Transcript for Hustle & Heat Episode 11
00:00:04
What’s up, guys? And welcome back to episode 11 of Hustle & Heat Podcast. My name is George from Dubz BBQ, and today we’d like to honor a special guest. This guy is the co-owner of Paradise Exclusive Real Estate. Without further ado, I’d like to welcome in Brian Faro. Brian, it’s an honor to have you on the podcast.
Thank you for coming in.
Absolutely. Appreciate it.
Thank you.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, my family moved down from New Jersey when I was four years old to Englewood. Englewood’s been home for, I think it’s close to 40 years now. Grew up there, graduated high school there. Didn’t really do much right after high school. Kind of was one of those job hoppers—construction, re-screened some pool cages, drove a garbage truck—just trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life because I really wasn’t pursuing much further education.
00:00:54
Then finally hit a point where I said, “You know, I’m going to hit the reset button and get out of town,” so I went to Orlando for about two years. Ended up getting with Walgreens, which I actually worked at as a cashier in high school, but I got with Walgreens and I wanted to be a manager. They said, “Well, you can be a manager, but you’ve got to ring up on the front register first.” So there I was in Orlando making like $6.15 an hour, just ringing on the registers.
But it took me about three years and a couple months and I worked myself up to store manager. Moved back home with my then-girlfriend, who is now my wife. Got my first store up in Sarasota—Fruitville and Beneva—managed that store for about a year and a half, then moved to the Englewood store that I actually was a cashier at. I was a manager there. Then got moved to Venice.
That was the bulk of my very first career—about 10 years. Then we were expecting triplets—three girls—and when that time came, I realized Walgreens was changing a lot and the growth opportunity was getting restrictive. I’m looking at my three daughters thinking about everything coming in life—expenses, but also being there for them—and retail management isn’t a place where you’re going to be with your family all the time, just like the restaurant business can be very demanding.
So I decided to make a change, got my real estate license, and now I’m just about to close in on my 12th year. I’m a part owner in a company, manage about 140 agents, and life is good. That’s a brief summary—there’s a lot that happened in between, but that’s the bulk of it.
00:02:41
A big process for you to go from dump truck driver to cashier to pool screener—you went through a lot of hoops to get where you are. What about real estate really intrigues you?
A lot of people use the “I’m a people person” reason, which I am—I love people. But the pure fact of the dirt alone that someone owns, and a building and a house—every little bit of it—zoning, all of that actually really interests me. I didn’t realize that until I started getting into it.
Just like we talked a little before the podcast—“Hey, what’s going on with this property?” I get super excited when I can look up what any property type is, what they’re going to do there, and what can be done there. Property really interests me.
And then the aspect of helping people—getting that first home, maybe it’s a secondary home, whatever it might be—it’s a big goal for a lot of people. When you’re a part of that process, it makes it exciting. I really love every aspect of it.
Nice. When I do these podcasts, I do a little research about whoever comes on—see what they do. I’ve noticed you’re a person that people follow on socials to figure out what’s coming. How’d you get there?
It all started with my interest in what goes on with properties. If something sells or I see a shovel hit the ground somewhere, I want to know what’s happening. So I check the permit records—it’s all public records. Any of us can look it up. I just take the time.
Over the years, some of the roles I’ve played in Englewood—past president of the Englewood Chamber of Commerce and other organizations—through that, I’d always have answers when people wanted to know what was happening. Then it became where people would call me all the time: “Hey, I just saw a dump truck next to this lot—what’s happening?” I’d look it up if I didn’t already know.
What I realized is I can probably get this information out to a lot more people that want the answer but don’t know who to ask. It cuts down on my phone calls too—people texting and calling all day. I already posted it.
As I post those things and people realize they see one that’s of interest to them, they click follow to see what else is happening. I don’t provide opinions—just the pure info. If I’m excited about something I’ll say that, but most of the time I just say, “Here’s what’s happening,” and back away and let people use it how they want.
That’s interesting. I like that. I need to start following you myself.
00:05:35
As far as development in this area, you’ve been here for many years. I’m sure you were here when there was nothing and now there’s a lot of things. What are you most proud of in this area and what do you miss the most?
I’ll start with what I miss the most. When I started driving—and this was happening even before I was driving—we used to have a lot of privately owned areas, now it’s all preserve or some has been developed. Even where Wellen Park is, things like that were privately owned.
We didn’t have a lot to do—no nightlife, not many kids activities—so we’d get lost in the woods. I had a four-wheel drive 1987 Toyota pickup truck lifted up a little bit and we’d hit the woods until we got stuck and had to call for help. I date myself a little—we didn’t even have a phone to call. We had to walk back to a main road. We were right on the brink of cell phones being in everyone’s hand.
