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Show Notes:
Listen to coverage of The Korea Conference in Marina Del Rey, California. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews James Huang, Founder of BRC Advisors, explore the Korea Conference, innovation and commercial real estate.
Watch Full Interview:
About James Huang
James Huang is a seasoned and visionary leader in the commercial real estate industry, with over 25 years of experience in brokerage, investment, management, and advisory services. He is the president of eXp Commercial, the commercial company of eXp World Holdings, a global cloud-based real estate company that offers 24/7 access to collaborative tools, training, and socialization for real estate professionals.
In his role, James oversees, builds, and runs the commercial and ancillary services to support the growth of eXp Commercial, both domestically and globally. He leverages his operations experience, having launched and managed several companies from startup to profitability, to create a culture of diversity, collaboration, and teamwork. He is also a shareholder and advisor to real estate syndication firms and start-up technology companies, helping them raise capital, consult, and connect with other private equity investors and family offices. As a Certified International Property Specialist (CIPS), he has a strong network and expertise in the global real estate market. James is also the national president of the Asian Real Estate Association of America (AREAA), a nonprofit organization that promotes sustainable homeownership opportunities in Asian American communities.
About BRC Advisors
BRC Advisors – BH, Inc. is a full service commercial real estate company. In addition to its expertise as a Transactional Commercial Real Estate Brokerage, BRC Advisors – BH, Inc. has considerable success overseeing commercial leasing. It combines a wealth of brokerage and advisory experience within a strategically aligned network of programs. With its dedication to training and innovation, BRC Advisors – BH, Inc. is competitive in all market conditions and changing circumstances.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on Be Our Guest to apply. All right. So today I’m in Marina del Rey at the Korea Conference 2024, and I have back on the show, one of my favorite guests, Jim Wong.
Come on, man. Jim, welcome back on the show. Adam, thank you so much. And thank you for being here again. All right. All right. So Last year, we covered the conference. This year, I got to see some of the highlights of some of the presenters that were brought back. Have to ask you, what’s one of your favorite parts about attending the conference and also participating in it?
You know, one of the things is really watching the growth and the changes, some of the presenters from before. And I’m always excited because it really keeps elevating with the new ones the new startups, and, and it really keeps evolving and getting better. But. The story that everyone shares. I love their struggles or challenges and their humor, right?
That’s the thing we really enjoy is just listening to some funny stories. Not just this hockey stick growth that everyone’s going, but what does it take to. Be behind the scenes to make this happen. So for those that are just picking up on the conference now, maybe they haven’t watched the full series What’s one of the concepts behind this that Jenny Chu put this together?
Like what’s one of the ideas and what’s the point of the Korea conference? Like why bring people together? Well, the biggest thing is in Korea They wanted to open up and bridge the gap in America where in Koreatown, right is the largest Korean Americans outside of Seoul. So a lot of the Koreans are here But they just needed to tie together the innovation and a lot of creativity that the Korean culture has, right?
As we all seen from entertainment, beauty, technology. They’ve been coming over. So one of the biggest things that Jenny had the vision for is to connect Korea with the U. S. and start showing how there could be collaboration, culture, but really bringing some of the businesses and ideas and concepts that To America and really scaling it up, which is the whole concept and I see a lot of that Actually, every year going on and more and more excitement and collaboration happening in a lot of cards exchanging, which I really always makes me smile.
Yeah. And I like the format. So when I think about the formats, everybody’s on this amazing yacht. We’re Marina Del Rey, great setting, great scene. And then everybody’s on the yacht together and they’re watching the pitch competitions. They’re breaking bread. I feel like it almost speeds the relationship, like the whole thing.
Cause you’re just spending more and more time with someone a full day. It really does, you know, because it kind of goes to that evolution where you’re kind of networking, mixing people that have come consistently are now reintroducing friends that they keep inviting. And then you, you, you see the pitch.
So you start getting more intimate people. That’s her from last year to this year. Their story, their journey. Then you start going to dinner, sitting at different tables, talking and catching up. So it keeps progressing to afterwards you go upstairs, you network, you, you meet people at these tables right now and get to know some of these startups.
If you want to be more involved, how you could help. And then it comes to that party. So it always brings you like a, a super fast speed dating, right? It’s just so quick. It does. And I’ll tell you the payoff on this too, for some of the entrepreneurs, like when I think about like, not to quote an exact number, but I just watched a bunch of presentations and just looking at tens of millions of dollars are being invested.
It’s not from my mouth, that’s from them saying it like the participants and because and they claim and they’re the ones saying so this is out of their mouth that hey, it’s because of the career conferences coming through and because of being in front of all these investors and other individuals. So it also is working, which is not an easy thing to do.
I know and you’ve gone to so many conventions, so many different events that you saw this and and actually it has helped. I mean, a lot of times. You meet that one or two or a couple people and it just keeps building. So, you know, that’s the exciting thing is hearing from the founders And the startups, their own mouths saying this conference, this convention, this event people scale and made just one good connection.
Some of them made multiple connections through these different conferences with the Korean conference. So what have you been up to? It’s been a while since we’ve last talked. And I’ve definitely, it might’ve been a year since this might’ve been the last time you were on this show is on this yacht. Like what have you been up to?
Well, for me, you know, I did my stat in corporate life. So I also am now a startup. Where I really enjoyed it, instead of being a W 2, is taking this opportunity to sit on an advisory board, raise capital for other startup companies and businesses, mostly in the real estate, technology, fintech. So I, I find that now my path is kind of moving towards the entrepreneurship and really doing it more full time and helping others that want to do it.
And that’s the fun, exciting, and that’s why, Putting my time into the Korean conference was so exciting. Just watching new startups, watching all the evolve and grow. And I think. Over dinner we were saying there could be the next Jeff Bezos or Amazon or some type of company at these conferences. And one day we looked back five, ten years going, we were there.
Man, it’s crazy. It’s crazy. And some of the, like, successes that they’re having already and seeing when they’re bringing the technology or they’re bringing the idea to the United States from Korea and you’re like, it’s already working. And it’s like, all right, so now when they do it, like, it’s just, you see what’s going to happen next.
And that’s the exciting thing that sometimes I’m like, wow, they’re already successful. So, you know, I know every time we learn and evolve the conference is to maybe help others to where they’re at now and watching and tracking. And I love that. And we were talking maybe doing an ebook, doing a book. Yep.
Every conference and just tracking everyone’s journey of progress, you know, successful, but we learn a lot from failures too, we all know it, and how to adjust, so I think that would be a fun thing that I’d bring up to the to the team. Game on, all good stuff. Well, Jim, I know you have to get back, I know there’s a whole bunch more going on, I snagged you for a couple minutes last thing I want you to do, look into the camera, how do people follow you, how do they connect?
Yes. So you can follow me on LinkedIn, James Wong, J A M E S, last name is H U A N G. Love to connect with startups, entrepreneur, technology, or just talk shop and business. Amazing. But they’ll save us time. Perfect. And just for everybody watching, just so you know, we’ll put the links to Jim’s website.
LinkedIn and in the show notes, you can just click on it and head right on over and speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button. This is a daily show each and every day. We’re bringing you new content, new interviews and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way on your journey as well.
So again, hit that subscribe or follow button and Jim again. Thank you so much, man. Always a pleasure. Thank you, Adam.