#176 - A Masterclass in International Investment and Growth

Embark on an enlightening voyage with Graeme and Leanne Carling, a dynamic duo whose story transforms the way we perceive real estate investment and partnership. Their ascension from local investors in the rugged terrain of Scotland to commanding a global empire is not just a tale of financial triumph but one of profound personal connection. Throughout this episode, we traverse the intricacies of their journey, uncovering the bedrock of continuous financial education that has propelled them into the marketplaces of the US, Dubai, and Spain. The Carlings' remarkable synergy, which has masterfully balanced a thriving family life with their ambitious entrepreneurial spirit, serves as an inspiration to couples and business partners alike.

This dialogue is more than a mere exploration of property acquisition; it's a testament to the transformative impact of financial literacy and mentorship. My own metamorphosis from a novice to a savvy real estate enthusiast, fueled by the guiding principles of the Rich Dad series, epitomizes the power of applied knowledge. We delve into the strategies that have enabled both myself and the Carlings to navigate the tides of global markets, emphasizing the importance of setting precise goals and building a robust network that transcends borders. In this conversation, we lay bare the philosophy that education and the right mentorship is not just an investment but the most potent arsenal in one's financial toolkit, especially when facing the ebbs and flows of economic volatility.

Concluding our session, we span the globe to the sun-soaked sands of Dubai, where the Carling family's ventures serve as a masterclass in the art of diversification. From real estate to clean energy, we dissect their experiences with the challenges and triumphs of global entrepreneurship. The wisdom gleaned from early failures, the pivotal role of cash flow, and the pursuit of sectors ripe for innovation - these are the threads woven through the tapestry of their success. As we ponder the enduring principles of growth and leverage, we address the ever-evolving concept of financial freedom, recognizing it not as a static destination but a journey marked by resilience, adaptability, and the audacity to dream big. Join us for this comprehensive discourse that doesn't just chart a course but sets the sails for a voyage towards enduring prosperity.

Website: https://www.thecarlinggroup.com/
Graeme Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/graeme-carling/
Leanne Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leanne-carling/

To Reach Jordan:

Email: Jordan@Edwards.Consulting

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Complimentary Edwards Consulting Session: https://calendly.com/jordan-555/intro-call

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:00

Hey, what's going on, guys? I got a special guest here. We have two special guests actually. We have Graham and Leanne Carling. They're co-founders of the Carling Group and they are one of the largest real estate holders in Scotland. I'm so excited to have you guys on. I wanted to ask you, first off, how did you gain this global perspective? Cause I understand you invest in Scotland. You got business in the US, you got business in Dubai. How do you view the globe? How'd you come up with that?

Speaker 2: 1:30

Hey Jordan, thank you very much for having us First of all. Much appreciated Yep.

Speaker 3: 1:35

Thanks for having us, Jordan.

Speaker 2: 1:37

Absolutely, I think, for us. We're from Scotland originally. We started our real estate acquisitions in 2007 and 2008 in Scotland, but we live in Dubai now, so we're in the UAE, we have properties in Spain and we travel frequently to the US. And really, for us, when we started our journey, our entrepreneurial journey together, we made a conscious decision that we needed to continue on a lifelong being financially educated, and so we embarked on seeking out the best educators around, the best ones in the world.

Speaker 2: 2:23

So in the early days, 2008, we would regularly travel across to Phoenix, Arizona, and go to the Rich Dad, Robert Kiyosaki seminars Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kim Kiyosaki. We've done that sort of twice, three times a year, probably the best part of eight, nine years. So we were going there. So it was very much a financial education remit that we were on, and still on to this day, and we'll never stop that. So we traveled the world going to the best seminars to meet the best people that we really love. So at the time, just over the years, we'd met many people similar, like-minded people, entrepreneurs that started their journey or maybe more advanced than us, and they were coming flying into Phoenix from all over the world. It could be Russia, Australia, China, Australia, UK, Sweden.

Speaker 3: 3:25

Poland, new Zealand, the JS England.

