บทถอดความฉบับเต็มของ Greg Friedman, Managing Principal & CEO, Peachtree Group Interviewed by Rachel Humphrey

really taught me that it's okay to make pivots along the way. 00:04:56.624 --> 00:05:08.644 'Cause again, you're gonna have failure and you're gonna have success, and to embrace, you know, both those scenarios and just realize that, you know, you're gonna have, have those, you know, have those events, but none of them are gonna be defining 00:05:09.971 --> 00:05:17.281 I think that pivoting is probably gonna be a little bit of a, a recurring theme as we talk today through your leadership. 00:05:17.322 --> 00:05:26.721 But I wanna turn to Peachtree Group because as I understand the trajectory of the company, your most explosive growth was during the pandemic. 00:05:26.721 --> 00:05:36.271 You were doing a lot of transactions when others were not doing any, and that certainly turned out to be a very successful move for you all, but easily could have also gone the other way. 00:05:36.711 --> 00:05:47.831 When you think about whether it be those entrepreneurial adventures or whether you think about where you've taken the company lately with your team, how do you approach risks in general? 00:05:47.851 --> 00:05:50.791 Do you think you would describe yourself as a big risk taker? 00:05:50.791 --> 00:05:57.262 Is there a process you go through in evaluating which ones you're gonna take, or is it the no risk no reward mentality? 00:05:57.911 --> 00:06:01.791 Yes, I'm big on protecting the downside, so I'm a big... 00:06:01.891 --> 00:06:02.851 The reality is this. 00:06:02.882 --> 00:06:04.411 I take, we take on a lot of risk. 00:06:04.411 --> 00:06:07.942 I take on a lot of risk every day, and I continue to take on risk. 00:06:08.072 --> 00:06:18.682 And if you think about how when we started the business back before the great financial crisis, so in 2007, and we went out, bought a couple hotels, and that's really how we started Peachtree. 00:06:19.091 --> 00:06:23.572 It was, you know, myself and Mitul, and then Jatin joined us a little bit later. 00:06:23.572 --> 00:06:29.002 So the three of us were the original partners, and we're still, you know, all three of us are partners at Peachtree. 00:06:29.461 --> 00:06:35.201 Um, but if you think about it, we originally went out, bought hotels, and all of a sudden you had the GFC. 00:06:35.742 --> 00:06:45.192 You know, we quickly pivoted and said,"Okay, we're gonna have to play, um, offense and defense," um, and that means we're gonna have to protect the assets that we currently own. 00:06:45.482 --> 00:06:56.781 That's why we started our operating platform back, you know, in 2008, 2009 ti- time period, where we started op- we took over the operations of the hotels that we owned as well as the hotels that we were developing from the ground up. 00:06:57.302 --> 00:07:03.711 And then we were able to play offense by going out and buying up a lot of distressed debt back during the GFC. 00:07:04.182 --> 00:07:28.692 And so we've, you know, constantly had that mentality where, you know, when you think about the

pandemic, did something very similar where we played offense and defense, but we've held that mentality The way I look at risk, to answer your question directly, is it's all about protecting the downside, being very calculated, thoughtful, but also being very decisive when, you know, you, when you have conviction in that trade. 00:07:28.812 --> 00:07:41.141 And so if it's buying debt, if it's buying hotel properties, you know, whatever the case is, it's not being afraid to have that, have that decisiveness once you can sort of protect your downside risk. 00:07:41.141 --> 00:07:49.312 And that's what I think we've done a really good job of, is finding that mispriced risk, but protecting downside, and that may be in how you set up the capital structure. 00:07:49.322 --> 00:07:59.451 You know, like what type of debt you have underneath if you're buying hotel assets, making sure you have debt that sort of matches to the business plan to give you the runway to, you know, be successful. 