Anita, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. We are so excited to have you here. You have had quite a busy Diwali. You have been to the White House. You have been to Lily's Diwali bash. You had another one as well. Yeah, it's been a busy Diwali season. There were a couple events in LA. There was a Gold House Diwali event.
And then in Arizona, we've had a couple. We had a big community event where all our kids performed, which was really nice. And then I had a smaller event with some very close friends that came over.
as well. So it's been busy, but it's been great. We really, really celebrated the volume this year. I have to ask, how did you pack that all? All those outfits? Cause I'm imagining you're wearing lingers and those are not easy things to put in a suitcase. They're not. They were quick trips. So the lingers pretty much took up the whole suitcase.
Yes, it was it wasn't too bad. But yeah, I agree. Lingos are not easy to travel with. They are not. But I'm sure no one wants to hear me ask more fashion tips. I'm trying to get better with my fashion here. So they're probably here to hear a little bit more about your story. I wanted to start off with asking a little bit of a brief introduction about yourself. Who are you and how did you make your first million? Yeah, so I'm a real estate developer. I
been living in Arizona for most of my life. And so my family is a very long history of real estate development out here. My dad, he started investing in land many years ago. And so as I was growing up, I kind of saw him grow his business. And I saw the success he had with investing. And so that really piqued my interest. And so after college and getting my MBA, I started working with him. And so I have a long history of land acquisition, land development,
And so in 2019, I decided to start my own company. And the main difference was that my company we brought in investors, we created different funds and we were able to go out and acquire properties. And I think having investors allowed us to buy bigger properties, to buy more properties and just do things that we couldn't have done as individuals.
It was a very exciting, you know, sort of transition. And then I think timing wise, we started right before COVID and then post COVID, you know, real estate in Arizona, especially really took off. And so properties that we bought, you know, like one of the first deals that I bought was a million dollar property. And we sold that for $8 million about six months later.
Oh my God. Yeah, I really saw some incredible appreciation in our investor-based group pretty rapidly at that point. And now we have thousands of investors. My portfolio that I manage is about $1.5 billion. And we do some of the largest real estate deals in Arizona. We just sold 2,000 acres, which I think was either the largest or one of the largest land sales that's ever taken place in the state.
It's been exciting and you know, we're excited to keep growing. And I also started a film production company a couple of years ago. And so we're investing in South Asian stories and South Asian content. And so really excited about that.
or first movie doing it, which will be released early next year. So it's a lot of exciting different things we're working on. One of my favorite parts about your journey is you went from just an idea of like, oh, this is what I think I can do to executing it so well. And then you didn't just stop there, you said,
You know what? I want to get into a completely separate field. I can't imagine that Hollywood is similar to real estate, but you were willing to start and you've done so well already. It just goes to show that there's something about you, something in your skill set that has made you be so successful in different industries, which leads me to the question of what was it like growing up? You know, who shaped your attitudes towards money and success?
I would definitely say it was my parents. I think seeing my dad who's been very entrepreneurial from a young age and he's always taken a lot of risks, which I think I think that's what really holds people back sometimes is they're just scared to fail. And I think seeing him take risks and seeing them pay off really that kind of allowed me to grow thinking that I can also take risks and do things and those kind of pay off. My mom is
She's a retired physician. So she, you know, I saw her working really hard my whole life. So, you know, the idea of like, you know, women going out and working and, you know, being the primary breadwinners in some cases to me, that was something that I was exposed to at a young age. So I think that's really kind of also shaped my mentality where I feel like women can do anything when there's really nothing that can stop us. And I think my parents journey was unique where my mom
was the primary breadwinner initially and she worked really hard as a doctor and then my dad started investing on their behalf and then, you know, his investments started to pay off.
