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I’ve been extremely humbled over the last couple of years to receive more positive feedback on this podcast than I could ever imagine. But I do have a confession and secret to share with you: this podcast is only as good as the guests that we are able to sucker into joining me here. When searching for guests, we look for three qualities in our guests… that they have the track record, are engaging and are willing to share stories and information pretty willingly. With respect to Ted Frumkin, who currently sits as the Chief Development Officer at The Fresh Market, all three boxes are overwhelmingly checked. Enjoy the honesty, humor and stories from the one and only, Ted Frumkin. 

Hey everyone, we’re back for the 2nd half of season 2 of Limitless: How To Crush It In Commercial Real Estate. I couldn’t be more flattered about the incredible amount of positive feedback from our first 18 episodes that have aired prior to now. Our ambition of helping anyone in our industry who wants to improve their career by virtue of listening to those who have already “crushed it” is being achieved on a consistent basis. Admittedly, I’m selfish and strive to have guests that can help me improve not only as a commercial real estate professional, but as an entrepreneur. At the recommendation of previous guests and people that I respect tremendously, one name continued to pop up over and over as someone we should have on the show… After interviewing Josh Simon, it made complete sense. The people who made those recommendations we’re spot on and perhaps even undersold how much of a badass this guy is. Nearly 12 years ago Josh started SimonCRE with nothing. Today, the company is doing over 100 development and acquisitions per year. I’m going to repeat that. 100 pieces of commercial real estate purchased per year! Josh is young, driven and a visionary who executes as well as anyone as I’ve come across in my career and I can’t wait for you to hear his story.

2 Billion Dollars worth of real estate sold per year. 600 transactions, per year. There are 75 employees on the team; That's a serious business. Patrick Luther and his partner, Matt Mousavi, oversee that within the SRS National Net Lease Group. Pat is a self-made guy, who lost it all with many sleepless nights before arriving to this massive level of success. He embodies a true American entrepreneurial success story. Did I mention he is 33? buckle up and enjoy the success story that is Patrick Luther.

In Stephen Covey's famous book, "The 7 habits of highly successful people." One of the key pillars is, "begin with the end in mind." Michelle Ryman with the Wendy's Corporation has done that. She has always had a vision, and executed the plan in place in her mind. Everything with her career has been tactical and planned out. Those values were instilled into her from her humble beginnings in the south. We talk about everything, from how she eats her frosty, to some things that a little bit more serious, like when you know it's right to make a career change. I hope you enjoy Michelle's journey as much as I did. She has a fantastic story, so much incredible insight to offer.   Connect with us:Aaron Zucker: LinkedInMichelle Ryman: LinkedinKazSource: Website

A very successful person once told me, don't let school get in the way of your education. Prime example of that that comes to mind for me was my grandfather. He was a holocaust survivor and only made it to fifth grade, but despite that, he spoke six languages. Anthony Grosso, as I call him, Tony, didn't let school get in the way of his education either. There's a conception in our business that everybody has to have a college degree and the better school that you went to makes you more qualified to do certain tasks within our business. And a lot of people would theoretically make the argument that the better educated you are, the more inclined or the more likely you are to be at the C level of a large organization. Despite Tony dropping out of school after his freshman year and never completing college, he's made it to that pinnacle and he's done it by not letting school get in the way of his education. He's always been a self motivated student student of entrepreneurship, student of commercial real estate, student of business in general, and it's paid off for him. And his story to getting to where he is now, with FNRP’s wild success is not necessarily done so in the most conventional way, which is why I'm excited to share Tony’s story with you.     Connect with us:Aaron Zucker: LinkedInAnthony Grosso: LinkedInKazSource: Website

Today's episode with Carrie Bobb brings out an entire plethora of emotions that you would never expect to hear from a commercial real estate podcast. Unfortunately, her story is about as crazy as we've heard on the show so far, and it's not exactly all positive all the time. That said, it involves incredible impact on, not just our business, but society in general, but we also talk about the successes of her commercial real estate career and how building a specific niche within your business is something that can be applicable to anybody and Carrie did a wonderful job of that in brokerage which you'll certainly get to hear about too. Sit back, relax, and enjoy my conversation with Carrie.   Connect with us:Aaron Zucker: LinkedInCarrie Bobb: LinkedInKazSource: Website

Ever hear of those CEOs or entrepreneurs talking about how important philanthropy is and how sometimes, it doesn't necessarily feel that genuine? Stephen Bittel is the exact opposite of that. I'm a hundred percent convinced in getting to know him over the last couple of years as a friend and mentor that he wakes up every day with a purpose of becoming more successful than he was the day before. With one of the main reasons being to give back, giving back with his time, giving back with his resources. And I can't express to you how much admiration I have for that, and it's something that I'm looking forward to sharing with you in this episode with him. We talked about everything from his ordinary upbringing to his completely contrarian view on proposed tax laws and economic insight, as it relates to commercial real estate. He's as entertaining and certainly as intelligent as any guest that we've had thus far and I can't wait for you guys to hear the episode.     Connect with us:Aaron Zucker: LinkedInStephen Bittel: LinkedInKazSource: Website

12 million square feet, across 50 properties with a market cap of over a billion dollars for a publicly traded company. Imagine that being the company that you run as the CEO. Also, imagine having an enormous responsibility on a non-for-profit that directly hits home for you. All at a pretty young age. Brian Harper has accomplished what most people would dream about accomplishing in 40-50 years in this business. He's done so in less than half that time. I had an incredible conversation with him. His story is amazing. And I can't wait for you to hear it. So without further ado, here's my conversation with Brian.   Connect with us:Aaron Zucker: LinkedInBrian Harper: LinkedInKazCM: Website

Scott Bitney is an interesting guy. He's confident in his work but one of the most humble people I've ever met. He doesn't take himself seriously at all. And the first word that comes to mind when I think of him as a broker is that he's a grinder. He's an extremely tough negotiator. I would know I've been on the other side of him on a deal before but he also values relationships as much as anyone that I know. Writing handwritten notes and sending out gifts out of left field is not uncommon practice for him. This dynamic is what makes him so successful as a partner at Location Commercial Real Estate in St. Louis, a leading Midwestern brokerage firm. It's like he's the most interesting guy in retail real estate, especially when he tells us about how he shut up to his showing one time shirtless. You'll want to hear that story and his insight. So without further ado, here's my conversation with Scott.   Connect with us:Aaron Zucker: LinkedInScott Bitney: LinkedInKazSource: Website

Libby Lassiter's journey from working at McDonalds to becoming the Co-President of Bayer Properties is one of the more decorated careers worth celebrating that we've had so far on Limitless. She is a true American success story about grit, maximizing talent, and just making things happen and I'm so excited to share it with you guys. So let's go ahead and get right into it.   Connect with us:Aaron Zucker: LinkedInLibby Lassiter: LinkedInKazSource: Website

Today's guest is, let's call it unique to say the least. Jay Siano, the CEO of Sabre Real Estate Advisors brings an unapologetically honest approach to everything he does in life. His strong-willed mindset coupled with his incredible work ethic has yielded to him running one of the strongest boutique retail real estate brokerage firms in the country. Full disclosure, my buddy Jay doesn't hold anything back in anything he says or does so make sure you have your earbuds in for this one and enjoy it.   Connect with us:Aaron Zucker: LinkedInJay Siano: LinkedInKazSource: Website

On today's show, I sit down to hear Bob Myers’ story from humble beginnings in a small town in Ohio to becoming the Chief Operating Officer at Phillips Edison and Company, the nation's largest privately-held grocery anchored shopping center owner in the country. Bob’s success story is one that is relatable, enjoyable, and something that I can't wait for you guys to hear.     Connect with us:Aaron Zucker: LinkedInBob Myers: LinkedInKazSource: Website

One of my favorite parts about commercial real estate is that you can have an unconventional path to getting where we end up, Maria Toliopoulos is a prime example of that. Her Greek immigrant parents gave her two choices in life for a career path, to become a doctor or become a lawyer. Of course, neither of which she did. She now runs all real estate strategy for Ulta Beauty, the leading makeup and cosmetic beauty retailer in the world with over some 1,100 locations. Her path involved hard work from the onset waiting tables in her family's restaurant and included other adverse points in her life, like dealing with gender bias in big meetings. After getting to know Maria through this episode, you’ll understand very quickly why the adversity hardly slowed her down and so let's go ahead and get right into her journey.   Connect with us: Aaron Zucker: LinkedInMaria Toliopoulos: LinkedInKazSource: Website

It's widely known that having success in commercial real estate takes chutzpa, an old Yiddish term describing someone with self-confidence. The term is often used to describe those whose confidence is ideal, not cocky and can work a room with the best of them. My unsolicited two cents? It's impossible to have too much chutzpa. This show is based around the idea that we can leverage my network of incredible people in the commercial real estate industry to get inside access to their success stories. Of all the people that I've ever met, which is well into the thousands in this business, I can't think of one with more chutzpa than David Birnbrey. That chutzpa, his work ethic, and playing to his personal strengths has been an instrumental part in TSCG, which is formerly known as The Shopping Center Group and their wild success. We get into the history of commissions, his first failed career path prior to real estate, and what it takes to stand out. I don't need to say it but I think you guys are gonna love this one. Connect with us:Aaron Zucker: LinkedInDavid Birnbrey: LinkedInKazSource: Website

In this episode, we hear the incredible story of Brian Finnegan's journey from sneaking into office buildings selling what he calls a commodity product to running the entire leasing platform at Brixmor as the Executive VP, one of the largest owners of shopping centers across the country, all before turning 40 years old. Connect with us: Aaron Zucker: LinkedIn Brian Finnegan: LinkedIn KazSource: Website

In this episode, we hear the story of how Chris Sands walked away from his lifelong dream with no money and no plan to building one of the nations top investment sales brokerage firms, Sands Investment Group. Connect with us: Aaron Zucker: LinkedIn Chris Sands: LinkedIn KazSource: Website

Beth, known as "The Canvassing Queen" is a CRE Leasing Coach and the Co-Founder of SFIRA. In this episode, Aaron and Beth discuss getting your start in retail real estate, the power of ambition, and becoming "The Canvassing Queen" Connect with us: Aaron Zucker: LinkedIn Beth Azor: LinkedIn KazSource: Website

Kevin is largely responsible for the massive success of PMAT, a privately held operator of shopping centers out of New Orleans. In this episode, Aaron and Kevin discuss flipping cars, the process of becoming a real estate entrepreneur, and surrounding yourself with the right people. Connect with us: Aaron Zucker: LinkedIn Kevin Kush: LinkedIn KazSource: Website

Chris is the COO of DLC Management, one of the nation's largest private retail real estate companies. In this episode Aaron and Chris discuss rising up the corporate ladder, going all in on effort, the power of good competition. Connect with us: Aaron Zucker: LinkedIn Chris Ressa: LinkedIn KazSource: Website

In this episode, Aaron chats with Stan Demartinis. Stan is a Planet fitness franchisee with 32 franchises across the east coast. Aaron and Stan discuss work ethic, getting in early, and believing in yourself. Connect with us: Aaron Zucker: LinkedIn Stan Demartinis: LinkedIn KazSource: Website