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Transforming the Game with Kristina Katsanevas is the podcast for game-changers, risk-takers, and industry shakers. Don’t hate the player—hate the game? Not here. These leaders are rewriting the rules. From high-net-worth entrepreneurs, founders of Australia’s most iconic brands, and those disciplined enough to keep stacking those habits to success. We dive into the minds of pioneers innovating in media, business, fashion, sport and transformation.
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I'm here with the deal maker behind some of Miami's biggest skyline plays. Persian roots, Swedish polish and a Miami engine. John Parciani, welcome to Transforming the Game. Thank you for having me. Now you have led some of the headline towers in Miami here from the Aston Martin residents, the Aria on the Bay, Aria Reserve. Which I believe, and I'm looking right, it's the highest residential twin towers in the United States. Tallest waterfront twin towers. Tallest waterfront twin towers. For now. For now. Yeah, well, take it. Take it for now. Very impressive. Thank you. But before I want to dive deep into what it takes to have a $5 billion sales playbook in power play negotiation, I want you to take us back to... the core experiences of little John that have shaped the man that's sitting in front of me today. How many hours do we have? As many as you need. Well, born in Iran in a city called Shiraz, which is the city of wine and poetry, and born into not the ideal circumstances, I would say, because the country was going through a transformation. There was a revolution. There was a war shortly thereafter. And I have only, not, well, mostly fond memories of my childhood there. whatever was challenging was something that I, at the time, you know, as a kid, it looks like, it seems like normal until afterwards when you realize what things were quite not so normal, including the revolution, including the war, seeing F-15 fighter jets go over your house while you're looking at the clouds on the rooftop and seeing bombs drop in the city. That's 10 minutes away from you. We lived, thankfully, about 10 minutes outside the city and at night hearing the sirens go off and having to go to the basement and, you know, seeing the whole sky lit up with red dots going up like a video game and all the anti-aircraft weaponry going off. So those things. And then thanks to my, thanks to my mother that was like, you know, well, we're not, we can't stay here anymore because they came to our schools at the age of nine and started showing us how to assemble weapons. getting us ready to go to the war. And so we left at that time illegally to India, fake names and fake passports to Singapore, fake names and fake passports to final destination, which was Sweden. So we arrived in, I never forget when the plane was landing, it was just all white. I'd never seen anything like it in my life. And it's like, are we landing in, you know, in the North Pole or where were we going? So that was a fun experience and in its own. And then beautiful country, but then having to deal with a whole new set of challenges which included neo-Nazi parades and skinheads and that racism on that sense where when you, when you don't have the blonde hair, blue eyes that I do. In Sweden, how old were you when you moved there? 10. 10. Yeah. Yeah. So then it was like I was the only kid in school other than another kid that was adopted that did not have blonde hair, blue eyes in my town and in that school. And it was interesting to grow up with those set of new challenges where it was like, all right, well, you don't belong and And it started me off in a way, it actually was a positive, had a positive effect on me where it was I went back into the library to see why am I being looked at as less than or not belonging and what are my roots, where am I from, what's my heritage. And... You know, I found, dug deep and found the roots of like the Persian culture and the Persian heritage and being proud that you're descendants of the kings and, you know, all of the people that had a huge hand in the history of the world, you know, from mathematics to astrology to to everything. So it was just in history, I found a piece of myself, if you will. I like that. You empowered yourself with knowledge rather than playing the victim. Yeah. Or going into the streets and fighting like a lot of my friends chose to do in that sense. So, you know, then I would have debates with the, with the, some of the skinheads that wanted to have the debates. And it was like, okay, so you believe in the Aryan race? Yes. So you believe that the Aryan race was superior? Yes. So then you should bow down before me because I'm Persian. I'm the true Aryan. Iran means land of, land of Aryans. You're a descendant. I'm the original, you know, say hello to your, to your superior. So didn't go over very well. Yeah, I was going to say I had that guy down. Not, not so well. It wasn't received well. And then, you know, that's what kind of propelled me also in the society when I found out that I'm never going to kind of get my fair share in that kind of a society where I always have an automatic disadvantage based on the way I look, right? So I said, you know, that's when I kind of found the American dream, if you will, from there. And I said, that's where I'm going to go and that's going to be my home and I'm going to make the American, I'm going to go for the American dream. So that became my passion and my mission. And I applied, I forced myself to do well, which school was not my forte, if you will. But I wanted to get a scholarship, which I ended up getting, applied to universities in the United States, came here to Miami first, then Daytona Beach, studied aviation computer engineering, and... That's not easy topics for someone who doesn't like school. Correct. And it was something I was recommended to do because I guess I had a knack for technology in that sense. But it wasn't a passion of mine at all. So I was much more social, wanted to be out, wanted to explore. Yeah. this new country and new universe that I had found here. So I went in, you know, I had a 1.5 GPA at the time, and I was getting summer jobs in the meantime. And I got a job with Delta Airlines. I rose through the ranks and stayed with Delta. So I ended up dropping out of school, got into the work field, did extremely well at Delta Airlines, and then, um, Right after 9-11, my mom said, you know, she was hearing my frustrations with the way the airline industry was functioning, which was all about seniority, not so much about performance. And she said, why don't you just do real estate? Because you're handling all these accounts and you're the manager for Southeast Florida for all of these marketing and sales and just get into real estate. So thankfully, I listened to her. I did go back to school to graduate with a full 4.0 full honors, my business degree, which was my passion. And when I was supposed to go back