The Storage Investor Show
Learn how to turn your cash into cash flow with self-storage and small bay industrial. If it has a roll-up door, The Storage Investor Show covers it. Your host, Kris Bennett, will ask the right questions to help you find, fund, and close your next deal. New episodes every Tuesday.
The Storage Investor Show
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DESCRIPTION
Mark dives into the specifics of building credibility in real estate investing, highlighting the power of a focused track record in engaging investors. He shares the importance of building relationships with investors, and how he went from content consumer to a creator.
Marc shares insights from mentors like Ryan Panetta and strategies from Dan Martell's book "Buy Back Your Time."
Whether you're looking to scale your personal brand or explore partnership opportunities in storage, this episode is packed with valuable insights to fuel your success.
ABOUT OUR GUEST
Marc Kuhn started in construction in 1994, founded MAK Construction in 2010, and now runs three eight-figure companies, helping investors achieve financial freedom through real estate.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-kuhn/
https://marckuhn.substack.com/
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NEWSLETTER
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https://storageinvestorshow.com/newsletter
Welcome to the Storage Investor Show. My guest today is Mark Kuhn. He is the CEO of Mac Capital. That's spelled M-A-K. Take a look at them online. He began his construction career in 1994 and eventually founded Mac Construction, growing it into a company generating over $25 million annually. He's grown, obviously, since then. We had him on the podcast last year, so go check out part one. We talk about luxury storage and what he's doing in that space, which we'll touch on here in just a second. He now owns and operates three successful companies helping investors achieve financial freedom through real estate.
Speaker 2:Mark, welcome to the show, chris, thanks for having me back, man. No, this is going to be awesome. I think we had a great conversation. I'm excited the topics that we're going to talk about today, because I think it's really what I think is the hardest, most challenging part of our job now.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. We're going to talk about raising capital and building a personal brand, because Mark is very active on LinkedIn and elsewhere. I follow his content. If you don't follow him yet, give him a follow there on LinkedIn, Check him out on YouTube as well. We'll have some links in the description for you. But real quick, before we get into those topics, catch us up real quick on what you're up to, what you're raising capital for and how things are looking in 2025.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So you know, we reflected a little bit in 24, just you know what we got achieved, what we got better at, we really built out our team. We follow a system called EOS Entrepreneurial Operating System. So as I've grown my companies, I've had to run them on a system just to keep them organized and really understand what we do, how to grow a team Right, and so we've. We've grown out the Mac capital team, which went from like me to two of us to now there's, you know, six of us involved. So it's, it's taken off. Six of us involved, so it's taken off. I'm really excited for 2025 because we're planning to build about 500,000 square feet of new luxury storage across the Midwest and the Sunbelt markets and we're just really excited with this niche because we believe in the small business. Growth is really expanding our business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, talk to us real quick about that luxury storage. For some of the listeners, they may be hearing that for the first time that we're familiar with self-storage boat and RV storage. What exactly is luxury storage?
Speaker 2:Well, what it, what it is not. I'll start with and then I'll go into what it is, cause it's. It's not the theo that you're going to go, uh, buy and you're going to put your ferrari and have a man cave in there. Yes, those are there, but that is not our business model. Um, now, when we refer to luxury storage, we're referring to on a, on an actual storage unit. Usually you don't have lights, or maybe you have all light but you don't have climate controlled, you don't have an outlet, um, there's no powered overhead door or anything like that. So our units cater to all of it. Basically, luxury makes its two lights, an outlet and a powered overhead door, and that's really what we call term luxury, and they're climate controlled. So, and and we don't mix small bay storage or we'll call it riffraff a little bit for our model we don't mix a five by five with a 600 or 1000 square foot unit just because we don't think those business, those really aren't the same tenant base that we want.
Speaker 1:We held, we hold, we hold institutional quality product, like about 100,000 square feet is one facility, and so and and all of them are climate controlled in most cases and in and they have two lights and outlet. It's a fairly simple model but it's a very good stepping stone for a small business. Coming from a garage to maybe uh, they need a small was doing a YouTube channel out of his small bay, out of his unit, where you can't do that from your garage, and all that he had like a car in there, a desk, cameras, lights and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:He didn't control that atmosphere and the lighting to run his channel, and that is an actual like, that's an actual business model. He's making money from that, et cetera. And you're right, you don't want to mix the two where like a five by five might be like 25, 50 bucks a month, whereas on average the rents are gonna be more, obviously for these larger units. But roughly, just so people can get an idea like how much are the rents generally speaking in?
