Welcome back to the She’s Wild the Podcast for Women In Land & Development. Today’s guest is Gina Wieczorek. Gina is the Co-founder of Casitas, a full-service ADU development and consulting firm involved in all phases of the design, permitting and development process within the single family, multifamily and affordable housing sector.
Welcome back to the She’s Wild the Podcast for Women In Land & Development. Today’s guest is Gina Wieczorek. Gina is the Co-founder of Casitas, a full-service ADU development and consulting firm involved in all phases of the design, permitting and development process within the single family, multifamily and affordable housing sector. As an Orange County native, Gina grew up with a true passion for Southern California residential design and always design and develops projects with the final user in mind, providing housing that renters and homeowners are proud to call their home in the communities in which she builds. Thoughtful and architecturally significant design, from the facade to the interiors, is always a key component to all projects Gina undertakes.
In today's episode, Gina and I discuss ADU’s and how they play such a big role in her niche business model. She offers a wide variety of advice throughout today’s episode that is sure to inspire you to chase after the next goal you are working toward.
Memorable Moments:
13:33- It's very hard to start something without having a tremendous access to capital. And, you know, a lot of women in this industry don't have that.
15:41- Everyone kept coming to us is like the resource or guru for how do we add this? What do we have? What is the legislation allow for? And then it became the go-to? And I'm like, No, we could start a business out of this. Right?
17:03- I think also COVID taught us a lot of lessons. There are opportunities that have existed. Because of that, I think a lot of people had a hard time and trying to figure out how to navigate what would happen next if they lost their job or if they did lose their job.
18:55- I think that one lesson learned is you'll always be able to figure it out. We're resourceful, and we'll be able to figure things out, right? And don't not do something because you're scared. I also think time is too precious and too short not go after and do something that you're passionate about and what you love. And if that means pivoting into a completely different career, or within the sector doing something else, like, do it, you know, don't stay stuck in something, right? Just because, yes, you're getting a check at the end of the day.
20:21- I think there's nothing like being able to look at something and saying, hey, I built this, like, this is mine; I still go by that project that's on Melrose cry in Hollywood, you know, and I really proud, like, when I drive by it, like, the role that I had to play in that. And so that is one of the most exciting parts about my job.
25:44- One thing I do think is that sometimes women don't like to ask, and if you don't ask you never will receive.
35:04- I don't even think being persistent is obnoxious, I think shows you that you're passionate about something and you want the opportunity.
Connect with Nancy:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/nancysurak
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancysurak/
Website: www.nancysurak.com
Connect with Gina:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ginawieczorek/
Website: https://casitas.la/
Gina’s Podcast Recommendation’s:
Nancy's Hype Playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0caHUGjUv8vfWiJxFOE61B?si=qSyjXD_gRmW9oSlNDMIuKg
Nancy's Fast Driving Playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/00YC8ND05duS0uU6VBXxRv?si=MoSGR_KITLCFdXfpgyy_Ow
Nancy Surak00:00
Welcome to She's Wild, the podcast for women and land in development. I'm your host, Nancy Surak. I created this podcast as a way to collect conversations of women in the land and development industry. I've been a land broker on the west coast of Florida for nearly 20 years. And I love to empower other women and to tell them about this amazing industry. But I find often that there just aren't enough women being featured on big stages, whether that's at local conferences, or nationally. So I set out to find these women myself that are killing it in my business across North America that are changing the communities that they live in every single day, whether they're building condos, multifamily, single family, office, or industrial projects. I hope that you will find this space to be inspirational, motivating, and educational. From time to time, I will feature women who are not only in my business, but also career coaches, and motivational speakers. I welcome to she's wild, the podcast for women and land development. Today's guest is Gina Wieczorek, out of California. Gina, welcome to the show. I'm so excited to have you here. I always love to have a female developer, so that we can get into all the good stuff. But why don't you do an introduction tell us a little bit more about who you are and what you're doing in your current company.
Gina Wieczorek 01:31
Sure. So thanks, Nancy. I'm really happy to be here and honored for the opportunity. As Nancy said, my name is Gina Wieczorek. I'm the co founder of a company called Casitas. We're a full service ADU development and consulting firm. We're involved in all phases of the design, permitting and development process within single family, multifamily affordable housing, specifically when it comes to ADU use. And then we also are recently investors. So we just got our first property as a firm, not too long ago, which is exciting, and we're looking for more opportunities like that. So I'll can tell you a little bit about our investment criteria later.
Nancy Surak 02:14
Awesome. So for those folks who may not know what an ADU is, can you tell us what is an ADU?
