Today's guest is Beth Azor, ‘The Canvassing Queen®’. Beth is the founder and CEO of Azor Advisory Services (AAS), a leading commercial real estate advisory and investment firm based in Weston, Florida. Beth currently owns and manages five shopping centers in Florida valued at over $80 million. She travels the U.S. consulting with, brokering deals for and training associates in the commercial real estate industry. In this episode, we discuss Beth’s career, how she became known as the ‘The Canvassing Queen®’, why she decided to begin making her own investments in commercial real estate, and how she’s working to help other women also invest.
Welcome back to the second season of She’s Wild, the Podcast for Women in Land & Development. Today's guest is Beth Azor, ‘The Canvassing Queen®’. Beth is the founder and CEO of Azor Advisory Services (AAS), a leading commercial real estate advisory and investment firm based in Weston, Florida. Beth currently owns and manages five shopping centers in Florida valued at over $80 million. She travels the U.S. consulting with, brokering deals for and training associates in the commercial real estate industry.
She also wrote two books detailing her experience in the real estate world and her secret sauce for success. Don’t Say No for the Prospect was published in 2019 followed up by The Retail Leasing Playbook in 2020. Beth also founded the Women’s Real Estate Investment Summit and co-founded the South Florida Independent Retailer Awards®, both held annually.
A graduate of FSU, she is a former Foundation Trustee and is past Chairwoman of the Board, and Founder of the FSU Real Estate Foundation. Beth is a past President of the Board of Directors of HOPE Outreach Center in Davie, Florida and co-founder of 100+ Women Who Care in South Florida.
In this episode, we discuss Beth’s career, how she became known as the ‘The Canvassing Queen®’, why she decided to begin making her own investments in commercial real estate, and how she’s working to help other women also invest.
Register for Women’s Real Estate Investment Summit 2023 (use Code SHESWILD25 for 25% discount by Feb 1, 2023)
https://www.azoracademy.com/women-s-real-estate-investment-summit-2023
Memorable Moments:
3:23 I found out two years ago that only 3% of investors in commercial real estate are women. And so I have a goal to get that to 10% by 2030.
23:10 There's a Harvard study that that says that 90% of the salespeople will call once 70, we'll call twice 50 will call three times 30 will call for, like, by the fifth or sixth time it's 2%. And the buyers buy after the sixth or seventh touch.
25:26 100% leased screams to me the rents too low. If it's in a good market.
45:31 I put women on stage that are investors, because what I've learned in my surveys is that women are afraid. They think investing is too complicated. And they don't know other women that are doing it. So there's a saying, if you see it, you can be it. So I've had women on stage that bought their first shopping center, their first self storage, their fourth hotel, and their 10,000th apartment unit.
49:44 I think work ethic is the number one thing because it's the only thing we can control. We can't control that we're female. We can't control the economy. We can't control bosses that are awful. We can't control interest rates but we can control is our work work ethic and, and by far, that is the number one thing that's contributed to any success I've had. I was there on Saturdays, I was there late at night.
Connect with Nancy:
Instagram:https://instagram.com/nancysurak
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancysurak/
Website: www.nancysurak.com
Connect with Beth:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethazor/
Instagram: @bethazor
She’s Wild Sound Production by: Luke Surak, Surak Productions: surakproductions@gmail.com
Nancy Surak00:00
Welcome back to She's Wild, the podcast for women in land and development, today's guest is Beth Azor of the Azor Advisory Services Company out of Weston, Florida. Beth is known as The Canvassing Queen. And in our conversation today she is going to share her love of commercial real estate, tell us all about her multi decade experience, why she got into the business, why she stays in the business, and why she's focusing her career today on making sure that more women invest in commercial real estate to create wealth for themselves and their future generations. Towards the end of our conversation, Beth mentions a conference in Orlando, March 8 of 2023, called the Women's Real Estate Investment Summit. After we finished recording, she offered a very special discount to anyone listening today, who would like to attend that meeting. Please check out the show notes for the code, the discount code a 25% discount to attend her Real Estate Investment Summit specifically for women investors. Other than that, please enjoy today's show. And I hope to hear from you guys. Beth, welcome to the show. I'm excited to have you here. Because in my world or our world, you have a great reputation as being The Canvassing Queen. Can't wait for you to tell us all about what that really means for folks who might not be as familiar as I am with you. So welcome to the show. Why don't you go ahead and tell us a little bit more about yourself and what you do in your company?
Beth Azor01:44
Sure, Nancy, thanks for having me. I'm honored to be here. So 36 years ago, I started in retail leasing. I joined a company in Miami, after being in special events and fundraising and PR. So I know a little bit about your background as well. But I couldn't make any money doing that. And I've had my license since I was 18. Because my parents were in residential. So I jumped over and did commercial real estate full time. And I was at that company for 18 years all doing retail leasing. I grew from the training program, all the way up to President I was president the last six years I was with the firm, I helped grow the firm from 11 people to 150. And we did retail office industrial investment sales all third party, I did partner LP with the owner of the company on nine deals. But similar to again, your story when my son was I was a single mom at four, but I wanted to pick him up from school. So I left the 60 hour a week President job at that other firm to start my own thing, really not sure what I was going to do. I knew I wanted to start buying assets on my own account. And so I've been doing that for 18 years I've I own currently five shopping centers just sold one a couple of weeks ago, the value is $80 million. And I have a side hustle where I train leasing agents how to lease space, aka canvas and fill their vacancies around the country. Being 62, I've decided that I have a mission in life. So I'm happy to be here today. My mission is I found out two years ago that only 3% of investors in commercial real estate are women. And so I have a goal to get that to 10% by 2030. And I'm held held bent to do that. And that will be hopefully, you know, contributing to the sunset of my career as I weave my way out and leave it to you young guns.
