Epic Real Estate Investing - Mikey Taylor - Skateboard to the Board Room | 436

Episode Date: August 2, 2018

On today’s episode of Thought Leader Thursday, Matt speaks to Mikey Taylor, a professional skateboarder and the president of Commune Capital, a company focused on value, multifamily mixed-use, and storage. He has been skating professionally since 2001, and in 2010, he began investing in real estate. He shares his journey from the skateboard to the board room, his experience with Saint Archer Brewery (which he co-founded and later sold to Miller), and how he started his podcast, Avni Intelligence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Terrio Media. My biggest fear was basically spending 15 years of my life, building something, it ending, and then kind of not knowing what to do or kind of finding myself in trouble. Hello, I'm Matt Terrio of the Epic Real Estate Investing Show, and this is Thought Leader Thursday. All right, today I'm super excited. I'm joined by professional skateboarder entrepreneur and the president of Commune Capital. He's been professionally skating since 2001 and still is to this day in 2018. 2010, he began investing in real estate, specifically in storage units. And in 2012,

he co-founded St. Archer Brewery, which he then sold to Miller Coors in 2015. That's like every kid's dream, I think, to sell a brewery to someone like Coors. That same year, he co-founded sovereign skateboards and apparel. And in 2016, he invested in Villager Goods and Acts as an ambassador for that brand. Then in 2017, he co-founded Avenue Intelligence, a podcast and digital product for entrepreneurs. And then at the beginning of this, year he started a new company called Commune Capital, a real estate fund focused on value ad, multifamily, mixed use, and storage. So please help me welcome to the show, Mr. Mikey Taylor.

Mikey, welcome to the show. Thank you. I appreciate it. You bet. So Mike, you've got so much going on. I want to talk about it and I want to hopefully we can get to the actual real estate stuff, but if we don't, I think you've got an amazing history, an amazing amount of experience that that's going to spread and benefit all entrepreneurs of all walks of life.

But before we do that, can you kind of share a little bit about your history and skateboarding and how it led you to this multitude of things that you're doing today? Yeah, sure. So basically, when I started skateboarding, it was, the industry was really small. I actually never really planned on being a pro skateboarder. I was obsessed with doing it, right? So I was kind of doing it as fun. I started getting sponsors when I was in high school.

And kind of I was getting ready to this point of graduating. And, you know, my parents were, my parents wanted me to go to college, right? I actually always wanted to go to college. It just, I was kind of given this opportunity to travel the world. I started having photos in magazines and kind of felt like I had an opportunity that kind of most people don't have, right? So I kind of like, you know, not like I needed my mom's approval, but like I wanted her approval, right? So I kind of came up with a plan of like, you know what, mom, what if I, what if I just skate for two years?

Like I'll take off two years of college. I'll travel the world. I'll see some things. It kind of like, you know, enjoy it. And then I'll go back to school. It was like our original plan, right? So I go out and do it the first year. And I'm not really making anything.

It was like 500 bucks a month. And then that next year of the skate industry basically exploded, right? And I went from like, you know, I'm 19. I'm making 500 bucks a month. I'm 20 and I'm making more than my parents. Right. It was like this like crazy kind of scenario where it kind of just changed. my perspective on on what I could do here as far as a pro skateboard right like we

still didn't have the longevity of maybe a conventional career but I felt like I could do enough in this in this timeframe to where I could use that to kind of transition into something else and and that was kind of how my professional career kind of started it was kind of a fluke almost right well timing is everything right yeah even you know like a Bill Gates or the the Steve Jobs, like if they weren't born at that specific time in the region of the world that they were, we might not even know their name, right? So timing is everything. So congrats on winning that lottery. But it all comes to a lot of hard work, too. I mean, it's not like it just

