Diverse Paths to Impactful Leadership: James Robertson on Commercial Real Estate, Community, and Career | Ep. 26

[Music]

hello and welcome to another episode of tools talents and techniques I'm your host Dustin Sutton and today I have the privilege of Hosting Mr James Robertson senior vice president jll a true Powerhouse in the world of commercial real estate and as you'll see in this episode he has a passion for Creative problem solving and is a deep understanding of leadership politics community and we have such a great conversation here he's a remarkable person I hope that you enjoyed this episode as much as I enjoyed having it and I have a feeling this is going to be the first of many podcasts that I have with James I feel like there's just so much good information that he has to share his journey and where he sees the future of business in general not just commercial real estate but how it all ties together with uh with the community so here he is Mr James

[Music] Robertson James welcome to the show Dustin what's up buddy how's it going it's going well I'm uh really excited about this conversation we talked a little bit before about some of the things that we're going to be discussing today and uh I don't think I could be more excited about all the things attitude definitely before before we get going could you introduce yourself and say a little bit about what you do yeah yeah well well I'm James Robertson I'm a senior vice president at Jones Lang Lal um I do office in industrial real estate I'm an entrepreneur so um I own a few businesses as well and those are my two big hats I'm a father uh of a bunch of kids a ton of kids so U I would say those things uh I I love spending time at church um with with family uh and work that's really my life I want to talk about the origin story James where where did you where where does the story begin you know what um that's a good question well I would have to say that one of the biggest pivots in my life had to be when I got to college because that's when I started to actually learn to work to achieve goals and look at big goals versus just getting by in high school I think I just got by so in college uh one of my goals was to make the football team at University of Houston where I got to play as a middle linebacker for two years and it was a great experience really good experience and I also had a goal to be a student body president at University of Houston 2 and I was able to do that for two years so um I think college was when I really got into my stride and I've really been trying to continue that uh effort ever since then was it was high school just really easy for you like why why do you feel that you didn't really apply yourself prior to college you know high school was high school was tough for me because I was just this chubby kid and um you know I was overweight I wasn't I was active I played football so I was a offensive lineman so I held my weight well I could move with it I was pretty quick but still um I really lacked self-esteem at the time and I was not very social even though I really liked people so for me high school was I think a typical fat kid experience where you're like it's a tough place because you can get made fun of sometimes you can you know not get the dates that you want and you have to learn to kind of toughen up and get in shape so for me high school was kind of a boot camp I would say it was a good boot camp for me yeah was there any one moment in particular that made you say hey I need to straighten up or I really want to step on the gas here oh yeah man I could tell you the defining moment for me in high school was senior year when um I was on varsity football and um I had some scholarship opportunities and during those scholarship opportunities I got injured that last summer uh just in training because I had not worked out uh in the offseason like I should have and so I got a knee injury which kept me from playing that year it kept me from getting scholarship opportunities that I had that year so that was a defining moment for me because I felt like it was a lot of failure uh but the benefit was I was able to start working out for a different goal and that year my senior year that's when I lost a 100 pounds in a year going from like 320 as an offensive lineman to about 220 pounds where I got to play middle linebacker at U of AG so I was a lot faster a lot stronger so it was all overall it was a Net game for me but um I had to go through those tough tough pth just to get there congratulations that's that's amazing losing 100 pounds and then seeing the results and then actualizing him that's fantastic yeah well well I know this is a a tools podcast and um I will tell you that the tools that I use in um I immediately identified with the bodybuilders at the gym uh World's Gym we had some huler looking dudes there and I I loved my relationship with them they were great people and I went to the buffest people I could find and said hey I want some help and they told me what to eat they told me about the oatmeal and the egg whites they told me how to lift they told me how to train and I just followed what they said I used to walk to the gym which was about two or three miles every day so after school I'd walk to the gym I would live at the gym and then I'd come home and um I wasn't even tracking my weight it just fell off and I just got in great shape from from working out hours a day so um that was a really it to me it showed me how things could work if you're just intense in whatever you do and that's something I try to follow all the time now well I think there's another level to that of asking for help or asking for advice and being able to go to that person asking I see it all the time in you know our respective career when I see the the people that are that are starting out in this industry and they're asking for advice or hey I want to bance some ideas of I I see it all the time and I think it's so important to be able to do that it's it's so important I agree if you don't get wisdom from people then um you're recreating the will and wasting a ton of time me talking to the best of the best allowed me just to Simply imitate what they were doing versus trying to relearn so you're absolutely right that saved me so much time and it gave me additional motivation because I got to see people that were great and simply follow their footsteps so I I would love to to talk about that a little later on in the conversation when we started talking about more of the career and stuff but you mentioned your goal to play football you you know check that box but then also you mentioned about being in student government how did that work