Food, Friends & Success: Interview with Bonneau Ansley - Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author & Real Estate Expert
James Bell: I'm here in Atlanta with business legend and good friend, Bonneau Ansley. Good morning, Bonneau.
Bonneau Ansley: Good morning, Jim.
James Bell: We're sitting in his barn, or right outside his barn, in his new house. which is a great 1920s estate that he's renovating right now. Congratulations to you and your family.
Bonneau Ansley: Having a lot of fun doing it.
James Bell: Yeah. You got a pond. You got a pond in the middle of Atlanta.
Bonneau Ansley: I do.
James Bell: In the middle of Buckhead. That's awesome.
Bonneau Ansley: We got big bass in there too, Jim.
James Bell: That's amazing. Okay. Today we're talking about food, friends, and success. You're one of the few people that I know have a great balance with success. and then leading your life with your friends and family. Let's start with food. What's your favorite restaurant in the state of Georgia?
Bonneau Ansley: In the state of Georgia, Jim, I like to go into a place that I know everybody from the valet guy to the guy opening the door to the maître d' to the waiters, waitresses, the chefs, and um, We go to the Blue Ridge Grill here in Atlanta and it just feels like home.
James Bell: I hear from the staff there because I've been doing some recon. You like your crispy bacon.
Bonneau Ansley: I do. I like the bacon crispy. Um, I don't have to, you know, usually call for a reservation, which is nice.
James Bell: And from what I understand, you have the same thing for lunch every day.
Bonneau Ansley: I do. I switch it up a little bit, but I pretty much have the same thing every day and they know what I like to have to drink. And, um, you know, And it just feels real comfortable. And, um, you know, I think everybody needs a restaurant like that. Everybody needs a restaurant where they don't need a reservation. Everybody needs a restaurant where they feel they can go anytime. And, um, I think that's important for, for business leaders and folks that are out and about just to have that one spot that is very, very comfortable.
James Bell: Right. Right. It's like being at home almost. Yeah.
Bonneau Ansley: Yeah.
James Bell: What's your favorite barbecue restaurant?
Bonneau Ansley: In, uh, in, St. Simons, Georgia, there's a place called Southern Soul.
James Bell: Oh, yes. I know it very well. Right by the airport.
Bonneau Ansley: Right by the little airport.
James Bell: Yep.
Bonneau Ansley: And they do a really, really good job. I, um, go between getting just a, you know, they call it a knuckle sandwich, which is the burnt end of, of, of the pork.
James Bell: Yep.
Bonneau Ansley: On a little slider bun, to the brisket. Um and they got just great sweet tea.
James Bell: You have to have sweet tea. Welcome to the south.
Bonneau Ansley: I drink sweet tea in the morning and I drink it for lunch. But southern soul, it's just, it's an establishment, and um, it's a great, great spot.
James Bell: It's also one of my favorites, probably the top, the top barbecue restaurant in me for Georgia also recommended to people. What’s your favorite family meal?
Bonneau Ansley: You know, my wife, uh, cooks tacos. We have taco night and it brings everybody together. The kids love it. You know, she gets a flat skillet and um, you know, grills the tortillas and does ground beef tacos. We get fresh guacamole, we get rice and beans. Um, my son eats about three or four of those. Uh, we love taco night he house. You know, we'll so food out to the barn, dogs running around, little music going. Um, that’s our favorite family meal.
James Bell: I've met your dad a few times. Do you get to spend time with him?
Bonneau Ansley: We do. Yeah, Dad and Mom have been married for 52 years, and here in Atlanta the whole time.
James Bell: I mean, half the city is named after the Ansley family. Come on. You've got Ansley Park, Ansley Mall.
Bonneau Ansley: Well, we've been here a while and, um, you know, dad is right off Peachtree Hills right now. You know, they've sold their beach house and their house here in Atlanta and, um, living with some other folks their age and, uh, and having a great sense of community where they are. And he's 82. My mom's 82. And, um, You know, we get to see them all the time. They, they, they love coming over here. My dad's favorite place is Chops.
James Bell: Sure.
Bonneau Ansley: Which is another favorite spot of mine.
James Bell: Right.
Bonneau Ansley: And, uh, we can go to Chops, you know, any time. We can sit downstairs at the lobster bar. We can sit upstairs.
James Bell: Sure.
Bonneau Ansley: And, um, you know, they have a, a wonderful filet that we, both my dad and I really enjoy.
James Bell: Love that. I love your dad. Favorite friend's meal? Like when you and your friends are either here or at the beach, what's the, you go fishing a lot with your friends, you play golf with your friends. Will you guys, when you and your wife say, hey, let's get everybody together? What does that look like?
Bonneau Ansley: You know, the friend’s meal in Atlanta is different than what it would be down at the beach. Let's start with the beach. There's no better place to Watch the sun go down, listen to bagpipers, uh, you know, look across the water to Jekyll Island and the lodge at Sea Island, Georgia. Um, you know, I like to do things while I eat and drink. And, uh, you know, as you know, I'm always thinking, I'm always moving around. And, you know, they have a little putting green out there where you can take your drink and you can putt.