Speaker 2: 3:28

Yeah, so all over the world used to go there. So it was a great mix and a great environment and it was such a great networking really that you were hearing what was going on and opportunities and deals in other countries. So we were always, always intrigued and really loved the thought from early on of doing business internationally, I mean, and really it's kind of crazy to think that the best deals are going to be the ones on your doorstep. They might be, and they might be for a period of time, and in our case we had some great deals on our doorstep when we first started.

Speaker 2: 4:10

But of course there's a big world out there. There's a big, big, big, whole load of opportunities and I think that you know, when something's tight up in some countries, the other opportunities appear in our countries and that's just the way the world is and we've seen that for a number of years. So for us, if we were going to expand ourselves or businesses, we really needed to, you know, get in the game properly, expand from our base in the UK and really commit to working with partners in countries that we didn't operate in. But you know, people that talk the same language as us have the same ambitions as us and we will take equity stakes in those businesses and partner with them in new sectors, in new geographies and to develop and grow our group of companies.

Speaker 1: 5:06

Absolutely, which is incredible, because you start to realize that the power of networks and the power of paying for these educations because most people are like you got to go to school, then you got to go to college, then you got to graduate, and it's like no, you could just pay to go to one of these groups get a global perspective on what's going on and learn a vast amount more in a much more condensed time frame. So how did you guys because I find it very interesting when relationships are kind of running together how did you guys manage that? Did you both have the same ambition?

Speaker 3: 5:45

We both had the same ambition. We were both very entrepreneurial. I didn't really know what that was until I met Graeme, but I knew what I was doing wasn't what I wanted to do Then.

Speaker 3: 5:55

Graeme had introduced me to financial education and Graeme had had three failed businesses previously. He had already staffed me to his entrepreneurial journey. I met him. The light bulb went on for me and I was like, well, this is what I want to do. I want to have my own business, my own companies. It was doing really well in the corporate world, and so was Graeme, after he'd had his failed businesses. Then we just really aligned and something clicked and we are on the same page. We consciously made the same decision that we want to learn together, we want to work together. We did meet through work. We have always worked together, but it just works for us. We always say that we've got one life. It's not work and family, it's just one life combined.

Speaker 1: 6:50

I think that's a super important point for the audience listening, because a lot of people are. We have to separate this family time and our time and work time. I think it's cool that you have one life, because a majority of the time we don't have that thought process and we don't realize that we go through seasons in our life where we're growing or we're doing different areas and it's a way for you guys to combine each other's relationships and not have one of you go off all day doing a different activity, come back and be like how'd you do today? I can't even debrief you on my entire day, I don't even know.

Speaker 3: 7:28

There are times that you know we're working on different projects and I'll say to you Graham, you know you're completely, 100% focused on that project and I'll sort the family and vice versa. So we're there to support each other when we do work on different projects.

Speaker 1: 7:43

Absolutely, absolutely. So what gave you guys the thought process to even find Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad Portad conference, because it seems like it's a ways away from Scotland and I understand he's got a global perspective, but it's kind of that first conference I can imagine is a major investment where you're like how do I even think about this?

Speaker 3: 8:05

Well, I'd like Graham tell you the story on this.

Speaker 2: 8:07

if it is pretty no, yeah, well it was in 2002, after my third failed business and I was broke, absolutely skinned back, you know, licked in my wounds, ego dented, really in a bad place, and I just got started back in mainstream employment. I had to go back and get a job. I needed to start earning some money and recover financially and emotionally and all that stuff. And I caught the tail end of an Oprah Winfrey show on the TV and she was interviewing a guy called Robert Kiyosaki. This was 2002. So I interviewed and he was promoting his book, rich Dad Portad. So I went and bought the book, just started back working again, like I said, and really that was a wild moment for me. It really taught me that one book.

Speaker 2: 8:57

How little, or I mean I knew nothing. I had zero financial education. No wonder my business is fair. I knew nothing about debt, leverage, taxes, other people's money, other people's time, you know, assets, liabilities, cash flow. I had no real clue and I'd never been in an environment that was. You know, I had promoted anything like it. So that was in 2002, so it was a real impact on me at that time. So I made sure I read every single Rich Dad series book. I subscribed to the Rich Dad, insiders, they used to have it every Tuesday. You know I need to stream it live and I was even back working and I'd make sure that I watched it online, you know religiously so for years and years. So I immersed myself and got myself and recovered financially and confidence and emotional to get back in the game again. So it was in 2002 to 2007.

