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All opinions expressed by the guests are their own. 9×90™ and its affiliates do not endorse or guarantee any specific outcomes discussed in this episode. This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or investment advice. Listeners should conduct their own due diligence and consult with professional advisors before making any investment or business decisions. Nothing discussed in this episode constitutes an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities. Any such offer or solicitation will be made only through official offering documents and to qualified, accredited investors, in accordance with applicable securities laws. The views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or 9×90™.

About this episode

In this episode of 9×90™, I sit down with former $61 billion portfolio manager turned Family Office CEO, George Bergamo, for a macroeconomic masterclass on capitalizing on distressed real estate and weaponizing operational expenditures (OPEX) into guaranteed revenue engines.

With traditional refinancing paralyzed by shifting market cycles, George unpacks his aggressive $111 million capital stack play in Joshua Tree and reveals his exact blueprint for engineering forced appreciation.

For CRE titans holding underperforming hospitality assets, we break down why legacy amenities are dead weight and how to “dress the bride” by integrating localized longevity infrastructure—from hyperbaric recovery to IV concierges—to capture the high-margin executive demographic.

We then pivot to the most critical lever available to commercial property owners today: deploying zero-CAPEX onsite energy systems, like EV charging, to drastically increase Net Operating Income (NOI) and monetize the grid’s scarcity.

Finally, we tackle the new digital battlefield, detailing why catering your verifiable track record to AI-driven search agents is now mandatory to protect your empire and secure future capital.

A special thank you to our sponsor, ⁠National Energy Holdings⁠ . For the empire builders and developers looking to execute on this exact strategy, ⁠National Energy Holdings⁠ is the premier firm engineering, constructing, and operating energy infrastructure for commercial real estate. By utilizing highly profitable 80/20 revenue-share models over 25-year terms, they navigate the technical complexities so you can instantly transform your existing physical footprint into a high-yield energy asset without the standard operational friction.

About this guest

1. The $61 Billion Pivot: George walked away from managing a colossal $61 billion portfolio to become the CEO of an agile family office, giving him the strategic freedom to personally architect and launch two highly anticipated new companies.
2. A Master of the Distressed Capital Stack: He executes a ruthless, high-yield acquisition strategy when others are paralyzed by market cycles. Right now, he is driving a massive $111 million capital stack play in Joshua Tree and recently seized control of a prime Orlando property for a mere fraction of its value.
3. The OPEX-to-Revenue Alchemist: George doesn’t just hold real estate; he weaponizes it. He forces massive appreciation by transforming dead-weight legacy assets into modern luxury engines—deploying zero-CAPEX energy infrastructure to monetize the grid and integrating advanced longevity programming (like hyperbaric recovery) to capture the highest-margin executive demographic.

Connect with this guest

Connect with George on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgebergamo/

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Show Notes Generated by Gemini

These show notes were generated by AI

• Guest Profile: Adi Soozin introduced George Bergamo, noting his recent professional background, which includes managing $61 billion in assets for one group and his transition to serving as a CEO for a family office focused on launching two new startups. George Bergamo’s portfolio, which spans hospitality, retail, and energy infrastructure, was also highlighted during the introduction (00:00:01).
• National Energy Holding Sponsorship: The meeting featured a discussion regarding the sponsorship by National Energy Holding, an organization that engineers, constructs, owns, and operates energy infrastructure on commercial real estate. This infrastructure is designed to stabilize energy costs for owners, with a target of keeping annual energy cost increases to 3% rather than the potential 30% spikes seen in volatile markets (00:00:56).
• Hotel Investment Strategy: George Bergamo described an investment strategy targeting distressed hotel assets, noting that many properties are currently unable to refinance due to shifting market cycles. George Bergamo mentioned currently pursuing an $111 million capital stack property in Joshua Tree and having already taken control of an Orlando property for a fraction of its value (00:02:17).
• Brand Identity and Asset Optimization: Adi Soozin emphasized the use of a 21-point checklist for managing new assets, which focuses on cohesive branding, unified messaging, and organic marketing to “dress the bride” and attract the right customers (00:03:18). George Bergamo added that modern luxury requires creating a specific brand identity that aligns with the customer’s lifestyle rather than simply following traditional standards (00:04:17).
• Wellness and Longevity in Hospitality: George Bergamo explained that the current hospitality landscape requires a comprehensive approach to wellness, moving beyond basic gym equipment to include yoga, meditation, IV concierge services, and infrared saunas. This strategy caters to the 30-to-50-year-old demographic by integrating longevity-focused food and beverage programming, such as farm-to-table sourcing and alcohol alternatives (00:05:12).
• Performance Travel and Recovery: Adi Soozin and George Bergamo discussed the necessity of wellness facilities for business travelers who are in high-performance mode (00:10:36). George Bergamo described personal wellness routines, including cold plunges and hyperbaric chambers, as essential “selfishness” that provides the physical recovery needed to maintain productivity during long working sessions (00:11:30).
• EV Infrastructure as Convenience: George Bergamo highlighted that installing Electric Vehicle (EV) infrastructure provides modern luxury by eliminating downtime for guests (00:13:23). He noted that having chargers on-site streamlines the process of waiting for transportation, which helps avoid negative customer feedback and improves overall hotel experience (00:14:30).
• Retail and EV Revenue: George Bergamo explained that EV chargers at retail centers serve as a significant demand driver, creating opportunities for impulse purchases while customers wait for their vehicles to charge (00:16:41). Adi Soozin noted that this evolution allows landlords to capture traffic and increase tenant revenue, which in turn benefits the property’s financial performance (00:18:49).
• Energy Infrastructure Business Models: Adi Soozin discussed collaborative models, such as those used by National Energy Holding, where an external partner finances, owns, and operates energy infrastructure on a property. This approach allows funds to avoid capital expenditures while increasing net asset value through potential 80/20 revenue-sharing agreements (00:20:54).
• Energy as a Critical Asset: George Bergamo argued that viewing energy infrastructure as an economic boon is a necessary shift in perspective, comparing it to the historical adoption of billboard advertising on properties (00:24:26). He suggested that given the scarcity of energy in the modern economy, supplying it has become a critical strategy for ensuring operational continuity (00:25:31).
• Catering to Digital Audiences: George Bergamo and Adi Soozin discussed the necessity of tailoring assets and content to digital audiences and AI agents, noting that these digital gatekeepers are essential for reaching a physical audience. They emphasized that failing to engage the digital audience means being left behind in a fast-paced, tech-driven market (00:27:46) (00:30:51).
• Reputation Management via AI: Adi Soozin and George Bergamo addressed the challenge of managing reputation in an era where AI-driven search tools crawl and analyze professional history (00:29:03) (00:30:51). Adi Soozin noted that maintaining trust requires building a consistent, verifiable track record, as online portrayals can be susceptible to bias from those attempting to undermine professional accomplishments (00:29:58).
• Screen Time and Child Development: Adi Soozin expressed concern regarding the impact of excessive screen time on children, citing behavioral issues such as regression in communication skills and increased impatience. As a result, she maintains strict limitations on digital access in her household (00:32:19).
• Vehicle Preferences and Future Propositions: George Bergamo and Adi Soozin discussed their personal vehicle preferences, comparing traditional gas-powered luxury SUVs with the functional convenience of electric vehicles like the Tesla Model Y (00:33:30). The conversation concluded with a lighthearted proposal to suggest that Tesla incorporate massage chairs into their self-driving vehicles to further enhance the passenger experience (00:36:06).