00:07:59.982 --> 00:08:06.262 It could be how you underwrite and analyze the invest- you know, the actual assets you're buying into. 00:08:07.151 --> 00:08:12.682 The stickiness, if it's hotel properties specifically, you know, the stickiness of demand and, and different things like that. 00:08:12.682 --> 00:08:27.932 And that's, you know, going back to COVID,'cause a lot of people thought we were crazy when we went out and started buying up a lot of debt secured by hotel properties back in, you know, May of 2020,'cause hotels had not recovered, and we started buying hotel properties again as well, too. 00:08:28.471 --> 00:08:38.611 And we had that conviction, just'cause we were starting to see the industry slowly recover, and also I had very strong conviction that travel was going to come back. 00:08:38.662 --> 00:08:46.251 It wasn't a, a question if people just valued, you know, the ability to travel, to have experiences, have those interactions. 00:08:46.251 --> 00:08:47.932 So I knew travel would recover. 00:08:48.241 --> 00:08:58.022 It was just a question of timing, and that's part of the reason why we were comfortable taking that risk back in, you know, May of 2020 when we started aggressively buying more hotel assets 00:08:59.488 --> 00:09:12.197 It's interesting'cause as you're talking about the, the information that you have and the risk that you're taking, I'm thinking about what Peachtree's motto is, and I just recently saw this, guided by intuition. 00:09:12.498 --> 00:09:17.807 And I don't normally do this, but I'm gonna read because I wanted to make sure I had the definition accurate. 00:09:18.258 --> 00:09:25.677 It says intuition is the ability to understand or know something immediately based on your feelings rather than on facts. 00:09:26.638 --> 00:09:45.477 And I found that most interesting because I think that everyone I talk to talks about how fact-based you are, your knowledge of facts and data and trends and all of these things in the industry,

yet the premise of the business is being guided by intuition. 00:09:45.827 --> 00:09:54.988 So I wanted to talk to you about like, a little bit about how does your g- your intuition guide you and do you think that would surprise people about you? 00:09:56.087 --> 00:09:56.398 Yeah. 00:09:56.628 --> 00:10:01.077 I mean, pr- as you say it that way, I'm sure it l- it does surprise a lot of people. 00:10:01.638 --> 00:10:07.878 But- That's why I looked it up, Greg, because I was like, wait, that- Right maybe I don't have the right definition of intuition. 00:10:08.418 --> 00:10:12.567 But it's, I mean, intuition at the end of the day, it's all about your experience. 00:10:12.648 --> 00:10:16.847 You know, your experience is talking faster than what your mind can process, right? 00:10:17.298 --> 00:10:24.868 So you're, you're really looking at what's, you know, like, your, just your historical experiences in certain situations. 00:10:25.227 --> 00:10:36.648 You're able to, your gut's taking over because it's seen this situation before or it's processing the information a lot quicker than you can, your conscious mind can actually process that information, is the way I look at it. 00:10:37.317 --> 00:10:53.118 And that's why, you know, honestly, a lot of decisions we've made has been just gut calls based on what's happening, and it's, it is,'cause we've been in so many different situations and have so many different experiences, and the same for a lot of the other team members that are part of Peachtree. 00:10:53.488 --> 00:11:04.258 But it is a lot of times a gut call that you're, you're making'cause there's a lotta, there's a lotta just jump balls on what the right decision is, and you gotta go with your gut. 00:11:04.288 --> 00:11:09.197 So I'm a big believer that you do need to, um, lean into your intuition. 00:11:09.557 --> 00:11:12.158 In most cases, it works out very well for us. 00:11:13.168 --> 00:11:24.868 What would you tell people on your team or, or that are listening about the hesitancy to trust their intuition or to be guided by that as a decision-maker? 00:11:26.457 --> 00:11:30.577 So a lot of times people just like they... 00:11:30.908 --> 00:11:42.067 It's like, you know, you're like,"Ah, I shouldn't make that turn," or,"I shouldn't, I shouldn't go out tonight for some reason." And a lot of times it's just, you can't put your finger on it. 00:11:42.138 --> 00:11:47.048 And it's not to say that you should always just follow, you know, your gut instinct or your intuition. 