Founder & CEO @ Lever Talent | Host of The Lever Show | Helping leaders develop talent strategies that leverage a tech-empowered future.

You’re capable of more than you could ever imagine.

I started my career impatient, driven, and a little naive. In my mid-20s, I was sprinting up the corporate ladder… and got fired.  

That moment forced me to get honest about what actually changes a team: clarity, standards, and the courage to hold them.

My belief is simple: as AI and automation take more transactions, the human work matters more. Technology multiplies what’s already there (judgment, trust, focus). Software doesn’t change a team. Cadence does.

In 2022, I followed that belief and started Lever Talent. I work with CHROs, CPOs, and HR or L&D leaders to align talent with the business so teams get better because of technology instead of being buried by it. We make it practical:

• Lead with Leverage: a manager cadence that makes expectations real (and conversations easier)
• MVV that sticks: values → rituals → behavior change
• AI, but usable: 30-60-90 change plans that turn pilots into ROI
• People-ops command center: fewer dashboards, better decisions

With technology, our leverage is limitless. Let’s build teams that prove it.

DM me to get in touch.

Drew Fortin

I’ve stopped believing in generic leadership training.

You can’t copy-paste culture and expect alignment.

We kicked off a new program called Lead with Leverage, and it reminded me how rare true leadership alignment actually is.

Some of these leaders have been with the company for 20 years, yet not one has ever been trained on what leadership actually means inside their business.

They’d done all the usual things: 

- Attended a seminar
- Used a learning platform subscription 
- Had a one-off “manager bootcamp.”

But here’s the problem: 

Management training only works when it’s anchored to the business it’s meant to serve.

That’s why at Lever Talent, Inc. , we build leadership programs with companies, not for them, because culture and strategy can’t be outsourced.

Real leadership development has to answer questions that no generic curriculum ever can:

- What behaviors are non-negotiable for leaders here?
- What does “great” leadership look like in this company?
- What are leaders being asked to do differently right now to win?

When those answers are clear, training becomes actionable.

So yes, leadership training matters.

But only when it’s designed to be applied, not just completed.

That’s the difference between checking a box and actually changing how leadership shows up in your business.

Founder & CEO @ Lever Talent | SHRM-SCP | Helping leaders develop talent strategies that leverage a tech-empowered future.

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“Prove AI can’t replace you” might be the most dehumanizing sentence to enter the workplace in decades.

I understand what Shopify’s CEO is trying to push on.

AI should force leaders to question bloated processes and low-leverage work.

But the moment the conversation becomes “prove a human is necessary,” you’ve already reduced people to a cost problem.

That’s not how great work gets done.

AI is incredible at execution, pattern recognition, speed, and scale. It’s terrible at context, judgment, trust, and meaning.

Using AI as a gatekeeper for jobs is fundamentally different from using AI as an accelerator for people.

One creates fear, defensiveness, and employees who spend every review cycle justifying their existence.

The other creates better decisions, sharper thinking, and teams that ask higher-quality questions.

And let’s talk about performance reviews for a second.

If AI becomes part of how employees are evaluated, leaders need to be crystal clear about what they’re optimizing for.

If leaders don’t take responsibility for defining that relationship, employees will fill in the gaps themselves.

And fear always fills the gaps faster than clarity.

AI shouldn’t be about replacing people.

It should be about figuring out how much more people can do when the machine finally carries its share of the load.

Culture is the single biggest reason people quit.

And it’s the one thing most leaders still treat like a “soft” topic.

A new survey found that 94% of U.S. workers say workplace culture impacts their decision to stay.

When employees talk about “culture,” they mean things like:

- How connected they feel to their team and the company at large
- How genuine they can be with team members 
- Clarity in roles and responsibilities and alignment to the strategic vision
- Does it feel like everyone is showing up and equally contributing 

Culture isn’t owned by HR. It’s built moment by moment, especially by the people in charge:

- What questions are welcomed (or punished)
- Whether it’s safe to admit you don’t know
- What behaviors get rewarded under pressure
- What happens when you fail or don’t follow through 

And the data says that 22% of professionals plan to leave this year due to values misalignment. Because only 36% believe their company is investing in their growth.

