We'd appreciate you filling out our audience survey, so we can continuously work on providing relevant content to our listeners. Responses received by 05/11/23 will be entered in a drawing for $500 cash.http://www.thefortpod.com/surveyMichael is CEO of Girdley Enterprises, LLC, a diversified holding company of 11 businesses. In this episode Chris & Michael discuss:➡️ Becoming a creator and the business of creating➡️ How he has built a hold-co and keeps everyone accountable➡️ How he takes a business from idea to a running business➡️ Why he wants to focus on BIG ideasKey Takeaways:(2:08) - Sudden Deafness & Insights into Girdley’s Persona(6:52) - Why have you chosen to spend so much time building your presence online?(10:05) - What makes for great content on Twitter?(11:38) - How much time is spent on your threads and writing?(17:41) - Building a media team(23:38) - Twitter’s change under Elon(27:44) - Girdley on changing his Twitter strategy(29:33) - Has LinkedIn translated well for you?(31:46) - Girdley on Remote teams(33:10) - How are you able to stay on top of multiple different companies?(37:27) - What do you fail at?(38:44) - Do you teach the EOS or hire someone to implement it?(40:53) - What do you feel like you still have to learn?(41:43) - What does your Chief of Staff do?(45:49) - Was there a pivotal moment when you realized where you were the strongest in your role?(47:06) - What do you mean when you say you only want to work on “big” things?(49:36) - What is your process from formulating an idea, to launching, to stepping back?(56:23) - Are you still involved in VC?(57:16) - How do you approach capital allocation in your HoldCo?(59:41) - What happens when you’re not aligning with a CEO?(1:01:41) - Are there best practices for incentivizing a CEO?(1:02:40) - What is a Holding Company?(1:06:02) - Why did you decide to create a course?(1:10:14) - How do you approach distribution and scaling content?(1:11:59) - How do you see the 4th quarter of your career playing out?(1:13:33) - Why have you chosen podcasting as a medium?Additional Resources👉 Girdley on Twitter: https://twitter.com/girdley👉 The Complete HoldCo Course: https://holdco.girdley.com/👉 All of Michael's Links: https://links.girdley.com/👉 Traction by Gino Wickman➡️ Learn more about Relay Human Cloud➡️ Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com➡️ CRE Daily Newsletter: https://www.credaily.com/➡️ Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/➡️ Follow Chris on Twitter: www.twitter.com/FortWorthChris➡️ Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/➡️ Sign Up for our Newsletter: https://newsletter.thefortpod.com/➡️ Subscribe to The FORT on YouTube--The FORT Podcast with Chris Powers is a place where you can find meaningful conversations about entrepreneurship, real estate, investing, and more.Be sure to follow the podcast, so you never miss an episode!The FORT is produced by Johnny Podcasts

We'd appreciate you filling out our audience survey, so we can continuously work on providing relevant content to our listeners. Responses received by 05/11/23 will be entered in a drawing for $500 cash.http://www.thefortpod.com/surveyPeter Askew runs a bootstrapped, .com domain development business (often solo). He typically sources domains from the expired aftermarket and uses their descriptive nature as inspiration for each venture.Current projects: VidaliaOnions.com | RanchWork.com | DudeRanch.comOn this episode Chris & Peter discuss: Investing in domains 101 and why ".com" is king How to build job boards & why they're so valuable How to build businesses from purchased domains Key Takeaways:(2:05) - How did you become a failed domain investor?(6:42) - What does “building a project” mean in your world?(13:30) - How would a common person find these domain marketplaces?(16:36) - How do you value Domains?(21:47) - How did you get from buying a domain for onions to actually selling the onions?(27:05) - Why aren’t you in a hurry to grow the business?(28:30) - The domain industry(31:24) - What makes an amazing domain investor?(33:15) - Can I simply license out domain names?(37:21) - Can people hack and steal domain names?(39:04) - Does AI or Web3 disrupt this space?(40:37) - What’s the most valuable domain name in the industry?(42:14) - Do you have to have a site in order to monetize a domain?(45:47) - How would you build a job board for an industry from scratch?Additional Resources👉 Peter on Twitter - https://twitter.com/searchbound👉 Peter on how to build a niche job board👉 Snap [NAMES] - https://www.snapnames.com/👉 DropCatch - https://www.dropcatch.com/👉 UDRP - https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/help/dndr/udrp-en👉 NamesCon - https://namescon.com/👉 NameBio - https://namebio.com/👉 Sedo.com - https://sedo.com/us/👉 Dan.com - https://dan.com/👉 GoDaddy Auctions - https://auctions.godaddy.com/beta➡️ Learn more about Relay Human Cloud➡️ Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com➡️ CRE Daily Newsletter: https://www.credaily.com/➡️ Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/➡️ Follow Chris on Twitter: www.twitter.com/FortWorthChris➡️ Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/➡️ Sign Up for our Newsletter: https://newsletter.thefortpod.com/➡️ Subscribe to The FORT on YouTube--The FORT Podcast with Chris Powers is a place where you can find meaningful conversations about entrepreneurship, real estate, investing, and more.Be sure to follow the podcast, so you never miss an episode!The FORT is produced by Johnny Podcasts