00:11:47.518 --> 00:12:00.388 Um, but I, I do believe a lot of times that you find that your intuition, even though you don't have a set of facts to support it, in a lot of cases just, it just ends up being the better, the better call. 00:12:00.388 --> 00:12:04.597 Now, when it comes to business, you know, we do try to back it up with facts. 00:12:04.628 --> 00:12:05.878 We don't just... 00:12:05.888 --> 00:12:16.768 It's not like we're just gonna go show up and say,"We're gonna buy this hotel property across the street because it looks great, you know, and my gut tells me w- we'll do well on it." I mean, we're still going to... 00:12:17.048 --> 00:12:21.307 We, we drive these markets and we look at assets from a qualitative, you know, perspective. 00:12:21.687 --> 00:12:37.077 And I think a lot of times your intuition is probably, you know, is probably driven a lot of times by the qualitative side of a situation, but we're also quantitatively looking at the data and the, the actual numbers and backing it up to make sure it actually makes sense. 00:12:37.258 --> 00:12:40.977 So I don't know if I fully answered your question, but- Yeah I mean, that's the way I would look at it. 00:12:41.087 --> 00:12:56.158 No, I think that's really an interesting way of saying like that maybe that intuition is actually created based on the knowledge that you have and whether you're actively thinking about it or not, that that's what's pushing you in one direction or another and not just on business. 00:12:56.788 --> 00:13:01.327 I wanna talk a little bit about some of the early days of leadership for you. 00:13:01.398 --> 00:13:05.538 Again, um, you mentioned earlier you were a biology major in college. 00:13:05.847 --> 00:13:22.258 I don't know, I'm not gonna judge whether that is relevant to what you're doing today or not, but certainly you would've come across a lot of skills that you were gonna need in, um, your GMAC role or your role today that you did not learn in a traditional educational environment. 00:13:22.937 --> 00:13:26.097 How do you set out developing new skills? 00:13:26.097 --> 00:13:32.837 Was there anything right off the bat, maybe in one of your first roles out of school that you're like,"If I'm gonna be successful, I need to learn this"? 00:13:32.837 --> 00:13:35.788 And how did you set out to go and, and build that skill? 00:13:36.717 --> 00:13:37.337 Yeah. 00:13:37.337 --> 00:13:50.207 So, I mean, a couple of different skills I really didn't have coming out of college'cause, you know, being a biology major with the idea of going to medical school, you know, wasn't l- it wasn't like we did a lot of financial modeling, as an example. 00:13:50.707 --> 00:13:53.998 So we weren't, you know, using Excel in a lot of cases. 00:13:54.038 --> 00:13:56.097 Now, math was always a big part of... 00:13:56.337 --> 00:14:03.548 You know, I was always really good at, like, math and, you know, all the courses as it relates to math and so forth, so I always excelled in that area. 00:14:03.957 --> 00:14:15.677 So although I wasn't necessarily, you know, great at Excel or modeling deals early on, I had to learn how to do those pieces of the job, which, um, which was somewhat... 00:14:15.738 --> 00:14:20.248 It did come somewhat easy just given probably some of the interest levels and so forth. 00:14:20.248 --> 00:14:31.307 But probably the bigger skill set wasn't early into the career or, you know, the biggest skill

sets I had to learn, I think as I just progressed in business, was little things like public speaking. 00:14:31.357 --> 00:14:37.317 'Cause if you think about it, when you're gonna be a doctor, you're a biology major, you're not doing a lot of presentations. 00:14:37.508 --> 00:14:39.258 I mean, you're spending all day in labs. 00:14:39.687 --> 00:14:41.107 Um, you're dealing with... 00:14:41.288 --> 00:14:44.227 You're deal- you know, you're spending a lot of time studying, reading books. 00:14:44.238 --> 00:14:52.357 You're spending a lot of time in l- labs, like I just said, but you're doing things that don't require a lot of interactions with, you know, other people. 00:14:52.357 --> 00:14:54.837 It doesn't require, you know, a lot of presentations. 00:14:54.947 --> 00:15:08.087 So things like that were a bigger probably skill set that became, or at least a skill set that became bigger over time that I needed to really lean into and learn as I, you know, continued to, you know, build Peachtree. 