Nancy Surak03:45
Well, I appreciate the fact that you want to call me a youngion. I'm not too far behind you. But it is interesting how I think you get you reach a point in your career in this business. And you began to say, what's my legacy? You know, what am I leaving behind. And you have such a great deep career story, which which is awesome. There's so many different aspects and spokes that I can take you down. And you touched on a bunch, but I'd love for you to tell us a little bit more about because I know you've done it all. Like you've done the leasing, you've done the teaching, you've done the development yourself. Tough. When you did your first deal on your own. I want that story. When you said I'm going to buy my you know, I've been placing tenants or helping owners for the bulk of my career. I'm going to create wealth for myself. Tell me that story.
Beth Azor04:37
Absolutely. So in my prior company, we had sold an Outparcels. So a small piece of land it was one acre. Our client had gotten it back in a bankruptcy he called us and said Hey, will you sell the steel? We ended up selling it for $2 million, one acre in South Florida, and there was a outburst Available next door to this one for 1.77 acres and General Electric was selling it for 1.2 million. I went to my boss I said, this is a great deal. We need to buy this deal. And he said, now it's too small for us. Fast forward six months, I leave the company, I'm out on my own. I want to buy my own deals. I first kind of forgot about it. I drove by it one day, I'm like, Oh my gosh, there's the sale sign is still on the piece of land. So I call up and I said, you know, what's the price? 1.2 million 1.77 acres. I know it is underpriced. So I said, this is going to be my first deal by my you know, as a GP, I'm going to put together friends and family. I took my three best friends to a Cuban restaurant, that the window overlooks the piece of land. They go, why are we here I go. And I said look at that window. Three women, my three best friends. You see that property? They said, Yeah, go we're gonna buy that. No, we're not good. Yes, we are. No, no, we're not I go, Yeah, it's 1.2. I'm gonna get 100,000 from 10 of my friends, you three included, and they all had some excuse. And I was like, Well, screw y'all, I'm gonna go buy it anyway. And of course, I started sending out the I've created a package, sent it out to some other guys in the business. And five of them, you know, raised their hand and said we're in. And then guess what, of course my three friends jumped into. So we ended up buying that deal. I thought I would do two restaurants on two ground leases. In the end, they did a Walgreens ground lease. And the Walgreens developer came and said name your price. We don't want to build this for Walgreens for a fee. We want to own it. And we ended up making 299% on our money, Nancy in 18 months. And there was a lot that went into it like you can you can appreciate this. While we had an under contract. I remember calling my partners, which were all in the real estate business. And I said, we've got this great Walgreens ground lease we shouldn't sell, right? I mean, we should this should just be an all of our kids, you know, trust funds. And, and one of my very conservative partners said, Well, you know, throw out a stupid price. And if they take it, you know, we'll take it. So that's what happened. But while it was under contract to sell in the survey, and in the title, which did not come up when I bought it, it turned out that there was a utility transformer that was supposed to be in an easement. But it was partially on our land. And the buyers are like, you know, we're not buying this until you get this big utility company who you know, to move this transformer. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, so they wouldn't call us back. You can imagine the bureaucracy, I went and sat in that utility in the regional office of the utility company for eight hours, one day on my lap with a box of cookies. Finally, the guy walking out at the end of the day at 530. I said, Sir, I've been here volatile, you know, could you just take my cookies? And you know, because what's up what, you know, what are you doing? I'm not here to nag you like my engineer is and my lawyer is on my you know, but this is a, you know, a multimillion dollar sale and you guys kind of are, you know, put your transformer on my land, and you need to move it and I can't wait three months. And by the way, this was heading right into the global recession. Like ever, all of the headwinds are like, close the deal, because you never know what might happen. So they ended up moving it two weeks later, the cookies worked. However, they left a sliver still on my property. And I just said to the buyers look, you need to close it, or we're dropping the contract, they ended up closing it and it was a great deal by partners are like when's the next deal and I didn't know anything, I wasn't astute enough to know about 1031 exchanges, so gave everyone that money back. And then we rolled it, then then the next field came about six months later. So we wouldn't have made the time crunch anyway that we need for the 1031. But all those people went into my next deal. And a lot of them are still my partners today. So that was my first deal. And it was a great deal to start. But you know what kind of even though there were a lot of problems with it, we made a lot of money. And that is not always the best deal to start with, right? As you can imagine, it's kind of going to the casino when you win big, not always the great, great to win big your first time,
Nancy Surak09:19
Yeah, because you set the expectation that you can keep doing it or a little bit of a golden child. And there's a lot of science in this business, and a lot of art, but a lot of luck, too. Right. It's just landing on the right. I mean, you had great experience to say like I know what that's worth, I know that the property is not that the listing price is not reflective of what the market value is, and willing to take, you know, a gamble on that, which is great. And I did not know when I asked you that question that your first deal was actually a land deal. I thought it was going to be investment deal. So I love that story. Because for obvious reasons. I'm like yes, it was a land deal.
