Episode 31: Beth Azor | A Journey of Investment & Growth In Real Estate

Oh, man. Beth Azor is just an incredible human and so incredibly inspiring. And you are about to see why with this incredible conversation that we had. Let me tell you a little bit about her.

Beth Azor is a thirty nine year veteran of the commercial real estate industry who owns more than 80,000,000 in her real estate portfolio. Holy Kell, it's in South Florida. Her portfolio is in South Florida. She has been, leasing, consulting and investing since 1992. Best side hustle is training and coaching retail leasing agents to supersize their results.

Her latest mission, and you'll see why I love her, is to inspire women to become investors. To accomplish this she hosts her annual women's or women's real estate investor summit which you should absolutely go to and her weekly podcast Women Investor Wednesday. Best clients include Kimco Realty, Phillips Edison, Brixmor, and Bedrock.

She lives in South Florida and is the proud mom to a superhero movie podcaster and a college golfer. Here's Beth.

Hello, and welcome to the Power Up Your Life podcast powered by GoFund and Swimming. I'm Mandy McAllister, and I am, again, that and solo because Kelly Resendez is working with the John Maxwell organization today. We have a super treat for you. We, Beth Azor, the one and only incredibly inspiring. Beth Azor is with us today. Hi, Beth.

Hey, Dee. How are you? Nice to be here.

Yeah. So so excited to have you here. Why don't we just start from the beginning? Tell me a little bit about you and how you got here.

Oh my gosh. Do you have ten hours? Because I'm really old. I born born in the Midwest. Love my Midwest girls, Wisconsin. Came to Florida. I got my parents were in residential real estate. I got into real estate, followed a boy to Miami. He ended up becoming my husband. We've since divorced, but got into commercial real estate, leasing, retail shopping centers.

Was with a company for eighteen years, started in the training business training department, grew and became president, but was a single mom with a four year old and couldn't really be the president of a 150 people. So I quit. That was kind of like a big moment and wasn't really sure what I was gonna do, but I had some money saved. I had invested in some deals and had some passive income.

And the phone started ringing, people asking me to come train their leasing teams on how to fill vacancies and shopping centers. So that became a great little side hustle while I went and started GP'ing on my own. So I've been on my own have my own company now for twenty four years. My director of operations, Josie, started with me when, you know, as an assistant for ten hours a week back, you know, day one.

And, and I'm on a mission to get more women to invest in commercial real estate. And I joined GoBundance in March, and I loved it, and I love it.

We could not be happier to have you a part of it. You are exactly the type of inspiring that we wanna get to be a part of. You know, you mentioned at your event that I had an opportunity to attend a summit. The statistics around women in commercial real estate, why don't you share that for the audience?

Sure. So I learned in COVID that of all of the investors in commercial real estate, only three percent are women. And of that three percent, fifty percent of those are wives who sign on their husband's guarantees and probably don't know what they're signing and, inherited. Like, you know, girls that have inherited from their parents. So that means I'm part of 1.5%. And I just thought that was terrible.

And I didn't even understand it because there's in commercial real estate, we're up to about 30% in the C suite. So I'm not understanding why these CFOs and these COOs and these head of accounting, head of leasing, head of investment sales, why are they not investing? And I just started digging, digging, digging.

At first, they said, well, I don't have a million dollars. In commercial, you need a million. Okay. Well, you don't. And well, the math, which, you know, I hate that. And or it's too complicated. I go, yeah, my Netflix stock dropped 80% during COVID. That's complicated and risky also.

But then I as I kept drilling down, they kept saying that they finally got I finally got to the real deal. And the real deal was, I don't know any other women doing it. And if you can't see it, you can't be it. So I said, oh, that that I can solve that problem. And we started the conference and the podcast.

And and, my goal for the first four years of the conference was I said by the time I turn 70, which is in five and a half years, I wanna get that 3% to 10. But last year, the theme of the conference was think bigger. So I've changed that now to to 30. So 30%.

So but I think GoBundance is gonna help because I've met so many women investors in GoBundance, which is amazing. And the more women that we can put out at the conference and on the podcast, the other women that are watching are are DMing me saying, I can do it because I you know, we interview them on the podcast. Tell tell the stories of how you got started in investing, and it's helping.

I I totally agree that I say it a lot. If you see it, you can be it. And I also am part of this 1.5%. You know? I I have, I'm just some farm kid who asked a bunch of questions and failed forward enough that I I love this exactly what you stand for. The more I can show that I'm I'm nothing special, you know, in in the you know how I mean that. That it's it's completely possible for for everyone out there.

Well, you're you're very special, but it's but normal people can invest in commercial real estate. That's my point. And I you know, my 300 and some units in of a portfolio started with a fourplex. You know? So it's all so completely doable, but you gotta take it one step at a time.