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Transcript

This transcription was generated by Gemini & edited by ChatGPT

00:00:01

George Bergamo: All

Adi Soozin: We are live. Hello ladies and gentlemen. Uh welcome to another episode of 9×90.

George Bergamo: right.

Adi Soozin: Today we have a very special guest with us. Uh one of my really good friends. We actually he’s my gym buddy when we are when I’m speaking on stages at events. If George is in the audience, he is my gym buddy, pre-workout uh pre-stage workout buddy. Um he is not only famous as my favorite gym buddy, he also just finished managing 61 billion AUM uh for one group and now he’s transitioning to being the CEO for helping a family office to launch two new startups. Aside from all of that, he has uh his own portfolio of companies as well. So today we are going to be talking hospitality, hotels, uh retail and um energy infrastructure.

George Bergamo: Thank you so much,

Adi Soozin: George,

George Bergamo: Mandy. Appreciate it. Really excited for

Adi Soozin: yeah, me too. And uh thank you to our sponsor today is National Energy Holding.

00:00:56

George Bergamo: this.

Adi Soozin: They don’t just uh engineer, they also procure, construct, own, and operate entire energy infrastructure on buildings, commercial real estate assets across the US. So if you have an industrial uh industrial data center, hospitality, anything across those asset classes, retail, they will build energy infrastructure on top of your commercial real estate asset to stabilize your energy costs. So rather than seeing a 30% spike in five years, you will see a steady in energy cost increase of just 3% per year.

George Bergamo: which is really fabulous, right? That’s going to really stabilize your expense load and have you have a really great insight into managing profitability. So, pretty excited to um you know to be on the podcast. Pretty excited to just chat about all these

Adi Soozin: So, let’s dive into that first.

George Bergamo: topics.

Adi Soozin: You were working on some pretty sexy hotel deals last time we

George Bergamo: That’s right.

Adi Soozin: spoke.

George Bergamo: Um, we have a pretty interesting opportunity, I think, over the next 12 months, um, to really build out our pipeline. Right now, we’re looking at a property around Joshua Tree, and this is going to be a similar story to every hotel, uh, that we look at right now.

00:02:17

George Bergamo: So three, four, five years ago, uh they procured financing and right now they’re having great difficulty uh refying and exactly right like cap markets moves in

Adi Soozin: Um, that’s everyone

George Bergamo: cycles. Few people realize that things are reverting to the mean and you have these lovely properties in irreplaceable locations that really can’t refi. So that’s the newest one that hit my desk. It’s gorgeous. It looks like an Ammon. It isn’t an ammon. I’m not at liberty to say which portfolio it’s in. Um, irreplaceable real estate. Uh, they need a little bit more robust of a food and beverage program. And we have an opportunity.

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: to get in there. The total cap stack was 111 million. We can take control of the entire asset for 12 million. And that’s one of two that I’m actively pursuing right now. The other one is in Orlando.

Adi Soozin: Oh my

George Bergamo: And that’s one where the uh property was over 200

Adi Soozin: god.

