Podcasts about providence equity

On this episode of the SeventySix Capital Sports Leadership Show, Wayne Kimmel interviewed the Chairman of MGM, Paul Salem. Salem serves as Chairman of the Board of MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM), the global hospitality and entertainment company, and was formerly Chairman of MGM Growth Properties (NYSE: MGP) and is the Founder of Salem Capital Management and The Salem Foundation.Previously, Salem spent 27 years helping build and lead Providence Equity Partners, a global private equity firm specializing in the media, communication, and technology industries. Salem was a Senior Managing Director on Providence Equity's investment team and served as a member of the investment committee and management committees, helping grow the firm to over $50 billion of assets under management. In 1999, Salem established the London office for Providence Equity and in 2008 launched Providence Equity's credit affiliate, Benefit Street Partners. In 2014, Salem led the purchase of Merganser, a Providence Equity affiliate, and in 2017, formed Providence Public, a long/short hedge fund.Salem served as chairman or director for many of Providence Equity's portfolio companies, including Asurion, Eircom, Grupo TorreSur, Madison River Telecom, MetroNet (formerly AT&T Canada), PanAmSat, Tele1 Europe, Verio, and Wired Magazine.Salem is involved in the leadership of several non-profit organizations, including serving as Chairman at Woods Hole Oceanagraphic Institute, board member of Edesia Global Nutrition, and advisory board member of the Carney Institute for Brain Science at Brown University. He formerly served as Chairman of Year Up. He earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.A. from Brown University.Paul Salem:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-salem-42a807191/