00:15:08.087 --> 00:15:28.217 And even before building Peachtree, I think some of the other components is just, you know, just from the standpoint of skills is, and it has nothing necessarily to do with being a business student or being a biology major, is probably just in relation to how to, uh, how to manage, you know, and really manage relationships. 00:15:28.258 --> 00:15:34.758 You know, managing people, if it's, you know, managing team members, if it's figuring out how to get people to work together. 00:15:35.107 --> 00:15:47.937 Um, so in a lot of cases, sometimes I always joke I should've been a psychologist'cause I spend a lot of time I feel like trying to figure out how to bring people together and get them to actually work together,'cause a lot of times that creates a better outcom- 00:15:50.317 --> 00:16:02.857 If you were to talk a little bit more about the public speaking,'cause certainly you do a lot of it today, and whether that's to your team or on the biggest stages in the industry, did you do anything specific to develop that? 00:16:02.868 --> 00:16:05.067 Are you comfortable doing it today? 00:16:05.097 --> 00:16:08.427 Do you have a preparation strategy that you use? 00:16:08.447 --> 00:16:15.217 I know from having moderated you that, um, you are an easy panelist because you're very thoughtful in what you say. 00:16:15.217 --> 00:16:19.498 But what, what happens behind the scenes before you, you take that stage? 00:16:20.357 --> 00:16:24.727 Yeah, I mean, it's, it's probably today, it's probably less stress. 00:16:24.778 --> 00:16:33.048 I mean, I think it's, it was probably more stressful back, you know, early on, especially when you didn't have that, didn't have that knowledge or experience. 00:16:33.388 --> 00:16:41.967 Um, so I think it's just more g- getting more experience in those types of situations and, you know, getting some training and development around that area as well. 00:16:43.488 --> 00:17:12.617 When you think about leadership, we have a lot of people who say,"I was born to be a leader," or,"I realized as I was playing football or tennis that it was something I enjoyed." And then you have people today who say,"I don't even consider myself a leader today except by maybe role or title." Was that something that struck you at some point, either that I want, I know I want to be in a position of leadership, or I recognize that now I am in a position of leadership? 00:17:14.253 --> 00:17:20.413 Yeah, it was never, you know, it was never like becoming a leader was like something critical to me. 00:17:20.453 --> 00:17:22.723 It was more about being an entrepreneur. 00:17:23.124 --> 00:17:27.044 So I never really thought about leadership, especially early on. 00:17:27.044 --> 00:17:38.874 It was never about leadership, you know, it was more about being entrepreneurial, creating a, a business or creating something that was sustainable, you know, and being sustainable, you know, creating something that was profitable. 00:17:39.324 --> 00:17:41.513 Um, that was a big part of the... 00:17:41.733 --> 00:17:43.844 From my perspective, that was a big part of the journey. 00:17:44.193 --> 00:17:52.384 I think as, you know, as I progress and as Peachtree has become a bigger organization, you know, leadership has become a, a more critical piece. 00:17:52.384 --> 00:17:56.554 It's something that, you know, we talk a lot more about as a company. 00:17:56.983 --> 00:17:59.903 Um, it's something that, you know, I'm focused more on as well. 00:18:00.324 --> 00:18:02.134 But I do think leadership, I think it's... 00:18:02.153 --> 00:18:03.443 A lot of times it's just inherent. 00:18:03.594 --> 00:18:15.874 I think it's within individuals and maybe it's, you know, maybe it's inherent in a lot of entrepreneurs, maybe it's not,'cause in certain cases you have entrepreneurs that create incredible businesses and then they end up having someone else, you know, lead that business. 00:18:16.273 --> 00:18:23.844 But in the case of our business, I think, I think leadership is super critical or has been super critical, and that's part of the reason we've been able to grow our business. 00:18:23.884 --> 00:18:32.903 Greg, you were talking earlier about how your leadership has really evolved because of the growth of the company and the needs that you have within the company. 00:18:33.153 --> 00:18:43.403 When you are looking to expand your company or elevate rising leaders, is there something you can put your finger on that when you meet with someone you're like,"This is the one. 00:18:43.413 --> 00:18:50.064 This is the person that I've been looking for, or they will contribute to the culture that I'm trying to create here, or that we're trying to create"? 00:18:50.584 --> 00:18:50.874 Yeah. 00:18:50.874 --> 00:18:58.574 So I think it's really about finding team members or new team members that really fit in with the existing culture that's in place. 00:18:58.804 --> 00:19:05.203 And when

