POWERS

Kaes has worked at Diamondback Energy since July 2016 in various roles and as President and CFO since February 2022. Prior to that, he was CEO of Bison Drilling and Field Services in Midland, TX from September 2012 to June 2016. He began his career at Citigroup as an investment banking analyst, and worked for Wexford Capital prior to joining Bison.

On this episode, Chris and Kaes discuss:

We'd appreciate you filling out our audience survey, so we can continuously work on providing relevant content to our listeners. 

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Links

Diamondback Energy

Kaes on Twitter

Topics

(00:01:48) - Kaes’ career & tennis

(00:09:32) - Learning the Oil and Gas business

(00:16:37) - Building Windsor

(00:26:15) - High yield vs. investment grade businesses

(00:31:20) - Diamondback’s merger with Energen Resources

(00:34:12) - Experiences during Covid

(00:39:03) - How do you source deals?

(00:42:18) - The 2021 market

(00:45:24) - Hedging

(00:46:41) - Thoughts on the Permian basin

(00:49:09) - Being a low-cost producer

(00:52:07) - Learning to manage people

(00:53:43) - Thoughts on the $60b Pioneer acquisition

(00:55:28) - Is there a way to make people love OIl & Gas again

(00:01:46) - This business is a trade

(01:03:06) - Are investors coming back into the space?

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The FORT is produced by Johnny Podcasts

Nancy is the Founder and Managing Partner of Park Madison Partners. As a leading real estate capital markets firm, Park Madison is an advisor to investment managers and operators and provides capital placement services for institutional investors. The firm has placed over $25 billion of equity in PMP-sponsored vehicles and maintains relationships with over 2500 real estate investors and managers.

On this episode, Chris and Nancy discuss:

- Nancy’s perspective on the capital markets

- Capital allocation

- Development valuations

- Fundraising structures

- Wisdom for folks pursuing a first-time fund

We'd appreciate you filling out our audience survey, so we can continuously work on providing relevant content to our listeners. 

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Links:

Park Madison Partners

Nancy on LinkedIn

Real Estate Capital Podcast hosted by Nancy

Topics:

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:04:12) - Nancy’s perspective on the capital markets

(00:14:40) - Pref equity in Industrial

(00:16:09) - A discussion on the Office class

(00:20:40) - Capital allocation

(00:22:42) - What do institutional investors care about in contrast to private investors?

(00:26:59) - Development valuations

(00:29:30) - Fundraising structures

(00:43:21) - Wisdom for folks pursuing a first-time Fund

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Chris on Social Media:

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The FORT is produced by Johnny Podcasts

Reg is the founder and CEO of CaneKast, a privately-owned company focused on revolutionizing and rolling up small manufacturing in the US, with a current focus on non-ferrous foundries.

We discuss:

- The world of foundries

- Offshoring & onshoring

- How Reg rolls up foundries

- Due diligence

- Training

- The process of closing on a business

Links:

Reg on Twitter - https://twitter.com/RegZeller

CaneKast - https://canekast.com/

Topics:

(00:00:00)- Intro

(00:00:47) - The world of Foundries

(00:05:56 - Offshoring

(00:07:48) - Ideals specs of a foundry

(00:14:14) - Josh’s impact

(00:19:16) - Reg’s big-picture vision

(00:25:20) - The process of rolling up a new foundry

(00:30:01) - Determining whether to buy part of a foundry or the whole

(00:33:16) - Negative margins

(00:37:03) - Due diligence

(00:38:59) - Pursuing the car deal model

(00:42:28) - The nearshoring movement

(00:51:11) - Training employees

(00:57:02) - Equipment as part of the moat

(01:01:44) - 3D printing

(01:03:22) - The process of closing on a business

Support out Sponsors:

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Casey Mericle is a real estate investor out of Missouri who specializes in deal structuring, negotiating, and putting people and resources together to solve real estate puzzles. He's been in real estate for about 15 years now and has done hundreds of deals.

We discuss:

We'd appreciate you filling out our audience survey, so we can continuously work on providing relevant content to our listeners. 

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Links

Casey on Twitter/X

Casey's mentor: Jack Shea

Topics

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:03:55) - Poker & real estate

(00:05:02) - How do you find out what a seller wants?

(00:10:24) - Installment sales

(00:14:13) - Characteristics of deals Casey plays in

(00:15:33) - Sourcing deals

(00:19:31) - Why is now the best time for seller-financing?

(00:21:07) - Note structures

(00:23:26) - Walkable debt

(00:27:18) - Foreclosing on yourself

(00:33:32) - Nontraditional negotiating

(00:42:25) - What do you know that most people in RE don’t?

