From Her Corporate Career to the Family Business
On this episode of Next Level American Dream Women's Series, Abigail is joined by her mother, Diana Thomson. As the COO and Head of Acquisitions here at Thomson Multifamily Group, Diana recently transitioned from her corporate career into Entrepreneurship and RE. Today, she walks the audience through that transition and discusses how she analyzes deals as a passive and active investor.
Key Topics
Her background in Corporate Retail
New life with the Family Business
Constant struggles for women in the workforce
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SUMMARY KEYWORDS
multifamily, real estate, dad, bit, transition, American Dream, corporate world, retail, active investor, acquisitions, struggled, people, job, invest, learn, work, Self-Directed IRA, deal, mom, business
SPEAKERS
Abigail Thomson, Diana Thomson
Abigail Thomson 00:00
Welcome to the Next Level American Dream Podcast brought to you by Thomson Multifamily Group. Your hosts, Abigail and Sean, will discuss how you can take your American Dream to the next level through real estate investing, business practices, and personal development. Join us as we share our experiences as a father daughter duo who are trying to accomplish our goal of financial freedom. We hope you learn more about how to define and achieve your American Dream. Here's another episode of Next Level American Dream. Welcome to the Next Level American Dream Women's Series in celebration of Women's History Month! We have a very special guest for you today, but first, please make sure you have subscribed if you haven't already. We also love getting your feedback through likes, comments, ratings, and reviews. Today, I finally convinced my mom, Diana, to join me on the show and to share her story. She is the COO and head of our acquisitions at Thomson Multifamily Group. Diana has recently transitioned from her corporate career into entrepreneurship and real estate. Today, she walks the audience through that transition and discusses how she analyzes deals as a passive and active investor. If you found any value from today's episode, then please share it with a friend and help us grow. For more information on our sponsor, visit thomsonmultifamilygroup.com to start taking your American Dream to the next level through passive investing. Hi, Mom, how are you?
Diana Thomson 01:34
Hi, baby girl. How are you?
Abigail Thomson 01:36
I'm wonderful. Thank you so much for joining me on Next Level American Dream, and for my last Women's Series episode on my 22nd birthday! I'm super excited that I finally get to interview my mom after months of convincing.
Diana Thomson 01:53
Happy Birthday sweet girl!
Abigail Thomson 01:55
Thank you, Mama. Okay, so you have a super, super cool story that I want to share with our audience. First, can you tell us a little bit about your background?
Diana Thomson 02:09
Okay, so I started with a big retail establishment. When I was 18, that was my one and only job that I've ever had. I grew up in the era of, uh, you go find that you go to college, you go find a job, and you stay with that company forever, and work your way up. And then you get a pension, and you retire. So that's kind of was the mentality that I had, or expectation, I guess, as I was growing up, so I worked for retail my entire life, I was in stores for 15 years. And then I moved into the corporate environment and worked my way up into a director of merchandise planning and allocation. And did that for quite a long time. 2020 came around, the retail world is struggling, struggling, struggling. And I had actually the opportunity to leave the company. And when I say I had the opportunity, they were restructuring. And I just said you know what, I think this is my perfect time to get out. So talked it over with you and with dad and said, is this the right time to finally move into real estate with you guys, and totally decided we're going to take this leap, and we're all going in 100% into retail or to into real estate, not retail anymore. And here I am. I'm the COO, I guess you want to call it I do all the underwriting acquisitions. So, it really fits within my skill set of what I did at retail, doing Excel spreadsheets is what I love. I work with numbers. That's what I did all day long. So, it really fit within my skill set to do the underwriting. And I think I've brought a lot of good value already. And hopefully we're going to find it a deal and get more and more and more. So absolutely.
Abigail Thomson 04:09
So, you mentioned that you talked it over with us. And it was just a really nice fit to kind of fall into a specific place in our business that we really needed some help and you've had added so much value, we call you our xo wizard, you've completely changed our entire acquisitions process, which is for the better. So, what are some of the challenges you found in switching over? You talked about how the skill set of your actual job fits perfectly with how you did it in retail, but what are some differences, some nuances to it that is a little different from your retail job that you've struggled with and balancing and figuring out in acquisitions in the real estate space.
Diana Thomson 04:58
Well, I mean, so Although at been around that Sean, whoever want to call it with him doing it for 10 years, and I was his bookkeeper, so I was involved, I heard all the conversations, I learned about real estate. But I didn't learn about real estate, if that makes sense. It's taken me a while to get up to speed with the terminology. And to be honest, it's been a little bit different going from single family, which is what dad did most of the time to multifamily. So, he's learning some of it as well. So, we're both kind of learning it together a little bit, but it's different language. So different formulas, different math a little bit. I mean, it's all still just kind of algebra and, and math, but learn and some of the new, the new ways of looking at the business is been a little bit of a struggle, but all at the same time. I think I’ve; I like to learn. So, it's been fun to learn something new. I've been doing the same thing for so long; it was kind of exciting to get to do something new and interesting. So that's been a good a good change. Absolutely.
Abigail Thomson 06:13
So, I loved how you mentioned that you guys are learning alongside each other. And I think that's the beauty of a family business and us transitioning, kind of all at the same time. I'm transitioning from college into real estate, dad is transitioning from single family into multifamily. And then you're transitioning from corporate world into entrepreneurship. And we're all kind of balancing that transition together and eating each other. And then on top of that world family, which is super fun.
Diana Thomson 06:45
Yeah, that's awesome. I never even thought of it that way. I really do like that. That's awesome.
Abigail Thomson 06:50
I think it's fun. And we're all like learning multifamily on top of that together, which is it's, it's exciting.
Diana Thomson 06:58
It really is. I'm glad you guys are excited about it, baby.
Abigail Thomson 07:02
But your transition from corporate world into entrepreneurship is a little different between dad and I in we kind of already have more of an entrepreneur mindset. And you didn't you have the mindset of work. And these are the processes that the company puts in place. And here's the rankings that we need to go through. What is that? That transition looks like for you? And how have you handled some of that?
Diana Thomson 07:32
In the beginning, let me just tell you, I've loved it right. And I will say 2020 brought lots of challenges for everybody. So, we started working from home a year ago today almost in March of 2020. And that's, and I left my company in August. So, I'd been doing work from home for a while. So, I did get a little bit used to being away from the office, not having the peoples to sit and talk to on a regular basis. So, I did start to get adjusted to it. Yeah, but what I found is, even then, I still had a workday, I had to be on the computer, and be working and had meetings to meet to talk to people. I mean, I was in meetings all day, almost every day, all day, from eight to five o'clock almost I was talking to somebody about something. So, I had a little bit more of an interaction with other people. And a set, let's say work structure time, in this new entrepreneur stuff, we can work when we feel like it. Right? We are still I still try to keep to a schedule, because that's what works for me, but I can and we do, we'll go out mountain bike riding in the middle of the day. And I love that. So, in the beginning, it was awesome, right? I loved it; it was this honeymoon phase is what I called it. And as times gone on, it's been six months now longer I've gone I've realized that I needed more of that interaction with other people. And I needed somebody else to bounce ideas off of. Now, I know I have you. I know I have dad, but we all each have our own roles. Also, and I can't go to you and talk about underwriting because you do marketing. Right? And not that you don't know it, you're not going to learn it. But it's just not your strength and your you got to be working on other stuff, dad, he's the guy that's got to be super strong, and he can't get bogged down in the details. He needs to be looking at the vision and he's doing like communications with everybody and that kind of stuff. So, although I can talk to you guys about it, I can't just sit there and go, Hey, kind of bit a little bit. This is going on. Can you double check my work? I can't quite figure out this formula. Or this is you know, what should I do here? You know, just look Little bitty stuff like that I used to go and sit next to some of my partners. And we would just talk through things. And by the time I was done, I'd go back to my desk, and I would have solved my problem. I don't have that. And another big thing in corporate world is you just walk around the office, which nobody's doing right now anyway, but you get to just talk to people and interact. And anyway, I'm kind of babbling a little bit. But that's that whole dynamic of having other people to support and to talk to, and the structure and turn it off it whatever time. Yeah, and even though, the job that I had was extremely stressful, to be honest, and I felt like I really never did turn it off. I was able to, at some point, switch from a family life to work life. Now, it is all entangled.
Abigail Thomson 10:52
Even though you had your struggles and just being able to go, okay, business partners. Wait, no, mom. Oh, no, you're my daughter. Oh, wait, no, what is going on?
Diana Thomson 11:04
It can be hard. And to be honest, dad, and I've transitioned probably better than I have with you. Absolutely. I mean, and, and not that we can't work together. But boy, gosh, I should just want to be mom, most of the time. And sometimes we have to be work together, you know, work partners, and whatever. And that's been, I have to say, probably the harder one for me to get adjusted to because I just want to be mom, most of the time.
Abigail Thomson 11:31
When I come with questions, like you said, like we can, we have the ability to bounce things off of each other. But it's not always expertise. And so sometimes they'll come to you as a question, you're like, that's not my expertise. I don't know how to solve the problem for you. And you switch to mom mode of like, oh, how do I solve this problem for my daughter, and it can be difficult to kind of maneuver that transition for both of us. But that's interesting that you say that you miss the interaction of the corporate world? How have you found ways to cope with that, or kind of make it easier on yourself by doing certain things that allow for more interaction?