We'd appreciate you filling out our audience survey, so we can continuously work on providing relevant content to our listeners. Responses received by 05/11/23 will be entered in a drawing for $500 cash.http://www.thefortpod.com/surveyCharlie started the John W. Rich parody account, which became the springboard for his content agency, Alpha Social. Charlie has helped dozens of clients build up their personal brands with Twitter content, amassing millions of followers for his clients and 190,000+ followers on his John W. Rich account. In June of 2022, Alpha Social was acquired by Workweek.On this episode Chris & Charlie discuss: How starting a parody account on Twitter (John W. Rich) led to launching a ghostwriting agency How to build an online audience The value of twitter for building a business & brand How to use Twitter to launch a business Key Takeaways:(2:02) - Charlie on creating the John W. Rich Twitter account(8:04) - Is there a way to monetize this account to be a full-time business?(10:19) - How’d you select John’s profile photo?(11:22) - How have you leveraged this account into a content agency?(13:10) - What is a client looking for when they come to work with you?(18:02) - What’s the cadence for a client’s content release?(20:09) - Do you encourage your clients to basically “do whatever they want” alongside the content you’re creating for them?(21:57) - What is the value of taking Twitter seriously?(24:07) - How are your clients building up accounts into businesses?(28:15) - How often should you be telling the story that you build your account on?(30:22) - Are there any hacks you’ve learned from Twitter to make it a better experience?(34:53) - Has Twitter gotten worse since Elon took over?(40:21) - Why do you think users enjoy reading threads?(44:59) - Is there any emerging trend you’re seeing that is working for Twitter engagement?(49:38) - Do you think that people can separate the shit post from the shit poster?(55:42) - What was the process of selling your agency to Workweek and what is your role with them now?(57:10) - How will the creator economy evolve over the next 5 years?Additional Resources👉John W. Rich on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Cokedupoptions👉Charlie Light on Twitter: https://twitter.com/charliewrich👉Alpha Social Group: https://alphasocialgroup.com/👉Workweek: https://workweek.com/👉Brett from Designjoy: https://twitter.com/BrettFromDJ➡️ Learn more about Relay Human Cloud➡️ Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com➡️ CRE Daily: https://www.credaily.com/➡️ Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/➡️ Follow Chris on Twitter: www.twitter.com/FortWorthChris➡️ Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/➡️ Sign Up for our Newsletter: https://newsletter.thefortpod.com/➡️ Subscribe to The FORT on YouTube--The FORT Podcast with Chris Powers is a place where you can find meaningful conversations about entrepreneurship, real estate, investing, and more.Be sure to follow the podcast, so you never miss an episode!The FORT is produced by Johnny Podcasts

We'd appreciate you filling out our audience survey, so we can continuously work on providing relevant content to our listeners. Responses received by 05/11/23 will be entered in a drawing for $500 cash.http://www.thefortpod.com/surveyBrandon Sedloff is Managing Director and Founding SVP of Sales at Juniper Square where he focuses on business development, and strategy and serves some of the world's largest institutional investment managers. Juniper Square empowers GPs and LPs to focus on building enduring relationships and exceptional investment opportunities. Our partnership enablement solutions empower investment partners to connect and communicate seamlessly across every interaction, freeing teams from the disjointed and siloed systems, operations, and processes holding organizations back from realizing their full potential today. On this episode Chris & Brandon discuss: Chris' story and timeline of career Lessons learned and unique strategy at Fort Capital Discussion on raising capital and why Fort is considering institutional capital Topics(3:02) - Chris’ journey into commercial Real Estate and early career(6:23) - Why do you think Real Estate was your calling?(9:05) - Did your studies at TCU play into your eventual career?(12:24) - When did Fort Capital come into existence?(20:08) - Who’s Jason Baxter and what’s his role?(21:47) - How did you transition out of housing development and into industrial?(26:02) - When you got into industrial, how did you find your niche within this asset class?(34:54) - What are the headline stats on Fort Capital today?(37:05) - What is the process of finding a deal and the syndication model you pursue?(45:20) - How have you become so skilled at raising capital?(51:38) - The power of social media & Twitter(59:43) - What do the next 5 years for FC look like?(1:06:00) - How do you think about transitioning from building trust with non institutional capital to raising from institutional capital?(1:09:42) - How has technology played a role in the success of Fort Capital?(1:20:54) - What are 3 reasons investors should care about Class B Industrial in the Sun Belt?Additional Resources👉 Brandon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bsedloff/👉 Working Backwards by Bill Carr: https://bit.ly/3FpKQ1I➡️ Learn more about Juniper Square➡️ Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com➡️ CRE Daily➡️ Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/➡️ Follow Chris on Twitter: www.twitter.com/FortWorthChris➡️ Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/➡️ Sign Up for our Newsletter: https://newsletter.thefortpod.com/➡️ Subscribe to The FORT on YouTube--The FORT Podcast with Chris Powers is a place where you can find meaningful conversations about entrepreneurship, real estate, investing, and more.Be sure to follow the podcast, so you never miss an episode!

