Announcer:
Welcome to the Global Investor Podcast, a show that focuses on helping foreign investors enter the lucrative US real estate market. Host Charles Carillo combines decades of real estate investing experience with a professional background in international banking to interview experts in all areas of US real estate investing. Now, here’s your host, Charles Carillo.
Charles:
Do you have money sitting in the stock market? And you’re worried about it or worse. You have money sitting at the bank, not keeping up with inflation. My name is Charles Carillo, founder and managing partner of Harborside Partners. And since 2006, I’ve been investing my money and my family’s money into income producing properties. These are real assets, real properties with real addresses that produce real cash flow. At Harborside Partners, we provide passive investors who love real estate with a turnkey investing solution. If you want to put your money to work in real estate, but can’t find deals, don’t have the time to get funding in. The last thing that productive people want to do is manage real estate. We find the deals. We fund the deals and we manage the tenants, the termites and the properties. Partner with us at investwithharborside.com. That’s investwithharborside.com. Go to investwithharborside.com. If you love real estate, you like the idea of passive income and believe that income producing properties will appreciate over time. Go to investwithharborside.com. That’s investwithharborside.com.
Charles:
Welcome to another episode of the Global Investors Podcast; I’m your host Charles Carillo. Today we have Scott White. Scott is the CEO of Invesk, a publicly traded real estate investment firm focused on medical and senior housing properties, and they currently own over 100 healthcare properties throughout the United States and Canada. Prior to his current position, Scott was the Executive Vice President of HealthLease Properties, a publicly traded REIT. Senior VP of Brookfield Asset Management, and the head of deal management at Citigroup’s Alternatives Distribution Group. Today’S show is a little different from our other interviews since we are going to talk about Scott’s book “The Life Is Too Short Guy: Strategies to Make Every Day the Best Day Ever.” So, Scott, thank you so much for coming on the show today.
Scott:
Thank you so much for the invite, Charles, it’s a pleasure to be here.
Charles:
So I gave listeners a couple bullet points about yourself, but if you could give us a little more of a bio about yourself prior to getting your way into real estate investing and working with some large publicly traded real estate investment firms.
Scott:
Sure, I’d be happy to. I’ve, I’ve gone on a career that I tell people is a bit of a marathon. I’m, I’m a runner, I’m a marathon runner, so I tell people it’s a marathon. They’re twists and turns along the way. I I graduated law school right in 2000 and right outta law school, I went straight into investment banking. Actually never practiced law. I was trained as an attorney. I was trained as an accountant. I ended up in investment banking. I did that for about a decade. Then I pivoted and worked over Brookfield and started my exposure there more to real estate than I had before I got there. I spent about four years there, and then I, I took a leap and did something a bit more entrepreneurial. I joined a few folks that were out in the Midwest in Indiana developing nursing homes and spent you know, a couple years with them.
Scott:
We had a publicly traded company at the time that I joined them. Then we spun out a, a second publicly traded company, which today is invest, the company’s been around for about seven years. It was originally designed to be purely a real estate company that owned healthcare oriented real estate assets, nursing homes, assisted living, memory care, and medical office buildings. And then in 2019, we pivoted a little bit in that we’re not purely an owner of real estate. We started to operate some of the facilities. Okay. So the owner operating company that operates our facilities in the Midwest, the company’s called Commonwealth, and they operate seniors housing assets in the Virginia, Pennsylvania Mid-Atlantic region. So that’s been my my career path and it’s, it’s been a lot of fun. And now I’m uhm an author and motivational speaker. Is is the next chapter. I shouldn’t say the next chapter.
Scott:
It’s, I’m still the chairman, c e o of Inves. And that is my primary responsibility. But I’m doing this as well. And I guess I should mention, I’m also a founding partner and advisor to a student housing development company called Spectrum. Wow. So we do student housing in various parts of the country. We develop, we own and we operate, we’re in about eight universities now, primarily non-power five schools. You know, it’s, it’s a, a more fragmented market, a little bit less competitive in terms of the cost capital. And yeah, so that’s what I do.
Charles:
And you’re a busy guy with quite an impressive background there going into what your, your next you’re going into your passion project, I would imagine. And that’s right. What was your, what was your really inspiration to write the book, Scott? Was it, is this something that has been decades brewing to, to put this on paper?