Diana Thomson 12:14
So, it's good, because, you know, we are part of masterminds, you know, we have the Kahuna Mastermind, which is with Corey Peterson, I'm going to be doing investor fuel as well. So that helps get engaged with other people. And I love those absolutely loved go into on, I like being a part of them. I've also found online women's groups and inspiring women, that's been awesome group that I recently joined. And just it's more of an accountability and just other women that are entrepreneurs that are just inspiring. So, it's just other people that I can talk to, and they can kind of, I can talk through what I'm working on, and they hold me accountable. And that's kind of nice. So that's been really good. I've only been it's only been, you know, about a month, and I've been on in on that one. But socially, I feel like I've always been a little bit awkward. So doing things on zoom are challenging for me. Sometimes doing them in person are challenging, too. So, I haven't decided which way is better and which way is worse. But I feel like I don't connect with people easily. So, to do it on, Sam has been kind of hard, and Facebook and that kind of stuff. So, I'm actually anxious to be able to do some more stuff in person.
Abigail Thomson 13:29
It can be difficult to network over technology, because you don't seem to build those same relationships as you wouldn't be in person, which is an interesting perspective. But on the flip side of that entrepreneurship has also allowed so many amazing things like you said, being able to bike ride whenever you want to, what are some of the things that you found that you really enjoy out of being an entrepreneur? Now that you've been getting your corporate world.
Diana Thomson 13:58
Yeah, I honestly and everybody, once it is just freedom. And I think everybody's kind of gotten a little bit more freedom with 2020. I say freedom, being able to work from home a little bit more flexibility, maybe, I don't know, maybe not. I felt like I got it, a little bit of it with working from home. Because I always wanted to be able to just be a little bit more in control of some of that time. But absolutely the freedom of everything. Like I said, we get up if we feel like driving to Phoenix, which we've done twice in six months. And we take two weeks to be in Phoenix and spend time and we're still working, but we're also having a blast at the same time. So, I we got you know, hotspot so I can work in the car while we're driving. So, dad and I can sit and collaborate and talk about different projects that we're working on while we're sitting and just driving. And then once we stop, we explore where we're at wherever we are, we can go bike riding, and do whatever It is that we love to do, which is we love the bike ride. I think everybody knows that now, we love to hike. And we just love to explore new places. So that has been, I love being able to do that I can come see you whenever I want to in Fayetteville, not that I have a whole lot because we've been doing other fun things, too, getting to do all of that fun stuff.
Abigail Thomson 15:20
It's been almost liberating that, you know...
Diana Thomson 15:27
...that is a great word, it is a great word.
Abigail Thomson 15:30
Yes, you know, you get all of this time and freedom to just explore and do some of the things that you never got the chance to do before, which I think is really fun. So now that you're in a new space, you have a little bit more of a new perspective to being a woman you worked in the corporate world, which can be really male dominated. Now, in your experience, it may not have been because of the space you were in as retail that can tend to have a little bit more females in it. But you now also have the perspective of real estate, what are some of the things that you've noticed, that women may tend to struggle with? Or some things that you've even struggled with? As a woman in both of those spaces? Have you noticed that you may feel the need to take on more stereotypically masculine qualities in order to be able to stay in a certain room or to compete with certain people in moving forward?
Diana Thomson 16:34
That's a tough question, kind of, I try never to put labels on that kind of stuff. I've always been one of those might sound silly, but I'm always I always felt like I was the Boss, boss of what I do. I still do. Even though dad says every day I'm the boss. Yeah, we all know. And I'm just teasing. He is the boss, but I don't I try never to like, try to put those stereotypes on I hope I've been. And I know that they are there. But I deserve a seat at the table just like anybody else. Right? Yeah. lean in, you know, I always sat at the table, if I wanted to, sometimes I didn't want to, but, and I still feel like I deserve that dad and I think are great partners, in the fact that when we go to a property tour, we are the perfect match. He is super quiet. He just looks at the details. He talks to the broker, who is typically male dominated, you're correct. And I will sit and walk with property manager who is typically a female, and we have a great bond. And guess what, I get all the scoops? Yeah, I get 100% of the scoop. And at the end of the day, we go and get in the car and dad's like, Okay, what did you learn? Because I, you know, he looks at the details of the property and, and that kind of stuff. And we'll sit in negotiate with the broker and talk, you know, more high-level business stuff where I'm getting, what are the problems really with property? Or what are the opportunities? And how can we really make this this work? So yeah, sometimes I use a little bit that I mean, I think that's a strength that I have. Dad could do that. He's just not his strength. And so, we just work together, I don't see it as a female as a male, but sometimes it just kind of works out that way.
Abigail Thomson 18:33
That's a really interesting point that it's in more of an entrepreneur space, you don't have to necessarily distinct those things. It's just putting a specific person in the correct role in order to achieve success. And I think that's really interesting and very good perspective. And I kind of want to bounce off of that a little bit more, and y'all have a really great Are you guys have a really great balance and were in property tours. Do you see some of that on the flip side of the underwriting? And how has that worked between the two of you because you guys work in the same space. So, like you mentioned earlier, I'm do more marketing, you do more of acquisitions, but the two of you work on mainly acquisition processes, because those are each of your strengths. How have you found that the two of you balance each other in those processes?
Diana Thomson 19:26
Well, being financial person and, and more, I steered towards more of a conservative approach, right. The Conservative dad is the dream maker, and he's got to push the limits to everything that we do. He's the risk taker. So, I go in and I'll do the initial underwriting and the property tour, all that all of that piece of it and I and I looked at it with a very, extremely conservative. And so that's how I underwrite but, in this day, I mean, it's a seller's market right now, especially in the multifamily world, it's extremely competitive and the markets that we're in, are extremely competitive. So, we have to have a balance between that conservative approach, because we want to be conservative, make sure we make the most money for our investors and for ourselves. But we also got to go out and we got to find some deals to buy. So, we have to take a little bit of risk in some places, and dad has that perfect eye to be able to find the right spots, to take a risk on, make sure that we can get a deal because sometimes if I look at it, we might never buy anything. So, because I'll might be too conservative. So, we have that that's, to me is one of the bigger balances. I'm getting better at trying to find those opportunities as well. But still trying to keep that in check. Sometimes I have to say, Hey, dude, there's no way we can do that. Get let's, let's take that down a little bit. And he'll be like, Okay, so that's where I think we kind of balanced a little bit.
Abigail Thomson 21:03
That's awesome. So, you kind of like, work towards each other, you're more of a data analysis, looking at the really nitty gritty, and he kind of sees the whole picture and is like, wait, we can alter this a little bit, which I think is really interesting. But you also coming from your corporate job, you now have an IRA, and you have this opportunity of being able to passively invest? Have you looked at passively investing in real estate, and what are some of the things that you look for in a deal in order to place your investment in?
Diana Thomson 21:38
So, I'm going to kind of unpack that a little bit differently. Obviously, we want to invest in real estate. And we have we've bought, we've had lots of rental houses, that's what we do with a lot of our money. However, me personally, I was invested in a 401k, just like everybody else in a company, right. And I had a pension plan and had all these things set up. That went into the traditional stocks, bonds and mutual funds, right. So that is where the majority of my personal saving plan was invested in, when I left the company, I had the opportunity to pull it out of that 401k. And finally put it in to a self-directed IRA. And let me tell you, that is the most exciting thing that we've been able to do to help our future growth. Because now, like you said, I can take that and invested into some real estate, and I can make it grow so much faster, and so much bigger than if it were just sitting in that 401k for the rest of my career until I retired. Right. So, thank goodness, I mean, that was another honestly big selling point for me leaving my job is being able to do that we knew how much we can make from that money. And I couldn't do it without leaving the job. Right, I couldn't transfer it, it was just one of the agreements with the 401k plan that we had is that I couldn't transfer it without a big penalty. So, this way, I didn't have to have any penalty. And now I get to go in and invest. And then we see our future true retirement plan. And as I mentioned to you the other day, true financial freedom is now so much closer, because your left is extremely clear. And it was before two, I mean, I always knew but I had to me was going to have to work until I was 65. Like, literally work at that job to get to the goal that I needed to be at. And now I don't necessarily have to do that we see a much shorter path of getting to where we really want to be. So that's extremely exciting. I'm not advocating anybody leaving their job just to be able to transfer their 401k into a self-directed, but I definitely advocate building some sort of self-directed IRA that people can take in invest into real estate because you're going to get such a better, and there's no guarantees on either side, right? When we know what the stock market does and doesn't do, at the end of the day, over the course of my investment. It's grown. Right, but it's been like this growing. Yeah. Whereas in real estate, more than likely, it's going to be a straighter path. It's not going to have as many of the ups and downs because it's an asset that's going to maintain its value a little bit more consistently.
Abigail Thomson 24:38
There's less volatility and right and the investment.
Diana Thomson 24:41
So therefore, the compounding effect is better.
Abigail Thomson 24:47
Yeah, and I think it's really interesting now that you're in the role that you are in in our business, is you get kind of a twofer perspective. You have the perspective of the corporate world and having your investment Since in those more traditional avenues, and you now are able to look at putting those into a more unconventional vehicle, and on top of that you are looking at deals in real estate actively and passively, which I think is really interesting. And what are some of the things that you're seeing that are kind of either synonymous or are very different. So as an active investor, you look at certain things, but as a passive investor, in a deal, you're looking at much different things like have you seen anything that is like that?
Diana Thomson 25:36
No, honestly, not really, because a good deal is a good deal. I think what it's allowed me to do is to know when somebody's going to bring me a good deal, because now I, I understand it, and I can help other people learn. So now I, because I know I can teach those that we want to help potentially invest with us. And some of our projects I can I know how to explain and talk through with them. And I can help them understand both sides. So, you know, I was skeptical. In the beginning, to be honest, I always knew what real estate meant. But I always thought it was good to have at the safety net of a 401k. And having this retirement plan and all this stuff. And, and I used to fight that all the time about switching over. And I think I finally saw the light and realized how much more I can do for us. So, I'm really excited about where we're headed. Yeah, that's awesome.
Abigail Thomson 26:35
Okay, my final question is, what does the American Dream mean to you specifically? And then what steps or actions are you doing to take it to the next level?
Diana Thomson 26:47
So, I was really thinking about this one a lot. The other day as I was listening to our podcast, and financial freedom is always the answer, right? Almost everybody lists that. And obviously, that's what I want in the American Dream. And when I think it is worth freedom to do what we want, when we want, where we want. But it's also really a lot about fulfillment, having a fulfilling life. Having new dad, being able to work with both of you guys, having you want to join us in our business has been incredible. And helping you guide you through what your next journey is going to be. Because you have such a long life and helping you come up with what that dream looks like for you. That's been super fulfilling for me. And to being able to just I've always wanted to travel. That's what drew me to dad from a young age, right? He used to travel all the time. That's what was part of his lifestyle and his what how his upbringing was. So, I always wanted to travel and be able to see the world didn't get to do a lot of that as I was growing up because I had this corporate job, right. So now that I don't have that old, what are called like the old American Dream of get a job work for a company for 35 years, because I worked for him for 33. So almost hit that number, 45 years, however long you have to work, do that. And then have your house, have your kids go on a vacation once or twice a year and work in the yard, right? I hate to work in the yard, don't like it got sick to the corporate world. So anyway, it's nice to have this fulfillment. I feel completely a lot more fulfilled now. Being able to work on my own time, pace, work with my family and be around my family all the time. You know, I'm such a traditionalist when it comes to family is the way Absolutely. So. Yeah. As far as things that I'm doing, you know, dad's a huge learner, right? I like to learn probably not as much as dad, but I, you know, he can get exhausting with how much he learns. However, it's really helped me I've learned I've been reading tons of books that are really helping me navigate through this new entrepreneurial lifestyle that I kind of still working to it and adjusting to so I'm doing a lot of that networking as much as I can, trying to meet new people. And to be honest, the number one thing that we're doing to fulfill is we're finally traveling. Like I said, Man, we get a whim I go, we you know, next I mean, I started looking at my future calendar and all the places we're going to go, you know, Austin, Nashville, Salt Lake City back to Phoenix a couple times, probably because I'm trying to convince dad that we need to go find a vacation home there are so finally going to get to do a lot of a lot of those fun things that I want to do. So that's very exciting!
Abigail Thomson 29:57
I'm so glad that I got to have you on today and that you finally agreed for me to interview you. And I'm really happy that you are our final Women's Series. Not that the Women's Series ever is really going to end, but for this one specifically, I'm really happy that you are booking for that. I'm happy that our interview is actually going to be airing on my birthday, which is fun!
Diana Thomson 30:21
Yay! Happy birthday, sweet girl.
Abigail Thomson 30:25
You brought up so many amazing things and how your transition from corporate world into real estate and what that looked like and some things that you've maybe struggled with. You showed us a little bit more about what it looks like as an active investor and as a passive investor moving from your corporate job into real estate. And then we got to talk about life, which is fun and what I always love to do with my mama.
Diana Thomson 30:49
Thank you again, and I will talk to you soon. Love you!
Abigail Thomson 30:55
Love you! Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level American Dream. If you would like to learn more about what we talked about today, want to contact the team directly, or are interested in passively investing and being a part of our deal room, head over to our website at www.thomsonmultifamilygroup.com -- Before you go, please leave a review! Your comments help us create more episodes for you to enjoy.