out for you well that's a funny story so um I was the I think I was the first or second African-American to ever be elected to be student body President of University of Houston and I was the first person to be elected as an independent so the way that works worked out um typically when you run for Student Government you have a party just like you have Republicans and Democrats you have a party of people and there's a group of maybe 40 50 people that get together and they form a ticket and then they run I didn't do that I ran as just an independent for president now at first I went to the Greeks because the Greeks ran U ofh and um both sides did not have a president at the time and I went to both respective tickets and said hey um guys have a slot open for president and I want to run for president can I run with you guys and I guess I wasn't cool enough or something because they were like well yeah we don't we'll put you in the Senate but we don't think you're a fit president and since I really wanted that role I said well let me just run myself as an independent so it was most people thought I was a joke they didn't think that I had any chance of winning whatsoever so I was kind of a sleeper candidate and um you had two major tickets two major Greek parties running very popular kids at the time and you had me and um I got 40 volunteers to help me campaign and we got some really good campaign material and just worked hard and uh we ended up winning the the first election which led to a runoff and then we won that runoff as well and it was one of the largest elections in uh history uh for my first term so um that was a big learning experience for me what what what do you say you took away most from that experience um that you can put anything my father has told me this you can put anything that you put your mind to I used to eat and sleep Victory I just uh visualized every day what life would look like the people that I could help if I got this position and I was also really scared of losing too that was a big motivator so um the mechanics of me executing that was um putting a plan together me transferring that enthusiasm to the people that helped me as volunteers which were which was pivotal because without those volunteers I don't think I would have had that opportunity to win so transferring that enthusiasm to volunteers that in turn helped me uh me watching what the competition was doing uh putting up Flyers all day all night students would rip down the Flyers and the next morning theyd look at the wall they'd be right back up again because our team would put them back up and uh I worked just as hard as the people that I had volunteering with me so I think all those things helped me uh and helped kind of Define uh attributes in me moving forward did did you have any idea what you wanted to do well what was your major in school it was business management actually did you have any idea of what you wanted to do for a career when you graduated I had no idea I just I knew I did not want to do

accounting I knew that I mean it's funny because I deal with numbers a lot now on my job but but we have people that are analysts that help us with a lot of that um I love people I love big picture stuff so I knew I wanted to do something in leadership and management and a degree in management just fit um I was an Mis major at first but I took Dr Parker's class at ufh and for those that have been to ufh know Dr Parker's was a really really good uh programming instructor and he gave us a task where we had to build a chess program I forgot if it was C++ or Visual Basic and my first couple weeks of trying that let me know for sure that that programming was not for me and I said I I love technology but I don't want to be a coder that's just not the way my mind works so I pivoted from Mis to management because I felt like that was better suited and uh and I'm thankful for that decision you you mentioned something that your your father said before and you mentioned one of one of your professors were there any people in high school or college that stand out that you were like these people were instrumental in some of the decisions that I that I made during that time um my parents uh I I'd have to say my parents and also my faith U my faith above above all else because the fundamentals that I was taught uh by being taught in the Bible and the principles of of uh a Christ follower those principles not saying that I'm perfect I'm so far from that but the things that I've learned there have encouraged me when I've been down they have it has realigned me when I've been dissuaded and um it teaches me to love people that the most important things in life to treat others as you would yourself uh those principles come from um Christ and what he has taught us so that's I have to say that's my biggest influence by far my parents afterwards because they kind of shaked me and um having a father figure is something I don't take for granted so many of my friends did not and for me to have a dad that worked at Exxon as an executive there um and was a leader and I got to see that day in and day out that really gave me some principles that that I still hold fast to today yeah that that's beautiful and then the fact that you can specifically talking about your your dad's influence and seeing somebody in a day-to-day basis you know doing doing what what he's doing and and leading by example is um that's remarkable well was there was there anything far as like when you saw him operating in the business world that you saw what he was doing and how he was doing it that was a positive influence or that that you maybe thought like oh I want to do business because I see him doing X oh yeah well I I would say one of the biggest takeaways is watching how my father handled uh an evolving workplace you see my father was one of the first I almost call it an experiment when affirmative action was actually put in place Exxon was one of the first companies that kind of pioneered this measure and they took the best and brightest from black colleges my father and my mother both were a byproduct of that action and they were recruited because of their performance at black colleges so when my father worked in Exxon which is a tremendous place to work and exxon's a client of JLo right now ironically enough and I love that but um Exxon was trying to figure out how do we how do we integrate um minority participation and my father's trying to figure out how do I thrive in a situation where um I'm working with people that may have a different background they don't look like me there may be some Prejudice still there and I got to see my father deal with all sorts