00:03:18

George Bergamo: keys, beautifully located between two highways, um tremendous parking, um ample opportunity for some interesting revenue boosting opportunities there. And sure enough, cap market struck and we can get that one for pennies on the dollar. I should say we’ve actually taken control of that one for pennies on the dollar and we’re in the midst of completely redoing it. So, it’s a fun time to be in the hotel investment

Adi Soozin: So, let’s go. Everyone has their checklist where like when they go into a company,

George Bergamo: game.

Adi Soozin: they go into a real estate asset, they’re like, “These are the first five things they change.” So, like for me, I have a a 21point checklist, organic marketing, that as soon as I I get something under my control, be it a company or a real estate asset. I take it through that 21point checklist, so that anyone that Googles it finds exactly what we want them to find. We have cohesive branding, we have cohesive messaging, we have one value proposition like there, we call it dressing the bride, right?

00:04:17

Adi Soozin: Dressing the bride, the customers are the groom. Um what are a few things that when you come into a hotel distressed asset, you mentioned like food and beverage um their food and beverage uh offerings are not optimized. Uh what what are a few other things that you look at that you’re like, “Oh, these are easy wins.” You there’s energy infrastructure. What else?

George Bergamo: So I would say you want to create an ecosystem, right? And so today,

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: more than any time before, you want to create a brand identity. I think when you and I were little ones and we would go on vacation, we would go into a hotel and there’d be a picture of Bill Marriott on the wall and that it was

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: luxury. Right now luxury is someone has a $3,000 duffel

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: bag, $100,000 watch, and a $400 t-shirt. So you need to make sure your property is going to identify with

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: your customer, not the opposite.

00:05:12

George Bergamo: So what are some things that identify with the customer? Um community is huge right now. Building communities around brand identities is enormous.

Adi Soozin: That’s

George Bergamo: Two,

Adi Soozin: true.

George Bergamo: health and wellness and a connection to nature I would say is two and 2 a really two and three. So health and wellness meaning you have to have more than just forgotten space that you’ve turned into a gym because you bought a couple of cardio um pieces which makes you and me happy, right? we get better gyms down. Um but in addition to having a good gym, you really have to have a full robust wellness program. So whether that is um yoga, whether that’s a meditation room, whether that’s um offering concierge IV services, whether that is um having cold plunges, uh infrared saunas,

Adi Soozin: Oh yeah.

George Bergamo: some form of wellness and longevity. What we’re finding is people in their late 30s to early 50s have, you know, the highest disposable income as is the norm. And what they’re really focused on is how can I live longer?

00:06:19

George Bergamo: How can I look younger? So now you have to tie that back into your FnB programming. Um it used to be that you really just brought people together via alcohol. Um now you need to bring people together through hey um we have different offerings other than coffee. You can get this ceremonial matcha on site and the

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: restaurants have farm-to-table sourcing and the ingredients have traveled fewer than a 100 miles. And you also have the advent of the celebrity chef has gone by the wayside to hey now you are the celebrity that we are catering to. So everyone needs to feel a little bit special and everything needs to pander to someone’s lifestyle choices and the lifestyle choices that we’re really focusing on are the health, wellness, community and longevity. Um, addition to that, um, connection to nature, so views of nature, uh, what we call excursions into nature and really having that concierge on site. So, nature and then concierge is another one. Um, where people can have access to the surrounding area.

00:07:31

George Bergamo: And I think luxury today means high barrier to entry, which means smaller footprint. Fewer people have access to your property, fewer people have access to what you’re doing, and creating something that’s unique in and of itself. Um, when we find all those opportunities and an ability for everything to reinforce a singular message of this is going to appeal to a specific party, then we’ve hit uh the opportunity that we

Adi Soozin: and you you really hit the nail on the head there.

George Bergamo: need.

Adi Soozin: Health is wealth. There’s I was speaking with a friend who he married into a wellto-do family in the US. Uh but he’s he immigrated here. He’s not from the US and he was aging much more rapidly than everyone around him. And so I kind of he’s we’re we’re close enough friends where I could pull him aside and I was like, “Can I let you know like what a lot of the anti-aging regimens are that everyone else is using cuz clearly like no one pulled you aside to tell you these.” And he was and so I was like walking him through some of them and he’s like,

00:08:39

Adi Soozin: “That’s why your mother never had plastic surgery. she looks like she’s 50 and she’s almost 70.

George Bergamo: Thanks.

Adi Soozin: Like so you do have that where the those with more disposable income or those uh who have a higher discretionary budget, they do invest heavily into wealth because they realize that prevent Vanity. is much cheaper in the long run than

George Bergamo: 100%. And I’ll give you an example of it.

Adi Soozin: curative.

George Bergamo: We’re even speaking with a clinic that functionally does dialysis on people. And I know that sounds a little scary, but what they really do is they remove the plasma from your blood and the toxins from your blood and they replace it really with I always just say saline solution. They look at me like I’m nuts when I say that, but it’s the truth. So, you keep your white blood cells, you keep your red blood cells, you keep your platelets, um, and they replace the liquid that carries all the stuff that damages your mitochondria, all the stuff that slows your system, gets rid of the fats, gets rid of the heavy metals, and six treatments of that is about 50 grand.

00:09:44

Adi Soozin: Oh my god.

George Bergamo: And I know that’s not a small ticket, but if it’s 50 grand to stop yourself from spending two 300 grand

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: on some form of treatment later in life, I think that’s pennies on the dollar.

Adi Soozin: Oh, yeah.

George Bergamo: You know, we’re starting to see folks like that really pop up.

