February 12, 1977

I was born in Brownwood, Texas, to Rex and Nancy Mayes.  I was their firstborn, and they were young parents—Dad was 21 and Mom was 19.  Fifteen months later, on May 21, 1978, my younger brother, Aaron Matthew Mayes, was born.  We grew up about 12 miles southwest of Coleman on a small 100-acre ranch. 

Dad was a high school agricultural science teacher, and Mom was employed at a small independent insurance agency.  Life on the ranch was simple but meaningful. I still remember doing chores one summer before my freshman year of high school, riding back home on the four-wheeler. That day, I witnessed something that would change my world—I saw my parents in a fight. It wasn't a common occurrence, but this time it was different.

Dad struggled with alcoholism, and I later found out that Mom had been seeing someone else. At that very moment, my world seemed to come crashing down right in front of me. Most of my friends' parents were married, and I had never considered that mine could divorce. It wasn't as common back then, or at least I wasn't as aware of it. Somehow, I thought the separation and ultimate divorce reflected poorly on me, as though it tarnished my identity. 

Looking back to that time, I think I subconsciously responded by aiming to "do well and get out of here". As a kid, I remember I used to joke that my name meant I wanted to get  "PAid a TON of money".  Oh, how my priorities were misguided from an early age.  

Despite the challenges, I want to make one thing clear: I love my parents unconditionally. While the enemy may have intended their decisions for harm, God has used those experiences to shape my life in profound and positive ways. Through it all, I’ve come to see His redemptive power at work, even in the hardest moments.

Andrea was born in Palestine, Texas, to Steve and Laurie Hicks.  She was the younger of two daughters, with her sister Amy being twenty months her senior. Like many young parents, Laurie and Steve began their journey early, with Laurie at 20 and Steve at 22.  

I graduated as valedictorian from Coleman High School, a class of 58 students. Interestingly, the top four students in the class all went on to attend Texas A&M University. However, my high school years were marked by many poor choices. I frequently turned to drinking alcohol as a way to "fit in" and numb the pain of growing up in a broken family. I also pursued relationships for all the wrong reasons, driven by misplaced priorities. Despite these poor choices, I thrived in school and made very good grades, which set me up for future success.

Immediately after graduating high school, I moved to College Station to begin classes at Texas A&M. I was eager to "escape" and begin a fresh chapter of my life. I chose to live in an off-campus apartment with my friend Rob. While we had a great time, I wish I had lived on campus to further expand my network and build stronger connections.  

At the time, I struggled with self-doubt. I was shy during my time there and Satan told me that "all of these kids are better than you" - they all have money, are from bigger cities, and have parents who are married. As a result, I did not take the opportunity to get involved in the numerous organizations on campus and tended to hang out with people that I already knew from Coleman.  

Despite this, I did find a great job at Aggieland Printing, which allowed me to work while attending school. I don't remember ever skipping a class and graduated with my B.S. in Agribusiness in three years with a 3.97 GPA (that one B came in an elective 'American Business History' that I took the spring semester of my freshman year—I could still kick myself for enrolling in that class!).  

Although I had no clear career direction, I had several four-year scholarships that required me to continue my education or forfeit the funds. I decided to pursue an MBA, even though Mays Business School required two years of work experience. Without that experience, I had to convince the admissions team that I could compete with candidates who had it—and they admitted me.

During business school, I had the opportunity to work as a teaching assistant for Dr. Bala Shetty, who taught statistics.  One day, Dr. Shetty told me, "Payton, I think you should go work on Wall Street". I was taken aback and replied, "New York City? I'm not going up there". At the time, I had no idea what Wall Street or New York City entailed.  

Growing up, travel was limited for me. Our family vacations mostly revolved around showing steers at the major stock shows in Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Houston. The furthest I had traveled as a child was a trip to California in eighth grade to visit my grandfather and I remember going to Branson, Missouri, in junior high with my grandmother. Beyond that, my life and travel had widely centered around Texas.

That all changed on May 24, 1999, when I took my first solo trip to New York for Aggies on Wall Street (AOWS). Each summer, this program brought about 20 students to New York City to meet former Texas A&M students working in areas like investment banking, sales and trading, private equity, and asset management. That trip opened my eyes to a whole other world outside Texas. 

During the program, I had the privilege of meeting two amazing mentors, B.R. Adams and Britt Harris, both of whom I still greatly admire to this day. 

I was intrigued about the possibilities of a career in New York and began networking to make it happen.  

In the fall of 1999, during my 2nd year of business school, I flew up to New York every 3-4 weeks to meet with professionals and expand my network. One evening, while attending a high school football game in Coleman, my former superintendent, Dr. Skip Casey, mentioned he had heard I was considering New York. He suggested I reach out to Chad Johnson, the son of one of his childhood friends, who worked in the city. Dr. Casey thought Chad could offer valuable insights as a fellow Texan navigating life in New York. 

On one of my visits, I met Chad and some of his colleagues from UBS. That meeting turned out to be a pivotal moment—Chad offered me a job in UBS's real estate balance sheet lending group. On December 28, 1999, I moved to New York to start my career. I lived at 235 West 48th Street, between Broadway and 8th Avenue, which was conveniently close to my office at 299 Park Avenue, also on 48th Street. The short walk to my first job marked the beginning of an exciting new chapter.