of situations some positive some negative I got to see him deal with some biases I got to see him deal with with some aspects of of of racism and I'm not saying that's necessarily at the job but just in society so seeing my father deal with uh a very tumultuous time period prepared me for how I should be building relationships and now that I'm in Corporate America it's we have grown a lot as far as how things are structured and as far as a desire on a corporate level to see more diversity and inclusion I think that's grown I still think we have a ways to go and how we Implement real authentic diversity and me seeing my father for years do a day in and day out really really helped me so I'd have to say that's one of the most notable um attributes that that he shared with me yeah how to how to navigate those situations how to navigate life in general and relationships yeah I think that's spot on you're so you're in college you know you don't want to do accounting you know you don't want to be you know you don't want to be a programmer you know say senior year whatever you're you're you're leaving College like what was your next step after college well I got um recruited so because I was student body president I would recommend for anybody if you have kids that are in college get them in student government because when you're a leader on campus the companies recognize that and you get tremendous networking opportunities so I got recruited by a Fortune 500 company to be in their executive training program before I even graduated I got an offer and I got a Bonus and I was able to work for this company it was a great company and um that kind of changed my future because I didn't know what I was going to do uh I I was just living life and enjoying uh being a student of government so this opportunity that I was given kind of made me go into um this particular industry which was U an assistant buyer program or a buyer program where I got to help manage inventory and select forward fashion uh for major companies and uh these companies decide a lot of the fashions that people wear today uh we get a lot of inspiration from Paris and Europe and I was kind of taught that whole life and that culture so it brought me there for a few years and I got to learn what I loved and what I didn't like and I got to learn pretty quickly in a corporate environment that I love people I love leadership I love Innovation um entrepreneurship what I what I'm not really strong at is heavy admin work I don't I don't really thrive in that situation and so unfortunately when you start a job at the beginning the way that these companies used to do on internships is that have you sorting clothes or or doing something that's really not really challenging and I struggled in those environments because I felt like it was waste of my time um but the other side of me said well no James it's not a waste because you need to learn this business and so that conflict of me doing my best to learn the business because that's where that's where my heart needed to be but then the other side was well it's really draining because it's not something I love to do I only ended up doing that for about two years before I got into something I thought was really exciting which was uh recruiting and Staffing so that was more people less admin and I said let me make the transition you know okay and so that step what what type of Industry were you doing the recruiting for um so I did um I worked with Aerotech uh which was it still is the largest privately held Staffing firm in the in the country so I did uh welders Machinist I did uh pubology uh pharmacist so really uh Tech Science Tech and then uh industrial I recruited for for those two sectors um and even semi semiconductor work where people that were working on semiconductors and Boards I would I would help recruit people for that so that was a tremendous opportunity because I got to interview thousands of people I got to learn how Society puts a number on a person and how I can get let's say you get a resume from a John Smith John Smith is a Caucasian male blond hair blue eyes I had done so much work in this market I could put a number on him on what he was worth to the market and I can also put a number on Jerome Smith who may have been an African-American um same amount of years of experience but because of the cultural differences he had a different number the market wanted to pay for him um the same goes for women wom the same goes for different cultures Staffing shows you intimately how people view different cultures and what they're worth on the workplace and the numbers don't lie you can see the salaries that these people would ask for and the salaries they would actually get you could see the pay differences and you could also see how people that may have been not the most optimal candidate from their perspectives right so if you're maybe a minority or you're a young black man trying to break into a field where there's not many there are certain things you had to do to be more attractive um maybe you had to go with a nickname and this I'm not saying I endorse this I'm saying this is what happened some people would have to go with a nickname or they they changed the resume and change their experience they would discount a certain school over another if they went to a school that wasn't seen as prestigious there's just a lot of things that went into that game and again it showed me a lot about how Society Works was was there something that was new to you or was just something that reinforced what you already felt like you knew it wasn't it wasn't new to me uh Dustin but what what it was what it did do was articulate a number like like some people my dad always taught me um James if you look different than other people and if they look down on that particular culture you may have to work twice as hard to make the same amount of progress and in some situations I do believe that's true um what this exposure did for me was it showed exactly how much certain companies thought some people were worth versus others and when you can say that a John Smith was worth $3 more an hour than a Jerome Smith at this particular company and that was systemic then it gave you a unique insight and it also gave me insight to understand how I might need to position myself uh to to be viewed a certain way so this was I don't want this to come across as negative it was a blessing to me to see it because now that I'm in sales and I I pursue some of the largest companies in the world I I want to understand how some people may see me and I want to understand how some people may may view me so that I understand how to communicate