Anthony Giuffre

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[00:00] SPEAKER_01: It's Calgary's Podcast on the Canada's Podcast Network.
[00:07] SPEAKER_00: Hello, this is Mario Toneguzi coming to you today with Calgary's Podcast, a member of
[00:13] SPEAKER_00: Canada's Podcast Network where we talk to the entrepreneurs who are making it happen
[00:18] SPEAKER_00: here in the city of Calgary, Alberta.
[00:21] SPEAKER_00: Anthony Jewfri is founder and CEO of Avenue Living Asset Management, which has assets of
[00:29] SPEAKER_00: more than $1 billion, including more than 8,000 residential rental units in Western Canada.
[00:36] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the show, Anthony, and thanks for taking the time today to be here for our listeners.
[00:42] SPEAKER_00: Mario, thank you for having me.
[00:44] SPEAKER_00: It's an honor to talk to you today.
[00:45] SPEAKER_00: Tell us a little bit about yourself, Anthony, where you're from and how you started Avenue.
[00:50] SPEAKER_00: Born and raised Calgaryen, I basically came from an entrepreneurial family.
[00:55] SPEAKER_01: My dad, 92, is still very active in business and really he's been my inspiration and I guess
[01:02] SPEAKER_01: my daughter started in terms of growing businesses.
[01:05] SPEAKER_01: And I have now been in some entrepreneurial band for the better part of 27 years.
[01:10] SPEAKER_01: So I'm 45, I started early, really have never looked back with various enterprises crossing
[01:16] SPEAKER_01: the food industry, light manufacturing, distribution, the last 13 years with multi-family and
[01:24] SPEAKER_01: real estate.
[01:25] SPEAKER_01: Certainly that's now been the focus and has been the focus for some time.
[01:28] SPEAKER_00: Did you meet financing when you first started Avenue?
[01:32] SPEAKER_01: We did.
[01:32] SPEAKER_01: I came into the real estate business basically as an accidental tourist.
[01:36] SPEAKER_01: Brother closest to me was in real estate and frankly asked me to help him with his real
[01:41] SPEAKER_01: estate practice when I was in between consulting arrangements and I joined up with him, really
[01:47] SPEAKER_01: enjoyed it.
[01:48] SPEAKER_01: Started basically as a realtor, built kind of a basket of investors that I was on the
[01:55] SPEAKER_01: micro investment side.
[01:56] SPEAKER_01: So by duplexes, six plexes, eight plexes for them and I inevitably realized that I was
[02:03] SPEAKER_01: best suited basically to manage my own portfolio.
[02:06] SPEAKER_01: As I generated or harnessed commissions, I parlayed all of my commissions where I bought
[02:10] SPEAKER_01: my first rental properties.
[02:12] SPEAKER_01: With some level of success from there, went on to start looking at more larger scoped
[02:18] SPEAKER_01: multi-family assets.
[02:20] SPEAKER_01: Initially started actually in as a condo convertor in Calgary, buying rental apartment buildings
[02:25] SPEAKER_01: in the belt line, converting them, stratifying the title and in turn selling them off to
[02:32] SPEAKER_01: investors.
[02:33] SPEAKER_01: So as a result, we started to look in other areas like Roek's Alberta, Lethbridge, places
[02:39] SPEAKER_01: where really wasn't necessarily touched with the propulsion of the oil and gas industry and
[02:45] SPEAKER_01: I created real estate markets.
[02:47] SPEAKER_01: So back then we tried to play where no one else wanted to play and at that moment in
[02:52] SPEAKER_01: time as we started to look at larger assets, typically I started with friends, family,
[02:57] SPEAKER_01: close business associates which they were the conduits to down payments, to the ability
[03:04] SPEAKER_01: to actually close on assets in the early years.
[03:06] SPEAKER_00: What is your plans for the company's future in expansion?
[03:12] SPEAKER_01: What I like to do is continue doing the same thing over and over again if it works.
[03:17] SPEAKER_01: It's really we've developed a business plan, certainly through developing that business
[03:20] SPEAKER_01: plan, it made probably 10,000 mistakes.
[03:23] SPEAKER_01: And as a result, what I want to do is take advantage of the pivots and the adaptation
[03:27] SPEAKER_01: from those mistakes and continue to grow the platform.
[03:30] SPEAKER_00: Being based in Calgary as an entrepreneur, what are some of the good points of doing
[03:35] SPEAKER_00: business here?