When I started at UBS, I approached the job with enthusiasm, eager to learn. I felt like a sponge, soaking up every bit of knowledge because I had no prior experience. A few months into my role, Chad, the person who had hired me, informed me that he and a few colleagues were moving to Deutsche Bank. This news left me feeling insecure—why wasn’t I invited to join them? I questioned my value, but in hindsight, it made sense. I didn’t have enough experience to be part of their transition.

Despite those initial doubts, I remained incredibly grateful to Chad for giving me my first opportunity. The team at UBS rallied around me, and within a few weeks, I regained my confidence. I embraced the challenges, continued to grow, and focused on making the most of the opportunities in front of me.

In May 2000, I attended a chili cookoff hosted by the New York A&M Club and New York Texas Exes to raise money for scholarships. A few months earlier, I had met an Aggie named Mike Enmon at a happy hour. Mike worked at Merrill Lynch, and during the event, he mentioned he’d heard I was looking for a job. I told him I wasn’t—I explained that while my boss had left UBS for Deutsche Bank, I was comfortable at UBS.

Mike then shared something that stuck with me. He said, “Payton, you have no idea what the opportunity is, and you’re already saying no. Here’s one piece of advice: don't ever disregard an opportunity without knowing what it is". His words resonated with me, and I agreed to explore the possibility. A few days later, I met Mike Nash at a Cosi sandwich shop in the World Financial Center for an interview.

Mike explained that his group at Merrill Lynch invested the firm’s balance sheet capital in real estate opportunities. They worked across the capital stack, from acquiring distressed senior debt to investing equity, in all asset types, at both the asset and operating company levels, and across the globe. I had no idea what any of that meant at the time, but we hit it off during the interview. Mike offered me a job.

The role came with a $10,000 lower salary than what I was earning at UBS, and I remember thinking, Who leaves a job to make less money? Mike, however, assured me that the salary difference would become insignificant if I performed well. I took his advice and accepted the offer. My first day at Merrill Lynch was July 5, 2000.

In the first month or two, they asked if I had a passport. Confused, I replied, “What’s a passport?” They explained it was the little blue book required for international travel and told me I needed to get one. I was surprised to learn they wanted me to spend a few weeks in Seoul, South Korea, with their Asia team. My initial thought was, I don’t even know what I’m doing here, and they want me to go to South Korea?

That trip was the first of many international experiences, marking the start of an incredible journey. The opportunity at Merrill Lynch was truly a game changer, shaping my career in ways I could have never imagined.

I remember that morning well - it was a beautiful clear, sunny day.  I had to take the E train from Midtown to the World Trade Center stop and then walk across the street to the office. I worked on a trading floor, the 7th floor of 4 World Financial Center/250 Vesey Street. Our group was situated on the edge of the floor and there were multiple televisions. The news was covering an accident of a small plane running into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. 

My mom was an avid Today Show fan which covered the incident and she had called because she knew it was across the street from our office building. 

The second plane crashed into the South Tower while the world watched. The situation on our floor immediately changed and everyone started evacuating. I remember the person who ran research on U.S. Treasuries who was seated close to us yelling, “We’re under attack! Get out". I don't remember exactly how long it took to evacuate but it felt like a while because we used the stairs and there were a lot of people trying to exit at the same time. I was in shock because I never felt in any real danger and walked up the West Side Highway to my apartment in Midtown. 

I don't think the reality of what happened sunk in until I started watching the news when I arrived home. While the actions of terrorists on that day caused immense pain and grief for countless folks, in the aftermath I remember feeling a sense of patriotism that I'd never experienced before and the vast majority of Americans were united in purpose to destroy the those who attacked our way of life.   

My brother Matthew was getting married in Buffalo Gap, south of Abilene, and I was in the wedding. I had met his fiancé Sandy a few times and liked her. I always thought weddings were a great place to meet people but Matthew and I were very different and I didn't think I would meet anyone at the wedding. Well, God had different plans. 

Andrea had met Sandy in a class at Tarrant County Community College and Andrea was in the wedding. I thought she was very attractive and after I gave a short speech at the rehearsal dinner, I asked her two questions. I have to say that at that point, I was very shy and very picky when it came to girls - not a good combination. I quit drinking in December 2013 (more on that later down the page), but that night I had some "liquid courage" in me. I first asked her if she would dance to George Strait's "Amarillo by Morning" and the second question was, "When are we going to get married?".

I was very moved by everything about Andrea - she was very attractive and easy to talk to. We hit it off and it was one of those situations where we talked for 3-4 hours on the phone every night and it felt like 15 minutes (she was in college and living in DFW and I was in New York). I learned from Andrea a week or two after meeting that she had a sister, Amy, who was 20 months older than Andrea and was making arrangements to move to New York. I said, "Wait a minute, you have an older sister (who is 4 years younger than me) about to move to New York? Does she look like you?". In my defense, it was early in our relationship and it was a compliment. 

As may be obvious, I am very sentimental and created a book "First Year of Dating Memories" in Christmas 2011 for Andrea that memorializes most of our email communication during our first year of dating.  

I invited Andrea to spend some time together in New York, and our first date was on February 13. We went to a Toby Keith concert that night. On the next evening, February 14, we were having drinks at the Time Warner Center when Andrea shared more of her story. She told me that her parents had also divorced when she was entering high school. However, an additional part of her story caught my attention—she had discovered that she had another baby sister.