Beth Azor10:00
So, as we were prepping for this, I told you, I hate development. I know from now on, I'm bringing all my development deals to you, you know, I've done too. And then after the first one, I said, I'm never going to do another one. And then of course, I did another one that I'm in the middle of today, which is again, going to be great, but I just don't have the patience. I don't have the patience for, you know, dealing with the the cities, the municipalities, the land use councils, the residential people nearby that, you know, we I have a property that I bought an office building the 1970s, to two story office building, dilapidated there were still tenants in there, we ended up knocking it down in in one parcel, I did a Starbucks strip center. And now I'm in then there's this front piece of land that's been available that we've been in the approval process, and we just got approved to do a Wawa. Well, you can imagine the Facebook posts out there, all of the community wants me to make it a dog park. You can buy it and make it a dog park if you'd like.
Nancy Surak11:02
I love that I you know, I once had a neighbor cashes probably 15 years ago, he came up to me one day was on my mailbox, you know, after work one afternoon, and he's explaining to me how he bought 10 acres in this like rural community backs up to like 1000 acres. And he goes, hey, so I know you're like a land expert. How can I make sure that that 1000 acres never ever gets developed? And I was, I was so taken aback by the question. And I just sort of looked at him, I said, you buy it, you buy the 1000 acres, and you never develop it. Like you really want to have 10 acres next to 1000 and dictate what they could do with their land. Like why, like I have such a property rights versus like, I don't think that's how it works. But it is crazy. And you're right, it is it takes an enormous amount of patience. And a lot of things can go wrong from a vacant land, vacant development perspective. So i That's why I'm like I love the fact that you put a piece of land under contract as your first deal. So you made money there, and then you rolled it into other deals. Tell me how did you originally get into real estate even way, way before that? You said your parents were in it? Is that where it really started for you?
Beth Azor12:18
Yes. So during high school, and college, my I would sit open houses for my parents, you know, and then at 18, I got my license. So then all through college summers, I would sit open houses, condos, like developments, they were working on it. My mom was the property manager in Flagler Beach. Since you're you've spent time in Gainesville. So you might have spent some time over there on the beach, south of Crescent Beach. And she was the number one absentee prop, like absentee condo owner in that market, she probably had 200 condos. So we would get the calls in the middle of the night for the air conditioning or the toilets. And I'm like, I am never doing that. I've never been in your business, you know, fast forward pa but and my dad was the salesperson and my mom was the property manager and then graduated from Florida State P English Literature degree with a minor in communications. And I'm gonna go do PR and special events worked at not for profit making $11,000 a year. And so did the real estate on the weekends and into within two years of working seven days a week doing both jobs, the residential weekend sitting model homes in South Florida, I started selling the homes. So the income far exceeded what I was making the not for profit. And so then I flipped over and said, Okay, I'm going to do this real estate thing, which I immediately hated. I sat in a trailer reading people magazines, and I and I went to the developer saying we need to have events from my events background, because no, no, you just sit reading People Magazine. And when people come in, we sell luxury homes, you sell them I'm like, I made the biggest mistake. I love my job at the not for profit. And I left a jump for money. I was very upset with myself. And then a friend said you need to get into commercial real estate and I there's literally I said gross selling land. How more boring could that be? And they said no, no, there's this thing called leasing. And they said, Well, what's that? They said, developers build shopping centers, and they put supermarkets and then you are the leasing agent and you fill out all of the space on either side of the supermarket. So you lease to the bagel guy in the dry cleaner and the insurance company in the boutique. And once you lease to those people, you're in their life forever, because you help them achieve the American dream and like so, what where do I find that job? And that's how I got to the job in Miami, where I started in the training program and was there 18 years and that's how I got it. I remember walking into that office day one, and the hair on my arm stood up. I said I don't know what I'm going to what I'm doing here. I don't even know anything about this, but my soul is in this place and in this industry.
Nancy Surak15:06
Isn't that great. I always love to hear how people get into their, their niche, right? Cuz commercial real estate is pretty broad as an industry, but those who I think are most successful have a pretty deep niche, you know, they they do what they do really, really well. They know it inside and out. And I love the fact that you were like, very intrigued with filling out an online space. And as we were joking back and forth, like, I can't think of anything worse than that. This is why it can mean a lot of for people, but just it I think I would be very nervous. If if somebody's you know, took a lease in their business didn't succeed, like I would take it personally. Which is also why I don't do residential, because it's just too personal for me.
Beth Azor15:56
Yeah, yeah. The I mean, I'm I just got hired 18 months ago from the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers he had an empty mall in Cleveland. And they had the All Stars game coming. And his team called and said, We understand that you'd like to, you know, I'm the I'm called the canvassing queen, because I go and knock on doors. And I find local mom and pops that should expand. And I usually try to bring them to my portfolio. But I also help other people figure out how to increase their occupancy and their assets. And they said, If you could just get about five popup tenants so that we're not embarrassed for all stars weekend, Nancy, I've been extended twice, we've signed 51 leases, I went into Cleveland not knowing the soul, and could not do any broker deals because the deals were two years or less. And I literally went out into the community canvassing knocking on doors. And of the 51 leases we've signed 48 are black owned businesses. And of those 4845 are women, black owned businesses. And the my client, because he's allowed me to do not charge a million dollars a square foot has changed lives in Cleveland, and it's super impact, probably the most impactful thing I've ever done in my career.
