Beth Azor Success Story and the Rise of Azor Advisory Services, Inc.

Pamela Bardhi: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Underdog podcast. Today I have an incredible guest here with me, Beth.

Beth Azor: How are you, Pam, I’m so happy to be here. Thanks for having me.

Pamela Bardhi: Oh, my goodness. Thank you so much for being here, Beth. My gosh, you are such a radiant energy. And I remember meeting you at first.

Beth Azor: And I was like, she’s not sweet.

Pamela Bardhi: And just hit it off, and I’m just so excited to hear about your story and really dive in. We were working on some pretty magical things, and I can’t wait to dig into all of it.

Beth Azor: I’m ready.

You grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. So you started in the restaurant business when you were younger

Pamela Bardhi: Well, I always like to start at the origination point, so I take it all the way back a bit. Because it’s like, where did the greatness from, Beth originate? Right? So as a kid growing up, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Beth Azor: Pam, this is very apropos for this summer. I wanted to run the Olympics one day.

Pamela Bardhi: Really?

Beth Azor: Yes, I was very involved in planning and organizing events, we owned a restaurant and a bar in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My mom was always organizing this bowling league and this basket, you know, where the Milwaukee Bucks. We had season tickets, and they would take all of the patrons’ kids to the Bucks games. I lived in this environment where a collection of people and experiences impacted their business, and I loved it. And I learned coordination of events and surprising your guests at an early age from my mom. And I said, I want to run, the Olympics one day.

Pamela Bardhi: That’s amazing. I love that. So you started in the restaurant business when you were younger?

Beth Azor: It was like a tavern in Milwaukee that we served food. I went to a parochial Catholic elementary and high school. And the nuns and the priests didn’t look too kindly on the fact that we owned a bar. But they loved it during festival weekend when they could ask us for all the free kegs of beer.

Pamela Bardhi: That is so funny. Oh, my gosh. Is that where you grew up, Beth? In Milwaukee?

Beth Azor: Yes.

Pamela Bardhi: Wow. Oh, my God. That is holy. I went to catholic schools. It was middle school, high school, and then my college was a catholic school as well.

Beth Azor: So my son is going to a catholic college right now, my youngest.

Pamela Bardhi: Really? Oh, my goodness. That is so funny. From way back when, though, they enjoyed it at the festivals, but not any other time.

Beth Azor: Exactly. That’s hilarious.

Pamela Bardhi: Oh, my goodness. So you grew up in Milwaukee? How long were you there?

Beth Azor: My dad got his real estate license when I was about ten. So in between owning the bar and running the bar, we lived upstairs from the business. He would sit at the dining room table and go through the. Do you know what the white pages are?

Pamela Bardhi: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Beth Azor: He would cold call potential buyers for lots in Florida, and he did that for a couple years. Then on a trip that he and my mom and I came down to Florida for Christmas. They bought a house. So we moved down here when I was 14. We bought a house on Christmas vacation, and we moved on April 1, they both passed away years ago. I’m 63, so they passed. My dad passed away when I was 33, and my mom, I think I was 40. And I, now, as an older person, not in my thirties, I missed not asking them. Oh, my gosh, how did you know, they sold a business.

We had multiple properties, you know, leaving everything behind, like just selling everything and moving to another state. I wish I would have been astute enough to kind of ask them and interview them about how, was that. How emotional, how trying, how scary. But I was a kid and I just, you know, you just think your parents are these heroes. You think they didn’t have any of those, but I know that they probably have huge fear conflicts, but they did it anyway. And it changed my life forever. I was in this catholic high school. One of 800 in my freshman class to move to a small town in Florida.

Where the high school was middle and high, so it was 7th through 12th, and the whole school wasn’t 800 kids. I think my class, my 9th grade class, was 80 kids. So I went from a cog in the wheel to the wheel. Like, I remember sitting in the cafeteria and the softball coach walking into the cafeteria. And coming up to my table and saying, you look like you could play softball. We need a pitcher. Come out after school, I need a pitcher. There were no tryouts, there were not enough people. That is so funny.

Pamela Bardhi: Oh, my gosh. A little bit of parallel there, because the middle school, when I moved over to my new school. It was thousands of kids in the school that I was at before the public school I was at. And then when we moved to Boston, that’s when basically it was like a tiny school. I was like, whoa. So that, it’s like, an interesting, and especially during that time of your life, it’s like, what the, you know.

