Today's episode is a rebroadcast of my interview on The She Believed She Could Podcast with Allison Walsh. In this episode, Allison and I talk about the pivotal moment when I decided to invest in working on my personal brand.
Welcome back to the She’s Wild Podcast. Today's episode is a rebroadcast of my interview on The She Believed She Could Podcast with Allison Walsh. In this episode, Allison and I talk about the pivotal moment when I decided to invest in working on my personal brand and what I've learned in the process.
Memorable Moments:
10:00 Women who really want to have like high income potential as a broker, there's no there's no cap. It's, it's hard if I want to work as many deals as I can get teed up, but there are very few of us. So we have to really rally each other.
18:02 But with COVID You know, bringing it back to COVID. I think professional worlds and personal worlds completely collided. We were having zoom calls and continue in some cases to have zoom calls in each other's kitchen, in our backyards, our lives of blended. And so now more than ever before, I think people have now a personal brand because we're all looking into each other's personal lives.
22:03. Because ultimately, we all have a personal brand. And if we're not cultivating that message, and we're not cultivating those images, we're leaving it up to our audience to do it for us. Our clients, our employees are our employers, whatever, we're allowing them to say, here's who you are, instead of us saying, here's who I am.
Connect with Allison:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonkreigerwalsh/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allisonwalsh/
Website: https://www.allisonwalshconsulting.com/
She Believed She Could Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/she-believed-she-could-podcast/id1505347834
She Believed She Could Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/shebelievedshecouldcommunity
Connect with Nancy:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/nancysurak
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancysurak/
Website: www.nancysurak.com
A closer look and my Brand Launch: https://www.allisonwalshconsulting.com/post/i-love-it-when-women-go-for-it
She’s Wild Sound Production by:
Luke Surak, Surak Productions: surakproductions@gmail.com
Nancy Surak00:00
Hi, welcome back to She's WILD the podcast for women in land and development. This episode is a rebroadcast of an episode where I was a guest on the She Believed She Could Podcast with Allison Walsh, what you'll hear next is a whole conversation about the journey that I took in 2021. When I focus on working on my personal brand, I'm going to take you through the whole process, and what I learned. And I think that you will find it incredibly valuable to listen in. If you need help, or you have questions after listening to the show, I'm happy to hear from you guys. You can just DM me on any of the social media platforms. And I promise I'll get back to you. And I hope you enjoy it. So take a listen and tell me what you think. It's really about my message. And as long as I'm conveying the proper message, everything else doesn't matter. Because ultimately, we all have a personal brand. And if we're not cultivating that message, and we're not cultivating those images, we're leaving it up to our audience to do it for us. We're allowing them to say, here's who you are, instead of us saying here's who I am.
Allison Walsh01:18
Hello there and welcome to the She Believes She Could Podcast. I'm your host, Alison Walsh, I am so glad you're here. I'm a corporate exec entrepreneur, coach and mom of three who is obsessed with all things related to mindset goal setting and leveling up your personal brand. So you can go after opportunities that you never even thought possible. I live by the philosophy that the whole point of being alive is to evolve into the complete person you were intended to be. And I created this podcast to motivate and inspire you and give you actionable tips and advice for you to use as you chase and accomplish your goals. I've also had the chance to build an incredible network of successful leaders, entrepreneurs, impact makers and world changers, who will also be sharing knowledge and words of wisdom with you. Remember, No dream is too big if it's matched with ambition and action. Most importantly, I believe in you 1,000% And my goal is that you do too. So sit back, relax and grab your favorite note taking device because it's time to fill up your mind and soul with positive vibes and advice to help you achieve your dreams. Now let's get to work. I am so excited to introduce you to today's guest. She is a dear friend of mine and a client and I cannot wait for her to share her story with you. She is phenomenal. So I'm going to introduce to you now in Nancy Surak. She is a senior advisor and managing broker for land advisors organization in Tampa Bay. She's got more than 20 years of experience in commercial real estate specializing in land brokerage since 2005. And earning recognition by land advisors organization as a top producer since joining the firm in 2015. Now she is widely decorated when it comes to all of the accomplishments and awards that she has earned over the years. She was named the top woman land broker in the nation by Realtors Land Institute for 2020 sales volume, and she is consistently ranked among the top commercial real estate brokers in the Tampa Bay area year after year. The list of awards go on and on. But I'm going to let Nancy tell you her story and why she decided that it was time for her to finally invest in her personal brand, which was something that she wanted to do for many, many, many, many, many years. And she did it and it was an amazing story. And that's exactly why I wanted her to be on the show today. So please welcome to the show. Nancy Surak. Nancy, I'm so excited that you're on the show today. Would you mind introducing yourself to the audience?