We'd appreciate you filling out our audience survey, so we can continuously work on providing relevant content to our listeners. Responses received by 05/11/23 will be entered in a drawing for $500 cash.http://www.thefortpod.com/surveyIn today’s episode, Chris is joined by Chad Cook, founder of Quadrant Investment Properties, a Dallas-based real estate investment company specializing in urban office opportunities. Before founding QIP, Chad was Vice President of Acquisitions at Hillwood Investment Properties, where from 2004 to 2012 he focused on development and acquisition opportunities in numerous markets nationally. In addition to helping lead the company’s acquisition team, Chad also coordinated over $1 billion in dispositions and played an integral role in the sourcing and structuring of numerous institutional joint ventures and development partnerships.Prior to joining Hillwood, Chad was the Director of Leasing and Disposition at Emerson Partners, a Dallas-based owner, and operator of office and industrial properties. Today, Chad and Chris talk about their edge in developing urban office properties, how to create places where people want to be, what's happening in the capital markets, converting offices into apartments, Hudson Yards, and what happens to offices that aren't in demand.Key Takeaways:Intro (00:00)Chad’s background (02:46)What happened when Chad left Hillwood (14:40)What Chad is doing today (19:14)The Design District in Dallas (28:38)On offices (37:03)The impact of COVID-19 on the real estate market (42:48)Considering the halo effect when planning (51:34)Office-to-residential conversions (53:38)The secret sauce to creating likable places (1:03:45)On Hudson Yards (1:07:57)Developments that inspire Chad (1:12:35)Outro (1:15:14)Additional Resources: Quadrant Investment Properties: https://quadrantinvestments.com/ Chad on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chad-cook-9a151a/ Fulton Market Chicago: https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dcd/supp_info/fulton-randolph-market-land-use-plan.html Hudson Yards New York: https://www.hudsonyardsnewyork.com/ Learn more about Relay Human Cloud: https://www.relayhumancloud.com/  Learn more about Oshman Aviation: https://www.oshmanaviation.com/ Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/  Follow Chris on Twitter: www.twitter.com/FortWorthChris Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ Sign Up for our Newsletter: https://newsletter.thefortpod.com/ Subscribe to The FORT with Chris Powers  on YouTube —The FORT Podcast with Chris Powers is a place where you can find meaningful conversations about entrepreneurship, real estate, investing, and more.Be sure to follow the podcast, so you never miss an episode!