Gina Wieczorek02:20
ADU. It is an additional dwelling unit sorry, an accessory dwelling unit and ADUs are legal in a lot of states now, but California has passed a lot of legislation. Sir, most recently, January 2020. There's more legislation that Governor Newsom will be signing pertaining to ADU use, but that it's legal to add rights to multifamily buildings. So before I think lots of people think of ADUs is you know, granny flats or is they've parish houses, they've been called a lot of things. But they usually are in single family are an additional house that could be used for family members for rental income and single family. But we specialize in adding units to multifamily properties. And there's a little bit of different rules for add many instead of just one, depending on the size of your property.
Nancy Surak03:19
Okay, so is. So it's not necessarily a dwelling unit, or is it a dwelling unit somewhere or something?
Gina Wieczorek03:26
Yeah, yeah, even on its accessory dwelling unit. It's also an additional unit where someone would live. So it's just when it comes to multifamily buildings, it'd be like any other apartment that you would live in, and the building basically would look like that just attached to the multifamily building. And those again, will look like any apartment you'd move into within the building. And then there's detached and those can be two standalone. And you know that more likely, you would see on a duplex or four plex with another two additional units in the back apartment apartments are a little houses basically.
Nancy Surak 04:01
So I know here on the west coast of Florida, we're seeing some of this activity and some of the more expensive markets where folks are really getting priced out of the primary structure. And so someone's building an accessory structure in their yard, in some cases, especially closer to like more urban centers is that where your concentration is more in like more urban settings.
Gina Wieczorek 04:24
It's actually all over so probably 50% of our business right now is in Los Angeles County. But we have projects that range all the way down from San Diego, Orange County here about all I mean, LA is comprised of 80 cities, I believe that's right. And all over all over Los Angeles County, and then all the way to Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo. We're doing this so we haven't hit Northern California yet. But this instance is so locally to the state of California. We're primarily here. We do advise cities that are looking to change their laws and legislation to allow for more growth of ad use. We have an eye with another partner of our Samantha Hill. Because we work we also have, we also consult with cities. So we have two programs with cities where we're consultants, are there affordable ad pilot programs, and a lot of cities are trying this. And so we will, you know, hop on zooms with them and kind of share best practices if they would like to do a similar pilot program. And then also, I know it's been a big, big push right now with with the White House and with AARP is trying to push to get more states to allow great use. You know, we are in a housing crisis, especially California. So California is using that to meet their regional housing numbers or Rena numbers, and they either use count towards that I think ADUs are now 20% of new of current what's being permitted of housing stock in California right now.
Nancy Surak 06:01
Okay, wow, that's a lot. I didn't realize that the percentage was that high. I know, over here in Florida, over in St. Petersburg, Florida, we have a pretty robust YIMBI program. I think you're involved with that in California as well. And it's sort of along those same lines is really, at least here on the local level. They're trying to really help local municipalities kind of face like what needs to be in the code, what should be in the code, what should not be in the code, those sorts of things, but also educate neighborhoods, that this is actually a really good thing to allow exactly what you said another adu into a property that, you know, might be right on the edge of downtown. But for whatever reason, that big yard is really not useful anymore. But you could put in, you know, a few structures back there. So just one but in some cases, two, three or four.
Gina Wieczorek 06:51
Yeah, she's really cool thing. I think that it's that I mean, it's all about kind of flexibility. And even for a single family homeowner, I'm either, you know, ADUs can help you become an owner because you can't afford that mortgage on your own without having that additional rental income. You know, as your household changes as you as you have children, you know, you can the kids come back who come back from school can live in that adu or, you know, as your mother or father get older, they can live there. And then in fact, when you when you want to downsize when you're older, you can live in the ADU and rent out like that, or give your children or family you know, the primary residence. So it is about like housing flexibility, which I don't think sometimes we've thought of before, because I know it's differently. Definitely in California, you know, we're still looking at household demographics and population like it's the 1950s doesn't look the same anymore. Not even close.
Nancy Surak 07:48
Yeah, no, I totally get that. Okay. So I want to go back a little bit. Did you actually go to college for real estate? Or did you start off in a different industry and find your way here.
Gina Wieczorek 08:00
So I actually I went to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and did my undergrad in business, I wasn't gonna do something in business, but I actually concentrated in marketing. My first job out of school was at a marketing agency. And then after that, I actually found myself at a company and about 2007, that's focused was in real estate. And that was obviously a very interesting time in real estate. But I was working for a company, a real estate disposition Corporation, called auction.com. And the owners just found really creative ways. And they were had always been in real estate to all the real, right. So when times were good, they were doing they had different different business model. When we started to have the recession, the Great Recession, they, they changed their business model completely. And they always seemed they always knew what to do and how to stay credible and have those relationships in order to kind of change. So that was kind of my first foray into real estate and working with developers. And then later on, I did go to grad school at NYU, and I knew I want to stay in real estate. I knew I wanted to be a developer. And so I did. My focus was in real estate there in grad school.
