Common Denominator with Moshe Popack

Rod Khleif built an enormous real estate portfolio, owned hundreds of rental homes and thousands of apartment units, and watched his net worth grow by $17 million in a single year. Then 2008 happened and he says he lost roughly $50 million. In this episode, I sit down with Rod to talk about what actually went wrong, the mistakes he made managing hundreds of single-family rentals, and the lessons t...

Florida insurance has become one of the biggest conversations for property owners, homeowners, developers, and investors and understanding why prices move requires looking deeper than the premium on your policy. In this episode, I sit down with Brian and Paul Remer of Remer Insurance to talk about what’s happening inside Florida’s insurance market, from recent property insurance pricing changes to...

Florida has experienced extraordinary growth over the last several years. People moved here. Businesses moved here. Capital moved here. But success creates its own challenges. In this episode, I share my perspective on what Florida needs to think about as it enters its next chapter. The question isn’t simply how we keep growing—it’s how we grow well. Housing affordability, property insurance, infr...

The pandemic fundamentally changed how people work, and some office buildings were hit hard. But in South Florida, we’re seeing a very different story depending on the property, location, quality, and economics of the deal. In this video, I share how I think about office real estate and why I never want a headline to make an investment decision for me. Two office buildings can be just a few miles...

If you put a multifamily deal in front of me today, I’m not going to start with the pool, the gym, or the lobby. I want to know who lives there, what they can actually afford, what they’re paying today, what else is being built nearby, and most importantly, what I’m paying for the property. There’s a tremendous amount of multifamily development happening across Miami and South Florida. I’m a big b...

A few weeks ago, we closed a $30 million refinance on Park Towers, a 210-unit multifamily property in Miami that we’ve owned since 2012. We secured long-term, fixed-rate financing at 6.09% in a lending environment that many people still describe as difficult. But I think saying “banks aren’t lending” misses the bigger picture. Capital is available. The real questions are who can access it, which d...

Israeli activist and filmmaker Rudy Rochman joins Moshe Popack on Common Denominator for a wide-ranging conversation about Jewish identity, purpose, faith, communication, and the next chapter of Jewish history. Rudy explains why he prefers the word “activist” over “advocate,” arguing that meaningful change requires more than supporting a cause; it requires becoming an active participant in creatin...

AI is everywhere right now, in our news feeds, our workplaces, and increasingly, our investment portfolios. But a real debate has started among investors and analysts, and it's not about whether AI is real. It's about whether the economics behind it are as strong as everyone believes. In this episode, I break down the circular nature of AI investment, where the same companies funding AI startups a...

Barak Swarttz lost 30,000 followers in two weeks for speaking the truth about Israel after October 7 but he didn’t stop. Today, he coaches NBA and WNBA players and leads the global movement GRIT For Good. In this episode, Moshe Popack sits down with Barak to explore the inner work that most high performers skip and why skipping it is exactly what keeps them stuck. From the map of consciousness to...

At 20 years old, Mendel Vile was hit by an anti-tank missile in Gaza. His friend took the blast to save the team. Mendel woke up in a hospital bed, unable to walk and made a decision that changed everything. This episode is about what happens when life takes everything from you and you choose to rebuild anyway. The mindset Mendel developed under the worst circumstances is the same mindset that sep...

Ana Bozovic is the founder of Analytics Miami and one of the most data-driven voices in South Florida real estate.  In this episode, Ana explains why the shift away from 20th-century economic epicenters like New York and California isn’t just a trend, it’s a structural change that’s still in its early stages. We discuss: - The IRS and census data behind the wealth migration - Why active listings f...

Omar Morales is a top South Florida real estate broker specializing in land and multifamily asset deals that move hundreds of millions and reshape neighborhoods.  In this episode - How incentive structures drove overleveraged investors to ruin in 2021 and 2022 - Why parts of Miami’s rental market are a bloodbath for owners but a goldmine for renters - Where the nation’s largest multifamily funds a...