I asked Andrea how she managed to stay strong during that time in her life, and she explained that her strength came from a relationship with Jesus and the support of her church community. Then she asked me where I stood. I remember feeling uncomfortable and told her that I believed in God but didn’t know what a relationship with Jesus meant. Growing up, I probably went to church only 2–3 times a year with my grandmother, and I never understood what the pastor was saying.

Looking back, I recall a paper I wrote about the holidays in 1985 when I was eight years old. At that time, I thought Easter was about the Easter Bunny and Christmas was about Santa Claus. Even during my years at A&M, I didn’t know how to spell Jesus and never took advantage of the many opportunities to learn more about Him.

Andrea made it clear that her faith was important to her. I was very attracted to her, and if it mattered to her, I decided it should matter to me as well.  I knew a couple of friends that attended a church in New York called The Journey, so I decided to check it out the following weekend.

It was unlike any church I had ever experienced. The worship music was incredible, and the messages were practical and engaging. At first, my motivations for going were wrong—I went for Andrea, and later thought, "This is great for me". What I didn’t understand at the time was that I was meant to be there to worship and praise God for who He is, what He has done, and what He will continue to do.

While I enjoyed attending, I approached it as something to "check off the list" each Sunday. Throughout the week, I went about my life without a biblical worldview, only to return to church the following Sunday.

I remember the afternoon of Sunday, April 18, 2004, as if it were yesterday. I was sitting on the couch in my living room. By that time, I had moved into a condo I purchased in November 2002 at 53rd and Seventh Avenue. That afternoon, I felt a distinct nudge from the Holy Spirit urging me to talk to my dad about his drinking.

The only time I had ever spoken to him about it before was in the spring of 1995, during my senior year of high school. We were at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, and that conversation didn’t go well. Still, I couldn’t ignore the prompting I felt, so I called him from the couch and told him that I thought he had a problem with alcohol.

To my surprise, he responded, “I know I do. I’ve tried to quit, and I can't”. Hearing those words was music to my ears. From what I understood, acknowledging the problem was half the battle. I told him there were places that could help and began researching options for him. I found a treatment center in Abilene that seemed like a good fit. On Monday, April 26, 2004, he entered treatment.

Andrea and I were emotionally, spiritually, and physically attracted to each other and had sex early in the relationship.  I remember being at a hotel room in Beaverton, Oregon on October 21, 2005, and I had a feeling from God that something was not right in our relationship. I called Andrea in Texas and told her that I did not think it was going to work out. The next month, I had a one-night stand and felt very guilty even though Andrea and I had broken up. 

The blessing in that mistake was it revealed that I cared about Andrea more than I thought I did. Andrea was in college at TCU and I called her to see what she was doing during her Christmas break. I invited her to New York to reconnect.  I was not transparent about my poor choice.  

Andrea and I typically saw each other at least twice a month—either I would fly to Texas, or she would fly to New York. On the last weekend of January 2006, I flew to DFW for a critical conversation about our relationship. This weekend was meant to determine whether we should go our separate ways or commit to building something meaningful together.

We had lunch at Mi Cocina in the Galleria, and during the meal, Andrea shared that she had been seeing someone else while we were dating. I responded casually, saying, “That’s okay, can you pass the chips?” I then told her that she clearly didn’t know me very well—while I might not know much, I do know how to ask good questions. The fact that I hadn’t asked anything about her situation should have been a sign that I wasn’t exactly an angel either.

Later that day, while Andrea was in the restroom, my phone rang. To my surprise, it was “the other guy". He told me he was in love with Andrea and knew all about me. He said he thought I was a decent guy but felt I was too career-focused and that Andrea needed someone who could be more present and take better care of her. I thanked him for the call and said that Andrea and I could figure it out ourselves.

When Andrea returned from the restroom, I told her about the call, and she began to cry. I asked her to “just tell me the truth,” and she shared more details about the situation. After hearing everything, I told her that all signs pointed to us going our separate ways. Both of our parents had been divorced, and infidelity had played a role in both cases, making it seem like history was repeating itself.

The problem was, that I still cared deeply for Andrea and wasn’t sure what to do. Andrea suggested we seek the help of a Christian counselor, which seemed like the next step in navigating our complicated situation.

Andrea found a counselor, Dr. Richard Clark, and our first visit with him was on February 1, 2006. We still see him weekly - going on almost 19 years now. Dr. Clark has been a tremendous positive influence in our lives and absolutely the best investment that I’ve ever made. After we were with him for ~12 years, I asked him, “Are you Jesus?”. He’s one of the wisest people I’ve ever met.  

On our first visit, we started giving Dr. Clark the background and he had a number of questions. The recommendation I remember the most was, “I highly recommend that you quit having sex. First of all, it’s not biblical and in line with God’s best for your relationship. Second, it clouds your judgment - you can’t even think straight when you have that on your mind".  He asked our thoughts on abstaining.  We both said, "yes, we can do that".  

Well, we committed until we didn’t (Andrea couldn't keep her hands off of me - just kidding!). We were not successful in keeping our commitment to abstaining and I admire people that are.  It's like flying first class.  Once you've done that, you don't want to go back to coach.  