Nancy Surak 09:11
Nice. So you were at New York University in Manhattan. That must have been a lot of fun. Tell me a little bit more about your experience in New York City.
Gina Wieczorek 09:20
Sure. And I went to Stern, so the business school but I did think about going there's also you know, anybody who was in real estate and I, I strongly encourage people to get their MRED to they know that they want to do that. It's a little bit shorter of a program and super rough, more relevant to real estate. But I do stern and I did do the real estate program there. But out in New York was amazing. I mean, I just have fun. I'm going to be there in a couple of weeks. Going to go back, Alex but it was really great. I mean, just coming from it's completely different worlds than California and it was really fun to go to school in an urban center Cal Poly San Luis Obispo probably most people don't really know it, but it's like an it's kind of an agriculture center, although close to this. So it's like night and day, going to like going to school and Greenwich Village and I did that. I did that MBA part time while I worked full time. So I was still within the industry while I was doing that.
Nancy Surak 10:19
So did you work in with the development field company or when you were in New York,
Gina Wieczorek 10:24
When I was when I was in New York before school, or while I was in school, sorry, um, I left Auction, I was still I moved with them to New York Auction.com and then I just had, I got into school. And I basically, I think they were at the point where they're gonna ask me to move back to California and for people reporting to me, they were all in California. Times were changing. And, and I, I saw that was going to happen. But before that, I happened to get an opportunity from someone that I used to work with that used to be in HR at the company. And we've since moved on. And there was a position business development position of architects and construction managers, and interior designers and developers to help grow this. And that was both specified and large luxury projects. And so I was there first person on the ground just had to figure out basically the role. We created a showroom in the beautiful, and one of the Arts and Design Center in New York City together. And it was I was able to go to school and kind of work a lot of stuff in the evening like events and everything as we do in this in this industry. And it was, it was amazing to get to work on some of those types of projects to be in those type of projects. And although I loved those projects, so much, did want to build some of them in New York, I knew I just wanted to end up back in California. Building a little bit lower cities, smaller scale,
Nancy Surak 11:54
Right. So you spent some time in New York, you moved back to California, when did you decide to create your own firm?
Gina Wieczorek 12:03
Um, so when I was when I left New York, my last role there was at Tishman and I was working on huge, huge projects that I probably, you know, maybe if I'm lucky enough to be able to fill something like that in the future, but probably not, you know, and I do. California is where home is. And so when I moved back here, I was building a couple offers with homebuilders. And then I actually ran into a classmate who had built who had started his own business, his uncle had a real estate business. And it was more on a smaller scale building, working on buildings and projects, multifamily that was under 100 units. And he convinced me to come out there and work for him. And for examples company, how I started and so I started working on the owner side, basically overseeing like portfolio of value out properties and acting as the kind of director of development and construction. That particular owner didn't like to just have a GC. So we hired all the subs ourselves and manage them ourselves on all of our projects. And then we did have one project that was in Hollywood across from Paramount Studios, it was a do one unit ground up. And we did I helped hired the GC for that and, and worked with the GC daily on the build out of that project. So
Nancy Surak 13:18
What a great opportunity for you to I mean, I'm just listening to your career path. And I'm like, Well, you kind of touched everything. So it's great.
Gina Wieczorek 13:25
I thank you I hope there's more time. But you know, I think it was great experience because you know, it's very hard to start something without having a tremendous access to capital. And, you know, a lot of women in this industry don't have that. And it is there is New York, it is a little boys club and all the families that if you want to be a developer, most of the time, but to be a successful developer, you have to have family. Well, you know, and there's not that many people who've made it just kind of bootstrapping it there. Right as that as a developer, I thought the barriers were a little lower 10 tree in California. If you wanted to do something, you could do it on a smaller scale here and builds that up. And while I was working for other people, we one of the projects we were working on, we had some multifamily renovation projects, value add projects going on. But we had we were working on a tower that was a 30. It was a existing tower. Where adaptive reuse was the plan. It was an we had it under contract for $32 million. And we were working on basically changing them to all residential units and then adding levels above the part of four story parking garage and other five levels of floors of units was a really huge project. And when COVID happens, I kind of saw the writing on the wall and I knew that was going to become what I call the COVID Casualty as it did and sorry amount of time when they were trying to work things out with that owner and I was working on other projects. I started this little side project that I had with an RFP that I had won with my colleague Samantha Hill. And I brought a friend of at the time and her slogan was now my business partner onto the this project is working with the City of Pasadena on an affordable ad pilot program didn't know what ad use were, until my friend asked me to join her as part of this RFP, and found out all about them. And I was working on this just kind of on the side while I was while I was doing, you know, my job, and found out that they pertain to multifamily. And Andrew and I both work with owners, and we're just like with everyone kept coming to us is like the resource or girl for how do we add this? What do we have? What is the legislation allow for? And then it became the go to? And I'm like, No, we could start a business out of this. Right? I mean, really, we know what we're helping everybody. And we're consulting brokers, we're consulting property managers, owners, like how to do how to add units, and like this could be, this could be a really niche business, and kind of get us to where we want to be, which is, you know, investors and investing in projects ourselves and redeveloping projects. And also, hopefully, we'll be working on some ground up stuff in the future as well. So that's kind of how it started.