Scott:
Yes and no. I say yes and that I’ve wanted to write a book now, probably for a decade. I say no in that the concept really just came together over the last couple of years. So I’ve always wanted to write a book during Covid. In 2021, I started working with a new executive coach. His name is Kevin. And Kevin did an assessment of me during the, our first meeting, I, I filled out some forms and did some tests. In the second meeting, he said to me exactly like this, he’s like, dude, you are like, Mr. Life is too short guy. Everything is rah rah. Get it done. Urgent positive today. And I mentioned that to my wife, and I’m very grateful. And fortunately I’ve been with my wife since high school and she knows me well. And I said, oh, this, this guy Kevin called me Mr.
Scott:
Life’s too short guy today. And she’s like, I could see that. And then she said to me, maybe that’s the book you always wanted to write. And that was the, the beginning of planting those seeds. At first, I was like, that doesn’t make any sense. What the heck is that book gonna be about? And you know, she, she prodded me along a little bit. She, she planted those seeds, she watered that seed. And in 2022, I spent the whole year writing the book. It came out in January of this year. And, and I’m very fortunate. And then we’ve become an Amazon bestseller. We’ve won three independent book awards. So, so far, and now as a result of the book, I am, I’ve launched a speaking platform, which I’m spending some time doing workshops and keynotes for companies and conferences and organizations around positivity and happiness and gratefulness. I’m on a mission to make the world happier once smile at a time.
Charles:
So what would you say is the overall philosophy behind the life is too short guy? I mean, you gave a little bit there, but really, what would you consider it if someone asked you you know, elevator’s pitch? What is the book really about?
Scott:
The book is the intersection between urgency and happiness, and there are 10 core principles. The most important one is attitude is everything, the power of positivity. And then the, the subsequent ones are, are equally important, but they, they have that common thread of the power of positivity. And I give anecdotes and little tools for people to use in everyday life. The idea is that it’s not some high highfalutin academic work with lots of research. Instead, it’s day-to-day blocking and tackling. This is simple concepts you could take to your home, to your family, to work, to business, to friends, and, and just live a happier life.
Charles:
Can you give us, I know there’s, you said there’s 10 different principles in the book. Can you give us like an overview of maybe what you would consider to be the main principles, the most important ones behind the book and the philosophy?
Scott:
Yeah, they’re all pretty important. The most important one is the foundational one. The first one, attitude is everything. The power, positivity. You control so much of how you view the world. And I give examples in the book of, of emails that’ve sent to people. And, and you know, you could have sent it this way, but instead you spin it and put a positive lens on it. Yeah. And it changes the dialogue and the perspective. So attitude is everything. The power positivity is probably the most important one. A related one is choose your attitude and own it. You know, most people don’t realize, if I were to say to you, Charles, what percent of your happiness long-term do you think is directly correlated to your surroundings? Your new car, new house, new boat, new job, new friend, new spouse, or unfortunately the other side of the coin, death, disability, divorce, illness. What percent of your overall happiness do you think is tied to that?
Charles:
I would say 75, 80 5% plus. I mean,
Scott:
Most people say that, and the reality is, and they’re shocked when I say this, it’s been scientifically proven that only 10% of your long-term happiness is based on your surroundings. 50 ish percent plus or minus is based on your genetic composition. However, 40% is based on the lens through which you view the world. And that’s an important concept in terms of how you, you wake up every morning, how you approach life, how you approach your daily interactions. So choose your attitude and own is is the second principle. If I had to pick one or two other really important principles, again, I think a lot of them are minutes matter. And I spend time talking about how to think about your minutes, not how to use your minutes. That’s up to you. You need to make your own judgements on do I wanna spend time with family or exercise, or I wanna exercise or work, do I wanna work or be with friends?
Scott:
Right? That’s up to you. But what I try to encourage readers and listeners to think about is minutes are finite. How do you view your minutes? How do you use your minutes? You’re being thoughtful, you’re being deliberate. I, I give this analogy or metaphor of a barrel, and I say to people, think about your, your minutes. I think about a wine barrel. So I got this big image of a wine barrel in front of me, and in it are these gold coins. Okay? And every time I do something, including talking to you right now, I reach into the barrel, I grab out some gold coins, and I know I’m using gold coins to, to speak with you. And what I say to people is that the two takeaways from that metaphor are, one, you have no idea how many gold coins are in that barrel.