Shield your mind from EMF's with the Ronin 10foil Baseball Hat— https://roninbasics.com/product/10foil-faraday-baseball-hat/ ----more---- In The Adams Archive, we go beyond the surface to uncover the real stories shaping our world. Each episode dissects current events, political maneuvers, and hidden agendas, forcing you to see the world from a new perspective. Here's what we dive into: Key Themes: Media Manipulation & MrBeast's Silence: What's really happening behind the scenes of YouTube's biggest star, MrBeast? We discuss his 30-day silence following the revelation that his trans co-host was allegedly involved in child grooming, and we investigate the mysterious sources of his immense wealth. Are powerful backers influencing the content and messages pushed on his platform? Political Power Plays: RFK Jr. Endorses Trump & the JFK Files: Explore the unexpected alliance between RFK Jr. and Donald Trump, including Trump's promise to release the remaining JFK assassination files. We dive into the implications of this endorsement and why RFK Jr. suspended his campaign in key states to avoid splitting the vote. Censorship & the Arrest of Telegram's Founder: Why was Telegram's founder, Pavel Durov, arrested in France, and what does it mean for freedom of speech? We break down the charges against him, including the alleged complicity in criminal activities due to Telegram's refusal to censor its platform. The Propaganda of Kamala's Amazon Hat Trick: How did Kamala Harris's campaign manage to dominate Amazon's “Top New Release” list with barely any sales or reviews? We reveal the manipulation behind these numbers and discuss what it says about the state of political marketing and propaganda in the digital age. Dystopian Realities: North Korea's Utopia Conspiracy & the Defection of a U.S. Soldier: Could North Korea be hiding a secret utopia? We examine theories suggesting that the isolated nation is sitting on untapped trillions and advanced technologies, contrasting them with the bizarre defection of a U.S. soldier who fled there claiming racial discrimination in the U.S. Army.   Join the conversation that challenges everything you think you know. Subscribe to The Adams Archive on your favorite podcast platform, and follow us on YouTube, Substack, and social media for more in-depth content. Your support makes a difference—thank you for being part of our journey. All the Links: For direct access to all our content and platforms, visit linktr.ee/theaustinjadams. ----more---- Full Transcription  The Adams Archive.  Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to The Adams Archive. My name is Austin Adams, and thank you so much for listening today. On today's episode, we're going to be doing not one, but two deep dives, starting off the episode by looking at the most recent news about Mr. Beast. Now, it has officially been one month, and  For since Mr. Beast has come out and stated publicly that he knew that the transsexual  person that was working for him was allegedly grooming children.  Now it's been 30 days. So we want to see what he's up to. And I will tell you what he's been up to. And that will lead us into a further discussion about where this man even gets his money from.  So that's how we're going to start the show off. Once we move through that topic, we're going to discuss about how the CEO of Telegram, the founder of Pavel, has been arrested in France. And now the official charges are out. So we will take a look at that. Some of the things that people have said surrounding that situation and more. We'll also take a look at the RFK Jr. endorsement, some of the situations that have come of that, including him losing his secret service detail as a result.  Then we will transition into some of the propaganda. And, uh, we've seen around the Kamala Harris, Tim walls campaign that has now found its way to Amazon hats.  You might be curious and I was too. So we'll talk about that too. Then we will finalize our discussion here today with a U S soldier who fled to North Korea, defected to North Korea, who is a part of the U S army because he said, quote unquote, the way that they treated minorities. And that  will lead us into a very, very untouchable topic, which is the idea of North Korea being a utopia. We've seen all this propaganda, we've seen all of the conversations that the government has told us to believe about North Korea, all of the silly videos that have come out as a result from their leader, Kim Jong Un. But I have some questions. So we will talk about the Somewhat compelling, somewhat,  I don't know what to call it. I wouldn't say it's satirical, but I would say it's an interesting thought experiment. Uh, so we will talk about the possibility that North Korea is a utopia because apparently  according to many resources, or according to many, uh, online resources, they are sitting on trillions of dollars,  trillions of dollars of resources themselves.  So all of that and more, but first, I need you to do one thing for me, which is I need you to subscribe, leave a five star review wherever you're at, you can actually watch this podcast on YouTube, if you would like, and you can subscribe there too. Once you do that, I want you to head over to Ronan basics. com. Ronan is my company. That is a Faraday goods company. And we offer things like phone sleeves that protect your digital footprint, eliminate your digital footprint hats that block EMF radiation from being able to reach your brain  in more. So head over to Ronan basics. com. Go check it out. Protect yourselves from the harmful. Technology that is surrounding us all of the time that the government is trying to hide from you. And I don't say that like,  I'm not trying to be a alarmist in that. It's very, very real. I've been doing a lot of research on this. I did a 5g episode. Um, I've done a lot of research on EMFs more recently since I launched the company and even before it's the reason I launched my company was because there was so many, article so many people talking about it and so many scientific studies with have proven that there are serious harmful side effects to the technology that you have that you're listening to this on that you could be even driving at this moment, your Wi Fi router, the 5g nodes that you see literally in toxifying  your visual Space all the time when you're driving, I see all of these 5g towers, and it's the ugliest thing in the world. But that's not the worst of it. The worst of it is that it can cause terrible things like cancer, insomnia, heart palpitations, heart issues, so many, so many things, a literal laundry list,  laundry list of health effects, and the ways that it can harm you and your loved ones. So head over to Ronan basics. com. Check it out, get yourself our 10 foil Faraday hat looks beautiful, and And you'll protect yourself from EMF radiation. It has silver lined fabric, which does that for you. Uh, so go check it out. Ronanbasics. com sign up for our newsletter there. You'll get 10 percent off. And if you leave your phone number, you'll get 15 percent off. And I promise I won't text you personally, at least late at night. And you will actually get a 15 percent off coupon just for adding your number. So all of that more stick around in without further ado, let's get started. Jump into it.  It has officially been 30 days since Mr. Beast came out and said that he had become aware of serious allegations surrounding his co host, Chris, the transsexual who was grooming children.  Now, if you're curious what Mr. Beast has been up to in those 30 days, Let's take a look and see what he has been doing. Now, here is the tweet from MrBeast, which says, 29 days ago,  well, the 24th, so coming up on, uh, 31 days. He said, Over the last few days, I've become aware of serious allegations of Ava Tysons, not Chris Ava. That's the name.  I think it was Chris before, now it's Ava. Um,  Ava Tyson's behavior online, and I'm disgusted and opposed to such unacceptable acts. I would hope so. You're talking about children here. During that time, I have been focused on hiring an independent third party to conduct a thorough investigation to ensure I have all the facts. That said, I've seen enough online and taken immediate action to remove Ava from the company, my channel, and any association with Mr. Beast. I do not condone or support any of the inappropriate actions. I will allow the independent investigators the necessary time to conduct a  comprehensive investigation and will take further actions based on their findings. This was seen by a hundred and six million people.  Now I have one question as a result of that.  Where's the thorough investigation? Where's the thorough investigation, Mr. Beast? We should be able to know that you weren't hiding this from the general public while also  getting hundreds of millions of views and money. From all of these online sources, including the time that our children, the time that adults have been spending watching your videos while you have been at least passively aware. Of what this man was doing to these children.  So where's the investigation, Mr. Beast? We want to know.  Also, let's take a look at what you've been up to for these 30 days since this post, because you haven't posted a thing on Twitter. You haven't updated us at all  in regards to the information surrounding this allegation for the person that you hired and kept around and, and brought a focus around. Right. And so when you think that there's these huge, literally  the most publicly known.  Transsexual,  besides Caitlyn Jenner,  is Mr. B's co host, Ava, or Chris, whatever his name is, right? The most well known, the most in the public eye, the most seen,  was Mr. B's co host. And so when you have something that's so in the public sphere, when you have something that's being pushed by the government, and by the, the, the social, uh, Being that is the grossness of our society's, you know, who, who controls our society.  We're not going to get into that today. Sorry, guys, but you might know what I'm talking about when you get into the idea of where these social constructs come from and how they're being publicly pushed with funneled with hundreds of billions of dollars to push these ideologies to crumble our society from inside.  Once you realize that, and then you look at the people who.  Who are engaged in this at the most visual level. This is the one. This is the one. This is the one your kids know about. This is the one who hundreds of millions of children watched Mr. Beast condone this transsexual being pushed in front of them, wearing makeup, putting on women's clothes, and then passing himself off as a woman when really all he was was a pedophile, weirdo.  That's the reality, right? So when you realize that, and then you look at him, not updating us, not making a single statement, not saying a thing about this for 30 full days.  Well, he had to been up to something, right? He had to have some, some serious investigations going on on his side, at least I would hope so. So let's take a look at his YouTube channel and see in the last 30 days that Mr. Beast has been silent about the transsexual that was a part of his team for years. Years, years and years and years.  What has he been up to? Well,  let's go ahead and take a look  in the last 30 days.  Here are Mr. Beast's post.  Well,  he had 50 YouTubers fight for 100 million.  I've gathered 50 of the biggest YouTubers on the planet. And whichever one lasts the longest in this cube wins that million dollars for their subscribers.  Never before seen in YouTube history. One billion subscribers worth of YouTubers are competing for one million dollars. And the rules are simple. All right, put the camera down. Close the line.  Okay.  So, if you step on the red line, you lose your subscribers a million dollars. So be careful. Last to leave Okay, so there's one thing he was doing, which was challenging a bunch of YouTubers for a million dollars to stay in a box.  That's what was more interesting than him investigating his team. Let's see number two. I just built this bunker and these two people who have never met each other are going to attempt to live down here for the next 100 days. Take your blindfolds off. Hugo, this is Rayne. Rayne, this is Hugo. This is our first time ever meeting, and this is the nuclear bunker. They will call home. Everything you would need to live for the next 100 days is in this bunker. Dang. You can even grow your own vegetables. Oh, cool. And if you come over here, you'll find your bedroom all 40 feet underground. Wait, what? Oh my God. Above you is a bed. Nice. And here's another bed and moose. Okay. There's another thing. He's been up to blocking two people in a pseudo bunker, 40 feet under the ground for another. 500, 000. So there's 1. 5 million this man is giving away. He has to be rich from what?  We'll look in a minute.  And what else has he been up to? Well,  during the time that he should have been investigating  this pedophile on his team, he also  I don't normally do intros like this, but I'm currently descending hundreds of feet into a cave that runs over five kilometers deep into the earth.  And whether we like it or not, as soon as my friends and I touched the ground,  we are officially stranded here for the next seven days.  That might've been the scariest thing I've ever done. First things.  All right. So  There you have it. That's what he's been up to. Instead of truly investigating, maybe, I don't know, contemplating, soul searching as to why he held this pedophile so close to him for so long and had no idea. No idea at all.  Or did he? Because many people allege that he was aware of these actions.  And now, I'm not somebody who's trying to hate on Mr. Beast. I think he's trying to His videos are phenomenal. I think that the work that he's been able to do and build his, his following is amazing,  but I have some questions.  What else are you been up to? Well, these things don't seem to be as important as gaining back the loyalty from the parents who let their children watch you or the parents themselves who watch this guy's seen by everybody. He's not just seen by children, right? This is that, but a big, vast. large percentage of his audience happens to be children who he enabled this trans person to be around constantly gave them the platform that gave them the power over these children  made this person a celebrity all while this pedophile was pretending to be a woman validated that to his audience  and then acts so surprised when that person actually ends up being a pedophile  Hmm.  That's weird.  Very weird.  So where does this man get his money? He gave away 1. 5 million. 1. 5 million in just two weeks there, according to those two videos.  Interesting.  So let's look here.  Now, somebody alleges this was one year ago. YouTuber MrBeast is funded by people with deep pockets.  Who could those people be?  Because he's definitely not making all of his money from YouTube. You don't spend that much money producing a video and then give away that much money and with 30 million views on YouTube, 40 million, 50 million, 90 million.  Make it all back every single time. Like he's definitely losing money on a lot of this. So here we go. So did you know that Osman Gold and Mr. Beast along belong to the same talent agency and that they are both directly connected to Disney and Amazon?  Today, I learned that a company named Knight Media literally manages basically every single Zoomer E celebrity, including Hasan Piker, Nikolulu, Dream, and these guys. If you ever look at the YouTube trending tab, at least one of Knight's talents will be up there. Knight Media is a subsidiary of Knight Inc. Itself is valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars from venture capitalists and angel investors.  Who owns Knight? Well, the CEO of Knight Media is Reid Dusher. who formerly worked for the NFL and then went to be the Dude Perfect's manager. The president of the night is Ezra Cooperstein, who is previously the president of Fullscreen and Rooster Teeth, as well as Maker Studios, which is now part of Disney Digital Network.  Ironically, neither of these guys are the real talent managers, as that position is for their 90 employees, including Andrew Pelosi, a former higher up at Influential. What is Influential? Influential is an AI, social data, and conversion technology. As well as a developer partner of IBM Watson and a Facebook marketing partner. Utilizing a network of over 1 million social media influencers as a tactic for distribution, Influential runs both native and paid campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and YouTube for Fortune 500 brands. Influential is owned by Jeremy Steinberg.  Night Inc. is directly financed by the Sherman Group, aka TCG, one of its executive members being Alexandra Moore, a former executive from Amazon who focused on mergers and acquisitions. However, TCG itself is financed by Providence Equity, an ECG compliance private equity investment firm valued over 300  billion.  All this information is freely available. I literally just ran names off of LinkedIn and read business articles.  Hmm.  So.  One of them, Felipe Neto, is now the most powerful man in Brazil. He profited off of every single political trend over the bizarre last decade. He's the architect of YouTube content system. His business has gone so deep into Portugal that some kids are speaking Brazilian Portuguese.  Hmm.  Somebody else said, dead internet. Right? Have you ever heard of the dead internet theory? Basically, that everybody and anybody that you interact with on the internet is fake. And that the internet essentially turned into a strip mall from the world itself, where you only have several small choices as to where to go at any given time, essentially. Very interesting theory.  Uh, let's see. What else we got in here. So, the people who fund this are essentially worth over 300, 000.  It's not this like boots from the ground, you know, bootstrapping YouTube channel. This guy is backed by huge money. He's not just taking all of his money and funneling it back into there from ad campaigns being ran on his YouTube channel. There is very, very powerful people behind Mr. Beast. It's not this, you know,  from the ground up type of thing.   So all of that to say, that you should at least be  considering the idea that maybe this man isn't as organic as he seems. Maybe you should be considering the idea that some of the themes that he's going to promote in his videos aren't themes that he wants to promote personally. Even some of the people that he puts on his team,  a la Ava, may not be there because it's what's in the best interest for your children, for you, for society to have involved. And, at the end of the day, this man has done nothing to come out and say, here's what the investigators have found. Nothing.  And that's what,  I guess we'll have to wait and see. Is he hoping, is he, what it looks like to me is that he's playing the PR game where they just tell you, shut up and it'll go away.  Well, shut up and it will go away may work for many things. I don't think it exactly works for you promoting a pedophile to hundreds of millions of people during a, as a Trojan horse  through the trans movement. And by movement, I mean the trans mind virus.  That is permeating our culture right now.  And isn't it funny that almost every single time you see these people in the public eye, they eventually are on Fox news for being arrested for something.  Interesting.  Interesting.  All right. Now that leads us to another topic, kind of in the public sphere as of late, although this one seems to be a little bit more about censorship, which is that the official charges have been released  against the telegram founder, Pavel Durov. during his arrest in France. And here they,  Durov is facing up to 20 years in prison.  Now here are the charges. And almost every single one of these has the word complicity.  What they're trying to essentially state is that by not censoring people,  that he is in, that he is in violation of their country's laws. By not censoring them. Okay. Complicity Web Mastering an online platform enable to enable an illegal transaction, an organized group refusal to communicate at the request of competent authorities.  Okay. Competent is an interesting word there for them. Complicity, possessing pornographic images of minors, complicity, distributing, offering, or making available pornographic images of miners.  Complicity. Acquiring, transporting, or possessing, offering, or selling narcotic substances. So they're basically saying anything and everything that's been done illegal on our platform, on your platform, unless you comply with us, we're going to come after you for everything anybody's ever done on the platform because you didn't listen to us and you didn't censor these people.  That's what they're saying. Complicity, organized fraud. Complicity, making selling or making available without legitimate reason, tools, programs, or data designed for or adapted to get access to or damage the operation of automated data processing systems. Wow. That's a stretch. Criminal association with a view. To committing a crime or an offense punishable by five more years of imprisonment, laundering of the proceeds  derived from organized groups, offenses, or crimes, providing cryptology services amid to ensure confidentiality without certified declaration, providing a cryptology tool, not solely ensuring authentication or integrity monitoring without prior declaration, importing a cryptology tool, ensuring authenticity or integrating monitoring without prior  declaration.  Wow.  So,  Now somebody warned, I believe it was somebody that was, uh, had spoken out against  Trump before. I don't know, that was just the headline that I read. But essentially they were warning that, oh well, Elon Musk, you might be next. And that's like, if this holds up in court, on the court of law, in this country, yeah.  If they're just gonna come after you for anything and everything anybody's ever done on your platform unless you comply with their censorship,  Then yes, absolutely. They're going to go after Elon. They should go after Mark Zuckerberg. They're going to go after literally everybody and anybody who hosts any large website or platform.  That's the reality of this. But guess what? It's only going to be applied specifically to people who they don't like or who don't do exactly what they want. And the second that you step out of line, we're going to jail you for it. Not for something that you did, but for something that you Allowed to happen within your platform,  right? Like you're supposed to be able to watch hundreds of millions of people's actions and  do something about every single one of them all of the time.  Crazy.  Somebody said, Same can be said about any messaging platform ever, including the postal service. That's a great point, right? So if this guy has to go to jail, so does everybody involved in the USPS  offices. Great point.  All of it could be true. Some of it could be true. None of it could be true. None of that matters when you have the machine against you.  Now this guy's going to jail before literally anybody is going to jail for Epstein's List.  Isn't that interesting?  Now, transitioning over to Trump and RFK Jr. Now, Trump, uh, RFK Jr. suspended his campaign in the states that he said, um, would affect the potentially affect the outcome in a negative way towards Trump.  So he essentially said, I'm going to suspend my, my campaign in these states. Now, the reason that he did that  was actually quite interesting because he said, there's still a chance  that he could potentially, if Kamala, And Donald Trump essentially tie in electoral votes that it could come down to a potential, uh,  a runoff race, right? Where he could actually, if he remains on the ballot, could still have a chance to become president. So he said, I'm going to pull out of every state that  would potentially negatively affect Trump. As a result, he's hoping  that he could find himself in a position in office under Trump.  Now, during this time,  Trump accepted RFK Jr. 's endorsement and he vowed, Trump vowed to release the JFK assassination files.  Now, it says,  Hours after being endorsed by third party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump said he would release all of the remaining documents pertaining to the assassination of John F. Kennedy if he were elected president in November, as part of a proposed new commission on presidential assassination attempts, including The one that targeted him. Now, if you recall, it may have been my last podcast or potentially the one before it,  but I said this, he would be crazy not to release these documents. They literally, the same people that killed Bobby Kennedy, that killed John F. Kennedy, all of them are likely involved. At least the agencies, because some of those people are going to be dead at this point,  are very likely involved in Donald Trump's assassination.  It says, speaking at a rally in Glendale. Arizona, Trump also pledged that if elected, he would establish a panel of top experts that would work with Kennedy, a prominent anti vaccine advocate, this says, to investigate childhood health problems,  as they should.  Now, when you go back and you listen to RFK's speech that he did, pulling out of it, I think Robert F. Kennedy's speech was one of the greatest speeches in history. Ever in politics by any politician ever. And honestly, if you've been listening to me for quite some time, you know, that I have considered for a very long time voting for Robert F. Kennedy jr. And this speech solidified why I felt that way.  Everything that is wrong with politics is embodied in one way or another in each of the candidates that are left. And one being completely corrupt, terribly unequipped  to take office, absolutely a puppet for the establishment, and the other being pretty divisive. Now again, I voted for Donald Trump. I'll vote for Donald Trump again. I voted for him the last two elections. Now that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is out of the way.  But I just want you to go listen to To RFK jr speech and not understand like there's no way you don't understand why he's a compelling candidate that man is the only man not wearing a mask in some way shape or form and maybe  trump isn't wearing a mask maybe it's just has a mask on all the time and that's what he was just he's born a character and i think that's probably more the case than anything but i do think that rfk jr has the perfect  the only person that had the ability to potentially unite our nation. He had a ton of popularity among Republicans. He had a ton of popularity among Democrats, like true Democrats, not the far left that we see in today's politics.  His speech was amazing. It was unbelievable. 80 percent of it was about corruption in the health, that we need to the health issues we need to address in our country today. And he had tears running from his eyes by the end of it, because he's truly a good person. And he truly understands the weight of what this election will bring. And  it would be terribly sad to see another eight years go by without RFK. holding some very, very prominent position in office because he is one of the only real politicians that we've come across in the last 30 years.  So this goes on to say that Kennedy, the scion of one of the most country's famous democratic political dynasties, got a roar of approval from Republicans when he joined Trump on stage at the Republican campaign rally in Glendale. Bobby, Bobby, the crowd chanted. Kennedy had announced earlier that he's suspending his campaign. Da, la, la, la, la. Now, the hope would be that Kennedy would be put in charge of, here's my hope, I hope Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gets put in charge of the CIA, because that would be the ultimate hope. Fuck you, from his family, back to the people that planned his assassination.  That would be absolute justice, and I hope he would clean it up, or obliterate it, shatter it into the wind into a thousand pieces, like his uncle said that they should.  Now, more realistically, he could find himself a part of the,  um, the health administrations, including the, overseeing the WHO, the NIH, well not the WHO, but the NIH, um, and all of the, uh, Uh, the FCC,  uh, overseeing children's food in school systems, uh, being able to ban the dyes that are permeating all of our food, see the oils that he talks about constantly, like this man is the epitome, he's 70 years old, and he's jacked, super healthy guy, is outside all the time,  he would be amazing in that position, and he truly, truly cares. Which is all you can ask for in today's modern political environment.  Just don't be fake. Don't be fake. Don't be corrupt. Don't be  evil. Like I think these are pretty basic things, but it's very, very hard to come by  in today's modern political environment.  Name three people that you can think of that are like true.  Now, one of those other people that come to mind  would be Tulsi Gabbard. Another Democrat that I would have considered a great pick for VP. Um, I think a lot of Republicans tend to agree with that statement.  But Tulsi Gabbard would be a phenomenal pick for VP. I really wish he would have picked her over Vance. I don't have any affinity for Vance, I don't have any malice either, but I just, I don't see him as a very excitable character to the general public. I think Tulsi would have been a huge, huge win for Trump's campaign.  Uh, but anyways, Tulsi Gabbard has now come out and endorsed Donald Trump. So the two most likeable, most Politicians in the Democratic Party are now backing Donald Trump. And I think those are the two biggest people that he could have got to back him. Like what's next, Bernie Sanders? Like that's about all that's left to endorse Trump for him to completely, uh, obliterate the Democratic Party.  Now, one thing that came out of this is that the Biden Harris administration had revoked the secret service protection of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. So immediately following RFK endorsing Trump,  Biden and Harris pulled RFK's  Secret Service.  Detail that was protecting him from the multiple assassination attempts that have happened on his life over the last  few months, you know, like weeks after actually giving it to him. Um, now to be fair, even though Biden pulled his security detail,  I think at this point, if I had the money, I would probably buy my own security detail. If I was Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Because after the horrible comedy that was watching Donald Trump almost get assassinated under the protection of the secret service. Maybe that's not the bodyguard that you truly want if people are actually trying to kill you.  So there's that. Now here's Tulsi Gabbard endorsing Donald Trump. Go ahead and pull that up for you.  Uh, this comes from the post millennial. Uh, it says on Monday, speaking at the National Guard Association alongside 2024 GOP presidential candidate, Donald Trump, former democratic house Republican or house representative Tulsi Gabbard announced her endorsement of Trump. Now this makes it even better. The fact that Tulsi Gabbard. Endorsed. Donald Trump is so much sweeter when you understand that she was the one who completely obliterated, just destroyed Kamala Harris on stage to where you never saw her again after Tulsi Gabbard went after her in the debates,  and here it is. Let's watch it.  