you think about the existing culture, Peachtree, you know, we've built a team that's very entrepreneurial. 00:19:05.394 --> 00:19:08.193 You know, they're very much about, you know, speed. 00:19:08.394 --> 00:19:12.423 Um, so we move at a very fast pace, and that's not for everyone. 00:19:12.423 --> 00:19:13.284 So we tend to... 00:19:13.584 --> 00:19:16.963 And when we tend to make decisions, we're very decisive as an organization. 00:19:17.364 --> 00:19:31.432 Um, so I like to find people that- Have that entrepreneurial spirit, that are willing to get gritty, that are very much, very much passionate about what they're doing, um, because that's, that's what I think you find within our existing team. 00:19:31.832 --> 00:19:46.491 And it's hard to bring team members in that are that don't really share the same, you know, passions per se because I, I've found that, you know, as we've had team members in the past, and we've had some really great team members that have been part of PeaceTree that are no longer part of PeaceTree. 00:19:47.021 --> 00:19:59.402 But, you know, one of the challenges we've had with certain team members is that they're truly It wasn't You know, although maybe they were passionate early on, but as, as the organization grew they weren't as passionate about what they were doing on a daily basis. 00:19:59.842 --> 00:20:07.061 And when they're not, it just creates its own challenges, and we wanna see that people can have their own personal success as well as the team itself. 00:20:07.061 --> 00:20:14.541 So I'm a big believer that someone's gotta be very passionate about what they're doing on a daily basis along with having that entrepreneurial spirit. 00:20:15.471 --> 00:20:15.721 Yeah. 00:20:15.721 --> 00:20:30.122 I think that passion is so important because we spend so much of our time and our lives and our commitment and our efforts in what we're doing, uh, for that company or for our role in that company that to not be passionate about it is a tough fit. 00:20:30.541 --> 00:20:36.491 I mentioned earlier that I thought that pivoting was going to be kind of a red thread through your story. 00:20:36.531 --> 00:20:45.721 Um, certainly some of the adaptability has been required of you has been from external sources, whether they're economic things, the, the pandemic as you mentioned. 00:20:46.211 --> 00:21:05.046 Talk about the skill of adaptability in identifying whatever type of, um Things somebody may be throwing in your way or whatever challenge or obstacle comes your way, how do you look at them and then regroup and tackle what's going to come next or decide how you're gonna pursue next? 00:21:05.786 --> 00:21:05.986 Yeah. 00:21:06.086 --> 00:21:08.645 So I think, you know, adaptability is sort of... 00:21:08.925 --> 00:21:17.306 It's sort of interesting'cause I, I think that's been a big part of just, you know, my personal, professional career, you know,'cause I, I moved around a lot as a child. 00:21:17.365 --> 00:21:19.145 My, my mom worked for my grandfather. 00:21:19.205 --> 00:21:26.405 They had, you know, they had different locations for his business, so I did move around, you know, a good bit, so constantly being able to adapt. 00:21:26.746 --> 00:21:37.226 And I think, you know, a big part of adaptability, you know, even in business,'cause we've pivoted so many times along the way too, is being able to sort of accept reality. 00:21:37.286 --> 00:21:42.066 And so a lot of times you find that people are not willing to accept the reality of what's happening. 00:21:42.165 --> 00:21:47.125 So, like you take, you know, the current environment for instance, you know, go back three, four years ago, you know, it took... 00:21:47.506 --> 00:21:51.266 You know, a lot of people weren't accepting the fact that we're in this higher for longer interest rate. 00:21:52.006 --> 00:21:55.165 Talked a lot about that over the last three or four years from a business perspective. 