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: Now, we haven’t gone that far because you’re now venturing into medical and there’s different regulations around that. So, you know, we’re going to stick with the IV treatments to help people feel better.

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: um offering uh Zbiotics so that way if people do decide to have a glass of wine or two, they don’t feel terrible the next day. But I I think that is the trend that we’re starting to see and I think that’s kind of the next phase of the

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: health and wellness

Adi Soozin: The the anti-aging it is. Yeah.

George Bergamo: game.

Adi Soozin: It’s that’s interesting. Do you I don’t know if you remember this.

00:10:36

Adi Soozin: When we were in Las Vegas last year, uh like half of the audience was people I knew and they had me on five panels. So every time I got off a panel, I had to go into like hostess mode and by day three I completely lost my voice. I like could not speak. I I got off the panel, I went to talk to f like speak with friends.

George Bergamo: Mhm.

Adi Soozin: No voice. And so I was there with Yeah. with uh one of my friends and she like grabbed me and she was like sauna now and just like anyone that tried to talk to me she was like no and just like we like belineed like right for the wellness area of the of that hotel she was like she can’t speak anymore guys like enough. So yeah, it is one of those those things where we are looking like if you’re in high performance mode when you’re traveling, which let’s be honest, everyone in private equity, we only want to go to Singapore once a month or once a year.

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00:00:01

George Bergamo: All

Adi Soozin: We are live. Hello ladies and gentlemen. Uh welcome to another episode of 9×90.

George Bergamo: right.

Adi Soozin: Today we have a very special guest with us. Uh one of my really good friends. We actually he’s my gym buddy when we are when I’m speaking on stages at events. If George is in the audience, he is my gym buddy, pre-workout uh pre-stage workout buddy. Um he is not only famous as my favorite gym buddy, he also just finished managing 61 billion AUM uh for one group and now he’s transitioning to being the CEO for helping a family office to launch two new startups. Aside from all of that, he has uh his own portfolio of companies as well. So today we are going to be talking hospitality, hotels, uh retail and um energy infrastructure.

George Bergamo: Thank you so much,

Adi Soozin: George,

George Bergamo: Mandy. Appreciate it. Really excited for

Adi Soozin: yeah, me too. And uh thank you to our sponsor today is National Energy Holding.

00:00:56

George Bergamo: this.

Adi Soozin: They don’t just uh engineer, they also procure, construct, own, and operate entire energy infrastructure on buildings, commercial real estate assets across the US. So if you have an industrial uh industrial data center, hospitality, anything across those asset classes, retail, they will build energy infrastructure on top of your commercial real estate asset to stabilize your energy costs. So rather than seeing a 30% spike in five years, you will see a steady in energy cost increase of just 3% per year.

George Bergamo: which is really fabulous, right? That’s going to really stabilize your expense load and have you have a really great insight into managing profitability. So, pretty excited to um you know to be on the podcast. Pretty excited to just chat about all these

Adi Soozin: So, let’s dive into that first.

George Bergamo: topics.

Adi Soozin: You were working on some pretty sexy hotel deals last time we

George Bergamo: That’s right.

Adi Soozin: spoke.

George Bergamo: Um, we have a pretty interesting opportunity, I think, over the next 12 months, um, to really build out our pipeline. Right now, we’re looking at a property around Joshua Tree, and this is going to be a similar story to every hotel, uh, that we look at right now.

00:02:17

George Bergamo: So three, four, five years ago, uh they procured financing and right now they’re having great difficulty uh refying and exactly right like cap markets moves in

Adi Soozin: Um, that’s everyone

George Bergamo: cycles. Few people realize that things are reverting to the mean and you have these lovely properties in irreplaceable locations that really can’t refi. So that’s the newest one that hit my desk. It’s gorgeous. It looks like an Ammon. It isn’t an ammon. I’m not at liberty to say which portfolio it’s in. Um, irreplaceable real estate. Uh, they need a little bit more robust of a food and beverage program. And we have an opportunity.

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: to get in there. The total cap stack was 111 million. We can take control of the entire asset for 12 million. And that’s one of two that I’m actively pursuing right now. The other one is in Orlando.

Adi Soozin: Oh my

George Bergamo: And that’s one where the uh property was over 200

Adi Soozin: god.

00:03:18

George Bergamo: keys, beautifully located between two highways, um tremendous parking, um ample opportunity for some interesting revenue boosting opportunities there. And sure enough, cap market struck and we can get that one for pennies on the dollar. I should say we’ve actually taken control of that one for pennies on the dollar and we’re in the midst of completely redoing it. So, it’s a fun time to be in the hotel investment

Adi Soozin: So, let’s go. Everyone has their checklist where like when they go into a company,

George Bergamo: game.

Adi Soozin: they go into a real estate asset, they’re like, “These are the first five things they change.” So, like for me, I have a a 21point checklist, organic marketing, that as soon as I I get something under my control, be it a company or a real estate asset. I take it through that 21point checklist, so that anyone that Googles it finds exactly what we want them to find. We have cohesive branding, we have cohesive messaging, we have one value proposition like there, we call it dressing the bride, right?

00:04:17

Adi Soozin: Dressing the bride, the customers are the groom. Um what are a few things that when you come into a hotel distressed asset, you mentioned like food and beverage um their food and beverage uh offerings are not optimized. Uh what what are a few other things that you look at that you’re like, “Oh, these are easy wins.” You there’s energy infrastructure. What else?