Nancy Surak16:20
I love it. I just interviewed someone a few weeks ago, who was just telling me how she was in the consulting space, that she had left a homebuilder, she got into the consulting space, and part of her consulting role was she was able to get behind the financial side. So she was looking at all these numbers, and she's like, wait, what's there margin. And then she said, Holy crap, like, I have the sales background, I have, you know, the financial background, I have all the consulting background, and she woke up one day, and she said, I'm gonna start my own building company. So that's what she did.
Gina Wieczorek16:52
That's great. Yeah. I think that just sometimes things happen, you know, you're somewhere at the right time, or, I mean, I think also COVID taught us a lot of lessons. Um, and you know, there are opportunities have existed. Because of that, I think a lot of people had a hard time and trying to figure out how to navigate what would happen next, if they have lost their job, or if they did lose their job. And I think, you know, Andrew, and I just got ahead of it, my business partner has always worked for himself. So when we started to put we put two casino casinos together, you know, we didn't have a big amount of money to put into the business, like a stack of a stack of cash just to get started. But we ended up not really needing it. And that was the kind of nice thing about providing consulting services, like at first, and then it really grew. And we were, I mean, we're both a referral based business, we were lucky that we got our first year was all referrals, and continues to be a dominant part of our business. But, you know, as real estate, it's all about your relationships and actions. And so, fortunately enough, we were able to utilize those when we started our business.
Nancy Surak18:08
Right now, that's a fantastic story. So tell me, you touched on the lessons that you learned, like along the way, and you mentioned that there were a lot of lessons in COVID. When you look back at your career, and I know you still have a long way ahead of you. But when you look backwards, what's a lesson that you learned that you are particularly thankful for today that you can say like, that was a really pivotal moment in my career?
Gina Wieczorek18:30
Um, I think that, you know, I always knew I wanted to be a developer and do development and multifamily space. And I just never thought that I was going to be able to do it this soon. And maybe it was, it's stemmed out of, you know, something more unfortunate like that, that allowed us to do that and thought, like, hey, why not give it a go. But I think that, you know, one lesson learned is, you'll always be able to figure it out, you know, we're resourceful. And we'll be able to figure things out, right, and don't do something because you're scared, you know, and I think also time is too precious and too short, not go after and do something that you're passionate about and what you love. And if that means pivoting into completely different career, or within the sector doing something else, like, do it, you know, don't stay stuck in something, right? Just because, yes, you're getting a check at the end of the day.
Nancy Surak19:28
Absolutely. That's I tell all my friends, like if it has to serve you, if it's not serving you, then you have to sort of say, Is this what you really want? And if the answer is anything other than Hell, yes. Like you need to figure out what you're doing next.
Gina Wieczorek19:42
Right. I think we'll be working for a while. So we might as well love what we do.
Nancy Surak19:45
Absolutely. So when you think about what you're doing right now, what is your most favorite part of like a typical week or a typical month? Like what when you think about the services and the projects that you're involved with? What do you absolutely love the most?
Gina Wieczorek19:59
I think, you know, one of my favorite parts is getting once we are able to get our building permit. And we started to just like love seeing the progress on site. You know, when I first was working for the first owner, my day would spend half my day on my project sites, just visiting all of our contractors and seeing like the progress and I think there's nothing like being able to look at something and saying, hey, I built this, like, this is mine, I still go by that project that's on Melrose cry in Hollywood, you know, and I really proud, like, when I drive by it, like, the role that I had to play in that. And so that is one of the most exciting parts about my job. And then I also think, just, for me, I love design. And so when I get to work with, like, get hands on, on on the design aspect, that's like, you know, having calls with the architects and designers and figuring things out and layouts, and like, you know, also gets me really excited, because there's a lot of parts also about my job that aren't as exciting.