And I am just in awe of your your where you've gotten to. You're an $80,000,000 portfolio. You're GP'ing. You're so sought after. And your whole goal now is to just reach back and lift other people up with you. You know?

I I think that there's a couple of key things in your journey because you didn't just wake up one day and have an $80,000,000 portfolio. You know? And and and let's let's just clarify for everyone. I have mortgages and I have partners. So I'm not sitting here make you know, if I was make if I had 80,000,000 in my bank account, you know, I might I probably be into heat. So Yeah. Right. You'd be on your own island. I yes. Syndicator math, you know.

But regardless, it's this huge chunk of the world that you own that you have have entrepreneurially run after and found success with. Like, you don't just wake up and get their poofs. And you're you're a single mama of of two kiddos that are really impressive all along the way.

I want you to, Beth, at your age now, turn around and talk to Beth twenty years ago when she is in it. And those kiddos, you know, they've got theme day at school and science projects and golf practice. Right? Talk to her about getting through those days and and paying attention to her business all the while.

Well well, I I have to tell a story. Can I digress for a second? So Let's go. I'm the head of this big company, started with 11 people. It's 150 people and there's and my son's four. And I have a live in nanny because I'm a single parent and I'm running this big company in Miami, which is an hour from my house. And I'm managing it, but and I'm trying to do everything. Right? You you I I I say you can have it all, you just can't have it all at once.

So I was trying to have it all at once, and there was a Halloween party. And Alex said, four years old. Mom, you're gonna be at the Halloween party. Right? I'm like, absolutely. I'm gonna be at the Halloween party. And at, 04:00, I get I start packing up my office. I'm walking down the hallway and, you know, one employee after another. They're following me down the hallway. One more question, following me down in the elevator in the parking garage. I get on the road late, and I get there at 05:30.

And here I am in my navy blue suit and my pumps click click click click click walking up the sidewalk. And I look ahead, and I see my son in a window of the front door looking for his mother who missed the entire party and was late for pickup, and he was the only kid left. I went to the office the next day and and gave my six month notice. Because I said, at 44, because I had Alex when I was 40. At 44, I don't think I I I kinda said, I didn't have a kid to have my nanny raise him and miss all of the all of the things. Right?

So, my my partner slash boss, you met him at the summit. You know, he cosigned a $50,000 note for me to make my first investment. You know, unbelievable mentor impact of my life. Furious. Like, first of all, I didn't believe I was leaving. And and unfortunately for him, his kids didn't come first. And I saw that. I saw this was my future, not having a good relationship with my, at the time, one son.

And so, so I knew I knew this was the most important thing. So it for three months, he said, you're not leaving, you know, you're not gonna leave the private jet and the, you know, 7 figure salary and, you know, you're not leaving. Like, he couldn't believe I was walking out the door. And I did. I and and that that was, I think that was like Halloween and I left on Valentine's day.

So, so I'm glad that somewhere in me, because, you know, material things, greed, I mean, ego, he didn't believe I would leave be it was on the front page of the Miami Herald. Like, it was a big deal. But I'm so glad that when you do the right thing, you do the right thing. Right? Doing the right thing is always the right thing, and the right thing was I needed to be a mom. So so that was one big story.

But but when you but looking back when you say at twenty years so when I when I left, I ended up by the way, people are like, I thought you said she had two kids. I adopted Mario. When Alex was eight, I adopted Mario when he was five. So I have two boys and they're phenomenal. Alex is 25 today and Mario is 22.

My biggest lesson was when I went out on my own and I start I had LP'd with my former partner boss seven times. I said, I can GP general partner, so I start doing deals. Seven, six deals I law I let drop. I identified them. They were gonna be great, but I went to get cosigning. And again, because there's only 1.5% of us, I couldn't get a a cosign or support from a woman. So I went to all of the rich experienced men that were in my world and all of six of them, because I drive by the six deals all of the time and, you know, sit they all told me drop that deal too risky blah blah blah, and I listened to all of them.

And what I would tell that girl now before you know, lose one and learn the lesson. I had to lose six and see other people pick it up and take it and do what what my plan was to learn. I don't need anyone's cosigning. I know what the frick I'm doing and I need to believe in myself. I need to do the due diligence, do the research, and own it, and then move forward and do it if I can do it. And if I have to drop the deal, I have to drop the deal.

But don't rely on someone else saying, yes, Beth. That's a good deal. Like, so I wish I would have not lost six deals and only lost one. And I didn't learn that lesson. It took me six times to go, what am I doing asking these men? And then since then, I don't ask the men, and I go do my own deals.

I I think that there's this lesson that I keep learning too of to trust my own judgment. And when I get to help people go buy their first fourplex or whatever midsize multi, it's just this lesson, and you are making the decision. You have to trust you, and that's what we're harnessing by doing these reps of the math and making these decisions as we go.