George Bergamo: So I would say you want to create an ecosystem, right? And so today,

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: more than any time before, you want to create a brand identity. I think when you and I were little ones and we would go on vacation, we would go into a hotel and there’d be a picture of Bill Marriott on the wall and that it was

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: luxury. Right now luxury is someone has a $3,000 duffel

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: bag, $100,000 watch, and a $400 t-shirt. So you need to make sure your property is going to identify with

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: your customer, not the opposite.

00:05:12

George Bergamo: So what are some things that identify with the customer? Um community is huge right now. Building communities around brand identities is enormous.

Adi Soozin: That’s

George Bergamo: Two,

Adi Soozin: true.

George Bergamo: health and wellness and a connection to nature I would say is two and 2 a really two and three. So health and wellness meaning you have to have more than just forgotten space that you’ve turned into a gym because you bought a couple of cardio um pieces which makes you and me happy, right? we get better gyms down. Um but in addition to having a good gym, you really have to have a full robust wellness program. So whether that is um yoga, whether that’s a meditation room, whether that’s um offering concierge IV services, whether that is um having cold plunges, uh infrared saunas,

Adi Soozin: Oh yeah.

George Bergamo: some form of wellness and longevity. What we’re finding is people in their late 30s to early 50s have, you know, the highest disposable income as is the norm. And what they’re really focused on is how can I live longer?

00:06:19

George Bergamo: How can I look younger? So now you have to tie that back into your FnB programming. Um it used to be that you really just brought people together via alcohol. Um now you need to bring people together through hey um we have different offerings other than coffee. You can get this ceremonial matcha on site and the

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: restaurants have farm-to-table sourcing and the ingredients have traveled fewer than a 100 miles. And you also have the advent of the celebrity chef has gone by the wayside to hey now you are the celebrity that we are catering to. So everyone needs to feel a little bit special and everything needs to pander to someone’s lifestyle choices and the lifestyle choices that we’re really focusing on are the health, wellness, community and longevity. Um, addition to that, um, connection to nature, so views of nature, uh, what we call excursions into nature and really having that concierge on site. So, nature and then concierge is another one. Um, where people can have access to the surrounding area.

00:07:31

George Bergamo: And I think luxury today means high barrier to entry, which means smaller footprint. Fewer people have access to your property, fewer people have access to what you’re doing, and creating something that’s unique in and of itself. Um, when we find all those opportunities and an ability for everything to reinforce a singular message of this is going to appeal to a specific party, then we’ve hit uh the opportunity that we

Adi Soozin: and you you really hit the nail on the head there.

George Bergamo: need.

Adi Soozin: Health is wealth. There’s I was speaking with a friend who he married into a wellto-do family in the US. Uh but he’s he immigrated here. He’s not from the US and he was aging much more rapidly than everyone around him. And so I kind of he’s we’re we’re close enough friends where I could pull him aside and I was like, “Can I let you know like what a lot of the anti-aging regimens are that everyone else is using cuz clearly like no one pulled you aside to tell you these.” And he was and so I was like walking him through some of them and he’s like,

00:08:39

Adi Soozin: “That’s why your mother never had plastic surgery. she looks like she’s 50 and she’s almost 70.

George Bergamo: Thanks.

Adi Soozin: Like so you do have that where the those with more disposable income or those uh who have a higher discretionary budget, they do invest heavily into wealth because they realize that prevent Vanity. is much cheaper in the long run than

George Bergamo: 100%. And I’ll give you an example of it.

Adi Soozin: curative.

George Bergamo: We’re even speaking with a clinic that functionally does dialysis on people. And I know that sounds a little scary, but what they really do is they remove the plasma from your blood and the toxins from your blood and they replace it really with I always just say saline solution. They look at me like I’m nuts when I say that, but it’s the truth. So, you keep your white blood cells, you keep your red blood cells, you keep your platelets, um, and they replace the liquid that carries all the stuff that damages your mitochondria, all the stuff that slows your system, gets rid of the fats, gets rid of the heavy metals, and six treatments of that is about 50 grand.

00:09:44

Adi Soozin: Oh my god.

George Bergamo: And I know that’s not a small ticket, but if it’s 50 grand to stop yourself from spending two 300 grand

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: on some form of treatment later in life, I think that’s pennies on the dollar.

Adi Soozin: Oh, yeah.

George Bergamo: You know, we’re starting to see folks like that really pop up.

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: Now, we haven’t gone that far because you’re now venturing into medical and there’s different regulations around that. So, you know, we’re going to stick with the IV treatments to help people feel better.

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: um offering uh Zbiotics so that way if people do decide to have a glass of wine or two, they don’t feel terrible the next day. But I I think that is the trend that we’re starting to see and I think that’s kind of the next phase of the

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: health and wellness

Adi Soozin: The the anti-aging it is. Yeah.

George Bergamo: game.

Adi Soozin: It’s that’s interesting. Do you I don’t know if you remember this.

00:10:36

Adi Soozin: When we were in Las Vegas last year, uh like half of the audience was people I knew and they had me on five panels. So every time I got off a panel, I had to go into like hostess mode and by day three I completely lost my voice. I like could not speak. I I got off the panel, I went to talk to f like speak with friends.

George Bergamo: Mhm.

