IAM447- CEO Assists Clients to Make Wise Investments in Real Estate

Mark Mascia is the Founder and CEO of Mascia Development. His company assists professionals and entrepreneurs to make wise investments in high-end commercial real estate, the type of stuff that normally only the country's wealthiest families are able to get involved in. Mark has also had great success in leading a location-independent team and has a lot of valuable experience to share in that regard. His entrepreneurial process has brought on enormous challenges that he's had to overcome, and these have served to make him extremely knowledgeable about what it takes to be a successful CEO.

• CEO Hack: Personal therapy to take care of my mental health
• CEO Nugget: Always be learning and seek mentorship
• CEO Defined: Being a leader

Website: propertyincome.com

masciadev.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/masciadev/

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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 Mark Mascia of Mascia Development. Mark, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Mark Mascia 0:38

Thanks for having me.

Gresham Harkless 0:40

No problem. Super excited to have you on.  what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Mark. So you hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. Mark is the founder and CEO of Mascia Development. His company assists professionals and entrepreneurs to make wise investments and high-end commercial real estate, the type of stuff that normally only the country's wealthiest families are able to get involved in.

Mark also has great success leading a location-independent team and has a lot of valuable experience to share in that regard. His entrepreneurial process has brought on enormous challenges that he's had to overcome. those have served to make him extremely knowledgeable about what it takes to be a successful CEO. Mark, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

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Mark Mascia 1:20

I am? Yes.

Gresham Harkless 1:21

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, you made it right on the right on the perfect podcast, because that's what we're all about. So I wanted to kick everything off with here and a little bit more about what led you to get started in your CEO story.

Mark Mascia 1:32

Sure, great. Yeah. Thanks. Yeah. So thanks for the great intro. I always wanted to be an entrepreneur, young age, I thought it was more tech-driven, that was kind of a passion hobby of mine, I enjoyed technology and math and things like that. So I thought it was going to be that realm. That's kind of where I started my journey, but really fell in love with real estate and physical architecture and things like that as I got older. And so that led me down the real estate path. For a while, I was working for other people doing, and learning.

So I didn't know anything about the industry didn't have background and didn't have knowledge from family or anything like that. So I got trained through a bunch of other great opportunities with other great companies, and then eventually just realized that, kind of I had not learned everything there was to learn, but learned enough that I was ready to kind of jump out and learn on my own. So that was how that became the story. So, I worked for a lot of other great companies learned a ton, and then started my own to kind of take it to the next level.

Gresham Harkless 2:26

That makes perfect sense. I've always heard,  a lot of times, the best way to kind of learn, especially if that you want to run a business or work or start your own organization, is to always learn from people who have been able to do or be really successful kind of cultures that you can kind of learn and develop your skills because that's a big aspect of being successful.

Mark Mascia 2:45

Yeah, I think it was great modeling, you'd write for me, it was like, I can take the best and worst and say, like, I'll redo the best things and not do some of the worst things. from coming from that job, with that mindset, I knew I wanted to be off on my own. So every decision that was being made at the top level, I was trying like what I do that way, or what I do something differently. obviously, everyone's different. So I'm not saying like, that the companies I worked for were bad companies, they were all great companies. But just the way you would do things might be different. That was kind of a lot of what I was paying attention to and learning along the way as well.

Gresham Harkless 3:11

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. I think, one of the seven habits of highly effective people is always to begin with the end in mind. So if that you want to do that, it helps kind of to go through that filter of those different decisions, you can see how it turns out a how it doesn't turn out without you actually being the CEO at that time and having to deal with the fruits or unfruitful the lack of those decisions.

Mark Mascia 3:33

Exactly. 100% true, definitely. Yeah.

Gresham Harkless 3:35

Nice. So I wanted to hear a little bit more about Mascia Development. Can you tell or take us through exactly what you do to kind of help support the class you work with?