So, I mean, what I say when I share with you that I know that President Trump understands the grave responsibility that a president and commander in Chief Bears for every single one of our lives. Whether you're a soldier, you're an airman, a marine, sailor, or a coastie, he keeps us in his heart in the decisions that he makes.  We saw this through his first term in the presidency,  when he not only didn't start any new wars, he took action to de escalate and prevent wars. He exercised the courage that we expect from our Commander in Chief. In exhausting all measures of diplomacy,  having the courage to meet with adversaries, dictators, allies, and partners alike in the pursuit of peace, seeing war as a last resort.  The truth is, as we head towards our decision as a country in November, the same cannot be said about Kamala Harris.  In fact, the opposite is true. And we're living through this reality today as.  This administration has us facing multiple wars on multiple fronts and regions around the world, and closer to the brink of nuclear war than we ever have been before.  This is one of the main reasons why I'm committed to doing all that I can to send President Trump back to the White House where he can once again serve us as our commander in chief.  And there you go. Tulsi Gabbard has endorsed Donald,  uh, said, uh, go ahead and just read a purse short part of this here. Um,  this is personal for me. She said recounting her experiences in Iraq in 2005 with the Hawaii army national guard and how there was a sadness as we boarded the plane when we left. That we were leaving some of our brothers and sisters behind only to lose others. When we got home to suicide,  uh, she said, I am proud to stand here before you today, whether you're a Democrat, Republican, or an independent, if you love your country, as I do, if you cherish peace and freedom as we do, I invite you to join me in doing all that we can to save our country and elect. Donald Trump.  There you go.  So  two people that I actually think hold weight with their audience.  Tulsi Gabbard.  Uh,  And I think to me, she's probably one of the only, like, it's funny that the two Democrats that I would actually consider voting for that I actually think has any real personality to them that is actually speaking from their heart and is actually being a, a real true American  just so happen to be the people that endorse Trump.  Now, I don't think that's any coincidence because everybody else is just paid off or disingenuous or there for a power grab or whatever it is.  So let's move on.  Now,  you,  I don't even know how to start this because it's so ridiculous to me.  Do you know what's listed as the number like 43 top sold hat on Amazon?  You want to talk about propaganda when it comes to Kamala Harris, like they've made her this absolute star. Now this just shows exactly how ridiculous the propaganda is and how fake.  This shows exactly how fake Kamala Harris's entire popularity is. Go to Amazon right now.  Look at the top 100 hats  that have been sold in the last month.  And it doesn't have to be what's been sold, obviously, as you'll see here in just a second. But when you look at the top 100 hats sold on Amazon right now, one of them that comes up is this hat right here.  Here you go.  Now, if you can't see my screen right now, it's a Harris Walls 2024 hat.  Now this is listed as the number one new release hat on Amazon,  which is funny because there's only one rating on this hat, one five star review on this hat, and it's the number one new released men's baseball hat.  One star, huh?  That's weird. Almost as fake as the people that were on the tarmac when Kamala Harris got out of her airplane.  Now you want to know why this is interesting is because somebody else I know so happens to have a newly released  hat on Amazon.  If you go to number one released  on men's baseball hats, you will see. That the number one hat is Harris. Well, this is the entire  number one released. Amazon hot new releases of baseball hats. Number one, Kamala Harris walls. Number two, Kamala. Number four, Kamala. Number five, Kamala. Number six, Kamala. Number seven, eight, nine,  ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen,  sixteen,  nineteen, twenty,  twenty one, twenty two, twenty three, twenty four.  You're telling me,  on Amazon,  out of the top 22 hats released in the last month, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 18  of the top 22 hats on Amazon in the new releases are all about Kamala Harris?  Especially when you see that of those 18 hats that are in the top releases of hats, there's a total combined  eight stars that have been,  that have been given to these hats. Eight total purchases verified on Amazon for the top 18 of 22 hats on Amazon. 18 out of the top 22 hats on Amazon right now of the new releases are Kamala Harris, and they have a total combined purchased of. Eight total purchases.  Now you want to know why I know that's bullshit? Because guess what? I own a hat company called Ronin that just released on the same timeframe as these and my hats have more reviews and more purchases than every single one of these hats. Every single one of them. My hats aren't listed on this top 100 list, but guess what? 35  different variations of Kamala Harris on the hat. Are the top new releases for men's baseball hats.  That's interesting to me.  Hilarious actually. And what's even funnier is that the number three,  you know, of the top 10 on here,  nine of them are for Kamala Harris, but the one that's make America great again for Donald Trump has 28 reviews while the Kamala Harris ones have a combined.  Like 11, 10 reviews. So the number three has 28 times more reviews than any of the other ones.  But it's number three compared to number one is Harris Walls.  Especially when you see that the Harris Walls hats are like camouflage. Like, I'm sorry, nobody's buying a camo Harris Walls hat.  Nobody.  Hilarious.  So.  If you want to buy a real hat and support a real company with real values,  you can actually go to Amazon right now and you can look at it on your screen. If you're here on, uh, on YouTube with us, and here is my hat. You can look up Ronan Faraday hat. It will be the number one thing that comes up. It's a black hat that is a silver lined fabric, EMF blocking  Now it's also just so happens to be the best looking hat on Amazon right now as well. But my hat has more stars than the number 1, number 2, number 4, number 5, number 6, number 7, number 8. More purchases, guaranteed,  than all of those Harris Kamala hats.  Uh, Kamala Harris hats that are on Amazon right now. But for some reason, we don't show up on that list. Now that's interesting,  very interesting.  So if you want to protect yourself from EMFs, you want to give the middle finger to Kamala Harris and the propaganda arm that is Amazon trying to push this type of merchandise onto the general public. Like they're not only doing it with Amazon. AI generated photos. They're not only propping up Kamala Harris by putting Beyonce songs and Taylor Swift behind her and all of these fake propaganda videos where you see her in in what looks like packed arenas that are there for her with all these signs. No, they're there for the entertainment that they paid tens.  millions of dollars to even show up there because they know that's the only way anybody's going to show up to their campaign.  So if you're sick of the tomfoolery and you want to support a real brand go to amazon right now  and buy one of my hats. Ronin, Faraday hats on amazon. And while you're there leave a review so you can let them know too That we have way more people buying our stuff than Kamala Harris does.  Alright, anyways, let's move on.  But, let me tell you how infuriating that is.  It is infuriating if you know how much time, how much energy, how much effort has gone into me launching my hat company and then realizing  all I needed to do was make a Kamala hat. And everybody would flock to buy it, but nobody would review it. And it would also be in the number one new released hats. All I had to do is put, maybe I should, should I put Kamala's name on my Ronin hats, just so that Amazon would put it to the top of the new releases.  Do you think it would work? Maybe, maybe I will  just kidding. I would definitely not do that. I promise. I would never do that.  All right.  Last topic of the day,  uh, is the fact that there was a U S soldier,  uh,  Here it is. U. S. soldier, a United States soldier fled to North Korea,  fled to North Korea, and will plead guilty to desertion and other criminal charges.  Now, the reason that he fled to North Korea will shock you.  If you know anything about North Korea,  it will rattle you.  Now, here we go. Here's the first article. I believe this one came out. Well, let's, let's, let's start from the beginning. Let's start from the beginning, August 17th,  uh, August 15th, sorry, Pentagon disputes Pyongyang's acclaim. So, so North Korea claims that this U. S. soldier fled to them  because he sought refuge in North Korea from the United States. Now, that's really interesting when you understand that all the people, all of the people, Who are defectors of North Korea, say that it's the worst place possible.  Now, number one, how did this guy get into North Korea? Because the border is supposed to be like, shoot on sight, essentially. Number two, why would he think that that's a safer place than, I don't know, the United States of America?  Interesting.  Let's go ahead and read this article. Says the Pentagon cannot verify claims by North Korea  that U. S. soldier Travis T. King willingly sought refuge in the North to escape racial discrimination in the U. S. Army.  So this kid fled the army, this soldier fled the army to North Korea because of discrimination. That's how soft our military members are today. That's how soft they are. They think that they're being discriminated against in the military, which, by the way, really doesn't happen. When you're in the military,  I'm a veteran, when you're in the military, literally nobody acknowledges color. Like, nobody.  That you're all in it together when you're in boot camp, when you're in tech school, when you're deployed, when you're on base together, when you're all hanging out, it is a big, huge, like melting pot of people is the least discriminatory culture that you'll ever find in your entire life. Like everybody's just. It's a brotherhood. Nobody cares what color you are. Nobody cares where you came from, what ethnicity you are, what your, your history is, is, growing up, where, like, nobody cares about any of that stuff. You're there for a mission, and you do that mission. That's all you care about.  So, the Pentagon says it cannot verify claims by North Korea that the U. S. soldier Travis T. King willingly sought refuge in North Korea to escape North Korea. Racial discrimination in the U. S. Army, a senior defensive, by the way, there's probably a big list of places that if you were actually trying to flee the U. S. Army from discrimination, Yeah, probably not going to North Korea. Like, there's a lot of places that I would go first before I fled to North Korea. Unless, this man knows something that we don't know, which brings us to our next topic of North Korea as a utopia. Which we will get to in a minute. Um, King dashed into the North while on a civilian tour of the Joint Security Area on the heavily fortified border between North Koreas. Or to the Koreas, US officials have said they believe King crossed the border intentionally in the first public acknowledgement of the incident. North Korea State media reported Wednesday that Kings confessed to crossing in the North Korea because of inhumane maltreatment and racial discrimination within the US Army. Now there's a lot of dumb guys in the army.  . I was in the Air Force, so I can say that  there's a lot of dumb guys in the army. That's the running joke, at least. But you have to be the dumbest guy in the army if you flee to North Korea because of racial discrimination. Like,  I'm sorry, you're literally the only black person in this entire country.  You're probably going to get way more discriminated against than the military, which is like 40%, 30 percent black.  It says, North Korea investigators have also now concluded that King crossed deliberately and illegally with the intent to stay in North Korea or in a third country state news agency. K C N A set. During the investigation, Travis King confessed that he had decided to come over as he harbored ill feelings against his inhumane maltreatment and racial discrimination within the U. S. Army. And by the way, if you feel that way in the Army, like,  you're going to the legal council. Like, there's so many ways that you can bring that to your, you can go talk to your first shirt. You can, there's, there's so many channels for you to, like, I understand if you're at a, uh, you  Small company and you don't like the HR isn't existent and it's a mom and pop shop and you're like, fuck you guys I'm leaving and you run across the street to a you know, a different company to file an application But like you're in the military that the the  HR in the military is like the worst to deal with ever like you're gonna You're gonna get fired Get places every single person will get written up so quick, especially in today's modern social media.  Uh, he also expressed his willingness to seek refuge in DPRK or a third country saying that he was disillusioned as at the unequal American society.  The senior defense official who spoke with Fox News said North Korea has not communicated anything about Private King to U. N. command and anyone in the U. S. military. The official said there is no reason to trust what North Korea's state media is reporting. The reclusive communist regime, which frequently issues, uh, bellicose threats against the United States, South Korea, and Japan exerts total control over its media. Okay. So there's the first article. The second article.  This one came, uh, Just two days ago says that the mother of Travis King says he has so many reasons to come home from North Korea  The mother of the American soldier Travis King who spent more than a month inside North Korea says he has so many reasons to come home  Claudine Gates made the comments  to the Associated Press, uh, that they're continuing to work to bring the 23 year old son back to American soil after he ran into North Korea on Julythis is the craziest story ever  that he ran into North Korea, uh, and stayed there for a month. Because of racial discrimination in the military. I just can't see him ever wanting to stay in Korea when he has family in America. He has so many reasons to come home. I'm not mad at you, Travis. I just want you to come home, she added. He has a whole life ahead of him. He's still a young man. I just want my baby home. Come back from North Korea, King.  The Pentagon said last week that it could not verify claims by North Korea that King, a U. S. Army private, willingly sought refuge in the North to escape racial discrimination within the service branch's rank. A senior defense official told Fox News on August 15th that the Pentagon had no contact with King and does not know his current condition.  In the first public acknowledgment of the incident, North Korea's state media reported that King confessed to crossing in the North because of inhumane maltreatment and racial discrimination in the U. S. Army.  Wow.  That. Is. Huh. Larious.  He just bolted. He just ran. He's like, fuck you guys. I'm out.  Uh, all right. That's gotta be one of the funniest stories in  American military history. During the investigation, King confessed that he had decided to come over to the DPRK as he harbored ill feeling. Okay. We walked through all this kind of similar as the last one. Um, Gates in an interview with the AP said he, she has never heard her son express the sentiments attributed to him.  Uh, that's why my son was proud to be an American. He's not even a racist type of. person. That's why I can't see him saying that, she said. But she added, I was kind of told that he said a little something like that to his uncles  and that their approach with him was a little different than me. I'm mom. Wow. Uh,  that's hilarious.  Uh,  yeah, that's hilarious. Um, all right. And the last article here,  This one coming from just today says that the US soldier who fled to North Korea will plead guilty to desertion. Other criminal charges, lawyers saying, uh, Travis King, the U S army private who last year, last year,  how has he been detained this whole time? But those articles were from like,  was that  2023?  This guy has been gone for a year.  No way. Yeah, those articles were August 24. I thought this was like three days ago, seven days ago, a week and a half ago. Why has nobody talked about this army soldier fleeing to North Korea because of racial discrimination, North Korea for a whole year. Nobody's talked about this. This is I've never heard of this. And I was running my podcast. Then for the past three, four years, nobody's talked about this at all. That's hilarious. A whole year. How long was he in Korea for? Let's read this article and find out.  I'm so sorry for this. I should have read further. I so sorry. I should have looked at that. I just said August 15th, August 24th, August 26th. I just thought this was this like breaking story that nobody was talking about. This has been happening for a year.  Oh my gosh. All right.  August 26th,  this is, this is the actual new breaking update for you guys. So Travis King, the U S army private who last year ran into North Korea from South Korea is expected to plead guilty to multiple criminal charges, including desertion.  The U S army has charged him with 14 offenses under the uniform code of military justice. King will plead guilty to five of those charges and not guilty to the remaining offenses.  which the army intends to dismiss.  King's guilty plea will be entered at a general court martial where he will explain his actions to military judge. Uh, the guilty plea and sentencing will be held on September 20th. Mark your calendar.  Travis is grateful to his friends and family who have supported him and to all who outside the circle who did not prejudge his case based on the initial allegations.  North Korean government released King last September 18th. So he served like two months. When he reportedly sprinted away from a tour group in a demilitarized zone, there was no contact with King during his capture and North Korean officials were initially obtuse in responding to U. S. inquiries. The incident happened after King finished two months in a South Korean detention facility following  a physical altercation with locals. A senior defense official previously told Fox News. Wow. So he got like a fist fight with some South Korean dudes and then ran to North Korea because they were being unfair to him. Cause he's black.  Allegedly throughout the time he was in the facility, he made comments that he did not want to come back to America. King was eventually released on July 10th and sent home Monday to Fort Bliss.  Um,  so let's read that again. Uh, he finished two months in a South Korean detention facility for getting in a fight with a local. Uh, throughout the time he was at the facility, he made comments that he did not want to come back to America. King was eventually released on July 10th and sent home Monday to Fort Bliss.  So, he was in that detention facility. That timeline doesn't match up. But anyways, uh, North Korea state media reported that King confessed to crossing into the country because of inhumane. Okay, we talked about that. King's mother disputed the claims. And there we are.  September 20th, people. That's what we're going to find out.  Uh, Somebody says, I wonder if this entire problem can be attributed to the lower standards for enlistment that all military branches but the Marines have resorted to in order to reach their recruiting goals. It just seems unlikely that this is the first time this individual has been involved in trouble. Yeah, possibly.  Uh, somebody said, I would have no problem if he's sent back to North Korea. This is where he wanted to go. Yeah, have fun, bud.  Uh, it says in  1983, Private First Class White defects guard duty to the demilitarized zone in North Korea. And North Korea used him to As propaganda. Three months later, his body was found floating in a river south of North Korea.  King IL Sung said he was overwhelmed,  uh, and loved the support to the North Korean people couldn't meet standards. Wow,  you misunderstand. Even North Korea didn't want him. They gave him back freely. Uh, yeah. Shouldn't he be invited to the White House and given a beer with Harris  ? Uh.  Yeah,  very interesting. That's crazy. So here's a fun thought experiment.  What if he's right? What if North Korea is not this like, desolate, dystopian place where everybody's being like, totalitarianism to the core?  What if North Korea is hiding a secret utopia?  Where the elite live in luxury,  fueled by trillions in untapped resources. What  And that's what some people tend to believe.  I don't know if I agree with them. But that is what some people believe is that what if North Korea was really this huge propaganda campaign by the West.  And what if really what's happening there is actually utopia,  where Kim Jong Un actually doesn't  defecate,  where they have far advanced technology than us.  Where they have unlimited resources, none of them really have to work in this communist, socialist, totalitarian regime, and everybody's happy about it.  What if all the defectors there  It's hard to say this seriously, but like, think about it. Let's, like, let's, okay, let me, let me put on my serious hat here.  Here, here's the argument that can be made around this, alright?  There's actually a legitimate argument to be made that North Korea has an unbelievable amount of resources. North Korea is believed to be sitting on untapped natural resources potentially worth trillions of dollars, including vast resources of rare earth materials, including coal, gold, and many other minerals. These resources, resources could theoretically provide the economic foundation for a prosperous society, particularly if the government has been discreet, discreetly. Uh, exploiting these assets. Now, there's supporting evidence surrounding this, which is the fact that North Korea is estimated to be one of the largest reserves of rare earth elements in the world, which are critical for modern technology, from smartphones to military equipment.  Uh, reports suggest that these resources could be worth six to ten trillion dollars.  Given North Korea's isolation and the secrecy surrounding its economic activities, it's plausible that the regime has been strategically using these resources to maintain a hidden wealth based economy. fueling a more prosperous society than outsiders are aware of, right? Like what if North Korea is just like the real life Wakanda, where everybody thinks it's like this third world country. And it's actually this utopia with flying cars, and unlimited resources, and people are all super happy. And they have, you know, all of these things that we don't know about all this technology, all of these minerals, all these resources, all of this advanced modern societies, like, What if Wakanda is real?  And it's actually North Korea. That's the question I'm posing to you.  Uh,  now another side of this is that there's actually legitimate,  uh, legitimate evidence that shows that North Korea is known for its extensive network of underground facilities. Like huge, massive, underground military cities. Not just military bunkers, but cities. Designed to protect and sustain its elite. The underground cities might be equipped with advanced technology  Luxurious living conditions, but like nobody knows this right you go into North Korea Like you're getting a tour guide who's gonna walk you through these like fake cities. Have you ever seen those videos?  Like nobody knows what's going on there legitimately The only thing that we know is the propaganda that's being propagated by Kim Jong un which looks more satirical than anything at all  That you've ever seen like any video that is of Kim Jong un. It looks like a comedy like a legitimate comedy Um, so like what's actually going on there? Is it really just this like comical? satirical country where this  totalitarian brutal regime of or is it like  Or are they hiding something? Like, I think both of those are just as plausible as each other. Uh,  it says there's multiple reports and defector testimonies that describe vast underground networks in North Korea, initially built for military purposes. Satellite imagery has also revealed suspicious land formations and construction activities that hint at larger underground facilities. Now, if you recall, I've done a deep dive into the DUMS. The deep underground military bases that are under, uh, the United States of America, like huge, unbelievably huge, vast, like cities, infrastructures, military bases underground that nobody, unless you're in there and have the secret security clearances know about. And we found out about them because there was, uh, Strava data. Strava is like the, the, or was it like my fitness, um,  like the whoop app, whatever that is, the my fitness pal type of a thing that you put on your, your,  I think of Strava, Strava data got leaked and it's this running technology where runners put this like on their shoes or it's on your phone app and it tracks where you run and people, the data got leaked from Strava. And when it got leaked, they saw these. Uh, there was like hundreds of people running this track in the middle of nowhere, and I think it was like Antarctica or something. And what they found was a deep underground military base where these military members were tracking their runs in the deep underground military base. So these things exist. The data's been leaked. The US has these. They're huge, like massive cities under the ground.  So who's to say that North Korea doesn't have that too? I mean, there's a lot of evidence that suggests the same. Um,  right, designed, and so it talks about the land formations and construction activities that hint at large underground military bases. Uh, secrecy and controlled information. The secret, the extreme secrecy and control over information in North Korea allow the regime to maintain a dual reality. While the global community  sees a nation plagued by poverty and repression, There could be a totally different reality that's going on there. Um, North Korea's tight control over media and information, both domestically and internationally, is well documented. The regime's ability to obscure much of its military and economic activities from even the most advanced civilization, or intelligence services, suggests that it could be just concealing the truth. Aspects of its social infrastructure This is supported by the fact that there is very little known about the true extent of north korea's internal developments And the country's isolation means that much of what is known comes from the controlled sources either being the news The defectors right which could very easily be  Uh, people who are paid actors, just like we've had, you know, crisis actors here in the U. S. Um, and then it goes on to talk about how there's plenty of suggestselective Western propaganda. So proponents argue that Western mediaand this is all like a pro  article designed to at least give some evidence of this, so it's like, just Being transparent with you. This is not like some legitimate government resource or some scientific article,  but it is giving legitimate points about this. So, but it is in support of this idea of the North Korea utopia. Um,  but it says by depicting the country as a failed state, Western powers can justify sanctions, military posturing, and political pressure. This narrative could be deliberately exaggerated or even fabricated, masking the true nature of North Korean society.  And then it also talks about how there is inconsistent defector testimony. So while many defectors report dire conditions in North Korea, there have been cases where their testimonies have been questioned or even debunked. Some defectors have returned to North Korea, which, which proponents argue wouldn't happen if the country was in terrible as terrible as depicted, right? Why would you go back there if like, and there's some horrible videos like, and I'm not meaning like to having this conversation to like downplay those defectors testimonies? Because, um, who is the, there was the woman that was on.  She goes on and talks about some like horrific, horrific things that are going on there and like all these terrible, the terrible famines that are happening. Like I'm not trying to delegitimize that and like,  but it's an interesting concept, right? When, when everything has been shown to be false and propaganda, like you start to question some weird stuff, guys. This may be one of those cases. Um, but I'm sure that my, my bullshit radar is like pretty well up here. I, I'm not  totally buying this theory, but it's a fun thought experiment that North Korea's Wakanda. That's all I'm saying. And that is a good fair point that like, why would a defector go back there? Right. Unless their family's being threatened. Maybe like that. That'd be a good reason. Um, this suggests that life in North Korea might be in more nuanced with certain segments of the population living in better conditions than the Western media portrays. Yeah.  Interesting. Not sure what I make of that, guys, but that's at least, that's at least the theory for you. Now you know. The theory surrounding North Korea being an actual utopia, Wakanda, and us just being propagandized by the Western culture to think that maybe you don't want to be like those guys. Like, you want to, you want to stay with your democracy and your freedom of speech. Don't come over here to the dark side where, where, you know, we have the worst haircuts ever and satirical movies that we push out as propaganda to outside countries so they don't know that we have access to trillions of dollars of resources and advanced technology.  I don't know.  I mean, I kind of know,  but I don't know.  And with that. I'll leave you guys. So I hope you have a wonderful day.  Head over to Ronan basics. com. Um, head over to Amazon. You can buy our hats there as well. I have the Ronan basics RFID blocking wallets. Um,  have the Ronan  basics, uh, 10 foil hat, protecting yourself from EMFs. And the beanies coming very, very soon is our Faraday bags. So the phone, phone bags that you'll actually be able to put your phone into. I have many, many samples. I have, they're in production right now. We've gone back and forth and back and forth to improve them. Very, very excited. I should have those in stock over the next coming weeks. So look out for that Ronan basics. com subscribe, leave a five star review here. Uh, and. I love you. I appreciate you. I hope you're having a good day and I'll see you next time. The Adams archive.  Adams archive. 