boom what happens. But with all the options you have available, and I kind of ran down a lot of great accomplishments of yours, and congratulations. It's very inspiring. What is it about real estate that has inspired your recent activity to start commune capital? So basically, and I think in the intro, it might have been a typo. So I started investing in real estate right when I turned pros, 2001 instead of 10. So basically what happened is when I was going through this path of like having to figure out what I do with the short run of a career, right? And I started making a lot of money. And in my eyes, it's kind of 20 years old, I was like, you know what, if I can start investing my money that I'm making from skateboarding into something that can basically,

build passive income and I could do that for the entirety of my career when I lose my sponsor or if I have an injury that essentially takes me out I'd be okay right because my biggest fear was basically spending 15 years of my life building something ending and then kind of not knowing what to do or kind of finding myself in trouble and and that's when I started investing in real estate I was actually brought I was brought an opportunity to be a part of this reuse project where they bought a like a big box building and converted in storage. And dude, I was a kid, man. I didn't really know, I didn't know real estate at this point.

I had no experience in it, but it seemed real simple to me. And I love the idea that I basically gave you my money. And then, you know, we had a year build out. And then after that, I saw money every year, right? And I didn't have to do anything for it. It was completely passive, right? And so I just, I thought it was such a smart model for my career. And then having been a part of, you know, a project.

every other year for the last 15 years, that was the thing in my eyes that really helped me get through that true transition of my career ending. Even to when we sold St. Archer, it's like, that was a big acquisition for me. I took the majority of that, put it all back in real estate. I'm such a believer in what it can do. And that's what kind of led towards this path of being wanting to create my own kind of opportunity for others. I want to circle back something that you just said or just a few minutes ago was that you knew you had this opportunity in skateboarding. Your biggest fear was that, you know, you'll be at the end and then you're kind of worried about that future. Was that like a business instinct or a fear?

Like, where did that come from? Did you have a mentor? Was that just something that came up in your head? You know what? I think about that a lot, actually. It was, I didn't have a mentor. I don't know why I thought that way. It could have been a combination of.

of my parents and how they were. But I don't know why. I just knew that I didn't want to get blindsided by just losing sponsors and the skill that I had built couldn't really translate into something else that could make me money in a sense. And I always had a vision of what I wanted my life or lifestyle to look like. So, you know, I think like maybe it was fear involved. I don't know what it was, but I recognized it. I'm thankful I did.

But I don't know why, man. I think I was really, I was drawn to that comment because I was in the music business for 15 years before I got into real estate. And, you know, I was kind of making this branch. And my family thought I was crazy and a little bit like, oh, you should get a real job. And so I was like, no, I'm going to go for it. But I had this fear. Just I don't know if it was a fear for you, but it was a fear for me that, wow,

if this doesn't work out, I could end up homeless. So I did the logical thing. I just joined the Marine Corps. I knew I'd always have a roof over my head. You chose a different path. I wish I would have done that one, but I had just made weird decisions at that age, but based on that as well, that same type of foresight. Yeah. So coming capital, let's talk about it.

Where's the focus? What does that business and its operations look like today? So basically, I'll just give you kind of a little story leading up to it. I lost my main sponsor a year and a half ago. And it was all my income from skateboarding, right? And I had a two-year deal with them, and they found a clause out of my deal, and it basically ended overnight, right? and the 15 years that I prepared for kind of that actual situation was I found myself in it seriously, you know, 14 months ago. And going through it, I got a call from a close friend of my another skateboarder and he was like, yo, like, how are you?

Like, what's it like on the other side, you know? And I kind of told him like, look, like it's tough, man. Like I was kind of telling the story of I wasn't prepared for the emotional side of it, right? With everything I had done, I did not prepare for how much it was going to hurt. And he was like, oh, that's cool. Like, almost just skipped through it. He's like, oh, that's cool. Are you okay?

Like, are you good? And I have like a wife and two kids, right? Right. He's like, is the family good? And I was like, I'm like, yeah, like thankfully, like, yeah, I'm okay, right? And he said something to me along the lines of like, dude, I hope I can be like that when I finish skating. Like, you've like figured it out, right? And it kind of just hit me that a lot of my friends and peers aren't planning for the end maybe as as much as I did.