into the corporate world and leave real estate behind, but I guess God had a different plan for me. I was living at a Buddhist temple for a year at the time, and I met someone very important there that got me back into real estate. And that was my entry into new construction, pre-construction sales. So I started my, my career there and the rest is kind of history of. And then here you are. Yeah. With Pasiani Real Estate, you've had this since 2021. Is that right? Correct. Yeah. So you've had it since 2021. And I see you've got a fair list of accolades when it comes to sales from the, now you're going to, I couldn't quite get it. It was top one, top 1% sales in America. Yes. And I've got... few list of other things there. So you know how to sell, you know how to communicate, you know how to read the room. Now, what got you to pivot from moving up and then deciding to take it on yourself and create your own company? Good question. I had worked with Sotheby's, I'd worked with Engel and Vokers, I'd work with Severa, which are all very notable companies and had, you know, worked in executive positions for them as the director of business development and senior sales executives, etc., etc. But I guess life brought me to a point where I realized if I really want to excel and really find, you know, my wings, if you will. I was always limited to what I could do. And I knew what was the right thing to do, but I could never get the, I had to get approvals and it would always slow me down or completely stop me from doing what I knew was the right thing to do. So as life would have it, I was the sales director at a project called The Gale. interim sales director and then basically the developers from the first project that I had ever worked on came back came to me and said, you know, John, we just finished assembling a 5.2 acre waterfront lot after 10 years and 84 separate purchases. uh that's how long it took us to put this plot together and um we finally assembled it so if i break that down just for a second so one of the the main plots is this sorry was it yours or was it the person you were working for um this was a developer the developer 84 separate folios yeah that's that's persistence and patience right there over a 10-year period and a vision yeah and And that is the Mello family, the Mello group, which are Argentinian originally. Have nothing but love and respect for them and they're amazing people and visionaries and they transform the city. I think they're the number one, they are the number one taxpayer in the city of Miami because at the same time, when they moved here in the year 2000, they started building high-rise rental buildings as well. So they have, I think, up to 27 buildings that they built, own and manage as of right now. So to say that they're visionaries is kind of an understatement. And they started from scratch here when they arrived, right? So they don't have this generational... you know, history here in Miami. And they've revolutionized the city. They revolutionized Edgewater. And I was fortunate enough for our paths to cross. They started with their first residential project, which was Aria on the Bay. Aria being a Persian name. It's something that it attracted me. And I said, you know what? That's probably a Persian project, but it wasn't. It's a Persian name. Yes. Yeah. It's one of the oldest. Yeah. Interesting. And so, you know, that was my very first pre-construction project. Would you say? Would you say that was your catalyst? You're big when you moved into luxury, I'm going big. I'm not going to just sell the average home. Right. I was in luxury. I started in luxury with Sotheby's. But in general, real estate is very different than pre-construction sales. So when you get into pre-construction sales, then your clients become mostly other professionals, other real estate agents, other brokerages. rather than going after the end user, you make relationship with other brokerages locally, nationally, internationally, right? Because when you have a $1.7 billion project like ARIA Reserve, um, And 742 residences across two towers, you know, I can maybe sell, bring 20, 30 of my clients to that project, but what happens to the other 700? Yeah. So then I, you know, need to make relations with other brokers that can then bring 5, 10, 20 other of their buyers to the project. And that's how we can make something big happen. So it was a shift, but I found my forte there. I found, I kind of hit my stride on that, dealing with professionals, doing presentations, public speaking, traveling around the world and talking about, you know, mostly why U.S., why Florida, why Miami, and then why this neighborhood and why this project in that neighborhood. So, you know, when you travel internationally, I can't just talk about, hey, look at this building in Edgewater because they have no idea what I'm talking about. Let me double down on that now. So that right there is going into a bit of your sales playbook of how you're selling a billion-dollar project with 700 residents plus. And you didn't just say, I can't just sell the building, which I'm trying to get here for listeners or people wanting to get into luxury sales or high ticket sales here. How you actually sell the vision to potential clients and where are these potential clients? clients because you just said you go international as well. Right. So it's obviously the marketing that we all do that everybody does across all the social media channels. Throughout the years, I developed also a client list in my general real estate because the first half of my career was in general real estate. Later half of my career has been in pre-construction sales and that's where I've really excelled and kind of found my happy place, if you will, in that because I also really enjoyed doing it where in general real estate, I didn't really enjoy it. It was kind of a chore, something that I had to do. But pre-construction sales, it was something that immediately, almost immediately I really enjoyed. doing and the sky's the limit and you get what you put into it, right? There is no kind of ceiling in that sense. So, and you collaborate with different brokerages and you, you know, you can sell locally, nationally, internationally, and kind of exponentially grow your client base. So, yeah. I focused on, I had, I think at that time I had a email database of maybe 2,000. And now I have 225,000 in my email database. Yeah, so I've grown that. And, you know, the way that I've always tried to do it is to make sure I take care of those people that I've always... put myself in their shoes and do the best I possibly can for them and guide them forward. Obviously, the clients we deal with in pre-construction sales are the top 1% usually globally as well, because these are cash transactions. They're not reliant on mortgages. And you have to wait typically anywhere from two to four years to receive the product, right? So it's not your first home. It's not probably your second home either. And it's something