How Commercial Real Estate Investors Turn Property Data Into Profit | Bill Douglas

Bill Douglas (00:00)
Every year we go through an exercise to study our processes, and if they’re not documented, to document them and then look at which ones of those are redundant or which one of those can truly be automated. And I don’t mean automate with the intent of reducing manpower. I mean automate to with the intent to let our team work on the 20% that changes the business instead of the 80% that’s the noise. And that process alone in the past two years, given all the tools with AI, has been resoundingly successful.

Quentin Edmonds (02:05)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds. And I am excited to be here today. We have another fantastic guest. This gentleman is the CEO of OpticWise. Listen, they turned tech into an asset. I cannot wait for you guys just to learn more about him. He’s restructured this company 12 years ago. Listen, this gentleman knows exactly what he’s doing, and I cannot wait for him to tell you about what he’s doing in this business, how he’s growing it, and how he’s succeeding. And so I wanna introduce you all to Mr. Bill Douglas. Mr. Bill, how you doing today, sir?

Bill Douglas (02:44)
Doing great. As always, Q. Thanks for having me. A little clarification, Peak Property Performance is the book. OpticWise is the company. Yeah, I know. It’s on, but the Peak Property Performance is what we talk about. And that’s our podcast. So any listeners out there think you should be on a real estate technology podcast, give us a call.

Quentin Edmonds (02:52)
Forgive— Well listen, this n— this gentleman is already setting the record straight. I apologize, Mr. Bill. Thank you for the clarification. I appreciate you, man. Well listen, with— with that being said, we’ve already dove in. Cause I like this, I like to dive in, but we’ve already dove in. So I want you to tell people what’s your main focus these days. And then if you don’t mind, give us a little bit of an origin story, kind of how we got into the space where you are now.

Bill Douglas (03:24)
All right. OpticWise, we specialize in taking technology and turning it into a digital asset, like turning technology and digital into a strategic asset. Instead of traditionally commercial real estate in particular, thinks technology is a pain in the neck and it’s an expense line item. We believe that it should be an asset you invest in just like you do sticks and bricks and countertops and facades and carpet, and you know the return. Yep. If— if you ever look at a piece of t— technology you’re paying for and it can’t do that, probably relook at it.

So in the past decade, we have evolved greatly into not just managing the digital infrastructures. And by digital infrastructure, I mean networks, systems, devices, and data that a property produces. So think about operating data. Don’t think about personally identifiable information. None of this is PII. It’s— it’s all data that’s owned by the property. So we— we specialize in running and managing those networks so our clients can focus on taking care of their tenants and physically working on the building and we focus on using that data generated by all those systems to optimize performance and efficiency, therefore driving really large numbers to the bottom line. Yeah.

So how did this come about? Well the book came about because I was on a panel at a conference two years ago and I vented about how this industry is the— this is the sixth industry I’ve worked in my career. I’ve been in this one 10 years and how this industry gives away technology and networks and data. And somebody said, “Explain that.” And I said, “Do you think that Amazon would ever let a company come put a network in their building and mine data out of it that they didn’t have control or get paid for?” Of course not. No, no, no. What about Toyota? You think they would? No way. It’s like, well, who in this— who sitting in this audience has vendors that own networks in your building that you don’t own? You own the building, but not the network, and are mining data out of it. Yeah.

And a couple people raised their hand. And then I started saying, “Who has bulk internet contracts? Who has, I don’t know, smart door contracts that with repeater networks.” And I went down four or five, six networks that are not owned by the property, controlled by the vendor, and all the data sits in the vendor silo. I’m not saying you don’t need the vendor, I’m saying the middle piece is missing. The digital infrastructure is yours. And you’re not maximizing it.

And I walked off stage, and the president of the third largest apartment REIT in the country walked up to and he said, “You should write a book about that.” And then long story short, my wife got cancer and I took six months off the road. I still worked. She’s great now, she’s recovered. This was two years ago, right? Beautiful, yeah. But in that downtime, I used it to write a book with Drew Hall, who’s the founder of our company. Yeah. So he and I published— with Fast Company Press published the book last year, and it is put the whole concept of digital infrastructure and the value of it in the spotlight. The book became a fast bestseller right away. We give away how to do it. We don’t even have to pay us, it’s in the book. Just how to— how to know what I own, what I don’t own, and how to fix that and use it for the most. You know, it’s just there in the book. Go do it. I’m trying to change the industry we are to make it more tech friendly and not just spend but invest mentality. Yeah. What’s the return and what am I getting?