Culture is the infrastructure of a company's success.

How leaders show up, how people are treated, and what’s rewarded under pressure all shape whether employees stay, grow, and give their best.

The best leaders do the same thing the best parents do:

They raise their teams to be independent of them.

It’s easy for leaders to get stuck in the business instead of working on the business, usually because they don’t trust the system you’ve built.

But if you're a leader and involved in everything, you’re the bottleneck.

Great leadership is creating enough clarity that the business can run without you, and that only happens:

- When the mission is clear.
- When the values actually show up in decisions.
- When people know what’s in bounds and what’s out of bounds.

You can only make so many decisions yourself before you hit a ceiling.

The only way to scale is to build a system where others make the same decisions you would, without asking.

And yes, it can feel like working yourself out of a job.

But that’s the point.

If your leadership still requires you everywhere, all the time, you haven’t built a system.

You’ve built dependence.

NVIDIA is one of the most valuable companies in the world.

Jensen Huang proudly says he runs a flat org with 40 direct reports, no 1:1s.

People are idolizing it like it’s the future of management.

But that structure only works in context.

If you’ve built a deeply tenured, insanely high-skill team over decades, maybe you earn the right to that span of control.

That’s the exception, not the operating model most companies can just copy-paste.

We’re heading toward a world where fewer people run much larger organizations. 

That means leaders oversee more, control less, and must trust deeper.

Because the moment your org grows, your job as a leader must evolve too.

Your brain only has so much time and attention. At scale, control becomes an illusion. 

The moment your organization grows, the job of a leader has to change with it.

Great leadership isn’t:

- Knowing everything.
- Approving everything.
- Overseeing every decision.

Great leadership is:

What people do when you’re not there.

Relinquishing control is a skill.

And the sooner leaders learn that, the faster their organizations actually grow.

The best career advice I ever got?

Follow what makes you forget to check the clock.

Here’s the litmus test I’ve come back to over and over again in my career:

When you’re truly aligned with your work, you lose track of time.

You start thinking, “I should take a break… but I can’t wait to get back to this”.

We’ve all felt it somewhere.

Maybe it was a creative project, or a problem you couldn’t stop thinking about. 

Something that pulled you in so deeply, you forgot the clock existed.

That’s what work feels like when it’s aligned. It fuels you.

So when someone says, “I just want to work my hours and be done,” I get it, we all need balance.

But I also get curious:

Have you immersed yourself enough to see if the spark is there?

Or are you still standing at arm’s length?

And if the answer is honest, “This doesn’t do it for me,” then the next question matters even more:

Where do you lose track of time?

And how might you turn more of that into something valuable?

Your career is the greatest asset you’ll ever own. You get out what you put in.

The worst kind of leadership is the kind that hides bad news behind a smile and calls it optimism.

The kind that insists everything is fine when everyone can see the flames.

This forced positivity is a trust killer; all it does is erode employee confidence and doesn't boost morale. 

Because when leaders only share the upside and deflect hard questions with vague platitudes, all that grows is suspicion.

When words and actions don’t match, people assume the worst.

If your strategy relies on pretending the dumpster fire is just a “temporary heat source,” don’t be surprised when your best people start looking for exits.

Being truthful as a leader doesn’t mean dumping confidential details or catastrophizing the future.

It means being honest enough to say:

“Here’s what’s going well, and here’s what’s not. This is what we’re doing about it. And while I may not be able to share everything, here’s what I can...”

People expect honesty, accountability, and a little humanity from their leaders.

So have the hard conversation. Trust me, your team can handle it.

I think I finally found the image that best describes me, trying to keep up with AI learning.

We use AI every day at Lever Talent, Inc. . It’s part of how we work, how we think, how we experiment. We're continuously building it into our client-facing programs and internal processes.

And I’ll be the first to admit: there are moments when I feel behind. Because I should.

AI is moving faster than any leadership shift I’ve seen in my career. The only way I know how to respond is to keep learning constantly.

To read, to test, to break things, and to talk to people who know more than I do.