Nancy Surak17:18
That's amazing. That's an amazing story. I love that because, you know, I think ultimately what one of the biggest lessons I've learned just interviewing women all over North America in different aspects of our world, is that so many of us do it because it really changes lives and communities in the way people live their, their everyday life. And it's just, it's something that, you know, I hear just repeated on every interview of you know, what people are most proud of. And that's really cool. Pretty amazing that somebody with such stature in their own community couldn't find five or six pop ups on their own, just because they just, they weren't willing to do the work
Beth Azor18:00
That I think the team was busy doing way bigger things and he bought them all. And they were going to make it a tech hub, and then COVID hit. And so the mall closed for two years. So as the malls just reopening, they're looking, you know, oh my gosh, in nine months, we're gonna have millions of people here. And there wasn't anyone on the team that did what I did going out into the community knocking on doors, they could have hired a local broker. But they had heard I was on clubhouse doing something called Space tank where I was connecting landlords during COVID with entrepreneurs, and they heard that and they said, This is the girl we need to come to Cleveland and it turned out okay.
Nancy Surak18:40
Sounds amazing. So tell me take me through a typical canvassing operation for you like whether it's that deal or one of your own. Take me through what you do.
Beth Azor18:50
So just got a restaurant space back unfortunately a gentleman didn't make it after a couple years COVID really kind of construction costs which you know, are very high approvals permitting so it took him a lot longer to build out. He kind of went through his savings we tried to help him out but it just he had a it was a very odd name like people could that the name is so important on the sign you know if you're healthy foods, it should say healthy foods, versus he had a very abstract name. I kept telling him to change that but he was very connected to that so he didn't make it. So over the weekend, what we're doing we're hiring a cleaning company to clean it out or create I created a video I put the video on Instagram. I put the video on Facebook I'm DMing healthy food concepts through Instagram and Facebook. Looking up health food near me ice balls near me and just DMing people Hey, do you want another location in Davie, Florida? It's a former restaurant doesn't have a grease trap or hood. So I damned probably 50 people. My director operations will work on the flyer. So pictures flyer, and this week, my intern and I, we have 15 appointments lined up just from the DMing to show the space, but then we will also hit the streets and we'll go out. And for all the people we've DM that I've identified as someone that I would like to take the space, we'll go see them in their restaurant, their existing location in South Florida. So we have a map with about 100 of those uses. So it's dessert cookies, cupcakes, Sae bowls, so we pick a targeted use, we find them who's got a location already, not that I wouldn't do a startup, but I'd like someone already in business, and who wants another location in my geographic areas, the hole in their doughnut. So we identify the 100 in over this week, and next week, we will go drop off a flyer we will walk in, we will not say is the owner here because you're disrespecting the gatekeeper. Okay, that people go well, you you have to get to the decision maker, trust me, the gatekeeper will get you to the decision maker a lot faster if you don't disrespect them, assuming they're not the business owner. So we walk in we say Hey, I just want to leave this fire. We have a former restaurant space available in baby in Davie would you know if you guys are expanding would love to show it to you? Quick, short to the point? Nine times out of 10. That's the owner. He goes, Well, wait, wait, I'm interested. What where is it? Give me the specifics. And sometimes there it's not there, the gatekeeper and they keep the flyer and then I say hey, who would I follow up with. And when you respect the gatekeeper, they usually give you the name and the number of the owner without you asking for it. And that's how it works. I just signed a 17,000 square foot Bridal Salon in Cleveland, where I had dammed her twice. I had dropped off the flyer twice. So my fifth visit, she was in a mall. And my fifth visit she happened to be in the store when I walked in. And she goes, Oh, my lease is up next month. I would love to relocate to the mall to your mall. And I said during the conversation I said, Did you get my DMs and she and the flyer so much because yeah, I got the DMS I don't remember the flyers. I thought you were a scam. So very important to keep going back until you get the no like she I kind of assumed and again 62 been doing this 36 years. I kind of thought she's not interested shame on me, you know, the vet learning from my own experience that she'd never given me a no, I had never gotten a response. Keep going until you get the response. And now we've she went into a former Brooke two story Brooks Brothers space brought in her bridal gowns. phenomenal deal.
Nancy Surak22:43
That's, that's awesome. And what a good lesson there too, because I think what I see in my business is very different than yours. But what I see generally speaking, is that people give up after you know, one or two tries. And even I'm guilty of that sometimes, right? Like I want the low hanging fruit I want this stuff. Well, it my business again is different because the cycle is so long. So what a great lesson of you know, what was the fifth? Try?
Beth Azor23:09
Well, there's you know, there's a Harvard study that that says that 90% of the salespeople will call once 70, we'll call twice 50 will call three times 30 will call for, like, By the fifth or sixth time it's 2%. And the buyers buy after the sixth or seventh touch. Oh my gosh. So so and you know, when I'm buying shopping centers, I I am calling the property owner who doesn't want to sell. And I and and until I get that quarterly I call them every quarter. And until they start picking up and saying no, Beth, we love you. But we don't want to sell to you yet. Don't worry, I know why you're calling. You'll be the first call until I get and I'm very respectful and I'll give them tidbits. Hey, I just hired this guy as a paver. Hey, don't use this guy as the pest control guy. He screwed us. You know I'm constantly giving value to the property owners that I want to buy from so that it's a value add and not just a pain in the butt. Hey, you want to sell Yeah, hey, you want to sell? Yeah, hey, you want to sell yet? So I create relationships to work to the point is when they pick up? We know we're not selling to you yet. But how's the market? What do you think about the interest rates and you cultivate the relationship? I just bought 2.25% of a nearby property owners partnership. He hasn't sold to me yet. He's 89 he's putting me in his will. He said my kids. Oh, no, you're the one that they have to sell to if they're going to sell but he had an opportunity where one of his partners. He had a partner that was a doctor. The daughters got the property. They didn't want it. They wanted to sell they offered it to the other partners no one wanted and he called me. He goes hey, here's your chance. And I got I now own 2.25 and I've been out I've been trying to get that deal for 18 years. Nancy.