in a really big way. So I think that's kind of where I've gotten my experience from. Did you see your parents journey? Because it sounds like that, you know, they're quite different, your dad being in real estate and in business and your mum being a physician, a nine to five role. Did that make you look at one and go, Oh, I'd prefer one of the other? Or were you quite happy to have gone into either? I think I definitely saw my dad and I thought that was
Definitely the way I wanted to go, you know, just having flexibility and freedom to be your own boss and do things on your own terms and, you know, real estate, I think it kind of provides you with a very flexible lifestyle. So when my mom was, you know, working and didn't have as much flexibility, my dad was able to kind of help out and do things with my sister and I and take this as full of things like that. So I think to me, I always kind of wanted to go down that path. I think, you know, being going to medicine, I think there's also
a lot of value there. But I think for me, I've always just had that entrepreneurial experience. So my dad, you know, I think I really all of his good stuffs more. Did your dad ever give you advice as a child or a teenager that you really held on to around success? Or was it mainly by watching him and seeing how he operated that inspired you to go into the same field? Yeah, he's giving me so much advice that's really stuck with me. I think
The one thing that he always said that I even to this day, listen to is like really studying and understanding the area that you're investing in, whatever it is, whether, you know, it's a stock market or real estate, like you really need to master that area. So you know it, you know, as well as you can, better than others, which is your competitive advantage. And then when an opportunity comes up, you can act on it quickly and, you know, sort of capitalize on it.
faster because you are so well prepared. So I think that, you know, sort of notion of really studying the markets, you know, like in the case of what we do, which is land development, it's like, you know, what are all the pieces of land understanding like what the challenges are with each one. So anytime like a property comes to me, I can so quickly like within seconds, like sort of
look at it and say, this is a good opportunity, we need to get a kind of act on it. So I think that's something that I've really taken from him that he's always taught me. Did you feel like your money mindset also changed? How do you view money if you had like a teenager come up to you and say, I want to grow my wealth, but I just don't feel like I've got my head
you know, mindset right, what's something that you think we can start doing to just align it with ourselves so that we can actually start taking action. Yeah, I think that's such a good question. And I think that, you know, it's when you live in society that, you know, there's so much temptation to buy different things. I think it's really a matter of like prioritizing how you want to spend your money. And I think investing is so important, even at an early age, even if you're putting
Small amounts into different things where you're getting interest or you're growing your wealth. I think that's so important because over time that compounding effect can be massive. And so what I would just say is, you know, really focus on your goals and start investing as early as you can. And I think
really try to limit plantations of buying things that make you look wealthy, like designer of brands, things like that, that you don't necessarily need. And just focus on like spending on exactly what you need and then whatever you're not spending, grow that by putting into something. I think real estate is something that everybody should put a portion of their portfolio or wealth into because it's something that's, you know, just historically is always appreciated with time.
And it's a real asset. So I would also encourage if any sort of goes take a plastic as well. How do you balance that between trying to save, trying to put them any way into real estate, trying to live a little bit more frugally, and then also treating yourself like were there milestones that you would celebrate? Do you have any purchases that are more like, you know, reckless, but something that you still, I'm trying to get a little bit of a idea of, is it okay to spend a bit of money? Yeah, I know for sure. I mean, I think that's, you know,
kind of the point to you want to enjoy yourself. I think for me, what I would splurge on are things that are also good for you. You know, like, I think getting, you know, trainers or massages, things like that, that actually help your, you know, mental health or physical health. I think those are definitely areas where I think you should definitely splurge. I think vacations traveling. I think those are all areas where I would say, you know, those are really just good for your overall being. So those would be areas I would say you should splurge on. I think
Other things like, you know, designer handbags, things like that, I think, you know, those are probably not as valuable if you're trying to prioritize or to slow. So that would be my thought. And then I think for me also investing in different things is also a way that I splurge, like, you know, getting into the film industry, for instance. It's not, you know, it's a riskier business. You know, sometimes like you're known to not always get your money back or, you know, whatever, it lose money.
I think for me to be able to invest in things that are a little bit riskier to me, that's also sort of a slurred, which I think those are important for people to do too, like if you're passionate about something, you know, invest in it or get worried and enjoy yourself that way. So that would be as far as that goes.
I hear you. I recently purchased one sign of bag. It's my only designer bag, but it was a bit of a splurge. And I think I felt a little bit guilty at the time of doing it. And I am just trying to reconcile. I have yet to tell my parents, like I am so scared. I agree with you. When you say like when you hit certain milestones, I think it's okay to celebrate your success with purchases that are splurgeons. I don't think there's anything to feel guilty about. I think it's, you know, it's when you
sort of, you know, overdo it or all your money's going towards lurgis and not investing that it becomes a problem. But I think it's great to celebrate your success and splurge her in the middle. I think there's anything wrong with that.