But what worries me is the leaders who don’t feel continuously overwhelmed.

In most big decisions, reorgs, restructures, and investments, we want ~70% confidence.

But with AI, I’m seeing leaders operate at 50% confidence and call it transformation.

Weak leadership is hoping the tool will save them all, which is just denial.

AI can’t rescue a broken operating model or turn mediocrity into excellence.

It only amplifies what’s already there.

So yes, I’m still learning, and drinking from the fire hose.

The only way to lead through change is by staying agile.

I’d rather be soaked and curious than dry and pretending I’ve got it all figured out.

Big Tech is spending hundreds of billions on AI.

But tech unemployment is climbing...

For years, tech was the safest bet in the labor market. There was high pay, high demand, and major tailwinds.

But that era is over. What we’re watching now is a sorting event.

If your skills are tightly coupled to:

– legacy systems
– outsourced execution
– work that AI can accelerate or replace

You’re feeling the squeeze already.

If your skills help organizations:

– design better operating models
– apply AI to real business problems
– lead humans through uncertainty and change

You’re still in demand.

There's this misconception that most companies are “overstaffed.” That's not true, they're misaligned.

They cut people before they redesign how work gets done.

They invest in AI before they rethink roles, decision rights, and incentives.

They pause hiring instead of building confidence and clarity.

That creates fear, and that fear is the real talent risk heading into 2026.

Tech isn’t dying. But the old tech career bargain is.

If leaders were totally honest about their 5–7 year plan, it would look a whole lot like this:

The future is messy. 

Most leadership teams can describe the destination beautifully. It sounds great out loud.

What’s far less clear is the distance between today and that future, and what actually has to change to get there.

That’s the uncomfortable gap. 

The confusion comes down to three words that sound similar, but mean completely different things:

Mission, vision, and values.

Your mission is the reason why you exist. It doesn’t change just because the market does.

Vision is where you’re going in 5–7 years. It should feel aspirational and also a little scary.

Values are what have to change in how people think, decide, and act to get there.

And those values must evolve.

If your company was built on risk-taking, there will come a point where raw risk-taking is no longer an advantage.

If you never evolve those values, you end up protecting the past instead of building the future.

So if your future plan looks a little chaotic on the wall, that’s actually a good thing.

Just make sure you’re being precise and pragmatic about what has to change in order to get there.

I don’t think the AI + ARR conversation is actually about revenue.

I think it’s about leadership.

ARR (annual recurring revenue) has long been the lifeblood of SaaS. It’s a clean signal of durability, predictability, and product-market fit.

But AI app companies aren’t playing the same game.

Right now, we’re celebrating speed. 

Fast ARR. Fast adoption. Fast valuations. 

And I get why, AI is moving at a pace none of us has seen before. $275B in investment will do that.

But I can already see the bottleneck that's about to happen:

When leaders chase metrics they don’t fully understand, they start optimizing for optics instead of durability.

A lot of AI “ARR” today isn’t recurring in the way leaders assume. 

It’s pilots, credits, usage-based experiments, and early excitement multiplied by 12. 

That may satisfy a board deck, but it creates false confidence inside the organization.

And false confidence leads to bad leadership decisions:

– Overhiring in areas before demand is proven
– Betting culture on momentum instead of value
– Promising stability to teams that don’t yet exist

And no, this isn’t just an AI startup issue.

It’s the same leadership mistake we’ve seen in every major shift; AI is just exposing it faster.

It’s time for leaders to start asking harder questions:

Are we building something people depend on, or just trying to look like we are?

AI won’t be the downfall of companies. Leadership will, if it keeps confusing activity for impact.

Leaders need to be willing to slow down, tell the truth, and build systems: people, tech, and operating models that actually hold.

That’s responsible leadership.

And it’s about to matter a lot more than ARR charts.

Only 6% of Gen Z want to be a traditional leader.

Because we made leadership look miserable.

- Endless hours
- Inbox anxiety
- Burnout disguised as loyalty.

If that’s what “making it” looks like, who would want the corner office?

But there’s something deeper happening here. We’re living through a quiet revolution in what agency means.

Agency used to mean getting promoted, someone else handing you authority.