Nancy Surak03:37
Sure. My name is Nancy Surak. And I was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. After I earned my bachelor's degree in international trade and finance from LSU. I moved to Gainesville to pursue my master's in Mass Communication at the University of Florida. And then I worked about 12 years in corporate America and then found myself on the west coast of Florida working for an engineering company that was female owned doing their outbound sales. It was a phenomenal job. And what many young mothers would say was the perfect job. I had managed to get my boss to give me part time hours full time pay a company car, and I could really be like, everything I want it to be for my children was fantastic. Only I was not fulfilled. And so mid 30s i Here i am saying is this it is if the rest of my life is my career, and I kept coming up with no, no it wasn't in so I did a lot of soul searching and trying to figure out where I really wanted to go in my career and what I really wanted to be when I grew up through that work, I discovered a lot about just my childhood and how I was always that kid playing that little girl playing in the backyard with her Barbie and the Tonka truck and building things in the dirt. And so I see both with my parents and my husband. And what I was coming up with was I wanted to be in commercial real estate. And as ironic as it was, my dad had told me in my late teenage years, that I would be a great commercial real estate broker. And at the time, you know, when you're 17 18 19 years old, I was like, what do you know? And you know, Hillary was in my mid 30s, going back to him saying, I'm gonna go and get my real estate license, and I'm going to focus on commercial real estate. And if that's not a challenge enough, I'm going to focus even further on vacant land that's heading towards development. My dad was a static, my husband was probably, I think, certainly not even probably certainly way more nervous. Because I sat him down and said, I want to do this. It's 100% commission, I don't know how long it's gonna take me to make a single penny. And I need you to stand with me and support me. And luckily, you know, we took about nine months to really save and prepare, I developed a great business plan. And, you know, I quit my salary based job, and I jumped in on the deep end. And it was fantastic. I joined a boutique firm, I've done some great deals, I was there for about 10 years, I was the only female broker on an all male, you know, the rest of the team was male. And I got that tinge again of is this it is this where my career is going to end? Is this really what I want, I sort of hit a ceiling of how what I was earning, and I was beginning to see that the firm was growing, and I was the one teaching these younger folks coming in. And I just woke up one day and said, I don't think this is where I'm ending. And at the same time, I began to really pray for guidance, since I like please like, what is the next step for me. And while I was going through that just soul searching again, I got a phone call from a national company that was looking to expand in the Tampa Bay region on the West Coast. And in 2015, I left the other firm, and I established the Tampa Bay, the west coast of Florida, Office for the Land Advisors Organization. And it has been a wild ride ever since.
Allison Walsh07:25
And you have made quite a name for yourself in this industry. So there's so much here that I want to kind of dig into, first of all, being brave enough to pivot and to really evaluate and to self check and make sure that you're in alignment with where you want to be or should be at different phases and stages of life. But I really want to talk about how you've made such a significant splash when it comes to being a female in a male dominated industry. And this is something that you champion for so many women, and you really make sure that women are represented that they have a seat at the table. If not, you're building your own table, and you're inviting everybody in. So can we talk a little bit about that? Because the fact that you've been able to do that so successfully, is something that I know will inspire everybody that's listening right now.