Nancy Surak21:00
It's a lot of parts and pieces, right? And a lot of steps. There's so many processes. I mean, it's like a lot. I mean, I know I, I tell people that have told the story in the podcast, I GCd, my own home, where I live today, and I haven't built anything else. Literally I was the general contractor with my husband, I was the superintendent, I was the person who walked the site every day. You know, I my poor children, they were in an age where they can actually help us. So we didn't have laborers on the weekends, we would come to the construction site. And we would put our kids to work, we'd be like, alright, there's a, there's a pilot, you know, concrete, we need to break that up. Here's a sledge hammer, you know, and they were like, 12, looking at us like, and I would I taught them I was like, This is what sweat equity is, you know, and now that the house is too big, because they're both grown and out of the house. And we keep saying, Oh, we think we're gonna sell the house. They're like, we can't, you can't sell. We built that house with you. They take such a pride and ownership. So, you know, we give him a little bit of taste of that. So I get it. But all I mean, I had such design fatigue after I built my own house, because I had you had to make every single decision. Every doorknob every door, every window, every banister piece. So when you're doing it on a much grander scale, it's a lot, right?
Gina Wieczorek22:22
Yeah. Yeah, it is. It's funny, we're building. So we're, you know, renovating the, the property we got before we believe the ADUs on them, and just the existing. And I have a project worksheet that I put together at one of my one of my old firms. And I also will give that to you know, that if any of our clients that don't already have a spec sheet and like, okay, if you're really give us if you don't have a spec sheet already, you know, you don't have a program because some of our some of our clients are more sophisticated owners than others. And I'm like, here's what you need to fill out. And then there's a lot of stuff that I took one for our products that my favorite piece, and other other jobs, you know that set that up, but it is fun to see it. So the progress photos, seeing the progress photos on our own projects, like every day, it's really exciting, it's almost done. And then we're going to do some of those in a similar fashion.
Nancy Surak23:21
Yeah, and then you'll find a new project, it is a really cool industry. I know when I interview a lot of my guests for the show, a lot of people do share that, it's really remarkable to know that you're changing, actually changing the fabric of a community here, you're building things where people are truly living or working, or where they find recreation. And how fulfilling that is, you know, so I get it, you know, I'm on the very, very front end of the deal as a land broker. But I take equal pride in those projects when they're done as well. Right? And, you know, I love nothing more than for a developer that I've sold a piece of land to, for them to say, Hey, can you come see the site like, or can you come to our grand opening? I'm like, of course, like, I am so excited to see the end result I it's, I love the deal. I love the transaction. But that's one of my favorite parts, too, is being able to see the end product for them, and to see their dreams and their hopes come come to life. It's really cool. Okay, so when you think back i You mentioned a little bit earlier, too, that there's a lot of challenges associated with capital raising. I'm not sure if that's something you guys are actively looking at. But what do you think our industry can do to help particularly women developers, gain more access to capital is there Do you have a solution in mind, or do you think that there's something that should change?
Gina Wieczorek24:46
I mean, I think there's probably there's something that should change. I'm not most like I'm not an expert at that because I really haven't had to do much capital, my side or I've been part of it and and other previous positions, um, but that is also with men, you know, on the team. Um, and, you know, I do feel, you know, co founder and so I do have a lot of people who are willing to write checks. And you know, I don't know, I think more on his side than mine. Actually, I do know that there's a great women's organization, you know, that does that talks about that and how women can raise capital. And I've known some amazing people in New York, whose job was to raise capital on for huge projects, right? We're talking billion dollar projects. But unfortunately, I don't have a solution for that. But I mean, I do think I do also think the one thing I do think is that sometimes, you know, women don't like to ask, and if you don't ask your own number will receive. And so, you know, take the, you know, to get rejected, but a lot of a lot of people who are in that space here know, a million times before they hear yes. And so just keep keep asking is probably what I would say.
Nancy Surak26:05
Yeah, I interviewed a developer out of Nashville, and she said that it took her 1000 phone calls before she got a yes on $100 million project she was trying to fund. And she's uh, now now that wasn't 1000 phone calls or like in three months or anything, she said that was it, that it built up to that she said, it was like over 1000 times that she dialed her phone literally cold called and said, like, I'm looking to raise money. And she said, now it's it's so much simpler, because she's got, you know, several projects under her belt, and she's got financial partners and some wins that she can say, well, I, we, you know, we develop this now she has whole team. And she was saying now I have hired people that that's their job. It's not me anymore, which is really cool. Yeah. Really, really cool to be able to celebrate that.
Gina Wieczorek26:53
I think once exactly. I mean, I think the first couple deals are probably pretty tough. And then once you have a track record, that's a lot easier.