Andrea sent me a message and told me we needed to talk. She was in her spring semester at TCU. I called her from my office in New York and she told me she was pregnant. That news hit me like a ton of bricks.  

From the outside, I think a lot of folks would say that I had a great life and it was going much better than planned. I had grown up relatively isolated in a rural place in Central Texas where my parents probably had a combined income of $50,000. Now I had a great career in NYC and was able to travel to many places in the U.S. and all over the world. Well, this pregnancy was not planned and I’m ashamed to say that I told Andrea that I thought she should consider an abortion. I was very selfish.  

Praise Jesus that Andrea was firm in that decision and we had Dr. Clark to help us walk through that time. While this was major news, it wasn’t a reason to get married. I promised to support Andrea and the baby but there were  things in our relationship that we needed to work on before deciding if marriage was God’s will. Thank God we had Dr. Clark during this time. One of the hardest things I had to do was tell people - I felt like a failure.  

Through a lot of prayers and work with Dr. Clark, I was confident that God’s plan was for Andrea and I to be united in marriage. The engagement wasn’t fancy - she was giving me a shoulder massage in her mom’s house in Bedford and I took her hand and asked if she would marry me.  

I had arrived in NYC from a redeye flight from Santiago, Chile on the morning of November 8 and looked forward to a good night's sleep in my own bed. Andrea called me late that night and said she thought she was going into labor (she was in Texas). This was a couple of weeks earlier than the due date. I was able to book the earliest flight out of LaGuardia to DFW and arrived at Lewisville Medical Center ~45 minutes before our son, Merritt Coleman Mayes was born.

I was so clueless about what to do as a father but loved that little boy more than you could possibly imagine. I thank God continuously that He intervened when Satan spread the lies in my head about how having a child when I wasn’t ready would be a burden. Merritt is a huge blessing and I'm super proud of him!  I worked in Texas for the last few weeks of 2006 and the three of us flew back to NYC after Christmas to begin our life together.

Andrea and I chose to get married at Makena Beach in Maui. It was a simple affair, just the two of us. When we flew back to Texas we had a reception for friends and family on the rooftop of Reata in downtown Fort Worth.  

We had moved from Manhattan to Summit, NJ in the summer of 2007 to have more room to raise our little family of three. Little did we know at the time, that family was quickly growing. Channing Grace Mayes was born on March 6, 2008, and she was a bundle of joy. To our knowledge, she was the first Mayes girl to be born in decades and she had me wrapped around her finger from day one.  

For those who have a career that's directly impacted by the capital markets, you remember this time well. This is the day that Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. Bank of America announced it was acquiring Merrill Lynch to save it from having the same fate. 

I remember Andrea and I laying in bed one night and she said she wanted to move back to Texas. My travel schedule had become more intense as I was spending a couple of weeks a month in South America (even though I always flew home for the weekends) and even when I wasn't traveling, I was typically leaving the house early in the morning and arriving home late at night after a long day in the office.

Andrea was a young mom (25 years old) and was the primary caregiver raising two children under two years old. I wasn't a great husband or father. We attended a great church in Summit but did not take the opportunity to get plugged in. 

At that point, I had been working in NYC for almost ten years which was much longer than I ever thought I would. What little money we had saved would go further in Texas than it would in the Northeast. When Bank of America acquired Merrill Lynch, they said they didn't really want to be in the real estate private equity business but more importantly, with the regulations we'd be under, they really couldn't be. We had ~$8 billion of assets under management across the region. 

This was the time when most of the large investment banks were shedding their headcount to bring costs down and the firm was offering voluntary reduction in force packages. I figured it was a great time to accept the relatively small package and move back to Texas.  

We didn't know exactly where we wanted to live in Texas. Andrea grew up in Kilgore, about 140 miles east of DFW Airport and I grew up in Coleman, about 180 miles west of DFW Airport. The DFW area was roughly in the middle and had a relatively healthy economy where I had a decent opportunity of finding another job. But turns out - I didn't have to. I was offered the opportunity to stay at Merrill Lynch and help them wind down that business. 

We moved to Southlake on August 7, 2009.  Southlake was ~10 minutes from DFW Airport which was an important factor because I commuted to NYC most weeks and traveled fairly often to South America and Europe.  

Even though I was on the road more than I was at home when we moved back to Texas, Andrea and I were intentional about "quality time together" when I was home. Our third child, Stella Pearl Mayes, was born on March 5, 2010. 

A few years later on the weekend of the girls' birthdays, one of our friends asked us "wait a minute, you have two girls born on March 5 and 6 two years apart, what happens in early June?" That was an easy answer. I told him Channing and Stella were both conceived at the Coleman Rodeo.  

Andrea elbowed me in the stomach and said out loud, "Well, not AT the rodeo".  If you know anything about Coleman, you know that the rodeo is always a lot of fun. 

When we were living in NY/NJ, we would fly back to DFW during Christmas,   get a rental car load up the kids in the car seats, and drive ~1,000 miles all over Texas visiting folks. We wanted to get a place where we could come back to and people could come see us if they wanted.  

We didn't end up buying anything before moving back to Texas but we were still on the hunt.  My aunt Pati was a realtor in Coleman and became aware of an opportunity that seemed like a good fit.  We closed on our first 381 acres about 10 miles northeast of Coleman near a former community called Echo.