Speaker 2: 10:03

Then the financial market crash and things started to make sense and the first seminar we went to was how to predict the future. And that was a seminar that Robert and this was right in the financial crash and I'd been reading about it. It was how to predict the future and I thought I must go to this and you're absolutely right, leigh Ann will tell you. I mean, we could not afford it at that time. We were just getting started. It was a huge expense. They come from the Highlands of Scotland, if you like. They go and make a big commitment to travel across to Phoenix and you know it was one of them. I think they emailed them and tried to get them to. You know, feel sorry for me and give me a discount and you know they told me to piss off.

Speaker 3: 10:52

But, as we said earlier, we made a conscious decision to learn and grow together and we couldn't afford it, but we would sacrifice other things in our life to make sure that we could. And I remember, years and years ago, one of my friends saying you guys spend more on that than I did. My wedding, you know, like the financial education and you know it sticks with me to this day, but you know it's something that we still do to this day. You know we want to learn, and we want to grow.

Speaker 1: 11:22

Absolutely, and there's so many people who don't even it's this concept. That's very you find super successful people obviously investing in education, but a lot of people, like the common people, don't even understand it because they don't realize that the not like applied knowledge is power. If you know something that other people don't know, you can make a massive opportunity there. So that first conference you go to and you go back to Scotland. What did you realize and what did you see in regards to opportunity? Obviously, prices were growing down on properties. How did you think about all that?

Speaker 2: 12:04

Well, we'd already done a couple of deals before we went there. Not many, but we've done a few. So we were in the game. We were active because the market was good, it was hotting up. What that done was it was. So we're out there.

Speaker 2: 12:20

This seminar. I mean it was just mind blowing and I remember just going after three full days and nights and homework at night and all that. I mean there were intense, really intense seminars. I remember going yeah, this is just incredible, the opportunity that's there, we can really make an impact here, and it's up to us to go and deliver and take advantage of the opportunity and the fear and craziness that was in the market that this was a good time to be buying. So we just got us pulled our socks up and just went for it. We just kept going and made sure that we always had our real target. But by the time the next seminar came around, in four, five, six months time, that we had done significantly greater than the last seminar. So that was a really it was a good benchmark for us.

Speaker 2: 13:20

And it kept us. There was no way we were going back just owning a few properties. We need to have done a lot more deals and a lot more deals. There were kind of key milestones for us.

Speaker 3: 13:30

It really held as accountable that what we learned on the seminars or on the courses that we went back applied. And then the accountability we were going back in a couple of months that we could say we've applied everything we've learned and it's worked for us. It hasn't worked for us. This is what we've learned. And I think when you're meeting people globally this is another thing you learn different ways of working and different. There's different ways for creative finance, et cetera, et cetera. So when you're hearing that from different people, the question we always ask is how can we apply that? Or how does it work in Scotland? Or does it work in the environment that we're building business? So it's another learning tool.

Speaker 1: 14:16

Absolutely. I mean, when I was thinking about that, the thing I was not even ahead about was the fact that you're sitting there and you're like we're going to the next conference. It was a ton of money but at least we already. We invested a lot, but we want to see the progress we're going to make and if we can keep seeing progress, then we can keep going to these conferences. Because if you hold them, most of the time what ends up happening is, say, say they, let you go for free. You would have gone and you would have thought it was valuable, but it wasn't as valuable because it wasn't, it wasn't paid for, it wasn't invested.

Speaker 2: 14:57

It has to be I'm not saying painful, but it has to be. There has to be value to it. You have to have put some money in or made a commitment to that and I think again, the milestone was we needed to make sure we earned enough money to get to the next seminar. So that kept those other toes, because that was another big investment. You know that we were again to go to the next one and we loved it so much. We loved Scottsdale, we loved driving at Phoenix Airport, we loved going to the resort Scottsdale Resort, scottsdale Plaza, we loved all of it so we were desperate to go back again. So it really gave us that incentive.