Nancy Surak27:00
Yeah. So you mentioned a little bit earlier, women's organizations. And I know that one thing that you and I actually have in common is our love for the Urban Land Institute. And I believe you were a recipient of a, an award this year or last year, the Prologis award for women's leadership. Correct? Yeah, Mm hmm. So tell me about that whole experience. So you were recognized, and you were able to go to the national meeting? Tell me what, what was that like to be in that pool of such a few women who got that opportunity?
Gina Wieczorek27:33
I mean, it was an amazing honor, because I have been part of it for so long. I mean, I think like, I can't even tell you how much percent of my weakest ticket I actually came from. I'm the coast, I'm the co chair of programming, and I was the main name, and I'm on the advisory board now. So I have that meeting morning. And I think I had one other.. So we're gonna, it's, it's like, you know, you got committed and I think I'm completely pays back tenfold. And I've really been a part of the organization I actually think like, it's been well over 10 or 12 years since I've been a UI member. And it's great to watch people that I came up with some young leaders group with like come up and start their own businesses now and like it's, it's really cool and to be able to do deals together. But that particular that was awesome, you know, who actually I have been going to the fall meetings myself, I'm like, I've usually I'd either try to have that I will try to have whatever job that I took that will be kind of a part of my compensation package is all ULI things related and then also like whatever you apply for meeting or, but you know, as you off and even when I was the right before Casita, as I was still acting even though I worked full time for this company, I was a consultant basically. So that a fall and spring liens get expensive and then when you're doing when you get into join a product council even gets more expensive. And it's all out your costs, you know, so it was really nice that are I think this was our spring meeting a fall meeting is in October, I don't know did you go to the Chicago?
Nancy Surak29:24
No I haven't been to a fall meeting in a while because it's expensive.
Gina Wieczorek29:30
It is. It's so expensive. Yeah. But during COVID It was during COVID and everyone was still wearing masks and maybe 25% of people were there. So it was kind of unusual. This was the first one back and I was so happy to be back and you know, in st beautiful San Diego and they really went for it like the the women who organized and gentlemen that helped organize like the series of events that they had for the Prologis was incredible. They packed our days. I'm mean. And also, I think one of the most, like, remarkable thing that they did was they asked us which product councils we want to guest on. And I asked to be on the small scale development, really, because it was small scale development. And that is my world, you know, and has been for a while now. And I just really felt like, I learned so much from other people, I could contribute to the conversation. And I think that was probably one of the best things besides leading the other women that other women were awesome. And some of them I had heard their names before, knew their companies, but never met them in person. It was awesome. So I just thought.
Nancy Surak30:35
That's really cool. I have never applied. But I keep saying I'm going to,
Gina Wieczorek30:41
You should, you should definitely do it. And the person who had me do it was my co founder and my, my, my business partner, Andrew, and I have to thank him for doing that. I wouldn't have done it myself.
Nancy Surak30:54
I've had a few people say, oh, you should do that. But it's just like, for whatever reason hasn't worked out. Right. Like, I'm like, I don't have time. But I have watched it. And I attended the lot. i It's been years, but I attended a fall meeting, I think it was in I've been one in San Francisco and have been one in Dallas. And they were both like really remarkable. The one I mean, just so many people, but like you said, like really long days. I mean, they fill the database. And I think the one in Dallas, I actually or Dallas/Fort Worth, I actually guessed it on a product Council, which was really cool. Yeah, you know, and met, like people from all over. That was really neat. And but I don't I don't know, do you guys have product councils at the state level? In California?
Gina Wieczorek31:37
We have? No, we have District Council.
Nancy Surak31:40
Okay, so we have district councils. But in Florida? We did. I think it's like a pilot program? Yeah, sure. It's probably been six years now. Because I've been on my product council for about four years, I think four or five years. And so at our state meetings we have the day before, we have smaller product councils that are just in the State of Florida. And we'll bring folks together and we'll have you know, a half a day, the day before the meeting, the state meeting starts it which has really been cool, because then I get to know people from all over the state, not just where I sit, you know, because that doesn't land broker. I'm pretty, you know, pretty fixated on the west coast of Florida. But it's nice for me to you know, if I get an offer from somebody out of Miami or Jacksonville, Orlando, if if somebody in my office in those places don't know who's presenting the offer, I have, you know, 20 or 30 people, I can be like, hey, do you know this company? Like I don't know, trying to find out if they're like for real? So it's really cool.
Gina Wieczorek32:35
That's cool. We should do that in California. We don't, but I'm just the national. So this is the first year I ended up, they asked me to be on the council I guested on and I was elated because I was like, they're like, do you need to take some time to think about it. I'm like, no, no, I'm in.