Sometimes we had to walk a few miles to flag someone down and get a ride to find someone to pull us out. If I had to say what I miss most, it was that—camping in the woods, exploring, getting to know the land. You run into wildlife. We would hunt wild boars—they’re invasive and damaging—so we’d hunt those and help control that population. That’s what I miss most.
What I’m most proud of… I know this will have mixed opinions, but I feel like we do have some smart growth compared to a lot of other areas in the country. When I lived in Orlando for two years, it didn’t seem like a lot of thought went into things—constant build, build, build—higher, higher, higher.
Orlando for four years, and that was the most depressing time of my life.
Yeah. You’d see a building one day and the next day it was demoed, and you couldn’t even think of why it needed to be demoed. It was perfectly fine—they just did it to put a bigger, taller building up because they could and make more money.
Some of it feels that way here, but I think the growth in this area has been stretched out long enough. It might seem fast, but compared to the rest of the country, I’m proud of how it’s been held back quite a bit. You’re going to get comments from people who disagree, but everyone disagrees with everything, right?
Exactly. Everyone has their own perspective. Some people want to go back to that wildlife lifestyle, stay in tune with earth, but that’s not ideal in this area anymore. I think we’re far past that.
Yeah. Population grows every day. You need more housing. It’s going to be bittersweet, but things are going to change with or without our input. I like to know what’s happening, try to have input when I can. If we need to stand up against something, I’m happy to do that when I agree. But for the most part, we need to allow things to take place within the restrictions they’re allowed.
Understood.
00:09:14
What do you think this area still needs?
I think we have a huge opportunity for youth activities and services. We do have parks and rec services, but I travel around with some travel teams—soccer and pickleball my kids are into—and we go to other complexes and they’re impressive: covered or indoor, things like that. So we’ve definitely got room for growth from the family perspective.
For retirees, I think we pretty much have it covered. Give them a beach and a pickleball court and they’re fine. But youth services, more tennis—
No more tennis.
You’re going to piss all the tennis fans off.
I know. I know.
That’s a big thing.
It is. Tennis is a great sport. My daughters did it for a while. It’s big, but pickleball’s kind of taken it over.
I picked up the pickleball paddle for the first time a few months ago. One of the girls that works here started freaking out: “You shouldn’t be playing that, you should be playing tennis,” blah blah blah. I’m like, “Jesus, take it easy. It’s just a sport.”
You said it best—someone’s always going to be upset about something, right?
Both sports will always exist, but pickleball’s grown in popularity. It’s quick, easy movements, small area. Two people on a tennis court that are 80 years old—they’re not crossing from one side to the other to get that ball. It’s not going to happen. Pickleball’s much simpler, so it initially attracted that group. Then younger, fit people started playing and it became popular with every age group.
100%. A lot of people are very competitive out there.
00:11:12
Where do you see this area going in the next 10 years?
Basically commercial development. I do a lot with Florida Realtors, and one big thing they lobbied for over the past several years was eliminating the business rent tax. You come in and rent a building—
Yeah. We no longer pay that.
Yeah, it’s gone. It was 12% at one point and slowly got reduced down to zero. That attracts more businesses: less expense, less management overhead, less to collect and send to the state.
That’s going to bring more businesses from other states. Higher taxes up in New York and other places—bring it to Florida. Sunshine. Dodge a hurricane here and there, but we’re getting good at that.
I’m good at that.
I think we’re getting better—being prepared, structurally sound, able to handle those things. People criticize response times, but every storm is different. Communities are different now than they were in 2006, 2007, 2008. We grow, we get stronger. People pick this area because we can react, prepare, evacuate, and still enjoy the sun, beaches, and opportunity.
100%. There’s a lot of opportunity here and we’re only going to get better as the years go on.
I feel like we have three good cities: North Port, Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda. They’re different in their own way, but similar too. In your perspective, which city has the most upside?
Most growth from a size perspective is going to be North Port. There’s growth opportunity in Venice and Punta Gorda, but North Port—with Wellen Park and what they’re attracting, plus what we talked about across the street where Benderson Development is expanding.
Are they building something across the street from Warm Mineral Springs Park, too?
Yeah, they picked up land there too. They’ll probably do something similar, maybe smaller scale—more retail type setting that people want.
It’s crazy because a few years back, people were talking about online taking over and stores closing down. The stores that closed were the ones that didn’t adapt. If you create an in-person experience that outweighs delivery, people will come in.
People like you, George. If they know you’re here, they’ll come in. Could they do a drive-thru and make it easier? Sure. But coming here, being around you and your staff and other people—that experience is what it’s about.