Nancy Surak25:00
Wow. That's a lot of commitment.
Beth Azor25:04
It's a good deal.
Nancy Surak25:06
That's great story. So tell me, you know, when you when you're out there, and you're looking at these deals to make your own investment to make your own purchase, what one or two things are you looking at that you say, that's the deal I want? What is it that makes one deal pop up above another one
Beth Azor25:26
100% leased screams to me the rents too low. If it's in a good market, so high in. I buy in high income markets, because that's disposable income, retail rents are based on sales. If the tenants doing well in sales, they can pay more rent, tenants can pay more can do more in sales revenues in higher income markets. So when I am in a market where it's 100%, leased shopping center, and I know it's a high income area, and there's other properties that are doing well, and you know, Chick fil A lines and Starbucks lines, and, you know, sushi restaurants doing up to $5 million, and there's a property that's 100%. Leased, that guy's rents too low. That's a guy who's 89, who's owned it for 20 years and is very happy and is so proud that he's 100% leased and doesn't understand that the guy next door just did a $60 deal. And he's doing 30 to $30 deals. So I look for fully occupied properties in high income areas, I like properties that do not have what we call elbows, so U shaped centers, I want centers that are flushed to the street. So if it's on us, one, I want it, you know, parallel to us one, I don't want it perpendicular, because retailers love visibility and exposure. And it's really hard to lease in the elbow areas, I want properties that that have the ability to have big signage, so I wouldn't want to go into a municipality that limits, you know, signs to 12 inches, and that and I'll go in and do a facade renovation to get that that national retail exposure that they want. So high income because it usually means higher sales, you know, supply and demand, you're number one. So I'm not going to I'm not going to buy a shopping center where I've got 5000 acres next to me, because that's going to be 34 more shopping centers. And that will drive my my rents down. So I want to buy in markets that are very dense that don't have ability to become more have more developments nearby.
Nancy Surak27:35
Got it? Good. Good. Good insight there. Yeah, really good insight. So when you're looking back at your career, and you think about all the things that you've touched, is there anything super strange that pops up? Do you say like, wow, that was the strangest deal.
Beth Azor27:57
I haven't had any strange deals I've had, you know, I, early on, I used to call, I find a deal that I wanted to buy. And I would call the guys in my circle. And they were they would always poopoo it. And I got nine of them. That nine deals that I didn't do because I was discouraged. And someone else went and did what I thought should be done bigger companies run by men. And I'm not male bashing, but I just stopped asking people for their opinion and their advice. Because what I tried to do is in my my girlfriends who are in the business and who have invested with me, they stopped, you know, stop looking back. And so what I say to myself is what that did is that cemented my instincts on good deals. So those nine, I say, that was my master's degree. Because I knew it. I knew what should be done with those assets. I let someone discourage me into not doing those deals. And then other people in my industry went and did those deals. So I don't. So I thought it was strange that so many people discouraged me. And so now I don't I don't ask if I double down, I triple down, I do it. And, you know, hopefully they're winners,
Nancy Surak29:25
Right? Well, then you have a, you know, a few decades of experience behind you now too, because, you know, I can look at a map of my region easily. I've been doing this for 18 years, and I can say, I knew that was gonna happen, that was gonna happen, that was gonna happen. And I was four years ahead of the market. And I took my eye off of those assets, because I was focused on something else that was a little bit shinier at the time. And it didn't, it didn't either do those deals or go after those owners and I knew I knew it might go I thought that was gonna happen only to drive by it and I'm like, son of gun, it happened. And I mean, I can look at my whole career like that go, Yeah, I knew that was going to be the use that was going to go there. You know, because when you do this day in and day out, you learn and you absorb all of those trends. So speaking a little bit of trends, what are you seeing right now in retail, you know, because we've seen all the, you know, brick and mortars dead, and retail is dead. And I've been jumping up and down for years as a land broker saying retail is not dead. Retail is not dead. It's really about what you put there, and how it's serving that community or overall region. Let me know your opinion. What do you think? How was retail? Where are we going? What are the trends that you're seeing?