Because right now there’s a lot of noise around AI. Yeah. And your vendors are using AI, no doubt, but they’re using it to give you a better product at less cost, even though they’re not lowering their price, of course. Yeah. Right. But you can use it inside of your property and inside of your portfolio. So we talk all the time about a property brain and a portfolio brain and using data to optimize your operations. Yeah. Very high level. Like you don’t have to be a techie. There’s plenty of different ways to get the technical part done, but think about it strategically first. Have a plan. So we love sports analogies. The book’s full of sports analogies. You’ll hear me talk about it. Yeah. The owner should act from the skybox, not on the field. The coach is probably the property manager, right? The coach should be empowered to do this. Everybody has a strategy and a playbook. Let’s do it. There’s a lot of sports analogies. We make it fun.

Quentin Edmonds (08:29)
Yeah, I love it, man. Thank you, man. Thank you for taking us to the journey. Telling us how you got there, where you are, making the industry more tech friendly. Absolutely love it. I— I love you taking us through the journey. I love the making the industry more tech friendly. And I have saying where I say, you know, destiny has no wasted moments. I mean as— yep, as we go through life, we’re building momentum, right? We’re— but— but borrowing from the journey, it makes us the people that we are today. So Bill, I would love to know throughout your journey, sir, I think you said this is like your sixth industry, right? Throughout your journey, what has the moments, what has the journey taught you about yourself?

Bill Douglas (09:06)
I have had the unique pleasure, shall I say, in hindsight of having two near-death experiences. One, when I was a young man working for the power company, I by a coral snake in South Florida. And I, laying near death on a table for a few days, decided to quit that job and start my first real company. I’ve been an entrepreneur since I was thirteen, but the corporate job after I graduated from Georgia Tech was treating me well. And then I had a horrific ski accident exactly 20 years later. And both times it taught me that work is not my identity. Work empowers the life I want. My identity is not measured by my— my title, my net worth, my— you know, my car, whatever. I live for the experience and— and work is another experience I enjoy. I work with wonderful people and customers.

And it’s I— I— there is no difference in me personally anymore. 15 years ago, there probably was between Bill at work and Bill at home and Bill with my friends or Bill with my sons or a Bill on the golf course or whatever. It’s all the same. And I really enjoy helping people just relax and focus on the experience. I have a— you have that saying, I have one: pursue the unique shared experience. So a USE doesn’t have to be fancy, like it’s just has to be shared. Like we had a flat tire once going to Lake Powell and it turned into a— a almost a full day experience. And we still laugh about it. Even though we had a great week on the lake, we talk about it as the year we got the double flat tires, a hundred years, a hundred miles from a gas station, right? Because it makes a bonding experience. So it doesn’t have to be excellent. It doesn’t have to be a trip to Europe to be a USE. Yeah. You know, it could be, we were walking down the street and we saw that bald eagle fly by and we both stopped and talked about it. Like take in what life is giving us and a certain appreciation for it.

So when you know, when the technology waves change, I’ve always— that’s the personal side. I’ve always found great success in seeing what works in other industries and finding industries that haven’t adopted it yet. Yeah. Like my last company did managed IT managed services in the manufacturing space in middle— like medium-sized manufacturing in middle America. So we took all of that technology and all of those processes and applied them to OpticWise, where we do managed services for commercial real estate. And managed services has evolved into data and digital perfection, basically, optimization. So but the— the technology is not new, the processes aren’t new, the customer’s new. So if you— there— there’s not that many new problems. So go find what works in another industry or another country or another neighborhood or another relationship and use it in your life. And I— that— that one thing has treated me very, very well professionally. So

Quentin Edmonds (12:40)
Man, I— I— I wrote the nugget down. Unique shared experience. I’ve had— I’m— that’s— that you just talked about my whole life, really. So I— I’m glad you gave language to that.

Bill Douglas (12:50)
I got it. It’s a personal core value of mine. And I mean, getting bit by a coral snake can be a USE. You never know. Like, changed my life. Like I— after I walked out of the hospital a week later, I quit my job. I jumped out of an airplane twenty four times. Woo. I proposed to my girlfriend and I started a company. So it was life changing.

Quentin Edmonds (12:54)
—man.

Bill Douglas (13:16)
Like had I not been bit by a coral snake, I probably would just be an executive at Florida Power & Light. Yeah.

Quentin Edmonds (13:22)
Is that anybody?

Bill Douglas (13:22)
That’s a different book. The book is all about commercial real estate and data and digital and like all that. Yeah, yeah. There— there is another book in the making about that because I love helping entrepreneurs and sharing how— School of Hard Knocks is a great teacher. Yes. Sharing how I’ve been knocked down a couple of times and I’m just an average Joe. If I can get back, anybody can get back. I mean—

Quentin Edmonds (13:23)
Okay, got it. Yeah, yeah, okay.

Bill Douglas (13:48)
I— I love fitness. I— I find pleasure in it, but I also find longevity and energy. Keep up with my sons who are twenty nine and thirty-one now is not that hard because I stay in shape. So the— that I find energy in. So it also relates to business. When I walk in a room and they, you know, they see a six foot four dude that’s two hundred and twenty five pounds, they’re like, “His company must run well too.” And they immediately infer that you got your stuff together. And that’s a benefit I never anticipated. Mm. Mm. So I don’t know. I— I— you can tell what I’m a passionate about. It’s time and energy with people I love. Absolutely. I love our customers. I love what we’re doing here. I love the team I work with. So it’s just another extension of my life. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Quentin Edmonds (14:38)
Man, Bill, I love it, sir. I— I— I thank you. I love your insight. I want to get your insight on some— on some operational things. Obviously you got some things running very, very well. So let me ask you, what’s one operational thing you’ve put into place, let’s say the last two years, that’s made the biggest difference on how you run your business?

Bill Douglas (14:59)
Every year we go through an exercise to study our processes, and if they’re not documented, to document them and then look at which ones of those are redundant or which one of those can truly be automated. And I don’t mean automate with the intent of reducing manpower. I mean automate to— with the intent to let our team work on the 20% that changes the business instead of the 80% that’s the noise. And that process alone in the past two years, given all the tools with AI, has been resoundingly successful. Like we have not laid people off for it, but we have not had to hire nearly as many people given our growth because of it. And the people that are doing the twenty percent are moving the business. They are changing it. They are— they have more time to hear the customer. They have more time to solve the customer’s problem.

In doing so, we have— customers are where everything comes from. One of them says, “I want this,” whatever this is, the next one you ask says, “Yeah, I’d like that.” Before you know it, you’ll have something brand new in the marketplace because the customer asked for it. Well, if— if one of our team members, employees, whatever, vendor partners, anything, is too busy in the noise of the 80%, then they don’t have time to deal with it and move strategically forward. So borrowed a concept from Google, you know, they— and they encourage every employee to spend twenty to twenty five percent creating of their time. Creating. And all I said to the team was, “How could we create another 25% of free time for you by automating redundant processes or automating mundane processes? They’re still important, but they’re tactical, not strategic. I would like every one of you to work at least half your day on strategic activities.” Yeah.

And that changed the business. Customers saw it, the employees saw it. We have no turnover. Like people are empowered to work here. So I encourage them. This is not a Bill run organization. I set the strategy and everybody else works together to make it happen. Yeah. It’s a— I’m— I’m at the bottom of the rung, right? I’m— I’m serving them because they’re actually making it happen. So, but the— the idea of what are the SOPs? Which ones of them are redundant? You’ll be shocked to see how many of them are redundant. Engineering’s doing one, operations is doing another one, financials doing another one in there. A lot of the steps are duplicative. So if you put it together on your own platform, you can remove— remove the duplication. Mm-hmm. And that— that’s freed up a lot of time that we could say, “Hey, remember that idea we had on the shelf? You know? Well, let’s pull it off the shelf, dust it off and do it.” Yeah. And it’s— and magic’s happening. So it’s fun.

Quentin Edmonds (18:21)
Man, great stuff. Great stuff. Thank you for that, nugget, sir. What’s next? What’s next for you, Bill? What’s next for the company? What are you looking to solve at scale next?

Bill Douglas (18:28)
We’re scaling up Property Brain and Portfolio Brain. So within your property, imagine having the actual source data for all the operating technology platforms and being able to look across platforms. So rather than wait until you get your financial KPIs and see that this one— bot— one line item’s high or this one’s not performing, or you know, you can look at the source data through the systems and then you’ll have vendor agnostic platforms should you ever need to change any software, any system. That has been really, really fun to see because it’s evolving so fast. And then if you take that to the Portfolio Brain level, imagine having a— more than one Property Brain, all of a sudden you have a Portfolio Brain. And asset managers love it. Asset managers don’t have to spend hours figuring out why this line item was out of scope or out of budget this month. They can drill in and in minutes find the answer. Or maybe— maybe find it before the report even comes. Yeah.

So that— just the adoption and the utilization of machine learning inside of a portfolio of data. Machine learning is one part of AI. So it’s— it’s not like you’re gonna sit down with ChatGPT and do this. It’s the next level stuff. But it’s all on the customer data and to see the customer’s eyes open up and say, “Wow, that’s cool. I was wondered why the same building, you know, 200 miles away, it has more expenses or less revenue or the other way around on both.” And they get the answer right away. So they’re very, very much more interested in the way their prop— like they visit the property more. Because they’re not sitting there looking at spreadsheets more. They solve problems. They know their team more. They actually know which tenants are where. No matter what the building is, whether it’s hospitality or multifamily or office. Yeah. Yeah. Mixed use, all of those apply. So I’m really excited about how it’s changing roles for people and it’s getting them more in tune with their— with their audience, with their customer, with their portfolio. Yeah. I love it. And it’s making everybody money.

Quentin Edmonds (20:33)
That part. That part. That part. But listen, man, I want to talk a little bit about relationships. I want to hear your philosophy on building healthy business relationships. Also, I would love to know what are some of the relationships that you benefited from within your network, within your circle, people who maybe you’re doing business with, giving you referrals, or you’re referring to your building together. So just talk to me a little bit about relationships, Bill.

Bill Douglas (20:59)
I think relationships are what life’s about. I used to tell my sons, because I learned this from one of my mentors: “Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future.” You— you are the average, another way to say it, you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. They may not be the ones you’re closest to in your mind, but the people you spend the time with are— you’re the average of them, right? So think about that at work. What team have you surrounded yourself with? What team have you chosen to be part of? I think about that with vendors. Yes, there’s a contract, but the contract’s there if we’ve got to go lawyer up. I want— we spend more time interviewing customers than anything. Like I want to visit their site, I want to talk to their team. I want to know how this company handles it when stuff goes wrong, because stuff always goes wrong. Not often, but it’s going to. Something’s gonna break. It always does. We’re humans, mistakes are made. How do you handle it when that happens?

So, how have I benefited from relations— relationships? I have an advisory board at OpticWise that are basically my mentors over the past 20 years. And I lean on them a lot about strategy. Execution and operations, I think I’ve got that pretty much down. That— that’s a lot of SOPs and there are people that I work with that handle like, you know, the COO is going to do this and the controller’s going to do that. I don’t need to get involved in those. Yeah. But when it comes to strategy and what’s changing and, “Can you introduce me to that person?” The advisory board is phenomenally valuable. And they enjoy it too. Cause I’m really careful. I don’t ask for anything unless I really need it. But when they give me the answer or advice, I’m really careful, not number one, to say thank you and acknowledge it, but number two, to do something with it. Because they’re gonna ask you three to six months later, “How did that go? Did you call that person?” Yes. Yes, I did. As a matter of fact, we’re working with them now. Yeah. Or we did and we decided not to, but I referred them to somebody else that fit more what they were looking for.

So I like to finish up every conversation with, “How can I help you?” Yeah. With employees, it’s, “How can I help you do your job better?” Or, “How can I help you go home earlier?” Because I believe Americans work too much. I do. I— I think they— more is not better when it comes to hours working. I’m not saying you can’t work, but there’s a rule at our company if you work more than 45 hours, I need to know about it because something’s broken. Like I don’t— I don’t want your family to hate your job. And because you took it so seriously, you didn’t go home until nine o’clock at night. That’s another issue. If the comp— I mean you’ve chose to, that’s different. But if the company made you, then that’s a problem I could fix. Right. So a lot of times people, especially Americans, think, “I’m just gonna pound it out. I’m gonna grind it through.” And then they go home and their family’s asleep. They go home, they have no energy to go exercise. You know, they go home, they eat dinner at 10 o’clock at night and wonder why they didn’t sleep well. Right. You know, all of these— you’ve seen it. You’ve— I used to do it. I was 20 and 30 once, half a life ago. But yeah, I— I used to do it. And it does— it’s like studying for an exam in school. You pull an all-nighter after eleven o’clock, you’re not learning anything. You’re just getting tired. You might well just take your C and go to bed. Yeah. You know, by staying up all night, you’re not going to get an A or a B. You learned it weeks ago or you don’t know it. And so the same thing with working too much.

So I— I really encourage people to have relationships they value when they want to invest more time in. Like we have a charitable time off policy at work. I want you to go invest in the community where you deem necessary. Where you deem like you want to put your energy. I got tired of people saying, “I don’t have time for that.” So I said, “Great, do it on our time.” Like you get a half a day off every month to go to volunteer anything you want. I don’t care. Just volunteer. Go. Yeah. You get six days a year paid time off. Go volunteer. If you want to go build houses in Mexico, which one person did with Habitat for Humanity, go for it. That was— then they got paid for it. Yeah. So I— I believe in relationships. I think we need to have more trust in each other so we don’t have to be so acrimonious in our debates. Like half a life ago, people didn’t get so angry if they didn’t agree with somebody’s opinion. But right, yeah, you know what I’m talking about. Absolutely. Regardless of my beliefs, I don’t have to yell and scream because I don’t agree with somebody. I could say, “Explain to me why you think like that,” instead of saying, “You’re wrong.” So I— I like friends and vendors and team members that think like that and that’s who I choose to spend my time with. So that was a very long answer, Q, but there you go.

Quentin Edmonds (25:45)
It was a robust answer. I ain’t gonna call it long. It was a robust and rich answer. And I appreciate you for it. Bill, if— if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you, sir?

Bill Douglas (26:01)
Well you can always hit opticwise.com. Like spelled like it— the logo behind me. But if you’re interested in the book, the book’s website is peakpropertyperformance.com. It’s a Fast Company Press bestseller. But you could most importantly you can find me on LinkedIn really easily. I know there’s a million Bill Douglases, but I pop up as Resilience Guy in the middle. Because of my history, my friends called me Resilience Guy and I branded it. So I— I— I am— are the Resilience Guy. So Bill Douglas, you can hit me up. I’m very active on LinkedIn. Yeah. So I— I do respond to all messages unless you come through pitching sales right away. But if it’s a relationship I’m genuinely interested in— how can I help you?— let me know. I’d be happy to put some time into it.

Quentin Edmonds (26:44)
Well, Bill, sir, let me say three things to you sincerely. Thank you for your time. I think time is our most precious commodity. So thank you for your time. Thank you for your story. Thank you for your authenticity. Even I would say the gift of your vulnerability. Like I appreciate you showing up and giving us your time, giving us you. I believe those seeds are really going to plant and it’s going to grow for somebody. So thank you for that. Lastly, thank you for your mindset, sir. Thank you for the way you think and bringing that mindset to this platform. I greatly appreciate you coming on today.

Bill Douglas (27:12)
Well, thanks for having me. It’s been a pleasure.

Quentin Edmonds (27:14)
Absolutely. Well listen, y’all heard Mr. Bill. You can’t deny it. Listen, he dropped gems. Please get in contact with him. His information is in the show notes. Please get in contact with him. But also make sure you are subscribed here. Cause I promise you, we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people just like Mr. Bill. So, sir, I say thank you again and everyone else. Y’all have a fantastic day.