Adi Soozin: No voice. And so I was there with Yeah. with uh one of my friends and she like grabbed me and she was like sauna now and just like anyone that tried to talk to me she was like no and just like we like belineed like right for the wellness area of the of that hotel she was like she can’t speak anymore guys like enough. So yeah, it is one of those those things where we are looking like if you’re in high performance mode when you’re traveling, which let’s be honest, everyone in private equity, we only want to go to Singapore once a month or once a year.

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00:20:54

Adi Soozin: You’re going to deploy that. You don’t want to in year three go to investors and say, “Hey, can we have money to add this now pre-exit?” So, you have companies like National Energy Holding where they come in and they say, “Hey, we’re going to pay for this to be done and we’re going to own and operate. It’s going to increase your net asset value. It’s going to stabilize your costs. Um, but you don’t have to pay for anything. Or if you want to, we can do an 8020 revenue share where you just take 20% of the cost of the project. You put that down and then you get 20% revenue

George Bergamo: Mhm. Exactly.

Adi Soozin: share.

George Bergamo: And it creates a really interesting business model. And one of the things I’m excited for is I think over the past decade, Last Mile Logistics has been the darling of the real estate industry.

Adi Soozin: Oh my god.

George Bergamo: and and I cannot wait for the digitization um of the

Adi Soozin: Yes.

George Bergamo: fleet because I think that being able to electrify those last mile logistics sites is going to be really interesting because obviously with retail and hospitality there’s a human element there so there needs to be a beautifification and that’s one of those big concerns whereas if somebody is driving to and fro to drop off or deliver packages for someone that’s going to another endpoint.

00:22:17

George Bergamo: They don’t much care about the aesthetic. So, you can really maximize coverage with your digital infrastructure. Um, which I think is going to be a really interesting phase. I’m hoping that uh one of these eccentric titans of our day uh decides that his next passion project is going to be uh creating electric trucks. Uh I know everyone’s looking at the retail market, but please somebody go to the industrial market so we can take advantage of this.

Adi Soozin: Yeah. Yeah. And I’m going to be the eccentric one who puts energy infrastructure on all these buildings.

George Bergamo: Exactly.

Adi Soozin: What energy sorted? What oil

George Bergamo: Oh yeah. You know, I’m a firm believer in uh being a pragmatist.

Adi Soozin: crisis

George Bergamo: And you know, when I watched Avengers, I said, “Look, they kind of changed the antagonist here from someone who is looking for attention from a scorned lover to an environmentalist. Why doesn’t he just double resources?” And so, I feel like we have that opportunity. It’s like, “Oh, there’s an energy crisis. Let’s just build more energy.

00:23:23

Adi Soozin: I know. I know. That was interesting when I was so I was on the panel. I was on a panel at this this event in London in March and I got off stage. Actually, people asked me while I was on stage. They said, “Uh, what are the family offices and real estate titans doing to address the energy and water crisis? And it was like, “Oh boy, I thought I was here to talk about real estate.” And so then I like went back to like family dinner conversations and like conversations with my grandfather over banana bread and was like, “Okay, Um, so what I remember my grandparents always saying is that if you build a city and no one wants to live in it, it’s worthless. It’s useless. So obviously you always want to take care of the people and energy and water. They’re they’re not things we can just like be blind to. If you’re a real estate investor who likes to be one of those investors who says, “Yes, I take care of my tenants. They get the luxury treatment when they’re in my like you were saying in your hotel.” they know they’re going to get a luxury treatment when they’re

00:24:26

Adi Soozin: in a city where I’m trying to be active. They know that they’re not going to have like they’re we’re going to do our best to take care of them. It’s like, okay, I have to figure out this energy thing. That’s where I was like, what can we do? And it’s it’s wild how many opportunities there are out there that people just aren’t aware of where they can literally turn their building into energy infrastructure.

George Bergamo: Oh yeah. And I think that seeing the phase 1 and phase 2 adoption of green energy and whether it was lead standard, whether it was ESG, I think that’s a bad taste in people’s mouths and they haven’t thought about this

Adi Soozin: Maybe.

George Bergamo: from really the lens of, hey, this is an economic boon. This is a way that I can actually create ancillary income streams on my property. And I think that energy in today’s day and age is going to be akin to advertising a 100 years ago when people realize they could put billboards on their property or they could put radio towers on their property,

00:25:31

Adi Soozin: Oh

George Bergamo: right? Like that was an aha moment. I think today you’re going to very quickly see people are going to say,

Adi Soozin: yeah.

George Bergamo: “Wait a minute, my box is able to get me an opportunity to supply people with the one thing that’s in scarcity today, which is energy.” because intelligence is now becoming something where it’s quite common uh between AI uh development and AI roll out. You’re no longer at a premium if you’re someone who is tremendously educated because we all have this wonderful thing on our phone that’s better educated. So education has lost its premium. Connectivity is really where

Adi Soozin: I would push back. I would I would push back on that because um education is the difference between knowing whether or not what Google search just showed you is accurate.

George Bergamo: completely fair. And I think there’s a change in education. Um rather than relying on you or me to tell someone something from a book that we read one day, you’re now relying on someone to be able to factcheck the digital employees uh results from a book that it read.

00:26:42

George Bergamo: Um, so I think everything’s become more accessible and what you’re seeing is, hey, what’s scarce here? What’s really needed to keep things going? Well, with people it’s food, water, and sleep. With a digital employee, it’s energy. And if I I can be the farm that supplies the food, water, and sleep for the digital employee. Then I’m the one who makes sure that the workforce never goes

Adi Soozin: Yeah. Yeah.