with them better um so I think it was a positive net positive experience and I think things have gotten a lot better since I was involved in that industry all those years ago but I'm sure some of that still persist in doing in doing that and this is something I I think about this often probably more often than that I would like honestly but um being your bringing your full self to certain interactions and being in the world and understanding like oh this may be perceived in this way so I have to do this and that I and I hear what you're saying it's a net positive because then you're like okay if I have to work harder then I'll work harder if I have to work if I have to add this skill then I'm going to add that skill in doing that so I I understand that do you feel like in any way there the other side of that like you that in certain situations that you can't bring your full self to the to a situation oh yeah so to to flip the script there is I think it's called impostor syndrome is the the terminology but when people feel like they're not good enough um that's a that's very prevalent even to this day and there's a lot of reasons that people may have that insecurity but but here are some tools and some techniques that I've learned from that Staffing experience that's really helped me um first of all your diversity is your strength and some people use that as a cliche but for me um my background is allows me to see things differently than a lot of people uh the fact that I've had different challenges than some people means that I have a different perspective and if you learn how to leverage that different perspective it makes you a better salesperson because you can show them something they haven't seen before and and let me get literal um in my business in real estate um there's a lot of group think because a lot of people come from the same backgrounds same cultural backgrounds right so if you're talking to a client that grew up in the same neighborhood as you um you guys grew up in the same bubble socioeconomic bubble you're going to share a lot of the same views and beliefs I didn't grow up in the socio economic Circles of many of my clients um I grew up middle class um very blessed but but middle class so I grew up having to be a little bit scrappier a little bit more creative in some things and negotiate a little bit harder on some things and the people that I represented in the beginning were smaller businesses that prioritized saving money over just having the biggest names in the business so the way I approach every deal is with that mentality and I would encourage anyone that may have impostor syndrome you got to see a what may be perceived as a weakness to some you have to see that as a strength and you have to flip that and look at how does that difference in my perspective allow me to show a different perspective to them and and how does that different perspective maybe add value because in my world my ability to be able to read people me having some Street smarts me prioritizing saving money over just having a name it I think it adds more value for my clients and um if I work with a you know I have a few Fortune 500 companies now that I get to work with and I take that approach to them and while they don't need to save every penny they appreciate that mentality and that approach I tell you that yeah that's that's spoton that's amazing thank you for sharing that so I want to go back to like part of your journey when you're now you're in Staffing and recruiting so we we're Meandering a little bit but that's okay because that was that was that was gorgeous that was fantastic um so you're recruiting did you know anything about commercial real estate at this point or was it even a a blip on the on your radar no it wasn't um I went from Staffing which was great uh as far as the work environment very competitive I learned how to sell and I would tell someone that Staffing is one of the hardest sales jobs you can get into because you're well well why is that Staffing is difficult because there are so many other companies out of your competitors and staffing companies get selected for sometimes very shallow reasons sometimes it's the the young lady or the young man that brings Donuts the most consistently to a company they get the the job sometimes it's it's very you know maybe my niece or nephew know someone in your family and I get the job um it's very subjective it's very commoditized so Staffing is a tough sell because you have to stand out in unique ways and very difficult ways to continuously win business and that was a great learning environment for me so um the only reason I got out of Staffing I really enjoyed it the only reason I got out of Staffing is I got recruited into uh campaigns so um you know because I was student body president at ufh and I did really well uh my second year that I was student body President we won by the largest margin ever in uh history and we had we also I was no longer independent so now my second year I brought on a full ticket of like 40 plus people and every one of my ticket positions won so imagine the Democrats sweeping the house and the Senate the presidency that's essentially what we did at U ofh um so that had never been done before so I knew that I had a a gift in that area and I was recruited from recruiting I was recruited from recruiting into uh politics where I got to work uh with uh you know mayor anise Parker and her team um at City Hall they made a position for me um as an executive there and in the uh offseason I would work campaigns I'm sorry in the offseason I would work at City Hall and um during campaign season I would actually leave City Hall and work on various campaigns across Texas so that was my next position and so how so still at this point commercial real estate's not in your in your uh windshield not not until next um I got into commercial real estate after that what so what what what was your what was your first um like somebody saying like hey this is a this a potential career like what was that introduction to commercial real estate you know what's funny um my introduction was I just started a family when I started at City Hall and I wanted to make more money than just a a public servant to support my family um because you know when you're in the public eye your salary and everything is is scrutinized and you need to um make as little as possible because that looks politically the best but that's not the best if you're trying to raise a family on a on a on a on a city salary so I said look I love people I love sales um I'm thinking about getting into real estate but I don't really want to sell houses so while I was at City Hall