Nancy Surak08:15
Yeah, so the commercial real estate industry, very, very unlike the residential real estate industry is predominantly or the majority are men. It is not uncommon for me even today to be the only woman in the room. And I was never afraid of that. When I actually built my original business plan. That was one of my, like, bullet points was, it was gonna make me different. It was a differentiation that I had that, you know, I wasn't just another man knocking on someone's door. And I was hopeful or maybe a little naive that would help me get into more doors. I could say sometimes it did. Oftentimes it didn't, I still had to work. My dad raised five children, my mom and dad raised five of us in four females. And my dad would always say, look, be whatever part you need to be to get in the door. But once you're there, really make sure that you know your stuff, so that people can't ignore you anymore. And so I worked really hard to be educated to get my education to understand what was happening in the marketplace. And that's a continuous progress. Now, I will say, you know, for the last almost two decades, I look around and even now when I'm the only woman or one of two or three out of 25 or 26 people in the room or hundreds of people in the room and there's you know, 20 of us I'm we have to change this commercial real estate, brokerage and commercial real estate as an industry is a fantastic opportunity for go getter. Women who really want to have like high income potential as a broker, there's no there's no cap. It's, it's hard if I want to work as many deals as I can get teed up, but there are very few of us. So we have to really rally each other. And there are organizations that are built to help support that. But a lot of women in commercial real estate as an industry are in support roles or in sales roles. They're not necessarily on the brokerage side of the deal, or in development. So I've spent many years championing other women trying to understand who are those women that are moving the needle? How do I become friends with them? How do I have lunch with them? How do I support their goals? How do we share our stories to help each other grow, and reach the next stages in our careers or our lives? It's ongoing. But I take that very seriously. And, you know, I will answer a mentorship call from a female way faster than I will, from a man. No, no offense, but I just there needs to be more of this in the room. I will say in the last 18 months, I have seen a very significant change with the diversity inclusion conversation coming to the forefront. But my big fear with that is that women may still take a backseat to some of those initiatives. So I just make sure that I'm constantly saying, Well, where are the women, and I know this woman, and if there's a speaking opportunity, making sure that I'm engaging with people, whether they're in my market elsewhere in Florida, or across the United States, so that we can kind of bring them forward. And let them you know, be a part of this great industry, but it's continuous work. It's hard work. But yeah, I am a huge champion, huge champion of other women.
Allison Walsh12:02
Hey, there, it's Allison. And I want to invite you to Elevate, Elevate is my premier network and six month program for ambitious women who are ready to accelerate their impact, create unstoppable momentum and level up so that they can create the businesses, careers and lives of their dreams. Now, it's no secret that we often get in our way, far more than we should. We allow our excuses to be louder than our why. And canceling on ourselves can easily become the reason we aren't living up to our highest potential. My mission is to help you accomplish goals that you never thought possible for yourself. Whether you're launching a side hustle, investing in your personal brand, finally working on a passion project, or scaling your business, I'm here to be by your side, cheering you on and supporting you every step of the way. My secret weapon is execution, and helping my clients dream bigger than ever before. It's amazing what happens when we start believing and what we deserve. When we trust our abilities, create a plan and ultimately execute. That's when the magic happens. And that's exactly what we're going to be doing in elevate. My clients will tell you that clarity, and action are my superpowers. And my ability to help you get across the finish line with whatever you're working on will number one gets you results. But most importantly, it will give you the confidence to once again elevate your own goals and expectations for yourself over and over and over again. So you get the maximum results that you're looking for. Now this community is by invitation only. And it will only include individuals that are committed to getting the results that they've been dreaming of. You don't have to have it all figured out yet. You just have to be willing to give yourself this gift and try. I'll create the space and provide a supportive, uplifting community filled with women that are cheering each other on. I'll get you connected with all of the right people and resources. And I'll teach you what you need to know to help you get to the next level. And then we'll dream bigger together. Because action leads to momentum and momentum allows you to elevate higher than you ever thought possible. If you're ready to make this commitment to yourself and to your goals, so that 2022 can be a year filled with action and results. Head to Allison Walsh consulting.com/elevate To get your exclusive invitation. Again, that's