Carson's Corner: Entrepreneurship & Investing

Carson Jones
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Carson's Corner is the podcast for entrepreneurs, investors, and commercial real estate operators who think in decades, not quarters.Host Carson Jones — investor, author of The Red Flag Playbook, and licensed commercial real estate advisor and business broker — interviews founders, family offices, and industry operators to unpack the deals, strategies, and hard lessons behind real wealth creation.Carson's Corner is built for investors, entrepreneurs, and operators who are serious about long-term wealth creation — not get-rich-quick schemes. The world’s wealthiest investors approach investing very differently than most people. Instead of chasing short-term returns, they focus on preserving wealth, reputation, and legacy across generations. Their decisions are often driven as much by relationships and trusted networks as by financial models, and many of their best opportunities come through private deals, family offices, and invitation-only circles, not public markets. Each episode brings a commercial real estate lens to capital deployment, business partnerships, and alternative investments.  Topics covered: commercial real estate investing · industrial real estate · syndications · passive investing · oil & gas · alternative assets · business acquisitions · capital partnerships · entrepreneurship · wealth building · family office strategies · market risk · reshoring trendsFor business or property evaluations you can reach Carson Jones at 615-212-5524 - Carson@passive.investmentseXp Commercial - Passive Investmentshttps://passive.investments/

  1. 2h ago

    The Real Estate Goldmine Nobody Talks About: Bad Management | Weston Wappler

    Send us Fan Mail What if the biggest opportunity in real estate isn't finding undervalued properties, but finding poorly operated ones? On this episode of Carson's Corner: Entrepreneurship & Investing, Carson Jones sits down with Weston Wappler, founder of Wappler Capital, to discuss how he built an RV park investment business, the operational strategies behind its growth, and why he's now shifting his focus toward multifamily real estate. Weston's entrepreneurial journey started at just 12 years old, when he and his twin brother launched a landscaping company they eventually sold. After working in the energy storage industry, he discovered an opportunity in one of real estate's most fragmented asset classes: RV parks. Rather than relying on appreciation or falling interest rates, Weston built his investment strategy around improving operations, increasing occupancy, and generating cash flow from day one. Now, with plans to sell a significant portion of his RV park portfolio, Weston is applying those same principles to Class B multifamily properties in secondary markets where limited new construction creates opportunities. In this episode: → Why RV Parks? How higher cap rates, fragmented ownership, and operational inefficiencies create investment opportunities. → The Tax Advantages: How cost segregation and bonus depreciation can create substantial tax benefits for qualifying real estate investors. → Turning Operations Into Profits: How better websites, Google visibility, centralized reservations, and answering the phone can improve RV park performance. → Scaling an RV Park Portfolio: Why owning numerous smaller properties creates challenges and how Weston approaches portfolio consolidation. → The Move Into Multifamily: Why Wappler Capital is targeting Class B apartments in stronger locations rather than pursuing new development. → Finding Overlooked Markets: Why cities like Tyler, Lubbock, Midland, Corpus Christi, and Tulsa can offer opportunities outside major metropolitan areas. → Betting on Execution, Not Interest Rates: How proactive management and operational improvements can drive value without relying on favorable market conditions. → Building a Remote Team: How Weston brought marketing and reservation operations in-house while building a geographically distributed workforce. One of the biggest takeaways from this conversation is that real estate investing isn't always about buying the best property. Sometimes it's about operating an existing property better than the previous owner. Whether you're investing in RV parks, multifamily apartments, or other commercial real estate assets, this episode offers a practical look at building value through execution, disciplined acquisitions, and long-term thinking. Connect with Weston Wappler: https://wapplercapital.com/ This episode is for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment, legal, or tax advice. Support the show For business or property evaluations you can reach me at 615-212-5524 Or  Carson@passive.investments Connect with me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsonjones/ Other Episodes: https://carsonscorner.media/ https://passive.investments/podcast/ Watch all episodes with no commercials on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/12248178 https://rumble.com/c/Carsonscorner Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. Always consult your attorney, CPA, or financial advisor before making any financial decisions. All investments and property ownership carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.