In today's episode of Building Texas Business, we sit down with Jerry Mooty, the CEO and Principal of @properties, Christie's International Real Estate in Dallas and Austin. Jerry takes us through his remarkable journey from managing partner at a law firm to heading a major real estate brokerage. He shares how resilience and adaptability allowed him to steer his business through the 2008 financial crisis and leverage opportunities arising from the pandemic. Jerry also provides insights into growing his firm through innovative hiring strategies and technological platforms that streamline agents' work. We explore lessons learned around overcoming adversity, strategic partnerships, and balancing operations with culture. His story offers a candid look inside one industry titan's challenges and triumphs in managing debt, acquisitions, and new ventures in sports and entertainment. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS Jerry Mooty shares his transition from being a managing partner at a law firm to creating and growing a real estate brokerage, including the challenges faced during the 2008 financial crisis and opportunities leveraged during the COVID-19 pandemic. We discuss Jerry's innovative business model that hires agent-attorneys and how it differentiates his brokerage in a competitive real estate market. The episode covers the technological advances at @properties, such as the Platform, which incorporates AI and a suite of tools to increase agent productivity. Jerry reflects on managing $60 million in personally guaranteed debt and the strategy behind transitioning to a debt-free business structure. Strategic partnerships and the process of acquisitions, especially in the technology sector, are explored along with Jerry's experience in due diligence and venture capital dynamics. Jerry discusses the significance of cultivating a company culture focused on employee well-being and the shift in his leadership style from operations to creating an enjoyable work environment. We touch on the importance of friendships in Jerry's professional journey and how they've influenced his career decisions and leadership approach. Challenges facing traditional real estate agencies like Remax are considered, with a focus on adapting to technological advancements and market changes. Jerry provides insights into his personal preferences, revealing his fondness for barbecue over tex-mex, adding a personal element to the conversation. The conversation highlights Jerry's efforts in expanding his business, including the recent launch of a sports and entertainment division and developer services to cater to specific client needs in the real estate market. LINKSShow Notes Previous Episodes About BoyarMiller About @properties,Christie's International Real Estate GUESTS Jerry MootyAbout Jerry TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Chris: In this episode you will meet Jerry Mooty, ceo and principal of App Properties, christy's International Real Estate in Dallas and Austin. Jerry, by anyone's definition, is a serial entrepreneur, having started a law firm, credit card processing company, real estate development company and now a real estate brokerage firm. And Jerry tells aspiring entrepreneurs expect the unexpected. Jerry, I want to thank you for taking the time to come on and welcome you to building Texas business. Nice to see you. Thanks for having me. Good to see you too. It's been a while. Let's just start. You know you've done a number of things and we'll get into some of that, but currently, what's the business that you've started and you're currently today? Jerry: So Jerry Mooty from Dallas have a business now in the residential real estate brokerage industry. So I compete with Compass and some big national brands that most of the listeners will know about. Chris: And that company's called App Properties right. Jerry: Yes, sir, it's called App Properties Christy's International Real Estate. So we kind of have a working on that. Chris: And I know you're kind of got the Dallas area covered, but I think you've also recently expanded into Austin. Jerry: Yeah, so we started in Dallas proper with our headquarters, and then we opened a second office in Frisco, texas, and then we just recently, in the fall of 2023, opened up Austin, texas. Chris: So you know, as a recovering attorney, what was it that inspired you to get into the residential brokerage real estate business? Jerry: So, interesting enough, you kind of know my history, but I founded a law firm when I was 28 and I grew that into about 60 lawyers in four cities. As the managing partner, I started doing a lot of deals for the partners as opposed to practicing law, and I went down several paths. I had a litigation support company that I founded and grew that for the partners and then, you know, ironically got into a real estate development a little startup where I had a home building division building spec homes and I had a commercial division where I was doing some commercial projects. Raw land development had a resort under contract in Bernie, but, like a lot of people in real estate, 2009, 2010 came and that was the end of my glory days in real estate. All right. Chris: So then, what led you to? You know, get involved with app properties and then take this down, go down this rabbit trail. Jerry: Sure. So in 2012, I sold my interest in the law firm back to the partnerships. I didn't want to go back to practicing full time and then did quite a few different entrepreneurial things from about 2013 to about 2019. Any you know, I had a credit card processing company, backed by the Jones family, called Blue Star Payments that merged in with a tech company and we rebranded Blue Star Sports. We were backed by some pretty large VC firms Bain Capital and GenStar partners and Providence Equity and then obviously, the Jones family. So we acquired about 27 companies in about three years and then we sold that company in 2017. Then I was kind of looking for the next thing and I became the chief business and legal officer for a Silicon Valley tech company for a couple of years. They were in a big money raise and it wasn't going so well and I was deferring comp. So I started looking at what I was going to do next. One of the people in my network is a ex litigation real estate litigator. She had gone on and got married, had kids, got a real estate license and had a brokerage here in Dallas and her model was she was going and convincing unhappy lawyers to get the real estate license. So she had about 10 agents slash attorneys as her brokerage and she approached me to come in and run her brokerage for kind of like I did the law firm. So that piqued my interest enough so we went down that path. Sadly we didn't get to execute our documentation because they ended up having a divorce situation. And then two weeks later COVID hits and so I'm waiting to take my real estate license and not sure what I'm going to do after that. Come out of the first 90 days of COVID, the market's red hot, so I hang my license, I start doing deals for my network friends and start marketing myself as an agent. All the meanwhile I'm looking for something to buy or to own or start, and so that led me through developer relationship here in Dallas to the ownership group of at properties out of Chicago. They made that introduction, flew up and met with them and really fell in love with not only the brand and the culture but also the technology that they had built. Chris: Amazing story. There's a lot to dive into there. I may definitely want to go back some, but let's stay with that properties for now. And yeah, so you that's a. It's born out of COVID, I guess. Tell us, though you know, because I know just from you, know keeping up with you and then reading on the website you've experienced some like amazing growth in the last, I guess, three and a half years. Let's talk a little bit about that. And in talking about what you've done that you think has helped accelerate it, let's talk also about the maybe the pains with growing so fast. Jerry: Sure. So as I was looking to own something and this opportunity came up, I negotiated to purchase, you know, the North Texas territory. But I wasn't really prepared to launch because it was just me and I hadn't done a whole lot of recruiting. But I had some real estate deals in the pipeline that I needed to leave the current brokerage I was at before I papered those up. So I ended up launching at properties by myself just one agent, and got temporary space and, you know, true entrepreneurial spirit started recruiting, putting in my support team, landed a pretty big compass team right out of the gate and that kind of helped accelerate the visibility. And so the first, you know, six months we grew to 10 agents by Christmas. So it wasn't, we weren't a big brokerage, but we were putting things in place. By the next year we were about just under 40 agents. So we had a really good, successful year and, you know, quadrupling our size and then last year 2023, we doubled again to about 80 agents in Dallas. So we've been kind of there's been some faster growth brokerages, but we're very we're considered more luxurious. Our agents are more high producing agents and they take a little longer to transfer from one brokerage to another based on their pipeline and their restrictions. So now that we're three and a half years into this and Austin's really kind of been a little bit of a catalyst in the last six months because initially that territory wasn't available there was a Christie's affiliate there my corporate partner asked me if I wanted Austin about a year and a half ago. I said yes and so I started putting the play pieces in place and we launched that in September. We've added quite a few agents in the first 120 days over 70 something agents there. So all in we got about a hundred agents in Dallas, about 70 in Austin. So that's the good side of the business. The headaches, as you know as an entrepreneur, are several and many. Too many to list, but we'll cover a few. My most recent success story is I just hired a controller after three and a half years. So I've been doing the books, reporting to corporate, paying the royalties, paying the checks, paying the agents. So those are the things. As an entrepreneur, you really you put your blood, sweat and tears into these businesses and then you have to get to a certain level, to where you could start to relieve yourself of some of these pains. Chris: Yeah, that's so true, jerry. A lot of the people that I've had on before say exactly that that it's one when you're starting out, you're not big enough to outsource it or to hire for it, so you got to do it. But then it's getting to that point when you even when you are big enough and can afford it the level of trust and hiring the right person to hand off those key aspects of the business, so it frees you up to do the things as an entrepreneur or the visionary you want to be doing. So let's talk about that. What was it that you think helps get to a level of trust and comfort that it's time to hand off and it's the right person to hand off to? Jerry: Yeah, I think, based on my background of being an entrepreneur, you make a lot of friends and you kind of know. You learn the hard way. You hire the wrong person a few times and then, as you get older and more seasoned, you kind of know what to look for. In this instance, with that properties, I hired somebody I'd known for 35 years to come in and be my director of agents. I've known her since the SMU days, so the trust was already built in and then you're just very selective as you add the pieces to the puzzle to get those right people in place. So in half years we've let one or two people go, but we've been pretty successful in hitting the mark. Chris: That's great. So 70 agents or so you said. Have you started to implement any kind of processes that help with the integration process as you bring in these new people, so they understand kind of what the expectations are, what the benefits are for making the move? I mean, so where are you and what's the process you've gone through to kind of make that more institutionalized? Jerry: So the background for at properties and the corporate support we have is pretty important in how we've gotten here. They're a 25 year brokerage. They're the eighth largest in the country before acquiring the Christie's affiliate network, so they kind of had the processes in place. So it's buying. Whenever you buy a franchise and you wanna go down this path, you kind of get a little bit of assistance from and some help along the way on someone else putting the right pieces in place. I think what we've done a great job is integrate and implement those things that they've brought to the table, which I think revolves around a lot of our culture. You know, I think culture is so important in any business you have and so it's just we have fun things called at love, local events that came from corporate. So we'll pick a merchant somewhere in our geographical area, we'll partner with them, we'll send out a marketing campaign. Let's say it's a coffee shop and then whoever shows up at that coffee shop, our agents are there and we're running a tap for a coffee or a Danish in the morning. So that's kind of the community outreach piece. We use the word love strategically in all our marketing. So we say bringing the love to Dallas, bringing the love to Frisco and those types of things. So you know, recruiting is probably once you get the, once you get your overhead stabilized and your office space and those types of things. This is a business about relationships and recruiting. So I would say our two most important people outside of myself are our head of recruiting out of Frisco, head of recruiting out of the Dallas office, and so those have been very good hires. Chris: You know most, I think most businesses. It's hard to say they're not people, businesses or relationship, but certainly you know in the business you're in, where you're so customer facing right, you need good people that can go out and attract good customers, provide good service. But I have to imagine the last 18 months or so in residential real estate hasn't been the easiest. So can you talk a little bit about what you've done to help continue, promote one, promote the culture, to keep people positive and energized while managing through what has to have been a challenging time? Jerry: Yeah, absolutely so. Obviously we're all aware of how hot the market got, you know, a couple of years ago, you know, during COVID and post COVID. What that did in our industry is everybody wanted a real estate license because they saw all these transactions happen. So we had an influx of agents that came in that are young, inexperienced, but were here to make some money. And then, when the market turns, you kind of have the reverse effect. Those people were all eat what you kill, or 10, 9, 9 commissioned agents. They got to figure out how to pay the bills, and so we've had a pretty big exodus. Probably 15 to 20% of our agents across the nation have left the industry, and so that's been good for the sense of the people staying in it because you got less competition. But the ones that stayed in it most of them, have been through some of these ebbs and flows of the market, and so they kind of know how to prepare. And most of that revolves around when your transaction desk is slower, what are you ramping up to do? Are you ramping up your marketing, your postcard, social media content, are you revamping your website? And so those are all things that we, which the agents that work for us and part of our big, strong sales pitch based on the technology that we have. Chris: Got you Speaking of that on the marketing side, you know, are you seeing? I guess, one area or the other as far as marketing strategy work better, get more visibility or more return on investment. You see so much on social media, so it seems natural that that would be one, but I don't know if that's the leading one based on your experience or not. Jerry: Yeah, I think in pretty much every industry has been affected by the internet and no industry more so than real estate. I would say probably 10 years ago you saw a lot of print ads. You saw a lot of ads and you know business journals and those types of things trying to move property. But now it's really a digital world. We're using social media, we're using tools called AdWords, which is a retargeting tool to where it's essentially like if you went and looked at a pair of shoes at Nordstroms and then you left Nordstroms, those shoes are following you around. So we have the ability to target, geo track and geo target potential prospects and clients through our technology. Obviously, websites are important. Your collaboration tools that you're preparing a search for a prospect, like they're looking in this area for a certain price point. We have the ability to set those searches up and work with a prospect or a client on finding the home, ironically in the last price. I don't know when this started, but in the last year or so, almost 85% of buyers find the home they want before they hire an agent, or at least they zero it down based on how much information is on the internet. And so, really, as an agent, what you're trying to do is bring your expertise not only to get that transaction under contract, but then most of the work happens one second transactions under contract all the way through closing. Chris: Right, that is an amazing statistic 85%, but you're right. I mean, when everyone goes to the internet first, I think, to research or validate or do something. So it makes sense to me, but it's a big number. Sounds like you know here you use your work, technology and innovation and stuff quite a bit already since we started the interview. Some of this may have come from your franchise or some may have come from some things You're doing, but what are some of the things you believe are innovative in the way that you're operating the brokerage and helping your agents be successful? Jerry: Sure. So I think when you start understanding what different brokerages bring to the table in regards to support for their agent portfolio. Obviously marketing is a big one because they're pushing all the stuff out that we're talking about, but also the day-to-day operation of an agent is pretty important. Most brokerages large brokerages like Coldwell, banker, some of your biggest national brands are very antiquated when it comes to technology support. I would say there's two brokerages at the forefront. I'd say Compass is in second place and I think App Properties is in first place. And I say that because we've been building a technology stack called Platform, or our franchise or has, since 2003 and basically an agent logs in and does everything they need to do as an agent in one technology. When I interview agents and I show them the technology, they're blown away because they're in four or five, six different technologies throughout the day trying to get their social media posted or created, their transactions done over here, their docuSigns another technology they have to use, and we have everything in one place, and so that's been a real big selling point for us when we're recruiting these agents. Chris: Yeah, I mean anything to make your employees or, in your case, I guess, your contractor's life easier. Have you started to look into, or is this already incorporating any kind of versions of AI? Jerry: AI is already integrated. Nowadays, agents are always doing, as an easy example, they're doing descriptions of the properties. So now you can lean on AI to help you describe a $5 million house with five bedrooms, six baths by describing it into AI, and then it'll help you create that luxury description. So there's things like that. Obviously, our CRM has a lot of AI tied to it and so, yeah, that's the way of the future and it's getting more and more integrated and implemented into all our tools. Very nice, very nice yeah. Chris: All right. So I want to make you kind of reflect back. So yeah, this about, by your own description, not the first time you kind of started a new venture or stepped outside your comfort zone. So when you think about what you did I guess leaving, you know, maybe leaving the law firm or even some of the ventures you started while you were there, but going to credit card processing et cetera where are some of the lessons you learn through those ventures that you think prepared you for taking the step you did without properties and the steps you're taking now to grow so rapidly? Jerry: Yeah, I think if you're a serial entrepreneur like myself, I think the one thing you learn each time that you have an idea or you go down the path of starting something is you think you're going to get to the finish line a lot easier. It's your idea and you think you're going to do that. And I think probably in every instance including the law firm, including the credit card processing is one lesson is it just takes a lot to probably 10 times, 100 times more man hours and work and you got hurdles. That you're not expecting. But I think that's part of the reward too is why I'm built the way I am. You enjoy that when an obstacle comes and you get your way around it or over it. But I think you know frankly, it's probably what every entrepreneur says it's never as easy as you think it is. There's no get rich. You know we talked about most of what we do as lawyers and what I'm doing is a people game. You know you're hiring people and people disappoint, you know, and you're having to find different people sometimes, and so the lesson is just pride and expect the unexpected and you'll be okay and be able to sleep at night. Chris: I like that. Well, think about, is there a kind of a challenge or a failure setback that you can point to over the last, you know, 15 years, 20 years, whatever that you feel is maybe in some ways either a defining moment for you or one of the bigger learning moments that you got? You kind of got hit with a little headwind but you overcame it and because of that it's kind of helped propel you either in your own personal journey as a leader or, you know, in things you learned as an entrepreneur. Jerry: Yeah, I'd say you know, probably the biggest lesson learned of all time was me starting a real estate development company with a home builder and a commercial partner and, you know, diving into that with not a whole lot of experience, and so the challenge was obviously, in real estate, you're hoping to build something and sell it, and so the big challenges is if you build it and you borrow a bunch of money and you don't sell it. And so in 0809, 2010 is probably should have been my premier happiest days of my life. I'm on a law firm, I'm making some good you know coin on the law firm side, but I'm literally getting dragged through the mud financially on the real estate piece, and it's probably one of the reasons it's taken me 10 years to get back into it on the brokerage side, because I literally came out of that was some financial PSD. You know just could not sleep, you know got I mean health issues, depression, pretty much everything you can experience as an entrepreneur and so you figure out a lot about yourself when you're going through something like that, and you know you either stay in bed and talk about it or you pull up your socks and get out and try it again. Chris: That internal fortitude, you know I think any entrepreneurs got to have that or it's just not going to happen. I appreciate you sharing that. Were there some things that you did? You know that you know other than just I mean pure gutted out. You know, to help you kind of get through that. You know, leaning on family friends, I don't know. I mean I have to believe we've got some listeners and other people out there that you're going through the same thing. Jerry: Sure, I think where I lucked out was, you know, just to be frank, I was on about $60 million and personally guaranteed debt that was worth probably about 30 by the time I was trying to get out of it. So there wasn't going to be any family help. It was. It was hey with you, you know, in a loving way, of course. But when you dig a hole like that, you just got to figure out the best way out. And for me, where I benefited was I had a law degree and I was a lawyer and creditors could not touch the ownership interest in my law firm because it was tied to my license. So, through bankruptcy lawyers and all that stuff, I got educated on that and gave me the strategy to get through that situation and come out on the other end, which was one of the reasons I sold the interest of the law firm back to the partners, because that allowed me to have a little bit of a stream of income there in 2012, 13 and 14, while I got the credit card processing company going and getting these other things going. So there was, if there was, a silver lining, it was that fact, but it was still still pretty embarrassing financially and pretty embarrassing as a professional to really go through that over a three or four year period. Chris: You got to be hard but, like I said, I mean now that you've come through it, you know you can certainly appreciate the opportunities you have today and know that. You know I certainly probably learned some lessons of what to not do, going forward right. Jerry: Absolutely, I would say. The one lesson you learn in that scenario is you become a lot more frugal with your financial decisions and you know, especially in the banking industry, like one thing I'm proud of with that properties is we've never bought a bar to dollar. We got zero debt, and so those that's a probably a direct result of what I went through, you know, 15 years ago was I don't want to do another business where I got a bunch of debt and I'm trying to get that off and make money to live off of. Chris: That's great. So you mentioned earlier I think it was a credit card processing BlueStar, where you had some dealings with Bain Capital, and obviously you're dealing with a franchise or in this current business. So let's talk a little bit about maybe what you've learned through that. I kind of relate or maybe call those you know investors, partners, strategic partners. What have you learned as kind of some of the best ways to deal with them so you keep that relationship strong and healthy? And maybe it's something you know that happened that you're like I did this or they did. You know something that happened that soured the relationship, one they got to help our clients here at the firm you know, you know find themselves in those situations all the time, and so I'm curious you know what you know, what lessons you've learned through that process? Jerry: Yeah, so I would say getting involved in. And so when we had the credit card processing company, it was pretty a pretty simple model. We were going out and you know recruiting or or you know we're trying to sell merchants, you know restaurants Anybody who ran a credit card was it was a prospective client approached by a group who had an idea of buying up these technology companies in the youth sports space. So like, if you sign your kid up for soccer, you're there's usually a form and at the end of that form, whether it be the YMCA or anywhere else, you're paying a fee for your child to play that on that soccer team. So the model we had was take the credit card processing that we had built our own API and those types of things and bake it into a technology and go buy these companies. And interestingly, it was about how do you flip the model from a EBITDA and a multiple perspective. So these tech companies that weren't that large of companies because they were kind of geographically located, running different types of youth sports camps or whatnot, they weren't sophisticated enough and they were usually outsourcing their credit card processing to stripe or squares or something like that. So we would acquire these companies and bake in our own processing and from an ownership perspective, then that would change the multiple for maybe two times to 12 times because you have that reoccurring revenue stream coming into your business model. I literally probably learned more over that. First, 12 to 20 per month as we were acquiring these companies, doing due diligence on them, and I was the chief legal officer of the company, so I was in charge of all the due diligence. So we acquired 20 something companies and I bet I did due diligence on about 300 over two years. But it was really cool because I got to see what investors and power players in the venture capital market, how they looked at things and it's there's not a lot of emotion, it's numbers on paper and it's how do we make, how do we do this to this group of businesses, and then how do we sell it and make money. All about the return on investment, right. Chris: Exactly so. It's a. Jerry: It's very cutthroat which some businesses are, some aren't, but it was a great learning experience. I'd like to say I probably learned more in that two to three years Dealing with those big VC firms and listening to those meetings and kind of running point on due diligence than I probably learned in any other aspect of my life. Now, that's so, but that's so. Chris: Let's turn it back a little bit to app properties specifically. I know you've recently launched a new sports and entertainment division Tell us about that. What's going on behind that and what are you trying to accomplish so in the real estate brokerage? Jerry: world. There's different ways to market yourself right, and a lot of that boils down to your experience of your agent portfolio, and so some real estate brokerages are residential, some may just be commercial, but on our side we have, we've accumulated some agents that allowed us to create these divisions because of their experience levels. So land and ranch is one division, and then sports and entertainment is another division, and basically there's some criteria that we've put in place before an agent can say they're part of that team or that division dealing with professional athletes or celebrities on a number of occasions, some of the qualifications, but essentially, when somebody's moving like a professional athlete or a celebrity, there's a lot of sensitivity to that, or there's a lot of urgency, there's a lot more moving pieces, and so that specific division has agents who are, you know, experts in helping that transaction or that client Get from point A to B and solve a lot of problems along the way how to move their cars, how to move their kids into new schools, you know everything that comes along with kind of that type of transaction, as opposed to someone just buying a house and selling a house. So are we going to see? Chris: Super Bowl ads anytime soon, if I can at homecom I could afford it. Jerry: No, that's the goal is. We're really good because of how the clients affiliate network has come into play for us. I don't know if we mentioned this before the call or on the call, but you know our corporate partner ended up buying the Christie's affiliate network, which is a network of independently owned brokerages around the world. I think we have 900 offices in 54 countries, about 35,000 agents, and the reason Christie's the auction house, christie's the family who's owned that brand and that company for two hundred years. They sold the app properties because of the technology and we've been for two years bringing a worldwide global powerhouse network together into the technology to share referrals and data and information, and so that's been one of the one of the real keys to some credibility for us. Very cool. Chris: I think you just launched something else, maybe in the last week. Developer services Tell us about that. Jerry: So so again, we all know there's developers out here but we're not sure there's developers out here building multifamily building, you know, developing neighborhoods, multi-use, and so for a brokerage our size to have the ability to provide those services was kind of hard. So we ended up meeting a group of people out of Austin who came from Storybill and for those listeners who've heard about Storybill, that's a multi-billion dollar developer who went, ran out of money last summer. But we ended up negotiating their entire creative team to come over to Christie, our Christie's, and create this development services division. So starting with the chief marketing officer all the way down to their website development team, their on-site sales, so we've got a team of about 12 of superstars and they really fell in love with the Christie's brand to kind of move from Storybill into our umbrella, to kind of push those services out. So that'll be a huge win for us. Chris: So, as you sit there running all this, what is it that kind of triggers for you that this is an opportunity that makes sense, because not everybody can see that, and so there are things you're looking for. How do you go about making that decision and taking on the risk? Jerry: Yeah, so risk is a little less scary in our business because most everybody who works for our brokerage is a 1099 contractor. So we really have a pretty lean machine when it comes to we're running this right now with about seven full-time employees, three offices, so you got overhead from an office space perspective, but really you're kind of it's kind of a lean business model, which is one of the things that attracted me to it. And then obviously you have to have the people to be able to promote these different levels of services. So I think the thing that's been lucky for us is one our relationship and our network in Dallas to help get it started. And then obviously the people we've been able to add at such a young infancy of a company have given us the credibility and the numbers are reflecting that. Chris: Gotcha. So before I don't want to wrap this up without talking a little bit just about you and your leadership style, let's talk. You know, how would you describe your leadership style? How do you think that's evolved over time based on the scars and other lessons learned? Jerry: You know you work at a law firm, so you know running a law firm is you got a lot of smart people, a lot of egos, a lot of staff, a lot of overhead, and so I learned a lot about you know the operational side of a business in that seat. And then I think my ownership style has probably changed completely since I left the law firm. I'm a lot more interested in the well-being of my employees, a lot more sensitive to the culture. I think. When you talk about people coming to work and going home, in my mindset now I want that to be a great experience. I kind of use the word experience a lot in the last couple of years for some reason, and I think it's just. My evolution is like everything in our lives is an experience and you can make it a good one or you can make it a bad one, and so I think my leadership style is I want every experience to be a good one. At the best I can make it. Obviously you're going to have your headaches and your issues pop up, but we have the music on in our offices every day. We have happy hours on Thursdays. We built bars in both of our offices in Dallas and Frisco, and then we're putting one in our location in Austin so that we can have happy hours with our agents and our clients and our prospects. We hold a lot of events and I think our interaction with the community and the philanthropic stuff that we're doing is really cool. So I think where I've gotten is you know I'm 54 now and you know I started that law firm at 28 and I had a whole different picture in my mind at 28, right Till 35, of what life was going to be for me, and now I'm kind of trying to enjoy it a lot more. Chris: I love that man. Happy for you. You know clearly you're on the right track and couldn't agree more about how important culture is to any company. And I think I've said similar to you. I think life is about experiences. I think they're only really down to learning experiences good experiences and learning experiences as though, rather than bad, just learn from them and don't repeat them. Jerry: Yeah exactly right. Chris: So let's turn a little bit on the personal side of things and not as serious. What was your first job? Jerry: First job, I was a clerk in a law firm. Chris: Okay. Jerry: I was working in law school. Okay, my first job in high school. Like most of us, I grew up in Missouri in a small town. I had a yard. You know service with my best friend and we had our lawn mowers in the back of his truck and we mowed yards. So that was probably my first experience as a having a job. There you go, and first is an entrepreneur was leaving a 250 person firm to start a law firm with two other guys and being 28 years old and that was pretty exciting. We had metal chairs and you know fold up conference room table and laid out of the movie. Chris: Love it. Well, I can relate to the a little bit to that, but definitely relate to the mowing yards. That's what buddy of mine and I did in high school. So you know good money then I guess. Okay, personal preference, tex-mex or barbecue? Well, that's a tough one Probably barbecue. All right. And if you could, take a 30 day sabbatical. Where would you go? What would you do? Jerry: You know, this is my two sons who are a senior and sophomore at University of Texas right now. They called a year ago about this time and said, dad, we're going to go to Japan. And I was like, okay, and they got on a plane, just the two of them went to Japan for three weeks and after hearing that I kind of want to do that. Chris: How cool is that. The two of us went and did it on their own. Jerry: They did it on their own, traveled around on trains and backpack and love it. They're experienced when they told the stories and went through the pictures. I mean it's just a really cool culture. I'd like to go experience that. Chris: Okay, jerry, I can't thank you enough for taking the time to come on. It's hard to believe that you know I don't. I might add the numbers we met at SMU and, as undergraduates, went to law school together, so we had a lot of years together. So it's great to see where you are today and what you're doing. So proud of you. Jerry: Man. I appreciate that. And the same back at you. I followed you your whole career and super, super proud of you. What kind of legal person you are and lawyer and leader and everything you're about. So appreciate having me on and proud of you too, my man. Chris: All right, we'll do it again. We'll find a reason to do it again sometime soon. Awesome Sounds good. Special Guest: Jerry Mooty.