I had fond memories of Echo growing up because one of my best buddies Cole Dodson was always talking about Echo. He farmed the land there and his father Henry was raised on the ranch. The only structure on the ranch was an old barn. We built a shop with an 800 sf apartment and tore down the barn to build a bunkhouse with reclaimed material from the barn. 

Since then, we've made a few additional purchases and now own ~2,900 acres.  It's a place that has brought our family and friends an escape from the hustle and bustle of city living and Lord willing, will be used to advance the Kingdom for multiple generations.  

I had been attending church weekly since 2004 and trying to do what I thought was right. I was successful from a worldly perspective but was working for the wrong reasons—earning money was the primary goal. The same drive that helped me accomplish more than I had ever dreamed kept me from fully following Jesus. It took a sleepless night on an international flight to get my attention.  

On that flight from Sao Paulo to DFW, I heard a loud “banging sound” as I tried to get some rest. I looked around and other passengers were sound asleep and I wondered how in the world they could sleep through that noise. I saw a beverage cart and thought it may be the culprit of the noise and asked the flight attendant if she could adjust it so it wouldn’t make the noise. She looked at me like I was crazy – because she didn’t hear a thing.  

God really got my attention that night. I sensed the Holy Spirit asking, “Why do you do what you do?  You are focused on the wrong thing because earning more money will never make you happy. Trust

me and follow me and I will take care of everything else". I thought I was a Christian, but that night I realized that I had only been going through the motions spiritually. 

I realized that God loved me so much that He sacrificed his only son to die for my sins – I never really grasped that or fully appreciated what it meant but it was then crystal clear to me.  I had to change the way I was living and start pursuing a real relationship with Jesus, not just for salvation but to experience heaven on earth and fully immerse myself in His Kingdom.  I arrived home that morning and told Andrea what happened.

When Merrill Lynch retained me to help them wind down the real estate private equity business, I had a retention contract that was back-ended because I was working myself out of a job. Over ~3 years, we made significant progress monetizing the assets, and in mid-2011, the firm wanted to do a bulk sale where they would sell everything that was remaining to one buyer.

We had a strong relationship with Blackstone because we had partnered on multiple project-level investments before, and they had assumed control of our Asia operations post-financial crisis. Mike Nash, who had hired me at Merrill Lynch and was my boss there for almost seven years, had left Merrill for Blackstone back in 2007 to start their real estate debt group. The portfolio was ~$4 billion in real estate, in 19 different joint ventures, 8 different countries, and 3 continents—needless to say, it was complicated, and Blackstone was a natural choice to be a steward of those assets.

Over a period of a few months, we worked with Blackstone during their due diligence process, and on February 24, 2012, I officially left Merrill Lynch to start Cephas Partners, the entity we created to partner with Blackstone on the acquisition and help them manage the assets. That transaction triggered a payment from Merrill Lynch to me that, in Wall Street terms, wasn't a lot of money, but if you grew up on a small ranch in Texas, it was a significant sum. For the first time in my life, I actually had savings that could last a lifetime if we modified our lifestyle.

Blackstone owned a number of portfolio companies in the DFW metroplex and asked me where I'd like to office. I politely declined and said that I'd been traveling ~1,500 miles to the office each week and that I wanted to work right next to my house (this was before the work-from-home craze was popular). I found an inexpensive office suite less than a mile from my house. I was frugal and wasn't too discerning because the suite was on the 2nd floor of this office building without any natural light.

I didn't realize it when I signed the lease, but there was band practice in the basement a few days a week, and I couldn't schedule conference calls on several afternoons because of the noise. Satan used that as an opportunity to start filling my head with all kinds of lies. He said, "All that 'success' you had... it was all luck. Your life is downhill from here. You'll be lucky if you can get a job flipping burgers at McDonald's when this is over".

From the outside, I think people would have looked at me and thought I was crazy. I was married to a gorgeous wife, and we had three beautiful children five years old and under. We had some money in the bank and an attractive financial arrangement managing assets I was familiar with on behalf of Blackstone, the largest and most successful real estate private equity group in the world.

Why was it, then, that I didn't appreciate those blessings and only focused on the negative? I went from having an office in the GM Building at the southeast corner of Central Park in NYC to a "less than ideal" office in Southlake. More importantly, I went from being around a lot of people on a weekly basis to primarily talking to people on the phone.

It was crazy that a few months prior, I had this experience on the flight where I clearly heard from the Lord to quit chasing the money. I finally had a little, and then I felt awful. I know way too much of my identity was based on what I was doing for a living instead of being content with being a child of God, and a husband and father. This was a great opportunity to refocus on my relationship with my family and Jesus.

Thank the Lord I had Andrea and Dr. Clark to help me walk through that period of depression. I ended up leasing a new office in a building with a lot of light and was more intentional about expanding my network. 

My mentor, Britt Harris, hosted the Austin Christian Business Summit, and Andrea and I arranged our schedule so that we could attend. It was a wonderful event where Joel Manby shared part of his story, and it was very encouraging. I remember Britt hosting a small gathering after the event, where I had a couple of glasses of wine. I didn't know then that those would be my last drinks of alcohol.