Speaker 1: 15:42

Absolutely, and that's why people always say like when you're on the come up, when you're going through the progress, maybe try out the really nice hotel or try out the nice area, because you get a taste of it and you're like I want more of that, but you're doing financial education even better. And then how did you guys focus on and I understand it might have been a different time period, but how did you focus on having one mentor? Because nowadays I feel like people are inundated through social media, youtube, there's so many mentors and one of the keys to the success that I've seen is focusing one mentor in one area of life, because otherwise you can get too overwhelmed because people are saying a hundred different things.

Speaker 3: 16:24

I think for me on that, I always say be careful who you take advice from. So what mentor is the mentor that you're seeking advice from, where you want to be or where you want to go? Because there is a lot of noise out there, there's a lot of people giving you stuff, and are they actually doing what they say they're doing? That's a big thing for me. Are they walking the talk?

Speaker 2: 16:46

Are they?

Speaker 3: 16:46

walking the talk. So I mean, I really really research who you would like to be your mentor, but are they doing what they say they're doing and are they where you want to be?

Speaker 2: 16:59

I think for us, we started at the top and work our way down, rather than the opposite way. There are so many people that and if you even look at like Rob Rikiyosaki, there are far more prominent mentors and coaches, if you like, on social media and available than what Robert's done. There are better marketers of his information than actually Robert. But he's the man, he's the rich dad, he's the guy. So we went there. We could have easily have done a rich dad education course in the UK from disciples, if you like, of the rich dad message and method, but we wanted to hear it from the man. So we'll go to the man, like Dan Penyer. We don't do Dan Lok or anything. We go to the guy that has done it, the guy right at the very top. That's just how we've done it.

Speaker 2: 17:52

It's not to say you won't get value from these others and therefore then there are only a few of these guys. So that keeps it simple. It keeps it absolutely simple. You've got to pay the money for it, but then that keeps it simple. There isn't hundreds of them, there are only a few of the real talk the real.

Speaker 1: 18:09

I love that distinction, yeah, no, it makes a lot of sense because that, the way you distinguish, that I think is makes a massive difference. And you guys just mentioned about leading by example. So how has that showed up in your life? Because I know in our pre-call you guys were like we do the work, but we also show the work, we show that we're doing the work. So how do you guys lead by example?

Speaker 2: 18:37

I think if you were to ask anyone about us we are, and particularly people who work for us over a number of years whether it be advisors, staff management directors that work in our companies they will see that we are the real deal in terms of if we say we're going to do something, we do it. If we show our washing, we show our pants, when good or bad, we talk about good or bad because it's real. We are nobody's guru. We tell everybody that this is just what works for us, this is what has worked for us, this is what we're working on and this is what hasn't worked for us. But then we just get over that quickly and we move on. So I think we're congruent. We're very congruent. We're here in Dubai because we wanted to do business in Dubai. We are not talking about it, spreadsheet it, looking at it on a photo from the Highlands of Scotland. We are here, located in our family, with four suitcases and moved and arrived in Dubai and set up our lives there. So I very much think we lead by example. We're available when we say we are.

Speaker 2: 19:51

Our son at the moment is down in Spain. He's only 16. He's buying his first business down there. We've been talking about this for years, that we want our kids to get involved and fail faster as soon as they can. We're not talking about that. We really mean the things that we say. And he's down there. He's bought his first business. It opens at the end of this month. He's been in the newspapers in the UK and he's in the game. He's on it and fail faster, get the mistakes, get the lessons and the learnings out the way. So I think there's many examples we could give you, but that's just a few of them. That's where I suppose we don't just talk the talk. This is just what we do.

Speaker 1: 20:38

Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 20:40

To back frame up.

Speaker 3: 20:41

we're not scared to talk about the failures and what we've learned. I think that's a big thing for the team we can share our lessons on what we've learned so that people don't make the same mistakes as us.

Speaker 1: 20:55

Absolutely. The main thing I wanted to hear really was you guys are obviously Scottish and you guys moved, relocated the family to Dubai. That is a massive transition but when you see opportunity, you got to take it because obviously I imagine you have family there, your kids. He's 16, so that means it happened when he was 10, 11, 12, 13. These aren't easy ages to transition, but you start showing them that it's a global world and that opens up a lot of opportunity. For sure you guys mentioned it. What are some of the failures that you guys overcame or dealt with or felt the challenges of?