And I think, too, that, you know, being in these big rooms where big deals happen, lots of times when I meet someone who is the head of something that I I think really highly of this real estate group, and then I meet the person in charge, and I'm like, it's you. Like, my girls and I, we could run circles around you. Like, that gives me such confidence because they're just people, you know? And they're they're just people trying to do the best they can. They just trust the only difference, Beth, is that they trusted their judgment

more than I trust my judgment or you trusted yours on those six deals. And and, you know, men and men do. Men trust their judgment way more.

So and society tells all the little girls, when we talk about instinct, we start growing we start to grow up and we start thinking about what's this thing that's it's our wisdom and experience, but society says, so that's a soft skill. Skill. That's a girl thing. Like, don't talk about that in the boardroom, which is changing.

But, yeah, I'm a big believer if something's if I'm being told something, it's my wisdom and experience collectively telling me it, and I need to listen to it.

Yeah. Absolutely. I that gives me a great segue into another question I have for you. That along this journey, there had to have been times that you felt stuck, that you don't know what to do next. Right? And I could choose this or I could choose that. When you feel stuck, if you were talking to someone who feels stuck, what is something actionable that you do that helps you get out of that stuck feeling?

I'm a big writer of lists. So I don't really journal, but I just I get everything out of my head like the Ben Franklin. You know? Like, why am I stuck? What what's the icky feeling? Oh, I haven't signed a lease lately. We'll freaking go out and canvas. Like, go prospect. Because if you haven't if you haven't signed if you haven't signed a contract lately in my world, it's signing leases in shopping centers, then then that means my pipeline is low, which means I haven't prospected, and it's probably blaring me, like, right in the face. And I just pick up the absolutely best, slap myself on the button, go out, and prospect.

And prospecting three hours is so, for me, rejuvenating. I'm called the canvassing queen. You know? So but I get to go out. I'm talking to store owners. I'm in their stores, and it just turns everything around. When any anyone calls me and go, I'm in a funk. I go, go prospect. Go prospect because in in our world, it's just very, fun and you're in stores and it's just fun.

So but I'm a big list writer because I wanna get out what is the funk. Is it my is it relationships? Is it my health? This year, my theme is health is wealth because at 64, I wanna be at my boys' weddings and dance and I wanna see their grandchildren. So this has been the year and that's why I like GoBundance.

So I've been in so many masterminds. All about business, all about real estate. When I found you guys, you ladies, it was like adventure, health, so many different pillars talking about money, which, you know, is a big pet peeve of mine that women don't talk about money. So, so writing it down, getting it out of my head, and then looking at it and and analyzing it and saying, okay. Well, so I'm having a a difficult relationship. Well, then pick up the phone or go see that person or fly to see them or, you know, I so sometimes when there's when you're in a funk, you don't know what the funk is. You don't know where it's coming from. You just are feeling icky. And for me, just writing down. And again, it's I don't really journal. I just write Mhmm. Like, I write down all my properties and what are the all the outstanding things I need to get done.

And and, and, you know, I had a big problem. I was trying to I was developing, which, you know, I say, I'm never developing again and then I just do it again. It's, like, painful. But I was developing and I was building this Wawa and, which is a funny name for a gas station in this in the Northeast, but we were doing a deal down here. And, I and I was having an issue between them and my lender. And for three or four weeks, I was just trying to any way to solve this problem, solve the problem, solve it.

And I finally, like, you know, we talked about ask for help. That's a novel concept for type a women. And I finally, after four weeks of doing everything, I called one of my financial partners who's a partner in the deal, and I said, I am losing sleep over this. I don't know what I can do. I think I've done everything. And he said, I can't have my partner losing sleep over this. Do this. And it was putting him at risk for something, and I said, I can't do that to you. He goes, absolutely. There's no risk in this deal. Basically, he was gonna sign full fully on the on the loan. He goes, you know, I'll sign fully on the loan. Like, just go make that happen. That will solve your problem.

You know, so asking for help is not something. And again, for women to ask a man. Now, in this case, he's my partner. And he was absolute if I couldn't have solved the problem, it would have impacted my, you know, my whole syndication. But he was the like, a 50% partner, and he like, in two minutes, he's like, it's a no brainer. Tell the bank I'll sign personally on the loan. This will get them over the hump. Amazing.

Right. As far as Kelly would say in this, this having a belief in unlimited possibilities. Like, that is the thing that I've had to retrain my brain on because when I am certain I've done everything, I think I've exhausted everything, but I haven't. There is this unlimited possibility.

I also I love the the brain dump stuff. And it sounds like if you're stuck, you just get back to the basics. Whatever the basics is of the thing that you were doing, just go do more of that, and you'll find clarity on how to move forward.