[03:37] SPEAKER_01: Calgary, Alberta, in my view, it's the epicenter of Calgary for entrepreneurship.
[03:42] SPEAKER_01: Whether we look at the resource industry, whether we look at real estate, there's just
[03:46] SPEAKER_01: some incredible men and women that have built businesses here.
[03:50] SPEAKER_01: So it's very entrepreneurial focus when I speak specifically about multi-family.
[03:55] SPEAKER_01: Really blessed to be in an industry whereby we have the likes of boardwalk, main street,
[04:01] SPEAKER_01: really great peers.
[04:02] SPEAKER_01: I don't consider them competitors, I consider them peers.
[04:05] SPEAKER_01: Great entrepreneurs behind those companies that really have been as supportive and really
[04:11] SPEAKER_01: kind of set an incredible standard for entrepreneurship within the city.
[04:15] SPEAKER_00: What are some of the top things and challenges of being an entrepreneur in this city?
[04:21] SPEAKER_01: Certainly there is what I would like to call in summer specs, a prairie disadvantage.
[04:28] SPEAKER_01: Really when you look at, obviously, you look towards the east, Toronto, etc.
[04:33] SPEAKER_01: You really see that that is kind of the financing mecca for Canada.
[04:37] SPEAKER_01: The struggle that we have with Alberta Saskatchewan is we don't have the populace for the population.
[04:41] SPEAKER_01: Alberta is typically known for resources.
[04:44] SPEAKER_01: So the one thing that I would see that myself and the team at Avenue living have constantly
[04:49] SPEAKER_01: had to contend with, is swimming upstream in terms of the rationalization and the understanding
[04:54] SPEAKER_01: of the prairie markets.
[04:56] SPEAKER_01: We have managed to adapt, we have managed to grow through that, but that in itself,
[05:00] SPEAKER_01: we have taken that negative and we have educated people as we have turned it into a positive.
[05:06] SPEAKER_01: But certainly, at first blush, we consider something not necessarily as attractive as some other markets.
[05:14] SPEAKER_00: We do some of our best work outside the office.
[05:17] SPEAKER_00: Is there a place in Calgary where you would like to go to recharge or just get inspired and
[05:22] SPEAKER_00: think about your business?
[05:23] SPEAKER_01: One of my hobbies is I do Iron Man triathlons.
[05:29] SPEAKER_01: I've just completed my 16th Iron Man triathlon.
[05:33] SPEAKER_01: So it's a long one.
[05:34] SPEAKER_01: I do go out and race.
[05:35] SPEAKER_01: It's a very long day to yourself.
[05:37] SPEAKER_01: So in preparation for all of my races, typically speaking, I'm open about on the Calgary pathways.
[05:44] SPEAKER_01: I swim in the outdoor lakes in the summertime and typically I'm riding either in the mountains
[05:48] SPEAKER_01: in the foothills and around Calgary.
[05:50] SPEAKER_01: What that does it provides me with a sense of peace and really that peaceful state where I can
[05:55] SPEAKER_01: actually contemplate and strategize.
[05:58] SPEAKER_00: Knowing what you know about Calgary now, what advice would you give entrepreneurs and how to
[06:02] SPEAKER_00: start a business in the city?
[06:05] SPEAKER_01: That's a good question.
[06:06] SPEAKER_01: And at first blush, what I would say is that typically speaking, depending on what type of
[06:12] SPEAKER_01: entrepreneurship we're talking about, are we looking for entrepreneurship in order to create a job?
[06:18] SPEAKER_01: Are we looking to scale a business?
[06:19] SPEAKER_01: Those are two, my view, two entirely different types of entrepreneurship.
[06:24] SPEAKER_01: The hobbyist versus someone who's prepared to do no different than what I just talked about in
[06:29] SPEAKER_01: terms of an Iron Man entrepreneurship really is an Iron Man.
[06:32] SPEAKER_01: It's a seven day week job 24-7.
[06:35] SPEAKER_01: I would say a lot of the best opportunities are lying in plain sight.
[06:40] SPEAKER_01: You can actualize upon them and making sure that you dream big enough.
[06:45] SPEAKER_01: That's the one thing that it's just as hard to do something small as it is to do something big.
[06:49] SPEAKER_01: In fact, in a lot of cases, big stuff is easier and really having the ability to adapt
[06:54] SPEAKER_01: and to pivot based on whatever the market or whatever the situation throws at you.
[07:00] SPEAKER_01: By virtue of doing that, you're going to get there.
[07:03] SPEAKER_01: But it's really just sticking in the moment.
[07:05] SPEAKER_00: What's the first hour of your day look like?
[07:08] SPEAKER_00: Do you have a specific ritual or routine in the morning to get you going?
[07:13] SPEAKER_01: Typically speaking, it's an early start right after five.
[07:16] SPEAKER_01: Typically starts with a workout.
[07:19] SPEAKER_01: After that, it's spending some time with the family.
[07:22] SPEAKER_01: I have, I'm blessed to have four children and loving home and wife.
[07:26] SPEAKER_01: We try and spend time to have a coffee together after that.
[07:30] SPEAKER_01: Today's where I can drive my kids to school.
[07:32] SPEAKER_01: I want to set my day off right by seeing them off because that's what I do all this for.
[07:35] SPEAKER_01: I work my way into understanding my schedule.
[07:38] SPEAKER_01: And then typically I go back-to-back meetings till sometime in the evening.
[07:42] SPEAKER_00: When you think of entrepreneurs, do you think they have to be a little different,
[07:49] SPEAKER_00: a little weird or unique?
[07:52] SPEAKER_00: Are they wired differently?
[07:54] SPEAKER_01: I think in order to be a successful entrepreneur,
[07:59] SPEAKER_01: you have to understand failure, you have to understand that the chips are typically down.
[08:04] SPEAKER_01: And you really have to be a glass half-fold person.
[08:08] SPEAKER_01: Entrepreneurship is typically for the optimists with a can-do attitude.
[08:12] SPEAKER_01: So I would say yes, definitely speaking, you have to be comfortable in your own space.
[08:17] SPEAKER_01: You know, I use Iron Man as a good example when I'm out there for 10 or 12 hours,
[08:22] SPEAKER_01: typically on course.
[08:23] SPEAKER_01: I'm by myself in my own head.
[08:25] SPEAKER_01: Really, that's no different than being an entrepreneur.
[08:29] SPEAKER_01: If you do that, you're typically wired differently than your average person.
[08:34] SPEAKER_01: Because that's a lot to contemplate in the day.
[08:37] SPEAKER_01: Is there any books you're reading right now?
[08:39] SPEAKER_01: I am. And it was given to me by my executive coach, which I was very thankful for.
[08:45] SPEAKER_01: It was called The Way of the Shepherd.
[08:47] SPEAKER_01: And really, what it does is it focuses on leadership.
[08:51] SPEAKER_01: And it's just a short, quick read.
[08:54] SPEAKER_01: I just read it on a flight coming back from a recent trip.
[08:57] SPEAKER_01: And I would recommend it. It was fantastic.
[09:00] SPEAKER_00: And in the past, can you recommend any books for listeners who are also aspiring entrepreneurs?
[09:07] SPEAKER_00: Maybe a book that resonated with you and helped you along your journey?
[09:12] SPEAKER_01: One series of books that I always hold near and dear to me would be the Malcolm Gladwell books.
[09:18] SPEAKER_01: I really enjoy those. They really resonate with me.
[09:21] SPEAKER_01: There's a series of them there that just really kind of fit part and parcel with entrepreneurship.
[09:28] SPEAKER_00: Are there any online or offline tools that you use on the daily basis for work?
[09:34] SPEAKER_01: I do. I just mentioned one in which obviously the book, the person who suggested the book was my
[09:40] SPEAKER_01: executive coach. For me, I think it threads back into entrepreneurship. As I said, it's a very
[09:45] SPEAKER_01: lonely road. And typically speaking, you're out there by yourself doing the best that you can.
[09:49] SPEAKER_01: But you only know what you know. And so the one thing that I find that's been extremely
[09:54] SPEAKER_01: effective for me is working with an executive coach. What I do is I recommend that all of my
[09:59] SPEAKER_01: senior team uses an executive coach. In fact, I pay for it. And really what it does that provides
[10:05] SPEAKER_01: an incredible amount of tools and or perspective that allows leaders to lead.
[10:11] SPEAKER_00: Now, obviously, you're a very busy guy with work. How do you find the time to get that balance
[10:19] SPEAKER_01: between your work life and your personal life? I actually have one sentence that I use probably
[10:26] SPEAKER_01: 10 times a day, which is why wouldn't I and why wouldn't we? I get inspired by trying to do everything
[10:35] SPEAKER_01: or the sense of balance, the commitment to balance is something that I strive for every day.
[10:40] SPEAKER_01: Am I perfect? Absolutely not. But I at least allows me to want to achieve. And I consider myself a
[10:48] SPEAKER_01: lifelong learner, whatever I do do. So in doing that, I try and balance everything off to be
[10:56] SPEAKER_01: basically look at circles around and I can't focus on one side. It's a circle I have focused on both
[11:01] SPEAKER_00: sides. Now, if you weren't doing what you're doing now as a profession, what would you like to do?
[11:06] SPEAKER_01: I would say that after 27 years of entrepreneurship, it's pretty safe to say that I would land in
[11:14] SPEAKER_01: something. I don't know what it would look like. For me, what I find, everyone needs to create their
[11:20] SPEAKER_01: purpose. What I now genuinely found of my purpose is building businesses. That's what I
[11:26] SPEAKER_01: thrive off of the interaction with people. Learning how to lead effectively, learning how to create
[11:32] SPEAKER_01: jobs, returns for shareholders, all of that is really something that gets me up in the morning,
[11:40] SPEAKER_01: gets me excited regardless of industry. Very unagnostic that way.
[11:44] SPEAKER_00: If there's a job out there that you would not like to do, is the can you name one?
[11:51] SPEAKER_01: I have been brought up in a family where you do what you have to do. So I think I've done a lot
[11:55] SPEAKER_01: of some lot of jobs that I didn't necessarily enjoy working from my father. But what I would say is
[12:03] SPEAKER_01: there's nothing that I wouldn't do. I will try everything once. I've gained a ton of learns
[12:10] SPEAKER_01: from working with working manual labor on the backs of moving trucks to essentially doing direct
[12:17] SPEAKER_01: sales. I would say that there isn't anything because I always get something out of it.
[12:21] SPEAKER_00: Now in business, is there a favorite word, quote, or sentence that you like to use?
[12:26] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's many. My team makes fun of me a lot because I have an analogy for everything.
[12:32] SPEAKER_01: My good friend, Tom Spolotini from Spolombos, said something to me once that resonated with me.
[12:39] SPEAKER_01: And it really, what it does is it gives me a sense of grounding and perspective every time I'm
[12:44] SPEAKER_01: dealing with somebody. And he said to me, one day, is it Anthony? Just remember one thing, we all put
[12:49] SPEAKER_01: our pants on one leg at a time. So that really uncovers the fact that people are people and everybody's
[12:54] SPEAKER_01: doing their best every day. We all have seasons and reasons for the things that we do. So really,
[13:00] SPEAKER_01: that's one of my guiding lights and kind of my guiding mantras, really to gain perspective on
[13:07] SPEAKER_00: whatever's being thrown at me that particular day. Is there a least favorite word or sentence that
[13:12] SPEAKER_01: you don't like to hear? We can't. That's typically what it is. I don't do well with
[13:18] SPEAKER_01: negativity. I am happy if something doesn't work to pivot and to spin away from it.
[13:24] SPEAKER_01: But I have very much a can-do attitude and a why-not attitude. I don't typically do well with
[13:30] SPEAKER_01: negativity. That's just something that I know about myself and I try to avoid it.
[13:35] SPEAKER_00: Is there one word or two words that you would say would describe yourself?
[13:43] SPEAKER_01: What would they be and why? I would say hyper-focused on my task. I have the ability to
[13:52] SPEAKER_01: parallel task, multitask at a particularly odd level. I don't know how else to describe it.
[14:00] SPEAKER_01: And I have an uncanny memory. So it allows me to be able to do many things kind of in parallel.
[14:05] SPEAKER_01: So that's how I would describe myself. And that's really been part of my success in business.
[14:09] SPEAKER_01: Is there anything that keeps you up at night these days?