Beth Azor: Yeah, I did everything, I was a flag girl on the band, a cheerleader. I was the editor of the school newspaper, played on the softball team you know, because if you wanted to be involved. There’s plenty of opportunity. So it was great. It really, I think I went from a shy girl in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to an outgoing social person in Florida. It was awesome.

Pamela Bardhi: That’s so awesome. So funny how our environments can change that. And it’s funny because you said you were shy and then became outgoing. Same exact thing happened to me, that’s fascinating.

Beth Azor: Yeah, and in Milwaukee, you know, so my parents were entrepreneurs, didn’t go to college. My sister is nine years older than me, so she had gone for one year to Loyola in Chicago. But college really wasn’t talked about in our family. We moved to Florida. And even though I’m at this tiny little school. I was put into higher, you know, like I, not the home EC classes, I was put in, like trigonometry. Some advanced classes.

Because I think probably maybe the midwest city school that I was in was a little more advanced than this small town in Florida. And the minute I started in 9th grade, everyone in my classes were talking about colleges, what colleges? It changed my life. I went from not thinking, I never even thought of the word university to coming home. Probably in the first couple months of my new school in Florida.

Your parents were in the real estate business when you went to college

Hey, you know, I’m going to go to Florida or Florida state. Those are going to be my options. And my parents are like, you’re going to go to college? It was crazy.

Pamela Bardhi: That’s amazing, that’s so fun. Oh, man, that’s so funny, like, the parallels are so awesome. Like, it’s so funny how your environment can change all of that, oh, my gosh. And walk me through high school into like, college and all the things, like, what was the sequencing there in Florida? Right, so you spent that whole time in Florida?

Beth Azor: Yeah, so my parents were in real estate, but it was very interesting. I went from entrepreneurs who I never saw. We lived in the business, they were in the business, I was upstairs. The patrons were my babysitters. From an early age, I was upstairs alone. My sister was nine years out of the house. When you moved to Florida back then in 1975. You could not get your real estate license until you had one year of residency. So my parents sold all this real estate, they sold their business, they moved to Florida, and they didn’t work. So I would come home at 245 everyday from high school.

And there they were in the living room. Hey, how is school? It was crazy, I went from having no parents and being a latchkey kid, even though in part of the building. But an apartment above it, above the business, to them being around all of the time, and I loved it. I could, I talked to them about school. I just had a family all of a sudden, and at such an important 14, 1516. So important. But, so, that was amazing. Changed my life. My grandfather had passed away during the. When we bought the house and moved. They brought my grandmother down with us. Now I’m living with my parents, my grandmother.

I have this cocoon when I could come home and talk to them about new things at school. I had never gone to a public school before, I was always in this sheltered environment. It was fabulous. And I connected with really smart people. Right away they were talking, college, so I started talking about college. The peer group is so important, I went to Florida State, I was there for five years. The fifth year, my boyfriend and I, who was the guy I eventually married. We called our parents at the end of the fourth year. And said, we really think if we stay another year and get a double major, we’ll be more valuable in the workplace. Where we just really wanted to stay and have another year of fun.

Pamela Bardhi: Oh, that’s so funny.

Beth Azor: And then, I had gotten my license when I was 18. Because if you live with a family that’s in real estate, pretty much in Florida, that’s what you do. So during college summers, I would sit, open houses and do things during the day to make future commissions. Or bonuses if anything ever came from it. But at night, I would be a hostess or a waitress. Every summer I’d pretty much work days at the office with my parents or, you know. Like a condo that they were selling. I’d sit, open houses on the beach, and then at night I would work to get a paycheck, right?

Then I’d be back at school in Tallahassee, and I get these magical commission checks for $1,000. Because some condo I showed in June ended up closing, which were great little bonuses. When I was back at school, not working, so I worked big, huge work. I was, do you know what a bottle chute is? So, in a tavern in Wisconsin in the seventies, if you drank a bottle of beer or a bottle of Coca Cola. The bartender would take the bottle and they would put it down the chute. And the chute would go down to the basement and it would fall down there.

And then someone nine years old would have to take the bottles. Sometimes they were broken because they, you know, clink, clink, clink, clink. But most of them didn’t. You take the bottles and you put them in the recycling boxes for the breweries to come. Pick up the boxes of the sodas and the beers, take them back and then bring you the new stuff. I got a nickel a bottle. So by the time I was nine, that was my chore, but I got paid for it. Work ethic in my family was a big deal.

Pamela Bardhi: Absolutely. And I love that that was instilled in you at such a young age. I mean, I feel like restaurants, I.

