From Land to Leases: Brandy McAdams’ Secrets to Scaling Retail & Industrial Deals

Brandy McAdams (00:00)
The biggest difference is you just, honestly just need to be genuine.
The best advice I ever got was from a, you know, a very nice older gentleman. He goes, sugar, if you go do your job, the money will find you. And just pick up the phone, you know, you know, if you’re, if you’re doing your job and you’re talking to people.

And you don’t need to know all the answers. They’re not expecting you to know all the answers. They’re expecting you to be willing to find out.

Quentin (01:58)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Investor Fuel podcast. I’m your host Q Edmonds. And of course, as always, I’m excited to be with you today. I’m excited about my guests here and they are making moves within the multi-family space. They got some commercial real estate they got going on. They’re making some strides in AI. I mean, they are up to some amazing things. And y’all know, I try to give a nice little introduction, but I like to leave it up.

to my guests to really dive in and tell you all about the different things that they’re doing because I don’t have the breadth, I don’t have the experience to really lay out all that they do because they are doing some great things within their business. And so please help me give a warm welcome to my guest today, Ms. Brandy McAdams. How are you doing today, Ms. McAdams?

Brandy McAdams (02:47)
I’m I’m doing well. Thank you. I’m doing great.

Quentin (02:49)
Absolutely, absolutely.

Listen, I’m so excited to have you. cannot wait for you to dive in and tell people about the things that you are doing. And so listen, I don’t want to belabor the time. So if you don’t mind, like people may get to know you for the first time, get to know what you do. They may not be familiar with you and your world. So do me a favor. Give us a short version of what’s your main focus these days. And if you don’t mind, tell us what markets you’re operating in as well.

Brandy McAdams (03:16)
So ⁓ good morning everyone. I’m Brandy McAdams. I’ve been a broker in Tampa, Florida for over 17 years. And our focus has been mainly in the retail development space, acquisitions leasing, investment sale, and triple net leases. And ⁓ we do lots of development, a lot of land development for different types of owners. We’ve done industrial development. We’ve worked with multi-family owners and

identifying spaces for workforce housing, high-end multifamily housing. We have a great team of people that cover all the asset classes in terms of real estate and development. So that’s the short version. And then we also, over the past 18 months, have developed an AI tool to assist with any investor or owner or broker that is on the forefront of site selection.

And we’re able to, using an agentic AI model and a normal nomenclature, identify sites on market and off market for potential development. We do a lot with national franchise brands and their rollouts across the state. We’ve worked for, a lot of people don’t know me, but they know the logos. So depending on where you are in the world, many people know.

Firehouse subs, Five Guys, Chicken Salad Chick, Tropical Smoothie, we’ve done a lot of things for them. We’ve also done work with lot of casual dining groups. So that’s kind of the basics.

Quentin (04:41)
Absolutely. Listen, I love it. love it. What caught my attention is that you guys are on a move. Like y’all, y’all, you’re rolling out, helping roll out national brands, helping them make that transition. You’re, you’re moving forward with this AI, you know? I mean, you guys are doing a lot of different things and I know it’s not always especially easy in this climate. I mean, you and I talked a little backstage. You got people talking about leaks and I mean, cause y’all do so many different things.

So many people bombarded y’all. So I guess my question is like, how do you keep things running smoothly? How do you keep the machine running smoothly?

Brandy McAdams (05:10)
yeah.

think it’s just the, we have to have great partners, vendors and partners that we work with. A good team where they all wear a lot of hats. Something I didn’t bring up, knowing kind of what you’re dealing with in development. We deal with a lot of protected species here too, so that can come up. was something that we didn’t, gopher turtles are very expensive when it comes to land development.

when you have to remove those guys. It’s so different things like that. It’s just having a good network and a good team of engineers and people that when there is an issue, when we call, answer.

Quentin (06:41)
Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. I know you and I was talking a little bit and of course, you know, you got population growth that’s going on in Florida where you are like things are constantly, some things say the same, but some things are constantly changed. There are always some, you know, new things that you’re dealing with, right? So I know that there are times when things get real, right? Maybe a deal goes sideways or a moment where you have to pivot fast.

Brandy McAdams (06:49)
Yes.

Yes.

Quentin (07:09)
Miss Brandy, you mind sharing one of those stories the time when you had to kind of think on the fly and pivot fast? mind sharing a story like that?

Brandy McAdams (07:16)
⁓ gosh.

I’ve got a few of those, yeah. So I would like to share with everyone, I am a football mama through and through, and I hate losing. Hate losing. Hate it. So, you know, typically it’s more, we have to pivot fast when it comes to finding solutions for dealing with wetland mitigation issues, you know, knowing resources and stuff that can.

you know, if there’s a contamination issue or something like that. Those are kind of some of the areas where we’ve brought in people that, okay, well, we can still meet your timeline or we can go there. I was doing a Chipotle deal. That’s kind of more on the land version. I was working with Chipotle when it was one of their first drive-through locations and we’re in the middle of the project and we couldn’t get their specced storefront. So I must have called

I don’t know, 20, 30 people. And thankfully we were able to find somebody that could fabricate it locally. So anyone that’s been watching steel, aluminum, any of that type of stuff, it is more expensive to fabricate locally, but them not being open is even more expensive. So we were able to meet their timeline and get that done pretty quickly. So that was kind of one where it was gonna cost the owner a lot of money to not deliver that store on time.

Quentin (08:33)
Yeah,

yeah. I love it. I love it. Thank you for sharing. know, I will always say, when I do, when people share stories like this, you know, we try to normalize the hard here, right? Cause there’s always a hard that we got to face every day. You know, a lot of platforms, we talk about our success, which is absolutely great. But also in the journey to success, there are hard times, right? And I love when people that’s doing real business, who’s building something that’s successful.

Brandy McAdams (08:45)
Yes.

Quentin (08:58)
can talk about the adverse times because I want our listeners to know is that the adversity, it would actually pop you forward to success. And so I thank you so much for sharing and I really do.

Brandy McAdams (09:09)
And then the other thing would be on the financial side is, you you’ve been working with a client, we had this happen with a client where their lender came in, had everything done, and then wanted to retrade their financing for a project. So then that stalls everything and then we got to go back and, you know, so it’s everything. It’s from dealing with the dirt, dealing with the vertical construction, to dealing with the financing. So it’s all a big wheel.

Quentin (10:11)
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Well, just listening to your mindset, I know that you’re in it for the long term, right? You’re in it for the long haul. And so the fact that you’re able to pivot, the fact that you’re able to handle adversity, let me know you’ll be in this. I mean, you already been in for a long time, but you’ll even be in it for even a longer time, right? And so, again, I appreciate you sharing. So let me ask you this. What are, no.

Brandy McAdams (10:32)
Each day is

different.

Quentin (10:34)
Each, listen, if we can wash, rinse, repeat these days, that’d be awesome. But I guess that would make life boring to you at the same time. yeah. Absolutely. So listen, let me ask you this. What are you most focused on solving or scaling next? Like Ms. Brandy, what’s your next real goal?

Brandy McAdams (10:40)
Yes.

gosh, our next real goal, we have a lot of clients that want to, new groups that want to be in the Florida market. We’re looking for developers, investors that want to do deals and play in that space. We’ve got great groups of tenants and just working on land. do have a low vacancy rate here, but people are very bullish on our market.

trying to get businesses placed. Some are very large businesses that want to be here. We did a reload for a company out of Seattle to a larger facility and they were able to shave half their budget just in rent, just by moving their headquarters to Florida. So we have a lot of those things that we’ve been working on, a lot of corporate reloads, there’s a lot of those going on. Cold storage on the industrial side is something that’s needed.

⁓ So with the population growth and then rolling out the AI product. So I would say mainly the investment deals, which retail, industrial are kind of more of our focus. And then our AI platform where we truly feel like that that’s going to change the industry and help everyone in our industry be very collaborative.

Quentin (12:03)
I love it. love it. You are doing big things. I love the corporate relocation. how you said that’s big right now when you’re helping people do, you know, figure that out. You know, I love it. And like we said, right, each day is not like the next. So we know the next move, can either compound things or it can create chaos, right? Depending on how we play it, right? And so, yeah, you know, and I know…

Brandy McAdams (12:31)
We’ve also been helping companies realize the value of their real estate. If they are in a production-type business, they can do a sale lease back, take the equity that they’ve built in their Florida real estate and put it back into the production of their product, which is an excellent way to… I don’t want to get into the tariff thing, but it is a great way to put money back into your production.

Quentin (12:36)
Yeah.

Brandy McAdams (12:57)
of whatever your product may be. We did this for a medical device company. They were very happy. Their stock went up overnight just by being able to get more production out. So we have been helping people do some of those things too. And it’s great. It makes you feel good. Hey, our sales just went up. You know, we’re able to get production up. So we’re excited about that.

Quentin (13:15)
I love it. Y’all figuring out ways to help people. And you know, it’s just that one rigid way. Like we’ll find a way. stick with us, we gonna find a way. I love it. And so to me, it sounds like you’re building good relationships. And so I want to ask this question. You know, there’s a lot of people that are listening. They’re early on their journey, looking to level up. And I think it would benefit from them hearing this. When it comes to building relationships and growing your network.

Brandy McAdams (13:20)
Yes!

Quentin (13:43)
What’s made the biggest difference for you?

Brandy McAdams (13:45)
Oh,

the biggest difference is you just, honestly just need to be genuine. And if you do your, the best advice I ever got was from a, you know, a very nice older gentleman. He goes, sugar, if you go do your job, the money will find you. And just pick up the phone, you know, you know, if you’re, if you’re doing your job and you’re talking to people.