Mark Mascia 3:43

Yeah, great. So we work with a lot of like, really busy, high net worth individuals, some are family offices with,  hundreds of millions of dollars. Some are,  sort of just regular entrepreneurs, like most of your audience, probably where they, want to diversify their income or their net worth into other asset classes, but don't necessarily have the time, effort, and energy to do it themselves. So we really are focused on crafting specific strategies for those who have the means to be able to have those those crafted around them.

So we, you know, basically come up with a bunch of strategies presented to an individual and then, implement those strategies on their behalf and do it in a white-glove way. So we're very focused on a high level of service. Basically, as much as they want to be involved. They're allowed to be involved, of course, because it's a transaction on their behalf. But they don't have to be involved at all if they don't want to be.

So it's really just someone a lot of times it's called Board of Directors investing where they basically sit on the board and tell people what to do, but they don't have to get their hands dirty, because they're busy doing whatever else they're doing. That tends to be our core focus niche that we do really well with. We also do syndicated traditional real estate where,  people can come in for smaller chunks, 50- $100,000 cheques instead of writing the whole cheque themselves. So that's that's the other part of our business where we get people involved that traditionally wouldn't be allowed to be involved because they wouldn't necessarily have as large cheque as the kind of $3 million cheque writers or larger which is the traditional part of our business.

Gresham Harkless 5:00

It's nice that that makes sense. So it kind of sounds like it definitely correct me if I'm wrong, but it's kind of opening up those investment opportunities to those people that may not necessarily have the expertise or know about it, but they're able to,  I guess have some portion of the pie, so to speak, where they're able to kind of invest and also get the fruits of those investments as well to along with other people.

Mark Mascia 5:19

Exactly. I mean, so most of what we do, I mean, you know, investing in any kind of thing is not, there's no magic, it's not like it's,  impossible for someone to learn, just like really any skill set. But most of the people we're dealing with are extremely smart in their own right, have done really successfully well in their own career, but, are good at what they do and want to stay in their lane and do what they do and not want to, be a stock expert, or bond expert or real estate expert, they hire people to do those things. So we would be the expert to take them to the real estate process, whether that's, real estate that they own for their business, or for their personal investments, or for whatever goals that may be.

So that's really where we fit best, you know, obviously, again, if someone wants to kind of run their own real estate shop and do all the heavy lifting, nitty gritty stuff, by all means, they can do that. As I said, most of the people we work with are well-heeled enough and have enough money to do that, but just not what they want to be spending their time doing. It's not where they have their expertise, they'd rather rely on us to be the experts.

Gresham Harkless 6:09

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. I feel like that's one of the things that I've learned,  through, you know, business, we all kind of have our lanes. The more you're able to stay in that lane and be really successful. It allows you to be able to attract, and a lot of times, connect with people that are experts and other crafts allow you to kind of diversify from lack of a better term and other opportunities, but you don't necessarily have to be the expert in everything, because it's kind of hard to do that.

Mark Mascia 6:35

Yeah, I mean, we look at it as leverage, right? Like, you wouldn't go to your general practitioner doctor and say, Okay, now do brain surgery on me, brain surgeon to do that. But your general practitioner needs to take care of the whole person. So, they're kind of like the quarterback of your medical, we're sort of one of those people that, if you're the quarterback of your own financial net worth, and we're one of the people you would hopefully throw to when you need real estate solutions.

Gresham Harkless 6:57

Yeah, absolutely. I definitely appreciate that. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. It could be for you personally, or it could be for your organization. But what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Mark Mascia 7:09

Yeah, we've had a lot of diversified experience across a lot of different aspects of real estate. Over the last year, we've been in business for 13 years, and even before that, when I was working for other people. So we have a great niche of understanding kind of what the opportunities are, and where the best opportunities are at this current time. So what we're good at is seeing the whole landscape and picking good opportunities within that landscape, as opposed to just being a one trick pony, where if we only did one thing, you'd only get that one thing over and over again, whether it made sense or doesn't make sense.