Beth Azor30:47
So COVID was really helped to retail? Right? So before COVID, everyone thought that digital online e commerce was going to just destroy bricks and mortar. And in fact, before COVID, I think the numbers were, you know, I'd speak in audiences. And I would say, What do you think the number of you know, if it's $5.4 trillion of retail sales, what percentage of that is ecommerce and people would say 30 to 50%. And at the time, pre COVID, I believe it was somewhere between 17 and 19%. During COVID, it went up a couple points. And then since COVID, it's dropped. And the prediction always was it was going to go to 30% by 2030. And as an investor, I'm good with 70%. You know, coming to my bricks and mortar, especially when I fill my bricks and mortar with necessity driven, you know, you can't get your nails done online, you can't get your hair cut online. You know, certainly shoe sales and apparel sales, the commodity based products will be more online driven. But but we found with COVID that people really crave, people, people crave people, and they want to be with people. And the more retail that does experiential things, like I have a boutique in Cleveland that I'm a prospect of mine, I haven't convinced her to come to my mall yet. And she posted yesterday where they were having a yoga class in the boutique. And that's the kind of stuff you know, following what Lululemon has done for years. So retail is here to stay, we learned that with COVID, it was crazy how restaurants, you cannot find an available restaurant, which is why I 15 showings this week, and the one that I have, you cannot find the second generation restaurant space in South Florida, if your life was dependent on it, and that was what happened with COVID. And and again, the population explosion we had down here in South Florida, and the disposable income of the people that are coming. So retail is not dead far from it. And now the whole the whole news cycle is going away from retail is dead. And what else happened through COVID is where we had industrial doing our fulfillment. It now the stores have stepped into that right? The buy online pick up in store, you're seeing floor plates, fourth floor plates change where you're going to see a back of the house become the warehouse for some of these retail chains. So retails here, you know, but you have to be smart, you can't be leasing to bookstores that can better be served by selling online.
Nancy Surak33:54
Yeah, so I'm glad you brought up the experiential component. Because I noticed earlier in our talk, you talked about where your education was and where your early experience was in your career. And that was your love of events and PR. And to me, you know, I have a PR background of a Master's from the University of Florida in mass communication. And and I use it more to help me in my business right or more times than not keep my deals out of the news. Away from the critics until absolutely it has closed or it you know, I'm saying a closing statement. You know, I I learned how to just handle not responding to the media, or how to you know, get my owners to trust me and say like, do not talk to a member of the media. Have them call me. I can you know, figure out the way the right terminology to use to keep your project out of the news because that's when everyone comes out of the woodwork. Love to know on those I think you said five centers that you own today. Are you you utilizing any of that event opportunity that experience your love or from earlier in your career, and if so, how are you doing that?
Beth Azor35:07
Absolutely. We have events all of the time. So I'll do when, when I bought my second shopping center after that land deal we talked about earlier. I had when I bought it in 2008, we had three vacancies. And in 2009, we had 14, because the global financial crisis just was awful for everyone. So what one thing that I did, and I do this a lot at my properties is I, I joined the Chamber of Commerce, and we do events like scavenger hunts, where we'll do a football themed, you know, event where, you know, where would you go to get tailgate food? Or where would you go, you know, to buy furniture for your backyard, like a patio store, a sub store, and I would check, you know, and I'd have the tenants give me $25 gift cards that I bought from them. I bought those from my tenants. And I'd have the Chamber of Commerce members in the community, go through the shopping center and go have to go into the, into the shops to get their little thing checked off. So I remember being in a in a sushi restaurant where three ladies walked in playing the game like, Oh, this is very nice. We've never been this big in this restaurant before, by the way in the town that they live in, and they are a member of the chamber. So for example, I've done those events where it gets the community in the stores gamify it then at the end, the people that turn in their cards, which they all finish, get to pull out of a hat, the multiple gift cards. So now I've had them come to the shopping center for the event. And now they'll all come back because they all want to gift card to the my tenants in the shopping center. This week, we put up banners around the shopping center, give your corporate gift from local. I'm a big shop local girl. I mean, I have Starbucks and Panera and I have the Nationals too. They don't need the help. Right? During right before. Maybe during COVID I can't remember but I hired a photographer. And I had them go into all my local tenants. And we did. We posted on social media campaigns shop local campaigns and took pictures we had. I have my University of Miami one of our common enemies. I have a Kane's wear store and they do Hurricanes Heat, Miami Heat, Panthers, Marlins and soccer. And during COVID I called them and I said everyone's jonesing for for sports. There's no sports going on, get your butt in the store, get you know, director's chairs and start interviewing you have access to all of these coaches, these players, you need to be the ESPN as the South Florida ESPN. And like they were dragging their feet a good idea. But you know, everyone was kind of just in the doldrums and I said okay, so then I started doing live videos on Instagram, where I would interview tenants. And I saw I started doing it with my own tenants. And then I realized I could do this with prospects. And I actually got some deals out of it where I was just hey, you know, I want to interview you. Let's talk about COVID your businesses closed into your nail salon. How are you know, the local nail salon started making masks. So I just became, you know, the little Barbara Walters in South Florida and did anything I could to draw attention or get them to do events in their stores to call attention to them, you know, top of mind, right? So I'm constantly coming up with ideas in Cleveland, even though I'm supposed to just be leasing space. We've had multiple events I met you know, I met a guy that was doing something called the real Black Friday, where he had 300 Black Business businesses. And we did an expo that weekend of all sorts game that added to the 1000s of people that came to the mall. I've had I found out about a woman that did a fashion show and she did it at the local art institute in Cleveland. I said you need to come do it at Tower city. She's doing it in April in Tower city 800 people, because again, like I said rent is a function of sales. And if I can get people into the shopping center as a venue, their sales will go up and then I can get my rent.
Nancy Surak39:25
I love that as a venue idea. Because I hear people all the time talking about like seeking venues and how expensive like hotel spaces or conference space. And we have always curious, especially in like the office space, but even in retail too. How often you'll see like in a mall or another space like brown space or dark space and completely being underutilized and it's a shell and on my pen. Why isn't somebody utilizing that for events? I'm all I'm always amazed. You know, like, the mall is like perfect, you know, international malls right down the road for me perfect example, big space and after a certain time in the day, completely underutilized. That is a waste of money.