I love the the idea of being an entrepreneur. It's so unconventional. It's it's not the normal path. It's not the way that most of society kind of prepares you to to to run after. Right? So tell me a strategy or something about your approach to life or business that is unconventional. Most people would disagree with it, but you are so certain of it. What's something unconventional?

Well and and I think it's it's the prospecting piece because so what happens when you, you know, when you first start in sales, you prospect. And and the goal of the salesperson is to not have to do that. Right? The goal of every salesperson in the world, because I train hundreds of them coach I coach hundreds of them, is they go, if I could just get to five years and then it's all referrals. Right? Or it's all social media, or it's all whatever it is, or it's all a funnel. You know, I'm gonna it so I, thirty nine years later, still go door to door prospecting.

Now I love it and peep and I was speaking at a big conference. It was a bunch it was like 500 salespeople in the audience and 450 men. And I'm in the middle of my presentation. Well, it was at the end of the presentation, there was q and a. And this guy says, are you really telling us that you actually go prospecting door to door? Like, what a waste of time. Like, you've been doing this. Don't you have relationships?

And I go, yes. Well, I have relationships. I have relationships with Starbucks and TJ Maxx and Home Depot and Costco, and I've done deals with all of them. But Ella's Coffee, who's, like, the newest, coolest thing, I don't know who that is. I gotta go see her little, you know, coffee shop. She may be just the right thing in the tenant mix that I wanna put in my next shopping center. I have to go see them.

And then I went through the a math. I said, can can someone bring me a flip chart? Because this pissed me off. And I I got a marker and I said, let's just walk through this, sir, on how this would impact. So I said, let's say I prospect for fifty hours and I get one deal done. That sounds pretty ridiculous, doesn't it? And then I go, so the deal is a 1,200 square foot. The rent I said, my rents are 50 or 60 in South Florida, but let's just say 40 just because, you know, I wanna make it be doing the apples to apples with you guys here. And let's say that's 4, you know, $48,000 a year divided by a six cap. I said, so that's about a $240,000 value.

So for me and for my partners in the deals that I syndicate, I think it's a very valuable use of my time. I said, and I can probably see 30 people in three hours. So I'm saying in six hours, I can increase the value of my property $248,000. So I think it's a really good use of my time, and that's shut that down.

Mind blown. Yes. I I think that the this willingness to not be above it. You know? I think as you go further in your career, and maybe something that is is special to, like, the female

approach, is the the ego is easier to get over. You know? Yeah. That's the thing.

And I'm you know, my my my nickname is the canvassing queen, and that came from a guy in my industry who was dissing me. Like, I was at a conference, and I it's, like, fifteen years in. Right? Like, half of, you know, my life ago. And I walked up to, like, a group of people. Oh, here she here she comes, the canvassing queen, and he absolutely meant it derogatorily.

I'm like, oh, I like that. And I And I like that. And I trademarked it, and the rest is history.

Oh, I love it. So make it let's talk about lemonade from lemons. It's beautiful. There you've said some things, Beth. Like, every time I'm around you, I learn something first of all. So thank you for that. But you've said a couple of things here today that I've I've written down, and I want you to know them. That you can't you can have it all, but you can't have it all at once. I so I so completely agree with that, and it's all about priorities. And balance is is something that is it's not for real. You gotta throw that idea out the window.

Doing the right thing is always doing the right thing. This idea of integrity, my my family of five, newly blended family of five, sat down and did our values, and one that matters to us collectively is integrity. You've got to always do the right thing, especially when nobody's looking, and you gotta trust your own judgment. That's what moves you forward. You know? Figure out what you need to trust your own judgment.

Beth, you give so much to to the GoBundance women community. You give so much to me and to every life that you touch. I wanna know what is a resource or, an introduction that would change the ballgame for you so that I might help or one of our listeners.

So I would love to have Sara Blakely speak at my next summit. And I I've met her. I've been in her house. I you know? But she doesn't know me. And, you know, of course, it's a gazillion dollars to hire these great speakers. So if anyone out there, you know, has, like, a book club with Sara, Our women are phenomenal, and I can pay something. I just can't pay the crazy, you know, the 7 figures that that people pay her.

But we have such a great you've been to the summit, great group of women, high net worth women. You know, women in at the last summit summit were wearing her new sneaks shoes. So our our audience is her audience.

So that would change I would just love to be able to have her at a week. Gonna manifest that in a big way.

What is the best way for Sarah Blakely or anyone else to get a hold of you, Beth?

So any social media, so Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, just Beth Azor. Just my name. Okay.

We will get that all in the show notes. Beth, thank you for joining us today. Thank you for joining us on the Power Up Your Life podcast. If anybody liked this, if they need to figure out how to trust their own judgment or, you know, go bigger, further, and have it all, but not all at the same time, make sure you're sharing this with them. Like and subscribe, and we will see you next week. Beth, thank you so much.

Bye bye. Thanks, Mandy.