Allison Walsh consulting.com/elevate I can't wait to see you there. I don't know about you but I love sending personalized gifts to those that I care about. I especially like doing this around the holiday season when you know you've really got to stand out amongst the crowd. So if you're looking for the same type of impact could agreeable.com that it's G R E tabl.com/allison Walsh, and pick out your Wow worthy gifts that are so cute, so easy to make affordable and super memorable for those that you're giving them to. If you enter the code Allison w 15. At checkout, you'll get 15% off Have the gifts. How cool is that. So not only can you send something beautiful and personalized, you'll also get a discount, which that's just a winning situation all the way around. So again, go to agreeable.com gretabl.com/ellison Walsh and use code Allison w 15. At checkout, we'll link it in the show notes. Happy shopping. I love it. And I love watching you hustle. And I love watching other women be inspired by YouTube because you show them what's possible. And you've always I mean, she's for years and years, as long as I've known you. And as you know, as I've gotten to know you even better, you are always bringing women along for the ride, right? Like, let's go together. We don't need to do this alone. Let's build community, let's build connection. Let's, you know, show each other that we're here to support one another. And I just I love that about you, Nancy. So thank you for sharing more about that. And now I'd like to really talk about kind of the journey that you've been on over the last year or so as you really invested in you. Because you do show up, you are abundantly successful, you got on so many different boards, you give back to your community, like you're always raising your hands. And last year, you raise your hand said I want to do something for me that I was I've been thinking about for a long time. And that was investing in your brand and really showing up in a bigger way. Right, really getting visible. So can you talk to us a little bit about why that was important to you?
Nancy Surak16:26
Yeah, so back in the late 90s, I'm really dating myself, I actually have a very vivid memory of reading an article in Fast Company Magazine, which was all about personal brand. And this was in the late 90s. So it was sort of at the the early stage of the internet. And I clipped the article and I carried it, I'm gonna say like maybe 12 or 14 years, like I kept it with me a lot. And the article was all about how companies and the people who work for those companies, those CEOs, leadership, and even your everyday employee, that the personal brand, and the company's brand of the corporate brand would begin to blur. And we certainly have seen that in the last 20 years, right? You can't really say much in your personal life without the potential of it, bleeding over into your professional world. And for a long time, I tried to keep my professional world over in this corner and my business world over in this, you know, professional in my personal life completely separated. COVID changed all of that for all of us, including me. But I believe in before COVID, I had worked for 10 years with a company that was a great company. But one of the reasons I left was because I was building someone else's personal brand for 10 years, my successes, my awards became someone else's, and became why people were doing business with a company. But I was like, Hey, wait a minute. Once I get like, I did that. And I wanted it for myself. But with COVID You know, bringing it back to COVID. I think professional worlds and personal worlds completely collided. We were having zoom calls and continue in some cases to have zoom calls in each other's kitchen, in our backyards, our lives of blended. And so now more than ever before, I think people have now a personal brand because we're all looking into each other's personal lives. For me at the end of 2020. I really saw this and said, You know what, I'm doing great in my career, I have great success. My clients are investing in me, they are hiring me it's going well, but my clients need to get to know me more quickly and get to know me faster in more authentic and deeper levels. So I made a conscious decision that I was going to really put myself out there on a personal perspective. And I hired a great brand photographer who helped me, you know, pose correctly, and I was so afraid. But the photography really came out beautifully and so proud of it. Then I invested in videography, and building a media kit website. And the goal all along was so that my clients and my future clients could get to know me better than a one page bio, on a corporate website. And I'm with a great company and they helped me enormously but corporations are there to build their brand, and I wanted to build my brand. So I made that decision. And then you know taking it back to sharing that message with other women. When I launched my brand, I actually invited you know 20 Something women to come and sit with me and I told them all about what I did and is very transparent about why But how much money I was investing. And that, you know, my goal was for my clients to get to know me better. My goal was to be more visible. And this past year has been remarkable here. I've been in different media opportunities, about a dozen or so articles have been interviewed for being able to be on podcasts like this, to be able to share that message. And I'm really thankful that I did it. It was super scary. But it was a great experience.