    The Real Estate Goldmine Nobody Talks About: Bad Management | Weston Wappler

  2. 2d ago

    The Data Center Power Crisis: Why Smaller Sites Are Winning with Kris McGee

    Send us Fan Mail Anthropic says its biggest risk is getting power to its data centers, and it put that in its filing with the SEC. On this episode of Carson’s Corner: Entrepreneurship & Investing, Carson Jones talks with investor and broker Kris McGee, a 33-year commercial real estate “dirt dog,” about what that means for investors, landowners, and developers. Kris explains why “land, power and shell” is now a real risk factor and not just a slogan. He also covers why hyperscalers and neoclouds are going after smaller old industrial sites instead of thousand-acre campuses. Then they get into their own live deals: a 49-acre Memphis site that’s ready to start, a former 647 MW power plant site on the Mississippi River in Illinois, and new powered-land listings in Kentucky and Mexico. In this episode:  → Why Anthropic may need a $2T+ valuation to raise about $500B for compute, and why power is the bottleneck  → How hyperscalers are moving into old aluminum smelters and heavy industrial sites to get power faster  → Why communities have to come first, and how opaque NDAs gave data centers a bad name  → Amazon pulling its George Washington University campus plan in Data Center Alley  → Behind-the-meter natural gas: a faster path to power, not a way around regulations  → Turbine and transformer backlogs, gas-fired “power blocks,” and why the U.S. grid fell behind China  → Building up vs. building out: zoning, rack weight, cooling, and backup power on smaller sites  → Why 50 MW is a lot of power, and why you don’t need a gigawatt on day one  → Amazon’s racks sitting in warehouses and its “use it or lose it” power dashboard  → TVA’s $1.52M-per-megawatt fee and the 135-day pause on data center applications in Memphis  → The data center wildcatters: clogged power queues, “Bragawatts,” and land priced as powered when it isn’t  → Is it a bubble? “We’ve predicted ten of the last three recessions” You can find Kris at https://dirtdawgland.com or on Linkedin.  Support the show For business or property evaluations you can reach me at 615-212-5524 Or  Carson@passive.investments Connect with me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsonjones/ Other Episodes: https://carsonscorner.media/ https://passive.investments/podcast/ Watch all episodes with no commercials on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/12248178 https://rumble.com/c/Carsonscorner Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. Always consult your attorney, CPA, or financial advisor before making any financial decisions. All investments and property ownership carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.

    The Data Center Power Crisis: Why Smaller Sites Are Winning with Kris McGee

  3. 6d ago

    How to Short the Multifamily Market Without Owning Property - Richard McGirr

    Send us Fan Mail What if the best way to play today’s multifamily market is to bet against it? On this episode of Carson’s Corner: Entrepreneurship & Investing, Carson Jones sits down with Richard McGirr of Property Llama. Richard is a serial entrepreneur turned real estate debt fund manager. He built and sold businesses in Hong Kong, worked in crypto venture capital, and grew a software services firm to 80 employees. He walked away from that firm with one lesson: income without durable assets is just a well-paid treadmill. That lesson led him into real estate, then into a fund of funds that raised about $45M in a single year. Then investor appetite for value-add equity dried up almost overnight. What Richard found next changed his model. The credit fund was quietly paying for the whole operation. Today he’s positioned in short-duration debt, with hard money loans to flippers and a non-performing loan (NPL) strategy aimed at distressed multifamily. In this episode: → Why selling his hours (or his team’s hours) left zero durable value, and why he went looking for compounding assets instead  → What a fund of funds is and why it appeals to entrepreneurs who don’t want to own or manage property  → The J-curve problem: why value-add deals make GPs wait years to get paid, while debt earns from day one  → How to “short” private multifamily by buying non-performing notes  → The big NPL misconception: the goal isn’t to take the property. About 90% of borrowers pay off once suit is filed  → Where the margin really is: accrued default interest the banks wrote off  → The three skills an NPL operator needs: distressed loan analysis, a taste for litigation, and in-house property management  → Where the risk sits: hostile bankruptcy filers, legal costs, and judicial vs. non-judicial foreclosure states  → Why distress could run another five years, with over half of CMBS loans reportedly below 1.0x DSCR  → Carson and Richard debate rates, deficits, AI capital demand, data center power, and whether “lower rates” really means higher prices  → Why Richard keeps both funds intentionally short-duration in an uncertain economy If you’re an entrepreneur, a passive investor, or a CRE professional trying to make sense of high rates and multifamily distress, this conversation shows how one operator is positioned for the downturn. Learn more about Richard’s performing debt fund at Property Llama  https://propertyllama.com/ Support the show For business or property evaluations you can reach me at 615-212-5524 Or  Carson@passive.investments Connect with me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsonjones/ Other Episodes: https://carsonscorner.media/ https://passive.investments/podcast/ Watch all episodes with no commercials on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/12248178 https://rumble.com/c/Carsonscorner Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. Always consult your attorney, CPA, or financial advisor before making any financial decisions. All investments and property ownership carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.