Beth Azor: Feel like they’re the greatest prerequisite for.

Pamela Bardhi: Anyone that wants to be in real estate, especially, or construction. I mean, really, any industry, you can convert the skill sets, really. But, like, real estate, I mean, it really. Or sales anywhere. Real estate or sales. Restaurants, like, build the greatest entrepreneurs, in my opinion, because, multitasking people skills. How to improvise on the spot, think logistically, you know, it’s just there’s so many skill sets there. So, I love that, Beth, I love that.

So after college, I got a job at the American Heart association

So real estate was, like, ingrained in you from a very young age and obviously business as well. Yes.

Beth Azor: Yeah.

Pamela Bardhi: That’s amazing. So after college.

Beth Azor: After college, I got a job at a not for profit. The American Heart association as a special events coordinator, following my dream to be the Olympic coordinator. And I made a whopping $11,000 a year. That was my starting salaries. Compared to today, that would be about 32. So I did real estate on the weekends, I did five days a week. Loved my job. Best job ever. Planned events, just exactly what I wanted to do. Saturdays and Sundays, I would sit in model homes, I think I made $50 a weekend. And again, I would get, bonused if I ever showed a house or a model, and later on, it closed. I would get little magical bonus checks.

After two years, my heart job, my heart association job went from eleven to 23. So pretty darn good at 23 years old that I doubled my salary. My executive director of the not for profit calls me into her office one day. And she goes, Beth, we love you, but your ambition exceeds us. She goes, I’m the executive director and I only make 30, and you’ve already doubled in two years. I’ve watched you at this point, I’ve worked two years straight, like, two years, seven days a week straight. She goes, I think you’re killing yourself, and I’ve seen what you’re doing in the real estate thing. I think you should go do the real estate thing full time and just come and volunteer for us. And be on our board of directors.

And I was tired by that time, working two years, seven days straight, so I was like, yeah. By now, the real estate gig had, I was probably making 40,000 a year just working weekends. Because, you know, there was just more opportunity, so I flip flopped. And I did that, I quit the heart, even though I loved it, and I joined my weekend job full time. So now I’m working Saturday, Sunday, and three weekdays, and I’m sitting in a trailer on a development site reading people’s magazines. Ready to shoot myself. I’m coming home crying every night because I went from this job, I loved to change for money. But I was also creating a debt. I think my credit card debt at the time when I made the shift was over $50,000.

Because I was using my credit cards to pay for gas and food. And, you know, I just couldn’t live, I couldn’t catch up, ever, so I knew I had to do something. But I was traumatized by, like, oh, my God, I quit for money, but I needed to live. So I went to the developer. I said, we need to do events to bring people in. You know, we’re building luxury homes. We’ll build it, and they will come, you just sit and read people magazines all day. And so one day, a woman comes to help us out on, like, a holiday weekend. She’s in commercial real estate, and she says, oh, you should get into commercial real estate. You’d be awesome. I’m like, oh, gross. isn’t that selling land? That’s what I thought it was, that’s more boring than this.

No, no. There’s this thing called leasing. Developers build shopping centers anchored by grocery stores, and you fill in the vacancies with entrepreneurs. And when you help those entrepreneurs open their storefronts, you help them achieve their american dream. You’re invited to every baptism, communion, bar mitzvah, and wedding because you become part of the family. I’m like, sold. Where do I sign up for that? She says, there’s this company in Miami that does training that will teach you how to do this. Call them. So I called the next day, I called this company. I said, do you have a training program of teaching people how to be leasing agents for shopping centers? They said, well, kind of.

I go, well, who’s in charge of that program? And they said, this woman’s name? And I went, did she go to Florida State? They go, yeah, she went to Florida State, Pam, she was in my sorority. So she picks up the phone, she goes, Beth, I go, yes. She goes, you’re hired. Just come meet the boss. We had eleven people at the company when I joined. The day I walked into the office, the hair on my arm stood up and I went, oh, I’m at my place. Like, this is my place, I just felt it in all my bones, I was there 18 years, the last. I went from the rookie to the president, I was the president the last six years I was there. Then I left to start my own company 20 years ago, 2004. That’s amazing.

Pamela Bardhi: It’s so funny.

In college, Pam was planning to be an event production

Yet more parallels, Beth, which are going to make you laugh. So in college, I actually, my undergrad, I was planning to be an event production. But when I graduated, I was going to just do something corporate and then eventually open my own business. And so it happened kind of, opposite. Then what transformed me was the venue that I wanted to work at so bad that all the sports. It was one of the biggest sports arenas in Boston. Literally, that’s what that was when my supervisor said before I left. Because I did, like a spring semester where I worked instead of class. She literally said to me, she said, you know, you’re just too ambitious, Pam. I don’t know if this would be, like, the place for you. It’s so funny when you were saying that, I was like, oh, my gosh.

Beth Azor: Ah, thank God for those people in.

Pamela Bardhi: Our lives, 100,000%, because where would we be, Beth, right?

Beth Azor: Yeah.

Pamela Bardhi: It’s crazy. I love that.

In commercial real estate, there’s far fewer commercial agents than residential agents

I love, and commercial, and I love that you’re in the commercial real estate space too, though. Because it’s like, I mean, a lot of women are intimidated by that world tremendously. And I don’t know, I’m like, it’s just numbers and relationships, you know, it’s really that what it is. Which always excited me because I love commercial real estate. There’s so much to it, but it really is a numbers game. It really comes down to relationships, because in commercial there’s far fewer commercial agents, you know this, than residential agents.

So everybody knows everybody. If you think residential agents know each other, commercial agents, anyone who’s listening, they know everything about each other. The deals that are done and all that, because the industry, so tight knit, especially, especially based on the location. That is amazing. 18 years at that firm and then 20 years with your current firm. And what have been some of the biggest challenges kind of along the way. Then in contrast to that, some of the biggest wins.

Beth Azor: Gosh, so many, right? One of the biggest blessings was I was great at leasing. So I was great at bringing tenants into the plazas, and then. Therefore, that increases the value. My boss at the time where I was at that company for 18 years. He came to me when I was a junior leasing agent, he goes, we’re buying the shopping center. You should put some money in. I’m like, I don’t have any money, I was still paying off the credit card debt. It’s like, I don’t have any money. And he’s like, what do you mean? You make like, 70,000? You’re married, your husband makes like, 70,000, you don’t have, like, 25,000 to put in a deal. No, so they buy the deal.

I’m the leasing person, I help raise the noi, the income, they refi it. Everyone gets all of their original capital back. It’s a huge win. Two years later, he gets another deal, he comes to me. I said, I don’t have any money. He goes, what do you mean? I go, well, you know, he goes, where are you spending all your money? Because now he goes, you’re making six figures. Your husband’s making six figures, I’m like, yeah, but I have a jaguar out there. We just got back from Hawaii, and he’s like, you’re an idiot. And so two years later, same deal, I increased the income, they refi it. And I’m watching this, but I’m thinking, I got my 401k, I’m good.

I’m maxing out, and then the third time he comes to me. He’s like, don’t tell me you don’t have any money now, and I’m like, just looking at him. And now I have season tickets to the Dolphins, the Panthers, the Marlins, and Florida state. We’re flying to Tallahassee every weekend for every home game, he goes, you are a fricking idiot. And he took me by the neck to a local bank. He co signed a $50,000 note on one condition, that every commission from that point forward. I put 10% in the investment account.

And if he ever found out that I did not do that, he said he was going to fire my ass. Which is going to be a little hard. Because by then, I think, well, I was on the track to become the president. But, where have you heard that? Like, my boss co-signs, from my husband and I a $50,000 note at a bank. Which then I leased the heck out of the property. We refied six months later and gave the bank their money back. 20 years later, we sold that shopping center. I made over seven figures from that $50,000 lent equity capital that my boss did for me.

Pamela Bardhi: Whoa.

Beth Azor: Yeah.

Pamela Bardhi: Commercial is no joke. I tell everybody this, like, commercial real estate is no joke, but that is amazing, and that’s empowerment. I love leaders that want to create more leaders and want to empower you. And not just imprison you with a paycheck or whatever you want to call it.

Beth Azor: Right. Well, that’s like, five years ago. I read a stat that said, of all of the commercial real estate investors in the US. 3% were women, and of the 3%, 50% were spouses who signed. Three of that 350 percent are spouses who sign on the notes of the men. So the wife that has to sign on the guarantee probably doesn’t know what’s going on. You know, what she’s signing, and 50% inherited. I’ve been divorced now for 23 years. I own, today, four shopping centers valued at about 75 million, I’m part of a 1.5%. And I thought that was just disgusting, and so I started interviewing women in my circle. Like, do you invest in commercial real estate? No, I go, well, do you invest anywhere?

Yeah. Where do you invest? The stock market? I go, well, why don’t you invest in commercial real estate? You’re in the business. This is free insider trading. And they say, well, it’s too complicated. I’m like, you don’t think the stock market’s complicated or it’s too risky? My Netflix stock dropped 80% last year. It’s a little risky. You know, I kept asking and asking, and finally someone said, the more I dug, Doug dug Doug. Finally they started saying, I don’t know anyone else doing it, and I’m a little uncomfortable. Well, that makes sense because there’s only 3% of us doing it. So, that’s what I said, the power of one. What can I do to fix that?

This is during COVID and I did a virtual summit where I interviewed eight women online. We had 100 women that showed up. And I told that story. I said, so what I’m going to do, since you guys don’t know these women, doing it. I’m going to put on platforms or at, ah, conferences, I’m going to get women out there talking about their stories. So you all that haven’t yet put your toe in the water on this. Can learn how all of these women are investing in all of these different asset classes, you know. Whether it’s student housing or even fix and flips, you know, residential or retail and hospitality and self storage and multifamily.

So we did the first one, virtual, and then we’ve done three since that have been live. It’s fabulous because we put women like you on stage. I do, like, a fireside chat interview for 20 or 25 minutes. Then the speakers go into breakouts and do an underwriting of a deal so that they open the kimono. They demystify this fact that people think, I need a million dollars to invest. No, you can invest for 25,000 as an lp. Here’s 14 different people that have done that. Right? And then you can go into the breakouts for the asset classes. You’re interested.

About eight to ten women stand up at investor conferences to talk about investing

You may not have any interest in retail, which is my focus, but you’re interested in student housing. Because you have three kids in college, and that’s a path you’re interested in. Or maybe you’re interested in self storage. I put women on stage, I interview them, and some of them have just bought their first deal. And some of them are on their 32nd deal, so it’s very different. So commercial, investing. We should all be investing.

Pamela Bardhi: Absolutely. That is a, cr. Like, I did not realize the stats were that horrible. I thought we were doing better.

Beth Azor: I’m 63, so by the time I turn 70, my goal is to get that to ten. Now, I have zero way to figure out how to track that. That’s not my strength. But if anyone out there, in your audience, knows how to track that or how to help me. That would be great, but I do get up at every conference, at the beginning of the conference. And I say, okay, who was here last year and hadn’t invested, and who is here this year and has invested since? Every year, about eight to ten women stand up. So I know I’m making progress. I just don’t know how I’m going to figure out if I got to ten in seven more years. But what, however more we get, it’s a, move in the right direction.

Pamela Bardhi: I love that, Beth. That is a huge thing. What’s that? Isn’t there an organization? Is commercial real estate like women? Something that would crew, something that they track it. Wait, no, they’re not even really,

Beth Azor: And they’re not owners and investors, so they’re mostly, you know, c suite, like, I. I joined crew, and I speak at a lot of crew events, and, this is why I met you. This is why I went to invest in her, I keep wanting to attend events where there are women investing. Because I want to just, like, I’ve invited you to speak at my conference. There are two other women I met there because there’s a woman in student housing, Marcy. I don’t know if you know Marcy. But I’m finding women in unique asset classes that I haven’t yet had exposure to for my audience. Like with you. With the containers. Right. It’s so interesting.

Pamela Bardhi: Oh, thank you, Beth. Yeah, I mean, it’s, yeah, I think investor Con. Yes. Maybe investor Con would kind of be the only thing that is so sad and crazy that there’s. I mean, thank God more is coming, but that’s a staggering stat, I can’t get over that.

Beth Azor: And that’s why. So I have a podcast like you do mine. I don’t have 300 episodes, I think I’m on maybe 30. But what I realized is, the consciousness conference can only hold two to 200 to 250. Because I want it to be very intimate, because that way, women can go. Tell me again what a cap rate means, I want that authenticity, I want that vulnerability. And I want the generosity of spirit of everyone in the room to want to help everyone in the room.

And I think we need to keep it small to do that. But so what I started doing was women, investor Wednesday podcast. So, every Wednesday at seven, I interview a woman that has invested, so we’re just, reach. Every time I meet people, I go come and be on my podcast. Because I just want the women to know that I don’t want the reason to be. I don’t know any women doing it. That can no longer be a reason because we will expose and give women platforms that are doing it.

Pamela Bardhi: Yes. I love that, I love that.

What’s the most important advice for women interested in investing in commercial real estate

And while we’re on the topic of this, Beth, I think it’s super important. Because a lot of women don’t know about commercial real estate. What’s the most important thing, that anyone who’s investing in commercial real estate or is interested in investing in commercial real estate? What they should know, your biggest piece of advice that you would say?

Beth Azor: I think it’s investing in what you have a passion for, so, like I said, my passion is retail. This other woman I know is very passionate and wants to get into student housing. Because she’s got three adult sons in college, and she thought I should buy a place where they could like. She’s very passionate about that. So I think picking an asset class, and then secondly, picking a market. All my shopping centers are within ten minutes of my house, so I know the market. I invested in Portland, Oregon. That might be a problem for me, so now I may invest. If you said, hey, I’ve got a deal in Boston, I like you.

I learn about your asset class, but I’m betting on you, the jockey. I’m not running the deal, operating the deal. If I’m running and operating a deal, I want it to be where I’ve got eyes on it. For me, I like, I’m a control freak, so I want to be able to get to my property every day. It’s different strokes for different folks, right? But I think picking an asset class, like, when I first started. Even though they said, oh, you’re going to be in shopping centers, they actually started me in office leasing. And I hated it, I was showing space to lawyers that were partners, arguing about windows, like taking a tape measure. Going, who’s got more window?

I’m like, this was not the american dream story someone gave me. And I quickly said, I want shopping centers to invest, you should be passionate. You know, if it’s fix and flips, if it’s my friend Natasha who I invest with, she has a multifamily. She helps immigrants because her family came from Cuba, and so she helps immigrants. I’m all about that, and she’s very passionate about that. So pick an asset class that you have enjoyment or inspiration or motivation or a connection with. Then I think if you can start in your home market where, you know, where you have knowledge. That would be my two most important pieces of advice.

Pamela Bardhi: I absolutely love that, Beth, and I love that.

You juggled being a real estate entrepreneur and being a mom

Another thing that I love about you is that you’re a momtrepreneur. You’re a boy mom, so let’s talk about real estate and being a mom. So what were some of the biggest challenges? How did you navigate through them with being a mom and building on, like, the empire that you have is. It’s amazing, you know, and I get this all the time, and I love talking to female entrepreneurs about this. Because it’s like, it’s a struggle that we all go through. Is that balance? Right? Like, you grind so hard here, but then you want to be the best mom here. And it’s like the juggling fest is always a real thing.

Beth Azor: Yeah. There is no balance. Right, I don’t think, I mean, you know, there was no reason for me to leave my firm after 18 years. I had started there, I loved it. Obviously. My boss was amazing who that? He became my partner, I was the president. However, my son was four, and there was a Halloween party. And I said, I will, mom, are you going to be at the Halloween party? Yes, Alex, I’m going to be at the Halloween party, and I started in. The party was at 04:00 and my office was an hour away in Miami, and I lived in Fort Lauderdale. And I started leaving the office at like, 03:00 walking, trying to get out of the office.

We had 150 employees following me to the door, asking me questions, following me down to the garage. I’m in my car, I gotta go, I have to get to my son’s Halloween party. And I, you know, pull up, I remember pose and pumps, you know, with my little navy blue suit. Getting to the door, and there’s my son looking out the glass door window. And I was the last mom to pick him up. The party was overdeveloped, and that’s when I said, can’t do it. I didn’t have a son at 40 to have my live-in nanny raising him and that. The next day, I went into my partner’s office and I said, we got to figure out an exit.

We took months because he’s like, well, you can go part time. Like, that just would have never worked. You know, you can’t be a part time president or even step down. So I chose, I gave up, all of the trappings to figure out. I’m just going to try to do this on my own, and, you know, it’s just me and my. I have a director of operations who’s been with me for 20 years. Started out as my part time assistant, we have a part time bookkeeper. And I, you know, do some consulting, we run our properties, I mean, last year, I had eight properties. I sold four properties last year. So I knew when I left, I didn’t want to have a lot of people.

People are a challenge, and I had 150 of them, I said, no more people. So I’ve kept that for 20 years. We’ve run in a very tight group, and a lot of the things I do, I decided if I can. You know, I got a call that someone wanted me to come to Detroit in January. This is right after I started my own thing. I’m like, detroit? January? I don’t think so. But you have an office in Boca. They wanted me to train their four leasing agents. I said, send them down to Boca, and I’ll do a week’s training.

I started realizing, how much is it going to do they have to pay me for, to leave my family? That was how I valued my time. How much do they have to pay me for me to get on a plane? Possibly miss bedtime, Miss dinner, miss taking them to school, but if I can do a webinar. It’s x thousands if you want me to leave and miss all of these things. But I can do a webinar in an hour, you know, now since COVID obviously. That’s a lot more amenable than it was before COVID and we talked about this before we got on air.

Having a village so important and not, uh. women are always afraid to ask for help

Having a village so important and not, and women are always afraid to ask for help. We also don’t like to talk about money, which, you know, I’m on that mission too. But we’re always afraid to ask for help. And you have to ask for help, you have to ask for help from your husband, your family, your mother, your sister. You know, I had a swing shift young woman when I, when my Liv and nanny moved out. You know, when she left, I adopted a son. So I grew my family to two boys. At the point where they didn’t need to live, a nanny anymore. Then I hired a swing shift girl where, you know, I still like to pick them up from school. I liked when they jumped, I was an entrepreneur, I could do that.

I loved bringing the bag of oreos or, you know, whatever and seeing them and looking at their folders. Then I would bring them home and then the swing shift young lady would, one would get to piano lessons. One would go to, you know, tutoring. and we kind of split. So I didn’t have a spouse, so I needed to bring in help. You know, there were many times where I called, like, I think I told you I had an intern once. And I was on a, I was negotiating a Home Depot lease, a huge lease. It went on, wait, I think it was like in my third hour. But we were at a crucial point. I said to the intern, I said, guys, I just, let’s take a, you know, two minute rest break.

I think they thought, you know, I was running down to the restroom, like I went to my intern. I said, I need you to go pick up Mario from school right now. Like they’re calling me, and she’s like, sure, no problem. I’m like, oh, you’re a keeper. So there’s no balance, but I made a very, what people have said, tough decision, walking away from major trappings. But it’s for my son. At the time, Warren, I had one son. For me, it was a very, very easy decision. Years later, I think he was like twelve and someone asked him you know. What’s the best memory of you and your mom? He goes, oh, when she was the t ball coach for me when I was four. And that was my first year, when I left that company.

I kind of took six months off because I was burnt out, I was the t ball coach. I was the room mom, I did everything that I hadn’t been able to do up to that point. And that was his memory when he was twelve years old, that I was the t ball coach. There’s no balance, you know, and there’s guilt both ways, but you just give yourself grace. You do the best you can. But you also felt that it was important if you could, financially, to buy time back. The girl that came, the four to seven girls. Always did homework, I would have killed them, Pam, I would have killed them. So I never had to do the projects, the science fair, projects that would make me.

I don’t have an artistic bone in my body and I would be stressed, more stressed out than them, helping them. So I paid so that at seven we could sit down and have a dinner, the three of us. And I wasn’t yelling at them to do their homework. We then could watch a movie or we could take a walk. Walk or go in the pool, so that’s, those are some of the things I did. And, oh, and we might not have had dinner every night together, we had breakfast every morning. I made pancakes and eggs and bacon and fresh squeezed juice every morning, our breakfasts. Because I had more control over that time at 6:30. You know, nobody was calling me or I didn’t have dinner meetings I had to go to.

That morning thing was a regular thing. They got, up, I made them breakfast, I had coffee, but I made them big breakfast for five mornings a week. We had a family meal and it wasn’t rushed and it was my time with them. It was a good 30 to 45 minutes where they were tired, but, you know, they look forward to it. And they look back at that now, now that, you know, one’s 24 and in LA and my other one’s in college. But, when I would travel, I’d be in Vegas for conventions. And I would wake up at 03:00 in the morning to call them, to wish them a good day at school. I never missed, I would just set my alarm, call them up, have a good day, mommy misses you. Mommy loves you, and then I’d go back to sleep.

Pamela Bardhi: I love that, Beth, that is so beautiful. I mean, like, you created that time and you knew, like, for example, having that person from four to seven. Because then you knew you could get whatever worked and you needed. And then, be shown up as the best mom that you possibly can be. Which I think is super important, I love that so much. Oh, my God, that’s magical.

What would your older self tell you based on what you know now

And this question for you, and this can be business or personal? It’s like my favorite question. But what would your older self tell your younger self based on what you know now. Whether life, business, whatever it is.

Beth Azor: Maybe listen to your gut instinct. I think for years, for me, as a woman in business, when there were very few women in business. When I first got started, that was frowned upon. Oh, soft skills, oh, right. And you would never say, oh, I’m using my gut, my instinct. You would never say that in a boardroom with men, and many times I didn’t listen to it. I’ve learned now that that voice is a result from your wisdom and your experience, and you need to listen to it. The times I have not listened to it have been mistakes. So I have lost on seven deals that I had a deal, I had a plan.

Wanted to put it under contract and went to men because there weren’t that many women in the business. Saying, I have this deal, these three acres, this eight acres, this shopping center, and here’s my plan. I went to men that had more experience than me, that were richer than me, seven times. Because I was looking for someone to cosign for me. Because I wasn’t confident in my own self. And all seven times, all those deals today are where my vision was for them. Other companies scooped them up because I. All seven times, men would say, no, too risky. You’re going to lose money, I don’t think you can get those rents.

After the 7th one, and I drive by these deals all the time, and I know they say, don’t look back. But I use it as evidence that I know I’m a good picker. And now I don’t ask anyone, I do my homework, I do my due diligence, and I go forward. If it works out great, and if it doesn’t, it’s on me. But I don’t look for co-signing anymore. I didn’t rely on my own instinct that I knew this deal was going to be a good deal. Why I felt the need to get some support. I tell my older self, I would tell my younger self, the instinct is very powerful. Listen to it.

Pamela Bardhi: I love that, Beth. Oh, my goodness, that is powerful. Part of this is because as women, when we’re in the business world. We have to almost activate our masculine. So that’s the feminine energy coming in is, you know, now it’s becoming more and more in the workplace. But for years, it wasn’t, so I totally hear you on that, I love that, I love that. And now in your world, like, what’s going on, like, the next few months, like any major events. Like, what’s going on in Beth’s world, I had.

Beth Azor: Two shopping centers, like boardwalk and park place, and the hole in the doughnut between them has. I’ve been trying to buy for 14 years. I met the owner when he was 76, he is now 96. Months ago I became his partner, and I’ve bought in up to 17%. We’re about to do a $2 million renovation on the property, and he’s very happy. I’m his partner, I’m very happy. But it took me 14 years of quarterly calls. The first three years, the quarterly calls were, will you sell to me yet? And then I learned I needed to shift that up to, hey, I just hired this painter I really liked. Let me give you his name.

Started adding value. But 14 years, pam, and now I’m an owner of my hole in the doughnut, which is. I have the first. He has five kids, and they’re all 70 years old. So I have the first right of refusal to buy the deal from the kids. I’m in really good shape, so the next year is going to be all about the renovation of that. And then in march, if any of the listeners are interested. Pam will be on my stage at the women investors summit March 13 and 14th. Where we’re going to change lives and grow women’s family’s wealth. Amen.

Pamela Bardhi: Beth, I love that so, so much. That is amazing. 14 years of persistence to get that deal. Listen, sometimes that’s what it takes, you know, it doesn’t happen overnight. You know, it’s just that consistency, which is amazing, that’s incredible. I’m so excited for your conference, Beth, that’s going to be so much. We’re going to have a blast with so many women. And we’re going to, you know, shift the game on the investing side. It’s like, we are totally capable. We can so do it. Let’s change that 3% and add another zero, let’s hope for that. That’s what I would love to see.

Beth Azor: I would love that.

Pamela Bardhi: And, Beth, you are absolutely magical, and I know that everyone who’s listening is like, where can I find magical. Beth, where can we find you, Beth? What’s the best place to reach you?

Beth Azor: So probably Twitter? LinkedIn for sure. And I’m on Facebook and Instagram, but Twitter, I’m probably on most, most on a daily basis. Beth azor. Just my name.

Pamela Bardhi: You’re amazing, Beth. You are absolutely fabulous. Oh, and then the conference.

Do you have a conference link? Azor academy is where the conference is

Do you have a conference link?

Beth Azor: Azor academy is where the conference is. I’m sure there’s other links, but it will get. Can I send you a link?

Pamela Bardhi: Totally. Yeah, that’s totally fine. You know, everyone can reach you on your LinkedIn or Twitter, and Beth will send a link. It’ll also be on our notes here on, this. Beth, you are amazing. Thank you so much for being here today, you are absolutely magical.

Beth Azor: Thank you, Pam, for having me. I can’t wait to see you in March.

Pamela Bardhi: I can’t wait. Thank you.

Underdog is a weekly podcast featuring advice from underdogs

So that’s it for today’s episode of Underdog. Catch us next week. Always dropping on Thursdays. And remember, if you’re interested in real estate or want to learn how to create more money and magic in your life. Check out meetwithpamala.com and let’s chat. Sending you so, so much love.