um I talked to Anise and a few people about hey I might I might make a transition but let me get some education in real estate and see if that's something for me so I went to Champion School of Real Estate and the first class they had I immediately asked about commercial because there was a Mystique about it it was something that it seemed like nobody was doing especially no one that was black or brown very few I didn't see any women in that space at all it was all white meal that was in commercial and when I asked the instructor hey um I'd like to learn more about commercial real estate they said don't even worry about it you need to be part of an inside Club to get in there um it's it's it's like getting into Harvard so I said okay that's for me that's what I want to do because because you said it was hard and you said I shouldn't do it now all of a sudden that's what want to do and and so I got my real estate license and um went from the city of Houston to uh greubin Ellis which was at the time it was the third largest firm in the world so I went to grein Ellis and got my start there into real estate that sounds early Sim similar to to my St I was like I want to do that once I saw it I was like I want to do that everyone was like no no no it's that's not for you you need this this and that I was like oh yeah well I'm gonna figure it out that's right and you did figure it out and and I did too and it's a great industry I tell anybody if you're interested in commercial it's a great field very reward very difficult though yeah of course and now more than more than most times but one of the things like transferable skills and the things that you've learned along the way and you know as you're talking about all these things and and being a people person and and Leadership and and you know the sales like all of those things and being being able to be out and about and solving problems I feel like all those things are encompassed in commercial real estate one of the things that I didn't realize starting out is just how why the array of opportunities are in commercial real estate where it's not just brokerage although those generally the biggest checks but the development the tax title insurance management Asset Management Property Management all you know even you can go to the the vendor side and you know power washing Roofing vendor hbac it's a whole it's this whole ecosystem that that that if unless you're you become you get the opportunity to see behind the curtain like you you don't you don't really know well well you don't Dustin and um that's one of my passions now now that I am privileged enough to be at Jones Lang lell and um I'm I am one of the higher ranked um minority uh brokers in Houston probably the state as a senior Vice president I'm in a position where I can Empower people um to get exposed to a lot of what a firm this Grand can offer and I will tell you Dustin that uh there's so much to the commercial real estate industry that uh we can share with um just people in the community that will not only Empower them but give them access to maybe see this as a career because the industry itself is still about 97% uh white male and and I'm not saying that we I'm not saying that there needs to be a number where the industry needs to be a certain percentage of this color versus this color I don't I don't believe in that philosophy but what that does tell me is maybe there's a challenge with exposure where that's why there's so few uh there's so little diversity in the space because not enough people are exposed the way me and you got to be exposed maybe not enough of us when they hear the oh you don't want to do that that's a that's a private club that's a fraternity that you can't get into maybe too many people are turned off by that instead of like us where we were turned on by it and said we're going to go for it maybe some people are saying well why don't I go into uh why don't not work for Morgan Stanley if you're a top 10center and you know have the resume to get into a firm like this uh you got other options you got big Banks Goldman Sachs Morgan Stanley Bank of America you got some really big Institution tions that say look I'll pay you 250 300 Grand a year you can come over here and I'll teach you the business you don't have to worry about any of that so you got that going on so so the question I have for a lot of people is okay for your for your top for your top talent What's going to make someone want to go into an industry that is 100% commission you know where you eat what you kill when you can take that same ability and make a couple hundred thousand a year and someone teach you the roges my argument would be you want to get in this business because your your earning potential will far exceed that salary when you're good at what you do and the demand is there but you gota you got to work for it and are you going to be willing to put in the work and for those that are the sky a limit because I I feel like things are changing companies want to see that authentic Community involvement and that means having more of the listeners to this podcast saying hey I can get in there and these companies like JLo will want me to be a part of this and they will Empower me if I just put in the work uh it's just a decision that each person has to make for themselves yeah this this reminds me of something you said a few minutes ago when you mentioned seeing things from an outside perspective and having those experiences and where diversity is your strength and right now I think we're in a time where it takes Creative Solutions to make an impact like what what traditionally and I'm not saying completely abandon the fundamentals but what got us here I feel like is not going to get us out and you're going to need some Creative Solutions to make the adjustments to to get where we need to go to help write the ship or make the ship different than than it's ever even looked before you know Dustin let's this is a great segue to talk about some tools and techniques right I am so excited I love that you plugging the name thank you thank you for doing that I love yeah well it's I love the podcast I love what you're doing here and when when we look at um how do we succeed just in the sales environment um for me personally I love technology because it is a force multiplier technology allows me to reach people I could never reach before and I'll give you an example the old way of doing commercial real estate was you would do bumps maybe where you hang out downtown and you bump into a CFO or a CEO at an exclusive country club or an exclusive restaurant these are places I don't live at these are places I don't really