(00:46:29) - Thoughts on the market

(00:49:28) - Paying more to a seller than the asking price

(00:51:14) - Creative ways to get things done

(01:07:07) - Building trust with people

(01:08:30) - Creating debt and making money off the debt rather than the deal

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Artem Tepler sadly passed away on November 2nd, 2023. He visited me in Fort Worth and I'll never forget it. He was funny, and kind, and had a servant's heart. His story was infectious. I know he loved his daughter more than anything. That made up most of our conversation at lunch. Pray for Artem and his family. If you're able to give, there is a GoFundMe set up for his daughter, which can be found here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/artem-tepler

On this episode, I am joined by Andrew Kirsh and Zack Streit. Andrew is an experienced commercial real estate transactional attorney, whose clientele includes a broad spectrum of national, regional, and local investors, funds, developers, operators, syndicators, private equity providers, and lenders. Andrew’s practice involves all aspects of the real estate industry, including acquisitions, dispositions, equity investments, syndications, fund formation, development, leasing, financing, note purchases, and foreclosures.

Zack has 15 years of multifaceted commercial real estate investment and advisory experience, including as an equity capital provider, a debt capital provider, and a capital advisor. His 8 years of institutional principal investment experience laid the foundation for a career as a capital advisor, where he has co-founded a capital advisory platform and closed billions of dollars in commercial real estate ventures. 

We discuss:

Links:

GoFundMe for Artem's daughter

Andrew on Twitter

Zack on Twitter

SklarKirsh

WAY Capital

Topics:

(00:00:00) Intro

(00:01:42) Personal Guarantees

(00:10:57) Personal vs. non-recourse loans

(00:20:14) How lenders are treating covenants in today’s environment

(00:25:03) Lookback periods

(00:31:18) Capex Busts

(00:33:41) Is the banker really my friend?

(00:37:28) What to do when a loan goes bad

(00:57:54) Deciding to foreclose when you have a personal guarantee

(01:00:36) Filing for bankruptcy

(01:09:46) Final Thoughts

We'd appreciate you filling out our audience survey, so we can continuously work on providing relevant content to our listeners. 

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Chris on Social Media:

Twitter: https://bit.ly/3BYIjcH

LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/45gIkFd

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The FORT is produced by Johnny Podcasts

John Marsh is the Co-Founder of Marsh Collective, host of the Redemptification Podcast, and investor helping steward over $1.5b in redemptive real estate in 12 small towns (with populations of 800-180k) around America.

Over the last 25 years, John and Ashely have guided over 60 startup businesses in various industries, such as Hospitality, Construction, Real Estate Investing, Advertising, and multiple Restaurants. John and his wife have renovated 280+ buildings within ten blocks of downtown Opelika to help save their city. Today, John's current focus is helping others make generational differences in communities and companies. By helping patrons bridge the gap between redeeming vision, financial sustainability, and execution to pioneering a new asset class of real estate which they have coined "Irreplaceable Real Estate."

We'd appreciate you filling out our audience survey, so we can continuously work on providing relevant content to our listeners. 

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On this episode, Chris and John discuss:

Links

Marsh Collective

John and Ash's story

John's first appearance on The Fort

Topics

(00:00:00) Intro

(00:02:41) The Power to influence and love

(00:10:07) Why is humility so attractive?

(00:13:06) Blind spots in the entrepreneur type

(00:33:19) Learning forgiveness

(00:37:26) Being hard on yourself

(00:40:41) Reversing bad momentum

(00:44:25) Divorce & money

(00:53:13) Taking counsel

(00:54:43) Applying these lessons to business partnerships

(00:59:21) What’s wrong with hospitality today?

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Chris on Social Media:

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The FORT is produced by Johnny Podcasts

Jillian Murrish is Co-founder and CEO of Pier Asset Management, where she manages the firm and heads business development. Before founding Pier, Jillian was EVP of Capital Markets at Patch of Land and an investment banker at Houlihan Lokey.

On this episode, Chris and Jillian discuss:

We'd appreciate you filling out our audience survey, so we can continuously work on providing relevant content to our listeners. 

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Links

Jillian on Twitter

Pier Asset Management

Topics

(00:00:00) Intro

(00:01:30) Jillian’s background and career

(00:10:39) Getting great prices for great assets vs. great prices for messy assets

(00:15:24) Providing senior credit facilities

(00:16:39) Why would someone borrow from you vs. a bank?

(00:19:28) Do you have a capacity of how much you can lend?

(00:21:58) Litigation Finance

(00:33:42) How are you sourcing deals?

(00:35:11) Are there common traits in deals that allow you to underwrite risk?

(00:37:53) Music royalties

(00:44:05) What are you seeing in today’s environment?

(00:46:14) Is the consumer paying their loans?

(00:49:07) What’s the shortest duration you want to be in a loan for?

(00:50:39) What’s happening in the auto loan world?

(00:56:17) How do you think about secured vs. unsecured notes?

(00:58:23) What % of deals do you write that you need to repo? 