[14:12] SPEAKER_01: As a consummate entrepreneur, the one thing that keeps me up at night is there's a lack of
[14:17] SPEAKER_01: fire or desire for people to go into traditional entrepreneurship. Start those businesses,
[14:23] SPEAKER_01: take a chance. People are way too comfortable. That's something that keeps me up at night because
[14:27] SPEAKER_01: I think that from my end, the world is a better place when people are swinging for the stars
[14:33] SPEAKER_00: and landing on the moon every single day. Now everyone has a bucket list these days. What's
[14:38] SPEAKER_01: the top of your bucket list? Well, this year or next, I'm just trying to figure out my timeline is
[14:45] SPEAKER_01: to do an ultra marathon swim. So I've done lots of ultra marathon, marathons, iron man,
[14:52] SPEAKER_01: so my next athletic endeavor is to do an ultra marathon swim. I also have obviously my bucket list
[14:59] SPEAKER_01: also includes a lot of travel. I love to travel. I love to see the world. I love to experience
[15:04] SPEAKER_01: different cultures and people and foods. Certainly, I have a number of different special sites around
[15:11] SPEAKER_00: the world that I'd like to see. It never evolves. Do you have any advice that you may have received
[15:19] SPEAKER_00: over the years that you can pass along to entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs?
[15:24] SPEAKER_01: One thing that I would say for sure, in a lot of the time, it's the wisdom of the ages.
[15:29] SPEAKER_01: We look at things with different cast or different light. A lot of the old principles hold true.
[15:37] SPEAKER_01: When I've talked to my dad, who's a lifelong entrepreneur, I mean, what I quickly realized after
[15:42] SPEAKER_01: a conversation, I know what he is for already forgotten. So really trying to harness those old
[15:50] SPEAKER_01: world skills and really understand not everything has to be re-created. Everything has to be the new
[15:55] SPEAKER_01: way. In a lot of cases, the old way works. We just have to have the time to have some
[16:02] SPEAKER_01: silence to make the world slow down a bit and center ourselves to actually hear that.
[16:08] SPEAKER_00: Imagine this. There's a small tropical island just off of Fiji that only has one phone booth
[16:13] SPEAKER_00: with no internet. We're going to drop you off there and you won't have a computer or smartphone
[16:19] SPEAKER_00: tablet, any sort of device. You can use the phone booth any time to call the boat and we'll come
[16:25] SPEAKER_00: pick you up. So now, how long would you last before you made that call? And what would you do
[16:32] SPEAKER_01: while you were there? If I don't live in a barrier, in some form of chaos, being obviously multitasking,
[16:39] SPEAKER_01: et cetera, I typically am not my best self. So I would say, depending on what I had on the go and
[16:46] SPEAKER_01: what I was focused on or what was around me in the peripheries, would be the time, would be the time
[16:51] SPEAKER_01: in which it took me to walk to that phone booth and make the call. If I was focused on,
[16:56] SPEAKER_01: I need to get some training in, I could be there for a couple of weeks. So it just really is
[17:00] SPEAKER_01: the season and the reason for me, just depending on what that goal was in the mindset that I was
[17:05] SPEAKER_01: doing that day. Is there anything you'd like to add to me before you leave us today?
[17:10] SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of focus these days on entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship. It's not necessarily a
[17:16] SPEAKER_01: lost art, but it's really something that I think if we want to progress the economy, Alberta,
[17:23] SPEAKER_01: Canada, as a real force, what we really have to do is maybe recenter ourselves and focus on the
[17:29] SPEAKER_01: stuff that made us great, which were the long-standing history of entrepreneurs in this country,
[17:34] SPEAKER_00: and especially in this province and city. Is there a way that listeners can get a whole
[17:38] SPEAKER_01: of view if they want to get in touch? Best way to get in touch with me would be via LinkedIn. I
[17:44] SPEAKER_01: typically respond to everybody and anybody who reaches out in some capacity and always looking
[17:50] SPEAKER_01: to increase my network and talk to people because you never know if they're going to go with some
[17:56] SPEAKER_01: of my best connections, networks, and ideas have come from people randomly reaching out.
[18:01] SPEAKER_01: And I take that very seriously and it's treated as an honor.
[18:05] SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Anthony, for being our guest on Calibri's podcast. I've learned a lot about you,
[18:10] SPEAKER_00: your business, and I'm sure listeners have as well. Thanks a lot, Anthony.
[18:14] SPEAKER_00: Thank you, have a great day. You too. Hey there, thanks for taking the time today to listen to
[18:20] SPEAKER_00: Calibri's podcast on Canada's podcast network. We hope you enjoyed the show today.
[18:27] SPEAKER_00: Make sure you sign up for our newsletters and write a review for us on the iTunes and then connect
[18:33] SPEAKER_00: with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn at Canada's podcast. You can also check out what
[18:41] SPEAKER_00: other entrepreneurs are doing across the country. See you next time.