frequent I don't want to really get a country club membership so normally I'd be stuck out because I'm just not in those circles but what technology allows you to do is you're able to use artificial intelligence to create a newsletter that might be groundbreaking you can use the art of video which I lean heavily on to Syndicate content where you can draw people in yourself and they can get to know you you can use the internet to create sales funnels where you can build systems where you can put out content and have people click on links that are of interest and you can build databases and automatically follow up with them and build systems that make you a a super salesperson and these are things that I've been able to adopt over the years that have helped me so that I don't have to spend my time the same way my colleagues do and I'm able to work smarter not harder and and let's be frank me being um just culturally different than most of my clients I prefer that they get to see me for who I am as soon as possible because the sooner they can see me in my own element they can determine if they like me enough to bring me in for a meeting yeah that is so much better than trying to fake it until you make it and get into the room and then they get surprised oh you know I didn't know you know I I thought you'd be different in some kind of way and that affects how I'm going whether I'm going to work with you or not I rather them get to see me for who I am immediately determine if they like me or not because the people that don't like me won't respond to my my my my content but the people that do feel the vibe that I have and and that agree with my heart and and how I want to help people they'll call and not only do they call but but it's no sales job at all at that point it's just they already seen you and know you to except they've already been welcomed into your sphere yeah that's fantastic one of my largest clients Dustin I'm telling you one of my largest clients asked me to lunch and said um I'd like to just talk to you about something you put out there on LinkedIn and he paid for lunch um he offered business to me and a year and a half later year and a half later that's my largest client and I'm telling you um it works so as far as tools LinkedIn artificial intelligence um other tools well I use Apple notes to actually write notes down on what I want to do I use AI to structure like how I want to write content I use AI to grade my content I use AI to help me write my sales letters I I mean we could probably talk for an hour just on how I use Ai and even with creating Graphics that are compelling um and now I'm starting to use AI with helping me edit some of the videos so I don't have to hire people to to do that as much so um technology is going to be a game Cher and this is an opportunity for people that felt like they didn't get away in before they can now leverage that because now you can work 10 times more efficiently than someone that's not using these tools and that gives you an advantage no matter what color you are you you know what that the I've been interested in AI for decades now and I I've always loved it the movies about it books about it you know what the the challenges that they're forthcoming that come along with it and so now I'm actually on a course right now with Cal Berkeley for um business applications for artificial intelligence and I tell you jumping in the deep end of AI because yeah there's the things that you know about it and this and that and then actually to your point before about not not being a coder yeah I'm a coder so but they go that deep in it but then also working with people from all different Industries and what they're thinking and how they would implement it and what are the what are the advantages of their it's this is this is such an amazing time to to be alive and to be a business professional and to have these tools available well Dustin it here's the great thing man it's it's not even about coding anymore because AI allows you to prompt engineer what you want that's one of the beauty uh beautiful things about this platform I use chat GPT which right now seems to be the most advanced artificial intelligence platform out there um you could go more granular and look at how the Deep learning systems are made and we could talk about that but for the most for most people what they're going to be really excited about is you have a platform now where you can just speak English and say you know what I want to I want to have a diet I want to get on a diet so let me do a four-week keto program that I can eat the following meals maybe three three times a day and AI can spit that out and then you can I guess code by saying I don't like that result change it for me I'll give you a sales application that we use recently um I was putting together a pitch for a major client um outside of Houston and I spent hours on this thing and I said you know what I want another set of eyes on this not just for grammar but I want to read it Through The Eyes of my client who would be a CEO and a CFO so I I told chat GPT um I used the following language I said look you are a CEO of Fortune 500 company I want you to read this and critically assess your thoughts so I took that piece it gave me half a Page worth of note I said okay that sounds good make those changes the best assistant ever I you kidding me it's like I said that sounds great make those changes so when what I ended up getting was it was still my creation right I'm not plagiarizing it's my words but I'm using the the tools there to create something I could have never done myself in that time frame it would have taken me three days to make what I ended up making in 30 minutes and the only reason it took 30 minutes because it took me 25 to to write down most most the material the rest of it was AI really doing what it does and it's getting better every day yeah it's remarkable it's absolutely remarkable absolutely I I want I want to come back and talk about your work with the municipalities I think we we talked a little bit about the the Dei efforts but I know you're also working on some pretty special things with uh with the municipalities can you can you talk about that sure sure so um where my heart has always been and commercial real estate is looking at how real estate empowers and enhances the lives of people in communities when you look at a typical Urban environment there's always been a dialogue particularly in the black community where we don't own enough of our real estate I know in Houston there are a handful of black owners of commercial real estate in Houston just a handful I feel like I know all of them we need a