Twilio and modern LLM voices. The discussion closes with an omnichannel playbook that uses ads, email, website activity and AI automations to turn quiet databases into qualified call-backs. Jeffrey Brogger Current role: AI Strategist, Growth Architect, Founder of JJB Industries Based in: Huntington Beach, California Say hi to them at: https://jjbind.com/ Alternative Fund IV is closing soon and SMK is giving Best Ever listeners exclusive access to their Founders’ Shares, typically offered only to early investors. Visit smkcap.com/bec to learn more and download the full fund summary. Join us at Best Ever Conference 2026! Find more info at: https://www.besteverconference.com/  Join the Best Ever Community  The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria.  Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow. Apply now at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠⁠ Podcast production done by⁠ ⁠Outlier Audio⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Richard McGirr breaks down why most syndicators struggle with online ads and explains why cold traffic is the last place capital raisers should be spending money. He argues that private investments require a level of trust that interruptive ads can’t establish, and that most managers burn cash chasing low-quality Facebook leads with terrible conversion. Instead, Richard outlines a hierarchy of “trust-based traffic,” from podcast tours that borrow a host’s credibility to scalable paid influencer webinars that transfer trust at a fraction of the cost of ads. He walks through real-world examples—from George Foreman to Proactiv—to show how borrowed brands can outperform traditional marketing by orders of magnitude, especially in capital-raising. Alternative Fund IV is closing soon and SMK is giving Best Ever listeners exclusive access to their Founders’ Shares, typically offered only to early investors. Visit smkcap.com/bec to learn more and download the full fund summary. Join us at Best Ever Conference 2026! Find more info at: https://www.besteverconference.com/  Join the Best Ever Community  The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria.  Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow. Apply now at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠⁠ Podcast production done by⁠ ⁠Outlier Audio⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Chang breaks down the latest economic and market signals after a week of meetings in New York City. He explains how the temporary government funding deal both alleviates short-term pressures and extends broader uncertainty—impacting GDP, consumer spending, and investor sentiment. John also unpacks capital flows, interest-rate volatility tied to upcoming Federal Reserve changes, and why debt availability is improving even as risk factors persist. He contrasts Sun Belt oversupply with strong performance in low-construction markets, and ultimately argues that today’s elevated cap rates and stable debt costs may represent a rare “sweet spot” for long-term investors. Alternative Fund IV is closing soon and SMK is giving Best Ever listeners exclusive access to their Founders’ Shares, typically offered only to early investors. Visit smkcap.com/bec to learn more and download the full fund summary. Join us at Best Ever Conference 2026! Find more info at: https://www.besteverconference.com/  Join the Best Ever Community  The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria.  Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow. Apply now at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠⁠ Podcast production done by⁠ ⁠Outlier Audio⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Casmon interviews Travis Watts, a long-time Best Ever contributor, full-time LP, and author of Passive Investor Tips. They dig into where we are in the multifamily market cycle, why the last three-plus years have felt so painful for LPs, and why Travis believes we’re entering a true recovery phase that could mirror the opportunity of buying in 2010. Travis shares how investing consistently from 2015 to today—even with about 30% of his portfolio “compromised”—still leaves him well ahead of where he’d be if he’d stayed on the sidelines. He and John also break down operator selection, capital calls, fixed vs. floating debt, and how to align your investment strategy with your life stage and risk tolerance. Travis WattsCurrent role: Full-time passive investor and author of Passive Investor TipsBased in: Orlando, Florida Say hi to them at: https://ashcroftcapital.com/our-team/travis-watts/ | LinkedIn Alternative Fund IV is closing soon and SMK is giving Best Ever listeners exclusive access to their Founders’ Shares, typically offered only to early investors. Visit smkcap.com/bec to learn more and download the full fund summary. Join us at Best Ever Conference 2026! Find more info at: https://www.besteverconference.com/  Join the Best Ever Community  The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria.  Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow. Apply now at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠⁠ Podcast production done by⁠ ⁠Outlier Audio⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matt Faircloth interviews Todd Dexheimer, a multifamily and assisted living operator focused on steady, fundamentals-driven investing. Todd breaks down how he thinks about market selection—favoring job and population growth, sane rent-to-income ratios, and controlled new supply over “sexy” boom-bust metros. He then walks through a massive 99-unit value-add on the Mississippi River in the Twin Cities, where he transformed a mismanaged, dated asset into a lifestyle property with standout amenities and stronger rents. Todd also shares the hard lessons from scaling into assisted living—losing seven figures before dialing in operations—and why controlling payroll, culture, and leadership are everything in that business. Todd DexheimerCurrent role: Principal, Endurus Capital and VitaCare LivingBased in: St. Paul, MinnesotaSay hi to them at: https://www.enduruscapital.com/ | YouTube | LinkedIn Alternative Fund IV is closing soon and SMK is giving Best Ever listeners exclusive access to their Founders’ Shares, typically offered only to early investors. Visit smkcap.com/bec to learn more and download the full fund summary. Join us at Best Ever Conference 2026! Find more info at: https://www.besteverconference.com/  Join the Best Ever Community  The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria.  Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow. Apply now at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠⁠ Podcast production done by⁠ ⁠Outlier Audio⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pascal Wagner interviews Evan Polaski, digging into what 18 years across retail and multifamily have taught him about raising capital through multiple market cycles. Evan shares what it was really like trying to raise an institutional fund heading into the 2008 crisis, how the “denominator effect” froze commitments, and why that experience still shapes his view of risk today. He contrasts institutional and retail LP behavior, explains why he’s gravitated back to necessity-based retail, and calls out the dangers of marketers-turned-operators who chase AUM instead of disciplined deals. Evan also walks through how he evaluates sponsors as an LP himself, what “conservative underwriting” should actually mean, and the specific questions passive investors need to ask about performance versus the original pro forma. Evan PolaskiCurrent role: Director of Capital Raising, BlackGate Partners Based in: Cincinnati, Ohio Say hi to them at: https://goblackgate.com | LinkedIn Alternative Fund IV is closing soon and SMK is giving Best Ever listeners exclusive access to their Founders’ Shares, typically offered only to early investors. Visit smkcap.com/bec to learn more and download the full fund summary. Join us at Best Ever Conference 2026! Find more info at: https://www.besteverconference.com/  Join the Best Ever Community  The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria.  Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow. Apply now at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠⁠ Podcast production done by⁠ ⁠Outlier Audio⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amanda Cruise and Ash Patel interview Steven Wear, chief marketing officer of SSSE, about the firm’s nationwide self-storage investments and how it’s evolving the model through creative financing and energy innovation. Steven explains how SSSE focuses on secondary and tertiary markets to avoid oversaturation and zoning risks, and why they advocate for local moratoriums once they’ve entered a market. He discusses using substitution of collateral strategies to maximize returns on seller-financed deals, creating a self-sustaining capital engine. The conversation also explores how SSSE integrates solar power, geothermal, and potential data center partnerships to turn storage facilities into power-generating assets, revealing a forward-thinking vision for the future of self-storage. Steven WearCurrent role: Chief Marketing Officer, SSSEBased in: Chicago, IllinoisSay hi to them at: https://ssse.com/ | LinkedIn Alternative Fund IV is closing soon and SMK is giving Best Ever listeners exclusive access to their Founders’ Shares, typically offered only to early investors. Visit smkcap.com/bec to learn more and download the full fund summary. Join us at Best Ever Conference 2026! Find more info at: https://www.besteverconference.com/  Join the Best Ever Community  The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria.  Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow. Apply now at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠⁠ Podcast production done by⁠ ⁠Outlier Audio⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Richard McGirr interviews Spencer Carpenter, Best Ever CRE’s guest booker and founder of Outlier Audio, to workshop networking strategy for the Best Ever Conference. They dig into how to define an ideal client profile, sell outcome-based podcast campaigns instead of one-off bookings, and qualify prospects quickly so Spencer only offers high-touch strategy sessions to the right fits. Spencer and Richard also explore building simple but effective lead magnets and email drips, using click tracking to prioritize follow-ups, and reframing conference networking as pipeline-building instead of aimless small talk. Along the way, they touch on how LPs and operators alike can show up to conferences with a clear thesis, buy box, and intentional follow-up plan. Spencer CarpenterCurrent role: Founder, Outlier Audio Based in: Oxford, Pennsylvania Say hi to them at: https://www.outlieraudio.com/ | https://www.linkedin.com/in/spencercarpenter/ | https://www.instagram.com/spencercarpenter/?hl=en Alternative Fund IV is closing soon and SMK is giving Best Ever listeners exclusive access to their Founders’ Shares, typically offered only to early investors. Visit smkcap.com/bec to learn more and download the full fund summary. Join us at Best Ever Conference 2026! Find more info at: https://www.besteverconference.com/ Join the Best Ever Community  The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria.  Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow. Apply now at ⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠ Podcast production done by ⁠Outlier Audio⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Richard McGirr interviews Ryan Floyd, a portfolio manager at Barca Capital, about why thoughtful, authentic investor relations is one of the most overlooked levers for raising and retaining capital. Ryan explains how most IR decks fail by avoiding honest discussion of what isn’t working, over-summarizing numbers in text, and underusing long-term, segment-level data that actually helps investors make decisions. He shares why investors crave more history, more segmentation, and better-designed charts in the spirit of Edward Tufte, rather than generic bullet points and boilerplate language. Richard and Ryan then connect these ideas back to private real estate and funds, showing how storytelling, regular calls, and transparent reporting build deeper investor trust and dramatically increase repeat investments. Ryan FloydCurrent role: Portfolio Manager, Barca Capital Based in: Greater Boston, MassachusettsSay hi to them at: https://www.barcacapital.com/ | LinkedIn Alternative Fund IV is closing soon and SMK is giving Best Ever listeners exclusive access to their Founders’ Shares, typically offered only to early investors. Visit smkcap.com/bec to learn more and download the full fund summary. Join us at Best Ever Conference 2026! Find more info at: https://www.besteverconference.com/  Join the Best Ever Community  The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria.  Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow. Apply now at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠⁠ Podcast production done by⁠ ⁠Outlier Audio⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Chang breaks down the Urban Land Institute and PwC 2026 Emerging Trends report and what it means for commercial real estate investors. He walks through ULI’s top ten markets to watch, including Dallas, Miami, Houston, Northern New Jersey, Tampa, and Phoenix, highlighting where overdevelopment, insurance costs, and local policy risks could pressure performance versus where solid job and demographic trends still support growth. John also explores why he favors sectors like seniors housing, medical office, workforce apartments, necessity-based neighborhood retail, and small bay industrial over buzzy data centers, especially given AI’s long runway and the heavy power demands of server facilities. He wraps up by explaining why today’s combination of compressed lending spreads, elevated cap rates, and a coming construction slowdown could set investors up for strong risk-adjusted returns over the next three to five years if they position carefully now. Alternative Fund IV is closing soon and SMK is giving Best Ever listeners exclusive access to their Founders’ Shares, typically offered only to early investors. Visit smkcap.com/bec to learn more and download the full fund summary. Join the Best Ever Community  The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria.  Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow. Apply now at ⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠ Podcast production done by ⁠Outlier Audio⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Casmon interviews Bronson Hill. Bronson shares how he walked away from a high-paying medical sales career to pursue time freedom, eventually raising over $50 million for multifamily, oil and gas, debt funds, and development deals. He and John dig into the core reasons investors should define their goals around cash flow, capital preservation, and tax benefits instead of blindly chasing returns, and how to properly vet operators and opportunities across different asset classes. Bronson also explains his “fire yourself” framework, the concept of wealth worthiness, and why mindset and service-driven capital raising are critical to building a diversified, resilient passive income portfolio. Bronson HillCurrent role: Founder and CEO, Bronson Equity Based in: Los Angeles, California Say hi to them at: https://bronsonequity.com/ | YouTube | LinkedIn Alternative Fund IV is closing soon and SMK is giving Best Ever listeners exclusive access to their Founders’ Shares, typically offered only to early investors. Visit smkcap.com/bec to learn more and download the full fund summary. Join the Best Ever Community  The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria.  Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow. Apply now at ⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠ Podcast production done by ⁠Outlier Audio⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matt Faircloth interviews Mark Kenney. Mark opens up about Think Multifamily’s rapid growth, the lending and partnership challenges that led to major losses, and the hard-won lessons that came out of it. He explains how rising interest rates, canceled tax programs, and lender aggressiveness created a perfect storm for multifamily operators, and why ignoring those red flags proved costly. Mark also discusses his personal low points, the importance of transparent communication with investors, and how he’s now rebuilding his business with a renewed focus on long-term stability, fixed-rate debt, and vertically integrated operations. Mark KenneyCurrent role: Co-Founder and CEO, Think MultifamilyBased in: Dallas, TexasSay hi to them at: https://thinkmultifamily.com/ | https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-kenney-566065142/ Alternative Fund IV is closing soon and SMK is giving Best Ever listeners exclusive access to their Founders’ Shares, typically offered only to early investors. Visit smkcap.com/bec to learn more and download the full fund summary. Join the Best Ever Community  The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria.  Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow. Apply now at ⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠ Podcast production done by ⁠Outlier Audio⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pascal Wagner interviews Michael Alberse. Michael walks through his journey from earning $161 a month in high-yield savings interest to building over $6,000 a month in passive income through a “Frankenstein” mix of cold storage, micro private equity, small business loans, covered-call ETFs, mobile home parks, multifamily, and private money lending. He shares both the 9x home-run exit from a cold storage deal and painful lessons from chasing yield in risky rideshare and cupcake business loans, highlighting why he now prioritizes experienced, obsessive operators and better downside protection. Michael also talks about using masterminds and education to level up his due diligence, hiring a CPA, capping his check size per deal, and keeping his Google job so active income can continue to fuel his passive income portfolio and long-term lifestyle freedom goals. Michael AlberseCurrent role: Google Cloud Account Executive and creator of Micro Investing Based in: Atlanta, Georgia. Say hi to them at: https://investingmicro.com/ | https://www.instagram.com/micro.investing/ | i Alternative Fund IV is closing soon and SMK is giving Best Ever listeners exclusive access to their Founders’ Shares, typically offered only to early investors. Visit smkcap.com/bec to learn more and download the full fund summary. Join the Best Ever Community  The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria.  Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow. Apply now at ⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠ Podcast production done by ⁠Outlier Audio⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amanda and Ash interview Charlie Kao. Charlie shares how growing up as “free labor” on his dad’s properties eventually led him back into commercial real estate, where he’s now best known for self-storage. He explains why he’s cautious on self-storage at a national level, how overbuilding and new alternatives are changing demand, and why he’s leaning into highly localized markets where he has an unfair advantage. Charlie also walks through innovative ways he’s turning basic storage into a true service business, from accepting and placing medical shipments to offering boat/RV add-ons, all while using feasibility studies and data-driven pricing to stay ahead of the competition. Charlie KaoCurrent role: Principal and Asset Manager, Twin Oaks CapitalBased in: Grand Rapids, Michigan Say hi to them at: https://www.twinoakscap.com/ | LinkedIn Alternative Fund IV is closing soon and SMK is giving Best Ever listeners exclusive access to their Founders’ Shares, typically offered only to early investors. Visit smkcap.com/bec to learn more and download the full fund summary. Join the Best Ever Community  The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria.  Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow. Apply now at ⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠ Podcast production done by ⁠Outlier Audio⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Richard McGirr kicks off a Capital Classroom solo session by translating big-name marketing frameworks from Russell Brunson and Alex Hormozi into practical strategies for capital raisers. He explains why LPs aren’t really buying deals, but certainty of outcomes, and how stacking proof can 2–3x your conversions by de-risking the downside and building what he calls a “trust bank account.” Richard breaks down Hormozi’s value equation and shows how debt funds, clear track records, and transparent reporting can dramatically increase the perceived likelihood of achievement for investors. He then walks through a concrete “proof sprint,” covering everything from monthly distribution tables and raw testimonials to live property tours, inspection reports, and third-party verification so your deal rooms and webinars become long-form proof engines instead of generic sales pitches. Alternative Fund IV is closing soon and SMK is giving Best Ever listeners exclusive access to their Founders’ Shares, typically offered only to early investors. Visit smkcap.com/bec to learn more and download the full fund summary. Join the Best Ever Community  The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria.  Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow. Apply now at ⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠ Podcast production done by ⁠Outlier Audio⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Richard McGirr interviews Julia Anderson. Julia shares her journey from running restaurant operations to launching Capital Catalyst, a fractional CMO firm helping real estate operators scale their marketing systems. She explains how effective CRM design, investor journey mapping, and consistent communication create trust that converts cold leads into long-term investors. Julia and Richard dive into practical strategies for marrying sales and marketing, building a white-glove investor experience, and knowing when your business is ready for paid ads or a full marketing department. Julia AndersonCurrent role: Founder of Capital Catalyst; Marketing Account Manager at Lightmark MediaBased in: Gilbert, ArizonaSay hi to them at: https://capitalcatalyst.com | https://lightmarkmedia.com Alternative Fund IV is closing soon and SMK is giving Best Ever listeners exclusive access to their Founders’ Shares, typically offered only to early investors. Visit smkcap.com/bec to learn more and download the full fund summary. Join the Best Ever Community  The Best Ever Community is live and growing - and we want serious commercial real estate investors like you inside. It’s free to join, but you must apply and meet the criteria.  Connect with top operators, LPs, GPs, and more, get real insights, and be part of a curated network built to help you grow. Apply now at ⁠www.bestevercommunity.com⁠ Podcast production done by ⁠Outlier Audio⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices