[00:00:00] Clinton Bennett: Ultimately where I land these days is I'm a lot more optimistic than I used to be. Like I'm a lot more assertive and aggressive on valuations than I used to be because I just think there's some momentum here. That's just wild through most of my career. If you had a tenant that wanted to be in North Fayetteville or Springdale around four 12 or Pleasant Grove Road or Pinnacle or Bentonville or Ton, you could go find land there.

There were properties that could be bought today. There might not be anybody to sell it.

[00:00:37] Cameron Clark: Morning. Good morning. Um, well thanks for coming on Clinton. Um, thanks for meeting Nick and I real excited for folks to hear your story. Hear about, I mean, you're the first really anyone in commercial, commercial real estate in northwest Arkansas that we talked about. Um. Before we kind of dive in, I want you to give a little snippet on like what does it take to compete to [00:01:00] be the best in commercial real estate brokerage in northern Arkansas, but really in a market in general.

Like, what does it take in this industry? 

[00:01:07] Clinton Bennett: Sure. Well, yeah, thank you for having me. And, uh, I'm honored to be the first commercial real estate guest, particularly following some of your, your distinguished guests, the line of the people you've had. I feel honored to be included in the mix. Um, you know, the commercial real estate business, I think anywhere.

But, you know, just talking about northwest Arkansas today, I mean, it, you really have to have a, a desire to create value for your clients. Um, and the way I view that, I, I came into the bus. I, I grew up in a farming background and a lot of transactions in farming happened through auction. The auction process.

Mm-hmm. You know, you might buy equipment through an auction or you buy farm land through an auction. You know, and when you're dealing with an auction, you know, you can be dealing with really high value transactions and you're standing up there bidding against someone else with an auctioneer, like on the spot.

Like, you're not [00:02:00] getting to check your notes. 

[00:02:01] Cameron Clark: Hmm. 

[00:02:01] Clinton Bennett: You're not getting to phone a friend. Like it's moving like that. And you better know the value of what you're bidding on. Um, and you know, I grew up from an early age watching people do that, and even some later in my career doing it myself when you were talking about six and seven figure decisions like on the spot.

And so I, I kind look at the real estate business through that lens and I think, you know, if I were to hire a good real estate broker, the person that I would want to hire, I would want to have, I would want that person to know more about the property that we're pursuing than anybody else. Um, and that sounds like kind of a, a bold statement of knowing more than anybody else, but real estate's a really imperfect business, and you can use data to make some estimations about what's gonna happen.

You, you can create some predictability and cash flows by using data. But, um, [00:03:00] when I, I don't mean to go off on too many tangents, but like, like a commercial appraiser looks at, uh, real estate through the lens of, they'll look at the income approach, they'll look at the comparable sales approach, and they'll look at the cost to duplicate that, that facility, they kinda look at those three primary things, income comp, sales, and cost to reproduce.

And then they'll, you know, they kind of blend it. Well, we, we try to do the same thing, like, like, we wanna understand what, what income a property can create. Um, we wanna understand what properties, what's the competitive set in the market, both because you can. If you understand the competitive set in the market, you can use that knowledge to kind of value where you're at today, but you can also understand like what's your competition gonna be going forward as you're trying to lease or re-lease or reposition that real estate.

Um, and then, you know, we've gotta kind of, we've gotta be active enough in the market to understand what it costs to build an office [00:04:00] building or an industrial building. And so it sounds like a lot of information and it is a lot of information. And my view on the, on the real estate business is the brokers that are the best are as specialized as they can be because with as much activities there is going on in this market, like there's not a human alive that can track all of this information.

You know, AI's interesting and the data around it all is, is all improving, like literally by the day. And so I do think the, the data around commercial real estate's improving vastly. But there's gonna be, I mean, for, I'm not worried about AI taking our job in the next decade because there's just a human element to understand some of the nuances of these properties and the nuances of how your, your tenant or your occupants are gonna be thinking about it.

Um, so to be good, you have to really be passionate about knowing the product you're talking about. [00:05:00] And then if, if you have that passion and you gain that knowledge and you can just speak about the value of a property, almost like you're sitting in a front of an auctioneer and bidding like you, you're not checking your notes, you know, because you've been looking at those properties and you understand the value and you understand what creates and drives those value.

If you can do that and then you find a client that believes in you and believes that you're really gonna fight for their best interest, well then you got a great relationship and then you can go be successful. 

[00:05:28] Cameron Clark: Hmm. Well, I'm excited to kind of dive in like more, more on that and talk about background farming.

Um, I obviously know, but like I want to Sure. You know, everybody else. Yeah. I grew up in 

[00:05:39] Clinton Bennett: Pocahontas, Arkansas, northeast Arkansas. A lot of people may not be familiar with a small town, but it's kind of over near Jonesboro. Um, my family, my father was in the farming business. My grandfather was in the farming business, um, primarily rice and soybeans and, uh, we grew corn as well.

Um, and I loved it. I mean, you were outside and, and working [00:06:00] and uh, always had a lot of energy as a kid. And, um, there's something really gratifying about, you know, planting a crop and watching it grow and then harvesting it. And, you know, there was like a, one of the things I struggle with now is the business has kind of never finished.

And one of the things that was great about farming is it's kinda like mowing your yard. What's that? Like? You would, you would finish it and you'd look back and you're like, 

[00:06:22] Cameron Clark: yeah, it 

[00:06:22] Clinton Bennett: was job. Pretty well done. I'm gonna take a break and then we'll start again. Um. So I do miss that. But it was a fun, uh, it was a fun way to grow up, fun to be involved in that business.

We lived in a town, so I, I went to small high school and it wasn't like I lived out in the country. Um, but I grew up kind of farming and then came to the University of Arkansas and in 1992, dating myself here a little bit, but, uh, got an ag business degree. Loved being at the University of Arkansas. But I knew at that time, you know, I wanted to move home and farm.

It was kind of a battle to, to finish through college. 'cause I was, I was just [00:07:00] ready to get going. Farming. Yeah. And, um. Sorry, I'll try to stop snapping. No, keep going. The, uh, farming with your dad. Farming with my dad. Yeah. Yeah. And so I moved back and when I graduated from college, I actually lived in Jonesboro and would farm, um, in Pocahontas around, around Pocahontas.

And so I did that for about six years. 

[00:07:18] Cameron Clark: Mm. 

[00:07:19] Clinton Bennett: Um, and you know, there's a big difference between moving back to a small town at, you know, 21 or 22, and then living there 26, 27, 28. Yeah. I mean, I had great friends and still have great friends there. Love the people there. But what I recognized is, you know, I just kind of had this entrepreneurial bend where, you know, I wanted the farm to be bigger or I wanted to try this, or I wanted to try that.

And I, you know, to some extent I felt kind of stifled. Some of that was the industry farming is really challenging. It's very capital intensive. 

[00:07:50] Cameron Clark: Yeah. 

[00:07:50] Clinton Bennett: Um, and you know, as I started to focus more on the business side of it, I started looking at it and I was like, man. You know, I don't, I don't really see an opportunity for me to buy [00:08:00] a farm like we were farming my father's farm and some other people that, uh, own land nearby, we would rent land from them.

[00:08:06] Cameron Clark: Hmm. 

[00:08:07] Clinton Bennett: But I would look at it, I was like, I don't, I don't really see this being profitable enough for me to buy my own farm. And so I was kind of like, that doesn't make a lot of sense. I'm doing a lot of work and I don't see how I'm really gonna be able to create my own business here. Um, so that kind of started me thinking about, well, maybe this isn't the, the what I wanna do for forever.

Um, and then kind of ancillary to that, uh, my sister lived in Colorado and. You know, farming was very seasonal. It was really hard work for March until about October, November. And then it was, you were kind of just off. Yeah. For the most part. Mm-hmm. I mean that's, that's a little bit of an exaggeration.

There's business that takes place, but it was most intense from, call it, you know, early March to, to late October. Well, you know, I was about 24. I was kind of, we got a crop out and I was sitting around and I was like, I don't know that I wanna hang out in [00:09:00] Pocahontas this winter. I think I'm gonna go stay with my sister in Colorado.

So I moved to Colorado and um, took part-time jobs out there. I drove a shuttle van to the Denver airport and I drove, we were in Winter Park, Colorado. Um, so I worked in a ski shop and drove a shuttle van did, just worked in a restaurant. Mm-hmm. Did all kinds of odd jobs. Just loved it. I mean, the energy of the people that were in a community like that resort town, um, probably a lot of business owners, you're seeing all kinds of folks, a lot of business owners.

It was the first experience I'd had to really like an international population. Mm-hmm. Um, there were a lot of people from New Zealand, young people from New Zealand that would win in New Zealand. And then winter, winter, winter in, in Colorado. Mm-hmm. Same with there were people from Europe coming over. So I working in that ski shop and I worked on the mountain a little bit and there were brief period of time, it's like three or four months at a time.

But I built some really good friendships with some people from New Zealand and, and Ireland and England. And you're like. Man, these [00:10:00] people are like you. I don't know. My, my idea of what was out there in life kind of broadened a little bit. And so I did that for three winters and you know, with each passing year I was kinda like, huh, like, I like this a little more and a little more.

And the farming kind of just kept seeming a little tougher and a little tougher. And, uh, so finally it was like a light bulb moment. I mean, I've been thinking about all these things, but it was like a light bulb moment. I had driven back from Colorado, it was like late February, walked in the back door of my house in Pogon, put my bag down, and it was just kinda like a lightning strike or an epiphany or whatever.

It's like, you know what I like, I'm done. Like this is it. Like I'm out, I'm, I'm, this is my last year farming. And it wasn't, there wasn't like a frustration around that. Yeah. But it was just like, it's time. It was time. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And so my dad, uh, God bless him, he passed away in 2017. But we were, we were great friends.

Um. You know, I went to him short like the next day or whatever, and I said, Hey, this is gonna be my last year farming. We're putting a crop in. [00:11:00] He's like, man, if I was 28, it'd be my last year too. So, uh, you know, I was really, I still look back, I'm really appreciative of his support and my mom had a big, you know, input in that too.

But they were both really supportive. So I, uh, I really wanted to go to graduate school in Denver, um, because I was thinking, I'm gonna move to Colorado. 

[00:11:20] Cameron Clark: Yeah. Hmm. 

[00:11:21] Clinton Bennett: Well, unfortunately I didn't really go to class much in undergrad, so my grades in undergrad weren't that great. And, uh, when I applied to Denver University, they were kind of like, well, you know, you're not really the candidate we're looking for right now.

Um, it was a funny conversation. I actually drove to campus and told 'em I wanted to apply, um, and they, they complimented my, they complimented my charisma, but said I wasn't really who they were looking for. Um, so I was able to get in the University of Arkansas, which at the time was not as easy. Walton's had just given like a billion dollars and the, they'd just renamed the College, Sam and Walton School of Business.

[00:11:59] Cameron Clark: Mm. Okay. 

[00:11:59] Clinton Bennett: So it [00:12:00] was, it was a little difficult to get in there as well, but I got in and, and actually went to class in graduate school and made good grades. Still kind of thinking I would move to, um, Colorado. But during that period, I met my wife, um, which is, you know, thank goodness. I mean, she's been fantastic.

And that just changed my whole situation. It's like, okay, well, like here I'm falling in love. Like she wants, she was from Nashville originally. Um, she'd gone to school at Ole Miss, but then we met and she ended up graduating from, uh, university of Arkansas. But so we met, fell in love. Um, and as I was kind of going through graduate school, I was recognizing you could, you could sense and feel the energy then of what, what was going on here?

What was going on. Um, I mean, certainly no one would've been able to predict how Northwest Arkansas has grown or that it would continue to grow like this. But you could feel it then that like something special was happening. Something was stirring. 

[00:12:55] Cameron Clark: Yeah. 

[00:12:56] Clinton Bennett: And I realized then as well, I started to recognize, like I [00:13:00] was, I was at that point where.

Sure I had an MBA, uh, or was on track to get one. And sure I had some good business skills and I had a really good work ethic. Uh, you know, it's not really the kind of thing you brag about yourself on, but you know, farming, you kind of had to have one. So I had a good work ethic. Um, I. I was like, I've got a lot going for me.

But I didn't really know how I was gonna make a living. I mean, I was, it was pretty intimidating coming out because all I'd been known was agriculture. And now here's like, okay, how am I gonna carve my space in this business world? Um, but you could see real estate opportunities. The residential stuff was really booming then.

Um, and I never really dabbled in, I did a little bit of, I owned a few rent houses and developed a couple of houses, but never got, got big into residential. Um, but I knew, I liked, I liked kind of the precision and the sophistication of commercial real estate. I liked the idea of doing bigger deals. I liked the idea of trying to structure bigger deals and be involved with the people that had been successful in that space.

So I had [00:14:00] an opportunity. Then, um, there's a guy named David Dallas, who you guys may know. He's David's still active around town. Great, great guy. And it was really fortunate that I got connected with him. David had worked at Walmart Real Estate. Uh, he had worked at For the Gap and Banana Republic in their real estate department.

He was a commercial appraisal, excuse me, excuse me, A commercial appraiser. He had a, uh, he had a really distinct, I mean, relatively speaking, he had a, he had a true commercial real estate resume, which for up here it's like 

[00:14:31] Cameron Clark: not common. The market was, was becoming sophisticated and like it was early. It was real early.

It was, it was pretty unique. Yeah. I mean, 

[00:14:36] Clinton Bennett: there were some people that were really. Had made a lot of money in commercial real estate, but they weren't, like, that wasn't really, they kind of like grew into that niche cowboy or created that niche. They were kind of cowboys a little bit. Um, I mean, hats off to 'em.

There's some guys that are fantastic, some great characters in the business that, you know, have approached it a lot of different ways and done really, really well. But what I was looking for was more of like a corporate [00:15:00] kind of, what is a, like a true, like what's a, like in the box commercial real estate resumes.

Who, who can I work for in that space? And so, fortunately, you know, I got aligned with David went to work for him. He, um, he had been out of Walmart commercial real estate for, I don't know, I think five years. I think there was a, there was a blackout period where if you left Walmart commercial real estate, you couldn't do any business with Walmart for a number of years until he had kind of.

Been out of Walmart for like five years. He had put together a group of capital investors and they acquired, uh, I believe it was 21 sites that were Walmart out parcels. So literally around the country, Walmart was really active. So early two thousands, Walmart was really active building Supercenters. Um, you know, they were all 180, 200,000 feet and they were still rolling those out across the country.

It was on the back end of their big Supercenter push. Mm-hmm. 

[00:15:52] Cameron Clark: Yeah. But 

[00:15:52] Clinton Bennett: they were still building a lot of them. And so when they would go build those supercenters, there were typically al parcels that, you know, in [00:16:00] front of the, the Walmart. Mm-hmm. And so David's group had gone and bought, they acquired 21 of the out parcels and developed retail centers in front of them.

They were all, you know. 8,000 to 20,000 square foot retail centers, and the tenants would be Rent a Center or GameStop, or Great Clips, or a check cashing store, or local dentist or, you know, you've a floor. I mean, you, you guys have seen 'em, they're mm-hmm. Out in front of pretty much every Walmart in the country.

[00:16:28] Cameron Clark: Yeah. 

[00:16:29] Clinton Bennett: So my job at that time was to basically, you know, lease those spaces and, and that consisted of I was in an office and I would, um, you know, just build a rapport because, you know, for Great Clips, there's a person that represents Great Clips over the southeast, you know, for at and t. There's a person that represents at and t in California.

So, you know, my job was to find those people. Say, Hey, we've got a, we got a space in, you know, Calexico, California, would you be interested in leasing for your new at and t store? 

[00:16:58] Cameron Clark: Mm-hmm. 

[00:16:59] Clinton Bennett: They're like, yeah, [00:17:00] maybe. So, you know, you'd make a hundred of those calls. And they're getting called all the time. So, you know, it a, it takes a while to build a rapport with 'em to let them know that you actually have a product that they should be interested in.

Yeah. Look at. Yeah. Um, so it was a process to kind of get in the loop. So I did that consistently for a number of years, and that was really where I, I, how I paid my bills, getting into the commercial real estate business. Um, I had kind of a set list of inventory to work on, and now every day I would go in and do that.

Now, while I was doing that, I was also learning as, I mean, the office was in Fayetteville, so, you know, as I was doing that work, which was happening all around the country, uh, I mean, I was learning everything I could about the Northwest Arkansas market Yeah. And trying to watch the trends and trying to learn about values and trying to, you know, figure out how to get a tenant to let me represent them on a, on a pursuit where they needed a new office or try to, you know, get somebody to let me buy piece of land for them.

And so that's really how my business [00:18:00] grew is like I had kind of a base group of work on that retail leasing space I had, you know, then I just kind of built through networking and just, you know, bootstrapping, uh, trying to find accounts, uh, local brokerage business. 

[00:18:14] Cameron Clark: Mm. 

[00:18:14] Clinton Bennett: And, you know, it's, the town was, it felt much smaller then.

Yeah. I mean, it was much smaller, but it, it, it's weird. It's not like it's been a linear, to me, it doesn't feel like it's been a linear thing. Like the community just felt smaller. So it was like, yeah, I think what happened is it was, you know, they're like, oh, this Clinton guy, you know, he's, and I had a little bit like I was 30 at that point, which, you know, no, I don't mean this anything negative to people just coming outta college, but I think it did, having a little bit of business maturity helped me get some accounts.

Sure. Mm-hmm. And so here I was, this, you know, 30-year-old guy or whatever age like that was hustling and Yeah. And do it. And so people. You know, the business just builds organically. If you try to help people and do a good job, the word slowly gets around. I mean, that, that's harder. [00:19:00] Sorry, I keep talking.

That's harder now because there's so much competition and because so people are so busy in their own world. Brokers a lot of noise. Yeah, there's a lot of noise. So brokers have to be, and social media's helped with that, but brokers have to be a little more strategic now than I was then. 

[00:19:16] Cameron Clark: Mm-hmm. 

[00:19:16] Clinton Bennett: Um, it felt like it just kind of grew or more 

[00:19:19] Cameron Clark: organically then.

Yeah, I mean, different strateg, different strategies. Some in some degree. Uh, and then, I mean, just so everyone knows too, it's like you eat what you kill in this business, you're, you're. The, the business that you're building, that's what you have to live off of, is there's not like a That's right. You know, juicy salary coming, coming.

Yeah. My first, uh, the first year outta 

[00:19:36] Clinton Bennett: graduate school, my, um, it was, it was half salary and half draw that I made $27,000. Like, that was my Clinton, we'll make sure you make 27,000 this year. 

[00:19:46] Cameron Clark: Mm-hmm. 

[00:19:47] Clinton Bennett: Mean it was 2004. That's 20 years ago. But it's still, I mean, like, it was, it felt like poverty. Um. Mm-hmm. But that was okay.

I mean, I was excited about it 'cause it was an opportunity and, you know, the income in that business, this [00:20:00] business is, you know, it kind of stays flat. And then if, you know, if, if you're really being strategic and working hard, it can kind of get parabolic where it, where it turns up. But you, you know, it's, it's hard to break into and takes a while to 

[00:20:12] Cameron Clark: It's challenging.

Yeah. It's challenging. Yeah. That's, um, so talk about, so. What was next? How did so grab an Alice Go? That was 

[00:20:21] Clinton Bennett: a great experience. Um, there was one particular deal that, that stands out in my mind, Del Monte. Uh, I'd heard that Del Monte needed an office space, a new office space in Pinnacle. 

[00:20:34] Cameron Clark: Mm-hmm. 

[00:20:34] Clinton Bennett: And they were gonna lease like 20,000 feet, which, you know, in 2005 or oh six or oh seven, that was a big, that was a big space.

Mm-hmm. Now's not so much, I mean, it's still a big space, but not as, wasn't as big a deal. There isn't as big a deal now as it was then. And I was like, man, I would really like to help them. Like how do I get that business? And so I started kind of thinking along those lines of like, how do I get involved with some of these bigger deals?

Mm-hmm. Well then you start calling Del Monte, you [00:21:00] call the local team and they're like, well, actually our national people handle that. So then you call, well, could I get a number for the national person? You call the national person. They're like, oh, well you know, this corporate company X represents us, so you know, you seem like a nice guy.

But no, we've got a contract for people to do that for us. 

[00:21:17] Cameron Clark: Yeah. 

[00:21:17] Clinton Bennett: And so I kind of had this awakening of like, man, I could be the best broker ever. Locally and I'm still not gonna get some of these national accounts. 

[00:21:26] Cameron Clark: Hmm. 

[00:21:27] Clinton Bennett: And so it kind of started me thinking about, and at the time there really weren't, um, national brands here, like solely there.

There're certainly national real estate brands and there are a lot of residential companies that also do commercial. But you know, we don't blend in the lines like we, we do commercial, we don't do residential. Um, and there are companies that, that take that approach of CBRE, Cushman and Wakefield, JLL Colliers.

Um, in AI there are a number of, of brands that [00:22:00] only do commercial real estate. Mm-hmm. And they even look at it like at CBRE we looked at it where if it was below four units of residential, 'cause they do do multifamily. Mm-hmm. But you couldn't work on a project that was less than four units of residential.

So, you know, I started at that time going, okay, if I could get aligned with one of these national companies that is a solely a commercial real estate brokerage company, you know, I'm gonna be able to learn a lot from them. They're gonna have some of these accounts. Like that could be a really good, good step for me in my career.

And at the time, there really weren't any in town. Um, you know, prior to me, Bob Nichol and Bob Hill had a big presence with Nickel Hill. Um, there was a guy named Jim Sheeran who'd had a big presence. Uh, the Lindsey guys, bill Mcclar, with Jim, with Lindsey and Associates had a big presence, but there weren't any national, uh, commercial real estate brands.

Collier came on the scene. I wanna say 2006 or oh seven. Wow. But, you know, but even then, they were an affiliate of the larger [00:23:00] brand. Mm-hmm. Um, so I started looking around and having conversations about how do we get a national brand in northwest Arkansas. Um, and, you know, so my partner Paul, my future partner, uh, the time I was looking around, I, I, I knew Paul Esther well, knew Fletcher Hanson.

Uh, those guys along with Bo Barrett and Randy Lawson had, you know, Randy and Bo in particular, their Bentonville guys, they had started to have a sense for what was, you know, on the horizon for Bentonville. Hmm. They also felt like we needed a, a national brand. So Paul and that group had kind of done some work to secure the brand for with Grub and Ellis, which is now merged into this, is now called Newmark, but at the time they were about the fourth largest commercial real estate company in the world.

[00:23:47] Cameron Clark: Hmm. 

[00:23:47] Clinton Bennett: And we had the rights to open, they had the rights to open a franchise office for Grub and Ellis and Paul and I connected and he said, Hey, here's what we're doing. I think it'd be a good opportunity. Would you be interested in partnering? And so [00:24:00] the, there were five of us, so I, I, I did do that and there were five of us that started, uh, grub and Ellis in I believe, 2007.

And so I'd had a great run with David Dallas at that point, but we leased a lot of those shopping centers. You know, my goal was to then get into more of a kind of a corporate real estate type environment. Doing deals in northwest Arkansas, doing deals in northwest Arkansas. 

[00:24:21] Cameron Clark: Hmm. 

[00:24:22] Clinton Bennett: And so that was great. We, we, so we formed GR and Ellis, um, shortly thereafter landed the management for and leasing for Bentonville Plaza.

[00:24:29] Cameron Clark: Hmm. 

[00:24:30] Clinton Bennett: Which was, you know, at the time that was. The biggest building around. Yeah. Yeah. I dunno if it was d but it was certainly one of them. Sure, sure. It was a big deal. Um, so that was a great experience. Got to experience, you know, leasing and managing a class A property, um, responding to the gentleman that owned it that were out of, you know, Manhattan.

Like they had, these guys had real estate all around the world, so they had high expectations and they knew how big properties should work and they kind of educated us on how they expected to be [00:25:00] reported to. Yeah, yeah. Um, so it was a good, it was a good. 

[00:25:03] Nick Beyer: Learning experience. So 2007, you, you opened that. Is there capital required for that?

What does that look like to bring a national brand to our market? Yeah. It was 

[00:25:11] Clinton Bennett: a, uh, there was a fee, I may be off a little bit Nick, but there was a, there was a fee and a percentage of our transactions. Okay. So if we did a million dollars in commissions, I think we gave them four or 5% of those. Okay, cool.

Um, and, you know, uh, with that, you got, you got connected to a bigger network. Mm-hmm. You got some brand recognition, you know, like I was talking about calling this at and t or calling Del Monte or call, you know, if you call and you're with, you know, local real estate shop that doesn't have the same, it doesn't cut through the noise quite as well as like, Hey, I'm with Grub and Ellis.

Mm-hmm. 

[00:25:46] Cameron Clark: Yeah. 

[00:25:46] Clinton Bennett: Um, and so having that brand was helpful 

[00:25:50] Cameron Clark: at that time and talk about, so oh seven market was super hot. Yeah. Like, yeah. The, I mean the, you jumped in and started that and as everything cooled off real, [00:26:00] real fast. Yeah, looking back 

[00:26:03] Clinton Bennett: it was, it was just hard to, it's hard to believe. Yeah. I mean, it was super hot.

Houses were going up, I don't know, 5% a year, whatever, you know, everybody was building spec houses. Uh, everybody was building commercial. Uh, commercial, not as much, but there were spec houses as subdivisions, just everywhere. And then oh eight hit and the, I mean, the music just stopped. The interest rates were, uh, you just couldn't really get a loan, like capital kind of dried up.

Um, sales kind of dried up, so it, it, it dominated the news cycle locally. You know, my contention is it really. Perception is reality. So everybody was reading it in the paper and they're like, oh, the real estate market's crashed. The economy's terrible. My, my contention is most people in northwest Arkansas were still getting their paycheck.

[00:26:52] Cameron Clark: Yeah. 

[00:26:52] Clinton Bennett: You know, it was just, the perception was reality. So they're like, oh, the sky's falling. Because everywhere they looked, they were being told the sky was falling. The [00:27:00] sky really fell for, you know, call it 15 or 20 real estate developers in northwest Arkansas. Mm-hmm. Like, their world changed and it was sad to see, um, um, you know, it, it really damaged some lives and it really, there was a lot of chaos around those, those mark, those real estate values declining.

But it was, it got a huge, it was, it was a huge part of the news, but it was really a pretty small subset of developers that that happened to. And so it was fascinating because, you know, when I got in the business in oh four. Like, my mind was just blown by how much, or I don't know if they were actually making the money, but my perception of how much money was being made in real estate.

You'd see people with, you know, planes and giant motor homes and, you know, boats and houses and vacation houses. Like how in the world are people making this much money? Um, and in reality, a lot of 'em weren't. I mean, it was a lot of us were just betting on the next big commercial [00:28:00] real estate development.

Um, so it was, it was a really good experience for me because I got to have, I shouldn't say it that way. It was, it was not a great experience. It was a tough time. But over the course of my career, it was good that, you know, 5 0 6, 0 7, I got to really see what a, you know, rampant market looked like. And then oh eight, I got to see it just turn off.

Um, and the people that battled through that. A lot of 'em are still here today. I mean, I could name some of my friendly competitors and peers that I've got a ton of respect for. There were, there were some people that just faded away and there were some people that just, you know, got going, going, like, the harder it gets, the more you go.

And, and you know, these markets don't stay in the same place forever. And so there are a lot of people around here doing business today that just kind of drove right through that and are doing really well. Now. 

[00:28:50] Cameron Clark: Was, was there a moment in that time, like a, a deal or whatever that like, you know, you are already a few years into your career, but it was like, this is kind of like your, you know, more middle, [00:29:00] you know, coming into new, new cycle of your career where it was like, Hey, this is put, put my business to the next level.

Or like, Hey, this is what, um. Push me through that time or, 

[00:29:12] Clinton Bennett: yeah. I mean, I don't know how granular you want to get, but it was oh eight was tough. Oh, nine was tough, 10 was tough. I mean, there just wasn't a lot of business going on. And fortunately I had relationship. There wasn't a lot of local business happening.

Like all of my peers were just like, oh gosh, man, this is brutal. Um, nobody was making any money. And fortunately I had, um, I kinda always considered myself a grinder, so I was, I'd continued to do small deals with companies like GameStop or, you know, at the time, like Quiznos or there were some businesses that were still doing deals and, you know, those commissions would be, you know, four grand or something.

Like, they weren't, they weren't huge commissions. I don't know. They were more than that, but, um, it was enough. It was like, I'm just chipping away at these little deals. 

[00:29:57] Cameron Clark: Mm. 

[00:29:58] Clinton Bennett: Well, uh, [00:30:00] while that was going on, there was, one of the big events in northwest Arkansas was Arkansas National Bank had been shut down by the FDI.

They were one of the, the first banks to be shut down by the FDIC. They had a 70,000 square foot building just off Pleasant Grove Road. And so it was, the building was just empty. And there was a contractor out of Dallas that had been hired by the FDIC to sell that building. And there was some value there because it was a big, nice building and it was empty and nobody really knew exactly what to do with it, but we knew there was value there.

And so I had a client who, um, you know, we, we discussed it and he's like, yeah, see if you can get it bought. And so ultimately we ended up being successful in, I was successful in representing them, buying that building, which was a 70,000 square foot building. At the time. There was no new space on the market.

Like, like, um, there was a, a tenant in the market for 40,000 feet, looking for a 40,000 square foot spot. Big one. You everybody would [00:31:00] recognize their name, their Walmart supplier, and, um. There wasn't 40,000 feet for them to lease. And so when this building became available, they're like, oh, we need to have that space, which left about another 25,000 feet available.

There was another tenant was like, Hey, we'll take the other 25,000. So I got to represent the buyer, and then I got to represent the, the owner, the, the, you know, buyer, now the owner on, you know, to these tenants. So we did two 10 year leases with these big corporate tenants. So there were big fees with that.

And then about six months later, eight months later, I don't know, a year later, there was a gentleman that came in from Columbia, Missouri who had, had a lot of success in the real estate business. It was in a 10 31. They needed to, to, they had sold some real estate and wanted to buy some other real estate.

And they were believers in what was gonna happen in this market long term. 

[00:31:50] Cameron Clark: Hmm. 

[00:31:51] Clinton Bennett: And he came in and we got connected. He said, you know, listen, I'm looking for a building, you know, in this price range, uh, that's got good credit tenants [00:32:00] that, um. I, I'm just not gonna have to high quality that I'm not gonna have to mess with for the next decade.

And I was like, well, I know the building but it's not for sale. But you know, I'm happy to make a call. And he said, why don't you call? And so I did. And um, called the guy that owned the building at the time and I said, Hey, I've got a guy that wants to buy your building. Um, I said, he is willing to pay X and he is like, yeah, I don't think I'm gonna do that, but I'd take y And the, the guy from Missouri said, okay, I'll take it.

And so I represented the guy behind the building. We leased the building and we sold the building. And so I went from playing defense to playing offense in 2010. And you know, I say this in a lot of areas of life, but particularly in this business, sometimes you just gotta get lucky and people will be like, say, well, you know, the harder you work, the luckier you get.

Sure. But sometimes you just get lucky. And I, you know, I'm not gonna diminish the value I created in that process. I mean, it was a lot of work and [00:33:00] you know, that the, when the layup that that deal got done, but it was a game changer in my career. Oh yeah. So I think if you talked, I'm, you guys have had a lot of these kind of conversations, I think for a lot of people, there're just, there's some moments that happen where you're like, oh, I don't know if that's divine intervention or good luck or what, but.

Damn sure glad that happened. Mm-hmm. 

[00:33:20] Nick Beyer: Well, I think it's, I think some of it is that, but some of it I think is presence. I think as we've talked to founders, it's like people who are really dialed into what they're doing, they're not doing anything else. You aren't doing residential, you were just focused on commercial, and it's like being really present in that.

That's why you got the call. I agree with that. 

[00:33:38] Clinton Bennett: Yeah. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. And you know, I've had periods through my career, and I, I don't mean to say this like with an arrogant bent to it, but you've had, I've had people go, man, you guys are doing great. Like, what are you doing? Like, congratulations on your success.

Like, what's going on? I'm like, man, we really, we're just in here answering the phone every day. And like, we call people back. It's funny, you look like [00:34:00] social media and people talk about commercial realtors and like, well, good luck getting a call back in the next three days. Like, we call people back, like, and we're happy to pick up the phone.

Um, so your point, I, I think you're right. Like a lot of it is. I have a hard time taking credit. I'm not trying to pat myself on the back. But yeah, it was that I was in there every day looking for opportunities. 

[00:34:19] Cameron Clark: Mm-hmm. That's good, man. So talk about the next, next phase. So through, so that was 2010. 

[00:34:28] Clinton Bennett: Um, you know, the, uh, what I recognized during that time is a, we were an affiliate of Grub and Ellis.

We weren't Grub and Ellis Corporate. We were an affiliate. So that created a little less power than the brand itself. So, you know, as I was making these calls and trying to land business with, you know, fortune 500 tenants, I was having some success, but not as much as I would've liked. And there's, there's, there're also inbound referrals that come with these national clients.[00:35:00] 

National, uh, businesses and, you know, we weren't getting a lot of those. And so I was like, man, you know, Ellis is good. Um, you know, we're number four in the country or the world technically. Like, I mean, it's a great company, but like, man, it sure does seem like the number one and number two guys are getting more of this business.

[00:35:18] Cameron Clark: Hmm. 

[00:35:19] Clinton Bennett: So, at the time we did not have A-C-B-R-E office in the market. You know, we still don't have a j There's some people with connected to JLL that operate in this market. You know, Cushman Wakefield was not as powerful, uh, in 2011 as they are now. But those are kind of the three big ones right now. It's, it's, uh, C-B-R-E-J-L-L, Cushman Wakefield.

At the time, Northwest Arkansas was the market for Northwest Arkansas, for CBRE was owned by a group out of Oklahoma. And so I started calling on the group out of Oklahoma and said, Hey, you know, I, I, there's a lot of CBRE business happening in this market. Um, you know, I'm, I've had some success here. I'd love to run this [00:36:00] office, like to partner with you guys, try to get something going.

And we've actually talked a little bit about that, you know, years prior. Um, and the conversation never really moved anywhere. But then in 2011, I was at a conference and saw one of the principals of the Oklahoma group that had the right affiliate rights at CBRE said, Hey, you know, what are your plans for northwest Arkansas?

You think you're thinking about doing anything again, presence? Like I just happened to kind of, if had I not been at that convention mm-hmm. Not seen that person, I mean, it would've been easy to skip it. But I mean, I didn't, you know, I just kept going. 

[00:36:30] Cameron Clark: Hmm. 

[00:36:30] Clinton Bennett: Um, uh, I. And so I, you know, I saw that guy and that led to a conversation like, Hey, come over to Tulsa.

Let's talk about the opportunity. So I did ultimately partnered with them, opened the CBRE office here in kind of 2011 to 12 ish. Um, and, you know, at the time, and still now, CBR E's the biggest brand in the world. Yeah. And they represent many, many tenants. Um, and I'm comfortable bragging on them because there's some things they do fantastic.

You know, there's some [00:37:00] reasons I left that I think, you know, a local firm can do a better job on some tasks locally. Um, so I'm not trying to hold, you know, these corporate businesses out to be the end all be all, but they certainly, they have some advantages. And at that point in my career, it was a big advantage to be connected to that brand.

There's a lot of inbound referral business with CBRE. Um, and so that we opened that office in 2012. 

[00:37:24] Cameron Clark: Man, 

[00:37:25] Clinton Bennett: and talk about that. 

[00:37:26] Cameron Clark: So is it, how did like. You had a partner? 

[00:37:28] Clinton Bennett: Yeah, well it was, I had partners in Oklahoma. They were not, they didn't, they didn't wanna really, I mean, they wanted me to run the office locally.

I mean, they were supportive and active, but they weren't in northwest Arkansas. So it's like, okay, good luck. Like get it going. And so, um, it was just a, I mean, we just bootstrapped it and shortly after, almost immediately after I secured the deal, I called David Stein, who's, you know, we've been friends forever and still friends, friendly competitors.

And I was like David, uh, David was the SAGE [00:38:00] partners at the time. I. And, uh, had a great experience there. But you know, you just in this business, you're kind of like, okay, what positions me best? And CBRE was a big deal. And so I said, Hey David, like I think this is gonna be a big opportunity. Why don't you come over and work with me and we'll work together?

And so we did that. So that was 2012 and I stayed with CBRE till 2000, the end of 19, early 20. Mm-hmm. And, um, it was a great run. Um, you know, and I'm happy to talk through that more, but one of the things that was significant that happened is in 2012, we were an affiliate of CBRE and we owned the business.

And so we could kind of manage it and operate it like our own small business, but we had the benefit of being affiliated with this national international brand 

[00:38:48] Cameron Clark: Hmm. 

[00:38:49] Clinton Bennett: In 2015. CBRE had been going through this kind of initiative of rolling up all the affiliate offices. They wanted them all to be corporately owned.

[00:38:58] Cameron Clark: Hmm. 

[00:38:58] Clinton Bennett: And [00:39:00] so in 2015, CBRE acquired, uh, you know, our little entity that was the affiliate of CBRE. So I moved from being a partner in CBRE to being basically one of 80,000 brokers within CBRE, which. You know, it was great. I learned a lot the, the processes that big companies have to deploy are different and, and can seem burdensome, but it's, it was nice being on the inside because you kind of, even though there were some processes and some procedures and stuff that I didn't like, you understood how, you know, we're trying to run of consistent real estate business across the world.

Like we, they're just some of these steps that have to be taken. Hmm. So I learned a lot by getting exposure to that corporate side of the business. But ultimately, you know, from 2015 to 2019, it kind of just, I had a five year deal where I was kind of tied to, uh, there were some incentives to stay for, for five years after the merger.

[00:39:56] Cameron Clark: Hmm. 

[00:39:57] Clinton Bennett: And so ISI and I enjoyed it. I wasn't forced [00:40:00] to stay over that, but I just as, as I kind of evolved as a person and had some kinda life events, it's just like, you know, I feel like I'm on a hamster wheel a little bit. I'd like to have a little more control over the day-to-day operations of the business.

I'd like to have a little more autonomy. So I'd just, it ultimately kind of just moved me to a point where I was like, you know, this just isn't gonna be the right fit for me. 

[00:40:20] Cameron Clark: Hmm. 

[00:40:20] Clinton Bennett: I mean, he's still a great company and, you know, David does a great job running it and, you know, they're a, they're a strong competitor, but it just, for me personally and the way I wanted to kind of manage the local business, it was, it wasn't 

[00:40:33] Cameron Clark: the right fit is.

And so kind of looking back over those three different transitions, the, is there anything you maybe you'd tell yourself or, or someone else who's like, going through something similar right now? Hey, evaluating, do I, do I jump in this next opportunity? Do I not, am I ready for it? Or like, I mean. I don't know if there's any regrets you have or, I don't know.

[00:40:54] Clinton Bennett: I, I'm thinking about that. Um, I think one of my biggest regrets is, um, that I [00:41:00] wasn't more coachable. That I wasn't more, um, that I wasn't like seeking advice from others more. Uh, I think one of the things that, that has led to my success is like this independence that I've had. Um, you know, I don't, I don't know, uh, I guess I could GI could go down.

I, I hadn't even really thought about this much, but I, I kind of always saw myself. I mean, I, I had a great opportunity growing up. Like I did have a, a great launching board and my dad had a successful business, but it didn't feel like it, I mean, with farming, it always felt like we were like a year away from being broke.

Mm-hmm. And sometimes we were, and so I think I came up. Through my, I think I developed as a, as a kid and a young man and as a young business person with this like, um, me against the world kind of mentality and this like independent, you know, farming. It's like you're kinda responsible for that, but you're not, you don't have a big team around you.

So I think it was kinda like this me against the world and this [00:42:00] independence and I think that carried into my brokerage business where it was just like, I'm just gonna will this to happen. And I like, it's me. It's like, I don't mean to sound selfish, but it was like I was relying on myself. I was comfortable that like, it was all about, you know, I, I know what my path needs to be and I wish I look back now and, you know, you were really successful when we worked together.

We've got other people in our office that are really successful. And I would say that they were really coachable. You were really coachable. Uh, they were really coachable. And here I was with 20 years of experience. You need to align with someone maybe taking this on a different path. If I'm, would just give advice to any young person.

You, you need to align with people that genuinely wanna see you do well. And that will, like, that don't try to hoard the business or don't try to diminish you or don't try to limit opportunities for you. 'cause if you get somebody that will, will try to not limit opportunities and try to help you c [00:43:00] create a pathway to be successful and then you've let yourself be coached by them.

[00:43:04] Cameron Clark: Mm-hmm. 

[00:43:04] Clinton Bennett: Um, that's a powerful thing. Yeah. I, I think I aligned with a lot of really good people that were genuinely interested in seeing me do well, but I think I was maybe not as open as I should have been to being coachable through that process. 

[00:43:18] Cameron Clark: Hmm. 

[00:43:19] Clinton Bennett: And it's worked out, but I feel like I've probably made it a little harder and probably even limited some of my success along the way because of that.

[00:43:25] Cameron Clark: Hmm. Wow. That's really good. That's great. Uh, yeah, so now we're kind of when we met, which is great. Kind of beginning of 2020, well, I guess kind of right before then you had, were starting been a commercial real estate then. And, uh, talk about Yeah. You, you were coming from two different national affiliates and now it's like, I don't need the national affiliate anymore.

I'm gonna go do, I'm gonna essentially start my own thing ground up. Um, [00:44:00] why, why that route versus maybe joining someone else again or what was the, 

[00:44:05] Clinton Bennett: I wish I could say it was really an organized thing. Um, and I'm, I probably in this kind of format should act like it was, um, ultimately what happened was I had a, I had a, a cancer in 2019, fortunately that was, uh, you know, all removed and I'm fine.

But it was a, it was a life altering. Uh, moment or, or period of time and coming out of that event, that was kind of like from April to call it, you know, September when they said the cancer's removed. But that just dominated my life through 2019. And, you know, coming out of that, I was kinda looking, I'd had some, some small frustrations with the way CBRE and the scale, but coming out of that I was like, had this kind of new look on life and I was like, yeah, this just is feeling like a hamster wheel for me.

And like my time, I was looking at my, my time [00:45:00] differently, just like longevity, like the rest of my life differently. 

[00:45:03] Cameron Clark: Yeah. 

[00:45:04] Clinton Bennett: And I was like, I just, I wanna chart a different course. So it wasn't like I'd really. Defined what I was gonna do next. Um, I just knew that I didn't wanna do what I was doing. So I, you know, I kind of just made the decision with CBRE to quit and they were so cool when I quit the, the people I reported to, you know, in the commission business, it can be really testy of like, if a person's leaving, it's like, well, who's taking clients and who gets paid for this deal?

'cause the deals take two years. So there are a lot of 'em that, not all of 'em, but a lot, many of 'em take a couple years. So there's a lot of work in progress and a lot of money at stake. And it's like, well, how does this get split up? And so the guys at CBRA were like, you, Hey look, do you have another job?

And I said, no, I don't have another job. And they're like, are you like, what are you gonna do? And I was like, well, I, I think I'm gonna do commercial real estate brokerage. I'm probably gonna do some development, probably gonna do some investing, but I don't have a, a course charted. And so they were really cool.

They're like, okay, well look, you can help kind of finish [00:46:00] these deals that are in the pipeline. You know, as long as you're not competing directly against us, you can go do your thing. So I set up shop, um, in Southwest Rogers. Had a friend who kinda loaned me some office space and. You know, I had this, this flywheel of business in these relationships of, and you know, the knowledge of the market doesn't go away regardless of who you're working for.

And so people were calling me and saying, you know, they're still calling me regardless of what company I worked at. And saying, you know, what about this deal? What do you think about that deal? Would you be interested? So the broker's business just kind of there like, uh, flywheel's the best word to describe it.

It kind of just kept rolling. So even though I was, so, I didn't have a big strategy to create a brokerage business, but it was just kind of. Organically building around me or continuing what I'd been doing. And then, you know, kind of grinning, looking at you. Most of your listeners won't, won't know this story, but, you know, Cameron found me and, uh, had been introduced by a friend and said, Hey, I'm interested in getting the commercial real estate business.[00:47:00] 

I said, well, you know, good luck. Uh, there's probably some good opportunities out there, but like, you know, maybe I'd have something, but this isn't even really a real company, so you probably should go talk to the real companies. And, um, you did and you came back and we were like, you know, I think this makes sense.

Like we could help each other. Like, so, you know, when you showed up that I kind of created and, and Melissa Brown, who's been a big impact to here, like, you know, she was, uh, she had left another job, so it was kind of organically. Next thing you know, we've got three people kind of all pulling the same direction.

And, uh, like I said, you were open to, to my ideas and so I was trying to steer you, I was trying to get, my business was kind of continuing to grow, you know, fortunately, just kind of organically. And so it grew. And then, you know, Palmer Hayes showed up and he was, you know, had had some experience, but kind of like the energy of our team.

And so from there it's, it's just [00:48:00] developed. And, you know, I would like to think one of the things that I'm doing a better job now than I had in the past was, was this, being open to others ideas and being more coachable and trying to employ strategies that, you know, people know work. Uh, we, we try to implement some of the EOS stuff.

Like we're trying to, I'm trying to learn this in this format. You know, I was thinking back, well, my comment with the coachability. Yeah, you look at 2010 or 2015, like the world has changed in regards to how much information is out there. Oh, yeah. Um, you know, so I'm, I probably shouldn't beat myself up about being coachable because I just didn't, I didn't see the information.

The way I see it now, it hits you in the 

[00:48:42] Cameron Clark: face. 

[00:48:43] Clinton Bennett: Now it hits you in the face. Now you're on LinkedIn. It's like, you can't not, and I'm kind of a junkie for it, and the problem I've had is, is how do you implement? It's almost like I, I, I struggle with having too many ideas and not getting the rubber to the road on the implementation.

[00:49:00] But, you know, I, I, my mindset around that is trying to think more of kinda like the atomic habits of like, you know, we don't have to get it all done. Right now, or next quarter or next year, but let's just keep moving towards a more, uh, you know, organized and, and complete approach to our business. So, sorry, I think I'm getting long-winded on this, this, but, you know, so it kind of just happened organically and then we started implementing some of these processes and we started just being really consistent about our, what we do.

And then, you know, we're just in, we're in the right market. Like, I mean, there's business to be done if you're out there. And we try to focus on creating value to people. So many people look at real estate brokers and just say, oh, you know, those folks are just out there trying to get a commission. You know, I've always been self-conscious about the fees.

Like I have a hard time, you know, asking somebody for a check or picking up the check and going, you know, that's a significant amount of money. So we try to approach is like, [00:50:00] we want our involvement to create more value than whatever fee we're getting paid. Hmm. 

[00:50:04] Cameron Clark: Well, and one of my like, you know, key memories of that, of.

First like month we were working together. He was kind of bringing me around and like it was, you've been an unbelievable mentor. And, uh, the, one of the first kind of things I remember was, we're sitting down with a, with an elderly gentleman who wanted to sell his property, wanted to sell his property, and you told him, Hey, this is not the right decision and here's why.

There's a clear dec reason why, you know, if someone's trying to buy your property, it's either not the right price, not the right time. You need to wait. And I was like, I, I didn't, wasn't making any money at the time. I was like, scratch, man. I'm like, what are you doing? This is a, like, this is, yeah, this is a, there's a big commission check at the end of this.

But it was like, but no, there's a clear understanding of, Hey, I care about you. Here's and I wanna add value to your life. And a year from now, five years from now, 10 years from now, you're gonna circle back or you're gonna tell [00:51:00] somebody that. Clinton helped me make a, the right decision. Yeah. He, he wasn't just trying to take advantage of me.

Yeah. Um, 

[00:51:07] Clinton Bennett: no, that, that's, I, I appreciate you saying that. And, um, that's my view on it. Like, I, uh, I've made a lot of mistakes through my years. I've got some things I regret, you know, ways I've handled things that I regret. But, you know, ultimately it's a small town. I look at it like a small town, you know, I want to be able to lay my head on the pillow at night feeling pretty good about what I've done, you know, the, um, the, the dollars at stake for these people.

Like, it's easy to think about the commission, but I mean, the dollars at stake on these real estate transactions for these people, I mean, it can be life changing, even for the guys that are worth a hundred million dollars. I mean, it's significant. 

[00:51:45] Cameron Clark: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 

[00:51:45] Clinton Bennett: And so I would ra I just wanna make sure.

This hasn't served me well the last decade because, you know, the market just keeps going up. But I really fight hard. I really want to make sure that nobody we help [00:52:00] gets in a position where they've lost a, a bunch of money. 

[00:52:02] Cameron Clark: Mm-hmm. And 

[00:52:03] Clinton Bennett: so I would rather err on the side of conservatism than err on the side of being too optimistic.

And then somebody come back a year or two later and be like, oh, Clinton man, we're $2 million upside down on this property. Or, you know, whatever. Like, I had this, I have this kind of, I think you get in this business 'cause you wanna be a people pleaser a little bit. And I just don't, I don't want people upset with me and I don't want to have a feeling that I did something that damaged their financial success.

Mm-hmm. That's really, and and people sense that and they trust you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can sniff it then you try to like earn it. Then you're like, oh. But, but like I said, in this business. The last decade. It's like, yeah, what the heck? Buy it. Oh, let's do want another 20% sure. Pay for it. Like the property just hasn't gone down.

Yeah. I think we're seeing some of that flatten and some of that adjust. I'm, I, I'm not negative on commercial real estate, but I don't think, you know, these prices have jumped up and they've jumped up to a point where there's not as much cushion to be [00:53:00] wrong as there used to be. Yeah. 

[00:53:01] Cameron Clark: Yeah. 

[00:53:01] Clinton Bennett: That's good. But I probably should have been more aggressive.

But I'll tell you, there's a thing that happened for those of us that lived through oh eight. Mm-hmm. And those that didn't, they're, they're, the way they view markets is a little different. And, and to our fault, maybe, uh, time will tell, but the last decade it's been too, we've been too conservative. 

[00:53:19] Nick Beyer: Hmm. And how do you coach that into people who haven't been in the real estate world for.

More than five years. I mean, how, how do you really help them understand it's 

[00:53:29] Clinton Bennett: the weight of that? Well, it's, it's tough because I'm not sure I'm right. Like, maybe it just keeps going up. Maybe it never stops. In fact, you know, I, I talked with a guy in, um, Nashville, this is 2-year-old story, but I was asking him, I was like, he was a, a commercial, similar kind of business, similar career path.

And I was like, you know, what advice do you have as a guy who lived through this explosion in Nashville? Like, what do you have, what advice do you have for a guy, the market my size, that's now starting to see some of these growth trends? He's a Clinton man. [00:54:00] Don't discount the power of this outside capital.

He's like, they will come in and pay prices that you and your peers think is, is too high. And ultimately they've got different capital re restraints. They've got different return needs so they can invest more, they can pay more, they can take a longer term view and you can see 'em and you're like. Man, those guys are overpaying.

Well then two or three, four years later, it looks like they've, they've bought a great deal. Mm-hmm. We're seeing that happen and continue to happen. So the challenge, to answer your question, the challenge for me is I don't wanna be wrong. Like I don't wanna temper this optimism mm-hmm. From people and be so conservative that we, you know, prevent ourselves from doing deals, prevent our clients from doing deals.

There's a, there's a balance in there. Um, so what I try to do is just coach people around us of what the downside can be. Mm-hmm. Um. Like, I don't wanna temper the optimism, but I just need, if when they're gonna make a a, a decision [00:55:00] based on an optimistic view, I want them to make sure they've thought about and talked about the outcomes based on maybe a pessimistic view.

Yeah, yeah. 

[00:55:07] Nick Beyer: Worst case scenario. 

[00:55:08] Clinton Bennett: Worst case scenario. 

[00:55:09] Nick Beyer: So they've seen, Hey, this could go wrong. Here's how much I could lose, could go wrong, I still wanna do this deal. 

[00:55:14] Clinton Bennett: Yeah. And I've got some stories about, you know, people in oh 8, 0 9 that, you know, lost money and it just, it just, I mean, this is maybe a little overly dramatic, but maybe not too much.

I mean, it kind of destroyed their lives. And so I can tell some of those stories to the young guys and be like, look, here's what can happen if, you know, you coach somebody into a property and you're wrong about what we can rent this for. And the market, the interest rates go up and demand falls, and all of a sudden this guy loses his, his retirement.

Mm-hmm. Um, so it's, it's a balance. But the thing is. Ultimately where I land these days is I'm a lot more optimistic than I used to be. Like, I'm a lot more assertive and aggressive on valuations than I used to be because I just think there's some momentum here. [00:56:00] That's, that's just wild. Like, it's hard to wrap your head around the, the growth in northwest Arkansas.

[00:56:05] Cameron Clark: Yeah. And it's the right thing. It's hard to get bought. It's like the, we're seeing scarcity, like we've never seen it like through, through 

[00:56:11] Clinton Bennett: most of my career. If you had a, a, a tenant that wanted to be in North Fayetteville or, you know, Springdale around four 12 is a popular spot or, you know, pleasant Grove Road, or Pinnacle or Bentonville or Ton, you know, you could go find land there.

Mm-hmm. Like, it might be a little more expensive than they, or you wanted to pay, but there were properties that could be bought. 

[00:56:35] Cameron Clark: Mm-hmm. 

[00:56:35] Clinton Bennett: Today. There might not be anybody that's selling. 

[00:56:38] Cameron Clark: Mm-hmm. 

[00:56:39] Clinton Bennett: Like, you go try to buy a lot in Pinnacle, good luck. Like, it's pretty hard to do. Um, so there's scarcity that's starting to come into play in a way that's unlike anything I've ever seen.

Mm-hmm. Which is, which is cool because it's just expanding our market. Like if those little hotpot I just talked about are getting most of the focus, well, you've got P Ridge, that's awesome. You got Cave [00:57:00] Springs, it's awesome. You got grab it, you got Asylum Springs. Like our market is 

[00:57:03] Cameron Clark: just, it's just maturing and growing.

Mm-hmm. And I wanna talk about the focus merger, but before we talk about the, the perspective, your perspective, the money moving in the market right now. Like what this has been like, you know, from, in you getting into the business in oh four to now? Yeah. Like what type of money's moving into the market, maybe different than before?

Well, 

[00:57:25] Clinton Bennett: the, the, the kind of macro, um, commercial real estate inventory in. Northwest Arkansas. I mean it, this data's good, not great, but this is gonna be approximately correct. Um, you know, if you went to 2004 or five and said, what is the cumulative value of the commercial real estate in northwest Arkansas?

Not Tyson Foods headquarters or Walmart, but, but, but, uh, buildings that the, a third party person can buy or sell office buildings, 

[00:57:56] Cameron Clark: retail centers. Yeah. 

[00:57:57] Clinton Bennett: Excuse me. Office retail, [00:58:00] uh, industrial, um, that was about $7 billion. And you know, here now in 2025, it's about $22 billion. Geez. So, you know, that's three x growth.

Uh, we're the, the. We're up about 2.4% over last year. Like, I mean, I think it'll just keep growing. There's, you know, some wonky stuff happened with the data, like COVID, post COVID, that's kinda leveling out. But I mean, we're, we've been on this growth trend. We're gonna continue to be on this growth trend. Um, you know, the vacancy rates in, um, industrial office, retail, I don't have the exact numbers, but industrial is about 5% vacancy.

I mean, that's not much. When I was the, the first decade of my career, if you thought about a full market, like I thought if you had a 10 to 12 to 14% vacancy rate, that's basically full. 

[00:58:52] Cameron Clark: Mm-hmm. 

[00:58:52] Clinton Bennett: You're gonna have some vacancy because people are always moving out or 

[00:58:55] Cameron Clark: Yeah. 

[00:58:55] Clinton Bennett: Scaling up, scaling down. Like there's, there's a churn that happens that leads to about [00:59:00] a, you know, in a, in a healthy market leads to about a 10 or 12 or 14% vacancy rate.

Mm-hmm. Well, yeah, the last decade, you know, our vacancy rates have been, um. I had some, I, I, I wish I'd made some notes, but, uh, it's about 5% right now for industrial, you know, uh, the Pinnacle Hills area is about 95% occupied. 

[00:59:25] Cameron Clark: Mm-hmm. 

[00:59:25] Clinton Bennett: You know, downtown Bentonville is, I think closer to 90. Um, but there's, you know, it's full.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. And so we need more inventory there, there are some spaces available, but we need more inventory. Um. The, the, you know, construction costs are real challenge to like, putting more inventory on the ground. Yeah. Uh, you know, and for small businesses, like we are really small and big businesses, we are really sympathetic to the, I mean, the price of their lease rates, their rental rates, it's crazy.

It just keeps going up. Um, and it's a supply and demand function, but [01:00:00] we've got the demand, we've got limited supply. Mm. So the price just keeps going up. And, you know, small business owners in this market are like, holy cow. I don't, I mean, we didn't have that budgeted for our overhead for our real estate.

I was like, I'm sorry, but you know, this just what it costs. 

[01:00:15] Cameron Clark: Mm-hmm. Crazy. And talk about the, were you gonna say something first? Yeah, yeah. Before 

[01:00:20] Nick Beyer: we move to the merger. I think there's a lot. A lot. Yeah. So one of the things you've already talked a lot about yourself, and this is, this is you talking about yourself is like how focused you were, you're building your brokerage.

How do you go from that to then people. Joining your team and you're starting to kind of learn to dole things out to them, to coach, like, is that a transition for you? Oh, sure. And how did that happen? I 

[01:00:45] Clinton Bennett: mean, yeah. It, it, it was a transition. It is a transition, like I'm going through it right now. Um, it's been a learning curve for me.

It's not where I feel like that's not my natural spot. Sure. Like, I, I struggle with delegating to [01:01:00] people. I struggle with, uh, constructive criticism. Like my constructive criticism just feels like frustration and criticism to people. And I recognize that. And so it's like, you know, I don't, I don't, I'm not great at delivering tough messages.

I'm not great at delivering at like, um. You know, hierarchies within all, hierarchies is not the right word, but I managing a big business. Mm-hmm. Not that this is a big business, but you know, the, the human, uh, element of it, like I was used to just getting in, getting on the phone, hammering a real estate deal now, you know, trying to make sure everybody's satisfied with the direction we're going, that they're happy with what they're doing.

That is a, it's not a skillset set that I've refined that I'm really good with, which is one of the reasons it's been really good for me to, when, you know, the partnership, there's a lot of advantages to the partnership for me, you know, because I, even if I could go to like a graduate program and take 18 months and come outta the other [01:02:00] side of it and be the best manager ever, that's not really what I wanna do.

Mm-hmm. And so one of the things that I've, um. I like about the merger is we've got team members that are better at that kind of thing. And so I like being in the production side. You know, we've got team members that really do kinda like managing the overall office structure. Um, so we've got a good complimentary partnership structure.

Um, so I don't know if that answered your question. Yeah. But I, I wouldn't say I'm, I'm great at managing people, but I'm trying to get better. 

[01:02:31] Nick Beyer: Well, I just imagine being a broker, I mean, you, if you're not dialed into your specific business and creating value for your clients, you're not gonna do a good job.

So it's almost like naturally you have to do that. And then adding, managing people grow, like that's just not, you can't, you know, that. So it's a, it's an interesting transition that 

[01:02:50] Clinton Bennett: That's right. And really where I get excited when I come in, in the morning where I get excited in the business. Is, I like taking, you know, the experience I've [01:03:00] had, being a, being a broker, like doing the deals.

I like taking that experience and communicating it. Like we're trying to build some processes. Like we're ve, we're heavily relying on a database, um, that we've kind of built. I mean, it's built on Salesforce and it has an overlay from another technology company, but we're customizing it for our, our use to track, you know, our inventory, our pipeline of inventory, our listings, our, our, you know, our communications with our clients.

Our, you know, if you listed a building with me, um, you know, calls that come in, emails that come in, we log those two, that assignment so that you can then report that back to owners. So I, I really enjoy. I can speak with a lot of confidence about what it takes to make a client happy and to get a deal done.

[01:03:47] Cameron Clark: Mm-hmm. 

[01:03:47] Clinton Bennett: And certainly I've fallen short with clients and, you know, aspire to be better at the regularity of reporting and how we service those clients. But I, I, I've got a strong opinion and I think it's, [01:04:00] I think it's a good one, uh, in regards to how you execute on the business. So what I'm trying to do is come in every day and help support, like building these systems, building these processes, and then the brokers in our office, I say, Hey, look, if you'll, if you'll follow this process and you'll do this, and, you know, do x, do y, do z do consistently.

And it's hard work, but I'm like, I wanna be an encourage a person that's encouraging them. And, and so I enjoy doing that and trying to get them on a path to where they're gonna be really productive and successful. And then the other thing I like doing is kind of saying, okay, if you just, just picture yourself, you know, for a lot of my career, you know, I've done on average call it, you know, 62 deals a year.

Um, some leases, some sales are. Well, if you think about 60 successful commercial real estate deals a year, that's a lot. Um, it's a lot of calls, it's a lot of emails, it's a lot. And they're always happy. You can't schedule when something's gonna go wrong with one of them. So it's, you're kind of always [01:05:00] on.

Um, if you think about 60 that were successful, you've got, you know, another. Who knows how many that weren't. So you've gotta be going all the time. So to get to the point, oh, everybody looks at getting in this business, they're like, oh, I want to, you know, sell $50 million in real estate a year. Well, yeah, once you get there, it's like, you better be ready to roll every morning.

'cause it's a, I mean, it's a hard, it's hard work. So what I'm trying to do is not only push people to the point where they, they have that level of success and they're doing a great job along the way of their clients, but that we've got a team and we've got systems for how we communicate what's going on with each other, um, such that, you know, if you are doing 50 deals a year and you wanna take your, your family to the beach for a week, or you wanna take a, you know, a kid to a camp, or I, you know, whatever, you wanna be out of the office and live a normal, balanced life, we've got some redundancy to keep people from burning out in this business.

That's 

[01:05:56] Nick Beyer: good 

[01:05:57] Clinton Bennett: because if you look at, if I look at like the [01:06:00] competitors that have come and gone, and I could name. 10 that I've got a ton of respect for. Mm. Like it takes a lot of things to be successful in this business, but to your consistency, comment was spot on. It takes consistency and a lot of these guys fight to keep a balanced life because it's hard to be balanced when you're running that many deals.

Yeah. And and that's one of the things I wanna, I wanna do as a leader in here, is I wanna help us build processes to make people successful. And then I wanna build processes and teams and redundancies to. Keep brokers excited about what they're doing and not feeling like they're just burned out. 

[01:06:39] Nick Beyer: That's good.

And talk about as you're building, you know, what was Bennett now is focus, I mean, some of the, um, strong opinions that you had that have kind of made, made the identity of your commercial real estate firm. And I know one of 'em you talked about already was specialization, right? Mm-hmm. Yes. Were there any others that you preach, you know, with your [01:07:00] team here?

[01:07:01] Clinton Bennett: No. I mean, specialization is key to us. We try to have people aligned in industrial retail office. Through my career, I kind of did a little bit of all of it. Mm-hmm. Which the market was smaller and you kind of needed to do that. Um, and these guys I refer to, you know, my, my friendly competitors, you know, everybody kind of did that.

Excuse me. A lot of 'em still do, but we're kind of, of the opinion that, you know, you can't be an expert, an industrial and an expert in office. I mean, why, why? There's so much you, you could be, but there's so much information happening all the time and there's so many deals and the, you know, the. The segment of industrial properties and tenants, you know, just keeps expanding the segment of office properties and tenants just keeps expanding.

So to really be great at both of those, it's pretty challenging. And if you've got a guy that is only worried about one of them, he's probably gonna know more about that and specialty than the somebody trying to know two or three or four or five of them. [01:08:00] Hmm. So our view is be the best in the market at knowing that set of inventory and that set of activities that are going on.

Like, I don't want, I don't wanna read it in the newspaper, like I want the newspaper calling us and asking like, Hey, what's going on with X, Y, or Z? Mm-hmm. Like, we need to be a, we need to be creating the news. And if we're not part of the team that's creating the news, we need to have a great rapport and friendly competitive relationship with the people that are.

Uh, you know, IE our competitors, I mean, most of our competitors are very good, kind of abundance theory minded. Like we wanna beat each other, but we also have a mutual respect and we know that we need to do business, uh, constructively together. So, you know, if we're not the one representing the tenant and creating the news, I want us to have a relationship with our competitor going like, oh, man, I saw you just lease that 70,000 feet.

You know, what insight can you gimme on that deal? 

[01:08:55] Cameron Clark: Mm-hmm. 

[01:08:55] Clinton Bennett: And we try to share information with, with people we like, they try to share nothing, [01:09:00] uh, proprietary. Yeah. Or that's confidential. But when you've got a group of really talented people in office and competitors that are, I mean, I, I, I'm repeating myself, but the people on the front end of making that news, that makes you really powerful.

So that specialization is something that we feel is important. I think it's gonna become more important as this market expands. Um, and that could be geography. Like there's a lot of ways you could specialize. Maybe it's, maybe it's 'cause we're open to have more brokers down the line at some point. We don't wanna be big.

But, you know, if it takes a person that needs to be a specialist in one particular geography of the market, like I'm open to, I'm open to different types of specializations, but I just don't like people that are trying to do a little bit of everything. Um, so that's one. And then I think your question was like, you know, what are the other kind of key strategy to the company?

And the other is, um, you know, we're really, I think people around here think I'm maybe crazy [01:10:00] at times, but I'm really, um, intentional and, and uh, purposeful about trying to get all of our information that we can into a database. Mm-hmm. Um. There's so much of it that we don't even know what it's going to, what that data's gonna tell us.

Like, we're just putting information in like, you know, how many calls are we? And we're, I, I, I'm not trying to sit here on this podcast and act like we've got it all figured out. We're building it, but like, I'd like to know how many calls we got on a property. I'd like to know. Who are the last 20 buyers in the market?

I'd like to know, you know, which buildings leases are expiring, you know, so we're trying to just, and that that information is all out there mm-hmm. In these disparate places. And so we're trying to suck it into our database and have a system that we use that, you know, a brokers, you can, you can boil that down to just an agent keeping up with their own business.

Mm. Like if you're doing 50 deals a year, just tracking the dates can be a big problem. 

[01:10:56] Cameron Clark: Hmm. 

[01:10:56] Clinton Bennett: So, you know, we start with how do we help the [01:11:00] brokers be really efficient about how they operate their business, and then how they report to their clients. And then that information rolls up to a company level where it's like, Hey, as a, as management, how do we really understand, you know, where we need to be applying more resources because like, where are we having the most demand in our business?

For instance, most, most agents, if you ask them, you know, how much tenant rep did you do versus how many sales did you do? Well, they'll have an Excel spreadsheet somewhere, but it's kinda hard to find that information or you know, what was the average size of your deals. So most people can't track that.

They can. It's in all these disparate places. So we're really trying to get it in one place, just keep feeding that, that information. And we're starting to see some benefits up from it. I think it's gonna take 2, 3, 4, 5 years before we really recognize the benefits. I think, you know, AI is fascinating and you know, the fact that we're built on Salesforce, I think Salesforce is gonna be one of the leaders in AI [01:12:00] agents and how that, how you communicate with that.

So, you know, I think your question was like, what did, where do I. Try to push and it's, it's on, you know, the broker productivity, and then it's like, how do we build it? D how do we manage our data and, and use this data that we're seeing every day in a way that makes us, uh, more, ultimately that creates more value for our clients a few years from now.

Mm-hmm. 

[01:12:26] Nick Beyer: Tell, tell a story of that. 'cause I, I mean, I, and you, you tell me if I've captured this wrong, but it feels like real estate early two thousands was hyper relational. It's like, I know Clinton, I'm gonna list and that's still a huge part of your business. Yeah, probably the majority of it. But now there's a component where it's like your ability to take that data and help your client with it is another benefit.

The relationship's at the base of it, it's the core, it's the foundation. But your ability to take that data and help your clients sell a building for a million dollars more, that's another [01:13:00] component of it. So you have a story where like, you know, and I'm sure you have multiple stories where that data really.

You were listing a property for this, y'all saw this and here was the result of it, or, 

[01:13:11] Clinton Bennett: well, not, I mean, I do and I don't. Yeah. Um, your, your question's very well you, that, that's a wise question and the way you asked it makes a lot of sense and, and you're, I think we're aligned on the right track there, but we haven't really seen the benefit of it yet.

But, but here's what's happening. Like if you look at, like, we've seen some sales well over the last two years of, you know, Bentonville Plaza or, you know, we're sitting in Pinnacle Hills, there's been a portfolio of offices that sold Pinnacle Hills. You know, those deals are $30 million deals. Okay? Well, over most of my career last 20 years, like you didn't see many 30 million deals where you're gonna see more and you're gonna more portfolios.

When you think about who really has the capability to look it up, [01:14:00] a set of 10 buildings or eight buildings with 10 tenants in each building, and you know, look at their lease expirations. So, so there's a financial model component go that goes with that, that frankly a lot of people in our market can't build.

Um, I can't build it personally, but we can build those. So you, you, you want to kind of predict like where the revenues with these portfolios are going. And so that can, that can kind of steer, um, you know, your valuation and your underwriting on a property. But then the data that we're trying to find is, okay, let's just say you bought that, that set of buildings, really what you're worried about is how do we raise the rents?

How do we keep them full? Who are the next tenants? And so if you've got a, if you've got a database of. Who's in the market? When do we think their leases are expiring? Mm. Um, mm-hmm. You know, if, if you can, if, uh, let me, I feel like I'm getting long-winded, but like, if we dial it back, let's just say it's a retail center, [01:15:00] and, and if we're the group that's keeping a list of 120 active retail clients and we say, okay guys, you list the property with us, we're gonna go call those re retail clients tomorrow.

Mm-hmm. Like, 'cause we got 'em, we track 'em, we know where they did their last deals. Like that's gonna be pretty damn powerful. And most people, again, I talk about these spreadsheets, it's easy to keep a list of, you know, who are the last retail tenant, 120 retail tenants. You can build that list, but it never, it never stops evolving.

Mm-hmm. If you do, if you finished it yesterday, it's outta date today. 

[01:15:33] Cameron Clark: Mm-hmm. 

[01:15:34] Clinton Bennett: Whereas with these databases, if you kind of keep updating your data, you can have active lists of who are the tenants, who were the last. 10 buyers for properties like this. Who are the people doing deals that, you know? So we're, we're trying to pump this data in, have it basically be searchable for us so that we can then use it to go execute on, if we're leasing space, we wanna know who to the, I mean, you're, you're never gonna be [01:16:00] perfect, but we wanna know who the targets are.

If you're, if you're selling buildings, we wanna know who the buyers are. Mm-hmm. And. Instead of having 75 spreadsheets, we're trying to get it all in one place. 

[01:16:10] Nick Beyer: Sounds like you're building for the future, which is cool. 

[01:16:12] Clinton Bennett: Well, completely. And I, I feel a little bit like a, a maniac talking about it in this length, but I just, it's, it's like the atomic habits thing.

Like we are a ways away from being, from getting it where we want it, but we've made a lot of progress and I can see that it's gonna keep moving that direction. And the thing about it is, like, I look at our big competitors. Like you look at a da, like none of this stuff's rocket science. Everybody's keeping databases.

But if you look at the really big companies, they can get so much information that it's like, oh, how do we really manage this? Or if you look at the really small companies, they have a really hard time getting out of the starting gates with how do we do this? So we're, I think we, I'm hoping we can land in a pretty like little sweet spot of being a.

We're not [01:17:00] gonna have the biggest, most robust data set, but for the stuff that, for matters, that matters in northwest Arkansas for getting local real estate deals done, we've got the information on who's doing it, both from a tenant perspective and a landlord perspective. 

[01:17:12] Nick Beyer: That's good. That's good. Well take us to 2025, the merger, why it happened, kind of when it happened.

I know you talked a little bit about the team structure already, but 

[01:17:22] Clinton Bennett: Sure. Yeah. Um, well, I've known, uh, Patrick by and Butch Ganis for 20 years now. I've known Butch longer than Patrick, but known Patrick for a long time, and always had a lot of respect for both of 'em and the work they've done. Um, and so we've been friends and we were friendly competitors.

Um, as, as Bennett commercial real estate was growing. Kinda like, I've talked about this, like I'm not a natural born leader. Uh, you know, I kind of would rather have somebody else doing the day-to-day of the leadership stuff. I like being in the field, executing and, you know, [01:18:00] we've had, I've had friendly, I mean, we're friends.

So outside of work, um, you know, we've been spending some time together and over this conversation happened over a few years. It's like, you know, maybe we should merge. Why are we, why are we doing different things? Like, why don't we merge? Like, there's really no overlap in our companies. And it's like, yeah, I don't know.

Like I we're, I'm pretty happy with what I'm doing. Like company's growing and so. The conversation had been going on in, in some ways for a, a few years. And then Patrick and I, um, our, our sons are the same age and we've spent some time together away on sporting events and whatnot. And we had a long drive one time.

And, um, we were just talking, it's like, you know, strategically speaking, what doesn't make sense about this? Like, there's no real overlap. Like our agents are complimentary, we all like each other, um, similar kind of work ethic and, and ideals to the business. Um, back to your, you know, the point of like not pushing commissions, like we [01:19:00] want to create value, they, they kinda operate that same way.

It's like, how do you create value for people rather than focus on your revenues? So we just kept talking about it. It's like, man, there's, you know, there's a lot of. There's a lot of complimentary stuff here. There's, if you think about continuing to run separate businesses like that doesn't make a ton of sense because we're, we're doing a lot of the same things on a daily basis.

So it made sense to bolt 'em together. Um, you know, I, uh, we, we kind of needed a property management component. Uh, Bennett Commercial Real Estate did, and I really didn't want to build that. Um, I think we could have done it successfully, but it was just gonna take time and energy, like any of these good businesses, it just takes time.

So they had a, have a commercial real estate, uh, property management division going, um, it's small, uh, and plan is to grow that over time as it, you know, organically, as it as it feels right. But, so, you know, we bolted on, we got more brokers, which allowed talented brokers, so we got more people that can [01:20:00] really, and we don't want a bunch, but we want people who can really be specialized in these different property segments.

So we've got more brokers, we've got, you know, shared for me. You know, partners that I respect and that, um, you know, we don't always agree on everything, but ultimately there's enough respect there that it's like, yeah, let's, let's do this differently. So I like that as I, I didn't, you know, I didn't have a particular desire to be the head of a company or a business or whatever.

I, I kind like being on a team. So it was good to have a team of, you know, strategic partners. Um, good to bolt on the property management. And then one of the things that I wanna do long term is be more involved in the investing, real estate investing space, not just personally, but I want to create a mechanism for the general public, uh, not the general public has to be accredited investors, but.

You know, there's a big demand from people that we all know to be invested in commercial real estate. Well, you know, [01:21:00] even high quality, commercial real, you could go buy a Dollar General that is leased to Dollar General and it has zero landlord responsibilities. Well, there's still work that has to go into that.

I mean, you gotta make sure that the property manager's doing what they're supposed to be doing. You gotta make sure the rents, you know, the, the rent increases are happening. You gotta make sure your loans, if it's expiring, that it's being renewed appropriately. Um, you know, if you own a Dollar General, there are lawsuits that happen with Dollar General does a great job.

Somebody slips in the parking lot you like, you get noticed of that, which I'm not trying to scare people off of a particular property type, but. You know, it's easy for people to say that is passive investing because that's about as high quality commercial real estate as far as lack of landlord responsibility.

That's, you know, passive investing. Well, it's not passive. It takes a lot of work. And so, you know, Joe Public, who's done very well in other areas of their life, but wants some exposure to commercial real estate, some diversification. You know, you [01:22:00] take that guy and you go buy him $3 generals. It's kind of a new job.

Like, it's like, oh, we gotta keep up with all this stuff. It's a lot of work. And so I think there's a huge appetite for accredited investors that have, you know, of significant portfolios that want to be invested in commercial real estate, but they don't wanna have to deal with the day-to-day management.

And, um, you know, we're very. Uh, we feel very strongly about a brokerage company needs to be a brokerage company. We're not an invest, so, so focus commercial real estate. We represent buyers and sellers buying and selling commercial real estate. Uh, the, the people in our office have a lot of real estate knowledge and they do invest in real estate and they primarily invest along when on the occasion they do.

We primarily invest alongside our clients. We get requests for that quite a bit, but we don't wanna be like an investment company where we're competing against our, um, our, [01:23:00] our brokerage clients. Mm-hmm. So you kind of need to keep investing in real estate and brokerage in real estate somewhat separate.

And so, you know, looking through that lens, we would like to create and we're in the process of creating a different company. Um, this is part of the str the strategy of partnering with Patrick and Alex. Um, Bo, we didn't mention Alex BeMe, but Patrick, Alex BeMe, uh, and, and Butch will be involved, um, as well.

We're gonna start a company called High Point Capital Investors that, you know, we've already acquired some properties, like we've got a strategy where we're buying self storage in other markets, um, you know, outside of, outside of northwest Arkansas. Kind of a, there's a, there's a strategy to our acquisitions, but we're trying to set up a, a, a platform where you have to register as a 5 0 6 B or a 5 0 6 C, um, investment advisor.

Um, I mean, there's some, there's some real, mm-hmm. As, as, as they need to be, there's some real legal protections [01:24:00] around how you structure these businesses and how you, how you bring in people's money. But, you know, if you take the general, the general thesis is if you take three or four guys that have spent their entire career in commercial real estate and they find investments that they are confident enough to put their money in and their name on the line, um, then that should be something, or is most likely something that other, you know, pa, other non-real estate investors would want to be invested in as well.

So that's what we're gonna do is go by, you know, call. Assets from 10 to $50 million, um, and raise money from outside accredited investors through this 5 0 6 B mechanism. Um, and then hopefully build a portfolio of really high quality investment properties. You know, Northwest Arkansas is not our focus for that, but, uh, you know, if there are opportunistic plays in northwest Arkansas, I can see that, you know, maybe there's a, maybe there's a project that [01:25:00] we have investments in Northwest Arkansas at some point in the future, but for the near term, that's gonna be.

Primarily a self storage focused, uh, initiative, uh, with some kind of opportunistic plays in Northwest Arkansas's, if those present. So I don't know if maybe I took that off on a tangent a little bit. No, no, that's great. I it's exciting to hear 

[01:25:18] Cameron Clark: about like what's, what's coming. Yeah. Yeah. 

[01:25:21] Clinton Bennett: And, and for me it's exciting because, you know, the reality is I'm gonna be less active day to day as a broker.

Um, so I get to kinda keep coaching and, and being involved with, you know, a young team of young guns that are, you know, focused on the brokerage, but then also use some of the gray hair to create a ancillary business that, you know, they're, they're, they're complimentary, but separate. 

[01:25:43] Cameron Clark: Yeah, yeah. You can continue to use the skills you built over the years and 

[01:25:46] Clinton Bennett: Yeah.

And you know, if you think about, um, if you think about the exposure that I, I don't know the right way to classify this, but if you think about people that have a net worth of, you know, whatever, seven figures plus. [01:26:00] How many people have an interest in being invested in commercial real estate, but how few of them actually know how to do that or have opportunities to get invested?

I just think that, I think the, the pool of people who want to be in commercial real estate is huge. So our goal is not to, we don't, we're not gonna try to gather up a bunch of money and just go do deals just for the sake of doing deals. But as we see deals, we really like, you know, we're gonna try to help other people get involved in them.

[01:26:26] Cameron Clark: Yeah. That's awesome. That's excited. Um, well, I mean, I think that's, there's nothing really new. I mean, you kind of told us on the brokerage front, Hey, we're gonna grow organically as it makes sense. There's a sweet spot there. Probably try and play in the sweet spot, be really, uh, hyper-focused on the niches.

Um, I think it's really impressive the. Where the team's at now, and like, it's fun for me, kind of, you know, being able to, yeah, you certainly, you certainly played a role in it. Uh, yeah. Like I said, you are an amazing, like, mentor along the way. [01:27:00] Um, I 

[01:27:00] Clinton Bennett: appreciate you saying that. Um, 

[01:27:01] Cameron Clark: yeah. Still are. Yeah. Um, so couple questions we ask every guest at the end.

Um, first question, how do you define success? 

[01:27:12] Clinton Bennett: Wow. I should have prepared for that one a little bit better. Um, I mean, look, I, I think being proud of what you've done, I think being, being proud of your family, being, you know, a caring person. That for me that's success. Like, I don't.

Monetary stuff, it's important to make money and make a living. You know, you gotta pay your bills, but everybody says it and it's easy to dismiss it. But like you, that the, the cancer thing was really, uh, enlightening for me. And, you know, there were a few days where I was kind of really scared through that process, and I was able to look at most of my life and say, you know, I really don't have any regrets.

Um, I, I regret, I wish I'd have done some things differently along the way, but I don't, I don't live with a lot of regret. And so for [01:28:00] me, I think success is putting yourself in a position to where we've all gotta do work, we've all gotta do things we don't like, but where you know that your energies, your energies and your efforts are going to, to build something that is additive to you along the way that, you know, is helpful to the, the people in the community around you.

And that ultimately leads you to a, a balance in life that you're, you're happy with. 

[01:28:27] Cameron Clark: Hmm. 

[01:28:27] Clinton Bennett: Um. Candidly, I, I struggle with the balance. It's, it's weird kind of getting older and realizing I need to be really focused on that balance. 'cause I haven't, I haven't done as good a job as I needed to. But, you know, listen, I, I've got a wife that I love and kids that I love, and at the end of the day, that's the most important thing.

Um, but you wanna lead them with, with some enthusiasm and some pride in what you're doing. And like this kind of never ending, uh, thirst to try to be better and to improve. 

[01:28:58] Cameron Clark: Hmm. 

[01:28:59] Clinton Bennett: [01:29:00] So I don't know if that was a very good, concise answer. Yeah, no, 

[01:29:03] Cameron Clark: that was, that was great. Um, and then we've talked a lot about the northwest Arkansas market.

A lot of different words used around it. Robust, it's growing, but like in general for an entrepreneur, why build a business in northwest Arkansas? I 

[01:29:19] Clinton Bennett: just, I, I mean, I think we're. The, just on the cusp of, I, I don't think we really can even comprehend how this market's gonna develop over the coming years. I mean, we're seeing more capital come in, we're seeing more brainpower come in, we're seeing, you know, the, just the opportunities here, the quality of life.

We all understand the quality of life. I mean, I think that the only thing we're gonna have to worry about a little bit is managing our own growth. But, you know, thank goodness the north, like the, you know, Mr. Walton and Mr. Hunt and Mr. Tyson and Valdi Lindsey, who just, you know, just passed away last week.

The guys that had the vision for the Northwest Arkansas Council, like that was, that was brilliant. And, and I know some of the initiatives have been self-serving but have [01:30:00] helped their companies. But who cares like it? That has been great for northwest Arkansas. And you know, we have a strategy. That I think is going, uh, that I think the council helps steer some strategy that, that empowers Northwest Arkansas to grow in a way that's a little more measured than markets other similar markets might be able to do.

I mean, there's a lot of energy and time and resource being put into how to, how to do this strategically. And even with that said, I mean there, there are challenges in the market growing, like the Northwest al Coun council can't solve all the problems. It's still challenging, but man, they are doing a proactive job on trying to help everybody be out in front of as many issues as they can.

So, I mean. I, I don't know. I'm, I'm getting long-winded, but I just, it's the, the question's like, why not? I mean, we've got the talent, we've got the transportation, the flight's coming in and out of XNA mm-hmm. You know, they're becoming more affordable. Um, you know, housing obviously is a problem, but we've got, I, I think, you know, [01:31:00] we're moving into this kind renter nation mentality.

Mm-hmm. We're gonna have the housing, I think that Yeah. Will, will hold us. And there are great communities, you know, our idea of a, of a commute may change a little bit. Mm-hmm. Um, but we've got great communities around the core of northwest Arkansas. 

[01:31:15] Cameron Clark: Yeah. 

[01:31:16] Clinton Bennett: So, I don't, my question would be, you know, why would you go anywhere else?

[01:31:20] Nick Beyer: Mm-hmm. So good. Um, well, one of the things we do at the end of every episode is really highlight what we've learned from you. We think our, you know, listeners will learn from you. And I think the first thing, it was like, within the first three sentences, you talked about creating value, and that was a theme throughout the whole episode.

Um, but creating value for your clients. I think that's why people will use focus commercial real estate. I think that's why they have used it, used you in the past, is like you were, your identity is built on creating value for your clients. And I think what's even cool is hearing you talk about that as a person.

You're now [01:32:00] creating, you know, you're creating value for all these people who are sitting in your office. You've, you've made that transition from being the individual broker to being the manager, the director. And I think that takes a lot in your, in your industry. That takes a lot of growth like that just, it's not natural.

And so. Yeah, that's really cool to hear. I think there are a lot of people who are in other industries where they're an individual player in transitioning from that to a team leader, it's just hard. And I think they're gonna be really encouraged by the way that you've done it, the way that you're learning to do it, um, and the way that you've done it for people in your office.

So creating value would, would be at the top of the list. I think the next one, um, what you kind of geeked out on is systems and processes. And being in an, in an industry like commercial real estate, that's probably more old school, you know, maybe a little more wild west. You've found a way across, you know, Bennett commercial real estate now focused to really hone in all of that [01:33:00] data.

And you're looking to use that to, to kind of build the future, to provide value for your clients, for, you know, everybody sitting outside this hallway to provide value as well. And so. I think creating those things, any business owner who's listening to this, finding a way to take a lot of the things you've done and package it up and, and look at how you can use it to serve people in the future.

You know, I think that's a big, big learning. There's so much data out there, but how can you actually use that data to help people, not just capture it, to capture it, but truly capture it to provide value? And then the last thing, and I think it's your gift, it's consistency, it's presence. It's being in the market.

You've been in the market for a long time. You've been doing commercial real estate for a long time, and you're just really in it. And I think there's a component of. You know, you could say it's, it's probably your strength and your vice at the same time, right? Getting out of it, being in it, and I think you look at people who are really successful, they're all like that.

They're all in it. [01:34:00] It's hard to step back out of it. It's hard to have balance because you're so in it. Your brain's always rolling in it, but it's part of why you're able to do the first thing that we talked about, which is creating value for your clients. And so if I'm a small business owner listening today, if I'm an entrepreneur, spying, aspiring entrepreneur, like those are some of the things that I'm gonna listen.

That I'm gonna learn from when I listen this episode. So, Clinton, thanks for your time. How can people find out more about focused commercial real estate? How can they, you know, reach out to you? 

[01:34:29] Clinton Bennett: Yeah. Well, thank you. That's very humbling to hear you read through it that way. And, uh, I take a lot of pride in that and it's nice to hear it.

I sometimes maybe don't think of myself through that lens, but it's, it's been an enjoyable conversation. I, I appreciate you highlighting those things. Um, yeah, as far as how to find us, we're pretty easy to find. It's, it's, uh, focus cre group.com. Um, and my cell phone's pretty much everywhere. You just call me when you want to.

Um, but yeah, we're. Here and ready to help. And you know, one of the things, I guess I'll make a [01:35:00] little plug here at the end. I mean, we're not a hard sale group, so if somebody just wants to talk about a real estate deal or get, get a, a piece of advice or, you know, I don't want people to feel pressured calling us if they just want to chat about an idea.

So we're here and available and would love to offer our thoughts on the, on whatever's happening in the market. 

[01:35:18] Cameron Clark: Hmm. 

[01:35:18] Clinton Bennett: That's good. 

[01:35:19] Cameron Clark: Thanks Clinton. 

[01:35:20] Clinton Bennett: Yeah, thank you guys. This has been a lot of fun. Thank you. 

[01:35:23] Cameron Clark: Thank you for listening to this episode of NWA Founders, where we sit down with founders, owners and builders driving growth here in northwest Arkansas.

For recommendations are to connect with us, reach out at NWA founders@gmail.com. Lastly, if you enjoyed this episode, then please consider leaving a rating, a review, and sending it to someone who you think would benefit from it. We'll see you in the next episode.