Speaker 2:luxury storage. Yeah, so our units are 600 to sometimes over a thousand square feet, but 80 cents to 120 is usually how you a buck 20 is how you refer it per square foot in storage. So you can go from 500 bucks to $1,200 a unit, just depending upon if you're in the Sunbelt market, northeast West, wherever your market's at. So yeah, it's really hard to find comps because we kind of create our own comps. We're a niche within storage and we're not creating a four-story, you know self-storage unit where you can find comps all day because those are on almost those are almost as more popular than freaking car washes and gas stations, right, so those are everywhere, they're everywhere.
Speaker 2:And. But you can see the demand of storage in the US is growing and we just believe that our model can only be on one level and we need to be where the businesses live, which is usually the suburbs of the town.
Speaker 1:That makes sense, man. Yeah. So what deals? Let's pivot real quick to raising capital and what that looks like. It's a great business model of what you have there luxury storage If it's a need. What has it been like raising capital for these types of deals and are you raising for anything currently like right now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, we've. Raising capital is is interesting in this market, right, are we in a recession? Or do we like the administration change, do we not? You know what is going to happen. I think no one knows. Interest rates aren't coming down. We know that, right, like we all. We were all anticipating that. But, um, so it makes it makes difficulties within raising capital, Um, but I think what can help you raise capital, or what I've learned in the last five years, raising capital is, um, really getting focused in a niche and not, you know, catering to one investor in one asset class.
Speaker 2:So, uh, you know, I I think I can see different syndicators that are kind of like, hey, here's a multifamily deal, here's a small industrial flex building and here's a storage center, and we try to keep because we're the GPs, we're the operators. I really try to get, I'll say, nerdy with the operations of what we know. Right, like I'm, I'm not expert at a 300 unit multifamily. That's not what I do every day. I don't know that area, um, can I learn it? Sure, but I don't want to do that with someone else's money. What I do know is luxury storage. I know the niche we're creating. I understand self storage industry, um, and I understand the industry uh, luxury storage kind of the niche of what we're making, and so, by creating that and talking about that on social media you mentioned LinkedIn, we're on YouTube, we're on Instagram, we're on all the platforms and we're talking about luxury storage. If you Google luxury storage right now, you're going to see videos of me pop up, because you're going to be curious.
Speaker 2:So what is this asset class? Who's moving in there? Why? Why is this becoming so popular? Well, when you create that kind of credibility online, and now, when we go, we're going to raise two deals which are about twenty million dollars within the two deals, and it's about five million dollars in capital I couldn't imagine a couple years ago what that would be like today, how I was going to raise, because it's what? Is it twenty five thousand dollar minimums or 50 or is it a hundred? Right, like that's a lot of people to talk to, and we got to raise this in like less than 60 days. So it's just, I think you learn about talking about one thing Don't cater to someone. Go into something you understand, find the opportunity and then and then, if you keep talking about it and you keep getting better at it. I guarantee investors will come your way. Don't fall into the concept where you have the deal and the money will come. I promise you you're going to be as disappointed as I was a few years ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a. That's a tough one. I've heard that saying before find the deal, the money will come. Well, it depends on who it might be coming from. Like you have that circle of people around you you know, have you kind of tested the waters in that regard? Because if you don't know anybody and they all you know, all the people you know are from your, you know, elementary school or whatever, like that's not going to probably work in the long run, especially if you have to raise $5 million.
Speaker 1:How did you figure it out in the beginning? Like so, did you hire a coach? Did?
Speaker 2:you read some books? Did you go to YouTube, like, what was the process like to learn about raising capital in the very beginning? Yeah, well, I think you know you want to think about how to stay out of jail, because if you start researching, you know you can raise capital the wrong way. Right, like you don't. You don't post it on your story on Instagram If you don't have any legal docs. Uh, you, the SEC could find you, um, but a guy named Mauricio Rold, I mean, he comes to mind because he was doing like Grant Cardone and some of these big influencers, the brand you know he was they were doing legal docs for them, and so I figured that out, um, and then I realized, yeah, they're very good at what they do. They, they're systemized process. I can whip out paperwork in 10 days. It's all very protected. The LPs are protected better. Everyone has a better protection when you go into the right.