Beth Azor40:13
We call all of the not for profits, and we say look at your 2023 calendar, that gala you're going to have at the Hilton, you should have in our mall, we'll close off a mall, the malls closed at nine you can get we'll decorate it. We have free parking. We have restaurants that you can cater, yeah, it's the malls are great venues. Yeah, no,
Nancy Surak40:35
I love that. I love that you say that. Okay, so you talked about a couple of things I want to dip in really quickly. There's so much here, we could like really talk for an hour. You you sprinkled throughout the conversation, you're utilizing utilization of social media. And I'm always amazed by your activity on social media, because I'm pretty active on social media, and it is almost a full time job. You know, and I'll step away occasionally and just say like, I gotta focus on like, getting whatever deal done. How do you do it?
Beth Azor41:07
Well, I have a really great team. So when I'm walking, and I multitask. So this morning, I did two videos, because I'm doing an event live tonight on LinkedIn, and I, you know, just did a organic, one minute, Hey, join us tonight, or I'll be on an airplane. And I'll think of, you know, someone that I coaching will say, I'm having this problem with this, and I go well, if you have a problem, everyone else is having a problem. So I kind of give my advice, hey, you know, I've heard that this is a problem. And I give my advice, whether it's a short blurb on Twitter, or a long form on LinkedIn. And then I do have a social media person who takes those organic posts that it's me or me, and then she'll re cast it and post it in multiple different places. So if it looks, if it looks formal in any way, that's not me. But if it's just me on my in the camera, and you know, I'll go for three or four days, if I'm not inspired by something I don't I don't post to post, I post when I'm inspired that I think someone needs to hear this. And I read a lot. So I get a lot of inspiration from reading and then assigning it a story that has happened in my 36 years. I have a lot of stories.
Nancy Surak42:29
Yeah, and that's great. You have definitely inspired me. You know, this podcast for me is really about highlighting women in our business and in our world, and getting them to share their experience. And I've had people say, Well, you should talk about your business more. And I'm like, yeah, it's land. Yeah. But I just recently a few episodes ago, dropped, you know, here are the five things that I see in contracts that like stop progress. And it's a little bit of a detour, but I can't, there. I've had so many comments, and people reach out to me and say, Yeah, I really enjoyed that episode, because it was more educational. And for them, they were like, Oh, wow, I never knew that was a deal, you know, an issue in a deal. And I'm like, oh, yeah, like, what and what I did one day was, I wrote down, like the sticking points of everything I was working on at the time. I'm like, I was hitting brick walls left and right on multiple deals. And I was like, You know what, I should just outline what these problems are. And then I jumped on my day, and I just talked about, and I was like, issues.
Beth Azor43:29
Right? So you helped us right? So I believe helping, you know, I'm not one that oh, I close this deal. I'd rather say, I don't know how I got this deal closed because we had these three problems. And you know, thank God for the cookies, because without the cookies, it wouldn't have, you know, I'm trying to give them ideas of how to overcome obstacles. So I think that's a great podcast you did.
Nancy Surak43:52
Yeah. So and I love that you brought up the cookie incident because my daughter is a senior at FSU. For for you there yo you get told you I was married to a Nole and I am raising one as well. She's sales major. Right? And and I always tell her, she's like, oh, you know, some people will evade me and I'm like, You know what, I have been known to sit in parking lots. And I'll say like, Hey, I'm not a stalker, but I've been trying to get in touch with you for like, 16 times, and I just, I don't want to call you anymore, but I need a yes or no. I just need if the answer's no, that's okay. I just say to yes or no or maybe or not right now. And it's like, you know, and if you're polite, like you said, like, people usually will communicate with you and especially with a woman that's one advantage. I think we do have,
Beth Azor44:39
For sure I've done I've sent pizzas at 11:30 saying, enjoy your lunch. Just call me when you can and I have a friend who actually sent a shoe and one shoe in a shoe box and saying just trying to get my foot in the door. I think creativity goes a long way.
Nancy Surak44:55
Okay, I almost feel like it works better now than what it did twenty years ago, because just people just don't do those things. Yeah. You know? Okay, so the other thing I want to kind of dip into, you're talking about helping, is this quest for you to see more women investors? How are you going to make that a reality?
Beth Azor45:18
Talking about it on podcasts, thank you for inviting me. I have a conference, I had the virtual one two years ago, last year in person, and this year, it's in March in Orlando, I hope you can come. And I put women on stage that are investors, because what I've learned in my surveys is that women are afraid. They think investing is too complicated. And they don't know other women that are doing it. So there's a saying, if you see it, you can be it. So I've had women on stage that bought their first shopping center, their first self storage, their billions, triple net deal, their fourth hotel, their 10,000 apartment unit. So I've had run the gamut from first, you know, starting out to a billionaire. And, and putting them on stage talking about how did you go overcome your fear? What were the obstacles, you know, so So that is how I'm just trying to spread the word I was just in New York at a shopping center conference and have my 25 meetings 20 were with women, you know, CBRE, you know, big firms with the women's group in their firms. So I'm just trying to sort out women to say, you know, our I spoke on Tuesday night in New York at a at a group called pipeline, and it's a women's group in the Northeast, and I brought three friends who are investors, and we talked about how we bought our first deal, and what how were we scared? And of course, we were scared. But is it complicated? Of course it is. But so is net. So as the stock market, you know, I dropped 80% of my Netflix stock in the last six months. So, you know, if you have money, where are you putting it, and if you do what we do every day, we're in the business every day, you see things, I see things, we shouldn't let the guy next door down the street. Take advantage of these things we're seeing, because we're doing it. So I'm very passionate. You know, I'm glad that there's 36% of women in our industry. Now, when I started in 1986, it was probably 3%. Certainly, we've grown. So now, so we don't have to worry about that any I mean, it's still low 36%. But 3% are only investors, that has to change, because that money is in other places. It's mostly in the stock market, I'm finding.