George Bergamo: away.

Adi Soozin: That’s true. That’s true. I was looking at it purely from you’re looking at it from a preservation of the of our rapid development in the tech space.

George Bergamo: Mhm.

Adi Soozin: Like how do we protect our ability to keep iterating and driving tech innovation forward? We need energy infrastructure. And I was looking at it purely from like a real estate space of hey, we can make so much more money if we had EV chargers. solar panel, battery, and when we need to gas and wind

George Bergamo: Yeah. I mean, for me, right, like think of it this way.

00:27:46

Adi Soozin: turbine

George Bergamo: If you want to double your population in five years, um, boy, are a lot of people spending a lot of time in bed. If you want to double your workforce in 5 years, well, all you need is someone to create agents for you. So, the TAM is now infinite. If you realize that your audience is digital, and digital audiences need bandwidth, they need compute, and they need energy. So, if I can find ancillary ways of deploying those things throughout properties, there’s no stopping it. Because in addition to catering to or pandering to a human audience, I’m now catering to a digital audience.

Adi Soozin: That’s true. That’s true. Have you uh seen what Gemini and chat GPT bring up when you search your

George Bergamo: I have seen it on perplexity.

Adi Soozin: name?

George Bergamo: I need to look at Gemini in chat. It’s funny. someone uh very recently uh was trying to slander me and he’s like, you know, this guy, he’s trying to get his hooks into you and take over things for you and he doesn’t even have a background in this.

00:29:03

George Bergamo: And I just said, look, today’s day and age, you can put my name into any AI and you’re going to see what my background is. And in front of the folks at the table, I just put my name into Perplexity and just said, “All right, let’s see what it comes up with. if there’s anything that remotely mirrors uh what you’re saying about me, I won’t pursue this deal anymore. And it was great because it was quite contradictory to what he was saying. So,

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: it led to a great laugh and uh the deal progressing, which was a lot of

Adi Soozin: I I had this one this one girl who’s like was like,

George Bergamo: fun.

Adi Soozin: “Please just pick a passion or a career and do something.” Um, but she became obsessed with trying to to ruin me because it wasn’t fair that people trusted me after I built an energy uh built in a software company, built a media company, and wrote a best-selling book. She thought that she should have the same people trusting her after she did none of those things.

00:29:58

Adi Soozin: And it’s Like one, trust takes time and trust is based on track record. So if you’re jealous of the people who tr like the trust circle I have, go do those things. Go build an international software company. Go build an international media company. Go write a 450 page best-selling book. You’ll get the same thing. No, no, no. She wanted to instead try to like take me down.

George Bergamo: All right.

Adi Soozin: And I was like, good luck. Like you can’t take down someone who climbed Everest. Like you’re going to have to climb up to where they are to drag them down. So, um, Gemini went from telling people about all my financial accomplishments to saying, um, she allegedly did these things. And I was just like, how many hours did she have to spend obsessively talking to Gemini to get it to like remove my the AUM that I had at my past fund? It was like whatever, whatever.

George Bergamo: Oh

Adi Soozin: It’s so that that is a good reminder though is like you you have to

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00:30:51

George Bergamo: goodness.

Adi Soozin: remember um that you have to you’re catering not just to people now you also are catering to and putting content out for the AI bots to crawl and then to to analyze and to um to put into their databases.

George Bergamo: That’s right. It’s a significantly larger market and it’s one that is always active. So, if you’re not tailoring your message to a digital audience, uh,

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: then you’re really being left behind. And I would actually go as far as to say the more important audience is the digital one because in order for the physical audience to even get access to you, you have to get through the digital gatekeeper.

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: And it’s a wild way of thinking about life. And I think circling back to uh what we started our conversation with, it’s why in the hospitality space, I think there’s such a premium for a lack of blue light and a real focus on connectivity because everything in the world is digital right now and hospitality is really becoming more of that connection to the physical and getting people away from the blue screens that we’re all absorbed with all day.

00:32:19

Adi Soozin: Yeah. Yeah. In our house, we only let the children have so much access to the television because you can see it. They they like their their neural networks just aren’t built for it.

George Bergamo: smart.

Adi Soozin: They become impatient. They’re screaming. They’re throwing fits. Um our four-year-old stops speaking. If he watches TV for more than an hour, he goes he digresses to communicating like a one-year-old.

George Bergamo: Oh, wow.

Adi Soozin: Yeah. It’s crazy. It’s crazy. Um, so what kind of EV do you have?

George Bergamo: Oh wow. So, I’m the worst because I think that cars should represent freedom and EVs represent control. I like having control. Um, I don’t like being controlled. So,

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: I’m going to bite the bullet and I’m going to get myself a Tesla Model Y L uh which is the replacement to the X.

Adi Soozin: Okay.

George Bergamo: uh because a good friend of mine um has the newest version of the Model Y and the self-drive and the new suspension are really tremendous.

00:33:30

George Bergamo: But, you know, for me, that’s why I like the prospect of an EV. I have a built-in driver. Um and that’s great. Um otherwise,

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: I like my gas guzzlers. Uh I like my Mercedes G Wagon. I like my Lamborghini Urus. Um there’s a certain irony to it. I like fast SUVs, if you can even call them that. Um,

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: but really Tesla as well.