So that's helped us be a lot more value-oriented rather than just transaction-oriented. Then I think the other aspect is our heavy level of service. So we focused on a higher level of customer cheque writing size, not because you know, I only want to deal with the ultra-wealthy for some personal reason more just because it helps us really give white glove service, which is what we do better than anyone. I think there's a lot of,  there's a lot of people out there who will just turn transactions and transactions. That's great for those people who want that, or those people who just want to choose their own things. But for people who really want a level of service that makes them feel more comfortable with their money as it's specifically tailored around them. That's something that we have focused on since day one that we do really well

Gresham Harkless 8:15

yeah, it kind of sounds like quality over quantity. Would that be right to say?

Mark Mascia 8:18

Yeah, exactly. Many fewer customers that have bigger transactions per customer kind of thing. Exactly. Which, has its downsides. I'm not saying it's perfect, but for us has worked really well.

Gresham Harkless 8:28

Yeah, I don't think anything's ever perfect. But a lot of times you are able to provide those that white glove service, just because you do know it a lot of times definitely correct me if I'm wrong, you kind of get that opportunity to really kind of develop relationships, develop connections, start to get to know that ideal client even more because you do have kind of a deeper connection rather than a wider connection when you can do one more transactions.

Mark Mascia 8:51

Totally 100%. Yeah, we really value that connection. I mean, we really don't work with anyone we don't enjoy both from a customer, and investor standpoint, but also just the whole way through our business. I mean, one of the things you mentioned like, when I jumped off, one of the reasons was is my boss may have gotten along great with some of the consultants or people we were working with, but I might have hated them. It was really difficult to have to be working with people all day when you work so hard and so long to work with people you don't like.

So we really only work with people that like us. And we like them. Because life's too short, to be perfectly honest. So we spend so much time at work. I just, it's just not worth it. So if it's not a good fit,  we try to bail out as early and as easily as possible. So we're not kind of a mismatch.

Gresham Harkless 9:27

Yeah, absolutely. And that's always a great thing that you always try to do. You have the opportunity to do that, of course, when you have your own shop, so to speak. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be an apple book or habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Mark Mascia 9:45

Yeah, really interesting. So something I wouldn't have said maybe two, three years ago that has been life-changing for me and it's a little a little softer on the edges. So I apologize to those who don't like that kind of thing. But I recently started going to just therapy like my own personal therapy and, growing up It was not something that was really that supported in the family. So I never would have thought of it. But I joined this Entrepreneurs Organization, and it was talking about how basically like, you have to treat your business as the whole person, right? You're not just what you bring to work, you're what you came from work with, or vice versa, right? What you take home from work. And so a lot of getting me to the next level was really about improving my own, my own self might.

So it was working out doing things like take care of my health, but also my mental health and sort of really just working through therapy, again, if I have a bad day, work through and figure out why and how to avoid those and things like that. So it's been, again, something I never would have thought of would have been so important. But it has really helped me in a lot of ways in my business kind of just making more things more steady and consistent.

Gresham Harkless 10:38

Yeah, that's a great hack, just because it's so important. Not only, you know, years ago, it's become, I don't want to say it's completely mainstream, but it's become a lot more awareness around it. Because it's so difficult running a business and you're doing so much you're putting so much of yourself in there. A lot of those, health, wellness, mental aspects, you kind of kind of thought they were like separate things, but really, it all collectively overlaps. And if you're not taking care of one, it can affect you in another. So understanding that you are trying to do those things is insanely important to be successful.

Mark Mascia 11:09

Yeah, I think so it's made, it's made a big difference made it a lot easier, less stressful.  I wouldn't say that, you couldn't be successful without it. But it's made things a lot easier, just sort of more steady.

Gresham Harkless 11:18

Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, I'm really big on it. I say, my whole phrase for this year was putting your oxygen mask on. So I always ask myself as my oxygen mask is on, if it's not, I need to take care of those things and make sure that happens. Yeah. Love it. It's awesome. Good analogy. Yeah. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. So this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Or if you could happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Mark Mascia 11:44

I mean, there are so many things, it's hard. But I think, always learning is first and foremost reading, listening to podcasts like this, and whatever you can put in good information in. I try to do that as much as humanly possible, always listening to an audiobook or reading or podcast. But part of that also, is mentorship, whether it's through true formal mentors, or I've even had a lot of like theoretical mentors like Warren Buffett, where I just kind of take one person, I say, like, there's a lot about this person that I really enjoy and learn as much as humanly possible about them.

