Dealmaker Diaries Podcast

Dan Kryzanowski is an active capital raiser, equity owner, and passive investor, generating doubledigit yields and lower taxes via commercial real estate. Dan’s investment portfolio includes 2,600+ storage units, 1,500+ multifamily doors, and dozens of industrial, infrastructure, and residential properties. Dan has personally raised millions of dollars from accredited investors and family offices, and empowered his partners to raise seven-figures on multiple occasions.  

In this episode, we discuss:  

How his career progressed from Wall Street to ending up in the SelfDirected space?  

How do accredited investors invest their IRAs, once they have the freedom to invest in anything they want?   

What did you learn from speaking to over 500 sponsors/syndicators in 18 months?  

Niche commercial real estate (Land, Industrial, Self-Storage)

Hill is a passionate and dynamic business and civic leader. As President and CEO of Oak Lawn Marketing, Inc. from 2006 until 2017, the company grew from ¥15 billion to ¥68 billion in sales. Hill and his management team created a powerful corporate culture based on the vision of “enriching lifestyle’s worldwide.” In 2009 he orchestrated one of the largest M&A transactions of the year, when NTT Docomo took a 51% share in OLM. In September of 2017, Hill stepped down from the day-to-day operations but remains active as an outside director. In addition to Better-U and Oak Lawn Marketing, Hill has founded, managed or been on the board of numerous companies in a variety of industries such promoting international exchange and education, sports and entertainment management, real estate and relocation services, master planned community development including the development of two golf courses, and a SAAS company that analyzes GPS data to understand human behavior. 

Hill is active both as a business and civic leader. He was appointed by the White House from 2014-2020 to serve as the Co-Chair of CULCON, a bi-national group advising the US and Japanese governments on promoting the next generation of leaders and as Chair of the Japan-US Friendship Commission. He is also Vice Chair of the Japan-U.S. Bridging Foundation, which supports US students with scholarships to study in Japan. He is an active leader of the American Chamber of Commerce Japan (ACCJ).

 In Japanese, his two of his favorite words are the homonym Souzou (想像/創造). The first characters mean imagine and the second characters mean to build. Hill’s management and leadership philosophy encompasses both meanings, imagining unrealized potential that is tempered with a concrete blueprint to achieve. The two words must co-exist for sustained success. Hill and his wife of 36 years, Yumiko, have 5 children and one grandchild. He is a 5th degree black belt in Shojinji Kempo and currently coaches kickboxing at the UFC Gyms in Japan. He has acted in several productions of Shakespeare with the Nameless Theatre group in Nagoya.

Kison Patel is the Founder and CEO of M&A Science, with a passion to drive the M&A industry forward. He was an M&A advisor for ten years in which he sold larger companies such as commercial banks and hotel chains. In 2012, he noticed teams lacked efficient technology to manage deals and created DealRoom, an M&A lifecycle management platform. In 2016, he started the M&A Science podcast devoting his time to creating a platform where all the best practitioners could share their best practices and lessons learned from real-life deals. Kison then created The M&A Science Academy in 2020 to offer step-by-step training to those looking to master M&A featuring courses created by top-level practitioners. Through developing technology, educational content, and industry training, Kison aims to bring better practices to an industry with growing market pressures, transaction values, and competition.  

In this Episode we discussed:  

How is M&A changing? 

What are common mistakes made in M&A? 

How can a seller of a business maximize value? 

What can be done to make M&A successful on the buy-side? 

What are best practices in M&A  

Tune in now!

Kenneth is the founder and managing partner of KRI Partners and the KRI group of companies. He has more than 24 years of significant real estate, banking, private equity transaction, and principal investing experience. Throughout his career, he has been involved in transactions valued at more than $2.0 billion, much of which has included the acquisition, management, and financing of various multi-family real estate projects. 

Before forming KRI Partners, Kenneth was a tax manager with Deloitte & Touche LLP. Some of his major clients included The Riverside Company, Key Equity Capital Partners, Blue Point Capital, Linsalata Capital Partners, The Zaremba Group, Charter One Bank, and Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. 

