Ian
Quint.

Machine-generated transcript, lightly edited for readability. It may contain transcription errors.

And what were some of the things that shocked you at the beginning when you first started? When I first started, I was very well prepared because I had been working somewhere before for 10 years where I was really the only person doing everything from A to Z. So I actually thought it would be more difficult. In my case, it was easier because I was so well prepared.

That being said, certainly starting with nothing and building a company from nothing takes a lot. Meet Ian Quint, founder of Brock's Water. 3 billion in assets. Today, he'll share key insights from his journey from building Brasswater into a market leader to navigating the evolving landscape of commercial real estate.

An entrepreneur really has to live with risk and has to take that risk, and if they're successful, they get a reward. All right, Ian, welcome to the Montreal Entrepreneur Podcast (now The Vault MTL). It's a pleasure to have you back on the show. A lot of people said great things for the first episode, so we thought, why not have you back again?

Thank you very much for having me, and I enjoyed thoroughly our first, uh, our first meeting as well. Great. How, how long ago was it that—. I think it was over a year ago.

No, had to be more than that. Yeah, more than a year for sure, but not 2 years. Okay. Yeah, maybe a year and a half.

Okay. If you say so, I trust you. Something of that sort. And for those who don't know who you are and what you do, please reintroduce yourself.

Well, my name is Ian Quint, first of all. I'm a real estate developer and investor based in Montreal. Mm-hmm. 5 billion of assets under management, about 14 million square feet in the industrial and commercial space.

And we're active across North America here and in the United States, which is really one of the aspects that we're growing now. That's amazing. Yeah. So since we last saw each other, what are some of the things that are new in your business life or in your personal life?

So in my, most importantly, in my personal life. So my daughter just turned 3 years old. Wow. Congrats.

Thank you. Thank you. And she's delicious. So that's really 100% of my life almost, to be honest.

My business life now was maybe 1% of importance to me. So, but in my business life, we actually just moved offices, uh, about 2 weeks ago, uh, to a, a beautiful building we bought on the corner of, uh, Sherbrooke and De La Montagne, the former, uh, Holt Renfrew building. Yeah. Um, so we just finished renovating it.

It's a mixed-use property, office and retail on the ground floor and basement, and we moved our own offices there, and it's quite spectacular. Yeah. We actually, our offices were were completely separate. We had an office in Westmount, we had an office in Saint-Laurent.

So now all the employees have come together. Can see each other. Yes, under the same roof. And it's much less challenging now to work together.

So, that's awesome. What were some of the challenges? Just for our business, you know, it's not like the professional services business where you're working by yourself in a silo or if you're a lawyer, you know, giving services to a client. But every file that we have, you know, just Elise, every department has to touch it.

Construction, operations, leasing, legal. So it's very hard to coordinate everybody if you're not, if you're not in the same office, which for me was part of the reason also why the whole work from home thing never worked and why we've always had 5 days a week in the office. And your daughter turned 3. Yes.

How does that feel for you? Because you said 97% of your time now is 99. 99, 99% Of my interest, not of my time. I wish 99% of my time.

But honestly, for me, and I had my daughter late, I was 42 years old when I had her. Completely transformative, completely changed my life, changed me as a person, changed everything. I'm completely obsessed with her. A different Ian.

Completely different Ian. My whole life revolves around her. I'm so obsessed with her. I don't do anything without thinking of her first.

What mostly surprised you about that change? Honestly, it's shocking. So when my wife was pregnant, you know, people that are parents already say, oh, you know, it's gonna change your life, it's gonna change your life. And you don't know until your child is born, especially I think as a father, because you're not carrying the child.

It's harder to make the connection until they're born. But I could tell you the second this child was handed to me, in less time than it takes to count to 1, I was head over heels in love. I would jump in front of a bus. Oh, wow.

It's, which is, it's magic, right? That's unbelievable. You never met this person in your life and you're head over heels in love with them. It's spectacular.