We'd appreciate you filling out our audience survey, so we can continuously work on providing relevant content to our listeners. Responses received by 05/11/23 will be entered in a drawing for $500 cash.http://www.thefortpod.com/surveyEPISODE #267 In today’s episode, Chris is joined by Collin McLelland, co-founder of Digital Wildcatters, a community of energy professionals who are changing the way that we think about energy.After leaving high school, Collin knew that he wanted to be an entrepreneur and decided to learn about the oil and gas industry. He worked on roughnecking oil rigs in West Texas.Collin spent the next 10 years working on every major oilfield across the country, from Alaska all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico.In 2018, Collin decided that millennial engineers needed a new way to think about oil and gas, and realizing that there was no way for people to get more information about the industry, and started The Oil and Gas Podcast. Just before the pandemic in 2020, Collin decided to go full-time on Digital Wildcatters, which tries to educate society and raise their awareness of the energy industry.Today, Collin speaks with Chris about his views on different energy types, why Bitcoin mining is actually good for the environment, and how he thinks about building a community.Key Takeaways:Intro (00:00)Collin’s background (02:55)What Digital Wildcatters is trying to achieve (05:49)Why do oil and gas have such a bad reputation? (12:20)The US energy policy (19:01)What’s interesting about geothermal energy (36:50) The impact of bitcoin mining around the world (40:23)The future of energy (49:43)Are oil and gas the most prolific energy source? (55:06)Additional Resources👉 Digital Wildcatters: https://digitalwildcatters.com/👉 Collin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/collin-mclelland/👉 Collin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/FracSlap👉 DW Podcasts: https://digitalwildcatters.com/podcasts/👉 Collin McLelland on The Convergence of Energy and Bitcoin Mining: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1ctGsfluRs👉 Collide by DW: https://appadvice.com/app/collide-by-digital-wildcatters/1569044309➡️ Learn more about Relay Human Cloud➡️ Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com➡️ Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/➡️ Follow Chris on Twitter: www.twitter.com/FortWorthChris➡️ Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/➡️ Sign Up for our Newsletter: https://newsletter.thefortpod.com/➡️ Subscribe to The FORT on YouTube--The FORT Podcast with Chris Powers is a place where you can find meaningful conversations about entrepreneurship, real estate, investing, and more.Be sure to follow the podcast, so you never miss an episode!

We'd appreciate you filling out our audience survey, so we can continuously work on providing relevant content to our listeners. Responses received by 05/11/23 will be entered in a drawing for $500 cash.http://www.thefortpod.com/surveyEPISODE #266 In today’s episode, Chris is joined by Billy McFarland, the founder of the controversial Fyre Festival event.The Fyre Festival dominated headlines in April 2017 when videos surfaced online promoting the festival featuring celebrities such as Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, and others.However, after suffering a series of management and administration problems, the festival was canceled after some guests had arrived, leading to a number of lawsuits and US federal investigations.Just six weeks later, Billy was the subject of an FBI search in his apartment and soon handcuffed and taken to jail, where he was eventually sentenced to 6 years imprisonment before being released early in 2022.Since then, Billy has started his newest venture, PYRT, which he describes as a “virtual immersive decentralized reality.”In today’s episode, Billy and Chris sit down to discuss what happened at the Fyre Festival, stories from his time in prison, why things go viral, and what he’s working on now.Make sure to check it out! Key Takeaways:Intro (00:00)How Fyre App began (01:38)What actually happened at Fyre Festival (07:36)What did Billy learn from the event? (14:32)The aftermath (17:38)First day in prison (26:39)How Billy got in trouble in jail (31:47)What did Billy do there? (44:05)Getting a second chance (54:25)The power of virality (59:19)Billy’s new venture (1:05:03)Additional Resources👉 Check Billy out on Twitter👉 Check out Billy's latest project: PYRT➡️ Learn more about Relay Human Cloud➡️ Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com➡️ Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/➡️ Follow Chris on Twitter: www.twitter.com/FortWorthChris➡️ Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/➡️ Sign Up for our Newsletter: https://newsletter.thefortpod.com/➡️ Subscribe to The FORT on YouTube--The FORT Podcast with Chris Powers is a place where you can find meaningful conversations about entrepreneurship, real estate, investing, and more.Be sure to follow the podcast, so you never miss an episode!

We'd appreciate you filling out our audience survey, so we can continuously work on providing relevant content to our listeners. Responses received by 05/11/23 will be entered in a drawing for $500 cash.http://www.thefortpod.com/surveyEPISODE #265 In today’s episode, Chris is joined by the founder of ConvertKit, Nathan Barry.Nathan’s journey to helping creators all around the world began when he was doing web design in high school before expanding into freelance blogging and content creation.But after deciding to launch a book to promote his web design service, Nathan racked up more than $19,000 in sales in just the first week, at which point he decided to go all-in on digital products and building an audience.After a friend introduced him to the power of email marketing in the content creation space, Nathan decided he wanted to start his own software business, ConvertKit, in January 2013.In today’s episode, Nathan sits down with Chris to discuss why email is still king, leveraging AI technology for content creators, and what the most successful creators are doing now.Make sure to check it out!Key Takeaways:Intro (00:00)Nathan’s backstory (02:11)Is email making a resurgence? (11:00)Does everyone need a newsletter? (17:04)The limitations of email (23:34)The dark side of newsletters (28:32)Building trust at scale (36:12)What’s ahead for creators? (46:17)Sticking to one platform (59:17)The power of AI (1:15:09)Additional Resources:👉 See more about ConvertKit👉 Follow Nathan on Twitter👉 See Nathan's Books👉 Nathan's Website👉 Founder of Basecamp Jason Fried Keynote👉 Sparkloop👉 The Billion Dollar Creator by Nathan Barry👉 Sahil Bloom on Twitter👉 Lex Website➡️ Learn more about Relay Human Cloud ➡️ Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com➡️ Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/➡️ Follow Chris on Twitter: www.twitter.com/FortWorthChris➡️ Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/➡️ Sign Up for our Newsletter: https://newsletter.thefortpod.com/➡️ Subscribe to The FORT on YouTube--The FORT Podcast with Chris Powers is a place where you can find meaningful conversations about entrepreneurship, real estate, investing, and more.Be sure to follow the podcast, so you never miss an episode!