Scott:
There could be a few, there could be a lot. However, if you’re thoughtful, realizing I’m using those gold coins, you’ll be more proactive. Two, which is an important concept. Coins drip at the bottom, it’s a leaky barrel. Be careful how many coins just disappear without you knowing where they go and be thoughtful and deliberate in how you use your minutes. So I’d say those are probably the three key principles. But again, all, all 10 I think are important. And the beauty of the book and the philosophy is you can latch onto some, but not others. It’s not a rules-based, you have to do this, you need to do that. It’s a how do you use your minutes? How do you approach sort of the perspective? Another key underlying principle is can’t make it alone. And I talk about the power of social interactions, the power of relationships, the importance of having a social network that you could rely on and investing time in building and strengthening that network.
Charles:
So when you were putting together principles for this is, is this are these principles that you’ve picked up over your working life and your personal life, or is this principles that because of your current mentor or previous mentors you came into contact with and started implementing your life or come, how did you know, how did you kind of find these principles and start integrating ’em into your life?
Scott:
It was organic and evolutionary. There wasn’t a specific moment in my life where also I was like, huh, I’m the wife’s too short guy. It’s, it’s, you know, one of the beauties of the book and one of the beauties when I talk to people and, and I give presentations of people that know me, say, this is who you are authentically. This is how I live my life. I didn’t go out and research. Here’s how you live a happy life. I didn’t go out and, and, and look for other people’s philosophies. I’m like, look, I wake up every day and, and I, I tell people to think about this. If I were to say to you, Charles, what was your first thought when you opened your eyes today? Do you remember what it was?
Charles:
What time is it, I guess I would say, or something like that? I mean, just think something. Yeah. Very. So
Scott:
Most people answer the same way as I speak at, at various organizations across the country. I ask this question, I’d say maybe 20% of people raise their hand when I say, what is your first thought? And I say to people, and here’s an example of a simple tool that I talk about in the book, and this will demonstrate how easy this is. If you, you want to make some changes when you wake up in the morning there, there’s, there are glasses on your dresser. Maybe they’re physical glasses or maybe they’re symbolic glasses. And I tell people, reach over and put those glasses on. Okay, those glasses could be the blurry glasses, which is exactly how you just answered. I don’t know. I woke up and I opened my eyes and I was thinking about getting a cup of coffee or going to the bathroom or whatever the case may be.
Scott:
And those are blurry glasses, unfortunately, some people put on very muddy glasses. Ugh, it’s cold. I’m tired. It is early. I have so much to do. I don’t feel like getting outta bed. Why not reach over and grab crystal clear glasses? And in the first 10 seconds of my day today, I was like, wow, the sun is shining. I could hear the birch chirping. The woman I love is in bed next to me. My daughter is in the room next to me. She’s gonna college soon. So I’m excited that she’s home. I have another daughter that’s traveling in Europe right now. Wow. That’s fantastic. I have an opportunity to be on Charles is show today. I have a, a great lunch meeting today. Wow. Lunch. I am now 10 seconds in. And I just listed off seven things that I’m excited about. Literally, I’m proactive in how I open my eyes and I approach today. I understand that days will take twists and turns and regardless of which glasses you put on, you can’t control everything. But as Henry Ford said, if you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re probably right. Why not set a roadmap for the day of gratefulness, happiness and positivity, simple tool that everyone can implement without changing their whole life, yet it would change your perspective and make everyone a little bit happier.
Charles:
Wow. That’s it’s really powerful. Yeah. The happiness is just, I had a mentor years back. Tell me about that. And it was kind of, IM, you know, pushing onto me for doing a gratitude journal weekly, which I do. And just very simple. He’s like, just once a week do it. And you, you go through it and then you start like scrolling up and you start like seeing what you’ve been writing and stuff like that. And or you look back a year or two and it’s pretty powerful and it never, you always feel better when you’ve done that because you’re looking back on things no matter where you are in your life. So I definitely see that in the happiness is something that things like Jim Rohn, it’s like, it’s not only it’s, it’s as much as it know what happens when you achieve something, but it’s also during the whole process of achieving it and so many words, whatever it is. And it’s really powerful. What do, what do you think Scott, when you are, when, when you’re putting these principles together and you just talked about one with your personal life, how, give us an example or two of it putting it the using these philosophies with your professional life.
Scott:
Oh, they all are directly applicable to my professional life. In fact, one of the things I’m very proud of is that the company that, that I’m the chairman, c e o of has now been recognized four years in a row. We’ve only been around six years, by the way, but four years in a row is one of the best places to work in the, the state that we operate in. And that’s in part because of this philosophy that permeates the entire organization. Not just me, but others. So, so what do I mean by that? I mean, gratefulness when people show up at work. I mean, positivity around the office. I mean, understanding the power of supporting each other in social networks. I mean, one of the principles is funny. Things are everywhere. Bringing humor to the workplace. Don’t take life for yourself or your work too seriously.