Allison Walsh20:28
And I think you learned so much about yourself through the process, because sometimes, you know, people can think of personal branding is just the colors and the fonts. And yeah, that's part of it. But it's so much more, right. It's how do you want to show up? It's what are those areas that you really want to shine a spotlight on and allow people to know more about? And how else can you add value? And where can you be the expert and all of it, and that journey for you has been awesome. And there's still so much more like I think that's the cool thing, too, is that it's not done?
Nancy Surak21:01
It's just getting started? Yeah, it's, it's an interesting problem. And there's a lot of personal growth that goes into it. You've heard me tell you the stories about you know, when I had to work with a videographer, and really look at my videos, it was very challenging for me to sort of get over seeing and hearing how I speak. Because it was a little freaky. And, you know, I would be like, Oh, I don't like the way this looks. I don't like the way that looks. I don't like the way I sound or my voice inflection. And I really had to learn how to be much kinder to myself, it's okay, that, you know, I don't look necessarily exactly the way I hope to have looked. It's really about my message. And as long as I'm conveying the proper message, everything else doesn't matter. And so for me, you know, the investment in the personal brand is about messaging is about what do I want people to know. Because ultimately, we all have a personal brand. And if we're not cultivating that message, and we're not cultivating those images, we're leaving it up to our audience to do it for us. Our clients, our employees are our employers, whatever, we're allowing them to say, here's who you are, instead of us saying, here's who I am.
Allison Walsh22:28
Such a good point, right? Control the narrative, we have every opportunity, you know, we have everything at our disposal. And it's so much and people that are entering into their careers, right, like new, fresh employees, or maybe they're reinventing themselves at this point in their lives, you've got to claim it. And it's never too early, it's never too late. And it's something that we need to take seriously and constantly evaluate and tweak and add to refine, as we evolve as people we have to continue to evolve our brand as well. And I'm just so proud of you for doing it and for going for it and for investing in yourself. Because it makes a big difference too. And I think it also adds to our confidence level. And it allows us to give us permission to get visible and show up.
Nancy Surak23:12
So yeah, I'm glad you brought up like the new the new employee, right? You know, my kids are one just recently graduated one is halfway through college, and I'm sure they get sick of me saying like your your image, your brand, it makes a difference. And I'm not talking about you know, the lipstick color you wear or whether or not you have a suit, I'm talking about your performance and the kind of person you are, how you show up makes a difference. And it blurs into you. So if you believe you have to also be aligned. So if you work for a company that philosophically you don't align with, you need to move on. And that's really, really important. And I think, you know, we're seeing a lot of that right now, the great, you know, the great shift in employees going somewhere else. But I think you know, I think it's okay to because it's important to do that I've done it throughout my whole career, I continue to do it. I always just want to be happy with what I do every day. I want to be happy with the people I work with the people I serve. And that's important to me.
Allison Walsh24:20
Absolutely. So if you were to give advice, and it we've talked a lot about how important it is. But if somebody is on the fence, and they're contemplating investing in themselves, obviously you've made a significant investment in yourself and your brand over the last year plus but if somebody's thinking like I should do this, but I'm not 100% sure what would be that piece of advice you'd give them?
Nancy Surak24:41
I think the first thing would be you know, to really understand your why. Why do you think you want to do it? And then once you can really hone in on what that why is then you can set a determination of okay, what is it that I'm hoping to achieve? So you know, what the goal is so that you can back into well, how much of an investment Am I comfortable with? So for me, I always said, you know, I only need one more customer or I just I, it will all be worth it. Or I want, you know, a couple more media pieces. But you know, for me it was about making more money and getting with more clientele. But that may not be everyone's goal. It could be I am going to make this investment because I've been doing the side gig for a while and it's time for me to jump all in. I think you need to know your why. And then set a budget for yourself and then figure out what can I accomplish in that budget? And what do I need to be able to be ready for?
Allison Walsh25:42
I think that's great advice. And for the audience, I will link to the blog recap that we did after your launch party of just the everything that you did, you've got to take a look at all of everything that Nancy did from the brand guide to the photoshoot to the videos to her media kit, everything her websites, and it looks amazing. It allowed her to really shine bright like the diamond. She is Nancy, I know you listen to the show often and you know one of my favorite questions, and I think it's one of yours too. But for everybody that's listening right now, what are you reading? What do you suggest for the audience? Who are you following? What should we be consuming more of?