Now it means owning your time, your values, and your impact.

That’s why when I started Lever Talent, Inc. I kept coming back to this idea:

We need a Jerry Maguire for the individual.

Because today’s headhunters don’t really work for talent, they work for business. They don’t get paid to build your career; they get paid to fill a seat.

But people are realizing they can take ownership of their own careers, fractional, freelance, hybrid, on their own terms.

They’re building agency into the way they work.

Here’s the twist, though, and it’s one too many leaders and creators are skipping over:

You can choose balance.

But if you want flexibility, you might have to trade speed.

If you want balance, you might have to let go of the myth of “having it all.”

The goal isn’t to have your cake and eat it too.

It’s to know which cake you’re baking, and why.

We’ve been hiring backwards for decades.

Job descriptions shouldn’t define the org; the org should define the jobs.

AI is changing how we organize work.

People are one resource.

Tools and partners are others.

AI is reallocating human energy to where it actually matters, which means the real shift needs to be in organizational design.

Most companies still design orgs around people first:

“I need a payroll person.”
“I need an L&D lead.”
“I need a generalist.”

That model is backwards.

Instead of hiring a payroll manager, companies should design for automated compliance, then decide if that’s a person, a tool, or a partner.

Strategy and org design should define the capabilities you need.

Only then do you decide where humans belong.

If AI keeps accelerating, we can’t rebuild our orgs every few years.

That's why the focus needs to be on designing for adaptability from day one.

Because when AI takes the busywork, org design becomes the real leadership job.

Companies are rushing to replace entry-level jobs with AI, 

But they are unaware of the talent gap it’s creating...

Historically, career paths looked like this:

• Entry-level = tactical, grunt work
• Senior = strategic thinking
• Growth = do less of the boring stuff over time

But AI just blew that model up.

AI now replaces the early learning reps, where people build judgment.

So when companies cut entry-level roles because “AI can do it,” they’re creating a bigger problem:

Who will have the experience to lead 3–5 years from now?

Because AI can’t replace the experience of learning, the judgment you earn, or the ability to apply context inside a real business.

Entry-level jobs aren't disappearing. They’re evolving.

Entry-level now means:

• Using AI as a baseline tool
• Doing more, not less, with better leverage
• Learning faster how businesses actually work
• Building judgment, not just output

Entry roles shouldn't be removed, but they should be redesigned. 

Career development in an AI world is about longer, richer roles with more responsibility sooner.

Apple had five CEOs before Steve Jobs came back.

So why do we all think of Apple as the iPhone company?

Because leadership doesn’t just run a company, it defines its identity.

Look at the products Apple shipped under each CEO before Jobs returned:

- Apple II
- Lisa
- Macintosh clones
- Newton
- Copland OS

A dozen experiments that look like they came from entirely different companies

They don’t even resemble each other, and that’s the point.

When strategy is unclear, the product becomes unclear.

Each CEO had talent. Each had a vision.

But they created five different operating systems for the same organization.

Everyone inside Apple was forced to run on whatever version happened to be installed at the time.

Then Jobs returns in 1997 and does something simple:

He deletes almost everything, and he aligns teams to a single, coherent future.

And suddenly, the Apple we recognize is born.

Because of a leadership philosophy that unified product, people, and purpose.

If five CEOs can turn Apple into five different companies, ask yourself:

What version of your company are you creating right now?

And is your operating model capable of delivering the future you keep selling?

Most companies don’t have a clear definition of what leadership means, and that's what sets them up for failure.

Every exec deck starts the same:

At Acme Studios, we value...

“Trust.”
“Integrity.”
“Honesty.”

Cool. But can you explain what your values actually do? How do they help your company move toward your vision?

When I ask leaders to explain, I'm usually met with silence.

For a lot of companies, mission, vision, and values are just boxes to check.

Not systems to operate.

And that used to work when managers could rely on metrics, approvals, and oversight to keep things moving.

But AI is already stripping out transactional work.

Middle management is thinning. Leaders now own more people, more decisions, and more ambiguity than ever before.

But frameworks and dashboards can’t solve that.