On the drive back to Southlake, I had the idea to throw my dad a 10-year sobriety party. He had entered treatment on April 26, 2004, and I looked at the calendar to find that April 26, 2014, was a Saturday—the perfect day for a celebration. I thought that God couldn't have lined it up any better. Andrea and I called my dad's then-wife and asked if they had any plans for that day, as we wanted it to be a surprise. She said they did not. Later that night, however, she texted us to say that he was drinking again.

While I was disappointed, I was thankfully closer to Jesus than I'd ever been. It was just a hurdle on the journey. I drove to Coleman on December 19 and arrived to find him lying on the couch, not in good shape. I asked what he was doing, and he said he'd hurt his back and just needed something to make the pain go away. I reminded him that he had told me back in 2004 that if he didn’t stop drinking, he’d either end up dead or in jail, and neither of those options was good. He decided to go back to treatment.

Looking back, I realize I was too persuasive in convincing him to go. I think he went for others and not for himself, which is a critical distinction when it comes to recovery. But on the drive that night from Coleman to Abilene, I had a flashback.

A couple of months earlier, on a beautiful October night, Andrea and I had dinner on the patio of Mi Dia, a great Mexican food place in Grapevine. One of my vices was a good margarita. The next morning, I told Andrea, "Those shrimp tacos must have had something in them because I don’t feel good". She replied, "It wasn’t the shrimp tacos—you drank too much!"

I tell people I drank more in high school than I did in college. When I started working in NYC, I drank socially. Now, married to Andrea and with three kiddos, I probably drank a couple of times a month, and I don’t think I ever had an addiction to alcohol. But that night, I wondered: what benefit do I really get out of drinking? Wouldn’t it be better to quit drinking and protect myself against ever developing an addiction—something many in my family, including my father, had battled for years?

I saw how destructive addictions could be and just didn’t see the benefit of playing with fire. Right then and there, I decided to quit drinking, and I haven’t looked back since. I still have a great time at parties and feel so much better. Best of all, Merritt, Channing, and Stella are growing up in a home where they know you don’t need alcohol to have a good time.

I feel strongly that the Lord has honored that decision, and I’m passionate about helping others and their families who struggle with addiction.

As mentioned above, I had moved offices to escape the dark suite to one with much more light. It was located at the northwest corner of Highway 114 and Carroll Avenue.  

While there, I met Don Dykstra who founded Bloomfield Homes. I got to know Don better when he and his colleague subleased a couple of offices from me. Don introduced me to his partner, Atsushi Iwasaki, at Sumitomo Forestry on January 4, 2014. It was a great meeting but I had no idea at the time what seeds God was planting.  

On the drive back from the Austin Christian Business Summit in December 2013, Andrea and I kept talking about stories and how people's stories are so powerful. I was thinking about trying to encourage people to tell their stories using a simple video created on an iPhone. If you go to Google and type in "Christian testimony videos," you will find thousands of examples. 

I started doing some research and found an organization called The 3:15 Project, The founder Todd Miechiels started 3:15 to empower Christians to know and share their story wholeheartedly and to help the Church better steward testimony and technology to help lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. The ministry is named after 1 Peter 3:15, "But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to answer everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect".  

I reached out to Todd to learn more and we hit it off. I asked Todd how I could help and he asked, "Are you ready to share your story?" I told him that I was pretty busy and I wasn't sure if it was a good time.  Oh, how it's so easy to recommend things to others but when it comes to me taking a bold step, that was a different matter. I know that Satan was also feeding my head full of lies like, "What will people think of you if you do this?  How will it impact your career?"  

Thankfully, it didn't take me long to realize that the most important thing in my life was my relationship with Jesus and if doing this video to tell others what He meant to me caused fallout in my career, well that was okay because Jesus was number one in my life - not my career. Although I know this is clear, I have continued to struggle with putting work above everything in different seasons of my life.  

I'm grateful for His grace (and that from Andrea, Merritt, Channing, and Stella).  Todd flew in from Atlanta and filmed my story on my 37th birthday.  God has used the story to help me connect with others who share my passion for Jesus and those who are not believers but are curious. 

I had always wanted to build a house and in the summer of 2013, we started construction in Westlake. We had purchased a different lot in Vaquero, another community in Westlake back in the spring of 2012 and we were ~50% through the stage of drawing plans for the house but both Andrea and I didn't feel peace with moving forward. 

This was around the same time I was thinking my career might be flipping burgers at McDonald's, so it might not be prudent to invest savings building a house on the same street as NFL great Jason Witten's house and across the street from Hall of Famer LaDainian Tomlinson. 

So we pivoted to a different project. We moved into that house on January 15, 2015, and three days later, we got a new puppy named Milo. I was initially very close-minded to getting a dog that would be indoors. I grew up out in the country and we always had dogs but they lived outside. I thought an indoor dog would make our house stink - and it was a brand-new house. 

Plus, why did we need something else to take care of?  We already had three kiddos.  Oh, how wrong I was.  Milo had an immediate positive impact on our family.  

We had been living in our house for 8 months and it was a nice summer day (if those exist in early September).  I was in our front yard getting the mail when I noticed this vehicle driving slowly with its window rolled down. I like to talk to people and I asked if they needed anything or had any questions. They were considering purchasing the lot next door to build their own house. I told them how much we enjoyed the neighborhood and shared my phone number if I could help in any way. They ended up purchasing the lot.  