Speaker 2: 21:37

There's been many. We bought our own businesses, we bought distressed businesses. We bought properties we shouldn't have. We bought portfolios where some of them weren't up to scratch. We've had to deal with that. We've worked with advisors that weren't good enough. We've had staff that were loyal people that simply weren't up to the task. There's been so many things over the years. We've made some stupid investments.

Speaker 3: 22:10

We've spent too much time on some of the deals. We've invested a lot of time trying to make a deal work when there's been red flags at the start. We should have walked away a lot earlier on and we've maybe took longer than we should have. We should have to say this deal doesn't work for us. A lot of the deals that we didn't do are the best deals that we've done.

Speaker 1: 22:36

Absolutely. What are these different businesses that you guys are in? I understand it's a lot of real estate, but then it's other areas as well.

Speaker 2: 22:43

We look after real estate. We look after buildings and a lot of social housing. We have companies that maintain and do them and convert them into clean energy and decarbonise residential properties. We have various property companies ourselves. We're partnering with civil engineering and architectural and planning businesses now over in the US. We own real estate there in Spain. We're in the security space with CCTV and various AI-related products in the security space. It's a new exciting project for us, both in the US and the UK. At the moment We've got a number of stuff that partners, that we do, and it's just been an evolution over time.

Speaker 1: 23:40

Absolutely so. In the beginning were you just focusing on specific areas, because I hear sometimes there's two different modes. Like some people are, hey, we can run several businesses and they'll all rise. And then some people are like we focus on one, we grow it, then we kind of branch out. How do you guys go about that?

Speaker 3: 24:00

When we first started we were purely focused on cash flow and generating cash flow and it was property for us. So we built a huge property portfolio residential, commercial and shunt accommodation and then we just naturally progressed or diversified into various different businesses.

Speaker 2: 24:20

But the key to that isn't necessarily the sector. If you understand where we started and how our mind works, it's very much and it's the rich dad model and there's two parts of it. It's very much its cash flow yeah, it's cash flow is the sector. So whatever is generating cash flow we have an interest in. Also, we equate in capital gains is something that has came at the back of that for massive, you know, bigger wealth and equity. So we just evolved into that. So it isn't necessarily the sector, it's the opportunity within sectors that may make it presented to us.

Speaker 2: 25:06

One of the things that we that is our strengths is when we got into the property business, it was because we've seen opportunity. We we're going to the training building services is because we've seen the regulation, legislation coming in or decarbonizing, for you know all the compliance and eco and making sure that the buildings are more energy efficient and cleaner energies. We've seen that. We've seen that. So anything that gives us that scalable globally and is a compliance thing globally, so that goes to your clean energies. And now real, real focus on that real estate.

Speaker 2: 25:44

There's a housing crisis the world over. The health care, you know it's just getting massive. And AI I mean opportunities around that and security are just just huge. So whenever there's a global demand, potential, global market and generates cash flow you know that's how well mine works that's more important really than the sector. And of course, we don't buy. I mean, when we first started out, it was dead easy one single family home to get enough of these, to get enough cash flow that we financially free, you know, and that wasn't much that we needed because we have low expenses. But then we've just grown and grown and grown, never stop. The core principles of what we learn and continue to learn are in cash flow and growth leverage. It's the same principles, just repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat.

Speaker 1: 26:42

I love that. Yeah, I love how it's different. It's the same principle, but it can be across different sectors. It's the same idea of like oh, you want to buy real estate, why are you buying globally? Because it's the same principle. It's all the underlying cash flow. So do you think today's time because I know the interest rates are high, there's a couple of different Is now still a good time for people in real estate in different properties?

Speaker 2: 27:10

and different countries of different opportunities. At the moment we aren't investing in real estate in in the UK. We wouldn't be investing in the UAE just at this moment either. So the US market we are watching and seeing what's going on. I think the multifamily, you know, could be a bit of a bubble, you know. But look, there are always opportunities in places. Yeah, not what we are finding with the regulation and legislation that's came in. There are a number of, like the UK, very difficult. The dynamics for cash flow are completely changed. Today, you know, 17, 18 years later, oh yeah, they're completely changed. So what capital gains market? Now, you know you can make money on a capital gains of flipping properties or redevelopments or developments as an area, but cash flow is very, very difficult.