In today's episode of Building Texas Business, we sit down with Jerry Mooty, the CEO and Principal of @properties, Christie's International Real Estate in Dallas and Austin. Jerry takes us through his remarkable journey from managing partner at a law firm to heading a major real estate brokerage. He shares how resilience and adaptability allowed him to steer his business through the 2008 financial crisis and leverage opportunities arising from the pandemic. Jerry also provides insights into growing his firm through innovative hiring strategies and technological platforms that streamline agents' work. We explore lessons learned around overcoming adversity, strategic partnerships, and balancing operations with culture. His story offers a candid look inside one industry titan's challenges and triumphs in managing debt, acquisitions, and new ventures in sports and entertainment. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS Jerry Mooty shares his transition from being a managing partner at a law firm to creating and growing a real estate brokerage, including the challenges faced during the 2008 financial crisis and opportunities leveraged during the COVID-19 pandemic. We discuss Jerry's innovative business model that hires agent-attorneys and how it differentiates his brokerage in a competitive real estate market. The episode covers the technological advances at @properties, such as the Platform, which incorporates AI and a suite of tools to increase agent productivity. Jerry reflects on managing $60 million in personally guaranteed debt and the strategy behind transitioning to a debt-free business structure. Strategic partnerships and the process of acquisitions, especially in the technology sector, are explored along with Jerry's experience in due diligence and venture capital dynamics. Jerry discusses the significance of cultivating a company culture focused on employee well-being and the shift in his leadership style from operations to creating an enjoyable work environment. We touch on the importance of friendships in Jerry's professional journey and how they've influenced his career decisions and leadership approach. Challenges facing traditional real estate agencies like Remax are considered, with a focus on adapting to technological advancements and market changes. Jerry provides insights into his personal preferences, revealing his fondness for barbecue over tex-mex, adding a personal element to the conversation. The conversation highlights Jerry's efforts in expanding his business, including the recent launch of a sports and entertainment division and developer services to cater to specific client needs in the real estate market. LINKSShow Notes Previous Episodes About BoyarMiller About @properties,Christie's International Real Estate GUESTS Jerry MootyAbout Jerry TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Chris: In this episode you will meet Jerry Mooty, ceo and principal of App Properties, christy's International Real Estate in Dallas and Austin. Jerry, by anyone's definition, is a serial entrepreneur, having started a law firm, credit card processing company, real estate development company and now a real estate brokerage firm. And Jerry tells aspiring entrepreneurs expect the unexpected. Jerry, I want to thank you for taking the time to come on and welcome you to building Texas business. Nice to see you. Thanks for having me. Good to see you too. It's been a while. Let's just start. You know you've done a number of things and we'll get into some of that, but currently, what's the business that you've started and you're currently today? Jerry: So Jerry Mooty from Dallas have a business now in the residential real estate brokerage industry. So I compete with Compass and some big national brands that most of the listeners will know about. Chris: And that company's called App Properties right. Jerry: Yes, sir, it's called App Properties Christy's International Real Estate. So we kind of have a working on that. Chris: And I know you're kind of got the Dallas area covered, but I think you've also recently expanded into Austin. Jerry: Yeah, so we started in Dallas proper with our headquarters, and then we opened a second office in Frisco, texas, and then we just recently, in the fall of 2023, opened up Austin, texas. Chris: So you know, as a recovering attorney, what was it that inspired you to get into the residential brokerage real estate business? Jerry: So, interesting enough, you kind of know my history, but I founded a law firm when I was 28 and I grew that into about 60 lawyers in four cities. As the managing partner, I started doing a lot of deals for the partners as opposed to practicing law, and I went down several paths. I had a litigation support company that I founded and grew that for the partners and then, you know, ironically got into a real estate development a little startup where I had a home building division building spec homes and I had a commercial division where I was doing some commercial projects. Raw land development had a resort under contract in Bernie, but, like a lot of people in real estate, 2009, 2010 came and that was the end of my glory days in real estate. All right. Chris: So then, what led you to? You know, get involved with app properties and then take this down, go down this rabbit trail. Jerry: Sure. So in 2012, I sold my interest in the law firm back to the partnerships. I didn't want to go back to practicing full time and then did quite a few different entrepreneurial things from about 2013 to about 2019. Any you know, I had a credit card processing company, backed by the Jones family, called Blue Star Payments that merged in with a tech company and we rebranded Blue Star Sports. We were backed by some pretty large VC firms Bain Capital and GenStar partners and Providence Equity and then obviously, the Jones family. So we acquired about 27 companies in about three years and then we sold that company in 2017. Then I was kind of looking for the next thing and I became the chief business and legal officer for a Silicon Valley tech company for a couple of years. They were in a big money raise and it wasn't going so well and I was deferring comp. So I started looking at what I was going to do next. One of the people in my network is a ex litigation real estate litigator. She had gone on and got married, had kids, got a real estate license and had a brokerage here in Dallas and her model was she was going and convincing unhappy lawyers to get the real estate license. So she had about 10 agents slash attorneys as her brokerage and she approached me to come in and run her brokerage for kind of like I did the law firm. So that piqued my interest enough so we went down that path. Sadly we didn't get to execute our documentation because they ended up having a divorce situation. And then two weeks later COVID hits and so I'm waiting to take my real estate license and not sure what I'm going to do after that. Come out of the first 90 days of COVID, the market's red hot, so I hang my license, I start doing deals for my network friends and start marketing myself as an agent. All the meanwhile I'm looking for something to buy or to own or start, and so that led me through developer relationship here in Dallas to the ownership group of at properties out of Chicago. They made that introduction, flew up and met with them and really fell in love with not only the brand and the culture but also the technology that they had built. Chris: Amazing story. There's a lot to dive into there. I may definitely want to go back some, but let's stay with that properties for now. And yeah, so you that's a. It's born out of COVID, I guess. Tell us, though you know, because I know just from you, know keeping up with you and then reading on the website you've experienced some like amazing growth in the last, I guess, three and a half years. Let's talk a little bit about that. And in talking about what you've done that you think has helped accelerate it, let's talk also about the maybe the pains with growing so fast. Jerry: Sure. So as I was looking to own something and this opportunity came up, I negotiated to purchase, you know, the North Texas territory. But I wasn't really prepared to launch because it was just me and I hadn't done a whole lot of recruiting. But I had some real estate deals in the pipeline that I needed to leave the current brokerage I was at before I papered those up. So I ended up launching at properties by myself just one agent, and got temporary space and, you know, true entrepreneurial spirit started recruiting, putting in my support team, landed a pretty big compass team right out of the gate and that kind of helped accelerate the visibility. And so the first, you know, six months we grew to 10 agents by Christmas. So it wasn't, we weren't a big brokerage, but we were putting things in place. By the next year we were about just under 40 agents. So we had a really good, successful year and, you know, quadrupling our size and then last year 2023, we doubled again to about 80 agents in Dallas. So we've been kind of there's been some faster growth brokerages, but we're very we're considered more luxurious. Our agents are more high producing agents and they take a little longer to transfer from one brokerage to another based on their pipeline and their restrictions. So now that we're three and a half years into this and Austin's really kind of been a little bit of a catalyst in the last six months because initially that territory wasn't available there was a Christie's affiliate there my corporate partner asked me if I wanted Austin about a year and a half ago. I said yes and so I started putting the play pieces in place and we launched that in September. We've added quite a few agents in the first 120 days over 70 something agents there. So all in we got about a hundred agents in Dallas, about 70 in Austin. So that's the good side of the business. The headaches, as you know as an entrepreneur, are several and many. Too many to list, but we'll cover a few. My most recent success story is I just hired a controller after three and a half years. So I've been doing the books, reporting to corporate, paying the royalties, paying the checks, paying the agents. So those are the things. As an entrepreneur, you really you put your blood, sweat and tears into these businesses and then you have to get to a certain level, to where you could start to relieve yourself of some of these pains. Chris: Yeah, that's so true, jerry. A lot of the people that I've had on before say exactly that that it's one when you're starting out, you're not big enough to outsource it or to hire for it, so you got to do it. But then it's getting to that point when you even when you are big enough and can afford it the level of trust and hiring the right person to hand off those key aspects of the business, so it frees you up to do the things as an entrepreneur or the visionary you want to be doing. So let's talk about that. What was it that you think helps get to a level of trust and comfort that it's time to hand off and it's the right person to hand off to? Jerry: Yeah, I think, based on my background of being an entrepreneur, you make a lot of friends and you kind of know. You learn the hard way. You hire the wrong person a few times and then, as you get older and more seasoned, you kind of know what to look for. In this instance, with that properties, I hired somebody I'd known for 35 years to come in and be my director of agents. I've known her since the SMU days, so the trust was already built in and then you're just very selective as you add the pieces to the puzzle to get those right people in place. So in half years we've let one or two people go, but we've been pretty successful in hitting the mark. Chris: That's great. So 70 agents or so you said. Have you started to implement any kind of processes that help with the integration process as you bring in these new people, so they understand kind of what the expectations are, what the benefits are for making the move? I mean, so where are you and what's the process you've gone through to kind of make that more institutionalized? Jerry: So the background for at properties and the corporate support we have is pretty important in how we've gotten here. They're a 25 year brokerage. They're the eighth largest in the country before acquiring the Christie's affiliate network, so they kind of had the processes in place. So it's buying. Whenever you buy a franchise and you wanna go down this path, you kind of get a little bit of assistance from and some help along the way on someone else putting the right pieces in place. I think what we've done a great job is integrate and implement those things that they've brought to the table, which I think revolves around a lot of our culture. You know, I think culture is so important in any business you have and so it's just we have fun things called at love, local events that came from corporate. So we'll pick a merchant somewhere in our geographical area, we'll partner with them, we'll send out a marketing campaign. Let's say it's a coffee shop and then whoever shows up at that coffee shop, our agents are there and we're running a tap for a coffee or a Danish in the morning. So that's kind of the community outreach piece. We use the word love strategically in all our marketing. So we say bringing the love to Dallas, bringing the love to Frisco and those types of things. So you know, recruiting is probably once you get the, once you get your overhead stabilized and your office space and those types of things. This is a business about relationships and recruiting. So I would say our two most important people outside of myself are our head of recruiting out of Frisco, head of recruiting out of the Dallas office, and so those have been very good hires. Chris: You know most, I think most businesses. It's hard to say they're not people, businesses or relationship, but certainly you know in the business you're in, where you're so customer facing right, you need good people that can go out and attract good customers, provide good service. But I have to imagine the last 18 months or so in residential real estate hasn't been the easiest. So can you talk a little bit about what you've done to help continue, promote one, promote the culture, to keep people positive and energized while managing through what has to have been a challenging time? Jerry: Yeah, absolutely so. Obviously we're all aware of how hot the market got, you know, a couple of years ago, you know, during COVID and post COVID. What that did in our industry is everybody wanted a real estate license because they saw all these transactions happen. So we had an influx of agents that came in that are young, inexperienced, but were here to make some money. And then, when the market turns, you kind of have the reverse effect. Those people were all eat what you kill, or 10, 9, 9 commissioned agents. They got to figure out how to pay the bills, and so we've had a pretty big exodus. Probably 15 to 20% of our agents across the nation have left the industry, and so that's been good for the sense of the people staying in it because you got less competition. But the ones that stayed in it most of them, have been through some of these ebbs and flows of the market, and so they kind of know how to prepare. And most of that revolves around when your transaction desk is slower, what are you ramping up to do? Are you ramping up your marketing, your postcard, social media content, are you revamping your website? And so those are all things that we, which the agents that work for us and part of our big, strong sales pitch based on the technology that we have. Chris: Got you Speaking of that on the marketing side, you know, are you seeing? I guess, one area or the other as far as marketing strategy work better, get more visibility or more return on investment. You see so much on social media, so it seems natural that that would be one, but I don't know if that's the leading one based on your experience or not. Jerry: Yeah, I think in pretty much every industry has been affected by the internet and no industry more so than real estate. I would say probably 10 years ago you saw a lot of print ads. You saw a lot of ads and you know business journals and those types of things trying to move property. But now it's really a digital world. We're using social media, we're using tools called AdWords, which is a retargeting tool to where it's essentially like if you went and looked at a pair of shoes at Nordstroms and then you left Nordstroms, those shoes are following you around. So we have the ability to target, geo track and geo target potential prospects and clients through our technology. Obviously, websites are important. Your collaboration tools that you're preparing a search for a prospect, like they're looking in this area for a certain price point. We have the ability to set those searches up and work with a prospect or a client on finding the home, ironically in the last price. I don't know when this started, but in the last year or so, almost 85% of buyers find the home they want before they hire an agent, or at least they zero it down based on how much information is on the internet. And so, really, as an agent, what you're trying to do is bring your expertise not only to get that transaction under contract, but then most of the work happens one second transactions under contract all the way through closing. Chris: Right, that is an amazing statistic 85%, but you're right. I mean, when everyone goes to the internet first, I think, to research or validate or do something. So it makes sense to me, but it's a big number. Sounds like you know here you use your work, technology and innovation and stuff quite a bit already since we started the interview. Some of this may have come from your franchise or some may have come from some things You're doing, but what are some of the things you believe are innovative in the way that you're operating the brokerage and helping your agents be successful? Jerry: Sure. So I think when you start understanding what different brokerages bring to the table in regards to support for their agent portfolio. Obviously marketing is a big one because they're pushing all the stuff out that we're talking about, but also the day-to-day operation of an agent is pretty important. Most brokerages large brokerages like Coldwell, banker, some of your biggest national brands are very antiquated when it comes to technology support. I would say there's two brokerages at the forefront. I'd say Compass is in second place and I think App Properties is in first place. And I say that because we've been building a technology stack called Platform, or our franchise or has, since 2003 and basically an agent logs in and does everything they need to do as an agent in one technology. When I interview agents and I show them the technology, they're blown away because they're in four or five, six different technologies throughout the day trying to get their social media posted or created, their transactions done over here, their docuSigns another technology they have to use, and we have everything in one place, and so that's been a real big selling point for us when we're recruiting these agents. Chris: Yeah, I mean anything to make your employees or, in your case, I guess, your contractor's life easier. Have you started to look into, or is this already incorporating any kind of versions of AI? Jerry: AI is already integrated. Nowadays, agents are always doing, as an easy example, they're doing descriptions of the properties. So now you can lean on AI to help you describe a $5 million house with five bedrooms, six baths by describing it into AI, and then it'll help you create that luxury description. So there's things like that. Obviously, our CRM has a lot of AI tied to it and so, yeah, that's the way of the future and it's getting more and more integrated and implemented into all our tools. Very nice, very nice yeah. Chris: All right. So I want to make you kind of reflect back. So yeah, this about, by your own description, not the first time you kind of started a new venture or stepped outside your comfort zone. So when you think about what you did I guess leaving, you know, maybe leaving the law firm or even some of the ventures you started while you were there, but going to credit card processing et cetera where are some of the lessons you learn through those ventures that you think prepared you for taking the step you did without properties and the steps you're taking now to grow so rapidly? Jerry: Yeah, I think if you're a serial entrepreneur like myself, I think the one thing you learn each time that you have an idea or you go down the path of starting something is you think you're going to get to the finish line a lot easier. It's your idea and you think you're going to do that. And I think probably in every instance including the law firm, including the credit card processing is one lesson is it just takes a lot to probably 10 times, 100 times more man hours and work and you got hurdles. That you're not expecting. But I think that's part of the reward too is why I'm built the way I am. You enjoy that when an obstacle comes and you get your way around it or over it. But I think you know frankly, it's probably what every entrepreneur says it's never as easy as you think it is. There's no get rich. You know we talked about most of what we do as lawyers and what I'm doing is a people game. You know you're hiring people and people disappoint, you know, and you're having to find different people sometimes, and so the lesson is just pride and expect the unexpected and you'll be okay and be able to sleep at night. Chris: I like that. Well, think about, is there a kind of a challenge or a failure setback that you can point to over the last, you know, 15 years, 20 years, whatever that you feel is maybe in some ways either a defining moment for you or one of the bigger learning moments that you got? You kind of got hit with a little headwind but you overcame it and because of that it's kind of helped propel you either in your own personal journey as a leader or, you know, in things you learned as an entrepreneur. Jerry: Yeah, I'd say you know, probably the biggest lesson learned of all time was me starting a real estate development company with a home builder and a commercial partner and, you know, diving into that with not a whole lot of experience, and so the challenge was obviously, in real estate, you're hoping to build something and sell it, and so the big challenges is if you build it and you borrow a bunch of money and you don't sell it. And so in 0809, 2010 is probably should have been my premier happiest days of my life. I'm on a law firm, I'm making some good you know coin on the law firm side, but I'm literally getting dragged through the mud financially on the real estate piece, and it's probably one of the reasons it's taken me 10 years to get back into it on the brokerage side, because I literally came out of that was some financial PSD. You know just could not sleep, you know got I mean health issues, depression, pretty much everything you can experience as an entrepreneur and so you figure out a lot about yourself when you're going through something like that, and you know you either stay in bed and talk about it or you pull up your socks and get out and try it again. Chris: That internal fortitude, you know I think any entrepreneurs got to have that or it's just not going to happen. I appreciate you sharing that. Were there some things that you did? You know that you know other than just I mean pure gutted out. You know, to help you kind of get through that. You know, leaning on family friends, I don't know. I mean I have to believe we've got some listeners and other people out there that you're going through the same thing. Jerry: Sure, I think where I lucked out was, you know, just to be frank, I was on about $60 million and personally guaranteed debt that was worth probably about 30 by the time I was trying to get out of it. So there wasn't going to be any family help. It was. It was hey with you, you know, in a loving way, of course. But when you dig a hole like that, you just got to figure out the best way out. And for me, where I benefited was I had a law degree and I was a lawyer and creditors could not touch the ownership interest in my law firm because it was tied to my license. So, through bankruptcy lawyers and all that stuff, I got educated on that and gave me the strategy to get through that situation and come out on the other end, which was one of the reasons I sold the interest of the law firm back to the partners, because that allowed me to have a little bit of a stream of income there in 2012, 13 and 14, while I got the credit card processing company going and getting these other things going. So there was, if there was, a silver lining, it was that fact, but it was still still pretty embarrassing financially and pretty embarrassing as a professional to really go through that over a three or four year period. Chris: You got to be hard but, like I said, I mean now that you've come through it, you know you can certainly appreciate the opportunities you have today and know that. You know I certainly probably learned some lessons of what to not do, going forward right. Jerry: Absolutely, I would say. The one lesson you learn in that scenario is you become a lot more frugal with your financial decisions and you know, especially in the banking industry, like one thing I'm proud of with that properties is we've never bought a bar to dollar. We got zero debt, and so those that's a probably a direct result of what I went through, you know, 15 years ago was I don't want to do another business where I got a bunch of debt and I'm trying to get that off and make money to live off of. Chris: That's great. So you mentioned earlier I think it was a credit card processing BlueStar, where you had some dealings with Bain Capital, and obviously you're dealing with a franchise or in this current business. So let's talk a little bit about maybe what you've learned through that. I kind of relate or maybe call those you know investors, partners, strategic partners. What have you learned as kind of some of the best ways to deal with them so you keep that relationship strong and healthy? And maybe it's something you know that happened that you're like I did this or they did. You know something that happened that soured the relationship, one they got to help our clients here at the firm you know, you know find themselves in those situations all the time, and so I'm curious you know what you know, what lessons you've learned through that process? Jerry: Yeah, so I would say getting involved in. And so when we had the credit card processing company, it was pretty a pretty simple model. We were going out and you know recruiting or or you know we're trying to sell merchants, you know restaurants Anybody who ran a credit card was it was a prospective client approached by a group who had an idea of buying up these technology companies in the youth sports space. So like, if you sign your kid up for soccer, you're there's usually a form and at the end of that form, whether it be the YMCA or anywhere else, you're paying a fee for your child to play that on that soccer team. So the model we had was take the credit card processing that we had built our own API and those types of things and bake it into a technology and go buy these companies. And interestingly, it was about how do you flip the model from a EBITDA and a multiple perspective. So these tech companies that weren't that large of companies because they were kind of geographically located, running different types of youth sports camps or whatnot, they weren't sophisticated enough and they were usually outsourcing their credit card processing to stripe or squares or something like that. So we would acquire these companies and bake in our own processing and from an ownership perspective, then that would change the multiple for maybe two times to 12 times because you have that reoccurring revenue stream coming into your business model. I literally probably learned more over that. First, 12 to 20 per month as we were acquiring these companies, doing due diligence on them, and I was the chief legal officer of the company, so I was in charge of all the due diligence. So we acquired 20 something companies and I bet I did due diligence on about 300 over two years. But it was really cool because I got to see what investors and power players in the venture capital market, how they looked at things and it's there's not a lot of emotion, it's numbers on paper and it's how do we make, how do we do this to this group of businesses, and then how do we sell it and make money. All about the return on investment, right. Chris: Exactly so. It's a. Jerry: It's very cutthroat which some businesses are, some aren't, but it was a great learning experience. I'd like to say I probably learned more in that two to three years Dealing with those big VC firms and listening to those meetings and kind of running point on due diligence than I probably learned in any other aspect of my life. Now, that's so, but that's so. Chris: Let's turn it back a little bit to app properties specifically. I know you've recently launched a new sports and entertainment division Tell us about that. What's going on behind that and what are you trying to accomplish so in the real estate brokerage? Jerry: world. There's different ways to market yourself right, and a lot of that boils down to your experience of your agent portfolio, and so some real estate brokerages are residential, some may just be commercial, but on our side we have, we've accumulated some agents that allowed us to create these divisions because of their experience levels. So land and ranch is one division, and then sports and entertainment is another division, and basically there's some criteria that we've put in place before an agent can say they're part of that team or that division dealing with professional athletes or celebrities on a number of occasions, some of the qualifications, but essentially, when somebody's moving like a professional athlete or a celebrity, there's a lot of sensitivity to that, or there's a lot of urgency, there's a lot more moving pieces, and so that specific division has agents who are, you know, experts in helping that transaction or that client Get from point A to B and solve a lot of problems along the way how to move their cars, how to move their kids into new schools, you know everything that comes along with kind of that type of transaction, as opposed to someone just buying a house and selling a house. So are we going to see? Chris: Super Bowl ads anytime soon, if I can at homecom I could afford it. Jerry: No, that's the goal is. We're really good because of how the clients affiliate network has come into play for us. I don't know if we mentioned this before the call or on the call, but you know our corporate partner ended up buying the Christie's affiliate network, which is a network of independently owned brokerages around the world. I think we have 900 offices in 54 countries, about 35,000 agents, and the reason Christie's the auction house, christie's the family who's owned that brand and that company for two hundred years. They sold the app properties because of the technology and we've been for two years bringing a worldwide global powerhouse network together into the technology to share referrals and data and information, and so that's been one of the one of the real keys to some credibility for us. Very cool. Chris: I think you just launched something else, maybe in the last week. Developer services Tell us about that. Jerry: So so again, we all know there's developers out here but we're not sure there's developers out here building multifamily building, you know, developing neighborhoods, multi-use, and so for a brokerage our size to have the ability to provide those services was kind of hard. So we ended up meeting a group of people out of Austin who came from Storybill and for those listeners who've heard about Storybill, that's a multi-billion dollar developer who went, ran out of money last summer. But we ended up negotiating their entire creative team to come over to Christie, our Christie's, and create this development services division. So starting with the chief marketing officer all the way down to their website development team, their on-site sales, so we've got a team of about 12 of superstars and they really fell in love with the Christie's brand to kind of move from Storybill into our umbrella, to kind of push those services out. So that'll be a huge win for us. Chris: So, as you sit there running all this, what is it that kind of triggers for you that this is an opportunity that makes sense, because not everybody can see that, and so there are things you're looking for. How do you go about making that decision and taking on the risk? Jerry: Yeah, so risk is a little less scary in our business because most everybody who works for our brokerage is a 1099 contractor. So we really have a pretty lean machine when it comes to we're running this right now with about seven full-time employees, three offices, so you got overhead from an office space perspective, but really you're kind of it's kind of a lean business model, which is one of the things that attracted me to it. And then obviously you have to have the people to be able to promote these different levels of services. So I think the thing that's been lucky for us is one our relationship and our network in Dallas to help get it started. And then obviously the people we've been able to add at such a young infancy of a company have given us the credibility and the numbers are reflecting that. Chris: Gotcha. So before I don't want to wrap this up without talking a little bit just about you and your leadership style, let's talk. You know, how would you describe your leadership style? How do you think that's evolved over time based on the scars and other lessons learned? Jerry: You know you work at a law firm, so you know running a law firm is you got a lot of smart people, a lot of egos, a lot of staff, a lot of overhead, and so I learned a lot about you know the operational side of a business in that seat. And then I think my ownership style has probably changed completely since I left the law firm. I'm a lot more interested in the well-being of my employees, a lot more sensitive to the culture. I think. When you talk about people coming to work and going home, in my mindset now I want that to be a great experience. I kind of use the word experience a lot in the last couple of years for some reason, and I think it's just. My evolution is like everything in our lives is an experience and you can make it a good one or you can make it a bad one, and so I think my leadership style is I want every experience to be a good one. At the best I can make it. Obviously you're going to have your headaches and your issues pop up, but we have the music on in our offices every day. We have happy hours on Thursdays. We built bars in both of our offices in Dallas and Frisco, and then we're putting one in our location in Austin so that we can have happy hours with our agents and our clients and our prospects. We hold a lot of events and I think our interaction with the community and the philanthropic stuff that we're doing is really cool. So I think where I've gotten is you know I'm 54 now and you know I started that law firm at 28 and I had a whole different picture in my mind at 28, right Till 35, of what life was going to be for me, and now I'm kind of trying to enjoy it a lot more. Chris: I love that man. Happy for you. You know clearly you're on the right track and couldn't agree more about how important culture is to any company. And I think I've said similar to you. I think life is about experiences. I think they're only really down to learning experiences good experiences and learning experiences as though, rather than bad, just learn from them and don't repeat them. Jerry: Yeah exactly right. Chris: So let's turn a little bit on the personal side of things and not as serious. What was your first job? Jerry: First job, I was a clerk in a law firm. Chris: Okay. Jerry: I was working in law school. Okay, my first job in high school. Like most of us, I grew up in Missouri in a small town. I had a yard. You know service with my best friend and we had our lawn mowers in the back of his truck and we mowed yards. So that was probably my first experience as a having a job. There you go, and first is an entrepreneur was leaving a 250 person firm to start a law firm with two other guys and being 28 years old and that was pretty exciting. We had metal chairs and you know fold up conference room table and laid out of the movie. Chris: Love it. Well, I can relate to the a little bit to that, but definitely relate to the mowing yards. That's what buddy of mine and I did in high school. So you know good money then I guess. Okay, personal preference, tex-mex or barbecue? Well, that's a tough one Probably barbecue. All right. And if you could, take a 30 day sabbatical. Where would you go? What would you do? Jerry: You know, this is my two sons who are a senior and sophomore at University of Texas right now. They called a year ago about this time and said, dad, we're going to go to Japan. And I was like, okay, and they got on a plane, just the two of them went to Japan for three weeks and after hearing that I kind of want to do that. Chris: How cool is that. The two of us went and did it on their own. Jerry: They did it on their own, traveled around on trains and backpack and love it. They're experienced when they told the stories and went through the pictures. I mean it's just a really cool culture. I'd like to go experience that. Chris: Okay, jerry, I can't thank you enough for taking the time to come on. It's hard to believe that you know I don't. I might add the numbers we met at SMU and, as undergraduates, went to law school together, so we had a lot of years together. So it's great to see where you are today and what you're doing. So proud of you. Jerry: Man. I appreciate that. And the same back at you. I followed you your whole career and super, super proud of you. What kind of legal person you are and lawyer and leader and everything you're about. So appreciate having me on and proud of you too, my man. Chris: All right, we'll do it again. We'll find a reason to do it again sometime soon. Awesome Sounds good. Special Guest: Jerry Mooty.