Speaker 2:So, just learning about you know the legalities around it, I think that's what you really want to. That's what I wanted to understand, cause I knew there's, you know, is there, is there, is there certifications we got to get there, really, isn't you know? Um, obviously, you can see. You know crypto. You can just create a coin and and and there's no regulation around it. Well, there is regulation in our space. We are selling securities to LPs and we are the operators. So I, you have to understand, I have some books behind me.
Speaker 2:Uh, you know how to raise capital, syndicating and uh, I think when I learned that I want to go into space, the only reason I wanted to go into this space is because I needed the. The real estate is just always an outflow, right. I realized I could not make enough income to just keep producing more and more real estate. And I'm vertically integrated. I have the development company, I have a construction company, I have the concrete company. I got all these verticals. How do I utilize that to help build something bigger?
Speaker 2:Right, and, by raising capital, it was kind of the last piece. It's like, if I can raise the capital, develop the deal, build the deal, the capital. Develop the deal, build the deal and maybe do some concrete, maybe I'll be pretty happy about that and it'll help build my business and it'll help build my hope. I'm in North Dakota. Help build more North Dakotans if they're local to me at that time and this is five years ago, but you know, be able to be some exposed to real estate. And it wasn't just for the rich, it could be really for anybody.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. It sounds like you had to fill a gap there in the knowledge base and then building out the team with Mauricio or whoever else. What's the strategy in general for identifying and approaching a potential investor? Do they mostly reach out to you or do you go through the process of reaching out to them, or is it a mix of both?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So what you know, what I thought right away is that I would like post a talk about real estate and I thought they would just reach out to invest in my deal and we're not all Brandon Turner. So that I realized that. And then, um, what I did realize is I want to talk about it, I want to coach people, I want to educate people. We turn into educators as online people. You know that's what we're trying to do. We're creating awareness.
Speaker 2:And so once I started realizing I think late 2022, I realized that I really just I don't want to do deals where I'm just posting on social media about a deal. I want to actually curate the investors, take the time to learn who they are, find me, be interested into luxury, luxury storage, be interested in what I'm doing, and I feel like I get better investors that way. But they also they keep coming back. Right, they invest in one-year deals. You, you're going to find repeats all the time and and that's because you're doing exactly, you're talking about it every day online, but you're also investing with those same investors. They stay with you and and I don't know, I think I think that's some value, right, it takes time.
Speaker 2:Most people don't like that. It takes time, but no different than it is to build a brand and I know we're going to talk about that more, but it's it's so important because your credibility is everything. Your track record right, and if you don't have one, you need to be able to be credible online and talking about it. You need at least need to be a perceived expert in one space. Don't try to do too much. Too many asset classes Again, it's just like diversifying when you're 19 years old and you have zero income.
Speaker 1:It's like you're never going to get rich from doing that right, like you're never going to be good at it. Okay, so you bring up an interesting point with like okay, maybe the track record is a little bit lacking. What other kind of maybe objections or questions did you get from investors as you were going through the process of raising capital? How can people like kind of prepare for those Like, what kind of questions did you get or objections?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, you know they. They ask okay, send me all the deals that you have gone full cycle. I've yet to go full cycle on a deal I. I'm a buy and hopefully never sell guy. Um, I I've learned, though, over time, that's not the highest ROI on your money. Um, we're we're now more like a roll up model every five to six years and we're going to roll up models. But I think the objections you're going to see is if you're starting brand new to this and you don't know exactly what you're talking.
Speaker 2:Some of these people are experienced, and I realize that some don't really experience it all, but I do realize that they ask the same questions, no matter how sophisticated they are. They ask you know, when am I going to get paid and when am I going to get my money back and how long we're going to exit? If you can identify those three questions, you will at least answer 90% of what they really need to know. The rest of it will be the vetting process. You know, hey, what have you done? Have you ever done real estate? I mean, it's like, ah, lightly, you know who's going to be the guarantors? Um, who's going to be? Uh, you know what? What kind of deal have you done like this before and how is it operating? You know they may ask things like that and, of course, if you're doing the spray and pray method, where you've got too many asset types, you're never going to have a track record. You can't run a self-sorge facility, a multifamily and light industrial. It's just, it's all different, um, and I think if you can stick to one path and one asset class say, if it's multifamily, stay on multifamily, find a niche, maybe it's. Maybe maybe you're renting out to college students and you're renting out per bedroom. Maybe you're renting out 20 single family homes and you're syndicating it and you're like, hey, I think we can, we can make some money on this because, um, you know, interest rates are high. It's creating a dynamic for capital, like, if you have capital right now, you can probably buy at a discount and if you believe that interest rates in the next two years are going to be down or capital is going to start coming back to real estate, you're going to be in a good play, right. So you start, you just start thinking like the investor and, uh, it sure changes.