We'd appreciate you filling out our audience survey, so we can continuously work on providing relevant content to our listeners. Responses received by 05/11/23 will be entered in a drawing for $500 cash.http://www.thefortpod.com/surveyEPISODE #264 In today’s episode, Chris sits down with Mitchell Baldridge and Nick Huber to discuss the current real estate market, how Twitter changed their lives, and cost segregation.Nick has been a small business owner since his final year of college when he started a student storage business with his friend, and after expanding to 25 towns over 10 years, he exited for $7 million.Nick has also acquired 42 self-storage facilities with over 1,000,000 square feet under management while raising over $20 million in capital.Mitchell is a Certified Public Accountant and Certified Financial Planner with vast experience in financial planning and corporate accounting. In 2014 he founded Baldridge Financial to achieve his dream of helping other business owners achieve their financial goals.Make sure to listen in!Key Takeaways:Intro (00:00)The problem with the real estate business right now (01:52)What’s happening in the market right now? (04:44)The impact of supply on rental rates (11:55)The difference between Class A, B, and C buildings (22:19)What’s going on with interest rates? (30:09)Why is cost segregation taking off now? (44:41)How Twitter changes lives (58:28)Building trust with Twitter (1:05:32)Advice on online networking (1:15:50)Additional Resources:➡️ See Nick's podcast 'The Sweaty Startup'➡️ See more about the work Mitchell does here: https://baldridgefinancial.com/➡️ Learn more about Relay Human Cloud ➡️ Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com➡️ Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/➡️ Follow Chris on Twitter: www.twitter.com/FortWorthChris➡️ Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/➡️ Sign Up for our Newsletter: https://newsletter.thefortpod.com/➡️ Subscribe to The FORT on YouTube--The FORT Podcast with Chris Powers is a place where you can find meaningful conversations about entrepreneurship, real estate, investing, and more.Be sure to follow the podcast, so you never miss an episode!

We'd appreciate you filling out our audience survey, so we can continuously work on providing relevant content to our listeners. Responses received by 05/11/23 will be entered in a drawing for $500 cash.http://www.thefortpod.com/surveyEPISODE #263 In today’s episode, Chris is joined by the co-founder of the Firestone & Robertson Distilling Company, Troy Robertson.Troy grew up in West Texas in a family that was heavily involved in the oil and gas industry. He studied business at Texas Tech University before going on to spend 10 years in the finance side of oil and gas.Troy took the responsibility of fundraising, structuring, strategy, and operations evaluation for more than 20 portfolio companies, some even reaching a size of $1 billion.But Troy decided to follow his creative entrepreneurial spirit and carved his own path in the business he is passionate about, the whiskey business.In today’s episode, Chris and Troy sit down to discuss behind-the-scenes in the whiskey business, how to build a world-class brand, and the details of building (and exiting) a successful business.Make sure to check it out!Key Takeaways:Intro (00:00)How Troy got started in whiskey (01:11)Why was nobody making whiskey in Texas before? (07:41)Pursuing whiskey full-time (11:09)Coming up with a name (18:03)Making a unique pitch (35:12)Troy’s big influence (39:12)Purchasing a golf course (1:01:11)Mistakes made along the way (1:04:53)Deciding to sell (1:14:16)Did Troy want to sell? (1:20:09)Additional Resources:➡️ Learn more about Relay Human Cloud ➡️ Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com➡️ Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/➡️ Follow Chris on Twitter: www.twitter.com/FortWorthChris➡️ Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/➡️ Sign Up for our Newsletter: https://newsletter.thefortpod.com/➡️ Subscribe to The FORT on YouTube--The FORT Podcast with Chris Powers is a place where you can find meaningful conversations about entrepreneurship, real estate, investing, and more.Be sure to follow the podcast, so you never miss an episode!