In 2011, after Chris Halpin had rejoined his colleagues back at Providence Equity Partners' New York offices at the completion of a 3-year stint in Hong Kong, he found himself being confronted by something he had rarely experienced before: boredom. “I had this kind of existential angst—that I didn't want to die and have my obituary say that I had worked 40 years at Providence Equity,” recalls Halpin, who notes that it was at this point that he began to think about different operating roles in business and the possibility of landing a CFO position. Still, Halpin tells us that he reviewed and pretty much rejected the different introductions and job opportunities that quickly surfaced: “I was like, ‘No, I really don't want to do this'—and then I almost joined another private equity firm, but that would have been just changing politics for politics.” Then, October 2012, Halpin added to his calendar an entry that seemed to all but eclipse previous possibilities and instantly loomed large on his autumn agenda: “Coffee with Roger Goodell.” Goodell, the much-revered National Football League commissioner, no doubt usually prefers to honor the prescribed time limits of his appointments, but, as it turned out, his 30-minute coffee talk with Halpin ended up going on for more than hour before Goodell ended it with an offer to introduce Halpin to a number of his lead deputies.       “Roger makes no promises, that's for sure,” remarks Halpin, who adds that prominent Providence alum and former Comcast CFO Michael Angelakis helped him snag the initial meeting with Goodell. In June 2013, Halpin accepted a position with the NFL that kicked off an 8-year career inside the league's business operations. Along the way, he served in a succession of strategy-oriented roles before being named executive vice president and chief strategy and growth officer in 2018. Looking back, Halpin tells us that he originally pitched Goodell for a bigger initial role with the league.   “Roger told me, ‘No, that's the wrong way to come into the NFL—I'll bring you in and have you get grounding, and then we'll move you around to give you different experiences,” reports Halpin, who points out that his decision at the time was not an easy one, in part due to his prospective NFL compensation being a drastic reduction from his Providence pay. “In April or May of 2013, I came to the conclusion that if I didn't do this, I was going to regret it—so I decided to make the jump,” comments Halpin, whose 8-year tenure with the NFL ended in January 2022 when he was named CFO of IAC, the media holding company headed by media executive and dealmaker Barry Diller. Today, having landed in a more traditional finance leadership role, Halpin says that his years with the NFL will always likely trigger conversations that allow him to continue to reflect on past decisions.  It seems that career decisions have seldom been easy for Halpin—even when they've involved the opening of a door at the NFL.    Says Halpin: “This was not some sort of courageous jump into the breach without any reservations.” –Jack Sweeney