Leaders can’t OKR their way through ambiguity, or metric their way to judgment.

That's why real leadership needs to build trust systems so people can make sound decisions without constant oversight.

Because good management is what people do when you’re not watching.

That's why your mission needs to reduce drag, and your values need to accelerate decisions.

Because if your leadership model depends on constant oversight…

The only thing it's causing is friction.

AI is forcing every leader into a choice they can’t dodge:

Do you believe your people are fundamentally creative and motivated, or lazy and in need of control?

Your AI strategy has already answered:

When leaders deploy AI to monitor keystrokes, rank “productivity,” we’re telling people exactly what we think of them.

And people respond accordingly.

- Fear replaces initiative.
- Compliance replaces creativity.

Work stops being about contribution and starts being about survival.

AI is reinforcing our dimmest view of humans that people can’t be trusted unless machines watch them.

But we don’t need AI to tighten control.

We need it to free people from the work that dulls their talent.

The real opportunity is using AI to uncover the potential we’ve buried under bureaucracy:

• Redundant approvals
• Performative documentation
• Meetings that exist because the calendar said so

That’s how you get outcomes AI alone will never deliver.

Leaders need to create conditions for people to think freely again.

So be honest with yourself:

What does your AI strategy say you believe about your people?

Leaders who’ve successfully built even one new venture lean into uncertainty. 

Because they’ve learned something most organizations never do: 

That growth is a leadership problem. McKinsey’s latest research confirms it. 

Yes, the economics have changed. 

AI has collapsed timelines, headcount, and cost in ways that would’ve sounded irresponsible five years ago.

But that’s not why some companies win, and others stall.

The difference is leadership maturity.

The strongest leaders do the hard work: 

Designing teams that can actually experiment, and cultures where learning is rewarded instead of quietly punished.

That takes discipline.

And it takes leaders who are willing to say “no” far more often than “yes.”

Venture building fails when leaders treat it like an innovation initiative instead of an operating model shift. 

You can’t bolt this onto a rigid org, a fearful culture, or managers who’ve never been trained to lead ambiguity.

In uncertain times, it’s tempting for leaders to play defense and optimize what already exists.

But history keeps showing us the same thing: the companies willing to build while things feel uncomfortable are the ones that create the next wave of growth.

Almost ten years ago, I was working around the clock helping build other people’s wealth… and quietly realizing my own wasn’t secure.

I had the titles, the income, the track record — but every dollar I earned lived inside a 401(k) I couldn’t touch, in markets I couldn’t control.

One bad quarter and everything I thought was “diversified” suddenly felt fragile.

I wasn’t afraid of hard work.
I was afraid of losing control.

So I went looking for something different — a system that could create stability, not speculation.

That search led me to real estate… but not the flashy, high-risk kind.

I found my lane in co-living real estate — an asset class built on fundamentals: people, community, and need.

Housing is the one thing that never goes out of demand. And when managed right, it’s one of the few investments that can produce consistent, tangible results in any market cycle.

I built CoHaven Capital on that idea — helping investors transform uncertainty into security through professionally managed, income-producing housing.

We buy single-family and small multifamily homes, convert them into modern co-living spaces, and operate them with precision.

The result is stability for residents, consistency for investors, and purpose for everyone involved.

Because here’s the truth:
Most professionals don’t struggle because they’ve made bad decisions — they struggle because their wealth is built on assets they can’t control.

They’re tired of volatility.
They want something real.

That’s why I’m here.

I help investors reclaim control of their financial future through disciplined, data-backed real estate ownership — the kind that builds peace of mind today and security for tomorrow.

Since co-founding CoHaven, we’ve built a system that brings professional management, transparency, and consistency to an overlooked corner of the housing market.

And now, we’re helping busy, high-performing investors do the same with their portfolios.

If you’re ready to replace uncertainty with stability — let’s talk.
www.cohavencapital.com

Co-Founder | CoHaven Capital
Building reliable income and lasting impact through disciplined real estate.

Charles Rossano

This house used to rent for $1,900/month.

Now it brings in $7,100/month.