And you don’t need to know all the answers. They’re not expecting you to know all the answers. They’re expecting you to be willing to find out.

And I think how I got into the business was exactly that. There was a client that was working with a construction company that I worked with and they couldn’t get real estate done. And I knew their business. I come from a construction background. And the client literally walked in the office one day, threw something down and goes,

you’re going to get your real estate license because if I got to talk to one more idiot that doesn’t know my facility. So I said, what? I I was in my early 20s. like, you want me to go to what? Well, I did it and it was the best thing I ever did. So don’t be scared. Don’t be scared. I think people see things in you that sometimes you don’t see in yourself. that was the biggest thing that.

Quentin (14:48)
Yeah, come on now.

Brandy McAdams (14:55)
you know, launched my career.

I was negotiating what he needed without knowing that I was negotiating what he needed because I knew his business from the facilities and construction side. You know, a lot of people, you’re into golf or you’re into pickleball, just talk to your network, you know, hey, can we go talk about this deal, you know, and hit some golf balls? Can we go? A lot of people will…

Quentin (15:44)
Mmm.

Mmm.

Brandy McAdams (16:02)
get to you what the pain point is and then you’ll be able to find the painkiller once you’re in a more different setting.

Quentin (16:08)
Ooh, they’ll tell you the pain point and you’ll find a painkiller. my goodness. That is amazing. I love that. I love that. I love that. That’s absolutely amazing. I love it. I love the fact that you’re building relationships. You know what your client needs, even maybe sometimes before they know what they need. Just from

your background, your experience, your analyzing and you’re solving a problem. Even sometimes before they know there is a real problem, it seems like to me. And so this has been wonderful. Like, so I only got two questions left really. This one, you know, I like to ask, especially when I’m talking to people like you, you know, you’re a football mom, you got two boys playing football. Like, you know, you got all this wealth of knowledge. You have been in several different kinds of spaces. Like you just said, you have.

You come from a construction background, you you got this business that you’re building, you’re pushing the AI forward. And so I would just love to know from you, is there any kind of words of wisdom, inspiration, encouragement, anything you’ve been musing over, like any final thought that you would like to leave to our listeners? And the floor is open. Just when you hear that question, like what hits you? Like, is there anything that you’ve been thinking about?

that you feel like will be of great value to the people that’s listening.

Brandy McAdams (17:26)
The first thing that I would tell somebody is truly view the business, whatever industry you’re in, if it was your money and your investment, does it make sense? And then to encourage everybody, you can, no deal is the same. They’re similar, but nothing’s the same. Don’t get discouraged if something comes up that you don’t know. Don’t get discouraged by

And then also, you’ve got to be a very good duck, especially as a female in a very male dominated industry. With something that happened, it was really early on in my career. I went home and I cried about it. And I had to realize, wait, the guy told me, goes, well, have your decision maker call me. And I said, what? So I looked around and I said, wait, I think I have a decision maker.

And also, you know, and I don’t care if you’re young or old in the business, if it’s even for your own personal investment or if it’s even for if you’re just getting in the career, if you’re young in the business, do not let age be a factor for you. You you can’t let that bother you at all. Just because you’re young doesn’t mean that you can’t be successful.

Quentin (18:14)
That’s me!

Brandy McAdams (18:38)
You’re going have to put your time in, you’re going have to work hard, age is not an issue. Just work at it, just keep going.

Quentin (18:45)
Absolutely. So well said. Thank you so much for that. So well said. Well, listen, Ms. Brandy, before we wrap, if there’s someone out there listening, they want to reach out to you, connect with you, maybe collaborate from you, maybe learn from you. I don’t know if you do mentorships, like whatever it is, what’s the best way for somebody to reach out to you?

Brandy McAdams (18:48)
Thank you.

The best way is they could reach me via email is great. It’s bmcadams at vendita.ai. Vendita is V-E-N-D-I-T-A dot A-I. And vendita stands for selling in Italian.

Quentin (19:23)
Love it. I wanted to bring that out.

I had it down in my notes. I wanted to bring that out just so I sound real smart. But I love it. I love it, Miss Brandy. Well, listen, I appreciate you so much. I appreciate your time. I appreciate your story. I appreciate your perspective. We definitely need more people in this space doing it the right way like you are. So again, Miss Brandy McAdams, thank you so much. I appreciate you, man.

Brandy McAdams (19:28)
You

Thank you.

Quentin (19:47)
Absolutely. And

listen for those who’s tuning in and if you got value from this, you know, I like to say this very slowly. Make sure you’re subscribed. You do not want to miss out on these amazing conversations. Just like I have with Miss Brandy McAdams, who’s building real businesses, serving real people and doing it the right way. So again, thank you, Miss McAdams. And for all of those tuning in, we’ll see you on the next time.

Brandy McAdams (20:11)
Thank you.