Speaker 1: 28:08

Yeah, yeah. I mean that's the interesting thing, because a lot of people don't change their principles, but when you start looking at the market changes like with higher interest rates, with the higher pricing it's like how do a lot of these work? Like a lot of the models don't work that much anymore.

Speaker 2: 28:24

Yeah, and some of some of the stuff like as well, even financial freedom. Financial freedom For us, the Holy Grail, the magic elixir was to be financially free. That's all we wanted from day one it was killing us, but just because we became financially free within 12 months of quick job a lot quicker than we thought. We thought we'd take us three years. We've done it in 12 months. And but just because you're financially free doesn't mean it's permanent You've. You can't just go and be relying the beach and that's it done you know.

Speaker 3: 29:02

You said the markets can change markets change things.

Speaker 2: 29:05

You have to be on it, and that was one of the things that we didn't really understand at the start. You just thought you got behind the frame. That was it. Happy days, you know, with this line of making laptop lifestyle. We should learn that. So it's one of these things, but it's for us. It changed from. You know, we love working, we love growing, we love development. Why would we stop here? We love the challenge, we love, we love the game of it, we love everything about it.

Speaker 2: 29:34

So I think financial freedom whilst for a lot of people and I can understand it if they're coming from not much at the moment that that's the and that's a good first step, but it's a very, very dangerous place to be in. If you take your eye off the boat, I think it make your fat lazy. You can, you can get a hurry yourself and you watch how quickly that financial or how permanent that is. You know it's a very dangerous place. If you think that's it and you're just going to stay there, you have to keep going. You must keep going because things are changing. You know constantly and that. But if you like us, you learn to love that. That's it. It's not, that's not something to be fearful of, and I'm trying to put people off, but that's that's. That's the honestly. That, for us, probably was one of the worst places and we still don't like it. You know that we can get. We get complacent because that's when the bad things happen. You know that's when you end up getting hurt.

Speaker 1: 30:39

Yeah, no one realizes that to get to that point of financial freedom takes an insane amount of effort. Whether it's in four months, 12 months, 10 years, it doesn't matter, it's an insane amount of effort and you got to adjust your habits, you got to think differently and you got to do all these transitions. That's why, when a lot of people get to this point of I'm sitting on the beach with a laptop, it's like that might be cool, but that's not. If you got to that level, then you're the type of person who wants to keep going. You don't sit there and go yeah, I'm ready to turn off, I'm just going to sit here and waste the potential. It doesn't happen that way. So for you guys, one of the pillars in Edwards Insulting is there's community service, philanthropy. I understand philanthropy is important for you guys and community services. How have you seen that grow in its own capacity through when you started to where you're at today?

Speaker 2: 31:40

It's one of these ones. We've always made it a requirement of us, whether we've had the money or not.

Speaker 3: 31:53

And it's changed substantially over the years. When we first started out, you would be competing in marathons or events to try and raise funds. But as we became financially free and we can afford to give money, it changes.

Speaker 2: 32:14

Yeah, and I think so. What's happened is we've always done it, the whole charity part of it I don't know if you've ever played the Cash for Borg game, it's on it 10% of your income was charity. Blah, blah blah. It was always part of our psyche. Anyway, we just done it.

Speaker 2: 32:37

And there was no predetermined amount of time or anything. We just done it. Naturally, when opportunities came up we would do that. But now we've been supporting various charities over many years or various community initiatives and local sports teams, and actually local in Scotland mainly. So we've over the years. But now we're chosen in charities. If you like, we do Codwell Children in the UK, jdrf, which is Junior Diabetes Research Foundation in the UK. We commit heavily to them so we put a lot of money and time into promoting those charities. But we also have Carling Sport where we sponsor a number of whether it's soccer clubs, life, the lads rider motorcyk motorcross.

Speaker 3: 33:40

He's five years old. He's absolutely brilliant. He's winning all the competitions that he's done.

Speaker 2: 33:50

So we do a lot of local charities in Scotland. I say local Scottish charities as well. So it's just been something that's grown and developed over the years and actually when we talk about it now, I kind of go, wow, we've done it. There's been a hell of a lot that we've done and I'm not saying that it's just subconsciously.