Nancy Surak47:49
Yeah. And I would imagine what you're because I say to my business, so I would imagine it translates to your space, when you're talking to women who have investments, is that there's been a significant generational shift in terms of the inheritance that many women have access to now then, that maybe they didn't have access to 40 years ago. Because that stayed predominantly on the male side of families. Yes. You know, because I know for now, like I, it's been great for me, I have a lot more women landowners.
Beth Azor48:27
Yay
Nancy Surak48:27
Which is awesome. Now, not all of them purchased some inherited it some, you know, a spouse passed away, you know, unfortunately, but now they find themselves and so for them, you know, they're owning it, they don't really understand what it is. And you know, I would say a good I've seen a big shift in the last five years of women wanting to do business with women, which I'm here for all of it, you know, thank God finally meet you. So I'd love that. So tell me when when is that course in Orlando. So
Beth Azor49:00
IIt's a conference. It's a one day conference, it's March 8, March 8, it's Women's International Business day or something.
Nancy Surak49:09
Okay, so I'll make sure I get a link from you so that we can put that in the show notes. And then I know, we've gone on for a while and we're gonna do rapid fire. Last three questions really quick here. And I know that this was throughout the whole interview, but I'm sure you'll come up with something else. If a young woman called you today and said, Hi, I want to buy my first deal. That young, maybe maybe she has money, maybe not. But what what piece of advice could you give her to make sure that she can be successful?
Beth Azor49:42
So I know you believe in this too. I think work ethic is the number one thing because it's the only thing we can control. We can't control that we're female. We can't control the economy. We can't control bosses that are awful. We can't control interest rates but we can control is our work work ethic and, and by far, that is the number one thing that's contributed to any success I've had. I was there on Saturdays, I was there late at night. I did you know, like your dad learning how to walk, again, work ethic, the what you put into it, you will definitely get out of it. So I would tell her that and I would tell her to save her shekels, because, you know, I didn't, I got asked to invest three times and didn't have the money because I had the Jaguar and I had the three week first class trip to Hawaii, among other things. So finally, I wised up and woke up. And from that point on, I started saving from every commission check, it started with 10%. And then I went to 20%. And that is how I've been able to build the portfolio. So work hard, and make sure you save your money for the future and not for the impulsive buy now.
Nancy Surak50:53
That's perfect advice. Very, very good. I agree with all of that. Okay. Next question is is other than your own interviews and social media and podcasts and my podcast? Is there a podcast or a book or series of books that you find incredibly inspirational that you think everyone in this business that's listening here today should check out?
Beth Azor51:17
So the most inspirational book I've ever read, is Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins. I was doing a bike challenge where I biked 496 miles in a month, and that it goes by the day of the month. So in the on the first day of the month, you bike one mile, you know, the fifth day, five miles, you know, every day, the last week, so you're biking 20 21 22 24 I started reading this book can't hurt me on the 20th day, I don't think I would have finished all those miles without him his book in my year, it was so motive motivating, so motivating, can't hurt me, David Goggins?
Nancy Surak51:55
Awesome, great. I'm gonna put that on my list too, to listen to. And then finally, I know that, you know, we talked about your social media presence. Where can people follow you? Where's the best place to keep up with you?
Beth Azor52:07
Probably LinkedIn. I would say LinkedIn first, and then Instagram and Twitter Second.
Nancy Surak52:13
Okay, awesome. Beth, I want to thank you again, for coming on sharing your story. It's quite inspirational. You do so much for the industry, especially for the next generation coming up. For folks who are listening that, you know, enjoyed the conversation today, we definitely will make sure all of Beth's links are in the show notes. So you can go check her out. And now you do a ton of coursework on canvassing and building those skills. I wish I could canvass in the land business. I think I joked around with you about that. But you know, landowners can be interesting, and I don't want to get shot by you know, hopping somebody's cattle Feds like how to walk up to the door. You never know about what might happen. But I do think that it's a, it's a great, great tool, and thing that you encourage and teach. And again, thank you for all of your insight and for, you know, making sure that women can build wealth for themselves and for their future generations.
Beth Azor53:09
Thank you, Nancy. Thanks for having me. And I hope I see you in March.
Nancy Surak53:12
All right. See you soon. Thanks. Bye. Bye. Bye. Thank you for joining us for another episode of she's wild the podcast for women and land and development. If you enjoyed today's show, please go out and rate us so that we can be found by other women in our industry. And if you know women who are working in land and development, please share this podcast with them. And if you know a total rock star woman, badass chick who is killing it in land and development anywhere in North America. I want to know who she is. Please reach out to me so that I can feature her on an upcoming episode.