For millions of viewers, Montel Williams was a trusted voice in daytime television for nearly two decades. But long before the Emmy Award-winning talk show, Montel served as a Naval officer, overcame adversity, and developed the mindset that would define his entire life. In this conversation, Montel reflects on growing up during segregation, becoming one of the first African Americans to graduate...

Jeremy Abramson lost his dream job and found out his girlfriend had been cheating on him in the same week. He was 23. He had no plan. He drove cross-country to Miami in a Honda CRV and slept in his car for 9 nights.  Today, he coaches top executives and entrepreneurs on mindset, movement, and purpose and hosts one of the most talked-about Shabbat dinners in Miami. In this episode of Common Denomin...

Roland Peralta had $500 in the bank, a bankruptcy on his record, and rheumatoid arthritis flaring up. What he also had was a formula he'd developed in his rent-controlled apartment one that accidentally started regrowing his hair. That formula became Nutrafol. The #1 dermatologist recommended hair growth supplement in the U.S. Acquired by Unilever.  In this episode of Common Denominator, Moshe...

In 2009, Moshe Popack had no job, no income, three kids, and all his savings in a wedding envelope. That was the moment he understood something nobody tells you: nobody is coming to save you.  In this episode of Common Denominator, Moshe breaks down the mindset that took him from that moment to building a real estate portfolio of 4,000+ units and what it has to do with the loneliness epidemic, the...

Most founders fail not because of their idea. They fail because of who they are. Lew Frankfort built Coach from $6M to $5B over 35 years and now invests in early-stage founders. In this episode of Common Denominator, he breaks down the founder mindset, the leadership frameworks, and the hard lessons behind scaling a business from the ground up including why ego kills more companies than bad ideas,...

The mindset shift that ends overthinking for good starts with one decision... Stop waiting for clarity and start building it. Coming back from time away is always a reset. You step out of your routine, disconnect a little and then reality hits all at once.  Full calendar.  Full inbox.  Everything waiting.  But here's what I've learned after years of building businesses and raising a family...

He lost his childhood dog. His father worked at a print shop. And that combination sparked a business that now generates over $1M a month. I sat down with Oleg known as The Pillow Guy and what started as a conversation about business turned into one of the most honest talks I've had on this show. Oleg sold 20,000 pillows in a single 3-day Groupon event, walked into Walmart headquarters with a...

I always believed in “work hard, play hard.” But lately, I’ve realized… that mindset misses the point. Coming out of spring break, something hit me hard—it wasn’t the time away from work that mattered. It was the time with family. My kids. My brother. Friends I hadn’t seen in too long. The conversations, the laughter, the feeling of being fully there. And it made me question everything. Because th...

What does it take to build real conviction when nothing is handed to you? In this episode of Common Denominator, I sit down with Jay Roberts,  founder of Prosper Group, for a conversation that starts with adoption, adversity, and identity—and expands into ambition, resilience, and the future of Miami real estate. Jay shares how being born in South Korea, adopted into a modest American household, a...

I couldn’t stop thinking about this: the Pentagon is hiring investment bankers to deploy over $200 billion… and once you understand why, you start to see how the world really works. In this solo episode of Common Denominator, I break down what’s actually happening behind that headline and why it has everything to do with your life, your money, and your future. This isn’t just about defense or geop...

I sat down with John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman, and what he shared completely shifted my perspective. We talk about how global power really works—from the World Bank and IMF to how countries are pushed into debt traps that benefit corporations, not people. But this isn’t just about geopolitics… it’s about awareness, responsibility, and what each of us can actually do. Th...

I lost my job in 2009. And with it, my income, my confidence, and my sense of identity. This isn’t theory. This isn’t strategy from a book. This is my real story. How I went from uncertainty during the financial crisis to building 4,000+ units and millions of square feet in real estate… one disciplined decision at a time. In this solo episode of Common Denominator, I break down the moment everythi...

AI is fueling a massive data center boom, but does America actually have the power to keep up? In this episode of Common Denominator, I sit down with Mark Mills to dig into one of the most pressing questions in the country right now: can our energy infrastructure truly support the rise of AI? Mark Mills is a physicist, energy expert, and author who focuses on how technologies like AI and data cent...