Speaker 2: 34:11

We just do that. We've given our properties to homeless folk for we've offered them up for years at a time when there's been housing crisis. Over the years We've just done various initiatives like that, but it just kind of comes naturally now. But when we're signing up for some of the, we're part of the life changer circle with the Codwell children and that's a big financial commitment that you have to sign up for and that doesn't matter who you are. You've still got the poor person side. You, when you sign up to commit to give something for a 10-year period, it's a hell of a commitment that you've got that you're signing up for. And that was another. But we just firmly believe in if we can, we should, and yeah, that's where we are with that.

Speaker 1: 35:09

Absolutely, and I love that because I realize that, like you guys are mentioning, it sometimes is the little things, it's sometimes the big things, it's really whatever you can give. But it just needs to be top of mind and in the subconscious, where you're thinking about it in different ways, of hey, I actually can't help these people and for the audience listening, it doesn't take a whole lot to help someone Like I think like a month ago I bought a guy there's a homeless guy around, like where I live, and he was like dude, I'm hungry and I'm like I got no food. And then I like looked around, I'm like there's a Burger King. I'll go buy him Burger King for $5, give him a burger, some fries, and like it makes him feel better, it makes you feel better and you're like this is a win-win-win. But as I'm talking about Tampa, I understand you guys have business in Florida. What are you doing in Florida?

Speaker 2: 35:59

We do. We're working with some great partners down there that we've known them for the best part of 12, 18 months now. It's a civil engineering company. It's called Elevate Holdings. It's a civil and structural engineering, design, architectural planning company. So these guys are very active in acquiring other businesses in Florida mainly, and Texas they're looking at. But fantastic, elevate Holdings, chris and Dan, are the two guys that we work with down there.

Speaker 2: 36:35

We have our first acquisition that we are hoping to get through in the coming weeks and with a pipeline, a real heavy pipeline right at the back of that. So the plan is that we grow and develop in that sector and those guys are local experts in that field. And, yeah, I mean there's been a cracking bunch to deal with and work with. We were over in Orlando in January and spent some time with them. We'll be back across again probably in April or May. So, yeah, really got a great bunch of guys. So, yeah, if anybody's looking to sell their business or partner up with a structure civil engineering business, we'd be happy to talk to them.

Speaker 1: 37:20

Absolutely, Absolutely. Now that you bring that up, how do you guys think about all the travel you guys do? Because I think you view it as like a lot of people will sit there and go oh no, I can't go to Orlando. You're like flying across the world and you're like we'll just pop in in a month or two, Like it is what it is, and I love that.

Speaker 3: 37:41

I think we spoke about it earlier. We love meeting new partners and working with great people. We love the travel. We love seeing the world. So it doesn't. Sometimes you can bang it absolutely shattered, but it's been worthwhile. You always get something out of it. You always meet new people. You might meet people that you do business with, or you might meet people that you don't, but there's always connections.

Speaker 1: 38:09

Absolutely, absolutely. And what do you guys look for when you're looking for partners or investment partners in any capacity?

Speaker 2: 38:16

We're looking for people that are on the same wavelength as us. We have very ambitious, very motivated, very focused on advancement, and so we're not looking just to retain it. We're looking for people that see opportunities in sectors like us, that maybe are just struggling for the way we thought to deliver and make it happen, but can see it clearly, can explain it to us and are prepared to commit themselves to deliver on it over a period of four or five years, generally how long we look to keep the investments going.

Speaker 1: 39:01

Absolutely, absolutely. You guys are incredible. Where can people learn more about you guys and the Carling Group and everything you guys got going on?

Speaker 2: 39:10

Well, our website is the carlinggroupcouk, or we were easily found on LinkedIn Graham G-R-A-E-N-ECarling on LinkedIn.

Speaker 3: 39:23

And Leanne Carling on LinkedIn, so it's L-E-A-N-N-ECarling Awesome.

Speaker 1: 39:30

I will throw that all in the show notes. I really appreciate the time, guys, and this has been awesome.

Speaker 2: 39:35

Brilliant, thank you. Thanks for having us. Jordan, thanks everyone.