00:21:55.605 --> 00:22:03.326 But once you're willing to sort of accept the reality a lot faster, then you can start to, you know, really make decisions. 00:22:03.405 --> 00:22:08.766 You can, you know, build around what's happening, and you can, you know, adapt to that situation. 00:22:08.806 --> 00:22:09.885 And so it's... 00:22:09.925 --> 00:22:17.066 You know, I do think adaptability is huge if it's in personal life, if it's in professional life,'cause it's, it is... 00:22:17.486 --> 00:22:26.846 There's no question that is a big part of just being able to success, is adapting, you know, pivoting when things aren't working and reali- you know, accepting that it's not working. 00:22:26.945 --> 00:22:30.086 That if it's you investing into a certain type of... 00:22:30.486 --> 00:22:34.965 If you're investing into a company, if you're investing into an asset, um, and if you're not able to... 00:22:34.986 --> 00:22:39.605 You know, if it's not working the way you expected, being able to pivot, try to fix those situations. 00:22:40.006 --> 00:22:44.945 Or even sometimes, you know, you have to dispose those assets and move on to the next trade. 00:22:45.365 --> 00:22:51.705 But it's also realizing, and this is probably going back to the leadership side of everything, is that, you know, you don't... 00:22:51.925 --> 00:22:54.685 The one thing I've learned is I don't have to predict every turn. 00:22:55.066 --> 00:22:58.306 We've built an organization that's capable. 00:22:58.486 --> 00:23:06.486 You know, we have a lot of capable team members, a lot of capable leaders that are part of Peachtree, and that's, that's what allows us to keep turning and, you know, adapt 00:23:07.862 --> 00:23:12.132 I love the strategy of accepting reality, though. 00:23:12.132 --> 00:23:15.602 I don't know that I have thought about it in that particular way, but you're right. 00:23:15.602 --> 00:23:26.112 As soon as you can zone in on what the reality of the situation is, it lets you make that pivot or that analysis

or that next step that much quicker. 00:23:26.112 --> 00:23:26.942 I love that. 00:23:27.402 --> 00:23:31.412 Well, I wanna ask you one more thing about your leadership evolution. 00:23:31.461 --> 00:23:39.031 Certainly be sometimes intentional as we grow our own leadership styles, sometimes because of what is thrown our way. 00:23:39.352 --> 00:23:47.092 There are some things that get better over time, and some ways maybe we miss a step or lose a step over time. 00:23:47.112 --> 00:23:55.112 So in your leadership evolution, what is something that has gotten better over time, and what is something that has become more difficult for you? 00:23:56.556 --> 00:23:56.685 Yeah. 00:23:56.965 --> 00:23:59.096 So it's, uh, that's a great question. 00:23:59.296 --> 00:24:07.746 So probably from a standpoint of just getting, you know, better over time is, is, uh, just being able to be able to pivot. 00:24:07.965 --> 00:24:23.016 I mean, that's probably one thing that's gotten a lot better is just being able to pivot'cause I think when you're early, you try to make situations work that are not working, and sometimes y- you know, you just gotta pivot a lot quicker in some cases'cause you're, you know, spending unnecessary times. 00:24:23.046 --> 00:24:29.195 So it's probably understanding the moments where you should pivot, um, versus, you know, where you're... 00:24:29.266 --> 00:24:36.346 other times where you should give it, give it a little bit more grace, give it a lit- little bit more time, that situation or that challenge you're facing. 00:24:36.566 --> 00:24:41.976 So just understanding, understanding that component I probably have gotten a lot better at with, with age. 00:24:41.976 --> 00:24:44.155 I think the other part too is, you know, early... 00:24:44.486 --> 00:24:49.905 'cause, uh, you know, as we talked about ear- earlier at the beginning of this, you know, I've done a lot of different businesses. 00:24:49.945 --> 00:24:53.726 Uh, you know, I was very entrepreneurial back in high school, college. 00:24:53.736 --> 00:25:01.546 Um, you know, even coming out of college and working professionally, I probably had an expectation, um, that was unrealistic. 