that you're getting that you have to wait and you have to put a good amount of cash down and go from there. So amazing clients that I meet from all around the world. And I'm privileged to have kind of come across... superstars like Mark Anthony and Timberland and Pogba and all of these amazing people that have purchased with us. And it's been quite something to kind of come across people from all different walks of life and connect with them and see how they live and see that they enjoy pretty much these beautiful buildings in Miami. What's some of the biggest stars that you've sold to then or biggest celebrities or like those are the ones that I can mention that I have the right to say. Yeah, okay. That I'm allowed to say. And yeah. Because you're dealing, as you say, with the top 1%, it's cash. It's usually not their first second. Talk me through how you manage just the relationship and ego. Because I imagine you deal with a lot of big egos and it's a bit of a power play where how do you manage that relationship to... secure the deal? I guess I've been fortunate because of my upbringing, because of the exposure I had to so many people from so many different walks of life and lived across four continents and traveled to almost 60 countries. I've been fortunate to be able to kind of meet everyone in all different kinds of walks of life. So I usually find some, there's some common ground there, And I don't engage in the ego play because there's no winning there whatsoever. So, you know, especially when you have a multi-billion dollar ultra successful, one of the top developers in the world in one hand as a seller, and you have a multinational celebrity... um, you know, on, on, on the other side, and you're the one in between that needs to bring those two together. Um, you can't have much of an ego or you can't bring your ego to that table. Right. So you have to kind of manage it more in the human human side and, and, um, and put yourself in their shoes and explain the other side to each other. This is the thought process here. These are the risks that they have to take as a developer and this is the position that they have. And then you explain the other side. They want this for their family. This is what their thought process is. And so you always try to, I always try to put myself in their shoes and see where they're coming from. So I ask a lot of questions. And I try to understand them the best I can, and then I bring that to the other side. And I think that's the way I kind of fuse the two together. I like it. I like it. It's also self-awareness there where you are awareness and you're looking at the bigger picture of what the goal is, not about what's going on there. Absolutely. So do you deal with then, I was going to ask, if buyers advises ever, like with the clients, or is it always usually... As far as buyer brokers, you mean? Yeah, a lot. And do they ever, like usually you get told, stay away from the buyer's agents and things like that. Do they kill momentum if they're killing momentum? How do you bring it back? No, mostly they understand. There are some that obviously want to show that they're also kind of, with pre-construction, we do all of the work most of the time, right? So the buyer's agent brings their client to our office. We do the presentation. There are some buyers agents that yes, they want to kind of speak up and kind of feel like they're also engaged. And I always tell them you can be as involved or as uninvolved as you wish to be. So usually we don't run into kind of issues there. Yeah. I always, again, I always ask their clients and I've had a case that comes to mind. Um, where an agent brought the client into the office and I asked the client, you know, what is it that you're looking for? What's the objective here? And it wasn't suitable for that project. that I was selling. So I just told them, I said, listen, this is probably not going to be the right project for you because these are rental restrictions. You're looking for something else. This is what the project is. This is the type of client that the project is suitable for. You know, and again, at the end of the day, we present the most accurate presentation we possibly can based on what we know from, from ownership, from the developers. And then, you know, again, the buyers are very, these are very educated buyers as well. So, they make their decisions based on what they feel like they need to do. And we're certainly never the first or the last presentation. They usually go to many, they have their options. But at the end of the day, I told the client that and the agent was extremely upset at me afterwards and called me and yelled at me on the phone. It's like your job is to sell this project. And I was like, no. But I think. First of all, don't tell me what my job is. Second of all, this would be a client that would end up hating you and me a few years down the line if I just tried to sell, you know, one shoe fits all. This is something that I know is probably not what they're looking for. So that was an interesting conversation. I love that though because to be honest, let's go with real estate agents in general, which you'll get bundled into, have a bit of a rep for just being, bits like just sly or just they'll just try and sell and it's always at the highest price or whatever. And to even I think you will have, they might have friends that they'll now recommend and there'll be a buy down the track. So you're just building your reputation and the trust in the industry. And so I applaud you. I applaud you for that one. Well, there's a lot of, there is a lot of sharks in the water when it comes to real estate. Especially hot ticket, right? Yes. And that, in any field that you go to where it's a high risk, high reward environment, you're going to find that element there, right? Right. But I always like to say I'm more of a dolphin. I use my head and my brain to get ahead, not my teeth. So in that sense, you know, I swim well in these waters, let's say. How do you set the price from day one so you're not discounting later? How do you? So I'm fortunate again because of the Mello Group, because of how visionary they are and how early they started when they came. They looked at the map of Miami and they saw 10 moves ahead and they saw edge water is the area that is that's not being looked at by most developers and no one really wants to touch it. But it is the final waterfront piece in the heart of Miami. It's what basically is the center of everything. You have Miami Beach across the water. You have Design District, Midtown and Windward right behind you west of you. So you're the waterfront of those three neighborhoods. Then you have Brickle and Downtown and Brickle South of you. Yeah. So it's literally, you know, in the middle of everything, but you have gorgeous, beautiful water views. I would say the best views in Miami. You see everything that makes Miami, Miami. You see all the way from even Fort Lauderdale to sunny aisles down to