    How to Short the Multifamily Market Without Owning Property - Richard McGirr

  4. Oct 22

    How a Builder Thinks About Investing: Shannon Robnett on Development, Industrial & Terminal Value

    Send us Fan Mail Shannon Robnett grew up on job sites. His dad was a builder and developer and his mom was a third-generation real estate broker. Over 35+ years he has gone from framing houses and building cabinets by hand to developing multifamily, industrial, and build-to-rent communities across Idaho, Texas, and Florida. On this episode of Carson’s Corner: Entrepreneurship & Investing, Shannon explains why his construction background gives him an edge in raising capital and running deals, and why he plans every project for decades, not quarters. In this episode: → Why about 70% of Shannon’s investments are new construction, and how a 29–30% expense ratio compares with the ~52% some older portfolios are running → How he locked a $3.4M lumber package during COVID, watched it climb to $9M, resold it, and made $2.5M for investors before breaking ground → The short-term debt mistakes behind today’s asset price resets, and why 3–4% rates were never coming back → Why he tracks wage growth instead of rent growth when picking markets → How a $75 rent gap on a 200-unit property adds up to roughly $3M in terminal value, and why most property managers miss it → How to vet a property manager: ask for the before-and-after T12 → Why he calls industrial “the bond of real estate”: NNN leases, sticky tenants, steadier cash flow → How his Strategic Income & Opportunity Fund mixes multifamily, industrial, and preferred equity for better year-one returns → Why build-to-rent works now: renters pay $3,200/month for a townhome that would cost $4,500/month to own → Class A vs. Class C in a recession, and what makes a deal worth rescuing If you’re an investor, developer, or entrepreneur trying to build long-term wealth in commercial real estate, this conversation shows how an operator who has built through several cycles approaches risk. ▶️ Connect with Shannon: https://shannonrobnett.com/ (book a call with him directly) and LinkedIn Support the show For business or property evaluations you can reach me at 615-212-5524 Or  Carson@passive.investments Connect with me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsonjones/ Other Episodes: https://carsonscorner.media/ https://passive.investments/podcast/ Watch all episodes with no commercials on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/12248178 https://rumble.com/c/Carsonscorner Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. Always consult your attorney, CPA, or financial advisor before making any financial decisions. All investments and property ownership carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.

    How a Builder Thinks About Investing: Shannon Robnett on Development, Industrial & Terminal Value

  5. Oct 14

    Underwriting Is Where Deals Are Won or Lost: Dr. Jason Williams of Ironclad Underwriting

    Send us Fan Mail Most investors don’t lose money at closing. They lose it months earlier, in a spreadsheet, when they accept an assumption nobody questioned. On this episode of Carson’s Corner: Entrepreneurship & Investing, Carson Jones sits down with Dr. Jason L. Williams, an active real estate sponsor and underwriter and the founder of Ironclad Underwriting. Jason has more than 20 years of investing experience and over $500M in transactions underwritten. After two decades of watching investors underwrite on gut feel, broker pro formas and fragile spreadsheets, he turned his own method into software any serious investor can use. His philosophy is simple: better decisions come from disciplined analysis, not optimism. In this episode, we cover: Why most investors only find the broken assumption after they’ve committed capitalThe first things to check in a broker’s pro formaWhy default assumptions like 5% vacancy and a 40% expense ratio can mislead you, and what to use insteadDoing rent comps and rent projections the right wayWhy cap rates don’t tell the whole storyStress-testing debt and modeling the downside before the upsideBuilding underwriting you can defend to a lender, an investment committee or your LPsTurning 20 years of deal discipline into a software platformWhether you’re a sponsor, a passive investor vetting a syndication, or an entrepreneur buying your first commercial property, this conversation will change how you read a deal. Connect with Dr. Jason Williams: Website: https://ironcladunderwriting.comFree Masterclass: https://ironcladunderwriting.com/masterclassIronclad Underwriting Podcast: https://ironcladunderwriting.com/podcast••LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonwilliamsphd/ Support the show For business or property evaluations you can reach me at 615-212-5524 Or  Carson@passive.investments Connect with me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsonjones/ Other Episodes: https://carsonscorner.media/ https://passive.investments/podcast/ Watch all episodes with no commercials on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/12248178 https://rumble.com/c/Carsonscorner Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. Always consult your attorney, CPA, or financial advisor before making any financial decisions. All investments and property ownership carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.