00:25:01.546 --> 00:25:17.645 Like I, I mean, I used to work, and I still work extremely hard, so I don't wanna make it sound like, you know, I d- I don't work, but I, I mean, I worked pretty long hours always in trying to, you know, focusing on business or focusing on, on, you know, having professional success. 00:25:17.986 --> 00:25:25.625 And my expectations as I was growing my business early on was having people that could sort of keep pace, and that's not sustainable. 00:25:25.726 --> 00:25:28.546 I mean, that's something I've learned along the way. 00:25:28.905 --> 00:25:35.655 Um, and I think I've gotten better at accepting that and making sure I put people in the right position to be successful and not trying to... 00:25:36.145 --> 00:25:48.506 just because we're hiring for a position or we hire someone for a specific position, if they're not the right person for that position, I think I've gotten really good at putting them in the right position so that they can be successful. 00:25:48.976 --> 00:25:51.576 But, you know, that's, those are some areas that I think I've improved in. 00:25:51.586 --> 00:26:02.175 I think from an area where I've probably have gotten a little bit, um, or probably gotten worse is hard to, it's hard to admit that where you've gotten worse in certain areas. 00:26:02.506 --> 00:26:05.685 So I'm trying to think of something that, you know, I truly have taken a step back. 00:26:06.105 --> 00:26:09.925 It's, uh, be candid, it's probably, I'm probably a lot softer today. 00:26:09.925 --> 00:26:22.286 Maybe that's, maybe it's not worse, maybe it's- softer, but, uh, I'm probably softer as it comes to just allowing, like really not taking part in certain situations. 00:26:22.286 --> 00:26:28.685 I've fully in my career took very hard lines and probably fully into pre I started business here. 00:26:30.016 --> 00:26:37.705 I took a very hard line positions and now probably a little better and maybe that's not a bad, it's probably'cause I'm 00:26:39.788 --> 00:26:46.347 Well, it's some of it may be how you perceive yours- it for yourself versus how others perceive it as a change for you. 00:26:46.758 --> 00:26:54.577 I mentioned earlier that I was surprised by the motto relying on intuition and in getting to know you a little bit. 00:26:55.117 --> 00:27:04.167 What would you say is one thing that either people don't know about you or that you hear about yourself and you're like,"Wait, I'm surprised to hear that. 00:27:04.218 --> 00:27:06.857 That's not accurate about me at all"? 00:27:07.698 --> 00:27:08.038 Yeah. 00:27:08.038 --> 00:27:10.488 So the intuition comment probably. 00:27:10.518 --> 00:27:19.738 Like, anyone that, anyone that knows me very well knows I do go off my gut a lot, but I'm very good about, you know, backing it up on my gut and getting the data to help support it. 00:27:20.048 --> 00:27:21.137 I do go on my gut a lot. 00:27:21.417 --> 00:27:22.528 But the, uh... 00:27:22.698 --> 00:27:31.837 Probably something that is, uh, that is surprising, you know, I feel like I've told my story so many different times. 00:27:31.837 --> 00:27:36.698 Like, a lot of times people are surprised that I grew up in a small town outside of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. 00:27:36.698 --> 00:27:40.468 That, you know, probably one component that surprises a lot of people'cause they... 00:27:40.567 --> 00:27:52.718 I lived in this small town until I was 10 years old, um, which is, which sounds crazy because I ended up living in Dallas right after, you know, I was 10, we moved to Dallas, Texas, where my grandfather's business was based out of. 00:27:53.127 --> 00:27:55.847 The, that's probably one part of the story people don't know. 00:27:56.958 --> 00:27:59.167 I am, uh, I can relate to that a lot. 00:27:59.167 -->