Speaker 2:Those conversation makes the conversation. I can have a. You know, if an investor usually wants to talk for a half hour, an hour. I'm asking the question. He's like, oh, I don't know the questions and if you can ask all the questions, he's like that's a great question. It's like it's just reps. You really need to talk to a lot of people and you need to do a deal where you're raising $25,000 a time because that's going to get you hundreds of reps and you're going to understand. Those are usually the harder people because they don't know anything. They're new to the space, I should say.
Speaker 1:That's interesting With the roll-up. You said that you're doing a roll-up model. Does that mean that you're going to refi them in five years? Because if you want to hold it long-term, let's say you want to hold it 10 years plus but the investor does want their capital back at some point. Like what does that just real quick? What does that process look like? Like what do you mean by that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I think when I started I said you know, buy real estate never, never let it go Right and get it not necessarily get it paid off, but just stick through the refis. But I've realized with you know, bonus depreciation and I talked to enough family offices and large institutions are like we're in for a minimum of 5 million and we're going to sell in five years like that's the highest ROI IRR for us. And then we're going to because to them everything's transactional. They're just looking for the highest return on their capital at that time. And once you do enough IRR work which is internal rate of return, it's just basically how much you're making on your money You're going to realize that a five-year spread when you're doing bonus depreciation is probably your best time to keep rolling and holding forever. While, yes, it creates equity, isn't your highest rate of return on money. So once I realized that that's we've converted, I think I don't know early last year, we were like, okay, we're going to because all of them investors, everyone's getting shorter and shorter term.
Speaker 2:You could talk to investors five years ago and they're like, yeah, we'll stick for 10 years. You know, we're just going to invest and keep refining and make money on the deal. Well, now it's like they want their capital back. It's like, okay, what's the exit plan? And I get longer than five years. You start getting questioned as a capital raiser. It's like I don't know if I want to sit in this for 10, you know, 10 years. Pretty much they think it's forever Right and so it just it's just how we had to convert to raise capital better and give them the highest rate of return. So they're not wrong, right, so we're really trying to achieve what they want.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you think about like a house, if you rent your house out or a house out for like $1,500 or $2,000 a month or whatever, the number is $3,000 a month that's great. You have some expenses and things you got to take care of. So maybe your cashflow I don't know 500 bucks a month or whatever Right Cashflow is good. But like later on, hopefully five years down the road the house is appreciated. You can now sell it, make a profit plus all the cashflow. That's what Mark is talking about. That your highest rate of return is like. When you sell the property, you could refi it, but you may not get all of your equity the hip for 10 plus years or whatever. They want to get their money back and go do other things, especially if they're a retail investor. They want to do other things at some point in time with that capital and you may be just a small piece of that larger picture for them personally.
Speaker 1:So it makes sense to have some sort of exit like that where you are selling the property. If you could refi it, great. But if you're selling the property, you underwrite it that way and show people the numbers in that sense. So let's talk real quick. Let's transition talking about building a personal brand.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because you've mentioned or kind of alluded to that you said you're on LinkedIn, youtube, instagram. Anyone that we're missing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, tiktok. I mean I write two emails and newsletters every week one to my investors, one to my sub stack um group. There's about 5 000 people subscribe to that. I mean there's people paying for a free email in there. So there's a lot of value in my, my email that I deliver every week. Um, just education around what I'm doing, education around um, how to build a company. You know really, unfollow the herd is the concept and it's really. You know, don't, don't follow the same path everyone else is going, and how to create your own path. And you know, help educate yourself. So make sure you're subscribed to that. But yeah, we do short form reels. We do long form on YouTube's. You know, tick tock, it doesn't matter, we're, we're on every platform. Um, x is probably the one I'm not on as much. Um, um, just haven't really figured out that platform yet for my, for my stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a different one. That's just kind of off the cuff, thoughts in the spur of the moment kind of thing, which can be kind of fun. You're like at a restaurant and you post about you know whatever the heck it was, and you can maybe tie it into business somehow. But it has to be, it doesn't have to be short. They lengthen the um. Well, yeah, whereas Twitter used to be like I forgot whatever it was 160 characters or less or something like that. They've lengthened it. But that's the idea with that one. Whereas I found that LinkedIn you post like once, maybe twice a a day and that's about enough. Whereas X I go on there and just see what's happening and like it is really like flow of thought you know whether it's Elon or whoever else you're kind of following and they just kind of post random things that will not always have to do with real estate, which can be kind of entertaining.