Kipiskeen. You see Star Island, Hibiscus Island, Palm Island, Venetian Island, everything again that makes Miami is forever unobstructed in your views. And then you also get a gorgeous sunset view if you have a flow through residence, which almost all of our residences do. And you, you know, you're two minutes to Winwood, which is a home of Art Basel, largest art exhibit in the world that comes to Miami every year in December, where we have more private jets in Miami than anywhere in the U.S. is a fun fact. That's we are the waterfront of that. That's two minutes, two minutes west of us. Midtown, which is a super dynamic area, which I love. Everybody has a pet and great restaurants and cafes and people walk around. And that's three minutes away from us, west of us as well. And then Design District, which is a phenomenal place. Your global luxury stores, everybody from Louis Vuitton to Louis Vuitton to George Armani to Fendi to Chanel and anyone you can imagine or have their global luxury stores there. Very few places in the world where you have this outdoor mall space where you can just walk around. That's four minutes away from us, right? So you're six minutes to the beach across three bridges from there. You're 14 minutes to the airport. I've made it in eight myself, but I like to drive fast. Again, and you're five to six minutes to downtown Umbreca. So you're... And not to mention, can I say I arrived in Miami this morning and the weather is, you were telling me it's cold. I hate the cold and this is warm, ladies and gentlemen. So the weather here is just... my kind of weather. This is the Swedish summer, which is what I call it when we get to, when we get to like in the 60s, but everyone feels like this is, well, like or say 18 degrees or, yeah, you know, Celsius. Right. Yeah. So that's when it gets to like 20 degrees or 18 degrees Celsius, that's our, that's our winter months. And it's, it goes up from there. So it's, it's beautiful weather. You're walking distance to the opera, the ballet, the theater, the museum, the concerts, the games. We have Formula One. We're the only city in the world to have all of the five major sports and Formula One and FIFA. No other city in the whole world has what we have in terms of, yeah. So it is a city that has culture now and very deep roots in culture in that sense. We're more of a melting pot than New York could ever be now. 50% of the people you meet here are born out of the country and the other 50% I like to say are from out of state mostly. So it's a true melting pot. We have a diverse range of neighborhoods now from Coconut Grove to Corrigables to downtown to Brickle to Edgewater to design district Midtown Windwood, Miami Beach. So it's like there is something for everyone where when I moved here 26 years ago, that was not the case. It's also, what was I going to say on that? With, I don't know, so I got distracted with this now. But when it comes to the... Miami and the residences that you've been working on. So Aston Martin, well, Ari is less, but where does brand hold up in the real estate market and how much of it is a story and people think they're buying to what's the reality of what the true value is with, say, let's go with the Aston Martin Reserve. Very good question. So in terms of a brand that that is the latest frontier in luxury living and lifestyle living. that developers are working with these brands. And I feel like what they're realizing is also hospitality has a big part of it. And I think a lot of developers are now pursuing and likewise the hospitality brands are pursuing developers to do something together, more so than what was initially said say your Porsche towers, right? Or the Astamaran residences, or the Misoni brand building, or the Armani building, or the Fendi building. And so we have it all down here. People compare us, and they say, we're, you know, it's like Dubai, but, It's Miami, it's United States. We are, I feel far more superior to any other city in terms of growth. I think US is the future of the world respectfully. And I feel like Miami is the future of United States. Whereas the- Why is that? Well, for, again, for a multitude of reasons, because of the whole dynamic of the world and US, especially shifting after COVID. It made a lot of the domestic population in the US realize and discover Miami the way they had never done before. Yeah, okay, we had that in Australia too. People started to move towards the lifestyle locations rather than necessarily all the majors in the middle. Absolutely. So, you know, I used to travel before COVID. Yeah. All around the world, I used to talk about Miami, talk about U.S., talk about all of that. And I never forget I was in Turkey at one point. I was speaking in front of a large audience there. And I was talking about our price per square foot and how advantageous that was compared to most global cities. And someone said, oh, it's too expensive. And I said, yeah. I just couldn't understand. And I said, you have places on the Bosphorus here in Turkey and respectfully, not Miami, not, you know, with the opportunities here that are more expensive than Miami. How can you say Miami is so expensive? After COVID, what people discovered, we usually had, we had Canada always moving down here. South America has always been a client of ours. Europe has been a client of ours. Lately, Asia as well in Middle East. But there was a huge part of the domestic population in the US that used to come and play in Miami, but never saw it as a home. Never saw it as a place where they would put down roots, where they would kind of move to. And I think COVID kind of woke them up. The freedom factor, which was huge in the way our governor ran the state. And I have to give it up. He's the best real estate broker in the state by far, Governor DeSantis, and our mayor, Suarez as well. phenomenal in terms of government leadership during COVID that put us on the map in a big way because freedom was one of the forefront where other states were, you know, super restrictive, closing down small business, shutting down all of the doors. We had a somewhat regulated but still a focus on freedom and being able to kind of maintain and live. Yeah. a decent lifestyle, right? How did that work for, if we're talking COVID when they did that, how did that work when it came to the people, the health and the numbers for you guys for COVID? I think, and again, Sweden was another country that actually just did not shut down at all. I think they're overall now looking back, they rated pretty much the same as everywhere else. So, you know, it worked out in that sense. So freedom was the number one factor. crime became a huge factor as well, where here you can feel very safe wearing jewelry and nice watches and driving nice cars and not having to worry about looking in the rearview mirror when you drive home from a nice restaurant that someone's going to follow you home and rob you there like we've seen in LA and some of the other markets there. I did ask the gentleman I was sitting next to on the plane driving here and he said, where am I staying? And he said, And he said, oh, it's a good area. It's like, oh, okay, yeah. And I guess the thought did cross my mind and rightly or wrongly about, I didn't think anything negative of Miami, but it was, oh, hang on, can I just go for a walk? And is it okay? But yeah, it was beautiful. It was beautiful. 