lot more more um the same goes for your brown communities and U I think some other communities have done slightly better but in as far as ownership in their communities but the black and brown communities particularly don't have enough of a stake in the neighborhoods that they live in and we have gone to different municipalities that um have the same desire to want to grow empowerment for those communities and grow ownership and we're just connecting dots you know Jones l s is a global leader when it comes to real estate and development and for us to be able to bring larger Partners into a development that that may be in a certain city and then having the right mindset to bring local involvement of businesses so that these developments that could bring hundreds of millions of dollars to a city are led by people in that community that results in millions of of tax dollars for that Community to build up infrastructure it it results in millions of dollars for people to to get jobs thousands of jobs for people in that Community it provides and insulates community so that you can increase security and you can set them up so that if a Walmart were to leave a major Metro like when Walmart backed out of Chicago and you had the mayor of Chicago saying hey look this is unfair how dare you do that my heart went out to Chicago for the loss of a a major uh Force like that economic Al what I also thought was okay guys this is an opportunity because when a Walmart leaves because they say sales are down or because of shrinkage right then um that does have a negative economic impact but if we can very thoughtfully look at how can development be created in an urban area or in a small City where we can thoughtfully bring in local partners that aren't going to leave that are local businesses that are going to thrive and those dollars are going to stay there and those dollars are going to circulate there how is that going to impact this area over the long term how is it going to impact uh Legacy wealth where black and brown people in these municipalities of all Races in fact can pass on their wealth for Generations like so many of our counterparts do in these major cities so um these are things we're working on now and these are conversations we're having using the resources of of a firm like Jones Lang wasel combined with the perspective of of local doers like myself and you that are that are boots on the ground we know what it's like in these communities and we're just we're just combining that together to create environments where people can Thrive what what can we do to help I I mean or I don't I don't want to put words in your mouth but like what how there's there's a lot of ideas and I think all this is going in the right direction yeah but like what what is need did to get to the next step you know it's um it's sharing the word if you if you're thinking about an area maybe your hometown that uh you know that they they're they're struggling they they they need to have some Redevelopment they need to have some enhanced uh local ownership that um just sharing the word say hey there's an opportunity and let's talk because we're we're talking the cities all over the state right now and even outside of Texas that uh they want local empowerment they want to ride this train of Technology they want to get involved with AI which means you need to upgrade some of your infrastructure in some cases they want to Future proof their cities and these are conversations that we want to have so that as technology continues to increase and as more and more people do remote work where they're not working at the office anymore and you have just AI taking over more and more opportunities we're preparing these communities to be positioned and Thrive because the whole country um I don't want to digress but um we've seen a decoupling uh in a lot of ways uh from globalization right now I don't know if it's going to stay that way but when you look at the us we're bringing more manufacturing to our Shores than we ever have in the longest time and that's why the industrial Market's been doing so phenomenally well you know so if that continues are are these communities participating in the ownership in the operation of these facilities are these Community communities participating in in growing these companies right and and helping in those processes so the way that you can help is by sharing hey James I think you know my city might be interested and us having a conversation maybe I can share some stories we're doing in some of these municipalities right now um these development initiatives take years to accomplish but once they are fulfilled they result in hundreds of millions of dollars in development opportunities for people in those communities and that changes lives and and that's that's the part about commercial real estate that excites me it's not it's not getting a commission it's looking back at a community and say you know what this entire Center was built with the mindset of let's do what's best for the people here and look at them Thrive look at the kids being able to grow up in someplace safe people are having jobs and and not feeling like they have to leave a community because the jobs aren't there so um that's something that I'm really excited about so I guess to help is just letting me know if your town might need something like that and we can talk about it well I I wonder well so before I even say this does jll have its own um I want say government services arm but is there is there a specific initiative that is like a team that's focused on this or is it just something that's that's trickling throughout the the organization well this is this is something that we pioneered so um I'm proud to say that we get to take the Reign on this and and take a leadership role um we are a huge organization so we have best-in-class development project management um we have all the tools there the thing that I believe is different about our perspective here is we're focusing on making sure that the community members are involved that's what's different um any I think best-in-class firm has relationships where you can help connect dots but do you know the community well enough do you know who to go to once you have maybe identify 20 acres do you know the people in the community that can take the lead on the multif family development there do you know the local businesses that might be interested in the Industrial Development there these are things that that we know because we're boots on the ground so we're combining the exceptional resources of a global firm at jll with the local knowledge and the Heart to make sure that the local community is