Nancy Surak32:55
I love that. So I wrap up every interview with a series of questions rapid fire. So the first question is, if a young woman or young person doesn't have to be a woman, but a young person were to call you and said, Oh, my gosh, I heard you interview and I really want to get into the development arena. What's a piece of advice you could give me? What would you say?
Gina Wieczorek33:14
So I have gotten those calls. And I always tell them to you know, go to the local, whether it be ULI, WLI, Crew, there's so many different organizations for women who want to do stuff other women in real estate and want young women to enter the field and stay in the field. So I always tell them to attend those events I had, I always tried to take part of like any of the mentorship that why programs with students. And well, first of all, I should say if they're young enough, their high school, I tell them go do urban plan for Uli, because they'll learn a lot. And you know, I heard women who've done that have grown up wanting to be a woman in real estate and have their career in real estate. But women in college especially who are looking for internship opportunities, I think it's great to go to those kinds of events. And just ask the questions. And when someone offers our information, grab it, follow up with them and ask for an opportunity. Like if it's not with their firm, that you know, other women that are hiring interns, and they're gladly I've passed so many, so many resumes along and I got a I had a great story the other day, one of my friends called me up and she's had a big cm firm. And she's like, you know, you know, so and so who, two, three years ago, you sent me her resume for an internship and I told you, we she got the internship and She interned there and She interned the next summer. We just hired her, you know, in the purchasing department or whatever it was and like, she's awesome, like, and I was like, wow, I don't even know I couldn't even remember her name. She was just someone who came up to me, but I was like, I'm happy to pass along like, you know, to help out other women and I think women those organizations really are. So look up the local ones and go to the do go to those events and just ask and follow up. And I don't even think being persistent is obnoxious, I think shows you that you're passionate about something and you want the opportunity.
Nancy Surak35:11
You have fantastic advice. I was actually, at lunch today with a developer and his broker, and the broker is relatively young. But this is, I think, our third deal that we're trying to do together. And really, actually, in the last year, really hungry, young broker, and the broker got up and went to the restroom. And the developer said, that's a really smart person. And I was like, Oh, absolutely. And he's like, oh, he's so tenacious, and he's always gonna follow up. And I was like, like, you know, what, if I see somebody who's got great follow up skills, like I am fanning that flame, because I know that they're going to be really successful. You know, so I'm, like, always follow up. So I was glad that you said that throughout your whole, our whole conversation, follow up, like follow up, like, somebody says, they're gonna help you like, take them up on that, like, the crap out of them, until they tell you to leave them alone, you know, and that's the skill that's gonna help you be successful and reach your ultimate goal. So really cool. Okay, so I also love to ask for selfish reasons. If you have a favorite book or podcasts that you've recently read or listened to, that you would be able to share that maybe is inspirational or even entertaining with our listeners here.
Gina Wieczorek36:28
Okay, so besides yours besides yours um, I think that Leading Voices in Real Estate with Matt Slepin is a really good one I got introduced to that through actually all of ULI, they did a live on like podcast taping that they let us attend. And I'm actually the person Ricardo at the time, who I didn't know how to fantastic story. And I thought that masks amazing questions and kept us super entertaining. So he is awesome to listen to. And then just for non real estate, just as a woman, I have a couple friends and they have the Competent Collective and it's just about female empowerment. So I love that one too.
Nancy Surak37:09
Yeah, those are great. I don't I'm not familiar with the second one. So I'm gonna put that on my rotation. Okay, and this is a new question. Yeah. So, and I'm asking because I'm doing a presentation in a few weeks, and part of my presentation is me talking about my hype list, my playlist, because I've got this like crazy for our hype playlists on Spotify. Do you have a hype song? And if so, what is it?
37:33
Oh I want to get that hype playlist. I love music. That is like one of my favorite things when you asked me this question like how do I even answer their money? But um, I think you know what I do what I tend to listen to like on a work day when I'm just you know, kind of trying to get ready. Ask Alexa to play lovely day by the weather's that just makes me set me in a good mood and Golden by Jill Scott just you know, cruising because she gets in a good mood for work. And then when I'm like in lane to be a little more hyped up, I mean, Stronger by Kanye West is a great one. I love Cardi songs. Bodak Yellow classic. And then I also I music and so Animal by Vicetone is a really cool hyped up track. And then just one because I love Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac I think Edge of Midnight is a really fun one by Miley Cyrus and Stevie Nicks that collaboration. I had a
Nancy Surak38:28
We could have had a whole conversation about your music taste. I should have started off with a question. Take you right down the rabbit hole.
Gina Wieczorek38:35
What are what are a couple of yours? I'd love to know.
