IAM312- Real Estate Investor and Podcast Host Helps Entrepreneurs Grow Their Wealth Passively

After graduating with an engineering degree and then an MBA from OhioState, Paul started on the management development track at Ford MotorCompany in Detroit. After five years, he departed to start a staffing company with a partner. They sold it to a publicly traded firm for $2.9 million five years later.

Along the way, Paul was Finalist for Ernst & Young'sMichigan Entrepreneur of the Year two years straight. Paul later entered the real estate sector, where he completed 85 real estate investments and exits, appeared on an HGTV Special, rehabbed and managed dozens of rental properties, developed a waterfront subdivision, and started two successful online real estate marketing firms.

Three successful developments, including assisting with development of a Hyatt hotel and a multifamily housing project, led him into the commercial investment arena where he manages two private equity funds.

• CEO Hack: Focusing on one thing and doing it really well
• CEO Nugget: Commercial real estate might stay for longer and is worth pursuing
• CEO Defined: Rule like a servant and serve like a king

Website: http://www.wellingscapital.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-moore-3255924/
Twitter: MultifamilyPaul

Full Interview

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Transcription

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of.

This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I am CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Paul Moore of Wellings Capital.

Paul, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Paul Moore 0:39

Hey, it's great to be here. Thanks, Gresham.

Gresham Harkless 0:41

No problem, super excited to have you on, and what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Paul so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. And after graduating with an engineering degree and then an MBA from Ohio State, Paul started on the management development track at Ford Motor Company in Detroit. After five years, he departed to start a staffing company with a partner. They sold it to a publicly traded firm for $2.9 million, five years later. Along the way, Paul was the finalist for Ernst and Young's Michigan Entrepreneur of the Year, for two straight years, Paul later into the real estate sector where he completed 85 Real estate investments and exits, appeared on HGTV, special rehab, and manage dozens of rental properties, developed a waterfront subdivision and started two successful online real estate marketing firms.

Three successful developments, including assisting with the development of Hyatt Hotel, and a multifamily housing project led him into the commercial investment arena where he manages private equity firms. Paul, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

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Paul Moore 1:46

I am ready. I'm exhausted though, after that long bio. Shiny objects in there. Doesn't that sound like it?

Gresham Harkless 1:52

Exactly, I can't imagine how it was doing it. It was a lot of reading. And so I know you're rocking and rolling, doing a lot of awesome things. So it's great to have you on the show.

Paul Moore 2:00

You bet.

Gresham Harkless 2:01

Yes. So I wanted to kick everything off and hear more about what I call your CEO story and what led you to start your business.

Paul Moore 2:08

So when I worked at Ford Motor Company, it was almost 20-30 years ago, almost, man, I could have retired. I really liked Ford and a lot of people have these complaints about the big company that worked for whatever, but I actually had no complaints. I really liked it. But I looked at the potential career path. And I saw that a lot of executives were transferring all around the country, their kids never got to have roots anywhere. I heard of some kids who said that they're told their parent's background 10th or 11th-grade look, I'm not moving again, Dad, I'm staying here, I'm gonna move in with my friend. And I didn't want to see that happen.

So I also found myself tinkering with stuff, my buddy and I were always doing things in the evenings and weekends trying to start some side gig to make money on the side.

And so I realized I think I'm more set to be an entrepreneur than I am, working at Ford for the next 30 or 40 years. So we launched out on our own. And my wife was amazing because she is super risk-averse. She hates risk. But she actually let me take this risk, even though she was seven months pregnant with our first child. And she hated the thought that we didn't even know any entrepreneurs. So she hated the thought of all that risk. But thank God for her that she let me launch out and gave me the freedom to do that. And so there's been a lot of ups and downs along the way. Let me tell you.

Gresham Harkless 3:42

Yeah, I bet so, and especially, like you said you didn't have any entrepreneurs around you. So being able to see that path and do it anyways, that, to me is the real definition of a trailblazer.

Paul Moore 3:53
Yeah, yeah.

Gresham Harkless 3:54
So I guess could you tell us a little bit more about what you decided to launch? Tell us a little bit more about Wellings Capital in everything you do.

Paul Moore 4:00

Yeah. So after doing that company in 1997, I found myself before my 34th birthday. I actually found myself, going into so-called semi-retirement. And I thought, well, I'm an investor now. And I really didn't know the first thing about investing Gresh, I thought I didn't understand the difference between investing and speculating. Investing is when your principal is generally safe, and you've got a chance to make a return. But speculating is when your principal is not at all safe, and you've got a chance to make a return.