Before his career at Deloitte & Touche, he spent several years at National City Bank (now part of PNC Bank). He also owned and operated several certified Cessna Pilot Centers in the Northeast Ohio area. Kenneth is a licensed Ohio Certified Public Accountant, a member of multiple apartment associations, and Ohio Society of Certified Public Accountants and American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Rod Khleif is an entrepreneur, real estate investor, multiple business owner, author, mentor, and community philanthropist who is passionate about business, life, success, and giving back. As one of the country’s top real estate trainers, Rod has personally owned and managed over 2,000 properties.  Rod is Host of the Top-Ranked iTunes Real Estate Podcast which has been downloaded more than 8,000,000 times – “The Lifetime Cash Flow Through Real Estate Investing Podcast.” Rod is the author of “How to Create Lifetime Cash Flow Through Multifamily Properties” considered to be an essential “textbook” for aspiring multifamily investors.  

As an accomplished entrepreneur, Rod has built several successful multi-million dollar businesses. As a community philanthropist, Rod founded and directs The Tiny Hands Foundation, which has benefited more than 75,000 community children and families in need. Rod has combined his passion for real estate investing and business development coaching with his personal philosophy of goal setting, envisioning, and manifesting success to become one of America’s top real estate investment and business development trainers.  

Shownotes:  

● Lessons after losing $50 million in 2008 

● Visualize your goal, believe it, and make a plan to get there 

● Why should you fear regret more than you fear failure and humiliation? 

● Happiness comes from progress and growth 

● The Lifetime Cash Flow Through Real Estate Investing Podcast 

● realestatewithrod.com

Jerome Myers is the preeminent authority of dream realization. A believer that dreams can, and should be real, Jerome left corporate America when he realized that his role offered financial gain, but little significance. He is the founder and head coach of Myers Methods and has been featured in Black Enterprise, Business Insider and numerous podcasts. After building a highly profitable division of a fortune 550 company, Jerome decided to leave the rat race to get away from what seemed to be the endless slew of layoffs. He has developed a system for exiting corporate America and creating a life of impact. Today, he and his company help other apex performers find their calling and live every day on purpose by harnessing the power of his model for a Centered Life, what he calls “the Red Pill”. Jerome and his firms can guide any individual from a monotonous uninspiring existence to a life of fulfillment and impact.

Scott is a Chicago native whose career in architecture began in 1991 by pursuing his Masters of Architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology. While obtaining his degree, he also worked as a Project Manager for Optima, Inc. During his time at Optima, Krone’s responsibilities included notable projects such as the 400-unit Cormandel in Deerfield, IL, the 40-unit HedgeRow in Winnetka, IL, and the 51-unit Optima Center Wilmette in Wilmette, IL.  In 2012, Krone founded Coda Management Group – a firm who specializes in managing real estate assets. Since its inception, Coda manages a wide range of real estate including single and multi-family homes, retail, commercial warehouse and selfstorage and multi-use flex athletic spaces. Currently, the platform of investments is in excess of $55 million. Krone has authored High Performance Homes – Navigating the Green Road to Your Dream Home, a book for homeowner’s seeking to incorporate green technology into their home.  Most recently, Scott also founded a revolutionary storage business The One Stop Self Storage. It’s committed to make its members’ time of transition rewarding and strives to remove challenges and hurdles commonly found in the industry. The One Stop brand is built upon the premise of providing the best in storage solutions contained in sustainable, renewable construction and it’s located in WI, OH, KY and ME (Milwaukee, Toledo, Dayton, Ellsworth, and soon to Louisville and Chicago).  Krone resides in Wilmette, IL, with his wife and three children.

Mike Alfant, Group Chairman and CEO at Fusion Systems and Chairman and CEO at Binfinity AG delves into his experiences leading in Japan. Mr. Alfant previously held the position of President for The American Chamber of Commerce in Japan and recently finished his term as the President of the Tokyo American Club. In addition to this, he is also on the Board of Newport, Pasona Tquila and Healios KK, and has also advised at Stanford University and lectured at Keio Business School, Kyoto University and Temple University.   Mr. Alfant’s wide range of experiences clearly shows that he is true leader in the fintech industry of Japan. 