26 years here, knock on wood. It's been amazing and I've driven everywhere and this is, in my opinion, one of the safest places where you don't have to look over your shoulder all the time, right? Whereas that's not the case in New York, that's not the case in LA, that's not the case in a lot of the other places. So, you know, we had this huge awakening of the domestic market. that realize the potential of Miami, the business friendliness, the tax savings that they're getting here, the weather, the lifestyle, the sports, you know. So all of those factors, I think, makes us the future of United States where when you look at LA, New York, Boston, Chicago, D.C., I feel like they're the older cities and they are the, so if they're the, you know, 90-year-olds, Miami's the 35 year old just coming onto its own. It's not perfect by any means, but it is young, it's vibrant, it's hungry, it's ambitious. It's willing to take some risk and maybe fall on its face here and there in some ways. But it's on the upward trajectory in a big way. So I've been hearing and we hear from different experts here and there that real estate's dead. Clearly that's your forte here. What's your reaction to that real estate's dead? I usually smile and laugh and say, okay, fine, if that's the thought process behind it. Again, I think all the numbers prove otherwise. Okay. Right? I think people do take advantage of, and a lot of times the cities that I just mentioned that are in somewhat competition with us, they're losing their population to Florida. Yeah. And they always love to highlight and jump on the bandwagon. Oh, Florida's going down or Miami's going down. The market is getting worse. So people are moving back. Overall, that's not true. We're used to numbers in the past four years that are completely unrealistic for really any other market to have. The number of sales, the number of people that are moved down here on average 600 people per day have moved to Florida, which is an insane number to think about. Move not visit it. When you have those kind of numbers, it is, and it normalizes. People feel like the sky is falling, the ceiling is, oh my God, you know, the market is crashing. No, it's just normalizing. Any market in the United States would love to have our market, the market that Miami has today, right? The number of sales, the number of activity that we have, they would love to have it because this is a normal. But for us, because we're used to something so much more, it feels like a huge drop. So do you feel it's stable now? And that it's on its right projections? I do. Yes? Absolutely. And you have to have the ebbs and flows, right? You can't keep expanding forever. It's not an arrow up straight up. There's no inhaling forever. You have to exhale once in a while to be able to take a deeper breath, right? So that's how I kind of see it. I don't see it as a bubble. I see it as waves, you know, but we're on the right path. path to the right thing. And because again, every time we've seen a drop, our next high has been higher than the last high. So that shows me that we're heading in the right direction, right? And so with all of your real estates and everything you do, what does your portfolio look like personally? Obviously, you invest in real estate. Yes, I do. And I'm investing more. And it's, to me, it's the safest, at least the safest way for me, where I feel like it's something tangible. I've played in the stock market as well. And I am in the stock market as well. But yeah. There I feel like, you know, the rug can get pulled from under you at any moment for any reason, especially things you have zero control over. And before you know it, it's already gone down to zero or close to it, or you've already lost X amount. So it's too late to act. Right? Because I'm not sitting in front of a computer every day tracking the markets. Right? That cannot happen in real estate. You don't have a 50% drop in a day in real estate. It just does not happen that way. So for me, I feel safer investing my money in different parts and different sectors of real estate, whether it's commercial, residential, multifamily, etc. and balance my budget that way, and then have something in the stock market also. But that's the money where it's like, okay, if it goes to zero, then I don't have to rely on, right? Crypto being also a huge part of that as well. But I feel like there's nothing like real estate. And if you look historically, that's just a fact. Just, oh, geez, that's going to stay, all right? You've heard it here. Now, so real estate's one thing. You also do like your toys. And so... You have, I was commenting when I was looking at all the cars, they're so black tinted or they're extra big coming from Australia. It's just seems jumbo sized here, even your crossings, your road crossings. It feels like it's insane. But what does your, I see you're in the Ferrari Club or do you have Ferrari and you like your cars? So what does a Ferrari represent to you on a tough day? I don't know that I would go to that on a tough day. On a tough day, I usually look for family and friends and more genuine connections. I think a Ferrari is just a very superficial... toy that you take out for a spin and enjoy with the boys and you go for drives and breakfast and you know you basically just enjoy life in that sense. So it's something, it's not something to make me happy. The way I see it is I'm already, my baseline should be happy already. And if I'm not happy, then I look for more authentic ways to get me to that baseline. But that is something that could make me happier. So it's, it's a more superficial Good answer. Yeah. Good answer. So it's not, it's not sure I've made it. I've got it. It was just, Maybe when I the day that I got it because it was a dream for a long time. I have as a kid, maybe I think I was nine years old. I was in a car museum that my parents took me to. And I went in front of a Ferrari and I took a picture with it. And I said one day. And then when I was, I think 18 or 19, there was another Ferrari that I took a picture. And I have those pictures. And then when I made it happen, you know, in some way was like I made my dream come true. But it does not in any way I feel my toys do not define me because I'm humble enough and I've seen life and learned from other people's experience enough where I realized that that's not what makes us who we are in any way, shape or form. You can have it one day, you cannot have it the other. So if you're basing your self-worth on these material things, you're going to be in for a hell of a ride. And I think my Buddhist The temple experience