The people who purchased the lot were Mike and Karen Murray. Mike and I got to know each other and hit it off. Mike was the Chief Operating Officer of D.R. Horton, the largest single-family homebuilder in the country.  I was vaguely familiar with D.R. Horton because I worked on a transaction at Merrill Lynch in the early 2000s that involved a hedging strategy with homebuilders.

My assignment at Blackstone through Cephas Partners was winding down and I was looking to get back in a platform environment. Mike introduced me to some of his colleagues at Horton and I enjoyed meeting them. I didn't know anything about homebuilding but I like learning new things.  The opportunity arose for me to join D.R. Horton and my first day there was May 10, 2017. The day prior, Andrea and I drove my Dad to treatment at Rob's Ranch in Purcell, OK.  

D.R. Horton takes some of its leaders on a trip every year or so and it just so happened there was a Baltic cruise scheduled for late June that Andrea and I were able to attend. On that cruise, I overheard someone saying how much they enjoyed their church. 

At that time, our family was plugged in at a church near our home. We originally started attending because they had a great Mother's Day out program. We also had many friends at the church but in that season we were feeling a little stale.  

The flight back from Europe arrived at DFW on Saturday afternoon and I purposely did not sign us up to volunteer the next day because I wasn't sure how tired we'd be. Well, I woke early in the morning and was ready to go to church. Our middle child, Channing, went with me. 

But instead of attending the church we'd always attended, I wanted to try out this new church that I'd overheard someone saying such positive things about.  Our first visit to 121 Community Church was on July 2, 2017. I remember sitting down and absolutely loving the worship music and message that the lead pastor, Ross Sawyers, shared.

When the service was over, I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was my buddy Rick Drew who I knew from Sunday school at our church. He asked what I was doing there and I asked what he was doing there. It was a sign from God that this was our new church.

I met Ross in the lobby after service and had lunch with him shortly thereafter. I met with our former pastors and explained why we were leaving and they were very gracious. The trajectory of my relationship with Jesus was changed that day. Ross has stretched our family in many positive ways and I'm grateful for God providing clarity that 121 Community Church was our new home.  

One of my assignments at D.R. Horton was helping them think about scaling their multifamily development platform which they had recently started de novo. D.R. started his company building one house in 1978 and has been tremendously successful in that space, currently building ~90k houses a year. In the past, they had sold what land might be best suited for multifamily rental development to third-party developers and D.R. made the decision that he'd prefer to develop this at the company rather than sell the land to third parties.

The multifamily division, called DHIC Communities, had started three projects and D.R. wanted to significantly grow. The multifamily market is much more fragmented than the single-family market.  The top 10 single-family developers in the U.S. control ~60% of the market while the top 10 multifamily developers control ~15% of the market.  

I was expanding my relationships in the multifamily space so that I could learn more about the industry.  I was meeting with my friend, Jason Pettigrew at No Fences Land Co., and he introduced me to Steve Scott who said he wanted to introduce me to one of the largest and most successful multifamily developers in the market, Bobby Page and Brad Taylor at JPI. That was October 23, 2017, I remember that day well. 

I walked into the lobby and read the "Owner's Values" etched in stone.  The first one was to "Be Faithful and Obedient to God". I hit it off with Bobby and called him the next day to see when he could meet again. He asked if I was free that afternoon to meet at the Men of Nehemiah. 

I remember pulling up at the Men of Nehemiah and I met Clarence, the cook, who was 62 years old. I told Clarence about my dad who was also 62.  I'll never forget Clarence saying, "Boy, I just started living when I turned 62. You tell your father the best is yet to come". Bobby served on the board at the MoN and showed me around the facility. When we were leaving, I asked if Bobby would ever consider selling the JPI platform.  He said, "Yes, under the right circumstances". 

Within a week or so of meeting Bobby at the MoN, JPI shared a lot of background information. We put together a one-page term sheet that turned into a ten-page term sheet (and then some).  

The last two months of 2017 and the first two months of 2018 included several sleepless nights that those who are familiar with the M&A space know well.  You're very tired but at the same time the adrenaline of "the deal" keeps you going.  

I'll never forget the day of February 27, 2018. I thought we were making good progress towards getting a deal done but the leadership at D.R. Horton decided we should pass. I've always said that I respected the leaders who had built the largest single-family builder in the country and were incredibly successful doing it. I didn't understand the decision to pass but that was okay. God's plan was a lot better than my plan.  

After a lot of reflection and prayer, I decided to resign from D.R. Horton.  It was a difficult decision because I had developed some great friendships and the company had a lot of competitive advantages in the residential development space.  

That said, I felt God calling me to something different although I didn't know what that was. Mollie Fadule, who I started working with in 2006 as my partner at Merrill Lynch and then Cephas Partners, was also in transition.  We decided to focus on Cephas Partners and added two partners, Anthony Bruster and Bryan Larson who were raising capital in the litigation finance space.  

I had never heard of litigation finance but love learning new things.  Anthony and Bryan were great teachers and together we raised some capital to invest in that space as well as making a few small private equity investments in operating companies.  

I was enjoying the different pace at Cephas and learning something new, but I did miss the "platform" environment. 