    Underwriting Is Where Deals Are Won or Lost: Dr. Jason Williams of Ironclad Underwriting

  6. Oct 1

    Don't Fall in Love With the Deal: Fail Small, Win Big - How to Start a Business with David Jones

    Send us Fan Mail Most first-time buyers fall in love with their first deal. David Jones says that's the one you should walk away from. David spent 20 years in the Army and has built nine companies over 21 years. He started his first one while he was still on active duty. Today he owns self-storage facilities and runs the Veteran Business Community, where he helps veterans and entrepreneurs buy, start and grow small to mid-sized businesses. His rule is simple: test your assumptions, and fail small, early and cheap so you stay in the game long enough to win. In this episode of Carson's Corner: Entrepreneurship & Investing, Carson and David cover: The VA's Veteran Readiness & Employment (VR&E) self-employment track, which can provide up to $50K in equipment and resources to service-disabled veterans starting a businessHow David bought his first self-storage facility for about $500K with his partners' own cash, proved the model, and now has it listed at roughly 3x. He used that track record to fund the next deal almost entirely with investor money.Why you should buy the building, not just the business, and how Carson paid over $1M in rent across his restaurantsTesting demand before you spend a dollar, including the 19-year-old who pre-sold washer-and-dryer rentals and hit about $7K a month in 120 daysWhat most people get wrong about SBA loans: 10% down, "SBA approved" listings, and why investors who own under 20% can avoid the personal guarantee (David's team calls them "the 19s")How bank underwriters actually decide, and why the first "no" shouldn't stop youOwner financing, skin in the game, and the deal David walked away fromUsing AI as a force multiplier in your business without letting it write your business planConnect with David:  🌐 veteranbusinesscommunity.com  💼 LinkedIn: David Jones214 Support the show For business or property evaluations you can reach me at 615-212-5524 Or  Carson@passive.investments Connect with me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsonjones/ Other Episodes: https://carsonscorner.media/ https://passive.investments/podcast/ Watch all episodes with no commercials on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/12248178 https://rumble.com/c/Carsonscorner Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. Always consult your attorney, CPA, or financial advisor before making any financial decisions. All investments and property ownership carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.

    Don't Fall in Love With the Deal: Fail Small, Win Big - How to Start a Business with David Jones

  7. Sep 25

    Stop Chasing Viral: 7-Exit Entrepreneur Dominick Miserandino on Storytelling, AI & Scaling Your Brand

    Send us Fan Mail What does it take to cut through the noise when the rules of media, marketing, and AI change every week? In this episode of Carson's Corner: Entrepreneurship & Investing, Carson Jones sits down with Dominick Miserandino, a serial entrepreneur and media advisor with seven partial and full exits who has advised more than 200 businesses, from startups to names like NASA, Hearst Magazines, the Wall Street Journal, and Dell. Dominick explains why the rules of storytelling haven't changed since people gathered around the campfire, only the platforms have. He and Carson dig into why chasing virality can pull a business off-brand, how social algorithms reward controversy over substance, and why trust, not attention, is what leads to the transaction. They also get into over-automation and the flood of AI emails, and Dominick shares a real estate operator whose sales dropped after he replaced people with AI. Along the way he offers practical advice on picking one platform that works before expanding, and on "bucketing" your time with new tech so you don't lose your baseline. The conversation wraps with exit strategy, including how to tell when it's time to let go of a business, and why in-person events with "no hard pitches" build better relationships than any sales script. Connect with Dominick on LinkedIn or find RTM Nexus events on Luma. Support the show For business or property evaluations you can reach me at 615-212-5524 Or  Carson@passive.investments Connect with me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsonjones/ Other Episodes: https://carsonscorner.media/ https://passive.investments/podcast/ Watch all episodes with no commercials on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/12248178 https://rumble.com/c/Carsonscorner Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. Always consult your attorney, CPA, or financial advisor before making any financial decisions. All investments and property ownership carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.