Scott:
In the end, we all wanna have a good time. I mean, one of the principles is learn, learn, learn every day. Push yourself to learn something new. Get outside your comfort zone. And, and that is applicable in our workplace. One of the principles is take a chance and get it done today. I encourage people to, to take chances and you will fail. That’s part of the, the, the entrepreneur’s culture. It’s part of our corporate culture. You have to understand that and provide a safe environment for people to work in, to take a chance and get it done. Today is another one of the principles, and again, as I go through all these principles, they all directly apply to the workplace. Yeah.
Charles:
Scott, one of the questions I like asking, which I don’t know if I prepped you for, but is how have you gotten out of your comfort zone in your life? Maybe a memorable, the time that has really moved you forward, whether it’s personally or professionally?
Scott:
Oh, the book. I mean, there’s no question. Yeah. The book was one of the biggest leaps that I’ve taken in, in many years. I’d say it was maybe the most fun thing I’ve done the last decade. It was the scariest thing I’ve done in the last decade. It was very much an entrepreneurial journey. You know, as, as your entrepreneurs listen to this, they’ll understand when I say things like I had no idea what I was doing. I was faking it until I, I could make it. I was relying on other people and other resources to help guide me through. I took a chance. I had, I had real imposter syndrome early on. I was like, you’re not a, an author like you who’s gonna read or care about what you write. And I overcame all that. I pushed myself outside my comfort zone. I’m so grateful I did. Now I wanna write another book and now I wanna build a, a speaking platform around this. And this is probably one of the bigger chances I’ve taken.
Charles:
Nice, nice. So Scott, as we wrap up here, how has your relationship over many decades of your professional life being very successful, and now into the second I guess you would say, phase of your life with your passion projects? How’s your relationship towards money changed over the years?
Scott:
I guess I’d say a few things. I’d say early on when I graduated college, it was I was very much about career success, which was in part tied to financial success. But not di not only, but there’s no doubt, you know, when I graduated, it was all about how fast you climb the corporate ladder. I jumped into Wall Street fee first and I basically said I’m, I’m not leaving this office for the next 10 years. And I worked that way for, for a few years. I definitely backed off it. I’d say as I look back now, I’m, I’m approaching the half century mark in my life. I’ll be 50 later this year. And I’m very blessed and fortunate to have had some professional success and some financial success. I, I now am looking more for ongoing learning and development and, and professional growth and less financial success. I mean, it’s always important, but I think it’s less top of mind. I’d say that throughout my career, it wasn’t the primary motivator, but it was always an important element to me.
Charles:
Interesting. So Scott, how can our listeners learn more about you, your book and your work?
Scott:
So as it relates to the book, as it relates to my speaking platform, my newsletter, all that can be found in my website, life is too short. Guy.Com should be easy to remember. Life is too short guy.com. You could sign up for the newsletter, you can get a, you could download the 10 principles or you could reach out if you’re interested in getting a signed copy of the book or your organization, your conference, your team is looking for a speaker to talk about these principles, to inspire, motivate people to move people to a, a better place and a better organization. You can catch me all on life is too short guy.com
Charles:
Awesome. Thank you so much for coming on today, Scott, and looking forward to connecting with you here in the near future.
Scott:
My pleasure. Thank you.
Charles:
Hi guys! It’s Charles from the Global Investors Podcast. I hope you enjoyed the show. If you’re interested in get involved with real estate, but you don’t know where to begin, set up a free 30 minute strategy call with me at schedulecharles.com. That’s schedulecharles.com. Thank you.
Announcer:
Thank you for listening to the Global Investors Podcast. If you’d like to show, be sure to subscribe on iTunes or Google play to get new weekly episodes. For more resources and to receive our newsletter, please visit global investor podcast.com and don’t forget to join us next week for another episode.
Announcer:
Nothing in this episode should be considered specific, personal or professional advice. Any investment opportunities mentioned on this podcast are limited to accredited investors. Any investments will only be made with proper disclosure, subscription documentation, and are subject to all applicable laws. Please consult an appropriate tax legal, real estate, financial or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own information is not guaranteed. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. The host is operating on behalf of Syndication Superstar, LLC, exclusively.