Adi Soozin: I So,

George Bergamo: How about you? What are you working

Adi Soozin: I had the the Lexus GX.

George Bergamo: with?

Adi Soozin: Um that Lexus SUV. What was it? GX 460 640. I don’t remember. I I mess up those numbers all the time. Um and then my husband wanted an electric vehicle and I was like, “Okay, great. Teslas are cheap. Like, they’re like a candy bar. go buy one. He’s like, “No, no. I want the one that’s double the price of that that Tesla.” And I was like,

00:34:20

Adi Soozin: “What are you getting?” He got the the Kia EV9. And I was like, “Do you realize like Kia is such a cheap brand name?” So like you got you paid like you paid Chanel prices and you got something from Target. Why did you do that?

George Bergamo: If you’ve approached this backwards, why have you

Adi Soozin: I know. It was like,

George Bergamo: freaking

Adi Soozin: “Okay, you’re not allowed to buy cars in anymore.

George Bergamo: I was uh just talking with a friend of mine. She’s switching from a Porsche Macan internal combustion engine to the Porsche Cayenne full electric and gorgeous car.

Adi Soozin: Love the Porsche Cayenne. I love that car.

George Bergamo: Um,

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: and boy is the electric one a rocket. Um,

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: but of course it didn’t solve the one thing she was trying to solve for, which is, oh, she’s exhausted going to and from Greenwich, Connecticut to downtown Manhattan and wants a car that can just take her there. And I said, ‘You do recognize that there’s one car that can do that for you and it’s a Tesla?

00:35:19

George Bergamo: And she’s like, yeah, I just can’t do it.

Adi Soozin: No. So, the Kia EV9 drives itself.

George Bergamo: Oh, I didn’t

Adi Soozin: Yeah. So, it has um it has a button that I that I press for So,

George Bergamo: realize.

Adi Soozin: this is what I learned on the road trip. Has a button I press for it to drive. is a button I press for the um for the cruise control, but then and then it has a button for me to choose the distance between me and the car in front of me.

George Bergamo: Oh,

Adi Soozin: So,

George Bergamo: nice. All

Adi Soozin: the cruise control is like automatic and then if I choose like four car lengths or two car lengths, then it chooses how close it is to the car in front of me. So, it’ll like automatically change the speed based on the car in front of me.

George Bergamo: right.

Adi Soozin: And then the other thing it has is a massage

George Bergamo: That incredible.

Adi Soozin: chair.

George Bergamo: That’s why we wagon. The chair is a massage chair and it doesn’t get

00:36:06

Adi Soozin: I know. I’m like,

George Bergamo: better.

Adi Soozin: why would I sit in a chair in a driving a car when I could sit in a m massage chair driving a

George Bergamo: You know what? I think that we should have a conversation with Elon and explain to him,

Adi Soozin: car?

George Bergamo: look, there are certain pleasantries in life that we should have. And if you’re going to have a car that drives itself, it should also do other things for you.

Adi Soozin: added to the list of things to propose when we meet him.

George Bergamo: All right,

Adi Soozin: Uh,

George Bergamo: you got it.

Adi Soozin: one of one of his uh, higher level employees is actually in the secret vault.

George Bergamo: Oh, get out of here.

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

George Bergamo: Oh,

Adi Soozin: So,

George Bergamo: that is awesome.

Adi Soozin: we should choose wisely what we say when we’re joking about it.

George Bergamo: Oh, hey, I’m being sincere. I hope he gets that clip. I want to say, look, like I’m confident you enjoy massages.

00:36:51

George Bergamo: Your car dropped itself. You should add massages to your chairs.

Adi Soozin: Yeah. Yeah. Uh, watch it comes out like next year.

George Bergamo: You’re welcome,

Adi Soozin: I know. I know.

George Bergamo: America.

Adi Soozin: Okay. Well, um, do you have anything else you wanted to address or is we’re getting close to the end of the podcast

George Bergamo: No,

Adi Soozin: episode?

George Bergamo: I think uh you know what? Tell me about the uh the next conference I’m going to see you at where we can get a workout together because the next podcast it’s going to be in the

Adi Soozin: Oh,

George Bergamo: gym.

Adi Soozin: probably. Okay. So, I’m speaking in the Hamptons the end of this month and then I’ll be in New York City. I was asked to speak at a New York Fashion Week event. Um, I’m not sure if I’ll be up north for that because I have to be north for 10 days straight for uh the UN General Assembly and Climate Week. And then I only get two days at home to change my luggage.

George Bergamo: Okay.

Adi Soozin: And then I go to Greenwich Economic Forum. Straight from Greenwich Economic Forum to Singapore. Straight from Singapore I come home. I swap my suitcase and then I have to go to Miami. And then straight from Miami I have to go to France.

George Bergamo: That is a wonderful travel schedule.

Adi Soozin: It is hell.

George Bergamo: Yeah, absolutely. I just did something similar.

George Bergamo: I I think each of the past three weekends I haven’t been home and now this weekend I’m going to have to go to Lagona and then next weekend I’ll probably see you in the Hamptons.

Adi Soozin: Okay. Oh, fun. Oh, fun. It’ll be fun. Okay, cool. Um, well, thank you everyone for tuning in today. Thank you, George, for joining this uh episode. And I hope you all enjoyed it. and I will see you online next time.

George Bergamo: Thanks so much for having me. Looking forward to seeing you.

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