So I've never met him, I probably never will, and whatever. But in a lot of ways, he's my mentor, because I just know, kind of like his mind, set his mind frame and try to mimic as much of it as possible, because I really revere him.

Gresham Harkless 12:25

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And I appreciate you,  adding that into, because you have the mentors, and everybody's always like,  I want to try to,  find a mentor or, look for somebody to mentor you. Definitely, obviously, there's a place for that. But just like you said, because of this wealth of information that we have available to us, you can read Warren Buffett's. I think he has our articles or quarterly letters, he writes to shareholders. You have that, that we're accessible to that we weren't years ago that to be the unofficial mentor.

Mark Mascia 12:57

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I'd love him to be my former one. So if let me know. But for now, he's my unofficial.

Gresham Harkless 13:02

Yeah. So Warren, if you're listening, that definitely, we have somebody to Mincy. I appreciate that. So that would have asked 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 this show. So Mark, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Mark Mascia 13:20

Yeah, I think it's just being a good leader.  I've always focused on kind of never asking people to do things that I wouldn't do. I always revered those leaders who were not above anything. So whether it's cleaning a toilet at one of our apartment buildings, or,  whatever, staying up all night to get a presentation done for something important. That's why I think leading by example, is the most important thing. I really view everyone on my team as a team member, I don't ever try to be the because I said, so kind of CEO and I think that's the most important thing.

Gresham Harkless 13:50

Yeah, I definitely think so, I always usually say like, that attitude reflects leadership. So a lot of times, you know, however, you are as a leader, however, you're kind of carrying yourself things you're doing and not doing a lot of times that will trickle down to your team. So if, I always used to say Don't Ask of anybody else, something you wouldn't do yourself. So if you're not going to,  do the things on the, I guess, the bottom of the totem pole? Don't necessarily expect somebody else to do that either.

Mark Mascia 14:17

Yeah, yeah. That's true. Also, it's basically like a corporate culture setting. Like, I never thought of it that way when I started, but I really like, how you act exactly. Like you said, you set your culture, and that really dictates your organization. So yeah, and actions speak louder than words. Right. So I mean, exactly like you said,

Gresham Harkless 14:32

Yeah, absolutely. Well, Mark, I truly appreciate your time. What I want to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional, you can let our readers and listeners know. And then of course, how best they can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things you guys are working on.

Mark Mascia 14:45

Appreciate it. Yeah, thanks. I think the only other thing is giving back we didn't really talk that much about it. But it has been an important part of my development and kind of personal and professional world. So I teach at NYU, it doesn't have to be anything crazy. I just teach one class this semester. It's my alma mater. So I felt like it was important to get back and I met so many great people and helped them in any way that I could. I think the more you can do,  could be money, it can be time it can be whatever you do, but it just helps you feel more like a contributing member of society. That's an important part of being human in my mind.

So that part of it, it's something else that we didn't touch on, but it's important. Then yeah, I mean, what we're doing, if anyone's ever interested in any sort of real estate solution, like I said, whether it's for repositioning their real estate for their business, whether it's wealth planning, long term for their family, whatever it is, we like to be the real estate solution provider for those who, are interested in doing more with their real estate or getting more involved in real estate without doing the work themselves. That's, that's really what we're here for. So yeah, those are the best things I can say.

Gresham Harkless 15:47

Nice. Well, thank you so much, again, Mark, I truly appreciate it.   Part of being a leader, as we kind of touched on a little bit too, is making sure you're giving back because we never know how much of an impact we have. So even if it is just a class or like you said or if it's a donation or whatever it might be serving on the board, there are so many different ways that we can get back.

So I appreciate that reminder, because,  we basically can create the world we want to see, and a lot of times we do that by giving back I appreciate you for reminding us of that and we will make sure to have the link and information for people to contact you in the show notes as well too. But again, appreciate your time and I hope you have a great rest of the day.

Outro 16:22

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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