And so I kind of, it was a pain point for me. It's already a pain point that like you could be in a space and have such a big impact so many people. And then like you're just kind of disregarded. And most of these guys go through a lot more pain that I went through. So I wanted to create something for them that basically I thought could help them through that transition. And it was the one thing that truly helped me. and is why I kind of formed commune when we did. So the commune is made up,

the guys who I had invested into who brought me that opportunity 15 years ago and then continued to the last however long, we all came together to do this new fund with the focus on like for me being, I want surfers and skaters and athletes and not specific to them, but people who either have a career that's going to end

or are working a career and wanted to end early. I want to create this opportunity for them because it helped me so much. Right. And that's what we're doing. We're focusing on, so we're heavily in multifamily. We actually close on a deal on the 26, so 12 days or so, about 34 unit. We're real heavy in the value ad play.

We're still doing storage. I love mixed use, still love mixed use, and then some reuse property as well. Sweet. So that was just started at the beginning of this year, right, 2018? team. Yep. So for this fun, this will be, this is the third fund for my partners. For me, this is the third, this is the first

fund that I've done. So this project will actually be the first project in the new fund. Have you been able to, have you been able to share this with your community or your the skaters and the surfers and so yeah, so when we got that first building on our contract, that's when the capital raise began to start

raising money for it and that's the community I went after because I want to do it. So now we have a good amount of our investors are those people that I'm trying to help. How has it been received? Is it like broadly a consensus like, wow, this is cool? Tell you the truth, man, it went really, it was received really well, I think, because when we did St. Archer, it was, so me and two of my friends started it, right?

And one of the co-founders was Paul Rodriguez, is another pro-scapeboarder. And then Josh Landon at the time was a surf filmer, right? So it was two skaters and a surf filmer going, we're going to start a craft brewery. we need your money right and that was such a hard sell so then going to this you know seven years later uh i think real estate is just it's a different type of risk for people and it's a lot more i think people are just more comfortable with it as opposed to a startup craft brewery right um so it was a lot easier than the last time i raised money that's great well also if you keep on winning it's going to get easier and easier as well right totally yeah and i was i was thankful to have

partners who I had such a long track record with and I have been doing it for so long that it was a, I think it was really comforting for a lot of these people that I have a team that just has a lot more knowledge than maybe per se I did at that time. That's great. So with all of these wins, what would you say is your greatest victory to date as an entrepreneur? Which one are you most proud of? Well, man, what I'm the most proud of up until this point, I would say for me it would be St. Archer up until this point because we raised money from kind of our friends who are surfers and skaters and snowboarders and most of those guys had never invested in anything before. So like for us to be able to pay them back such a great return,

I think that was probably the best thing I've done to this point. But I will say with everything that I've done, what I'm doing right now with Commune is it's the most passionate I've ever been because I feel like I'm trying to fix this problem that we face. So I'm going to make this one my biggest accomplishment. Fantastic. Yeah. I can feel it right now. Looking back, what would you say as an entrepreneur?

What's the biggest mistake you've made and what did you learn from it? Man, you know what's funny? So I've been asked the same question for the last, I don't know, two months now. I've done two kind of speaking events where they asked me this question. and both times I struggled finding the answer, right? And it's, I fail all the time, right? I've had a lot of, I've had more fails than wins, right? But kind of what I've learned through, actually through skateboarding is to not get stuck on the failures,

to just kind of like hit it, accept it, learn, move on. And it became such this process that like, dude, I forget failures all the time. Things that happen to me yesterday, it's like out of sight, out of mind. I think probably one of them, man, if I had to really circle back, I would say with one of the companies that we started, it was the first time we ever did a capital raise and we were giving equity to people for work, for sweat equity. And we gave equity to somebody to help us do something that we didn't think we were going to be able to do.