Here’s what it looked like before we acquired it: 
• We acquired the property in Houston, Texas. 
• The property was a 6-bed and 3-bath home.
• We purchased the property for $280,000.
• It was using the traditional rental model
↳ Renting to a single family. One lease.
• The previous owners collected: $1,900/month. 
• ~$200/month net cash flow (after expenses).

This is SFR's traditional cash flow. 
↳ hard to scale. 

However, we didn’t buy it for the traditional route.

We bought it to convert it into Co-Living.

Here’s what it looked like after we acquired it:

• 8 rentable bedrooms (more profitable configuration)
• We fully furnished the bedrooms, & living rooms.
• The all-in rehab + new furnishings: $140,000
• The holding & closing costs: $40,000
• Total investment: ~$225,000
• Monthly gross cash flow: $7,100
• Monthly net cash flow: ~$2,200
• (Distributed to our investors)
• 12-month leases signed. 
• 91% occupancy since. 

That’s a 1,100% increase in annualized net income for the property. 

We’ve executed this strategy in 5 markets. 
This isn’t a flash in the plan. 
This is a proven strategy. 

We’re raising $5,000,000 to repeat this exact strategy in Charlotte. 

Are you curious to learn about how you can invest with us? 

DM “Co-Living” to schedule an intro call.

Building Predictable Passive Income Through Co-Living Real Estate — Turning America’s Housing Crisis Into Opportunity

I know an operator with a $10,000,000 property. 

They can’t sell the property to save their capital. 

• They’ve done great value-add work. 
• They’ve leased up the property. 
• But no-one will buy the asset. 

Here’s what they’re running into still into 2026: 
• Interest rates are high.
• Yet, prices are high. 
• So, 
• Buyers aren’t interested. 

The same dog & pony show we’ve seen the last 3 years. 

This is why investing in a co-living fund is different for investors. 

With multifamily, you can buy & hold or sell the asset. 

& if the expectations for investors is to sell? 

You only have 1 option. 

You have to sell the whole asset. 

With co-living acquisitions in a fund? You have two options. 

Sell all the units as a portfolio. 

OR!

Sell each unit individually. 

Depending on the market, you can adjust your strategy. 

This is a competitive advantage, &

A major reason we chose co-living. 

Flexibility at our exit. 

P.S. Are your investments selling right now?

I’ve hired 30+ contractors in the last 18 months. 
Here’s 3 strategies to keep them on schedule: 
(& keep holding costs as low as possible)

1) Provide a bonus based on a specific date.
- Our contractors take less up front for projects. 
- But…
- They’ll be paid more if they complete early. 
- REMEMBER: 
- Bonuses align your desire with theirs. 

2) Provide material on site for the workers. 

- Lost time on a jobsite is never found again…
- It’s our job to keep contractors on task. 
- Thus…
- It’s our job to get material on site. 

3) Provide their favorite drinks on site

- Contractors love their drinks & food. 
- Fund the Gatorade, Red Bull, Pepsi purchases. 
- Even Pizza & ice cream. 
- It keeps your contractors happy & on site. 

P.S. What tip stuck out the most?

J.W. Marriott operated $3,000,000,000+ in real estate. 
He didn’t start that way though. His first business? 
Selling root beer!

Here’s 3 principles J.W. lived by that we’ve implemented at CoHaven. 

1) Take care of your employees, and they’ll take care of your residents. 

- People will call this the “Top Down Approach.”
- The lesson is the same: 
- Leadership fuels everyone’s response to the customers. 
- As leaders, we don’t interact with our residents day-in, day-out. 
- But our community managers do. 
- Thus how we treat our CM’s is how they treat our residents. 

2) As a leader, be willing to get your hands dirty. 

- J.W. Marriott was known as an incredibly disciplined worker. 
- Even willing to cook in his kitchens well into his 60’s. 
- As a leader, we’re not above anything. 
- & your employees see that. 

3) Serve others first. 

- “Spirit to Serve” became an internal motto at Marriott. 
- At a certain point, employees are working with you. 
- All for a common goal. 
- Serve your employees. Serve your customers. 
- All with the best you have. 

Which principle stuck out the most to you?

