On this episode of the On The Rise Podcast’s Faith Driven Leaders series, host Nick Stromwall sits down with Angela Wang, a finance professional with 20 years of experience who now calls herself a “finance missionary.” Angela shares how her family’s faith took root in China, why she resisted God’s call to leave a stable career for two years, and how a series of personal “exoduses” shaped her. She explains how pension consulting and private wealth management led her to bring wealth-level guidance to everyday families, pairing an AI financial steward with human advisors. A grounded conversation on surrender, stewardship, and what money is really for.

Content note: Angela briefly describes grief and a dark period after her mother’s death.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Comfort can hide what’s missing.
Angela had a loving family, a dream job, and a role at church, yet felt a deep unhappiness. Outward success doesn’t mean you’re on the path you’re called to.

2. Fear of financial dependence is a real barrier.
She turned away from God’s call for two years because she didn’t want to give up a stable income. Naming the specific fear is the first step past it.

3. Growth comes through many small exoduses.
Using Exodus-to-Canaan as a framework, Angela describes letting go of education, family, place, prestige, money, and people-pleasing as sources of identity. Each smaller release prepared her for the bigger call.

4. Let go of good things, not just bad ones.
God asks us to release dependence on anything that isn’t Him, including healthy things like a career or a degree. Your value isn’t defined by income, schools, or others’ opinions.

5. Every season prepares you for the next.
Pension consulting taught her that technology can scale personalized advice. Private wealth management showed her how complex every household’s finances are. Both became the foundation for her business.

6. Attention is the scarcest financial resource.
The industry naturally concentrates advisors, tools, and attention on the wealthy. Everyday families still need a trusted go-to for basic questions and spotting fraud, even without large assets.

7. Use AI to scale care, not replace it.
One advisor can typically serve 100 to 200 households. Angela pairs a client app and an AI-powered workspace with human advisors so more families get responsive, personal support.

8. Resources have a shelf life.
Money, time, and health are entrusted to us temporarily and lose their value if hoarded or poorly managed. Steward them generously, and make daily time in Scripture the foundation.

00:00 Welcome & How We Met

02:00 What It Means to Be a "Finance Missionary"

03:50 Resisting the Call to Leave Security

06:21 Surrender and Leaving Her Job

08:38 Exodus to Canaan: Life's Many Egypts

17:20 How Her Career Prepared Her

23:16 Bringing Wealth-Level Attention to Everyday Families

27:10 Technology and Annie, the AI Financial Steward

32:12 Why Everyone Deserves a Financial Steward

37:19 Spend for Souls & Starting Each Day in the Word

Why would a multifamily operator keep buying apartments while so many peers are handing properties back to lenders? In this sit-down, Rise48 Equity Capital Formation Manager Jason Kish asks CEO Zach Haptonstall how the firm has kept operating through what Zach calls "multifamily purgatory," and why Rise48 keeps acquiring in the Sunbelt.

Zach starts with the factor he believes matters most: the team. Many sponsors bought at the end of 2021 and in early 2022, right before interest rates spiked, and since then it has often made more economic sense for them to give deals back. Zach explains why Rise48 chose to keep fighting to protect investor capital instead. He also explains why the firm sees itself as having a 50-year runway rather than being in the business of quick flips.

From there, the conversation turns to acquisitions. Zach points to the familiar investing idea that the best opportunities show up when others are fearful. He explains how Rise48 is finding deals priced below some sellers' loan amounts, with a strong basis and attractive cap rates. Rather than trying to predict interest rates, the team focuses on what it can measure: the new construction pipeline. Zach walks through why supply data points to potential tailwinds for multifamily from 2027 through 2031. He also acknowledges that good deals are still hard to find in today's capital markets.

Jason and Zach also dig into Sunbelt migration. Is the movement of people out of California, New York, Illinois, and Washington a real driver for markets like Arizona, Texas, and the Carolinas, or just a headline? Zach breaks down how net in-migration, corporate relocations, and business-friendly policy connect to job growth, population growth, and apartment demand. They touch on major projects like TSMC in Arizona and the rise of Dallas-Fort Worth as a corporate hub. Zach also explains why Rise48 stays politically agnostic while watching how legislation shapes where people and jobs go.