James Bell: Yep.
Bonneau Ansley: See folks and see great scenery of the marsh and the water and big boats coming in. So I love, I love eating at the lodge. I just think that's a staple.
James Bell: It's so beautiful. The G8 meeting, I don't know if you know this, but the G8 meeting was there by 20 years ago,
Bonneau Ansley: Right.
James Bell: They still had the pictures inside the lodge and one of the, one of the dining rooms.
Bonneau Ansley: Sea Island is a wonderful place.
James Bell: It's a national treasure. How does food and friends feed success? Because you've combined all of this to be. The most, if not the top guy, top real estate business person, and you have other businesses also. How do you, how do you, how do you have one help the other one out?
Bonneau Ansley: Well, Jim, you know, everybody's got to eat.
James Bell: Yes. Right. And they got to sleep.
Bonneau Ansley: Everybody's got to eat. And, um, I think sitting around with a, good glass of wine with friends, uh, in a nice environment with great food really brings people together. And, um, It's a place to let your guard down,
James Bell: Right. I hear that over and over again.
Bonneau Ansley: It's a place to have honest conversations and You know, we as you do in DC when we were talking, you know, you have a lot of Meals in D.C. that are more business-related, you know, the southern meal with folks. You don't really talk about business, right? And, um, you talk about family, you talk about your hobbies, you talk about your kids and your parents. And, um, it's a great thing to immerse yourself in, in meals. And, um, yeah. something that Jen, my wife, and I love to do.
James Bell: Right. You've always been amazing hosts. I remember the first Ainsley Christmas party at your house.
Bonneau Ansley: Oh, right. There was a long time ago.
James Bell: That was a long time ago. A long time ago. Hardest kitchen table conversation. And this is a tough question. I know it is, but the kitchen table conversations have good and bad, but they also it brings out a lot of honesty and tough moments with friends and family. What was one of your toughest?
Bonneau Ansley: Well, there's been great conversations, right? There's been hard conversations. There's been sad conversations. I think probably the toughest conversation was, uh, when we had the family at my parent’s house and, you know, they lived on the second level and they were in their high seventies. And just to say, Hey guys, look, uh, you know, in my opinion, I think you guys would be. happier on living in one level and maybe having some easier places to live than what you're currently doing at the beach and here. And, um, you know, that hit him like a freight train because that was never in their thought process. Well, you know, but at the end of the day, those moves that we made earlier than they actually needed to made the transition into one-level living and. having some help and those kind of things a lot easier as they have aged. Um, that is a place where we had that conversation and, you know, it was a, it was a, a tough needed conversation and it, I think it, served its, its purpose well, uh, for where they are today.
James Bell: It's a tough chapter for every family. I know I've been through it. Does success bring happiness? Now, as you and I talked before I started this, we're staying, we're sitting in this beautiful garden. You're beautiful right outside of your beautiful new home and you're a very happy guy. But does success bring happiness?
Bonneau Ansley: Well, what, what does success mean? Right? Success is different for a lot of people, right? So success for me is not having, uh, it's having time. right time to do what I want to do with my wife and what I want to do with my kids and my friends and uh, putting in the, you know, the, the effort and time that I did early on in my career where I didn't have the time, uh, to, uh, spend with my family as much as I do now. Uh, equals success for me. And I think success is a function of having the time to do what you want to do.
James Bell: Right.
Bonneau Ansley: Um, I don't totally correlate it with, um, making a lot of money and that kind of thing. I think that people can have success in life, um, if they are, Living their best life. Right. And their best life might be different than my best life. And, or your best life, or, you know, and I think that, um, you know, success is different for a lot of folks. And, um, I haven't been motivated by, money. I've been motivated by time.
James Bell: Sure.
Bonneau Ansley: And, and flexibility.
James Bell: I think that will come as a surprise to a lot of people. You know, you're very focused on what you're doing. But you're focused on a lot of different things. But your level of focus is people who know you, um, being close to you, but also from the public side. You've always maintained this level of focus, um, to succeed in whatever you're doing and to establish that sense of quality, because there are certain things that you have backed that you've taken a step back from that you've decided that's not. That's that's not where I want to go.
Bonneau Ansley: That's not my highest and best use.
James Bell: Right.
Bonneau Ansley: Right. And one of those things, Jim was, was just stepping down as CEO running the day-to-day of,
James Bell: we both have had some challenges with that,
Bonneau Ansley: of our real estate business. And, um, you know, my, my strengths are not in the micromanaging and, you know, figuring out if we're going to be closed at two o'clock or four o'clock for a holiday, you know, my, my skills are really working deep within, what the agent wants to be successful and me helping that agent, you know, with thinking differently, right? And I've always thought differently for right or wrong. I thought a lot differently than my teachers wanted me to think in school. That's why I never excelled in school. But having the ability to, um, you know, do things the way that I want to do them, uh, is, is great. And also knowing when to step aside and letting others that might have a passion for the operations, um, and the detailed side of things is good. And I run my whole life that way. I mean, I, I've all, I, I've always said I'm smart enough to know how dumb I am. And what I mean by that is, is I only focus in life. in probably a 10 percent capacity of things that I'm ultra very, very good at. The other things I let other people do that are a lot smarter than me.