I don’t believe financial security comes from income.

I believe it comes from control.

I learned this the hard way.

I had a great title.
I was helping scale companies.
People celebrated the wins.

And yet…

When my first child was on the way,
I was in between jobs,
in debt,
and had to ask my father for help.

That moment taught me something most professionals never confront:

High income ≠ financial security.

Ownership does.
Control does.

That realization is what put me on the path into real estate —
not speculation,
not hype,
but assets I could control.

Real assets. Real cash flow. Real resilience.

👇 Your turn:
What moment changed how you think about money or security?

If your advisor has never talked to you about housing affordability,
they’re not managing risk.

They’re managing allocations.

Because real risk doesn’t live in charts.
It lives in:

• Where people actually live
• What they can realistically afford
• Whether demand is optional or non-negotiable

Markets won’t tell you that.

Communities will.

👉 Question:
Does your current strategy account for real-world demand —
or just market performance?

Most investors chase returns.

I design for durability.

I don’t underwrite deals that require optimism to work.

I underwrite deals that work because of human behavior.

Here’s the distinction most people miss:
• Optimism-based returns rely on timing
• Necessity-based returns rely on reality

Markets expand and contract.

Interest rates move.

Sentiment swings.

But people don’t opt out of housing when headlines turn negative.

That’s why our thesis at CoHaven Capital starts with one question:
“What demand still exists if everything else breaks?”

If a deal only works when:
– rents keep rising
– buyers stay aggressive
– capital stays cheap

…it’s not a strategy. It’s a bet.

Durable investing is about engineering inevitability, not forecasting upside.

What demand do you consider non-negotiable in your investing thesis?

Most people think co-living is about “adding rooms.”

It’s not.

At CoHaven Capital, we’ve learned that scaling successful co-living isn’t about squeezing more doors into a floorplan — it’s about orchestrating a system that works across zoning, design, compliance, tenant experience, and backend ops.

✔️ Zoning: Know your overlays, permitting pathways, and use classifications — or you’ll be stuck at the starting line.

✔️ Design: Bedrooms matter, but so do shared kitchens, storage flow, trash systems, and privacy zones.

✔️ Compliance: From city inspections to life safety code — if you don’t build it to code, you’ll rebuild it at cost.

✔️ Tenant Experience: The "culture" we support and promote, our “SWAT” checklist/execution, onboarding calls, house lead system, and maintenance SOPs protect retention and prevent headaches.

✔️ Systems: Renovation trackers. Vendor engagement packets. Custom built workflows and AI technology. Monthly property reviews. Real infrastructure.

The truth? Most investors underestimate the specialization required. That’s why we created a vertically integrated solution that can execute every piece, from acquisition through property management.

👉 Specialization wins.

Question: What part of real estate do you think new investors most underestimate?

Impact investing ≠ lower returns.

That belief comes from confusing charity with capital discipline.

The strongest impact investments:
• Solve structural problems
• Serve non-discretionary demand
• Operate where capital is scarce

That’s not philanthropy.

That’s smart investing.

Housing affordability checks all three.

When you hear “impact investing,” what’s the first assumption that comes to mind?

Nonprofits don’t fail from lack of mission.
They fail from unstable capital.

Co-living and workforce housing solve real problems —
but too many operators are forced to run permanent housing on temporary money.

That doesn’t scale.

Here’s what the data actually shows:

• U.S. housing demand exceeds supply by 4–6 million units
• Workforce renters spend 30–50%+ of income on housing
• Well-run co-living assets consistently outperform traditional multifamily on:
– Rent per square foot
– Occupancy stability
– Net operating margins

At the same time:
• Workforce / affordable housing funds have historically delivered
7–10%+ cash yields with 12–16% total return profiles
• Lower tenant turnover + diversified rent rolls = downside protection

This is why private capital matters.

When structured correctly, co-living investments:

Provide strong, repeatable cash flow
Hedge against affordability-driven demand cycles
Align investor returns with operational excellence

This isn’t charity.
And it’s not extractive capitalism either.

It’s patient private capital backing proven co-living operators.....where affordability drives demand, and demand drives returns.