also was a big part in reminding me of those. And I was called the Louis Vuitton monk at the time when I was living at the Buddhist house because of, you know, I was in this superficial materialistic, you know, having all the nice things. Yeah. And it humbled me. And it was a phase that taught me that. all of this. And at that time, I was living credit card to credit card. And I was, you know, I made it. I was never born with a silver spoon. Well, we were very well off in Iran when I was born. And then we lost everything and started from scratch in Sweden, where my mom had $100 to her name. And then it was my goal to then be able to repay her and say, I got you one day. And that was my biggest accomplishment to be able to do that. That's lovely. Yeah, that's, that's That's beautiful. And it's very good. You do seem in all that you do quite spiritual and rounded when it comes to even with great success. And I think that's probably important for most listeners out there is that if you're thriving going, I want to be John one day. I want to have my high ticket sales. I want to be with the Ferrari and the big cars that if that's all you're driving to, it's actually not going to complete you or probably make you feel the way you think it's going to make you feel if you haven't. if you're not happy as your baseline. Exactly. Oh, that's good. What's your non-negotiables, morning, night routines to keep you this, you know, rounded baseline person? I'd say I want to say exercise because that's been like the final frontier for me to keep consistent. But I've been able to master most of the areas in my life that I wanted to at the expense of that, unfortunately. you know, 14 to 16 hour days, grueling days where it's just, you know, but that's normal, I think for, you know, for someone that is originally like an immigrant or someone that had to leave their country behind and start a life in a new place and then start a new life again in another place. So not knowing the language like English is my fourth language. Proust, he speak. Persian, Swedish, Norwegian and English. So those are my four. So, you know, having to kind of reset and start from scratch in all of these areas, it wasn't as maybe as you would think like a privilege of being born into a place where your parents and your friends and your family are generational. And it's just, you're just continuing down a beaten path of what they've kind of paved for you, right? I had to pave my way at each of these steps myself and go through the jungle and fail and learn and fail again and learn again. So... The American dream is true, ladies and gentlemen. I can attest to that. And I do firmly believe this is one of the greatest countries on the planet because it does not care about who you are in terms of what your background is, what your hair color is, what your skin color is, what you look like. It cares about what you're willing to bring to the table, what you're able to bring to the table and contribute to society. Right. regardless of who your mom is or dad is or what your parents were like, that's what it cares about. And if you bring something valuable to the table, the sky's the limit. And if you don't, then... So America made you. Yes. America made you. I will also say a common theme with a lot of people I talk with on the show as well is your resourcefulness. When you come from nothing or you've moved like you do and you've, you've, being what some would say you've just got nowhere else to go down, that the resourcefulness, I think, is just ingrained in your DNA, along with a few other very successful people from, I've had professional footballers who, you know, one day was, is in South America laying up looking at the stars at the planes and said, I'm going to fly in that plane one day and I'm going to be a professional footballer. And his friends laughed because he didn't even have shoes, like the very poor, almost like homeless. But the resourcefulness I see, and I see it in you as well of it's, It's just, you always find a way. There's just, there's always a way. And it's a very, it's very noble trade. You have to when you don't have a safety net. There's no other option, right? But the people with the silver spoon or they think they want it or they think they might dream of it, but they're not willing to put in that hard work when it hurts. Like you said before, like very casually, or 14 to 16 hour days, that's just what you've got to do. Right. Like if you, like what do you do to get it done rather than people who expect maybe, I've got an idea and someone else can do it for me. So it's, it's, it's just, yeah. natural to you, but that's something I like to push out there because the more people I talk to like yourself that are at that higher level of what they want to do within themselves, like success peak is that resourcefulness, the grit, the resilience, the getting back up a hundred times over. And people think they want that, but how many times are you willing to get up? It's very, it's really, it's really impressive. Falling eight times, getting up nine, as I say. That's a Japanese probably. Yes. What scoreboard, what scoreboard do you track internally that no one in the public would ever see? Do you know what I'm trying to ask there? Like what's something that you... Excuse me. Is there any water? Thank you so much. Sorry, my cold is catching up with me. You're right. What do you think so far? Great. Yeah. Right. I was just checking. I didn't answer your last question, though. Which one? About... my routines in that sense. No, you deviated, but we can go back or you can just not. Whatever that shot was, I took that purple thing about two minutes ago. I just feel me going, really? I should have taken you up on that. I'm like, what is it? Oh dear. Was it an energy drink? It was an energy one. I just wanted something in case I dropped, but I feel quite good actually. Thank you so much. Thank you. Doesn't matter. I don't. So what would be a scoreboard, John, that you track internally that the public doesn't see? I would say everything. Give me specific. Attention to detail is so important in my business because I'm basically in the middle of all of these transactions. I'm wearing all of the hats from being an agent to being a psychologist to being the nurse to be like you have to be so many things as a broker. I'm reporting to my developers, I'm running my team, my team are asking me for things, my developers asking me for things, my clients are asking me for things. So it's all of these strings and all of that always pulling in one direction or another. So it's just basically making sure that you're always available. as much as possible. That's difficult. That is very difficult, but it's also a key to success. That's something that, again, unfortunately, a lot of Miami agents are known for not doing, not being able to be able to reach, not answering their phone, not returning calls. That's something that you would think is basic. How do you track that? Like, I