Speaker 1:But, okay, so you're on all those platforms. Yep, everybody give them a follow. And, by the way, guys, mark did not pay me to have him on and talk about this stuff. I just think it's helpful to help you guys out, and obviously me myself too, I'm learning. So just to give you guys an idea like it sounds like a sales pitch, but it's not so, cause we keep saying follow and go find out and do this stuff, and that's not what's happening here.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, being genuine, but okay, did you start practically speaking? Did you start practically speaking? Did you start with one platform and then go to another? Did you end up hiring a team? Like, how did that look like? Because I know this is a lot of work. People don't realize how much work it is to run social media for yourself on, like, multiple platforms.
Speaker 2:Yeah you hit that on the spot. I was like every other person that had Instagram, Facebook, you know TikTok. You're a consumer, right? You're not posting out there. You're almost a little bit nervous to post on there, probably, and make the actual flip where your your phone goes from to you to. You know, now you're you're looking at it a lot and so there there's some challenges around that. Uh, mentally, emotionally, um, and and you know on how to do that, and it's like people always think and they say like well, I don't want to do the look at me thing and look here what I've done and and and brag maybe, and it's like it really isn't that. Um, but I really converted from a consumer in in 21 to 22. It's like, all right, I'm going to do all this myself because we're kind of out of COVID, but I was still like had time, Um, but I miss like the COVID train where there were so many eyeballs like you could grow on any platform at a crazy rate. Um, to now today, where it's so, it's so competitive in the reels and long form and everything. It's just a competitive space to be and it's really challenging Um, but I just started.
Speaker 2:I said in 2022, November 2022, I hired, um, you know, I have a, I have a writing team, I have the video strategy team. Um, I have a videographer. I had to have an editor, you know. You know, this is all stuff that you thought you could do and there's a lot of power within just the phone. You don't need all this to start, Right, but I really just dedicated that. Hey, I'm going to invest five grand a month. Let's just start there, Right, Like, OK, I need five grand a month. I need to pay the editor, Right, and this is where I'm going to start. I'm going to post every day on um, uh, LinkedIn, I'm going to post every day on X or whatever the ones I was going to do, and I just committed that to myself and I'm like let's just see what happens.
Speaker 2:Well, for about a year, not a lot happened. I mean, I added followers and that's great. You know, I went from 300 followers in the beginning of 22 to 3000 followers total at the end of 22. So it was like not that glorious, right, Like um, and you're like I don't know. And there was an investment. I remember I invested 60 grand. That's a lot of money for not, you know. But then, all of a sudden 23 hits and I'm just like, let's just stick it out, Like I'm in it already, let's. I got a team of a sudden 23 hits and I'm just like, let's just stick it out, Like I'm in it already, let's, I got a team. Um, I got an editor.
Speaker 2:Um, I learned from Ryan Panetta so I hired him as a mentor. Um, he showed me yeah, he showed me all his um, you know, systems and processes. He showed me he was posting uh, 135 times a week. Um, whether it was reels or writing, yeah and uh, so it was just a a very interesting. It was like Holy, 135. I was posting like 12 or something like like three, three. And so all of a sudden I was like let's ramp up, then let's go, let's go for a hundred, let's go for a hundred posts a week, and that's. You know, you gotta be shooting three reels a day, posting three reels a day, Um, I mean you have to build all the content and then you have to get it edited and then post it. It's literally a strategy at every level and you gotta be able to understand that. So I went full out, like I went max. We were shooting 90 reels a month. Um, we were posting twice a day on on LinkedIn. Um, we just went all in and we just did it, and so so the, the, the system didn't really work for me in 22 by myself, so I just cranked it up in 23 and just said I'm going to give it my all. So I hired the best coaches, um, Ryan Pineda, and then I, uh, like, I said I have a writing team and we just did it all, and that went from 3000 to 30,000, right, Okay, we 10 X great, Um, and then, you know, now we're up to like, you know, if we brought it all the way fast forward. Today we're at like 60,000 followers on all platforms, but we started shooting long form YouTube.