100%. As a consumer, I do both. But a lot of times, even if Amazon is next day, I’d rather just go get it. Clothes, shoes—I’m not ordering that online.
And then you’re constantly returning stuff. I can’t order clothes and shoes.
And I hate returning things. I refuse.
I get it.
00:16:29
What are your goals in the next 10 years?
I break it down into smaller segments—more like five years. I have triplet daughters and they’re in seventh grade right now, so we’re in an important time. They’re involved in sports, education matters, and I want to be involved in sports and school.
Career-wise, I don’t want to say I’m on cruise control, but a lot of my day-to-day is keeping our brokerage flowing. But I constantly want to learn more and adapt. There’s a book from my Walgreens days—Good to Great by Jim Collins. It talks about Circuit City, Blockbuster—gone—but competitors like Best Buy survived because of customer experience. Blockbuster could’ve been with Netflix, but they tried to stay where they were.
Just kept going with the times.
Yeah. You can’t stay stuck. Either the time is going to get you, or you get the time.
Exactly. And in restaurants, you still see old cash registers, no online experience, no tap to pay. Food might be good, but you’ve got to catch up with the times—people look before they taste.
Tap to pay is my life.
Same. I haven’t carried my actual debit card in probably eight years. I tap at the ATM and I’m in. I’d be surprised if we don’t get IDs on our phones.
So to sum it up: I want to grow personally, grow with the community, grow my knowledge, and help other people grow. I started a program called Young Gentleman’s League for seventh and eighth grade boys at middle school. My daughters are in seventh grade, so it’s a fitting time to try to teach boys how to be respectful young gentlemen.
If I can create a positive change in their life, then one day when I’m retired there’ll be more great people around. A lot of my development comes from developing other people.
00:20:48
Business aside, goals aside—who are you as a person, as a man, as a father? What’s your philosophy?
It starts at the core. I honestly just want to be a genuinely good person. I want people to see me as someone they appreciate, can have a good conversation with—someone not angry, not judgmental. I try not to judge anyone. No matter what—good, bad, indifferent—I hold back judgment. I’d rather ask questions: why is a situation a certain way?
At home too—I don’t want to be misperceived by my wife, my daughters, my family. I want us working together. Disagreements are fine as long as we mutually respect each other.
Healthy disagreements.
Exactly. If we walk out of a conversation and don’t agree, there’s no reason we shouldn’t still be friends. But society lacks that today.
Huge.
It takes time. I used to not be that way. When I was younger—middle school, high school, even a few years after—I’d been in fist fights. That’s not appropriate. There’s no reason unless it’s your profession. There are other ways to resolve things, and it never leads to a positive outcome.
Words and conversation are tougher than hands.
Absolutely. Or if you can’t resolve it, walk away. Think about it and circle back.
That’s me. When I get angry, I shut up and walk away. Next day I address it. An angry man is not always the right man.
Exactly. And you don’t want to use anger and fear to get your way because you won’t be respected. It pushes people away. So I try to do everything respectfully. If I can’t, I walk away and let it be.
00:23:42
So I got this thing on my table right here: Self-Inflicted Success by Brian Faro. Tell us a little bit about this book.
That was about six years in the making—putting content together, proofing, editing, having friends review. It’s a lot of what I learned in my adult life, especially starting from the Walgreens days. Some core stuff came from my parents, but in my 20s—managing stores, managing people, dealing with customers three times my age—I learned a lot about mindset and culture that creates success.
You can get a degree and that can get you somewhere. But when you get there, what keeps you there? Your degree and resume get you there—what keeps you there is how you treat people, how you think, how you act. That’s what the book is about.
The world teaches anger, frustration, violence—especially through the news. I don’t really watch news, but that’s what gets pushed. This book is the opposite: step back, evaluate, try to be better.
I agree. Where can someone get it?
My website, brianfaro.com—it has the direct links. Or look up Self-Inflicted Success on Amazon and it’ll ship in a few days. I think it’s good for any age group, but who I wrote it for most was probably the 14 to 16-year-old me—the kid who didn’t listen, and honestly probably wouldn’t have picked up a book. My goal is to get someone like that to take a chance and see if it impacts their life.
You’ve done a lot without a degree. Do you have one now?
I don’t. I still don’t.
How do you feel about that aspect of life?
People need to evaluate what they want to do and what the degree does for them. If the career requires a degree, I’m all for it. But business management? There are plenty of ways without it—especially with programs that are prepping kids to graduate with a business entity already set up, teaching money management, all of that.
Higher education matters. Where you get it from doesn’t always matter. My higher education came from other people—listening, being a good person, having people invest in me—and from deep research. I don’t just Google one thing and stop. I dig deeper because the first answer isn’t always the true answer.