(00:59:19) Why and why not private credit firms should be regulated like a bank

(01:01:43) Do you have a favorite story when it comes to a non-performing loan?

(01:03:07) What gave you the entrepreneurial bug?

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The FORT is produced by Johnny Podcasts

David Gibson is the Minister of Trinity Church, in Aberdeen, Scotland, where he has lived for the last 19 years. David is passionate about reaching the city where he lives with the gospel, and the Trinity congregation is preparing to restore Aberdeen's largest church building (built in 1904) after decades of neglect. Most recently, he has published in academic and more popular contexts on the beauty of the Wisdom literature in everyday life: Living Life Backward: How Ecclesiastes Teaches us to Live in Light of the End.

On this episode, Chris and David discuss:

We'd appreciate you filling out our audience survey, so we can continuously work on providing relevant content to our listeners. 

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Links:

TrinityAberdeen.org.uk

Trinity Church Aberdeen on YouTube

Living Life Backward by David Gibson

Remaking the World by Andrew Wilson

The Air We Breathe by Glen Scrivener

The Pastor by Eugene H. Peterson

The Tech-Wise Family by Andy Crouch

Topics:

(00:00:00) Intro

(00:01:27) David’s background and career

(00:05:32) Christianity in the Europe/UK vs. the United States

(00:11:56) Making sense of the Gospel and Coming to Christ

(00:15:24) The Christian environment in Ireland

(00:20:20) Buying a church

(00:25:02) How to help David 

(00:28:17) The book of Ecclesiastes 

(00:42:09) The value of embracing death

(00:54:18) How to NOT become the messiah

(00:54:18) Introducing your kids to Ecclesiastes 

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The FORT is produced by Johnny Podcasts

John C. Goff is an investor based in Fort Worth, Texas. His family office, Goff Capital, invests across multiple sectors including wellness, aerospace, energy, gaming, entertainment, and real estate. Among his holdings are Canyon Ranch – the world’s recognized leader in health and wellness, and Crescent Energy (NYSE:CRGY), where he serves as Chairman of both companies. John is also Chairman and principal owner of Crescent Real Estate which has assets under management, development, and investment capacity of over $10 billion.

On this episode, Chris and John discuss:

- John’s career working with Richard Rainwater

- Building, selling, and buying back Crescent from Morgan Stanley

- Thoughts on the current real estate market

- The challenges and opportunities facing the city of Fort Worth

We'd appreciate you filling out our audience survey, so we can continuously work on providing relevant content to our listeners. 

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Links

Crescent Real Estate

Canyon Ranch

Topics

(00:00:00) Intro

(00:03:02) Suffering from ADHD

(00:05:11) The impact of studying accounting

(00:07:35) Richard Rainwater

(00:17:41) Building Crescent & selling to Morgan Stanley

(00:37:49) Buying Crescent back

(00:46:57) Thoughts on the current RE market

(00:55:27) The future of work is in the office

(01:01:11) Class AA Office opportunities

(01:02:35) Raising a GP fund

(01:04:16) Thoughts Oil & Gas

(01:18:06) Canyon Ranch

(01:28:11) The opportunity for Fort Worth

(01:43:58) What do you wish you had spent more time doing or less time doing?

Support our Sponsors

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The FORT is produced by Johnny Podcasts

Dean S. Adler is CEO and Co-Founder of Lubert-Adler Partners, L.P., a real estate equity firm with over $9 billion in equity raised. Dean is the Head of the Investment Committee and is responsible for leading the strategic direction of the team. He is also an Executive Committee Member and Research Sponsor for the Zell/Lurie Real Estate Center of The Wharton School and a member of the Board of Directors of the Dominion Real Estate Company.

On this episode, Chris & Dean discuss:

We'd appreciate you filling out our audience survey, so we can continuously work on providing relevant content to our listeners. 

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Links:

Lubert-Adler

Topics:

(00:00:00) Intro

(00:03:16) What are you thinking right now about capital markets?

(00:05:36) Is there another cycle you could compare to today’s environment?

(00:07:29) How do you think banks are thinking about upcoming renewals?

(00:12:56) What needs to happen to normalize the market?

(00:20:08) What are you seeing in fundraising?

(00:21:56) How are you vetting folks looking for a private credit deal?

(00:34:20) Thoughts on the Office Asset class

(00:44:54) Does high levels of institutional investment in office affect the market?

(00:49:13) Is there an asset class today that’s dying but no one knows?

(00:53:56) How did you end up in the grocery business?

(01:04:12) Is it possible to still pursue an opportunity like you did with Albertson’s today?

(01:09:58) Looking back, what do you wish you had focused on more?

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Chris on Social Media:

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LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/45gIkFd

Watch The Fort on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3oynxNX

Visit our website: https://bit.ly/43SOvys

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The FORT is produced by Johnny Podcasts