James Bell: Right. You and I are the same page.
Bonneau Ansley: And, but being able to recognize that I think is a gift and, not having the ego that wants to do everything. Um, I've also, uh, been able to say no a lot. Right. Again, goes back to value in my time. Um, you know, I, try to do things that I'm really passionate about, like being on a board or whatever else. If I'm not able to dive in and give 100%, I'm just going to pass on it because that's not a benefit for the person asking me or for me. Um, so being able to focus on things that I really want to do, um, is, is a good place.
James Bell: Yep. The two most powerful words in the English language are love and no. And I think you, Because you can see things, you can see the vision, you can see a few steps ahead of other people. I think you've learned the value of those two words, and you use them well. New York Times bestseller. And we're not talking about Bonneau's cookbook. But now that I gave him the idea, who knows? You might see Bonneau and Jen with their own cookbook. But brokering billions, my friend, you just knocked it out of the park. Congratulations.
Bonneau Ansley: Well, I appreciate that. And, you know,
James Bell: That was a new thing for you.
Bonneau Ansley: Oh, well.
James Bell: You got to get, you know, you got to get out of your comfort zone, as you told me years ago.
Bonneau Ansley: I write a list every year of things that I want to do, you know, maybe learn how to fly a seaplane, maybe learn how to, you know, throw up a 12-weight fishing rod and big fish, you know, or write a book, you know, things that are just crazy, like, Nobody would ever, I, haven't read many books. I'm dyslexic, man. I mean, like reading a book, I, I like to listen to 'em. Right. And I listen to a lot.
James Bell: Sure. That's why we're doing a podcast.
Bonneau Ansley: And I listen to a lot of books and I listen to a lot of podcasts, especially your podcast.
James Bell: Thank you.
Bonneau Ansley: Um, but I kind of had this thing on my list, like write a book and it was COVID and I had a lot of time and I start, I started writing blogs. Um, and the blogs were real honest. And, um, let my guard down a lot writing these blogs and people liked them and they wanted more of them. And, um, and then I, uh, I had a, uh, I'm, I'm a very curious person and I started a podcast also called Brokering Billions where I'd interview or have conversations with some of the top agents in the United States, actually around the, around the world. Uh, we've got this great network, this Christie's International Network, which, um, I'm a partner in and, uh, so I have access to these amazing agents and we have these amazing conversations. And, you know, I recorded them in a podcast and I took a lot of the nuggets from those 60, 80 podcasts and you know, orchestrated them in a book to help agents understand that, you know, they don't have to go to Harvard. They don't have to do this. They don't have to do this to make a lot of money, right? And you got to find your sweet spot and be obsessed with the plan to get there. And brokering billions. The book was a lot of fun and I checked the box and it was great. Am I going to write another book? I seriously doubt it. Uh, but it was a lot of fun doing it the first time.
James Bell: So 80 percent of the people that write a book only write a first book. They don't write a second book. 80%. So keep that in mind. Goals for 2024. Now we're halfway through. We're, we're in August, August 1st today. Personal and professional.
Bonneau Ansley: Yeah, I'd say my personal goals are more important than my professional goals. Uh, my personal goals is I've got, uh, my daughter leaves tomorrow to go to back to college at TCU, Texas Christian, and getting her squared away. And my son starts ninth grade at a boarding school. And, uh, that's 15 year 15-year-old boy going off to, to boarding school. And, um, he is solely focused on playing tennis. And, um, This guy, this kid, Bo, um, he wants to learn everything. I mean, he's got his boater license. He's working on his pilot's license.
James Bell: He's, he's good at golf too.
Bonneau Ansley: He's golf, tennis, you know, learning how to scuba dive, learn how to spear fish. Like the guy wants to learn everything. And my job is his dad is to be there right with him. So I think that everything professionally is taking a back seat for me this year. Now I'm still selling a lot of real estate, but goes back to putting people in place to help me do that. And wherever I am in this world, I've always got a cell phone and I've got the most amazing team. They've all been with me for probably the average is 12 or 13 years with me. And that's, that's a long time to be with somebody professionally in real estate. And I've got four or five folks that. We've got a really good team and they, they helped me do what needs to be done so we can serve our clients. And I can do that anywhere in the world.
James Bell: Sure.
Bonneau Ansley: Um, and still sell more real estate than anybody in town or in the state. So I enjoy that. And, um, but my main focus has always pretty much been on the personal side.
James Bell: That's great.
Bonneau Ansley: And if you're good on the personal side, your professional side, you know, gets the benefits of that.
James Bell: Totally agree. Totally agree. Bonneau, thank you for being on the American table today. It's been a terrific pleasure.
Bonneau Ansley: Well, I've thoroughly enjoyed it, and I've thoroughly enjoyed all the other episodes, and Look, uh, listeners out there, you can listen to all these episodes by subscribing to Jim's podcast for only $5 a month. You get all this great content and I've, I've thoroughly enjoyed being on here with you.