don't reckon that's... That's for you for performance, but for you internally of what do you track that? Or maybe that is something, but how do you track that? Yeah, that's what I'm internally is I'm going to make sure I'm going to do. So if it's I'm going to make sure I'm always available, you click on your phone to respond unless it's an Australian number, which clearly doesn't get through to your emails, text or WhatsApp. I don't know what's going on there. Well, I always call back. I always go through at the end of the day all of the missed calls. I'm always reachable. It's not. Yeah, so consistency is key. Doing what you say you're going to do when you say you're going to do it, being reliable in that sense is a huge part of it. And then integrity, always trying to do the best you can in that situation or create a win-win scenario for everybody. Right? I'm not a magician, but I try to always have that in mind when I do something where at that table, people don't walk away as a winner and a loser because I try not to have that because it always leaves a bad taste in somebody's mouth. So as much as I have the power to do, as much as I can possibly affect that, I try to create winners with everybody that's at the table. The art of negotiation right there, so the win-win, or is it a lose-lose sort of thing where it's like people feel like they could have... I've heard it both ways. You want it win-win, but there's never a win-win. And then it's both feel like they could have got something, but both feel like they could have lost more as well. Yeah, for me, it's more again, it's to create a win-win where everybody feels like, okay, well, I did good. I did okay. You know, so, and depending on the personalities, there are some people that go for that for everything, right? But it's a matter of, you know, bringing them to the table and making them understand that there's more than one side to it. And everybody has to win at the table so that this business can be a fruitful one. And everybody can continue coming back to the table. Because if you create a win-lose situation or lose-lose situation, people don't want to come back to that table. They're just, you know. So let's talk on that. If we go into negotiations now, because you're talking about you've got to, you know, they want the money, they want the best deal. That's what it is. If you've got a bit of a stalemate, what's your negotiation tactics that you might go to? Is it silence? Is it anchoring? Is it? How do you? It's definitely not silence. I don't like a silence type. That doesn't usually serve well with anyone because then on both sides, their minds take over and their egos take over. And then, you know, you have all this imaginary thoughts about what the other side might be thinking and doing. So I think communication is key as much of it as possible. And some humility in terms of, listen, this is where they're actually coming from. And this is, you know, again, bringing it down to the human level, where actually you're putting a face and the idea, because a lot of times we see things only through our lens, right? So we have all these expectations. And we come in as a, myself, I go in as a buyer and I wanna buy something, but I wanna get the best deal possible. So out of all the options that I have, I go for the best and the lowest priced option but I should know that that comes with a price, right? I'm not going to get the, you know, the, let's say, I'm not going to get a BMW at a Bugatti budget, you know, or a Bugatti at a BMW budget, I should say. So knowing that when I go in to get... You probably have a Bugatti, don't you? No, I do. I have no interest in having that right now either, because if you know what the maintenance fees on those things are... I do not. It's pretty insane. But in terms of, again, I always try to, I lost my, you're not going to get, you've got to know if you're negotiating and you say you want the cheapest price, but the best, you're not, you, You'd sacrifice. You have to know that, yeah. So you have to know you're sacrificing something, right? So in real estate, there's always a sacrifice, as in with anything. You either have to sacrifice the location, or you have to sacrifice your views, or you have to sacrifice the size, or you have to sacrifice on the price, the price point. So there's always something that you're sacrificing. There's no like perfect where you're getting the lowest price for the best views, with the best location, and the best finishes. Right. It just doesn't exist. So knowing what it is you're kind of getting yourself into and, and managing expectations. I always like to under promise and over deliver. So for example, if I was selling something at $900 a square foot, I'm going to focus on what you're getting, what you're getting an amazing location, you're getting great amenities, and you're getting amazing views, but you're not going to get $2,000 per square foot finishes. You're not going to get gold plated finishes in your kitchen and amazing detail. That's what you then come to the table and you pay to get done yourself, right? So it's just a matter of kind of giving people that reminder. Expectation. Yeah, expectation and setting that expectation. So it's like, listen, realistically, this is what it is. You sound very personable and just reasonable and reasonable. I mean, back in a previous life when I did sales, I was a very transparent person. So I didn't like the games of this or that. I was like, here it is. Here's all my cards. That's how I played it. I was always, here's all my cards. And I've got nowhere to move from there. So you either take it or you don't. Nine times out of 10, it worked for me. It either worked for them and they were like, yeah, okay, I get it. Or they, and plus they've got to like you. Very important with you and your team. I think, I feel like when you're genuine, they do like you. When you're real, they like you. They don't like you when you're not real or there's something about you that you're withholding. They feel that, right? It's energy. So I think like they, usually when they come in, they feel if you're a real person, if you say what you mean to the best of your ability or trying to paint the most accurate picture for them. And at the end of the day, I do want the best for any clients that I transact with that I have at my table. So again, my objective is to have you be happy. That is my ultimate goal is for you to come back. There's nothing that makes me... honestly, and I say this genuinely, when I see that smile on their face, when I see their family super happy, when I see them hugging each other and look at the view, honey, and we're going to make this our new home, and it's everything we expected. And John, thank you so much for this. That fulfills me more than really anything else in the business, right? Well, it works for you because of over $5 billion in sales. So being genuine... has worked in your favor. Absolutely. Where do you see real estate over the next