Well, is it fair to say this is one of the accomplishments that you're mostly proud of? By far. There's nothing even that's a close second. By far my greatest accomplishment.

Well, I'm happy for you. Thank you. I have 3, and I understand the first time, everything is new. Yes, everything is new.

And every stage of development, I'm like, oh, this is, this is the best. This is the best. I don't want her to get any older. And then something, and it's, it keeps on getting better and better, which is surprising.

Maybe when she's a teenager that will stop. And then when she starts school, daycare, all these other things. Yeah. So she's in daycare and she, you know, she's spectacular.

I mean, and she has a huge personality, by the way. So she's, is that from you or is that from mom? It's 100% from me. And I, and, and she'll, she'll tell you that as well.

My wife will tell you that as well. She's very, I'm going to think of a polite way to say it. Rambunctious. She's full of energy, but she has such a big personality and she's so funny.

She's already playing jokes on me and playing pranks. It's unbelievable. That's nice. At such a young age, you can see the personality already.

Yes. And I like to think that to be funny, you have to have a certain level of intelligence. So obviously I'm telling everyone she's a genius. She is a genius.

They are. And now let's switch back to business life because obviously Obviously you're very fulfilled in your personal life with your new, well, your daughter who just turned 3. In terms of your business life, I speak with a lot of entrepreneurs and most of them, they go into business thinking or seeking freedom or a sense of fulfillment, right? Was that the case for you or was there a different reason why you went into business?

I mean, I think I had a particular situation. I think I talked about this a little bit last time. I was in a particular situation with a family member that I wanted to extract myself from. And I really loved the industry, and I had no choice really but to start my own business.

I mean, I think people find it hard to believe. I was not someone that was 16 years old and dreaming of starting my own business. It was kind of almost like I had no choice. But I'm very thankful that it did happen.

And I certainly feel grateful that those circumstances allowed me to do that. I'm not someone that I would say growing up was entrepreneurial as a mindset. I was kind of forced into it and I had an aptitude for it. And what were some of the things that shocked you at the beginning when you just, when you first started?

I think, you know, when I first started, I was very well prepared because I had been working somewhere before for 10 years where I was really the only person doing everything from A to Z. So I actually thought it would be more difficult in my case. And it was, it was easier because I, because I was so well prepared. That being said, certainly starting with nothing and building a company from nothing takes a lot.

And I think probably one of the most important things for an entrepreneur, and I know I told you this last time, it's, you know, hard work and vision, but you also have to understand risk and how to manage risk, right? So without risk, you're not going to be an entrepreneur. It's impossible. You have to have some degree of financial risk, some degree of personal risk to go off on your own and start something from scratch.

And a lot of people don't have that personality, which is fine, right? Some people are meant to be employees and they have the security of the paycheck on the first of the month, and that's fine. But an entrepreneur really has to be— has to live with risk and has to take that risk. And if they're successful, they get a reward.

And there's nothing wrong with getting a reward, even in this society where it seems like people want to penalize people that are successful. And how does somebody can know, like, if they have that, like, the risk level is, would be enough in order to go into business, although they have to just go and fail? I think you're born with that personality, or I don't think you can teach that. I think you either have it or you don't.

There's a lot of people that think, oh, I want to start my own business because I have a great idea and I think I can make a lot of money, but then they don't have the action behind it, right? So you have to be a hustler in order to, you know, bring the vision to and you have to be ready to risk it and risk it all sometimes. And, you know, most people are in comfortable jobs. They have a great idea and they never— it never materializes because they're trying to do it while at the same time staying at their job because they don't want to lose the security of their job.

And unless you're fully dedicated to it, it's not going to happen. So if you're dividing your time between your job and your dream, it generally, I would say, it doesn't happen. It makes it way too difficult. Yeah, I definitely agree with you with the risk level because looking from the outside, you're thinking, oh my God, yeah, they're having it easy.

It seems easy to just do that business. I could just, you know, try it. And then when you're in it, you realize, whoa, they didn't tell me about all these other things that I had to do. Because now you're wearing multiple hats in the business.

You have to do the accounting, now the marketing, client acquisition, and all of the— and the fulfillment of whatever that it is. Yes. And debt. Oh, you have to live with debt.

You have to as your business grows, you have more and more employees who you're responsible for. You're responsible for payroll, you're responsible for their families. Exactly. So for sure, that's— people, people don't think of it.

They only see the result of the person being a success and, and, and they don't understand the path to get there and how much risk and personal and financial sacrifice they took to, to get there. To get there. And during our last conversation, you talked about for you to do a deal, it had to be fun. What does that mean to you?

So, it, it could mean a multitude of different things. Yeah. It could be that the actual deal is fun. We were, we're gonna create something great in a community that we think, we think is a great fit, or we're gonna bring an amazing tenant that's never been in Montreal to a building, or we're gonna renovate an old building and we're gonna bring it back to life and beautify it.

But it could also mean having interesting partners. Having fun partners, you know, we, I think also we talked about this a little bit last time that when you're really involved in your business, you spend most of your hours at your business more than you even spend with your family. Mm-hmm. So your partners, you better like them, right?

And they better be entertaining. They better be good people because you speak to them more than you speak to your friends. So they have to become your friends. They're, you know, an extension of your family.

So if you can't have fun partners, then it almost defeats the purpose, especially when you've achieved a certain level of success and you can pick and choose what you want to do and you're not dependent on maybe a bad partner just because he has money and he's willing to do the project and you can't find it anywhere else. So, but did you have to go through that to understand now the level that you're at that, no, you know what, I have to pick wisely? 100%. I think I learned the lesson the hard way and I had to learn it two times, unfortunately.

You didn't get it the first time. No. You don't have to be that smart to run your own company. You just, you just have to have other, you have to have other traits.

But the, you know, there's certainly a lot of people that have been very successful that aren't geniuses. Yeah. I know I'm saying it in jest, but there are other skills that are more important. Yeah.

Uh, than being, you know, the head of your class, the ability to develop relationships and, you know, to have that hustler mentality that we spoke about before, I think are, are way more important than getting straight A's in high school or university. And same thing that I look for in my employees, by the way. Oh, let's talk a little bit about that then. So you're saying develop relationships as a skill is more important than having straight A's in high school?

100%. I think it's probably the most important thing in any business. If I have the best product and I don't have anyone to distribute it, forget it. I could have the worst product and I'm friends with the guy that's distributing it and I'm gonna be successful.

Wow. So for sure, relationships, from what I can discern, I'm in one business, but yeah, from what I can discern, that's way, that's way more valuable than anything else. Is that something people can learn on how to, like, do you have to be like an extrovert or? I think you can learn to develop relationships, but I do think there's an inherent personality type that, that maybe attracts or draws in other, other people.

And I, I do think you can work on it, but I, I think for some people it just, it's, yeah, it clicks. It's much easier. And, uh, when you're finding your deals, would you say that you have the ability to distinguish, oh, you know what, I can add value to this property, but then people around you are looking at the same deal and then they don't see it? Do you have that perception?

I, I think that's probably our biggest advantage. I think also we're we're so quick at recognizing if we can add value or not. If someone gives us a deal, I could tell you in 5 seconds, yes or no. Okay.

So because of that, we're able to look at so many deals because we can, you know, say yes, no, no, no, no. I could pick 1 out of 2,000 deals and I'm picking the best out of 2,000 versus someone else that it's going to take them months to analyze 1 deal. So, you know, I'm picking maybe 1 out of every 2,000 and someone else has to pick 1 out of every 5. So I think—.

Is that skill, would you say, over the years? I think over the years, I've learned my craft. And I know what to spot and can do it pretty quickly. And because of the structure of our business, we're private.

We're not institutional. We don't have the corporate handcuffs where there's so much process and levels of approval in place that everything has to make it through that process. I look at it. I say yes or no.

It takes 2 seconds. I think that gives us— we're nimble because of that. But can you think of an example that maybe somebody else already looked at those deals, or many other people in your industry, but then the deal came to you and realized, how come they didn't see this? Yeah, I mean, I would say probably that happened— that, that's basically our biggest skill is kind of seeing value where other people don't see it.

And I think part of it also going back to the relationships, is because of our huge network of relationships. And you, you asked for an example, which I'll get to. Maybe we see an empty building that somebody else says, okay, I'm gonna sit there and pay taxes and expenses and it's gonna drain me every month. And I say, oh, I know that I spoke to such and such grocery store and they're looking in this area and I can put them in there and start creating a value right away.

So, yes. Yeah. You know, by talking, you know, we, we like, we like to cast a wide, a wide net with our, not just with our tenants, but all of our relationships. That's interesting.

I like that. Because when you really think about it, do you laugh sometimes to yourself and say, oh my gosh, like all this? Because people sometimes they do have a scarcity mindset because we're in Montreal. There's a lot of people in your industry and it's very competitive.

And others, what you see as an opportunity, others don't see it. And you're like, you're laughing at yourself and say, oh my God, how come they didn't see this? I mean, I would say, I don't know if I would use the word laughing, but I do, but I do often, I do often look even at deals other people end up doing that I passed on and saying, I mean, this makes no financial sense, which, you know, it brings me to another point. Sometimes, you know, we live in a world of social media where, you know, people, they buy something and they acquisition, look what we bought and everyone's congratulating them.

I mean, who cares if you bought something that doesn't mean you bought it well or that, I mean, it could be the opposite. It could be a nightmare. So, you know, we live in a world where it's very like, like, like, like, but just because you bought something doesn't mean anything. It's going to be successful.

Actually, the only thing it means is that you paid more than anybody else was willing to pay for it. Well, I guess there is a little bit of laugh we could attribute to that. And what keeps you going up until now? Because you've been in the industry for a long time.

When you go to work, what keeps you going? What drives you still? I have to say I have the exact same passion as my first day. I love real estate, and I'm love— I'm very transactional.

So I love the parts of the business that are transactional. I love the, the buying. I love doing leases. So I like all those things.

Those things still excite me just as much as they, as they did at the beginning. I attribute much less value to it now, as we discussed with my daughter. That's, that's really my, uh, the only thing that I really value. But I still have the same amount of fun doing, doing these transactions.

And, uh, what are some of the principles that you see people that succeed either in your industry or generally speaking, what are some of the principles that they live by to be able to achieve the level of wealth that they have? It's a tricky question. Yeah. Because, you know, to people can have certain attributes that I think are required to start businesses and to end up being successful.

But just because you have those things doesn't mean you're going to be successful, right? I would say probably, I don't know any statistics, but probably most people that set out on any business venture probably fail. So, you know, there's a whole host of skills. You know, I always say you have to have vision and you have to have the execution, right?

So you have to hustle. So, you know, there's a lot of people that sit and they daydream, oh, I could start this business, but they never do anything about it. But then there are other people that do something about it and they still end up failing, right? You need maybe also a certain level of luck.

Uh, there are people that have great products, great ideas, and dedicate their whole lives to getting it off the ground. And for whatever reason, whatever set of circumstances, it just doesn't work. So it's hard to translate those set of skills into actually making— does it mean you're going to make money? No, but I think it gives you a better chance.

Definitely. So you're surrounding the environment also, like especially when in business, like your partners, those are the people that you're choosing. Yeah, I would say also one other thing that I think I'm fortunate at this level of my business is I can pick up the phone and call someone and say, oh, could you get me a meeting with so-and-so? And maybe I just want to pick their brain about how they see something in business or in the economy and whatever, and I'll be able to get that meeting.

And I love picking brains and I love hearing what other people have to say. And that's That's one of the kind of freedoms that you, you know, you, you can have access to when you achieve, I guess, but at what level did you—. Were you able to get that access? Because not everybody can just speak up.

Yeah, I don't, I don't know if there, if there's like a specific day where I achieved a level that— but I guess over, over time, I, I guess I developed a certain reputation where people wouldn't close the door if I want to have a meeting with them. And so access to those type of rooms and those type of people who you'd to learn from is an invaluable asset now. And, you know, one other thing, just because they're good at business and you want to learn something from that business doesn't mean you should be learning how to be a good father from them. Or, you know, just because you're great at one thing doesn't mean you're great at everything.

Yes, yes, that's true. But people get confused. They think this, this person's so successful, you know, we're talking about success and making money. People think, oh, there's a kind of aura about them, they think they're great at everything.

But it's not true. They could be fantastic at business and they could be cheating on their wife and be a terrible father. And you shouldn't be learning those things from them. Doesn't mean you have to emulate their whole lives.

Exactly. So you have to really see like what do they excel at. Yes. And that's the thing you ask.

That's the knowledge you want to extract. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Get it. For your employees, how many employees do you have now?

We have about 80. 80? Okay. And when somebody comes, because you keep looking for great talent continuously because you're growing, you just moved to this new beautiful office.

When people—. First of all, I want to invite you so you could see if it's actually beautiful or not, but I'm sure it is. Don't lie to your fans, you haven't been there yet. I will go see it.

When people come for the interview, I don't know if you still participate in the interview process. I do. When you see them, how can you tell right away if this person is going to work out or no? So first of all, again, going back to what we said, the first thing I look for is regardless of what the job is that they're applying for, is this person a hustler?

Are they going to work hard? That's to me the most important thing. And anything else is distant to, you know, again, if they were straight-A students, I don't care if they're going to be dedicated to working and they're going to want to learn from me and they're they're showing the enthusiasm, to me that counts for much more. And, you know, today, and I'm glad that you asked this question because today with, you know, the younger generation, they, I think their priorities are sometimes a little out of whack.

You know, they come to the office for their interview and it's, how many days can I work from home? These are my pronouns. Where's my safe space? How is my work-life balance?

When I hear that right away as an employer, my brain shuts off. Alarms. Alarms, red flag. Because I ascribe other traits to that type of person.

And if this person's top concern is, how many days can I not be in front of the boss in their first interview? I mean, it's ridiculous. You have a privilege. You have an opportunity to come learn from me and my staff and to grow.

And you want to be at home doing God knows what? I don't know. To me, that right away is a turn-off. And like I say, I'd rather have a guy that failed every single class and is ready to roll up his sleeves and shows a good attitude.

That to me is going to get you further in life than straight A's. The other thing is, you know, when I started off in business, everybody was there to work and to work hard. So I always say to the millennials or this generation that's starting now, I said, if you just show up to work 5 days a week, you are ahead of 90% of your competition and you haven't even done anything yet. Just showing up 5 days a week, you are in the top 10%.

That's how bad it is. Yes, you are in, you are in the top 10% of valuable employees of your whole generation. So it's, it's actually easier for them, I think, to be successful than it was probably for you and me when we started. Interesting.

That's not good. That's not a good—. No, it's not a good thing. I don't mean to paint it as a good thing, but for, I guess, for the ones that are actually hustlers, it's a good thing.

But in general, I think it's a very, very challenging job market for employers. Yes. Because if you say 90% of them are like, and only 10% that you're— everybody's looking to hire, it's— yeah, it is tough. The competition is, uh, it's rough.

There's not as much good talent out there generationally as there used to be. Yes, yes, yes. Why is that? Why do they think like this?

Oh, my God. What's your take on it? I mean, I'm not a psychologist. What are your guess?

I mean, my guess is that they grew up— I mean, they grew up very entitled. I think that's what people say, and I think it's the truth. I think they grew up very entitled. No one ever says no to them.

They're allowed to complain about everything, and there's never any pushback. People are scared to push back. When someone, when someone comes to your office and they're talking about their pronouns, you— what, what can you say? You don't want to be canceled, right?

That's— everybody's scared. Probably 9 out of 10 people agree with me, but nobody speaks up because they're going along to get along, right? So nobody speaks up. Up.

That's the problem. Nobody tells them, this is ridiculous. Come back to reality. This is absolutely ridiculous.

Nobody says it. And that's the problem. Even though everybody believes it, nobody says it. Well, it is a touchy subject.

Yes, it's a touchy subject. We're not going to solve it here. But one of the freedoms— you were asking me about freedom earlier— one of the freedoms of attaining a certain level of success is I don't care. I will say whatever I actually think.

If someone wants to punish me for it, no problem. I've gotten where I have to go, and I'm ready to, ready to speak my mind. Courage, Ian. I like that.

I like that. Okay, so in summary, if somebody who's a hustler wants to position themselves— already they're showing up 5 days a week, they're already ahead— what else can they do to get promoted and to be seen by you like, whoa, I noticed this person? First of all, just in general, I have to tell you, you were talking about the it factor. The hustle spirit is something that you notice right away.

I, I could tell you I've been deceived in job interviews about other things, but when I see a hustler mentality, that you can't fake. You know when someone really wants to work and really wants to make something out of themselves. My leadership style in general, which I generally don't think I'm a great leader. Just because you're a good— just because you created a business and you're a good business person doesn't mean you're a great manager of of people, by the way.

Yes. So that's a whole other skill set that I think people also usually confuse. And that's why people have office managers or presidents to manage their staff. But for me, my leadership style is I lead by example.

So I try and do the right thing, and I give my employees access. My employees have access to me. It's not— I'm not sitting up in my ivory tower with a closed door. I have an open door policy.

My guys can come to me, ask my opinion. And learn from me at any point. And the guys that take advantage of that are the guys that are going to get promoted because they're learning. They're learning the way I think.

They're learning the way I do things, the way I want things done, and it'll benefit them. Yeah. Proximity to you means a lot. Yes.

To be able to learn and imitate the way you think and to succeed, for sure. You can't learn that by being at home. No. And I think that's a gift that we're giving our employees.

And it's not just me. I have other very talented professionals in my office that they have access to. So I just don't understand why people would not want to be around that all day. Maybe it's because they don't understand that.

As they mature, eventually they'll get it. But when they're younger, maybe it doesn't click. I think you could be right. Yeah.

Maybe they don't have the capacity to fully understand that. Because I remember when I was with my first job, as soon as it was 5, I was like, I'm gone. On, right? Maybe 4:59 even.

And then one of the person worked, he was like in his 80s, he was still— because he really loved what he did, right? He says, Kathy, it's not about that, it's about learning. He explained that to me a little bit more to fully understand. It's not just about the hours that you do, but think about the future, like the person you want to become, the things that you need to learn here.

It's a wealth, it's a vast knowledge that you can learn from all of You know, so take your time to, you know, it's like, it's like the old story about the boss who leaves the work at 5 or 6, wherever, then he sees who the, he looks at the cars to see which employees are still there. And those are the ones that he promotes. Oh my gosh. And if we were talking about values, what would you say?

What are some of your values? Somebody were to ask you that. I mean, I think, I think today I look at everything. Not to obsess about this topic of my daughter, but I look at everything through the lens, through the lens of my daughter.

So I look at everything through, will my daughter be proud of me? And even when I'm doing— she, she— every decision I make, whether it's business or my personal life, I think of her first. So I find that that's a very good way to, to align my values. You know, I, I would say the Ian today that you're interviewing versus maybe 2 years ago, I would say I'm a lot less killer instinct and gut and a lot more— I don't want to use the word softer, but I think a lot more mindful and thoughtful.

Whether it's— we were always very charitable, but now there's, okay, I'm donating to this charity. How would my daughter be affected by this? Oh, should I donate to this? Should I give to the children's hospital?

I was giving just to give. Now there is intent behind it. So that's, I guess, also makes it more fulfilling. So that's very unexpected even from you, I'm guessing, because you've changed a lot.

Yes, a lot. In a sense, it's sweeter to do those things. It's more fulfilling. It's more rewarding.

And as bad as this sounds, business successes are less important to me. Yeah. In that I don't, you know, we were never a group that really took time to celebrate our successes because, you know, we're always like, go on to the next, onto the next. And we're not, you know, obviously every business wants to be profitable, make money, but you know, we don't do transactions to count, you know, how many millions of square feet do we have?

How many millions of dollars are we gonna make? We're always, like, on to the next and just growth moving forward mode. So we never took time to really look back and celebrate those things. So, but it's just less important to me anyhow.

But now are you taking the time to, like, let's talk about gratitude because we talked about it before we started the show. Would you say now you're taking more the time to be grateful, especially with your daughter? So my answer is that recently I've actually coincidentally thought about it a lot. It's not something that I, that I really thought about a lot before.

And it is important, as I was telling you before, you really have to allocate time to be grateful, to sit and think about the things you're grateful for. Because otherwise, you get caught up in the rat race, your kids, your business. There's always something to do. You're always busy.

And you really have to extract yourself from that day-to-day to think about the things you're grateful for. And when you do, you realize, you know, I know this is a business podcast, but you realize how unimportant that is, to be honest with you. Yeah. It's, you know, if your family is healthy, if you had a trillion dollars in the bank, you would write that check tomorrow to make sure your family was healthy and have zero dollars left.

So, you know, as much as we love business and it's fun and we like to succeed and we do this every day, in the grand scheme of things, It's not important at all. Yes, I truly believe that. Because even me, like, being grateful, like, when I wake up in the morning, I think about all the things that I'm grateful for before I get out of bed. You know, I have electricity, I have two legs, I can, you know, walk, all these things, my kids, right?

A guy that can't walk will look at the poorest person in the world that's living on the street and say, I wish I could walk. And the guy that's living on the street says, I wish I could have the worst apartment in all of Montreal. And and so on and so forth. So you, you really have to be mindful of that.

I mean, I would trade all my money for one kiss from my daughter. That's how valuable it is to me. Yes, kids, they do change you. And I'm very happy that you're talking about your daughter this way because it's— I don't speak to a lot of fathers that, you know, it's a different perspective from the moms because I usually talk to the moms about, you know, our kids.

But, uh, it— the way that it changes is, that's, uh, spectacular. Oh yeah, I'm all in. I'm in it to win it. Oh my goodness.

If you were to mentor somebody on building success, we're back to success again. I think you mentioned hustling. Maybe that's the same thing you're going to say again. If they were to attribute like some attributes to them, that would be it.

I think, again, listen, I don't think you could mentor someone to getting success. I think you can, I think you tell them kind of what the tools are and give them a direction. But yeah, I think that hustler attitude, and what's great about that is you don't have to be born with any particular skill or level of intelligence. Or so that I would say is the most important.

The ability to take and manage risk is important as well, and the ability to develop relationships. And in order to develop those relationships, it takes a lot of time You have to put yourself out there. That's why I say you can't have a foot in both worlds and think, I'm going to start this business, but I'm going to keep my job and I'm going to stay safe and collect that paycheck. You have to take the time to get out there, meet people, develop relationships, make the connections.

It's very important. And if you're too concerned about being safe and distracted somewhere else, it's very hard. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it makes it much harder. Got it.

And what are your thoughts on this philosophy that you become what you consistently think about? I would say as an athlete, I firmly believe in that. I mean, listen, a lot of the most successful athletes use these visualization techniques. So I do believe thinking about something is a very important step.

But again, if you have the thought or the idea without action, It means nothing, right? So the athletes—. Delusion. Yes, it's delusion.

So the athletes are different because they visualize knowing that they're training. They know they're going to do the race. Their action is done and going to be done. But people in business, you have to do more than just think about it.

But for sure, thinking about it, visualization, all those things are very, very useful, but it's not going to get you off the ground if that's all you're doing. And what sport do you practice? This? Triathlon.

And how, like, what is your routine like to—. I will tell you, before my daughter, my routine was much, much more rigorous. Now I'm doing shorter distance triathlons because I just, I can't and I don't want to dedicate that amount of time to train for long distance events because too much time away from my daughter. So I went from doing kind of Ironman and half Ironman distance triathlons to Olympic distance triathlons, which I started 2 years ago.

I actually, last year I won the state championship of Maine in my age group for triathlon. So here in Maine? In Maine. In Maine.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Wow.

Sportman. Yes. First of all, I love athletes also as employees. You ask me other things that I like in employees.

Athletes are phenomenal employees. What makes them like, what do you like about them? They understand teamwork. Teamwork.

They understand the link between the number of hours you put in and the result, right? They're practicing, they're developing their craft, and you get a result, right? So it's all the qualities that make up an athlete are phenomenal for, for as employees. Note taken.

Yeah. And did we miss anything during the conversation? What would you say? Last word of wisdom, anything you want to add?

Do I want to add anything? I think, again, hearkening back to my daughter, it's great. You can have success in business, you can do all the right things, but again, family, all that is more important. And I think if you have the mindset of— you know, this might sound a bit morbid, but I always think about it.

We're all going to die. We don't know when. We're all going to die someday. And if you kind of look at things through that lens, you can evaluate what's important right now.

What's the real priority in my life? And of course, it's easy for me to say that because I've achieved a certain level of success, and that's great. And because I've achieved a certain level of success, I have employees that can take some of the time burden away from me, that I can spend time with my daughter and training for triathlon. If I was starting my business and I had my daughter at that time, I would not be as successful because for me, what it required was 100% full dedication to my business.

And which is part of the reason why I never had kids at that age because I knew when I had a child that I would be so involved as well, and I didn't want to sacrifice that time. So now that I concentrated for those decades, I guess, on building the business, I guess I have a certain level of freedom because I have employees that I can trust to do certain tasks, which, you know, also it's kind of a double-edged sword, right? Because you gain financial freedom, you gain maybe some time freedom because you have people to take care of tasks for you. But at the same time, the bigger your business grows, the more you're a slave to it, right?

Because the bigger it is, the more necessarily, the more issues are going to come up and the more problems. And you're the boss, right? So the buck stops here. So for sure there's more problems.

So you gain some freedom and you lose some freedom. You can't have it all. Oh my goodness. It's never perfect.

No, it's never perfect. And what is next for you in Breastwater? I think right now we're really concentrating on expanding our footprint in the United States. We went— the first time I talked to you, we were primarily involved in industrial in the United States.

Now we've expanded. We've done a couple retail, grocery-anchored retail acquisitions, and now we're going to grow that platform now. So we're very concentrated on that. On the US market.

Yeah. It's very different, would you say? I would say the whole American mentality is very different than, than the Canadian mentality. I guess that's a discussion for another topic.

That's, that's a whole other hour. And for you personally, what's next for you? Just to kind of continue to enjoy my daughter and enjoy the, the next stages in her, in her life and try and be as good a father as possible. And hopefully, someday she'll look back and say she had a great childhood and that she's proud of her dad.

Amazing. Well, Ian, it was a pleasure and honor to have you back on the Montreal Entrepreneur Podcast (now The Vault MTL). I really enjoyed your talk, especially listening about your daughter. That, that part I really like because I do have kids.

My youngest daughter is 4, just turned 4. Oh, so similar, similar. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I understand all the things that you're going through.

And, uh, until next time, we'll talk again. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. Great.