Inside Private Capital

Right now I live in McKinney, Texas. I've been putting together local events ever since I moved here. I went from workshops to, last year, events for accredited investors. I'm an investor myself. This year I'm still keeping that investor focus, but also bringing in businesses around the $1,000,000 range that want to grow or connect with private lenders.

A lot of business owners have a hard time getting capital, whether it's from banks, private lenders, or investors. I used to raise capital, so this is where I guide people. I help them find investors and learn how to position themselves so they can raise money for their deals.

My bread and butter is financial services. I've worked in life and health insurance, and now I'm getting my RIA and studying for my CFP. I also have a small fund that invests in deals. One I'm really happy to be part of is a veteran-owned whiskey company. I'm a vet myself, so I said, "Let's do it." There are a lot of moving parts, but it all comes back to helping businesses grow and giving back to the community.

I served 6 years active duty, and when I got out I went into the Reserves and told myself, "I don't think I want to work for anyone else." I started in financial advising at MassMutual. I had great mentors there who pushed me into nonprofit work. Through that work in Los Angeles, I got into multifamily real estate, because we were providing affordable housing for veterans.

From there I joined a few incubators and did pitch competitions. I won a few, placing 1st and 2nd, and kept learning about investors and alternative investments. People started asking, "You've been around investors and won pitch competitions. Can you guide us?" So I started coaching people and getting hired in-house to help companies raise money. Over the years I kept hearing the same problems from owners who needed tax help or a plan to grow, and that's what brought me to what I do now.

Good question. People ask what I did, and I tell them I wasn't an officer. I was enlisted. I was a grease monkey, a mechanic. The things that carried over are leadership, number one, and project management, number two. It taught me how to set goals and hit them, and if we didn't, how to figure out what to do better next time.

Those two things gave me my foundation for business. Being organized, and knowing how to delegate. If you're trying to run a company completely on your own, good luck, because you're wearing every hat. Building a team is what lets you grow.

It took me a long time to figure out, because I get hyper-focused. When I'm locked in, I won't stop until the job is done. That's a habit from the military. Because of that, early on I missed some of my kids' school events and games. As I got older I realized I needed to slow down. Not slow down on the work, but be more intentional. If something's happening with the kids, I put it on the calendar and I'm there.

I don't believe in hustle mode anymore. Coming up in New York, I thought you just had to hustle, hustle, hustle. But you waste a lot of time that way. If you're hustling and ignoring your health, how you eat, everything that makes you a person, you're just making things harder on yourself as you get older. I have a lot of injuries from my past, and I had to learn to take care of myself. Now I'll go hard for a few hours, then shift and spend real time with my kids.

Professionalism means different things to different people. For me it goes back to the Army and having core values. Courage, leadership, selfless service. My number one requirement is ethics. Being honest and being transparent.

When you hold strong values, you attract the right people. Clients, partners, and opportunities that operate the same way. When those values aren't shared, the relationship goes bad.

Man, that's a good one. On the business side here in the US, I'd change economic education. There's a real gap there for entrepreneurs. Kids and new business owners need to understand economics. It's the foundation for running a company and doing business in a city, county, or state. That knowledge helps the workforce and helps cities get grants, because production goes up.

On a personal note, I wish more people understood how others communicate. I don't mean national cultures. I mean communication styles, leadership styles, how people work together. I work with so many different kinds of people, and taking the time to understand them changes everything.