five, 10 years? Oof, we're, you know, in the next five, 10 years, I think nobody knows how the world is going to be in the next five, 10 years. I think it's a I always keep an optimistic viewpoint. But I think the world is so rapidly changing with AI, with, you know, with technology changing so rapidly. Robotics now coming into picture to the picture as well. I think we're in for. a heck of a ride in the next five to 10 years in the world in general. So it's hard to predict what is going to happen. But as Jeff Bezos said famously, I think what I kind of take out of his book is to look for what is not going to change, right? What people are not going to want to change. They want things to be delivered faster. They want things to always be as cheap as possible. They want service to always be at its best level. Those are the things that I try to focus on. Rather than trying to kind of predict the future, I try to keep in mind, you know, what will, what are the expectations that people will always have regardless of what changes in the world, right? They're not going to want traffic to be unmanageable in Miami. They're not going to want their place to be, the views to be, get, to get worse. They're not going to want the restaurants to be, to get worse as well. They're gonna want culture to improve. They're gonna want more plays at the opera house. They're gonna want more art scenes to kind of go to. They're gonna want more transportation to get around easier as the city kind of grows. And unfortunately, the city and the government is always reactive, not so much proactive. It has to hurt so bad for them to then say, okay, we need to do something about it. That's just the name of the game, but still relatively speaking, except for the high seasons where there's crazy things happening like Art Basel, where you can't get around in traffic that much. Or the F1. Or the Formula One. Relatively, you can, traffic is phenomenal in Miami. You can go within a matter of, I would say, an hour, an hour and a half. I can take you from Miami Beach as a tour. all the way across the bridge to design district, to Midtown, to Windwood, to Edgewater, to Brickle, to downtown Coconut Grove, and back to Miami Beach within an hour and a half. And these are all different ecosystems, right? I don't know anywhere in the world where you can have that kind of an experience within that timeframe. You land in New York, it takes you an hour and a half just to get into the city. Forget about, you know. New York is a different face to it. Or in any world city where you land, I don't know that you can be in your home sipping champagne within 15 minutes from when you land. Right? So this is what makes Miami, in my opinion, such an amazing city because you have all of these different neighborhoods and all of these different blends within a very close proximity of each other. So it sounds like it's home for life for you and you're very passionate. I could see you as like, what is it, mayor, governor of Miami, building out the culture. Don't wish those things on me. There are people that do that a lot better, yes. I've really enjoyed it. I've really, really enjoyed this chat. So where can people get in contact with you if they're now considering, well, I've never thought about real estate in Miami, but maybe I will now. I did see a stat that said, 44% you are the highest city in America of owned outright homes, which meant to me that there's either a lot of rich people here or just people are coming and they've been here for a long time. So there could be a transition of real estate. But it obviously is a place that people like to come. People like to buy up and then stay. Right. And cash as well. Most of our transactions are cash. So that's why when everybody talks about doom and gloom in our markets, I always remind them it's most we're stable. It's not like the 2006, seven, eight where everybody was leveraged. The banks upside down, 110% loans, etc. that was given to anybody without qualifications. Now most people either have a very healthy amount of equity in their homes or they're just all cash. So they come from strength. Even if they have to sell their home, they're not coming out of desperation, right? So that makes the market very, very stable in that sense, where there's no desperate actors or very little desperate actors in that market. So people aren't leveraged out. So in that sense, I think where we are the home again of a lot of amazing people in the United States and companies as well. Because now, for example, in New York with Mamdani being in charge there and you have someone that wants to try out communism and our biggest city in the United States, you know, in that sense. And thinks that, okay, well, the founding fathers didn't do it right, but I will. So, and I wish them luck because I hate to see that for New York. I love the city of New York. And I want, I hope his policies what he does is different than what he ran on to be the mayor. Let's just put it that way. I think those policies that he was talking about, he does not. If not come to Miami and start. Exactly. If not, you have a home. All of you guys have a- Welcome here. Yeah, welcome to Miami as the saying goes. But again, it's a place where I think companies are going to be continuing to move to, like Citadel and, you know, bringing all of their employees down, thousands of employees that all need new homes, that are going to put their children in schools. And I think that makes Miami, has made Miami since COVID also much, much better. Because again, the COVID effect was when people realized Miami is the place to be. They came down here and the standards rose in Miami. The prices rose too, but that's just, you know, I feel like as a, for lack of a better term in casino terms, if we were a $5 minimum buying table, we've gone to now 20, 25, $30 minimum buying table, which again, it brings a higher quality as well of players to that table, which we now have. And I think more are going to be coming from LA, from New York, from Chicago, Boston, DC. So if any of you want to get in touch with me, parsiani.com, would love to represent and help in any way, shape or form. If it's real estate related, phenomenal, that's my wheelhouse, that's what I do. Been doing for 20 plus years. And even if it's not, if it's a good recommendation for what we should do in restaurant or lifestyle or whatever, more than happy to be of assistance. You do sound like you are the man to go to when it comes to anything Miami. So as you said, anyone can reach out and just even if it's not real estate, asking about the city and what it's about and where to go, what to do and lifestyle. I loved it. I've really enjoyed this chat. It's been wonderful. I'm loving your city. I call it your city, but I'm loving Miami. It's beautiful. The sun, the sunshine, the water, the people. I'll be enjoying the food tonight. So thank you so much, John, for being on Transforming the Game. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you.