Whether you are an accredited investor researching multifamily syndications, a passive investor evaluating sponsors, or someone following the real estate market, this conversation offers a direct look at how one Sunbelt operator is approaching the current cycle.

In this video:

How Rise48 has kept operating through the multifamily downturn
Why some sponsors are giving properties back to lenders
Why Rise48 keeps acquiring apartments in this market
What the construction pipeline suggests for 2027 through 2031
Whether Sunbelt migration really affects multifamily performance
How corporate relocations and policy drive job and population growth

Interested in investing in multifamily with Rise48 Equity? Visit rise48equity.com or email Jason directly at jason@rise48equity.com.

Subscribe for more real estate market updates, interest rate breakdowns, and investing insights from the Rise48 Equity team, including The Rise Report with Zach Haptonstall.

This video is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice.

0:00 Introduction
0:10 Operating Through the Downturn
1:14 Why Operators Give Properties Back
2:01 Why Rise48 Keeps Buying
2:44 The Supply Pipeline and 2027 Tailwinds
3:06 Is Sunbelt Migration Real?
4:31 Corporations Leaving Delaware
4:58 Mega Projects in Arizona and Texas
5:15 How Policy Moves Jobs and People
6:10 How to Invest with Rise48

On this episode of the On The Rise Podcast, host Jeremy Dyer talks with Scott Jones, who has spent over 30 years in franchising as a multi-unit franchisee, a franchisor executive, and CEO of a supplier serving 80,000+ locations. For the last 21 years he's advised mid-career professionals and business owners on whether franchise ownership fits their portfolio. Scott explains why he treats franchising as an alternative asset class rather than "buying a job," what separates a good semi-passive candidate from a poor one, where AI genuinely helps franchisees — and where ChatGPT gets franchise economics flatly wrong.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Franchising isn't "slinging sandwiches." Senior executives often equate franchising with buying themselves a job. Scott points to heavy institutional activity at the unit level — private equity acquiring franchises and rolling them up — as proof of real opportunity, and notes not every brand requires $3 million.

Treat it as an alternative asset class. Scott allocates across real estate and business ownership the same way, asking where he can get a superior return on investment and time. The discipline you'd apply to any investment shouldn't disappear because you like the product.

Semi-passive has a real definition. Scott's benchmark is 5 to 15 hours a week — a term he says is thrown around loosely. The business is built around a team and an infrastructure you hire, not around you running the counter.

Availability matters more than hours. The bigger question isn't how much time you have but when. If you can't take a five-minute call from your manager during the day, you need an operating partner with equity, a capable GM, or a spouse who can.

Rigid schedules aren't automatically disqualifying. Scott has worked with pilots, who have intense on-periods followed by real flexibility, and a functional medicine physician running a robust practice. The structure can be designed around the constraint.

AI is a genuine tailwind for operators. Scott sees AI absorbing the busy work that franchisees never had hours for — turning training manuals and the institutional knowledge in leaders' heads into something a brand-new franchisee can access on demand.

But AI gets franchise economics wrong. Scott asked ChatGPT what an average franchisee earns at a large brand, hit return five times, and got five wildly different answers — none correct. The reason: the FTC mandates a disclosure document, but Item 19 earnings representations are the one unformatted section, and many brands include nothing at all.

The real diligence is talking to franchisees. Scott takes whatever is in the disclosure document, speaks with a handful of existing owners — most will share their numbers if approached right — and only then builds projections he trusts. Franchising is also where he gets control: he can't control interest rates or markets, but he can control his business, and eventually own the real estate under it.

LINKS

franchiseguidegroup.com
LinkedIn: Scott Jones Franchise

00:00 Introduction

01:04 30 Years Across Every Side of Franchising

03:49 The Biggest Misconceptions

05:27 Franchising as an Asset Class

09:34 Who Should (and Shouldn't) Take the Leap

12:36 Designing Around a Rigid Schedule

16:24 Where AI Helps Franchisees

19:15 Why ChatGPT Gets Franchise Numbers Wrong

23:56 Franchising as a Hedge Against Layoffs

29:42 Where to Start With $250K