Impact doesn’t require sacrificing performance.
It requires better structures and better partners.

👇 Question for investors & operators:
Can co-living become the bridge between strong returns and real housing impact, and what structures make that sustainable?

When I shifted capital into real estate-backed income, something unexpected happened.

My behavior changed.

I stopped reacting to headlines.
I stopped obsessing over daily volatility.
I stopped checking numbers that didn’t actually change my life.

Instead, I started planning.

Planning quarters instead of weeks.
Planning cash flow instead of hoping for appreciation.
Planning life decisions with more certainty and less noise.

Here’s the part no one talks about enough:

📉 Volatility doesn’t just impact returns.......it impacts behavior.
📈 Predictable income changes how you think, sleep, and decide.

When your investments are backed by real assets and recurring cash flow, you don’t need to be right every day.
You just need the system to work over time.

And that’s where real compounding happens.
Not just in dollars.
But in peace of mind.

Peace compounds too.
Question:
What investment has given you the most peace of mind, and why?

Diversification across stocks isn’t diversification.
It’s correlation management.

Different tickers.
Same risk.

When markets break, stocks don’t “diversify” — they move together.
2008. 2020. 2022.

Real diversification isn’t about how many positions you hold.
It’s about how assets behave under stress.

True diversification means assets that:
• Respond differently to rates and inflation
• Produce cash flow regardless of market sentiment
• Create value through operations, not predictions

If everything in your portfolio depends on the same macro outcome…
you’re not diversified.

You’re just spread out.
Question:
Do you feel truly diversified today......or just well-distributed across the same risk? 👇

Most retirement plans fail for one reason no one talks about.

It’s not low returns.

It’s when those returns show up.

Two investors.

Same average return.

One retires comfortably.

The other runs out of money early.

Why?

👉 Sequence-of-returns risk.

If market losses hit near retirement,
your portfolio may never recover—

even if long-term averages look great on paper.

That’s why income stability later matters more than
growth early.

And it’s exactly why so many “set it and forget it” plans break down when you need them most.

Cash flow beats averages.

Stability beats projections.

Question:
Had you heard of sequence-of-returns risk before this?

The U.S. housing affordability crisis isn’t a headline.
It’s a math problem.

Rents ↑ faster than wages
Construction ↓
Population migration ↑

That creates persistent demand — not a cycle.

As an investor, I don’t ask:
“Is this trendy?”

I ask:
“Does demand disappear in a recession?”

Affordable and workforce housing don’t disappear.
They tighten.

👇
Have you seen affordability change in your city over the last few years?

“Set it and forget it” doesn’t create freedom.
It creates detachment.

And detachment is dangerous.

Most investors don’t lose money because they picked the wrong deal.
They lose it because they stopped paying attention.

They outsourced:
• Awareness
• Accountability
• Understanding

And told themselves that was “passive.”

Here’s the truth no one likes to say out loud:
👉 The best investors aren’t hands-off. They’re hands-aware.

They don’t micromanage.
They don’t obsess.
But they know what’s happening with their capital.

They ask better questions.
They understand the model.
They know where returns come from and what breaks them.

Freedom isn’t absence.
Freedom is clarity + control without chaos.

If you’re totally disconnected from your investments, you don’t have freedom —
you have blind trust.

And blind trust is not a strategy.

Question:
Do you prefer being hands-off or hands-aware with your investments?
👇 Comment below. I’m curious where you land.

We invested in a $240,000 home in Phoenix, AZ. 
(Acquired the deal off market)
Renovated & 100% occupied in 2 months.

We acquired the deal with LP capital, our own capital, & a local hard money connection. 

Here’s the breakdown of the deal: 

- We acquired the property in a great neighborhood. 
- The asset itself was in poor condition. 
- We acquired the property as a 3 bed, 2 bath. 
- We spent $160,000 on the renovations. 
- After completion, it was 6 bed, 6 baths. 

Through local partnerships we established before entering the market with a non-profit, upon completion, we filled the asset in 3-days. 

Curious to learn more about our investment thesis? 

DM “Co-living” to schedule a quick 15-minute call.

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