The AAA Storage Podcast

Welcome to the AAA storage podcast,
your integrated real estate and

development partner, exploring all
things, self storage investing to

bring you diversified success.

Let's dive in.

Brandon Giella: Hello and welcome back to
another episode of the AAA Storage podcast

I have with me as always, Paul Bennett.

Thank you for being on the show.

And we have today a special guest, van
Isley, who is running Isley Ventures,

a family office, and he has a lot.

Experience in the real estate storage
investing space, having invested in

AAA storage growth fund one before.

And so we are here today to hear a little
bit of Van's story and how a family office

would approach real estate investing.

As well as what was the experience
like of investing specifically with AAA

storage and different things that you
were looking at, things that were helpful

and different, ways that you guys were
navigating that due diligence process.

And so, Paul, as, you guys go
way back, many years, and so

I'll let you take over from here.

But Van, thank you so much for being on
the show and we're excited to hear, from

a, the perspective of family office.

What that looks like as an investor and,
how we can go from here in AA storage.

So thanks for joining.

And Paul, I'll let you take it away.

Paul Bennett: Yes, thanks Brandon
and Van, I'm super excited to have

you today for lots of reasons.

I have such respect for you and, so.

I wanna kick things off.

give everybody a little bit of your
background, your history, 'cause I think

your story is phenomenal and what you've
accomplished is nothing short of amazing.

So tell everybody a little bit about
sort of, you know, where you started

and where you ended up, and how you
wound up with a family office managing,

investments on your family's behalf.

Van Isley: Okay.

I grew up in, Burlington, North Carolina.

Relatively, simple
family, humble beginnings.

my dad was a home builder.

my mom worked at the local
church, but great family.

I was the youngest of four.

I grew up around lots of uncles,
aunts, cousins, all that good stuff.

But you know, hard work was
always a piece of the equation.

I had probably 20 part-time jobs
throughout high school and college and

you know, I tell a lot of folks, that's
really where I got my education is

working with some of those entrepreneurs.

Learning some different businesses
being around, businesses that cater

to the public and different things.

But I ultimately went to school
at East Carolina University,

decided to major in accounting.

Wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to
do, but went the accounting route.

And, I got really lucky and landed
a job with Pricewaterhouse in

Raleigh coming out of school.

And, you know, in hindsight, I.

I came to learn that they
had a tough year recruiting.

They had made a handful of
offers and gotten turned down

and we're kind of desperate.

My resume showed up on the partner
in charges desk at the right time.

And, I caught probably one of
the biggest breaks of my career.

It was a great environment, great
place to learn and, interact with

CFOs and CEOs and we had a really
neat client base at that time.

it was varied.

From banks and large construction
companies, hotels, manufacturing,

retail, distribution, you name it.

But after eight years at
Pricewaterhouse, I decided I, I really

wanted to do something different.

I had always had some entrepreneurial
desires, but I wasn't sure I was quite

ready to make that big bet just yet.

So I ended up taking a job with one of our
clients I had a great relationship with.

They were in the building
material distribution business.

And at the time they had operations in
the Carolinas and that was about it.

They had, been acquired by a UK
company and were starting to get

active and aggressive in the m and a
space and really ramp up the business.

So I jumped on board with those
guys and opened a location in

Greenville, South Carolina.

Was there for a couple years.

Got, moved to Atlanta in conjunction
with an acquisition we did down there.

Spent five years in Atlanta and then
worked my way back to the corporate

headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina as
a regional manager ultimately responsible

for their operations in the Carolinas.

the business, became the largest building
material distributor in the country.

And, So there was a lot going on.

It was a good opportunity.

I was glad to be back in North Carolina.

my boys who were born when we were
in Atlanta were, still relatively

young, starting to do the things
that little boys do and play sports.

And I was traveling two or three
nights a week and, you know, having

to call in from a hotel room a couple
hours away and hear about that.

Ballgame was not really the way
I wanted to see my kids grow up.

I wanted to put 'em to bed at night
and be there for the ball games and be

a more, a bigger part of their life.

And, so the combination of
that, the entrepreneurial desire

starting to burn pretty hot.

I was 39 years old and starting to
approach that, big deal of turning

40 that was starting to weigh on me.

And, you know, I, I.

Was looking out at the future and saying,
the last thing I want is to be 70 years

old sitting on a beach somewhere, looking
back over my career and say, you know, you

never did what you really wanted to do.

So all of that was transpiring.

the company that I was
working for had grown rapidly.

They were doing a lot of the
things they needed to do to be

a good, successful, big company.

But with that, a lot of the
autonomy was fallen by the wayside.

A lot of the personality
had fallen by the wayside.

Some of the entrepreneurial
opportunities had fallen by the

wayside, so it was really time.

So I was able to put together a
team of investors for, mentors,

really, who I had worked for two at
Pricewaterhouse, two at, the building

material Distribution company.

they were our primary
funding for the launch.

I put everything I had in the business and
we launched a company called Professional

Builder Supply in that building material
distribution space, in the backyard of

the biggest distributor in the country.

As you can imagine, it
didn't go over real well.

but we were committed
to what we were doing.

We were passionate about it.

We felt like we had a different model,
and we then, started growing the business.

we had a 15 year plan.

Believe it or not, I'm not quite
sure how we had the foresight

to do that, but we did, and we
started marching down that road.

We hit the great recession
of 2007, eight and nine.

didn't plan for that, but we were
at a good place in our evolution.

Had it hit us a few years earlier,
we probably wouldn't have made it.

If it had hit us a few years later,
we probably would have been a little

bit arrogant and growing too fast.

And probably wouldn't have made it.

So again, luck entered the
equation and, we got through that.

We came out on the other side of
that recession, pretty hot, and, ran

hard for another 10, 12 years and,
recapitalized the business and gave

those initial investors an exit in 2017.

And then ultimately, we partnered
with a family office there.

some local folks that we knew.

And in 2021, we exited the space.

Some crazy things were happening as
a result of COVID and some rampant

inflation in the lumber markets, which
were play into our benefit coupled with

a very, active, m and a environment.

And it really was just the
perfect storm in a positive way.

And we seized that opportunity exited.

I spent a year, stayed with the
company that acquired us for a year,

transitioned some things, and then left
and launched the Isley Family Ventures

family office at the beginning of 2023.

So we're about two and
a half years in now.

Paul Bennett: Yeah.

what a great story, van.

I mean, truly, I just, I love hearing
it, even though I knew it just because

we know each other, but I just think
it's, I think incredible and, The value

that created the number of people you
employed, you know, and the journey

that you went on was pretty incredible.

So I know you were active as an investor
well before you exited your business and.

and formed the family office, but
you're now a couple of years in,

I'm sure the perspective has, has
evolved over, you know, over time.

Talk a little bit, for a minute about
your overall investment philosophy.

what are you trying to
achieve at Isley Ventures?

you know, what's sort of the
guiding principles that drive your

investment decisions and activity?

Van Isley: Yeah, I think, you
know, initially we were kind

of focused on diversification.

Everything.

We had our entire net worth was
invested in professional builder supply.

And when we recapped in 2017,
it gave us an opportunity to

take some chips off the table.

And that's the really the first time
where we started thinking about.

Diversification and how do we
de-risk things and protect future

generations and all that good stuff.

So that was really one
of the first drivers.

But as we started to put the family
office together and look at the

bigger picture after that second
transaction, it became more strategic.

And we said, okay, what do we want
to do and why do we want to do it?

And we really said, Hey, we want to.

You know, we wanna obviously
protect the principal.

We want to, we wanna
produce reasonable returns.

But a big part of this
also is to pay it forward.

One of the mentors that I had
that was like a father for me.

Yeah.

I had told him on the way out.

I said, you know, I can probably
never repay you for what you've

done for me, but hopefully you can
take some pride in knowing that

I'll do my best to pay it forward.

So one of the things that we
try to do with our investments.

To at least some extent is help young
entrepreneurs and provide opportunities

like some guys provided for me.

And I feel like we've been
pretty successful doing that.

So that's a component of it too.

And you gotta balance, you know, that
may impact the return a little bit.

It may impact the expectation.

So you balance all of that.

you know, one of the first things
we did is we said, okay, what do

we want the portfolio to look like?

When we are completely deployed.

And so we went to work on that and
we spent the better part of our first

year as a family office analyzing
and assessing and defining that.

And we ultimately settled in on
seven buckets of investments,

operating companies, commercial real
estate, residential real estate.

Public equities, private equity, venture
capital, and then cash and fixed income.

And so we said, okay, let's get the
sizing of those buckets defined next.

What are we comfortable with
in each of those buckets?

And as part of that process, we
said, alright, what is a reasonable

expectation for a return on each bucket?

And then, you know, multiply all that out.

It's not overly scientific.

It's pretty simple.

I'm probably making it sound more
complicated than it really was.

But then we said, okay, does that
yield a return on the overall

portfolio that we're comfortable with?

And so we kind of went through that
process and we said, does that yield a

risk profile that we're comfortable with?

And the answer to all
that was kind of yes.

And we tweaked some things along
the way, but that's really how

we've managed the family office.

up to this point, it's worked well for us.

It obviously took us, you know, a
couple of years to get things deployed.

The first year was really about
getting that definition in place.

The second year was really about
deploying everything we can comfortably

deploy without too much, concentration
in any one area or any one timeframe.

You know, you think about.

Diversification in the form
of types of investments.

But you also think about it in the context
of geography, in the context of timing.

You don't want all your real estate
investments to be made in one year.

it's a cyclical business,
as you guys know.

So, you know, you're factoring all that
in while you're trying to deploy capital.

you're building relationships.

The operating companies, we had
our hands in a few things before

we set up the family office.

Word got out pretty quick,
of what we were doing and

opportunities started coming to us.

I think initially, you know, one of
the big surprises has been, you know,

we're gonna have to source deals.

We're not gonna have
that many opportunities.

We had way more opportunities
than what we envisioned.

They were coming outta
the woodwork coming to us.

So that has not been a challenge, but
that was kind of the thought process of

how we put things together Initially.

Paul Bennett: Yeah, so well put,
I, one of my questions was gonna be

about how you thought about allocation
across segments, and you really

just covered that, that beautifully.

I also think it's, I love that.

Part of what you're doing is supporting
young entrepreneurs and helping

them, you know, providing capital.

But I, I know you well enough to know that
they're getting more than just capital.

They're getting, you know, a mentor and an
advisor, who's as savvy as anybody I know.

So, what a great combination to
get that intellectual capital

and the financial capital that
they need to grow their business.

So that's, that's fantastic.

So talk for just a quick second about.

How the portfolio is spread, maybe
not, spread isn't the right word,

but direct investment things that you
guys, you know, are directly invested

in and involved in versus passive
investing where you've invested

with a sponsor or you know, somebody
that's really managing the investment

and you're more in a passive role.

any significant sort of, allocation
on either side in the portfolio or.

Van Isley: Yeah, I think
there's a strategy there.

And you know, ideally for us, we want a
combination of both passive and active.

You know, one of the things that,
that you come to realize is that

your time is probably more invi,
more valuable than your money.

Probably more limited with
respect to, you know, the

resources that you bring to bear.

so there's an element of that,
but we've also looked at that.

By category.

So for example, take the
venture capital category.

I have concluded real quick,
I am not smart enough to pick

the 1 out of 10 venture capital
investments, that's gonna hit it big.

and that's what you've gotta
be to be successful in vc.

And so, you know, we did some, I
don't know, friends, relationships,

connections, VC type investments
early on and realized pretty quick.

If we want money allocated to the VC
space, this is not the way to do it.

So, you know, we go
through a fund for that.

We either go through a, an
advisor like a Morgan Stanley

where we do a lot of things.

'cause of the resources they bring to bear
or, you know, east Carolina Angels, is a

fund, the Pirate Entrepreneurship Fund,
where we've done some VC there, there's

a board there, there are guys that I
know that play in that space every day.

So that is very passive for us.

private equity, for example,
is a little bit of a hybrid.

We've got some private equity
companies that we know that we

have some relationships with
where we'll invest directly.

I mean, I call that a hybrid.

It's still really a passive investment.

They're making the decisions,
they're sitting on the boards.

but yet we'll do some of that through
a, you know, through a Morgan Stanley,

but we'll also do some of it direct.

You go to the operating companies, almost
all of the operating companies are.

We have a couple that are passive.

You know, some are a little bit
of a hybrid there as well, but

the vast majority of our operating
companies we're pretty active with.

We're on the board, we're in monthly
financial reviews, we're on weekly

phone calls, whatever the case may
be, depending on their situation.

So we kinda look at it,
you know, by category.

So, the commercial real estate,
we've got some active, some passive,

the residential real estate, we
tend to be more active with that.

so it really is defined by that category.

But again, ideally we want a
mix of passive and active, and

it's limited, you know, by time.

And the operating companies, it goes
back to, you know, the desire to help

some young entrepreneurs, you can't do,
but so much of that and be effective.

So we've learned a little bit over time.

You gotta be a little bit
careful with that too.

So, yeah, it's a good combination of
both and a lot of it comes back to the

category and how we look at that category.

Paul Bennett: Yep.

makes perfect sense.

And and sounds like you guys have
done an incredible job of building a

good foundational strategy to drive.

Everything you're doing for the
next, you know, 10 plus years.

Change gears a little bit, and
talk for a minute, if you would,

about your due diligence process.

What are the, I'm sure it's different
in each of the buckets in terms

of the criteria that you have and
probably different if it's an active

investment versus a passive investment.

So I'm handing you a question
that's not maybe well formed.

Just take it and go wherever you want to.

What does the due diligence
and decision process look like?

for Oley Ventures.

Van Isley: Yeah, we're probably
not as sophisticated as most

in this regard, and I'm a big.

Believer in, you know, you gotta
do your homework, you gotta do

your research, you gotta trust the
data and you gotta get the facts.

But at the end of the day, you know,
there's some gut instinct involved there.

There are some intangibles involved.

I'm a big believer in betting
on people that I know.

I'm a big believer in
betting on a leadership team.

so we're gonna do our homework.

We're gonna, we're gonna pull
the proformas, we're gonna

dig into those proformas.

We're gonna ask questions about
anything we don't understand.

We're gonna question the assumptions.

We're gonna hire the attorneys
to do the legal due diligence.

We're gonna hire the environmental
folks on an opco to do the

environmental work that we need to do.

And we've refined that process.

We've grown a lot.

Our CFO Bill Nikker does a
fantastic job leading that effort.

We outsource a fair amount of it.

We have, a team that we can pull in
depending upon the size of the deal.

You know, bill will tell you, I don't like
the details and I'd rather talk strategy

and vision and all that good stuff.

So the poor guy, he gets to handle
the brunt of most of that stuff.

But we make a good team and.

you know, he lets me know where he
needs me and where he needs my input.

And we have complimentary skill sets.

We've traveled a lot of the same
roads, but at the same time,

our skill sets are different.

And, you know, bill is
invaluable with some of that.

but that's kind of the way we approach it.

the deal itself dictates the
degree to which we're gonna go.

but again, if I know somebody and
have known them for 20 or 25 years.

There's a high level of trust there.

have they done what they're
pitching to us before and have

they been successful doing it?

Those are the kind of questions
I'm asking in addition to your

traditional due diligence type work.

Paul Bennett: Yeah.

Yeah.

and you and Bill do make a good team.

'cause you have the accounting and
finance background, obviously, you know,

having been a CPA in the early part of
your career, but you're business savvy.

Every good entrepreneur is
like an Indian in the woods.

Like they can smell a deal,

Brandon Giella: Wait, explain that.

Explain that more.

What does that even mean?

Paul Bennett: no, I, the entrepreneurs
I know, that have been successful.

are all guys that just have a gut instinct
about people and whether they can trust

people and also about opportunities.

And, and Van has that in spades.

I mean, he's got the financial, you
know, lo logical, linear part of

it, but he also really has that,
that 70, I'm gonna switch gears now

'cause we're starting to run on time.

The van.

This has been just incredible there.

There's a little bit of a unique.

Aspect from our standpoint, it's, this
is sort of a selfish question, but I know

because I know you, that you, with several
partners are an active developer of self

storage in the Carolinas, and also doing
some car washes and some other interesting

things that are sort of in related spaces.

in spite of the fact that you have the
ability both from a financial standpoint

and from an expertise standpoint, to
invest in self storage on your own.

You chose.

To invest with us in Growth Fund one.

talk about that for a minute.

what was it, and I'm sort of asking again
a self-serving question, but what was

it about growth fund one and AAA storage
that made sense to you to add that to

your portfolio in spite of the fact that
you were actively developing self-storage

and managing self-storage on your own?

Van Isley: Yeah, so I'll start
kind of, from a really high level

first and then dial down into it.

You know, we had a lot of experience
in the residential real estate space.

We had a lot of opportunities coming
to us through our connections in

the residential real estate space.

That bucket filled up quick.

That there, that was
really not a challenge.

The commercial real estate bucket
was a little bit different ballgame.

I held on to some of the
facilities, for the business that

I sold with sell leasebacks and
I've got those income streams.

I like that industrial space.

feel like I know it and can add some value
and so we were comfortable with that.

But as we started looking at other
commercial real estate opportunities,

some of your traditional channels
just didn't feel right for us.

The self storage.

Situation had been something
that had always intrigued me.

as you know, a common friend of ours,
David Perry, was in that space for a

number of years, has been in that space
for a number of years, and I felt like

I could put a team together, just to
start pursuing that from the ground

up to do some development work with
David, along helping us and advising us.

So we kind of started down that road and
we had a concept of what we wanted to do.

We, I really like the storage space.

I like the longer term nature of it.

The ability to sit back and
enjoy the cash flows or to

package it, to take it to market.

You know, you tend to have
that flexibility no matter

what or when or where.

You know, obviously timing will impact
the multiples and all that good stuff.

There's opportunity there if you
build something with some value to it.

So we get excited about marketing
and branding, and we developed our

own brand and we went down that road.

Meanwhile, you know, we're studying
the space, we're learning the space.

We have two other
opportunities come to us.

one with a local company here
and then the AAA opportunity.

and what was interesting about
these three investments is that

they were all very different.

So if I take, you know, the one that we're
doing ourselves, the self-development,

it's a three story, really nice class,
A facility built from the ground up,

climate controlled for the most part,
preferably in metropolitan type markets

or secondary metropolitan markets.

In the Carolinas, we had a very
specific footprint, and really for the

most part it is just North Carolina.

and that was purposeful.

so, so you've got that.

It's a longer term play.

We're still learning and deploying
assets and work in that business

and it's been a lot of fun.

Well, we ran across another opportunity
that was basically retrofits.

They would buy existing
facilities, dress 'em up.

It was more of a technology
play to some extent.

They were unmanned facilities.

very different than what
we were self-developing.

The AAA opportunity comes
along and presents itself.

You know, first and foremost it's
you, Paul, who I know and I trust,

and I've known for a number of years.

You got a background in real estate.

You understand what you're doing, but
it's also a little different play.

It's a different play geographically.

It's Texas and Florida for the most
part, which was intriguing to us.

It's on the outskirts of big
markets like Austin, which I like.

It's a different market.

it's single story in most cases.

In a lot of cases it's non climate.

and there were a lot of things
about AAA that were unique.

You know, you guys have the property.

You typically hold the
property in another fund.

You transfer it when the, when
you get ready to go, you go.

You don't have to wait on
all of that stuff to happen.

So there's an advantage there.

The capital gets deployed quickly.

The proformas obviously were
something we looked at the projected

returns, you know, exceed our
investment thresholds in the space.

So a lot of things kind of aligned, but
you know, we said, Hey, we can learn

from all three of these platforms.

They're all in self storage,
but they're all very different.

So, you know, what can we learn
from each one that we can then

apply maybe to one of the others?

And so it was a unique opportunity.

There was enough diversification
there with geography, with the model

that we felt like it made sense.

It fit well in the portfolio.

And again, we go back
to the leadership team.

You guys have a track record.

You've done this, you've
been successful doing it.

There was a lot of comfort in
that, in addition to our comfort

in the storage space in general.

Paul Bennett: Yeah.

well man, you know, we're so.

Super, thankful to have
you as an investor with us.

And, I think I have one more
question, but we're kind of pushing

30 minutes here and we don't want
to keep our listeners for too long.

speak really quickly just to
the, obviously growth fund one is

still in the investment process.

We've got properties under development.

We've got some that have cod during
lease up, but, so you can't speak

to returns at this point, but just
what's the experience been like?

for Bill.

'cause he becomes our sort of primary
point of contact in a practical sense.

but also for you, what's it
been like investing with us?

Van Isley: Yeah, it's
comfortable, it's confidence.

the communication is great.

Cadence is great.

You know, one of the things that's
frustrating to us as investors is if we

invest money and we have to make the phone
call to get the update, you know, if we're

having to make that call, if Bill and I
are in a conversation, we say, have you

heard anything about so and so lately?

Or What's happening with this
investment or that investment?

And we have to say, shoot 'em
an email or make a phone call.

that's not where we want to be.

and with aaa, that
communication has been great.

The updates, the construction
updates, the deployment updates, you

know, the investor updates, where we
are on raising capital, et cetera.

It's all been very helpful.

and again, I like the uniqueness of aaa.

the property play.

Another thing I haven't touched
on that, that we saw as a big

advantage and a uniqueness to AAA
is the flex space piece of it.

That's something that we like that
space again, is a differentiator from

most of your self storage investments.

So we like that a lot.

But again, the communication, being
able to pick up the phone and call

if we do have a question, timeliness,
you know, the documentation, the

legal documents, the signatures.

All of that is very
efficient and streamlined.

so it's given us a lot of confidence
just in the way that you administer

and run and manage the business.

Paul Bennett: I appreciate
that Van makes me happy.

'cause that's certainly what we
want, is to provide, you know, to be

transparent and provide, you know,
robust information on a regular basis.

So I'm glad that's been your experience.

last question, and we'll
sort of switch gears now.

What advice or insights.

Would you give, to another family office
that's maybe just getting started or

is in, you know, family offices get
to a certain size and they really

change just like businesses do, right?

You're a fairly small crew.

you're very closely involved.

so.

Family offices like yours are high net
worth individuals that are looking at

investments and building their portfolio.

Although it may not be within the
formal structure of a family office.

what advice or insights would you
give as we wrap up that you would

want them to know that have been
foundational to your success?

Van Isley: Yeah, I think the
starting point is defining those

buckets, defining the categories.

Of investments that you want to
make and what's your appetite

in each of those spaces?

What do you need from a diversification
standpoint to be comfortable?

What is your risk tolerance and how
does that factor in and kinda get

that schematic built of, you know,
ideally this is what we would look

like in three years or five years,
and this would make me comfortable

and allow me to sleep good at night.

Knowing also that I'm gonna
earn reasonable returns

on my portfolio over time.

So I think that's the starting point,
you know, what's the allocation and

what are the anticipated returns on
each of those buckets From there, you

know, we've learned a couple of things.

we are in a little bit of a
situation now where our mantra

is fewer but bigger transactions.

Because of the amount of time and energy.

I mean, again, you'll find that your
most precious resource is your time.

And you know, you can
delegate a lot of things.

You can outsource a lot of things, but
at the end of the day, you gotta decide

where you wanna spend your time, how
you're comfortable spending your time.

And so, you know, we've raised the bar.

We've raised the bar.

From a return standpoint, we've
raised the bar from a size of

investment standpoint, and we've
said, let's do fewer things and let's.

Let's do 'em better where we can sink our
teeth into it and have, being two and a

half years in and having some money coming
back from some of the original investments

has given us the ability to do that.

Another word of advice, I would
just say don't be afraid of debt.

You know, I think you go through a big
transaction, an exit type event, and you,

your tendency is to hold on closely and
be very protective and very risk averse.

You know, I think there are
opportunities to use debt wisely.

and to be prudent with it and still be
pretty conservative and risk averse,

but you can juice those returns pretty
substantially by using debt the right way.

and so that's something we look at a lot.

Probably the biggest thing that we've come
to realize and this is operating company,

but it also applies to things like
aaa, it's the importance of leadership.

You know, at the end of the
day, that is the differentiator.

If you've got the right leaders,
the right leadership team,

you're gonna be successful.

And that can be experience,
it can be knowledge, it can

be years in the industry.

It can take on a variety of looks, but
it is a critical piece of the puzzle.

If we look at our portfolio and the
companies that are successful and

the companies that are struggling, it
really comes back to that leadership.

so it's a big piece of it and
you know, it needs to be a big

piece of the diligence process.

Paul Bennett: Yeah.

I, I would, I think, Wise man once
said, you really don't invest in, in

real estate or operating companies.

You invest in the people.

and if you invest in the right people,
you generally, you may have challenges

'cause you can't control every aspect
of it, but you got a lot better chance

of getting through 'em if you've
got the right, right folks involved.

Well then, I said before we started,
I was gonna make you laugh, but

you, we were into such deep stuff.

I didn't really get a chance to take a
jab at you, but man, it has been fun to

have you today and like I've said two or
three times, I have the world of respect

for you and I know how busy you are.

So I really appreciate you taking
time to join us and thanks so much.

Van Isley: Well, thank you.

Appreciate the friendship and I'm
sure we'll cross paths again soon.

Paul Bennett: You got it.

Van Isley: I.

Brandon Giella: That's all right.

Thanks guys.

Appreciate you very much as
somebody learning 30 years,

behind you guys where you're at.

I'm really grateful for your wisdom
and, Paul Van love your conversation.

We'll talk soon.

Van Isley: Thanks a lot.