00:28:02.498 I grew up in a really small town in New Hampshire as well. 00:28:03.198 --> 00:28:27.488 As you sit here today reflecting on your career journey, your personal life, how things have played out for you, what is something you would tell Greg graduating biology degree in hand, getting ready to head off to med school or take a break before med school, that either might have changed the trajectory for you, made it easier for you, or just something you wish you knew back then that you know today? 00:28:28.925 --> 00:28:36.066 Yeah, so probably the, the biggest thing is, uh, is time is your biggest asset on your balance sheet. 00:28:36.115 --> 00:28:52.205 Like, I think it's, it's one of those, uh, we all get caught up in the, the need sometimes'cause you gotta, to a certain degree, you gotta actually make money to be able to, you know, buy food and, you know, have housing and shelter and all these other necessities of life or even other luxuries of life. 00:28:52.296 --> 00:28:55.516 But the reality is, is time is your biggest asset on your balance sheet. 00:28:55.605 --> 00:29:02.046 So it is very much a depreciating asset, so be very thoughtful and strategic on how you spend your time. 00:29:02.046 --> 00:29:09.746 So I'm a big believer if you're not-- if you don't-- if you're not passionate about what you're doing, you know, realize those hours you're spending doing it is just... 00:29:10.096 --> 00:29:12.576 unfortunately, it's wasted time when you think about it. 00:29:12.605 --> 00:29:17.096 Because you only have 24 hours in a day and, you know, and everyone's got a... 00:29:17.405 --> 00:29:20.205 fortunately, we all have a expiration date. 00:29:20.286 --> 00:29:23.165 So we've gotta, you gotta manage your time very wisely. 00:29:23.165 --> 00:29:27.846 So that's something that I wish I would've probably been more thoughtful towards at a younger age. 00:29:28.296 --> 00:29:35.026 Um, I think it's, you know, I think that's something that really didn't think a lot about, but it's, you know, an area that I think is big. 00:29:36.086 --> 00:29:46.445 Time being your most valuable asset is such an important thing to be reminded of it because it is so finite in so many ways, and choosing how you spend it becomes more and more important. 00:29:46.885 --> 00:29:50.846 You've shared so many great things about leadership, thoughts on leadership today. 00:29:50.846 --> 00:29:57.705 As you think of our motto, empowering personal success, is there a final sho- thought you wanna share with our audience? 00:29:59.405 --> 00:29:59.726 Yeah. 00:29:59.726 --> 00:30:08.336 So I think, um, I think as it relates to personal success, I mean, I- it's one of those that sort of goes back to what we sort of talked about a few minutes ago. 00:30:09.086 --> 00:30:10.476 I think you've gotta be... 00:30:10.655 --> 00:30:14.516 You gotta find what you're passionate about and, you know, lean into it. 00:30:14.516 --> 00:30:17.246 I know a lot of people have different opinions about passion. 00:30:17.615 --> 00:30:22.596 Um, some people say you should really lean into what you're good at doing versus what you're passionate about. 00:30:22.596 --> 00:30:35.246 But I am a big you lean into what you're passionate about, and if you're passionate about something, you can be a biology major, and you can all of a sudden be running a private equity firm like Beach Street. 00:30:35.346 --> 00:30:42.895 You know, because we view ourselves as a private equity firm, so we invest across private credit, you know, across real estate, and across, you know, some other asset classes. 00:30:43.026 --> 00:30:44.675 Obviously, we do a lot in the hotel space. 00:30:45.135 --> 00:30:49.806 Um, so it's, it's one of those things that you gotta find what you're passionate about and what you actually... 00:30:50.266 --> 00:30:53.246 You know, what you can wake up, I would say, 100% of the days. 00:30:53.246 --> 00:31:03.435 But the reality is, is there's days that all of us wake up where we're like,"I really don't wanna go to the office." But where you can wake up 85% of the day and really love what you're doing, then you probably got the right... 00:31:04.036 --> 00:31:06.796 You have the right career probably set in place. 00:31:07.516 --> 00:31:08.336 I love it. 00:31:08.336 --> 00:31:09.445 Could not agree more. 00:31:09.445 --> 00:31:17.506 Well, Greg, I'm so excited that you joined us today and shared a little bit more about your journey, your leadership insights to our audience. 00:31:17.546 --> 00:31:19.365 Thanks for spending some time with us today. 00:31:19.365 --> 00:31:31.355 We know you have a lot of ways to choose to spend your time, and we encourage you to head over to itspersonalstories.com to hear from other hospitality industry leaders who have likewise shared their journey and their leadership thoughts. 00:31:31.365 --> 00:31:33.506 So Greg, thank you so much for joining us. 00:31:33.836 --> 00:31:33.986 Yeah. 00:31:33.986 --> 00:31:34.746 Thank you, Rachel