What turns a kid from Brooklyn into a leader who builds and rebuilds big businesses, then starts over again by choice? Meet Mike Tepedino, Founder and Managing Partner of Blue Light Capital, whose path runs from six gritty years in loan workouts on the “what can go wrong” side of real estate became the foundation for everything that followed.We get into the leap to brokerage, the Chinese-restaurant meeting that set up HFF’s rise, and the 2019 sale to JLL for about $2 billion, where scale brought new tools and reach but also a fresh look at purpose and timing.Now Mike is building again with Blue Light Capital, stepping into an underserved middle-market bridge space in the roughly $15 to $50 million range, and pairing that with BLNext, a nonprofit that trains college and pro athletes for real estate careers with 150 hours of Excel and Argus plus one-to-one mentors who have walked the path.If you care about discipline, people, and timing, this conversation delivers hard lessons and practical wisdom with zero fluff. Watch the full episode to hear how Mike thinks about focus, why small habits like handwritten notes still matter, and what it takes to start again when everyone thinks you are done. 00:00 – Welcome to the Show00:44 – Who Was “Little Mike”? Early Life & Personality01:38 – Two Defining Moments That Changed His Life03:01 – Discovering Discipline at 1903:48 – Being Forced Out of His Comfort Zone05:41 – Fear of Failure & The Shoebox of Quotes08:15 – Falling in Love With Real Estate as a Kid09:54 – The Mentor Who Changed Everything12:18 – Lessons in Marketing, Relationships & Handwritten Notes16:30 – The Dark Side of Real Estate: Learning From Bad Loans20:51 – Becoming a Broker & Betting on Himself23:02 – The Life-Changing Dinner With Mark Gibson28:53 – Scaling From 50 People to 1,000+30:51 – Surviving the 2008–2009 Financial Crisis33:59 – Joining JLL & Operating at Global Scale35:56 – Knowing When It’s Time to Walk Away39:41 – Launching Blue Light Capital45:11 – BLNext: Mentoring the Next Generation of Leaders49:47 – Giving Back, Purpose & Legacy51:57 – How to Connect With Mike & Final ThoughtsMike Tepedino on Socials: IG: @blnextLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-tepedino-bluelight/Blue Lights LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/blue-light-re/?viewAsMember=trueBL Next LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bl-next/?viewAsMember=trueBlue Lights Website: https://bluelightre.com/BL Next Website: https://blnext.org/Jon on Socials: IG: @thejonschultzpodcastX: @JonSchultzPodLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-jon-schultz-podcastwww.jonschultz.com

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