Welcome to the Music Business Worldwide Podcast, supported by Voly Music.Tempo Music has been sitting on a billion-dollar-plus fund to buy music rights since 2019. This fund is bankrolled by a private equity giant – Providence Equity – that has over $45 billion in assets under its control.Josh Empson (pictured) is the CEO and founder of Tempo Music, and the guest of this episode of the MBW Podcast.According to Empson, Tempo is quietly and efficiently building a catalog of what he terms "modern masters".Not to be confused (solely) with master rights, Empson's "modern masters" descriptor refers to songwriters and artists who have established themselves as standout, enduring talents over the past 10 or 20 years.This explains Tempo's occasional announcement of deals in 2021 that have included its acquisition of a portion of the song catalog of Twenty One Pilots star, Tyler Joseph, as well as – more recently – its acquisition of a majority stake in the recording rights of two classic albums by Korn.Josh Empson knows the finance world intimately: before founding Tempo, he was previously a Managing Director at Providence and a director of Learfield Sports, MLS Media and the NFL/PEP investment fund.With a rich history of investing in media/entertainment properties and IP, he moonlights today as Director of European Media Partnership – a big-money partner of soccer giant Real Madrid.Here, MBW asks Empson about Tempo Music's strategy going forward, and how contingent that strategy might be on the fund's cozy relationship with Warner Music Group.We also get into how Empson believes the shape of the music business might change in the years ahead, and why Tempo is quite so bullish on the future growth of value in music rights.The MBW Podcast is supported by Voly Music, the new bespoke financial management platform for people in the music business.