Speaker 2:I'm more comfortable on a podcast. I can just um, you know, I forgot I had a podcast today and then we, you know, we're just shooting. I, I, I genuinely like talking about this type of stuff and helping people. So it's like you, all you're doing is doing more and more reps and it's not that uncomfortable. So, since I did all those reps in 2023, early 24, I don't I don't do as nearly as many reps now. It's a lot of repurposing. Um, I think in 24 I did 150 podcasts, but now it's like it's funny, these podcasts.
Speaker 2:Podcasts have great seo and it's like you google my name. I have so much credibility now online that it's unbelievable and it it creates my investors. Watch the material. My um people know what I'm talking about because they can google luxury storage boom, mark, mark, mark. You know I'm everywhere. I got every video, I got every write-up. I got everything I I own can Google luxury storage Boom, mark, mark, mark. You know I'm everywhere. I got every video, I got every write up. I got everything I own the freaking luxury storage space You're going to find me. Um, so when I go to raise money and I go to do these things that I want to do as an entrepreneur and vertically integrate my businesses and build more things to build, you know, produce work for my companies um, it sure makes it a lot easier and it makes me more comfortable to raise $5 million in 60 days than it, than it used to. It was much more challenging.
Speaker 1:Give us, give us one tip. Um one, we're going to wrap things up here, but give us give somebody one tip. Who might be that guy or gal posting that, you know, three times a week, whatever? And they know the importance of ramping up the social media, but they're kind of overwhelmed because we've all been there, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Like what should I do? Tiktok, should I do this, Should I do that? Like I don't know what to do. Then you end up doing nothing because you do feel that emotional kind of overwhelm. What's one piece of advice? To get started or to ramp things up.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, no matter what, what platform you're doing if it's Instagram on the video side or LinkedIn, you really have to hire. These algorithms are insane, no matter you. I could be posting every day and get 3000 impressions. It's great, but it's not going to change you. You, at some point, you're going to have to go to an expert and you may be able to just hire a coach they're not but at some point you're going to have to hire an expert on instagram, an expert within linkedin, an expert at youtube.
Speaker 2:These algorithms are super confusing. They're not the same platform to platform. You need to find someone in that space that breathes instagram. If that's what you want to do, I guarantee I have over a thousand posts on instagram and I only have 3 000 followers. It's because I haven't really honed in on Instagram, um, and I focus more on LinkedIn. Right, but it takes time and it's such a it's such a slow moving thing that like keep moving forward but like figure out an expert in the space. I promise you you will not. You will not ever regret building your personal brand. You'll never regret trying to hire an expert and paying them. Well, because the good ones. They know what to do, they know how to edit, they know what to look for and they know how to grow your, your personal brand.
Speaker 1:Absolutely man, uh what? I've obviously watched videos and read some books and other things out there. You know you can follow some other folks uh, within that. Follow some other folks within that platform.
Speaker 1:I think your advice is good Figure out whatever platform you want to be on. Probably, if you're listening to this podcast, I imagine it'd be LinkedIn. But just pick a platform and go with it and go deep in that. I wish that's something that I would have done. I did start with LinkedIn, but I wish I would have done that a little bit better and then my consistency did like kind of wane here and there, cause you just get kind of like tired. You know you're busy, whatever, and it's work man. People don't realize how much work it is to do, even do a podcast, whatever, and it's work man. People don't realize now that chat GPTs come out, that helps, yeah, yeah no-transcript.
Speaker 2:It's actually engaging and it's getting you leads. It's getting you the things that you've always wanted, so that's that's what you really need. I like I said, I love everyone, I love that they're posting, but it's like sometimes you have to hire the experts, unfortunately.
Speaker 1:That's good advice I know, it's like maybe not what some people want to hear, because they don't want to spend the money, but it's really worth it. I've hired a coach in the past. It's super helpful, and so I don't look at gurus or anything like that. I mean, I understand some are just kind of going to take your money but you get. I'm saying like I'm all about paying for the coaching.