Nancy Surak38:38
Oh my gosh, it's so diverse. I mean, I have stuff from like the 70s 80s and 90s. So it's like diverse, like I have Beastie Boys, Cardi B. I've got Meghan Trainor, I've got Kashia I mean, you name it, Kanye, Eminem. I mean, I have them all. You know, like, if something like gets my heart pumping, or I want to like hit by steering wheel as I'm driving. I'm like that's going on the hype list is I also have a fast driving list. But that's not as long. It's about a, I don't know, it's probably got like maybe 10 or 16 songs on it. But it's for fast writing because I have a little bit of a heavy foot. So
Gina Wieczorek39:19
Oh, I like it. Awesome. Fast. Well, you know what's funny is, um, oops, this one individual in New York, I was at an informational interview while I was you know, at NYU and trying to figure out which direction I wanted to go end up going the project management side, but I was at a brokerage that focused on new development services. And he told me that one of the things he does with his candidates when he has a position is he asked him to go for a walk. And if they don't walk faster than him, he doesn't hire. And you know how fast New Yorkers walk so I thought that was very interesting.
Nancy Surak39:54
You know, I the first time I went to New York, I'll never forget I was with my husband years, decades ago. And he was like, Oh my God, you could have been born here. And I was like, what are you talking about? He's like, You can't let anybody get in your way. And I was like, Well, that's because I'm five, three. And if I let people get in my way, I would get plowed over my whole life. Like, no, you gotta go with the pace or be faster than everybody else. Think about, like what you're saying, like I would, I wouldn't get hired because I'd been like, alright, I'm gonna like outpace this guy. Great. Great story. Okay, so finally, if we have someone here in the audience that would really love to just kind of follow your journey. Are you active on social media, or you're active on LinkedIn, where's a good place that they can follow you?
Gina Wieczorek40:38
Um, so I am active on LinkedIn. I'm more private when it comes to social media and my Instagram. But yeah, you can follow me on LinkedIn. And it's just linkedin.com. That type and by its Gina Wieczorek. So yeah.
Nancy Surak40:54
We'll make sure we put that in the show notes as well. And I will also drop in for good measure the link to my hype play songs, and I'll send it to you as well.
Gina Wieczorek41:02
I would love that. And then also, you know, Castas, we have our websites up there, if you want to see.
Nancy Surak41:09
Yeah, definitely, well, we'll make sure that that's LinkedIn so that people can learn more about what you guys are doing, and about more about the ad use and the change that you're making in your community and throughout California. And who knows, you know, maybe you'll come over in Florida and help consult some of our municipalities as well. So
Gina Wieczorek41:26
I thought it was really a Oh, that's nice to hear, right?
Nancy Surak41:29
That's right. That's right. Well, I mean, hey, you have to have goals, right? You have to say like, maybe that will happen. And if it does, what might that look like? So it was so fun to chat with you today. And I'm wishing you all the best and you know, everything that you're trying to do with your company and growing it to new heights. And it's been a pleasure, and I really appreciate your time.
Gina Wieczorek41:49
Thank you, thank you so much for this. And that's, it's amazing what you do, so that you are, you know, promoting women in this in real estate in this forum. And I love it.
Nancy Surak42:00
It is been really, it has become so much bigger than what I thought it was gonna be. And really remarkable for me to be able to build just like my personal network. And to know that I can like pick a city and say, okay, well, I want to find somebody in Minneapolis, like, I will never do business in Minneapolis or wherever I mean, you know, can be any city or if I see a publication on someone, or I see story on LinkedIn, I'm like, Oh, who is this? I read it. And I'm like, wow, that's really cool. If those words like come into my brain, I'm like, I going to have that person on my show. Because I think it's really important for us to share our stories. That's what everybody gets inspired by. So yeah, when somebody's gonna listen, and they're gonna be like, Oh, what is ADU? I can do that. That's a needed in my, in my community. And I can do that too.
Gina Wieczorek42:48
Yeah well, that's great. So thank you. And it was fun. I like some things once and I'm like, Oh my gosh, like I can take I can. There's can be some lessons learned for me here too.
Nancy Surak42:57
So yeah, you should definitely check it out. There's some really good ones. But anyway, it was such a pleasure. Have a great rest of your day, and we'll see you soon. You too. Bye. Thank you for joining us for another episode of She's Wild, the podcast for women in land and development. If you enjoy today's show, please go out and rate us so that we can be found by other women in our industry. And if you know women who are working in land and development, please share this podcast with them. And if you know a total rock star woman, badass chick who is killing it in land and development anywhere in North America. I want to know who she is. Please reach out to me so that I can feature her on an upcoming episode.