Laura Desmond has great expectations for the advertising industry and for its ability to return to an era of glory. It's for good reason – as a former operator who ran Starcom MediaVest Group for years and eventually moved over to the investment side, she's seen every perspective of the marketing industry, its opportunities and its challenges. We sit down with the operating partner of Providence Equity and founder and CEO of Eagle Vista Partners to chat on being both an intrapreneur and entrepreneur, why ads should never become scarce and why she's bullish on the retail media space. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

This week, host Colbert Cannon looks at key takeaways from The HPScast's third season. We'll be back in the fall with more great interviews, but we encourage you to enjoy these last days of summer by checking out all of the Best Ideas from our guests.

Colbert Cannon sits down with Dick Parsons, Senior Advisor at Providence Equity and former CEO of TimeWarner. We hear about his work as legal counsel to President Gerald Ford, and his eventual transition out of the courtroom and into the boardroom as CEO of Dime Savings Bank and later TimeWarner. We discuss how he navigated Citigroup as their Board Chair through the calamitous financial industry post-2008 and talk about leading under duress. We also learn about Dick's efforts with Equity Alliance to help level the playing field regarding access to capital.To learn more about Equity Alliance, visit the website here. Check out Dick's Best Idea, the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson here. And be sure to stream David Byrne's American Utopia on HBO Max here.

Today’s show is a preview of a mini-series coming in a few months, where I’ll be speaking with some of the preeminent leaders in private equity to learn more about what the continuing insatiable interest in the asset class is all about.   Paul Salem is a Senior Managing Director Emeritus at Providence Equity. Providence is a premier private equity and asset management firm focused on media, communications, education, software and services with $49 billion in asset commitments. Paul joined Providence when it was a $171 million media focused boutique in 1992 and became an integral part of the firm’s growth and success ever since until retiring a year ago. Paul considers himself the luckiest guy in the world, which you can hear more about in a TED talk he delivered a few years ago.   Our conversation covers Paul’s entry to the business, the benefits of specialization, Providence’s nice guy advantage, and the development of the firm over three decades.  We then turn to the competitive landscape for deals, value of operating partners, evolution of private equity, advice for allocators in the space, and life after stepping away from the business.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

Xiao Wang is the co-founder and CEO of the Seattle-based startup, Boundless. Boundless is an immigration company with a mission to “empower families to navigate the immigration system more confidently, rapidly, and affordably.” In 2018, they received the Torch Award for “Business of the Year” from the Better Business Bureau. Xiao’s credentials include leadership roles at Amazon Go, Providence Equity, NYC Department of Education, and McKinsey. Xiao holds a BA/MS from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. On top of that, he’s an immigrant himself; his family relocated from China to the United States when he was a child.

Jim Coulter, Co-CEO at TPG, discusses corporate governance and "The Era of And". David Dwyer, Bloomberg Intelligence Global Director of Research, talks about 50 Companies to Watch in 2020. Jonathan Nelson, CEO at Providence Equity, breaks down what's ahead in live media programming. Macy's CEO Jeff Gennette and Simon Property Group CEO David Simon talks about why the mall is not dead, the health of the consumer and growth of ecommerce. And Joseph Lusardi, CEO of Curaleaf, looks ahead to the future of the cannabis industry. Hosts: Carol Massar and Jason Kelly. Producer: Doni Holloway.

Jim Coulter, Co-CEO at TPG, discusses corporate governance and "The Era of And". David Dwyer, Bloomberg Intelligence Global Director of Research, talks about 50 Companies to Watch in 2020. Jonathan Nelson, CEO at Providence Equity, breaks down what's ahead in live media programming. Macy's CEO Jeff Gennette and Simon Property Group CEO David Simon talks about why the mall is not dead, the health of the consumer and growth of ecommerce. And Joseph Lusardi, CEO of Curaleaf, looks ahead to the future of the cannabis industry. Hosts: Carol Massar and Jason Kelly. Producer: Doni Holloway. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

In our latest tech founder interview, we speak to Ravin Shah, the co-founder and former co-CEO of QuickTapSurvey which we helped him sell to Providence Equity about 18 months ago. Ravin has a fascinating story and a ton of experience scaling SaaS companies.

Bloomberg Businessweek Editor Joel Weber talks about Businessweek Best B-Schools rankings. Scott Sperling, Co-President at Thomas Lee Partners, explains why companies are taking longer to go public. Sal Khan, Founder of Khan Academy, talks about launching a partnership with NWEA. John Connaughton, Co-Managing Partner at Bain Capital, discusses opportunities in private equity investing. Jan Rivkin, Senior Associate Dean at Harvard Business School, talks about the HBS MBA program. George Serafeim, Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, shares his thoughts on ESG and impact investing. Kelley Morrell, Head of Tactical Opportunities at Blackstone, talks opportunities beyond traditional private equity. Bill Kerr, Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, discusses managing the future of work. Jonathan Nelson, Founder and CEO at Providence Equity, talks about investing in live events and the value of content. Hosts: Carol Massar and Jason Kelly.  Producer: Paul Brennan Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Bloomberg Businessweek Editor Joel Weber talks about Businessweek Best B-Schools rankings. Scott Sperling, Co-President at Thomas Lee Partners, explains why companies are taking longer to go public. Sal Khan, Founder of Khan Academy, talks about launching a partnership with NWEA. John Connaughton, Co-Managing Partner at Bain Capital, discusses opportunities in private equity investing. Jan Rivkin, Senior Associate Dean at Harvard Business School, talks about the HBS MBA program. George Serafeim, Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, shares his thoughts on ESG and impact investing. Kelley Morrell, Head of Tactical Opportunities at Blackstone, talks opportunities beyond traditional private equity. Bill Kerr, Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, discusses managing the future of work. Jonathan Nelson, Founder and CEO at Providence Equity, talks about investing in live events and the value of content. Hosts: Carol Massar and Jason Kelly.  Producer: Paul Brennan

Supply Chain Now Radio, Episode 106” “Live from the eft Media Zone: Bob Farrell with GlobalTranz” Broadcast from eft’s 3PL & Supply Chain Summit Featuring: Bob Farrell serves as Executive Chairman for GlobalTranz. Bob has 30+ years of experience and a proven track record of building high-growth software and technology-driven companies. Prior to GlobalTranz, Bob served as president and CEO of Kewill, a global leader in multimodal transportation management software. Prior to Kewill, Bob served as president and CEO of EDGAR Online, a leading global provider of XBRL software, services and data that was acquired by RR Donnelley & Sons (NASDAQ: RRD) in August of 2012. His role at EDGAR Online was preceded by his time as Chairman and CEO of Metastorm, a leading provider of Business Process Management (BPM) enterprise software and solutions that was acquired by Open Text (NASDAQ: OTEX) in February of 2011. Farrell also served as President of Mercator Software, a provider of enterprise application integration solutions; COO at LeadingSide, a global provider of unstructured data solutions; and held executive management positions at Computer Horizons Corp., a provider of IT services and solutions. Additionally, Bob is currently a Senior Advisor at Providence Equity focusing on investments in technology-enabled service companies. He also currently serves on the board of Billtrust, the premier provider of payment cycle management solutions; and Kitchen Brains, a pioneer and global leader in the development and deployment of integrated, end-to-end, wireless M2M networking solutions and SaaS applications for the commercial kitchen/food service industry. Previously, he served on the Board of FolioDynamix, an award-winning SaaS provider of investment management programs and wealth management platform solutions to financial services organizations that was acquired by Actua (NASDAQ: ACTA) in November of 2014; and on the Board of I.D. Systems (NASDAQ: IDSY), a leading global provider of wireless solutions. Hosted by Scott Luton and Lance Roberts of Becker Logistics. See full details on this episode at www.supplychainnowradio.com/episode-106

Xiao Wang is the co-founder and CEO of Boundless, helping families navigate the complex legal immigration system more confidently, rapidly, and affordably than ever before. Prior to Boundless, he held leadership roles at Amazon Go, Providence Equity, NYC Department of Education, and McKinsey. Xiao holds a BA/MS from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. On this episode, we hear from Xiao about his upbringing as a Chinese immigrant raised in the suburbs of Seattle, how training for endurance races has made him a better founder and executive, and advice he has on how to find your passion. Learn more about Boundless at: https://boundless.com Follow Xiao on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xiaowang1/ Recommended books written by Brad Feld: https://www.amazon.com/Brad-Feld/e/B0043MYSL8

SCNR broadcasts live from Jump Start 19, Hosted by SMC3. Learn more: www.SMC3.com Featured guest Bob Farrell serves as Executive Chairman at GlobalTranz. Bob has 30+ years of experience and a proven track record of building high-growth software and technology-driven companies. Prior to GlobalTranz, Bob served as president and CEO of Kewill, a global leader in multimodal transportation management software. Prior to Kewill, Bob served as president and CEO of EDGAR Online, a leading global provider of XBRL software, services and data that was acquired by RR Donnelley & Sons (NASDAQ: RRD) in August of 2012. His role at EDGAR Online was preceded by his time as Chairman and CEO of Metastorm, a leading provider of Business Process Management (BPM) enterprise software and solutions that was acquired by Open Text (NASDAQ: OTEX) in February of 2011. Farrell also served as President of Mercator Software, a provider of enterprise application integration solutions; COO at LeadingSide, a global provider of unstructured data solutions; and held executive management positions at Computer Horizons Corp., a provider of IT services and solutions. Additionally, Bob is currently a Senior Advisor at Providence Equity focusing on investments in technology-enabled service companies. He also currently serves on the board of Billtrust, the premier provider of payment cycle management solutions; and Kitchen Brains, a pioneer and global leader in the development and deployment of integrated, end-to-end, wireless M2M networking solutions and SaaS applications for the commercial kitchen/food service industry. Previously, he served on the Board of FolioDynamix, an award-winning SaaS provider of investment management programs and wealth management platform solutions to financial services organizations that was acquired by Actua (NASDAQ: ACTA) in November of 2014; and on the Board of I.D. Systems (NASDAQ: IDSY), a leading global provider of wireless solutions. Learn more about GlobalTranz at www.globaltranz.com Hosted by Chris Barnes, Ben Harris, and Scott Luton

On this FN episode, Jeff and Ryan discuss the glaring problem with gender equality in this profession. They also discuss Providence Equity, and the acquisition of Astral by WIlbert Funeral Services, Inc. Merger and acquisitions do not look to be slowing down - who’s next?

Announced here first, in October, whispers at NFDA 2018 were centered around rumors about the mystery investment firm sending inquiries to what seems like every company functioning in death-tech. People were asking, “Who was offered? Who was acquired? Who declined? What is each company worth? Why is a major investment firm even interested in death-tech?” No one had solid answers. So far, the private equity firm has been silent and has made no public announcement about their dabbling in the death care space. We spoke with a representative from the mystery investment company, Providence Equity, who gave us a firm but polite “no comment” on all of our inquiries. What Do We Know? For about the past 8 months, Providence Equity Partners, a major player in the global private equity industry, has been making aggressive moves in the death care space. According to emails and anonymous sources, the firm is interested in investing in and acquiring companies for between $10 million and $300 million with 2 funds – one for investments under $100M and one for over $100M. In the case of an investment, they prefer to own at least 51% of the company – controlling ownership. In the past, Providence Equity has invested over $1 billion in individual companies. So far, we have confirmed that Providence Equity has taken a controlling stake in 3 death-tech companies. They now control SRS Computing, Frazer Consulting, and FrontRunner Professional. Additionally, we have confirmed through anonymous sources that Providence Equity has made inquiries into DISRUPT Media, Aftercare.com, Johnson Consulting, PartingPro, and it’s rumored that they have contacted pretty much every death technology company you can think of.

06 18 18

06 18 18

06 18 18

06 18 18

06 18 18

06 18 18

Aloha and welcome to the inaugural episode of Listing Bits! Greg comes to you from Ko Olina, Hawaii, where he is attending Hawaii Life’s Worthshop 6, and chatting with real estate tech leader David Friedman. Friedman describes himself as a Jewish kid from New York who went to engineering school during the dot-com boom. Interested in startups, he discovered that the real estate brokerage space lagged behind the curve in tech and set out to build a platform during the recession. That idea grew into the formation of Boston Logic Technology Partners, Inc., an information technology firm whose mission is to help real estate brokerages grow faster by implementing their software and companion services. As president of Boston Logic, Friedman leads the team in developing the company’s strategic vision. Working with investors, managers and clients, he is involved in the daily operations of the business including hiring, sales and fundraising. He is a metrics oriented sales manager, internet marketing strategist and coach with proven experience as an entrepreneur, growing a company from idea to profitability. On this first episode of the podcast, Friedman talks about the rapid pace of innovation and growth in the real estate technology vertical, the future of Boston Logic and industry trends in big data and AI. What’s Discussed:  Why chaos causes innovation The success of a business over time has no correlation to broader economic trends During a recession, many become entrepreneurs by necessity Why the real estate industry has been behind the curve in technology When times are good (i.e.: during a boom), people don’t feel the need to innovate The exponential growth of the real estate software realm From 2013-2014, funding for the formation of new companies went up 4X How advancements in technology have dramatically increased the pace of innovation Hosting space on the cloud is cheap Building on top of open source architecture allows for the development of a working prototype in weeks (not months) Why tech tools working together via data connectivity will be the next wave in the industry The big investment Boston Logic secured from Providence Equity How Boston Logic will employ the funds from Providence Equity’s backing Invest in the core business Look at acquisitions for growth The traits of Boston Logic’s ideal client Small or large brokerages More tech forward than the average brokerage Current platform isn’t keeping up, isn’t integrated, or lacks a data sharing component Trends in real estate tech Utilizing big data in a new way – making dormant data an asset AI – using bots to replace call center employees   Resources: Worthshops.com   Connect with David Friedman: BostonLogic.com Follow on Twitter Follow on Facebook