Everyone should constantly educate themselves—college or not is up to them.
00:28:21
I agree. I think it’s beneficial but not necessary unless your career demands it. I went to university and it was depressing. I’m not a desk person. I learned more running a business than I did in school, and it’s paid off more than that degree ever did.
Absolutely.
There’s unlimited potential for everyone. Think about any employee you have—some feel stuck. But every one of them has an opportunity. If they put everything they have into making this the most successful business—maybe they don’t want to own a restaurant—but if they become the best employee ever, become a face of the business, and people come to see them too, you might open another store. Who becomes leadership? That person.
People limit themselves based on the position they’re in and say, “This is temporary.” You either go do what you want, or you make the most of where you are now. Be the most amazing cashier, server, bartender, cook—your value goes up, you become indispensable.
If business recedes and you have to make tough decisions, who goes first? The ones not pulling their weight. So become indispensable—that’s my goal: be the last one to go if everything shuts down.
100%. People don’t see what it takes—dedication, consistency, the work. I’m working seven days a week, 4 a.m. to 4 p.m. sometimes later, to keep prep consistent. As a worker I never had that “stepping stone” mindset. I wanted to be the best, work hard, and see where it goes. No matter what position, if you work hard, you can take knowledge and experience into the future.
I’ve had two chefs open their own restaurants in the five years I’ve been open. They worked their asses off and they’re doing great. I’m proud of them. Seeing someone go from employee to boss—an honor.
Absolutely. That goes on your resume as much as it does mine.
00:32:38
A lot of people have bosses who show up in a fancy car, park up front at noon, empty the register, and leave. People see that. But they might not see you coming in at 4 a.m. to make sure everything is in the best possible condition. That’s huge. Employees need to see the value in that.
And it’s okay to let them know the workflow and ask what needs adjusting. My agents know I’m at the office at 6 a.m. every morning. From 6 to 8, I get more of what I want done. After 8, I’m still working, but it’s for everyone else.
Me too. My best time is 4 to 9—peace.
Absolutely. And you can pick up extra stuff too. At Walgreens, when I was a cashier in Orlando, I took every shift I could. One week I had 86 hours on the check. Seven days that week—four days in a row I worked 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., then went to another store 5 p.m. to midnight.
One week or two weeks?
One week. I was 22, didn’t need sleep. You’d think I was hungry for money—sure—but I was hungry for knowledge. Different stores, different crews, different managers—I learned good and bad.
Man, you can learn from anybody. A homeless person, someone less well off—everyone’s knowledge is different. I just listen and absorb. If I don’t agree, I don’t agree, but I want to see perspectives and take a little bit from here and there, put my twist on it.
Same. I never cared about money.
Yeah. It’ll follow if you do the right thing.
Exactly. I invest in the company. I’ve rewarded myself a little but nothing to brag about. I’m still happy. It’s about experience, legacy at Dubz.
That’s one of the chapters: “My Happy Place.” You’ve got to find a way to be happy. If you’re not content, you can grow, but happiness creates more growth.
00:36:12
I got two questions. One: have you ever dined at Dubz?
Yeah, we were just here over the weekend.
Give me a pro and a con.
Pro: I absolutely love the food. It was a good experience. Server was great. We came in, greeted immediately, sat immediately, food came out quick.
He’s brownnosing.
I honestly had a good experience.
If there was a con—and I’ll tell you this—if there was an issue, my wife would have reported it. She would’ve said it at the table and I’d have something for you. We didn’t get that back, so you’re in good shape.
That’s a good thing.
Yeah. I hope more people come out and give it a try. It’s not far from our house, but we’re always running around. I told her I have to make it intentional. So we made it intentional this weekend.
There you go. That’s awesome. I appreciate you guys coming by.
Lastly, we’re going to wrap this up. Any last quotes for the people to hear—something to think about?
Yeah, it’s something I’ve been using a lot lately. There’s a quote from the show Ted Lasso—supposed to be from Walt Whitman—and I love it: “Be curious, not judgmental.”
Start with questions. Ask to seek understanding first.
And don’t get butthurt.
Exactly. Especially with politics—people get so extreme. Ask the other side why they think that way. Even if you don’t change them, understanding helps. If you don’t get it on the surface: be curious, not judgmental means ask questions before you start jabbing your finger at people. That’s the purest way to live. Learn more, then form your opinion, but understand we’re all different.
I agree with you 100%. Man, it was a pleasure having you on.
Yeah. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
We’ll get you on again sometime in the near future.
Guys, if you like this video, please comment, like, and subscribe. We’ll see you next week for episode 12. We appreciate you and hope you have a great day. All right. Thank you.