Mr. Alfant originally grew up in Brooklyn, New York and worked on Wall Street for roughly 10 years in the technical side of investment banking with his Computer Science background. Mr. Alfant became fascinated with Japan after a business trip, prompting him to move to Tokyo to start his first company, Fusion Systems.  Mr. Alfant explains the difference in work culture and leadership style between the US and Japan, in which he describes the former to be achievement oriented, and the latter to be process oriented. He explains, “what I needed to do [in New York] was clearly articulate a goal and essentially get out of the way. What I found in Japan was that I really needed to flush out the process and the process would then enforce itself based on the characteristics of the employees and the culture here.” 

Mr. Alfant additionally points out that Japan-based leaders need to have a long-term mindset like a marathon-runner to achieve definite results.  In order to increase employee engagement and motivation, Mr. Alfant tries to avoid interjecting and let others take initiative. He also makes many of his employees shareholders of the company so that they feel more ownership within the company. In order to build trust with his employees, Mr. Alfant talks about being consistent with his behaviour, and understanding how people pay attention to action rather than just words. He also adds leading a healthy lifestyle with meditation, exercise, and eating well has helped him achieve this.  

Lastly, Mr. Alfant leaves excellent advice for those who wish to successfully lead in Japan. He advises newcomers to “limit the scope of your vision and goals” and focus on achieving one or two business goals. Secondly, he advises people to have thick skin, and accept that Japan is a unique culture that will not easily change. Thirdly, Mr. Alfant advises people to explore the beautiful places in Japan as “the real Japan is not Tokyo. The real Japan is outside.”

Originally from Chicago, Darren has lived in Japan for the last 30 years and has extensive sales and marketing experience in the APAC region. He is currently the Area Director for North Asia for Zscaler and prior held senior roles in Oracle NetSuite, Verizon, and Vodafone KK. Darren is currently Co-Chair of the Information, Communications and Technology Committee and Vice Chair of the Digital Transformation Committee at the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan.   

The book is a powerful distillation of Darren McKellin’s journey to mindful leadership, which began 30 years ago when he moved to Japan and had to learn to navigate one of the world’s most challenging and opaque cultures, where team harmony and patience are strong virtues.  

Darren was the co-founder of the Mindfulness Project at Oracle Japan, an organization of 2,000 employees, in 2017.  Oracle Japan had more than 2,000 employees and, as a result, there was a full-time doctor on staff. That company doctor noticed that many employees were suffering from work-related stress, resulting in headaches, stomach pain, and other ailments. He would recommend aspirin and other medication, but more and more employees were asking for a remedy without taking any pills. The doctor contacted the HR department, which in turn decided to create a program based on Google’s “Search inside Yourself ” course.    

The team set up a 5 week course including Meditation, Body Scan Meditation, Mindful Listening, Mindful Eating, Walking Meditation, Journaling and Reflection.  The team interviewed the attendees and collected data and had a sizable improvement in Concentration, Productivity, Confidence, Energy & Relaxation. Because of his role in creating this course, he's led many employees down the route of mindful sales, and now has written Mind Over Sales so that anyone and everyone can become mindful in their careers at any time or place.

Hunter Thompson is the founder of Asym Capital, a private equity firm which helps accredited investors invest in vetted commercial real estate opportunities. He is also the author of the international bestselling book, Raising Capital for Real Estate.  

He has personally raised about $30,000,000 of private equity from more than 300 investors all over the United States.  He has been featured on Forbes, Inside Self-Storage, Globe St., Cashflow Ninja, Best Real Estate Investing Advice Ever, Lifetime Cashflow Through Real Estate, Real Wealth Network and 50+ other real estate and business podcasts.  

He is also the host of the Cash Flow Connections Real Estate Podcast where he has interviewed Grant Cardon, Jim Rogers, Tom Woods, Oren Klaff, Cameron Herold, Robert M. Murphy, Doug Casey, and a variety of other leading entrepreneurs, economists, real estate operators, and investors.