13min chapter

The Matthews Mentality Podcast  cover image

E22: Co-Founder of Gelt Ventures – Keith Wasserman

The Matthews Mentality Podcast

CHAPTER

Confronting Challenges and Building Relationships

The chapter dives into overcoming fear by facing challenges head-on, starting small in business, and the perseverance needed for success. Various anecdotes are shared, including stories about finding property owners, personal experiences in real estate, and the importance of never giving up. Additionally, the discussion touches on humorous date stories, unexpected incidents in commercial real estate dealings, and the significance of building strong relationships in career progression.

00:00
Speaker 2
in your mind right so yeah you kind of break down what's the worst that can happen and yeah
Speaker 1
and that too you know my
Speaker 2
daughter my daughter sometimes are afraid of the monster in the closet and i say well let's let's look for that monster let's open the closet and shine a light and you realize it's it's not a
Speaker 1
monster it's not that bad and you know we have made mistakes we're not perfect but you know there we started with small buildings and our own money and then at one in that like we didn't go out and go to 30 people from the day one for in that like we started very small and every every business even these trillion dollar companies started with
Speaker 2
very small humble beginnings yeah Bezos started out of his garage yeah and i think it was to prove a girl wrong or something like that it's the story i mean like you
Speaker 1
were telling me your story you started with only a few brokers and now 650 plus brokers and growing a tremendous business and i mean it's
Speaker 2
still early days for you man i mean it is started from the bottom now we hear yeah i should write a rap song that but you go you go DJ with your brokers DJ go DJ the floor uh-huh you know i always said the greatest compliment i could ever have in terms of creating environment the office is when our agents cold call Keith Wasserman and he goes where are you you got a bar because it's so loud they're like nah that's the floor baby you know it's getting back to this what's the worst that could happen it doesn't have to be the worst but um you had you had DM me something like hey remind me to tell you about a deal story or something on give give give the audience it could be the
Speaker 1
worst thing ever happened no it was basically the story Galena told you last night how there you know it was pretty wild like i you put on twitter that story with you know how you finally found the true owner behind the building and it happened to be one of the prittsters you know it was an amazing story in itself but Galena's story is even crazier like she she was as a broker she she found she had a client that wanted to buy this one building it was vacant for like 20 years and just crazy man but like this this gentleman owns like 20 some properties and she started driving every property and every property was vacant and they're all prime la properties and and she went to every property until there was one left it was like a condo or something like this and and then i don't know she happened to find a relative of this guy and she's like he's like you're you're very hot go to that last one and she's like just walked up went to his condo and built a relationship and literally saved his butt like someone some fraud happened at one of his properties where someone borrowed money against it and she she saved him like but um yeah just
Speaker 2
the power of never giving up even
Speaker 1
me with my wife like it took nine months for me to get a date like i would i was very persistent because
Speaker 2
you
Speaker 1
don't have any game oh my game i'm very direct i was like ask her how old are you are you jewish where you're from i was just boom boom asking her all these questions she told me you said
Speaker 2
hey you like bakersfield baby i got some four units up there i'm kind of a big deal i
Speaker 1
actually i literally she i was she was so turned off of it because i had her like dream car i had a bmw three series white convertible and i rolled up in shorts and it was hot day and i'm like we i asked her all these questions i'm like you want to go to frozen yogurt and my parents little strip center there and she's like who the hell i
Speaker 2
did how much going on i had one fourplex only i mean i was just starting to wear an affliction shirt with some cut off jeans no that's our president dave herrington you know dave dave davey serak does affliction insurance but most people don't they give up man i think most people give
Speaker 1
up and like all the best even podcast like 99 will stop after a few episodes like you know the best ones have been doing it for nine years and they just on repetition and get better at
Speaker 2
their craft the story has the story of joe rogan's podcast like you know he just he just was like yeah i just want to talk to people and then fast forward i don't know however many years i heard that guy just got paid again i'm coming for you joe um so oh where was i going with that so all right not the what's what's the worst that happened i don't know if we could cut this part if you want but the story the land also told me of the crazy things that will happen in real estate at a city council meeting and people you know objecting to developments for their own reasons something about there was a guy who you know objected to a project your wife was working on it but he was a goat and spoke like a goat or something like
Speaker 1
that yeah he had like a puppet and the goat was talking like like and he would just start rambling nonsense and like f this f that and like i can't believe they gave this guy the floor and i it turns out like i think our land use attorney was telling us that this guy and like does this and and starts he he tries to get people to shut them up so he could sue for like first amendment rights or something
Speaker 2
crazy and then after that maybe somebody
Speaker 1
who identified as an alien came and spoke an alien yeah i mean literally you get the wackos that come up you know in LA for sure yeah and and that's actually why we like developing in these areas because it's brutal to develop and if you could get a project done
Speaker 2
it's very very valuable and a very you know there's a big mode around your project yes you know they're not going to bear your entry 400 units across the street because like it's just too painful bearish entry are very high which you know helps
Speaker 1
lift i mean they should what what
Speaker 2
is it maybe like what is the craziest deal story that you have where people who aren't real estate be like wait what like that happens because real commercial real estate's a huge industry everybody knows who it is and they would think it's a very white collar polished refined industry and it's not like i mean
Speaker 1
the craziest stories are usually the the tenants and what has happened i mean we we have five thousand units and probably ten thousand plus people like i mean the craziest story is we we once had a tenant that um a resident like literally i think he was high on meth or something he tried to kill himself by like cutting himself and then he ran he didn't do you know succeed so he ran and jumped into the swimming pool and tried to drown himself and we had a drain the pool it was all bloody and he lived but then like just crazy stories man like this insurance covered out they're like no sorry that's in the deductible i mean i don't i don't know i think we we paid for that but like we've had we've had huge hail claims on properties where we had like a 12 million hour hail damage and we've had you know buildings burned down and we you know all kinds of crazy people and it's usually the people's not the residents but their friends like bad anybody