And I was definitely speculating and calling it investing. And so I made a lot of money on some things, and I lost a lot of money on other things. And that's one of the reasons we launched the podcast we have today. It's called How to lose money. And that's where we talk to successful entrepreneurs and investors about mistakes and things in the past. As in their past on their road to success where they got burned or lost a lot of money.

But at any rate, I got into flipping houses before flipping was a thing. And then we actually started reselling buying and reselling waterfront, built lots of a small subdivision, built some houses from the ground up. And like I said, I've made some money, lost some money. And I realized when I turned 50, that I didn't want to be on the losing end of some startup or some risky speculative venture, it's like the Double or Nothing, I didn't want to be on the anything part of that. Someday in my 50s, 60s, or 70s, whenever I couldn't work again, I didn't want to leave my family stranded. And I thought, what can I do? What could I do that would be risk averse, I wouldn't be swinging for the fences. I'd actually be trying to hit singles and doubles.

And I discovered that in commercial real estate and Gresh, I found out that almost all the Forbes 400 wealthiest people in America are investing in commercial real estate, a lot of them got there through commercial real estate in the first place. And I realized there's a reason for that. And when I discovered how commercial real estate really works, how the value formula works, etc, I have never looked back since then. That's why we launched Wellings Capital.

Gresham Harkless 6:24

Nice. I absolutely love that. And I love the fact that I always say success leaves clues. So the fact that you mentioned that the people on the Forbes 400 or Fortune 500 were somehow associated with commercial real estate, you understood that was something that not only did it fit within what you were trying to accomplish, but it also could lead you on that path and could lead many others on that path. It sounds like.

Paul Moore 6:48

Yeah, that's very true. It's surprising to me, that I could go through the math if we have more time. But if you can save $1 a month, at a commercial real estate property, if you can make an extra dollar or save $1, you add $1 to your income, that's $12 a year, and you divide that amount by the cap rate, which is the rate of return. And let's say that 6% That's the general rate of return on a certain asset, certain property, like a certain market right now. $12, divided by point oh, six, it's $200. So I can create $200 in value at an asset, whether it's multifamily self-storage or mobile home parks, I can create $200 in value for the shareholders by adding $1 to the bottom line, it's pretty powerful. Now you take that and multiply that out times, the 1000s of dollars, you can actually create, we're talking real money here.

And with leverage when you take debt into the equation, it even multiplies that effect further. And so there's all kinds of examples in this if we have more time, but it is a powerful, powerful lever, that commercial investors and operators can pull to really create real big wealth.

Gresham Harkless 8:07

Nice. Yeah, that definitely huge. Because to be able to simplify it on that level, so that everybody can understand. But as you mentioned, if you have more leverage, then, of course, you can multiply and then set that equation on fire, so to speak. So I appreciate you for sharing that with us. And now I want to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And this could be for you or your organization, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Paul Moore 8:32

So what we're doing is there are a lot of people I know, some of them are newbies out there, who were not investing in real estate in the last crash. And they're now experts there, they've got mentoring programs, they're selling coaching, and they haven't lived through a crash, and I will say that we've been through a couple of crashes, the minor went in early, like around 2001. And then the big one, of course, that we all know about. And I can say that we have gone to great lengths in our 50s to vet operators, and we are able to find great operators and put them together and make their products, their investments available to investors.

And so Wellings Capital has got two funds, we've got a growth fund, which is all about appreciation, and then an Income Fund, which is income and growth. And we've put together a diversified group of these amazing operators who have survived and actually thrive through more than one recession, and who have great returns. And some of them are not really well known to the public. And we're making them known to our investors and giving investors an opportunity to invest and they're actually giving us a better deal because of our size. And so we're actually able to do that at no effective cost to the investor. So that's what we love about what we're doing.

Gresham Harkless 10:06

Yeah, absolutely. And I always say that you always try to build upon the expertise of the people that are on your team or the people around you. And as you said, you guys have been through those great economic times, but also the not-so-great economic times, and to be able to kind of tap into that expertise and understand how you're investing your money, how you're not speculating unless you want to speculate but understand the difference between the two is really important to do if you're doing something like that.

Paul Moore 10:33

Right.

Gresham Harkless 10:34

That makes perfect sense. And I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I wanted to ask you about what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app or book or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Paul Moore 10:47

Yeah, absolutely. So I tell you, I see CEOs, entrepreneurs, in general, are a very optimistic bunch. And so as optimists, we tend to also get distracted easily, we tend to chase shiny objects. And he who chases two rabbits usually catches none. And there's another saying I'm forgetting already. But I acorn that is planning to turn into a large oak tree plans not to move around too much. I said that totally around, didn't I? But anyway, you get the point.

Gresham Harkless 11:27

I get the point.

Paul Moore 11:29

And so I've found that over the years, one of the biggest mistakes I made is just chasing too many things at once. So I have begun a program with Jeff Woods and Gary Keller, it's called The One Thing and a lot of us have heard of The One Thing book but they've actually got a program, you can sign up for it. And they teach you and they have weekly updates and coaching calls and accountability, helping you stay accountable to focusing on one thing, and doing that really well.

Gresham Harkless 12:00

Yeah, that's a great kind of hack. Because a lot of times, I always visualize and I can't remember the quote myself. But it always talks about a magnifying glass. If you take a magnifying glass, and you put it under the sun, it will burn a hole in a wooden plank. But if you take that same sun and you don't have the magnifying glass, it can lay on that plank the entire time and never make any impact. So it's so important to focus and have that one thing. So I'm glad you brought that up.

Paul Moore 12:28

Very true. That's good.

Gresham Harkless 12:30

Yes. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And you might have already touched on this. But this is something that is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Or if you can happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Paul Moore 12:42

Oh, absolutely. That's easy. I told my son and my junior partner, they're both about 25 years old. And I said, knowing what I know now about commercial real estate, but absolutely never would have done anything else. Because of the risk on the return. And the ability to see the demographic outlook for years to come is very, very powerful. Warren Buffett doesn't generally invest in Internet stocks, because he says I don't know what the future of technology holds. But I do know that the internet is not going to change the way people chew gum.

Gresham Harkless 13:18

Yes, that makes perfect sense. And who better to listen to than definitely the guru? Warren Buffett, especially, I know him talking about that. And also Coca-Cola as well, to just understanding these are things that have lasted for years and years and years, just as you're speaking to commercial real estate has always been around because you need a place to run the business and to build your empire, I guess you could say.

Paul Moore 13:40

Yeah, right.

Gresham Harkless 13:42

Nice. And now, I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote-unquote, CEOs on the show. So Paul, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Paul Moore 13:53

I think it means being a servant and drawing out the talents of everybody in your organization, a CEO they say, we should rule like a servant. And we should serve like a king. And so as a CEO, I want to do both of those. Well, I want to rule like a servant. And I want to serve like a king.

Gresham Harkless 14:16

Nice. I absolutely love that quote. And that reminder, because it's important to understand that when you are leading a team, and even when you have clients, you have to make sure that you are building that service aspect, especially in it. So, Paul, I truly appreciate your time. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that our readers and listeners know and then of course, how best they can get ahold of you. And listen to you back.

Paul Moore 14:38

As you know, I touched on it earlier, I said that investing versus speculating is something that's really important for everybody. And I'll leave people with a couple of quotes here on that. So Paul Samuelson was the first Nobel Prize winner in economics from the US, and Samuelson said that investing should be like watching paint dry and watching grass grow. If you want excitement, take $800 and go to Las Vegas. And I think Samuelson's quote is so important because it reminds us that while we might want to get all kinds of fun, we might want to live on the edge. We want to have excitement as a CEO. That's fine, like as an entrepreneur, but when it comes to investing, our investment should generally be very boring.

And then the very last quote is from the wisest man who ever lived, his name is King Solomon. And he said, He who invests he who gains wealth quickly, we'll watch it dwindle. And I think that's kind of a similar thing. We need to be in it for the long haul.

Gresham Harkless 15:44

Nice. I definitely appreciate those nuggets and people that want to reach out to you. What's the best way for them to do that?

Paul Moore 15:50

They can go to our website, it's wellingscapital.com.

Gresham Harkless 16:00

Awesome, awesome, awesome. We'll have those links in the show notes as well. But thank you so much again, Paul. I appreciate you. I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Paul Moore 16:07

Thanks, Gresham. Appreciate it.

Outro 16:09

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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