He kind of convinced us to help raise money. And so we needed equity to do instead of setting kind of benchmarking. where he got equity based on dollars that came in. And he didn't bring any money in and we gave him equity to do it. And then we ended up selling the company. And that was an expensive coming up. That's it, right? But, I mean, I've had a lot of them.

Dude, I've had like, I've started three companies that failed. I invested in the companies that have failed. I've, it's definitely not all wins. It's just people hear about the wins, right? Right. Is there something that's going on right now or now that you've got so many years experience in real estate? Is there something now that you wish,

you would have knew when you got started real estate specific? Man, I would say, I would say it's just more timing. I wish I knew what I knew right now in 2008. Right. Or if I was doing it, right? I just think like for what we're doing now, I would love to be in a down market, right? And kind of me now being so heavily vested in it at a high cycle. I just wish it was a different timing.

But you know how it goes? It's like there's going to be a correction again. and just play the game, right? Sounds like I would say, of course, yeah, of course. I mean, we buy everything with a strategy to hold, right? So for us, it's like, you know, I feel like you can just withstand a correction or cap rates rising or compress. You know what I'm saying? Maybe I wish I was on that strategy.

I don't think I would have bought my house. Maybe that would be. I don't like residential, man. Maybe I would have changed that. really focused more on maybe multi-family. Got it. Got it. So you just launched a new podcast, Avony Intelligence.

I pronounced that correctly. Oh, it's called Avony. Avony. Avony intelligence. So what inspired this and who should be listening? So I have a really close friend who was the first pro skateboarder I met when I was a kid, and he was the guy who really, like, kind of introduced me to a lot of people. And we've been close the last 20 years.

And he kind of, his story as he went, was a pro skateboarder, stepped away from skateboarding, worked in corporate America, hated it, tried to start companies failed and kind of learned on his own from like he was 27, moved back into his mom's house and lived on our couch, totally broke. And kind of learned through kind of the online learning system now and was able to create his own company, working for himself. And he kind of wanted to share that story. and I've always wanted to do something with him. So this was like kind of one of those things where me and one of my best friends was able to get together and I was trying to help basically create his kind of dream in a sense or help him do it.

So this is for him, this is his like passion and dream for me. I just want to like help as many kids learn from maybe other people as opposed to going to school and going in the dead and then starting a company and feeling like it wasn't all, worth it, right? Right. I love it. So who should be listening then? Is it an entrepreneur-based or just a general life-based podcast? Well, it's based more on entrepreneurship, brand-building people that kind of want to step away from what they're doing and create something themselves. You know, if you have a job, you're just working a job, like I think they'll be inspired by it. I don't think it has to be for this

like serial entrepreneur, but that is our focus. Sweet. Sweet. Well, this has been a pleasure. I know this conversation has inspired tens of thousands of people. We've got, we've been doing this, I don't know, nine or ten years. So I'm really happy to share you with my audience. And you seem like a really good guy. And this has been a pleasure. If someone was inspired by something that they heard on this show today and they wanted to get in touch with you, what would be the best way for them to do that? Um, so probably like through social media, the best way to get to hold me Instagram. Um, I'm pretty good at checking all my DMs or, uh, even comments. Um, if you want to reach out to me for anything I'm doing. Real estate best way is Mikey at communecapital.com.

Mikeycom. And at Instagram, is it Mikey Taylor? Yeah, Instagram's just Mikey Taylor. That keeps it simple. Very good. All right. Let's stay in touch. Let's do this again. Sound good? Yeah. Why don't you just send me a text? I want to come out and see you guys. Yeah, please do. Because we're darn near neighbors. So let's do it. I know. All right. All right. I appreciate you guys. Cool. So thanks for tuning in to Epic Real Estate Investing. God bless to you. success. I'm Matt Terriel and I'll see you next week on another episode of Thought Leader Thursday. Take care. This podcast is a part of the C-suite Radio Network. For more top business podcasts,

visit c-sweetradio.com.