    Stop Chasing Viral: 7-Exit Entrepreneur Dominick Miserandino on Storytelling, AI & Scaling Your Brand

  8. Sep 23

    Build, Don’t Buy: The Multifamily Development Playbook with Dusten Hendrickson

    Send us Fan Mail Dusten Hendrickson has been building apartments since 2003 — and unlike most of the multifamily world, he never stopped. While Sun Belt developers overbuilt and syndicators scrambled to recapitalize, Dusten kept putting units in the ground across South Dakota, Minnesota, and the upper Midwest. Today he has roughly 1,350 stabilized units, 400+ under construction, another 1,000 in pre-development, and a path to 5,000 units inside five years. Carson sits down with Dusten for a candid look at how development actually works when the easy money is gone. What we cover: Why he builds instead of buys — and why a 2005 asset priced at a 5 cap makes new construction the better tradeThe contrarian case against a multifamily crash: syndicators own less than 10% of the market, most owners sit at 50% LTV or lower, and banks quietly move failed loans rather than disclose them"Death by a thousand paper cuts" — what a slow grind looks like instead of a resetStripping out the pool and the parking garage: Class A feel at half the rent, with no LIHTC, no Section 8, and no government subsidyVertical integration as a margin strategy — owning the wall panel factory, hiring electricians and plumbers in-house, and the push toward modularExpanding in rings: 50 miles, then 100, then 300, then 500, then nationalHis advice for anyone who wants to develop: start with a duplex, do the entire deal yourself, over-reserve, and assume no cash flow for five years — then double each timeWhen you should skip all of that and just be a limited partner insteadThe AI detour neither of them planned: data center regulation and cost, why "everything looks better but nothing converted to revenue" yet, and why the phone call is more valuable now than it was five years agoSobriety, faith, and building a company where you're the one still in control when everyone else isn'tDusten Hendrickson is the founder of Mailbox Money,  mailboxmoneyre.com, Real Estate, a multifamily developer focused on attainable workforce housing in the upper Midwest.  Support the show For business or property evaluations you can reach me at 615-212-5524 Or  Carson@passive.investments Connect with me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsonjones/ Other Episodes: https://carsonscorner.media/ https://passive.investments/podcast/ Watch all episodes with no commercials on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/12248178 https://rumble.com/c/Carsonscorner Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. Always consult your attorney, CPA, or financial advisor before making any financial decisions. All investments and property ownership carry risk, including the potential loss of principal.

    Build, Don’t Buy: The Multifamily Development Playbook with Dusten Hendrickson
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About

Carson's Corner is the podcast for entrepreneurs, investors, and commercial real estate operators who think in decades, not quarters.Host Carson Jones — investor, author of The Red Flag Playbook, and licensed commercial real estate advisor and business broker — interviews founders, family offices, and industry operators to unpack the deals, strategies, and hard lessons behind real wealth creation.Carson's Corner is built for investors, entrepreneurs, and operators who are serious about long-term wealth creation — not get-rich-quick schemes. The world’s wealthiest investors approach investing very differently than most people. Instead of chasing short-term returns, they focus on preserving wealth, reputation, and legacy across generations. Their decisions are often driven as much by relationships and trusted networks as by financial models, and many of their best opportunities come through private deals, family offices, and invitation-only circles, not public markets. Each episode brings a commercial real estate lens to capital deployment, business partnerships, and alternative investments.  Topics covered: commercial real estate investing · industrial real estate · syndications · passive investing · oil & gas · alternative assets · business acquisitions · capital partnerships · entrepreneurship · wealth building · family office strategies · market risk · reshoring trendsFor business or property evaluations you can reach Carson Jones at 615-212-5524 - Carson@passive.investmentseXp Commercial - Passive Investmentshttps://passive.investments/

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