Speaker 2
stripped strip copper yet oh
Speaker 1
yeah i mean uh when we were looking at buildings in houston early days we would walk through these buildings that
Speaker 2
were abandoned and they had yeah copper stripped out of them caused so much damage for a few dollars of you know there's so many things in real estate that if you're not in the industry you're like wait what you know yeah that's a that's a thing yeah you know um i have a great idea you're you're an l.a. dude you're super connected zax like no i'm not i'll tell them off i have a great idea for like a
Speaker 1
tv show okay hg tv approached me early on to to be on their show and and they
Speaker 2
were looking and i'm like no i'm gonna share with you the idea and then you and i are gonna pitch some producer and how dude i'm telling you it's gonna
Speaker 1
sell okay no like an hbo show oh i got better okay okay i have a whole idea i'm down if it hits i'm gonna
Speaker 2
i'm gonna step down to cio i'm just gonna be a big time
Speaker 1
we can add producer you know kyle mathoo's producer yeah so to your title i had an internship at sc when i was playing football at mgm okay um
Speaker 2
studios and all my job was just to usher people at the premieres and go to the after party's best job i ever had well
Speaker 1
surprise your net still doing the well you
Speaker 2
know i don't think i had a much value to be honest but all right let me ask you um in looking at uh at what you've accomplished so far how would you like people who've partnered with you worked with you invested with you or just knowing you how would you how would you like for them to describe Keith washerman yeah
Speaker 1
um i think you know i asked my my mom keeps telling me she's like everyone's talks so highly of you like you're transparent honest um these are the adjectives you know hard working these are the adjectives that people use for me um sometimes my wife tells me i'm funny which makes me feel good um but yeah i think just that's the way i want to be you know looked at just someone that's true to their word a lot of people don't follow through with you know what they say um and i've been working on becoming a better friend you know i sort of let some friendships by the wayside i'm like really learned the importance of having quality you know friends i have hundreds and thousands tons of acquaintances but close friends um really matter in life you know those meaningful relationships so trying to build on those
Speaker 2
for sure what and and this isn't just directed at you but you've probably been blessed to be around and and maybe they're acquaintances and you're working on becoming friends with them but build relationships or acquaintances with really high achievers and successful people what have you found to be a common characteristic or attribute of of those achievers that you've had the privilege to get to know
Speaker 1
yeah i think um the most successful ones are hard working curious um you know they they they've been focused those are important traits right like you know they see the opportunity they can they and they double down and triple down sort of like you know you probably saw a great space you know you had the big behemoth jll cbr e but then a ton of smaller guys and you're like there's room for you know in an independent that'll clean up in this you know kind of certain size range space and you're you're capitalizing on that you know and build in this amazing business so um i think just noticing the opportunity and going after it and you know but be able to you know have blinders and not you listen to people but making your own decision from first principles and going with your gut gut i think a lot of people don't don't do that you know yeah the gut is the best indicator
Speaker 2
what do you see and and this isn't just about people outside for it can you be people you manage or people you've employed or as the biggest reason they don't get to where they want to go in life whether it's they don't become what they want they don't get the promotion like what do you see is the most common thing that keeps people from moving forward in in a way that they want to in life but they don't seem to be able to i think
Speaker 1
most people are sort of just comfortable and you know they're happy just clocking in and out like the people that are you know i always tell people um in my part my business partner says if you want to get just keep rising and be more compensated and valuable like make yourself invaluable like where you know it would really hurt to lose you know like don't make yourself where you could be replaced easily right add just a ton of value to the organization so like be you know if someone wants to move up in your firm like as a broker like make yourself a top top the number one producing broker or if you're in management you know be able to recruit or do do something that's invaluable like that it's hard to replace so that if if you're an employee you know that's that's the way to really you know build
Speaker 2
your careers make yourself invaluable can't remember where i heard it but it was such a simple saying but simple saying's work in my simple brain it was the best way to make yourself indispensable is to be indispensable and by definition dispensable means like you cannot get rid of this yeah like the business wouldn't effectively cease to function if they lost you yeah
Speaker 1
i mean literally i i had one gentleman who's worked with us eight years now and he moved up from he was so josh satin former new york met went to harvard westlake then calberkeley smart kid from the valley eight one eight you know jewish kid he worked hard as hell to make it to the he played the big leagues you know and he's made us he's made himself invaluable and i made him like an equal partner in this business now like he's otherwise i would have lost him he would have started his own firm you know so have the golden handcuffs and freaking you know really compensate people that are invaluable and dispensable whatever the word is make yourself not just a commodity like where you could swap in and out you know
Speaker 2
how would you describe your overall mentality for how you approach your life it's
Speaker 1
a big question but like you know my relationship's trying to make him win win you know i'm not into trying to get the last dollar you know i'm all about and i saw it for my dad right he was an attorney and he would sue but then he would like make friends with the other side and they would become clients or like later or friends or like you know just try to and like he would always try to settle versus a lot of lawyers just want to milk and bill hours but like you build a great reputation by doing the right thing and making it a win-win situation and doing right by people and and if you do that for a long period of time that compounds right and you know your your reputation's everything i've learned that it's so invaluable to you could lose it really quickly but it takes a long time to build and you you want you know people talking good about you first other way reputation could compound the wrong way too without a doubt i got
Speaker 2
one

Get the Snipd
podcast app

Unlock the knowledge in podcasts with the podcast player of the future.
App store bannerPlay store banner

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode

Save any
moment

Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways

Share
& Export

Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode