Welcome to Location cube, Weavers beyond the numbers, real estate podcast. I'm Howard Altular, and I'm here with my cohost, Aaron Griss. For those of you who are wondering what happened with Rob Noack, Rob actually got a promotion and Rob is going to be leading up our tax services line for the firm. So we're all gonna wish Rob well with his new endeavors. And in connection with that, Aaron is now our real estate tax leader, and so it was only natural for Aaron to join us on the podcast. For those of you who have heard the previous two podcasts with me and Aaron, I feel like we're making a great team and are looking forward to having a lot more great podcasts with Aaron and our guests. Today, we have a guest. Our special guest is Elizabeth Coaches, Elizabeth is a senior manager in our audit practice in Dallas, and Elizabeth has, actually, on Thursday, is graduating from the Urbanland Institute Center for Leadership Program. So we're here to talk to Elizabeth about the CFO. Elizabeth, you want to start by just sharing a little bit about yourself? Yes, of course. My name is Elizabeth as you mentioned. I have been in public accounting for the majority of my career. I did leave for like a year or two to explore industry and got bored and came back to public accounting. So At Weaver, I focus more on real estate audits and also do other industries as well. I am from East Texas, so born and raised in Tyler, Texas, and moved to Dallas for a career. And just a little bit about your family. I I have two boys. I'm a boy mom and the most energetic boys ever. And so They they probably will not pursue a career in accounting. I think they probably will be engineers or some form of entertainers. I'm pushing them to be famous soccer players. That's what I'm hoping they will do one day. You know, you have to be a soccer mom as well, so you need it to pay out somehow. But yeah. Mom of two boys, we live in McKinney, and that's what I do most of my time is be a mom. Very good. Great. So tell us about this set up for leadership program that you just participated in. So CFL class is a nine month program, and you apply for it by a recommendation. And so it's a nine month program with monthly full day classes where you have different speakers, sometimes you'll have a panel of different professionals But you really get to learn a little bit about the industry, beyond the numbers, for sure, and then you get to meet a lot of really cool cool speech and just local developers that have done great things in the Dallas area. I like how she did the shameless plug for the podcast by saying beyond the numbers. Good deal. So who who are some of your your your co participants? So part of the program, you are allocated an Emtek project, so you'll have different clients come and present to the group. You don't know what project you're going to be selected for. And you don't know who, from the participants, who you're going to be in a group with. So, it's usually pretty, nerve wracking, somewhat exciting, but It took about two months for us to get allocated to a group, and so I got to meet Several people, really cool people in the profession. Sarah from OTJ, Megan from Cambridge, Fred from Little Elm, and then Shai from HDR. So, all of them with different backgrounds, but just very experienced in the industry. And overall, just honestly a really good, great, great group of people that It was just fun to have them in a project. So Well, I know Sarah from OTJ, so I'm sure you guys had a good time working together. Yes. And also through the speakers, We got to meet Microsas from the Dallas Economic Development, also this the mayor of Fort Worth, Do you know her name? Maddie Harper? Yes. May or Maddie as she goes by? She was amazing. She was one of our first speakers, so it was really cool to just kind of start off our class with sort of her take on, you know, what she wants, what she's doing for the CDapore words, though. It was a really cool kickoff class. So what what what are some of the cool projects that you that you saw? So I'll talk a little bit about oh, the projects in the Dallas area. I have some of the real estate projects so I live in McKinney, and right next to McKinney is the Allen. And so I got to go to Waters Creek. I don't know if you guys are familiar with Waters Creek. They do have, like, concerts and whatnot. And so, they, I didn't know that there was an office building, because I saw the restaurants in the stores there, and so they actually have an office building, and I cannot remember who was the developer, but it was pretty cool to see that it was no longer like a shopping destination, then now people are actually, or companies are actually moving there for, to provide employment to those around here. So that was probably one of pole is newest developed buildings that I saw. So you mentioned EmTAT project. So, I remember when I went through a similar program with the real state counsel. We were out swinging hammers and cutting with saws and stuff. Was this similar or a little bit more economic? A different generic for sure. Do y'all know how to swing hammers now? Younger folks? What is the hammer? No. We definitely, you know what, a cool project that I got to see was the East quarter -- Mhmm. -- in Dallas. It was kind of the connecting area Deep Belum. I don't know if you guys are familiar with Deep Belum. That was a really cool How old do you think I am? Well, it's a nightlife. I did not know if you would ever know. I I mean, I know I go to bed at nine thirty, but So that was one of the cool projects I thought I forgot about that one, but question again? The EmTAT project. Okay, so the EmTAT project, so we have like maybe like ten clients. Again, this was an actual client, that came to present to us. So, my EmTAT project was the East Lancaster project. And so, our client was from the East Fort Worth Business Association. I just wanted to make that distinction because