Love People Through Housing (with Lane Beene)

Listen to the Bigger Than Business Podcast’s interview with Lane Beene on your favorite podcast providers!

How can recognizing the need to pivot your plans lead to a bigger sense of purpose? How can facing the reality that you are better off partnering with others, rather than going it alone, build greater success? Listen as our guest shares with us how following a highly successful career as a leader in the Air Force, he built a real estate business that serves the community through housing in what he calls the “second mile,” and also helps others reclaim their time to pursue their life’s passion.

Bio:

Lane Beene has accomplished two professional dreams so far in his lifetime: He became an Air Force fighter pilot, eventually becoming a Lt. Colonel, and he founded a real estate business which eventually led to investing in and restoring distressed multifamily properties with a vision to help these housing communities and their tenants flourish. Lane’s core business values are: Think Big, Love people through housing, and something he calls the 2nd Mile Effort. Lane earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1991 from the United States Air Force Academy, and a Master of Business Administration from Sul Ross State University in 1997. Lane and his wife, Dana, life in Crowley, Texas, and have two children in college.

Pilot-Legacy

Love People Through Housing

By Jeff Holler

Breaking into a new industry can feel like going after a pinata at a birthday party. You’re blindfolded and constantly swinging, but never sure when you will strike the blow that opens up all the rewards.

This is Lane Beene’s analogy of transitioning from investing in single-family rentals to multi-family dwellings and apartment buildings in the Texas Triangle.

“The problem was,” Lane chuckles, “I wasn’t even in the right room with the pinata!”

That lightness of spirit and the passion that Lane brings to his business makes it easy to understand the core values of his company, Pilot-Legacy Private Equity Group. They are:

• Think big
• Love people through housing
• The second mile effort

He shares that the key to his success has been the leadership skills he originally learned as a combat squadron commander of over 300 aviators in the U.S. Air Force. Lane attributes those skills to helping him partner with others that each bring specific skill sets to the table to build a powerful, focused team. But it didn’t come easily.

Along the way he learned some powerful insights that apply to both the people he works with and the investors with whom he partners.

Think Big to Gain the Support of Your Team

“The difference in building a team in civilian society,” Lane reflects, “is that I had work to earn each individual’s respect. In the military you just tell them what to do and they are obligated to do it. You can’t do that in the civilian world.”

This required being able to articulate a grander vision to those around him.

“You have to build a team where they understand the mission clearly and then win their support. I had to take my leadership skill set and transition that to a very different vocabulary to foster encouragement and teamwork.”

Love People Through Housing

The second lesson is the key to Lane’s success with investors: taking the long view and connecting others with their calling.

“My goal is to help my investors so they can bring benefit to their larger community and have a greater impact. When people have to work 50 to 60 hours a week to meet their financial requirements, it’s oftentimes the limiting factor on pursuing a higher calling.

“What I love to do with my investors is tell them, ‘Hey, let’s partner for long-term success, so that we can help you achieve your financial goals through the vehicle of real estate investing.’ Then once they get to that point of financial security, freedom and lifestyle becomes possible.”

“We start getting their most valuable resource back into their own control – their time. Once they control their time, now they can spend it on their higher calling: working with the Boy Scouts, working in their community, city government or their church to minister.

“If I can help them by creating passive streams of income then they may be able to better serve or better participate in their true life passion. That’s what energizes me and why I think we’re successful.”

The Second Mile Effort

To learn about Lane’s value of “Second Mile Effort” I invite you to listen to our interview as he shares examples of how he promotes and perpetuates each of his core values personally and in his company’s culture.

You will also discover:

• Why he chose to invest in the Texas Triangle.
• The key to successful relationships with investors, employees, tenants, and the surrounding community.
• His fascinating side business that provides aerial ‘sparring partners’ to help train F-22 and F-35 fighter pilots.