is leading the effort that's the difference is um is is not just making sure a deal is done but the deal is done with with people with boots on the ground that have a stake that are going to stay there and keep those dollars in those communities yeah and that and that's it's a win-win it's it benefits the community the people the company all those involved and looking at it from a holistic perspective yeah that's it um that's that's the difference and that's that's what that's what keeps me um excited about these opportunities and and sure it takes a lot of work but um I haven't even thought about well what are our commissions there and how do we get paid through that um I'm sure we're going to participate in some transactions but um what's more important to me is making sure we bring the party because when you do that you increase the size of the pie and that's what we want we we want to get away from that scarcity mindset and look at the abundance mindset of working together and promoting collaboration and I got to tell you Dustin I've I've I've been so encouraged with the people I've already met um and these are some of our most successful uh minority businesses in the country that have reached out to us and said you know what uh we believe in this and we want to be involved and um we want to hire locally so given the opportunity we'd love we'd love to bring hundreds of jobs to and in training to these communities um once we can get these puzzle pieces put together so it's it's coming together it's exciting to watch and I I can't wait to keep you posted on how things go over the next few months well I I would this reminds there's a conversation I had recently with one of my friends uh Bob Dalton who's the CEO founder of sackcloth and a and Ashes and he's um he's all about localism and local local efforts I think he you're you're singing the same tune of what he's pushing and I love to hear that because when people have those the intentions in in the right place and you can put people together that it's an amplifi like you mentioned before a force amp multiplier that's right like that's that's what that is when you get the right people in the in the same room and also one of the things that you alluded to and and Bob spoke to this well like it's not one size fits all what M makes sense for one Community is not necessarily for another but through technology and different tools and you can figure out what works best where why how and then take that knowledge and that information into the next scenario and be able to do it more effectively more efficiently absolutely technology is going to allow so many people that did not have opportunities to have them I don't see it as technology being a threat to jobs as much as I see it for for the right people that want to look at it this way and and I really credit uh Generation Z I believe uh the the some of the newer Generations that are native to technology they've really embraced the whole culture of what tech brings to the table how many millionaires have we seen from YouTube from twitch from all these platforms that had a great idea they started creating content and create an entire um just communities around what they want to do I think that's the future in so many ways you still need manufacturing that's going to be and it's going to be even more prevalent as the years go on for the us but with manufacturing you're going to need people that do create content you're going to need people that do learn the new way of coding which is leveraging AI to create new language you're going to need more people thinking about solutions to problems and that has no racism doesn't exist in that space and and this is what I try to preach to so many people if you're worried about am i g to get my fair share am I going to get where where's my seat at the table technology allows that because no one's stopping you from being Innovative I'm challenging everybody your ideas matter your creativity matters so think of a solution to a problem and now that you have ai and now that you have all these tools at your at your fingertips you can leverage the resources available to to kind of prove out your solution you can write business plans in a day you can write sales plans in a day now which you should take weeks to do right and so can even crowdfund to fund your efforts leveraging technology and the community want they embrace it when they see a fellow person in their Community saying look I got this great idea and you put your content out there you're GNA find hundreds and hundreds of people that say I like what you're doing I'm gonna support you financially so um the sky is the limit the old way of looking at things where you know maybe a certain perspective or mindset would block you it can't block you anymore you know I can go to bank if they deny me for a loan okay I can go to to a crowdfunding site and get financing that way or I can go to people in my community leveraging social media and find people that are going to believe in me enough to do it so for the people that stop and say well that bank rejected my loan they're loss they're sorry about it later and I I want to encourage my my brethren be that type of person where you look at that rejection and say okay well they just don't get it but I do and I'm going to find a community that does and we're going to blow you guys out out the water that's our goal that's our goal with development here is the old way of doing things we're going to change that because if you're not taking care of the people in the community you shouldn't do the job and if you're taking dollars outside of the community you should not do the job you should Empower people there and we want to reward the people there because they live there they pay taxes there they raise their kids there they're the ones buying your products and services so why should they not participate in in the community that you're creating so that's our perspective and I hope we can get more people on board with that too I love it James on that note on that you knocked it out of the park man knew you would knew you would man I'm so appreciative thank you for having me man I really appreciate that yeah and so part two we will have another episode because we need to dive a little deeper into the AI and all the tools because we covered a lot of things today yeah but I know we're just scratching the surface there's so much to share yeah well let let's get really strier with the AI in the future um we'll we'll talk offline about that but yeah let's have some fun with it all right well James thank you again all right brother take

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