City of Fort Worth was not the client, but it was a representative of association. And so, it made up of two parcels of land. They are sixty eight fifty one and sixty eight fifty five. Off that Lancaster road. And so just a little bit of history of what is around that area, just in case you guys or you may know about it, There is a couple of blocks down. There is the wedding district. And so that area is actually a destination place for a lot of fees, pending brides, and so the project was really how can you connect you know, there's an empty, you know, four acres of land here. What can we recommend to sort of bring in something new to the area? Sort of change the vibe of the East Lancaster road. And then, what can we recommend now that wouldn't interrupt the plans that the city of Fort Worth has. So, all of that is public. I don't remember exactly what plans the city of Worth had, but they really are going to develop a lot of that section in Fort Worth, and so, you know, our task was know, don't do anything that would be permanent that wouldn't really fit in with future projects. So, it was, I want to say that it was, a challenge just because are you familiar with the East Maincaster Road? A little bit. You should be more. A little bit. Yeah, you're closer to it. I've actually lived in four of my whole life. Okay. And I've never heard of the wedding district. So Really? See, and you You didn't go shopping for a dress over there when you got married. You know, it's funny because a lot of the people in our class they were like, I just got married and I never heard of this area. Yeah. But it has so much foot traction, like it's insane how many people like flying for a day just to visit all the vendors. Like, they have, like, so many vendors. They have a cake place I was on the Food Network, which I had no idea. It was actually a great cake, but it was just funny because they don't really get a lot of local so with this, you know, four acres of land, how can you not only attract locals, but also have something for all of those visitors that come in on a daily basis. So, very popular area. I mean, I can't remember the amount of people had visited, but it was very significant. I was because I had never heard a but, and so been here for quite a while. But, again, so our recommendation, there are some stuff that is confidential that we can share. We presented our project on what we would think would work. It was kind of a flex space idea, bringing in cafes, you know, just things that would be good for locals but also for visitors. And so, you know, they're really excited about the idea when we presented to the client, and so it's something that the City of Fort Worth is really looking into. So you're wrapping up this program. You're about to graduate. What's the thing you learned the most that will have the biggest impact on your career moving forward? So in our last class, actually our last class was a lot of fun. We got to explore a little bit more in Fort Worth, we ate at one of those popular restaurants out there and I don't remember the name. It was really good, but I don't remember the name right now. It was like Texmex, like ranch. Was it Josie's? No. It was like a yes, Triada. Oh, no downtown? Yes. We were in downtown. And so one of the speakers on that class day, one of the things that stuck with me that he said he would like now that you guys are in leadership, one of the things that I would want you to remember is that a good leader is someone that is there. And I I don't know. I mean, you hear that a lot, but just hearing from somebody that, you know, was at their level, sharing that it really with me in terms of, you know, something that I want to make sure that I do in my position. Agree one hundred percent So, would you recommend this program to other people? I do. I think for me being, again, in my group, and I think it probably was the only auditor in the whole class. You know, for me, I am very deadline driven, and I'm always chasing, you know, dollars on financials or auditing dollars on financials, And it really got me to get outside of just being in an excel workbook or just, you know, in the constant day to day work that we do and be more involved in business development. A lot of the professionals that I met are involved in business development and It is such an important part of what they do, but they love meeting people. So it was really a good challenge and a push to just get outside of the numbers and go meet other professionals in real estate. I agree a hundred percent and, you know, it's from my perspective when I went through similar leadership program, it was about the connections. You know, I did that twenty years ago and I still have friends. That are in the group, or that were in the group, but probably the bigger thing was, again, getting away from the numbers and looking more at the business. And understanding the real estate business makes it makes it easier to audit, but it also just makes it brings it to life, makes it a lot more fun. It does. I'm it's we did the bus tour, so we got to actually look at some of those areas or neighborhoods in Dallas, which, you know, I'm always just going to the office, but getting outside of my comfort zone and just parking in the same building every day or going to clients, really, like, showed me a different side of of Dallas and Fort Worth, so it's pretty pretty good to experience. Good deal. Good deal. Well, I think that's all the time that we have for today. So Elizabeth, thank you so much for joining us. It was great learning about your experience with CFL. Hopefully, you'll be able to take that and build up the relationships, build up the leadership, and really have it as a great continuation for your career. As always, thank you for watching, Location cubed. As a reminder, you can get all of our thought leadership and other pod pass at weaver dot com. Check out weaver dot com.