Brad Taylor, who was leading JPI on a day-to-day basis, reached out to me on July 2 and asked how I was doing.  I remember Andrea and I had just returned from a getaway to the Oregon Coast and the temperature difference (60s in Oregon to 100s in TX was noticeable). I told Brad I was thankful for air conditioning and thought God had another platform opportunity for me but I wasn't sure what it was. 

He asked me if I'd be interested in leading JPI's Texas operations.  I told Brad, "You know that I'm not a multifamily developer or general contractor" and he said, "Yes, we have great team members who know what they are doing on a day-to-day basis but they could use a fresh perspective and some leadership".

We were scheduled to leave the U.S. in mid-July to go to Rwanda to serve with Edify so I quickly met a few of JPI's partners before I left. The time away with my family serving others was exactly what I needed to clear my head and make an informed decision.  

I officially joined JPI as an Executive Vice President, Managing Partner for the Central Region on August 19, 2019.  I remember being there for a week or so and thinking to myself, "I'm not sure what they need me to do. They seem to be operating just fine without me". The team was wonderful in teaching me the ropes and helping me get up to speed on how we do what we do.  

Six and a half months after I joined, the world changed when our country was effectively shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We had to make a lot of decisions without a lot of information.  

Thankfully, we were able to keep our job sites open. Unfortunately, in the absence of functioning capital markets, we had to make the difficult choice to downsize the JPI operation so that we could protect the assets that we were stewarding. The markets started to thaw in late 2020 and by early 2021, we had much more confidence in the near-term ability to capitalize projects and therefore grow.  

Bobby asked if I'd be interested in leading the company and on May 3, 2021, I was named CEO. One of my first moves was to recruit Mollie to be my partner as she's absolutely one of the hardest-working, smartest, and most trusting people I've ever worked with. She had just completed a taxing season with Katerra, a technology-driven construction company that had raised a reported $2 billion from Softbank and others but ultimately failed.  She recognized the opportunity to make a significant impact in the residential space and agreed to join.    

On December 26, 2018, I reached out to Don Dykstra at Bloomfield to see if he thought Atsushi would have an interest in learning more about JPI.  Atsushi was and we met with Bobby in early 2019 (before I was a member of the team). Sumitomo invested in their first JPI project in August 2019 to get to know the company better for a potential platform acquisition.  

On May 18, 2022, we had dinner with Sumitomo's leadership team at the Capital Grille in Dallas to discuss the broad outlines of an acquisition. On February 6, 2023, a few weeks after Mollie and I had visited Tokyo to meet Sumitomo's team there, we signed a letter of intent whereby Sumitomo Forestry would partner with Mollie and me to acquire the JPI platform.  

Scott Turner first met Bobby Page while serving as the Executive Director of the White House Opportunity Zone and Revitalization Council. After the administration changed following the 2020 elections, Bobby invited Scott to consult with JPI. I met Scott for the first time over breakfast in 2022 at the Original Pancake House off of Belt Line Rd in Dallas. That meeting left a strong impression on me - I knew then I wanted to spend more time with him.

On March 20, 2023, we had lunch at the Cork & Pig in Las Colinas and had a conversation I’ll never forget. I’ve often said that pride is my greatest struggle, so I asked Scott how he dealt with it, especially given the praise he receives regularly on such a public stage. Scott shared something profound: he starts every morning on his knees, praising God before his feet even hit the ground.

I confessed to Scott that I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been on my knees in prayer - it was rare, to say the least. Inspired by his practice, I began adopting that posture, and it was a game changer for my relationship with Jesus. Someone once taught me the acronym PRAY as a guide, which I use during this time:

• P stands for Praise: thanking God for His blessings.
• R stands for Repent: confessing where I’ve fallen short.
• A stands for Ask: bringing specific needs and people in prayer.
• Y stands for Yield: surrendering everything to God’s will.

I joked with Scott that I'm not nearly as athletic as him and if I tried to get out of bed without my feet touching the ground, I’d probably hurt myself. But even with my adjustments, the practice has profoundly impacted my faith.

A few weeks later, Scott joined me for a visit to San Diego to meet with our team and tour some job sites.  Merritt went with us and a photo from that trip is on this site. On the flight back to DFW on April 11, 2023, I shared how much I valued our time together and expressed my hope for more of it in the future. Scott echoed the sentiment. Fast forward a few weeks, and Scott officially joined JPI as Chief Visionary Officer. His leadership, compassion, and encouragement became invaluable to me and our team.

On November 22, 2024, President Trump nominated Scott to serve as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development - a role I believe he will thrive in. If confirmed, Scott will become the first HUD Secretary with direct private-sector experience in the housing industry before his nomination - a testament to his remarkable qualifications and his time at JPI. This clip of Scott speaking to the cabinet during the first administration is a source of encouragement to me and a glimpse of the great things to come.  Scott also serves as a pastor and has delivered many great messages.  This one titled The Lord's Faithfulness Through the Storm unpacks some of Scott's story and is one of my favorites.  

After eight months of extensive due diligence and legal fees that would rival our national debt (only half kidding), we signed the definitive agreement on September 29, 2023, and closed on November 30.  

We were incredibly grateful for Bobby's faith in us stewarding JPI, His company, for the next season and for our new partners that provided additional working capital to grow and a long-term mindset (they were founded in 1691).