Thank you. Thank you. That makes me feel less bad. I wanted to move on to your career journey. So you grew up, you saw your parents, you know, having very different careers, you ended up choosing going into business. When you first started, did you go straight into working with your dad and then split off into your own thing? Is that how you started growing your business? Yeah, I did. I did a couple of years where I did get some appropriate experience. I worked for Honeywell a
years after I graduated from my MBA program so I did corporate marketing so I did get amazing experience there and then I started working for my dad a few years after so in 2007 and it was an interesting time to start with him because it was 2008 was when we experienced the great recession and the real estate market was actually
in a very, you know, kind of a bad place. And it was, you know, values were going down. There was a lot of distress. And so I think it was actually really interesting for me to start my career in that market because I saw how, you know, investments can go wrong in kind of the negative side of kind of the worst situation that you could get in. So I think that's shaped me to be very cautious with our strategies or investment strategies and not
You know, taking on leverage and too much diet because if the markets change, which, you know, sometimes you don't have to put much control over, you have to be prepared to sort of, you know, write out the storms and write out the different ways. What was the journey like going from, okay, I'm going to work with my family. I'm going to grow that too. I'm going to go out on my own. Like, I can't imagine that that was one, an easy decision. But what was the catalyst? Were you like, I'm just ready to make my own mark?
Yeah, it's so interesting. I think what, how it started was I had a couple of friends who also were at that time wanting to invest in real estate. And, you know, they had family members too. And they were like, you know, why don't we just buy a few properties together? When I first started, I didn't know where the company was going to go at that time. It was kind of something we were just doing on the side. We were just buying properties ourselves.
And then what I realized after we bought our first few properties is there were a lot of people in my network that actually wanted to start investing in real estate with me alongside me. And so then that's when I would say maybe a year into us doing this is when I sort of started to transition because my business really took off at that point. And we started growing so quickly. And so the transition sort of just happened naturally because
My company was growing so quickly and then my sister had moved back to so she was able to sort of take over some of the responsibilities I had with my family's business. And then I sort of just started focusing full time on my company. So it wasn't initially part of the plan, but it really just like kind of grew into something that took a lot of its own.
What would you say was the best part about growing a company? Was it seeing the investors and seeing them have the chance to come into something? Was it actually building the properties themselves and seeing that journey? What have you really enjoyed in that process? I think my most favorite part of it has been investors that have
invested with me and trusted me and, you know, sort of had the confidence. And I think that has been really interesting. And then I think, you know, as the companies grow and we've had different milestones, just, you know, kind of giving back to investors, these amazing returns and seeing, you know, how happy they are and them coming back and investing even more and bringing their family and friends. Like that's been such an amazing journey and just getting, you know, trusted people and, you know, when
I get calls from investors where they're just happy and grateful. That's the best part of it all. Do you think that there is a part of you that looks back and goes, oh, I would have done anything differently? Or do you think everything that happened has going to happen for a reason? I think everything that's happened is happened for a reason. Even things that weren't ideal or that weren't really great situations. I think they all have taught me something.
And they sort of made me better for the next deal or the next project. So I think everything looking back, everything that's happened has worked out well and it's really, they were all experiences that I needed to go through to become better. So I think it all sort of...
I don't think there is much I would have told them before. And when someone looks at your company, what's the best way to explain what you invest in? You know, some people think of real estate companies and they think that you buy property, you flip it, you sell it, and that's how investors get money back. Or do you purchase large blocks of land and put houses in and sell, you know, like communities of land? Like, how does it work for with Arizona land consulting?
Yeah, so what we do is we mainly focus on land development. So we'll buy large tracts of land. And then a lot of times we'll get the zoning info set or whatever that you say. So for instance, the property we just sold, we developed a data center of campus on it. So we went through the entitlement process with the city. We got all the infrastructure to the site and then we sold it to the ultimate user who's going to build on it. Sometimes we go vertical and build ourselves or we'll do joint ventures with builders.
But we typically, you know, my main focus is the learning development part and that's been really exciting because if we try to be a little bit further out of where the existing growth is and just plan for.
you know, setting up sites and then when the growth ends then we sell it out. Do you really like undersold how amazing the data center story was? Do you mind explaining a little bit more in detail for those that haven't heard this before? Because I have to say this is one of the craziest stories I have heard of how someone has taken a piece of land and added so much insane value and sold it for such a great multiple. Do you mind explaining it in a little bit more detail?
Yeah, for sure. I mean, that property was the biggest deal I've ever done. We bought it about two and a half years ago. And it was really interesting how the property came to us. It was a residential property and essentially the water certificates that the property needed and expired. And the Arizona Department of Water basically issued a statement saying,
There's no more water for this property. And so the seller was pretty distressed at that point. I wanted to get out of it. So we were able to buy it at a very good price. So we bought it for $40 million, which is a very good price for 2,000 acres. And then after that, I worked with a city.
to basically look at it to repurpose the site. So we went to the city and said, you know, we can't look at this from a residential standpoint. We need to now do something more industrial on it. A data center would be a great use. Data centers tend to be low infrastructure users, so they don't need a lot of water. They don't need a lot of traffic.
the roads and things like that. And so the city was excited about it. We had a partner, a data center partner that we brought in. And so we went through the whole zoning process and took about two years to go through that whole process. And then we sold it for $136 million, you know, two and a half years later. So created almost $100 million in value. And it was almost three and a half times multiple current investors. So
Definitely a really exciting project and that property is going to have a $20 billion data center. So it's a huge in terms of economic development to Arizona. I think it's one of the largest projects that's happening in Arizona. So it was very exciting. The fact that you saw a piece of land that could not get water and you found a way to turn it into a useful piece of land.
and convince like government, which is always hard to like jump on board with you. Like, how do you land these skills? This is incredible. How do you look at a land piece and go, that needs a data. Yeah. I think mainly it's intuition. I think, you know, just having seen similar things happen with either case, my dad's done or I've done where you develop these relationships with the cities and, you know, you're able to kind of make an argument. And I think
One of the most important things that I've realized throughout my career is the relationships you have are so important and those can be your biggest strength at times. So, you know, we were able to really like work with the city and
We had a great relationship with them and we got them on board, which I think was a little bit of luck too, because there's a lot of things that have gone wrong there. But I think knowing just that, I think when you buy something, if you're buying it at a good price, you're pretty well protected. So that was sort of the guiding force I had, is that we should be okay with the pieces. We're getting at a good price and we'll figure out.
water or the use that will figure it out. Have you seen any other really interesting or unique examples of someone repurposing land? Yeah, all the time. I think, you know, you see farms getting repurposed for housing communities, you see solar communities coming up online. That's just, you know, plain desert land. So there's a lot of
unique ways that you can take a piece of property and just kind of completely reimagine it. And I think it's important to have that, you know, sort of being able to pivot and flexibility as to what you can do. And I think
a lot of times people when they buy something, they buy it and they're like, you know, this is going to be XUs and they just can't come off of that. And they can't sort of pivot with what the market's doing. And I think being able to like sort of respond quickly to the market demands. And I think it was so important.
So is that mainly what the fund is set up for like finding pieces of land, repurposing it and selling it? Or is it also a bit of residential? Or do you prefer not to touch residential? I know some investors like commercial properties only. We prefer commercial. We do have in our portfolio. We do have one or two residential properties, but our main purpose is commercial. Oh, why? You know, commercial properties, if there's been sort of like this industrial room in Arizona, a lot of
Manufacturing is coming here. I think there's been a concerted effort by the government to sort of manufacture a lot of things in the US whereas a lot of things, you know, historically have been purchased offshore. So I think there's been a big industrial boom, you know, so we've kind of just responded to that market demand. And I think the market keeps changing. And during my career, you know, 12 or 13 years,
I've seen so many different cycles. Like when I first started, I was doing a lot of solar development because that was popular at that time. And there were government incentives at that time. And developers were coming in and just buying huge tracks in the land for solar. And then it switched to residential because we were under supplied with housing. And then now it's more commercial. So I think it just keeps changing. And I think we sort of just respond to whatever the market demands are. And that's so industrial right now is going to be very low-purpose.
What is the difference between industrial and commercial? So industrial is a part of commercial real estate. It's just one of the asset classes. So when you look at commercial real estate, you have industrial, you have office buildings, you have retail, multi-family apartments. So it's just one asset class within commercial.
and if someone was getting started or maybe they have a little bit of money to work with and but you know they don't have a company it's just them or it's just maybe them and a couple of family members or friends. Do you think that going into commercial real estate is a better option or do you think residential is a better option or is it really just depending on what you like? I think it's you know a little bit of
Well, I think what you like, what you prefer, you know, if you're buying a home, you can rent it out, you know, maybe you can get some cash flow there. Some people like that. Other people, you know, a lot of my investors, they just want something easy. You know, the thing with land is there's not much maintenance. So you can just buy it and then you just kind of wait for the appreciation to take place. The negative is you're not generating cash flow. So I think that everyone has a little bit of a preference as to what they want. So I would say,
If you're a patient, if you're somebody that can buy something and hold something, I think lands a great option. But if you want to be kind of like renting it out or do a quick fix and flip or as eventual might be, how better would it go? So it just depends on what the appetite is. I really appreciate your answers. I wanted to move towards your own personal investing portfolio. If you can in
a vague way or in a specific as you feel comfortable with, how is your investing portfolio set up? Is it mainly, you know, the business, is it a bit of business and shares and property? Like, how have you liked to have done things? Yeah. So my portfolio, you know, it's a lot of it is in real estate assets. I would say, you know, good or not, if it is in real estate. I'm not surprised. Yeah. A lot of land in our portfolio, we have, you know,
that we've acquired, we just acquired a property in the LA area and we bought it because it has this amazing ocean view. So we felt like it was a good asset to add to the portfolio. So I think real estate is kind of a major focus. We have
also invested in the stock market and some startup companies with investing as well. And then I think Campbell back is some independent film. So we're trying to be balanced, but pretty realistic, have you? And do you think that you would do it again the exact same way, which I worry
sometimes when I look at my own portfolio like I have a lot in shares and then I have a lot in property and I angel invest as well. But then I also have a business and so it's all kind of spread across. Do you think there's such thing as too much diversity or do you think it's worked out well? I think, you know, I personally think that
For me, I think I prefer to really focus in on what I know and where I have more control. And so I think my mentality has always been to be an inch wide and a mile deep, whereas a lot of times people are like a mile wide and an inch deep. So for me, I prefer to really focus on what I know and just kind of
be in an area that I have full control. I know it inside and out. That's kind of been my philosophy, which sometimes, like my friends were physicians who just don't have time to really get the expertise in any one area. So I think it depends on your situation. If you're trying to invest in everything, I think diversity makes a lot of sense in that case as well. So I think it just depends on what you know and what your expertise is.
If someone is going, OK, I hear you and either this is so helpful. I want to have real estate is my area of expertise. But I worry that maybe it's too late to invest in real estate that all the good properties have already been bought. And in our parents' generation or our grandparents' generation, that's where the deals were. How do you rebuttal that? Because you probably see good deals all the time. Yeah, I think I do think if you know where to look, you can find the deals. And I do think the market
continues to appreciate. We haven't reached this point where this is a price and that's a real estate does appreciate every year on average. And I think if you buy a property, if it's full of market and you're getting a good price, I do think it will appreciate. And I think with the interest rates have been high, so that slowed things down. But now that rates are starting to come down again, I think real estate properties will continue to appreciate. And I think in general, in the US, especially, there's
such a lack of supply of inventory of homes and even all real estate assets like industrial buildings, office buildings, we just have not been building as much as we need. So I think given that supply constraint, I think prices will stay high and continue to rise for a given
time, you know, until we really start to add on supply, I don't think there's any chance of crisis coming down. So I think it's a pretty safe investment for, you know, at least the next five, 10 years. As you pivot, going from this very specific niche of real estate, commercial, going from building data centers to being
someone that is now part of Hollywood, someone that is now part of the movie industry with producing all these great South Asian films and future films. I think my main question for you is, how do you stay in the mindset of someone that is always willing to learn? Because I can imagine, you know, being one of the top in your field, top in your state, probably like top in the US and what you do, how do you go from that to being like, you know what,
I am a complete beginner again and I'm happy to learn. I'm happy to start from the bottom.
all these terms being thrown around, I wouldn't even know what they were being. And so I definitely felt very ignorant, didn't know, you know, as much as everyone around me. So I think, you know, for me, it's just been aligning myself with the right people in the industry that have been great resources. A lot of the agencies have been very helpful in life.
sort of help me navigate the industry and then just working with good people that have great track records I think has been great for me to learn from the producer on the movie we just did doing it. He's an Oscar-winning producer at Anthony Franklin and so being able to work with someone like him and just you know understand how it works I think he's been so great and it's just such a you know eye-opening experience and then even working really
Lily, who's just, you know, one of the most successful South Asian artists that exist. It has been an amazing experience. So I think for me, it's really been a matter of learning as much as I can, and then also aligning myself with the right people who are experts in the industry.
We had Lily on the podcast a few years ago, Lily saying she's absolutely incredible. What was it like sort of going through the process of figuring out, okay, this is what I want to do. How do I split my time up? Like you only have so much time. And I can't imagine that running a successful real estate company doesn't take a lot of that up. So how do you manage it? Yeah, you know, and it's sometimes it's a lot of things at once, but I think
the main thing for me is I have a great team and so I can really rely on them when I'm getting involved in one direction or the other and then I think also just, you know, like I said, partnering with the right people where, you know, I know they're amazing at what they do and they're going to have to take care of what needs to be done. It has allowed me to, you know, not to stress that I hate everyone with
all the time. But yeah, I think it's just, you know, really having a team that can help me manage it all. But it is definitely there are times where like, I remember our movie premiered at South by Southwest earlier this year in March. And at the same time, that's when I was like, you know, trying to close the data center deal. We were kind of negotiating some of the big things with the city. And so I just remember like, feeling like I was being pulled in so many directions and like, well, companies were having these big major moments. So
It can be challenging at times, but I think just, you know, focusing on priorities, like, you know, tackling things as they come up and then getting my team involved wherever I need support. I think that's kind of a nice strategy to deal with it. That is such an amazing journey. I mean, to say in the same year, on the same week, to have had hit both those milestones is incredible.
But those that are listening and going, OK, I'm feeling very inspired. I want to get started. I want to build my career in real estate too. Do you have any sort of tips or final words just to make sure that this episode isn't something that people listen to and then go back to their day and completely forget about taking action? What's something that people can do today to get started? Yeah, I think the first thing that I whenever people ask me about that, the first thing I say is you're really looked at the different
classic classes within the real estate, see what's interesting, and start studying different markets, see what markets are interesting as well. There's certain areas that are really growing right now. Even if you look in the US, you have a lot of growth in Sunbell regions. I would say focus on that and then start seeing what's available, start looking at different investment opportunities. There's a lot of different groups that I've offered
invest in opportunities for smaller investors that are looking.
to invest passively. So I would say these work, you know, those different operators and see what makes sense. But I would just say like start looking into all the different asset classes and see what interests you and that would be the first step I would say. Do you think that's because when you find something that interests you, you are just more likely to stick to it and do better as opposed to looking for the thing that seems like the hottest investment style right now. Yeah, I think anything you do, it has to
You have interest, I think you have to feel passionate about it and excited by it. Otherwise, it sort of loses its charm or fun. So I would say do what really excites you and wherever you feel that excitement. So I think that's really important because when you buy real estate, there's always things that are going to come up with a home like there's issues that come up. So it should really be something you love because when you're going through challenges, if you don't love it, it can feel like work and it sort of can lose excitement.
whatever you do, make sure you be very lucky. Anita, thank you so much for your time. You have shared so many valuable nuggets, so many great insights. I feel so inspired. I feel like I want to buy a property right now. You do such a good job at explaining things in a very simple way. For those that want to continue to follow your journey, where's the best way to find you if they want to get involved in the film production part of things, if they want to get involved in the real estate part of the things, where are you best located?
Yeah, I think even one of my website, there's an online consulting.com or camelbackproduction.com. I'm also on socials, on Instagram and LinkedIn. I think I need to post it appropriately. Thank you so much, Anita. I really appreciate your time and we are so lucky to have had you. Thank you. Thanks so much. And when I really appreciate it.
And as always, to finish off with, the disclaimer. Girls That Invest does not provide personalized investing advice for your individual needs. We are not financial advisors. The advice from Girls That Invest exists for educational purposes only and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. Advice from Girls That Invest is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances, or as you research and please do your due diligence.