Speaker 2:It works.
Speaker 1:It really works so, and then you have some skin in the game right, you're paying for it, and so you have something.
Speaker 1:You want to get as much out of it as possible. Oh yeah, You're paying for it. Check out the description for the episode. There's always some sort of discount or whatever it is. I'm running for the month, so check that out. Save you some money in your business, building your personal brand. Maybe we're helping you get some more customers for your self-storage luxury storage facility. So check out the sponsors in the description. Mark, let's wrap it up here with the final four questions. Talk to us about a career high point and what you learned through that experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my, my high point was I think we got a $20 million construction job and that was like you know, it went against everything, saying like I think our large, next largest was like 6 million. But like, when you got a job like that, it really builds credibility for your business and track record for my construction company and so when we got that, it really it really has helped expand or pushed our limits into today. But like that was getting a win like that when you're a small contractor and that's how I viewed us that really breaks your, breaks you through the ceiling where the glass ceiling of to the next level and and proved what we were doing was was all legitimate. So that was one of our highest points in in in my construction career, which is 15 years. So it's a long time.
Speaker 1:That's a big job too, so yeah development fee on that would be huge so that's amazing. Uh, what, what has been one thing you've learned in the last year, uh, that you wish you would have known prior to uh that experience?
Speaker 2:um, man, I something that's hard now with with banks are, you know, a little bit pickier and harder to finance different projects. But, um, you know, I always stayed loyal to one bank and I think there is something with loyalty right, like and I. But we're doing projects now all over the united states, um, and we, we bid those what proposed, you know, projects out to 15 banks and and from there you know, we find our, we find who's aggressive and who's not, because we didn't. I didn't realize, like you know, how picky lenders get and they sometimes don't need exposure to stores, sometimes they want exposure to multifamily, sometimes they need different types of loans at different times. So, um, just just learning, um really how to get the lending space. Um, it's amazing, it just makes our projects. If you can get a rate quoted at seven and a half and all of a sudden you got a bank at six and a half cause they're local to that market or whatever, it really just changes the dynamics of the project and gets them from no to go Right.
Speaker 1:Hmm, that's really good man. Yeah, sometimes when you start you want to be loyal, like you said, because you want to build that relationship and that's important. We're not saying it's not important, but if you are trying to expand your business, it is good to get a couple of different quotes because, like you said, some bank may really want what you're offering and they're going to get aggressive and that saves you money in the long run with better terms. So that's great. That's really good advice, man. Can you recommend a business book resource, something to that effect? It doesn't have to be storage related, but just something that's helped you in your business.
Speaker 2:You know Dan Martell always talks about a great guy buy back your time. I believe I have it back here even, and he, he's just going to train you to think about your business, as I get a lot of operators and different people even the contracting space that are always just doing the work Um, never working on the business, never trying to actually form a business that, like, can produce something without you. Um, they produce something only that can produce it if you're there. Um, so buy back your time. I think it not only goes into yeah, buy back your time, but you want to. It also will help you think about your business differently. It'll help you think about your life a little bit differently, and I think everyone wants to achieve that at the end of the day. So that really is the goal. And then it helps break down how do you get there.
Speaker 1:Absolutely man. That's very good man. I've heard a lot more about him recently, so I think his name is getting out there more and more. Last question Mark how can listeners get in touch with you if they want to invest or learn more or just follow your content?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So usually we tell people, go to LinkedIn, because that's where we're at all the time. If you DM me, I get lots of DMs so you can keep reaching out or go to maccapitalgfcom and you can, you can get to be one of our investors on there. We are redoing our website right now so I hope that that is live by the time this goes live. So, and you know, if you're interested in storage, you're interested in maybe partnering with us. We look for good GPs to partner with in markets that we don't understand right, like I'm not, I can't be in every market, and if we want to expand outside of North Dakota, south Dakota, then I have to find good GPs to partner with. So, again, you can, you can type in partnering on any platform and it'll pull up and you, you can fill out an application and learn how to partner or invest with us from that.
Speaker 1:Perfect, Mark. Thank you so much for being on the show. We covered a ton of ground. Hope it was helpful for you guys listening or watching. Thank you so much, Mark.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I appreciate it. Thanks, Chris.