Nancy Surak26:20
Okay, this is by far like, I love it all. But I really love this part because it's like my book club. Right? So I just finished a couple of weeks ago, the Miracle Morning, and which is phenomenal by Hal Elrod. I have completely changed my morning perspective how early I'm getting up, like 515 in the morning now in my whole morning routine is completely different. And I'm shot and how I'm able to get up. When my alarm goes off. I have been a snooze person for as long as I can remember. And for the last two weeks, I'm up the minute my alarm goes off. So it's pretty, pretty impactful. And I'm currently reading the audacity to be queen which I know you love as well by Gina Devee and I am finding myself kind of pumping my arms like Yes, and that's me. And no wonder I've gotten to where I have been able to get because I'm a queen, I've always been this person. But it's a really good reminder of just stepping into taking control of of your life and your destiny and what you want. And being okay with that. For a podcast, I just started listening to entrepreneurs on fire. Love, love, love it. It's fantastic. It's short, it's great bite size information. And then on Instagram, one of my favorites outside of you, Alison, of course, is an influencer, who goes by I think her name is Amy. And she goes by rebel nutrition. Oh my god. She's like the Canva and Instagram hack queen. I am relatively new to that world. And I love following her because I'm like, Oh, she's teaching me another chip. Like I did not know that. Now I know that. So she's not in my space. But I think her tips are phenomenal. So I actually really enjoy following her along her. She's great. I actually used one of her tips today, I wanted a cool new button for my stories. And I was like, I know, I just saw that. And I went back to her Instagram, she's great. I would say I learned a ton of her ton of tips through like us utilizing Canva and Instagram through her work.
Allison Walsh28:43
So she definitely knows what she's doing. So that's great. And I and I second all of your recommendations. You know, I'm a huge fan of Gina Devee and her helping all of us just really own the Queen inside of ourselves each and every day. So thank you, Nancy. And for people that want to follow you or get connected with you, where can they find you? You
Nancy Surak29:02
They can follow me on Instagram and LinkedIn under Nancy Surak. And as S U R A K or you can also follow me at NancySurak.com.
Allison Walsh29:13
Excellent. Well, Nancy, thank you so much for being on the show. Thank you for everything that you do and for being just the amazing person that you are, I am blessed to know you and I am cheering you on every day. Well, and
Nancy Surak29:23
I feel exactly the same way you inspire me to be the best version of myself. And, you know, there there aren't enough of you in the world. So I want to be more like you every day and I hope that your message just continues to grow and grow and grow.
Allison Walsh29:39
Thank you. I hope you enjoy today's episode I'm going to go ahead and link in the show notes. The blog post that I wrote with the summary of Nancy's entire brand launch because it was such an exceptional experience from start to finish. She did not hold back she fully invested in herself. It turned out beautifully and I would love for you to be able to see what it was from start Finish though again, she's a total Rockstar. If you're thinking about doing something like this for you to please do not hesitate to reach out to me, I would love to be a part of your transformation, evolution, elevation, all of the things. So please reach out to me, I'll go ahead and include my contact information below as well. And if you love this show, I would appreciate you leaving us a five star review and sharing this with your friends because we all need inspiration and motivation in our lives. And I would love to be able to be a source of that for someone else too. So remember, we're going to keep the conversation going over on Allison Walsh on Instagram. And of course in this she believes she could Facebook community. So I hope you are a part of both of those right now. And remember, stay tuned. Every two weeks we release episodes. There's going to be some bonus episodes coming out before the end of the year. There's of course our free goal setting masterclass that's available. If you go to Allison Walsh, consulting.com. Right now you can check it out. It's available for the next couple of weeks. So make sure you're getting super clear and motivated and focus for 2022. It's all available at your fingertips right now over on the website. And remember, I believe in you 1,000% And my goal is that you do to take care, be safe and I'll talk to you again soon. Bye bye