This episode is a rebroadcast of The Business of Life Masterclass Podcast, where I was recently interviewed by Barb Zant and Debbie Lundberg. In every interview these ladies ask their guests 4 key questions to uncover how they live their lives. I'm sharing this interview because I think it's just another way for you to get to know me a little bit better and for you to learn how I actually live my life. I hope that you'll enjoy it and that you'll let me know what you think.
This episode is a rebroadcast of The Business of Life Masterclass Podcast, where I was recently interviewed by Barb Zant and Debbie Lundberg. In every interview these ladies ask their guests 4 key questions to uncover how they live their lives. I'm sharing this interview because I think it's just another way for you to get to know me a little bit better and for you to learn how I actually live my life. I hope that you'll enjoy it and that you'll let me know what you think.
Connect with Nancy:
Instagram:https://instagram.com/nancysurak
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancysurak/
Website: www.nancysurak.com
Connect with The Business of Life Master Class:
https://www.facebook.com/TheBusinessOfLifeMasterClass
Instagram: @thebusinessoflifemasterclass
Twitter: @ClassTBOL
Hosts: Debbie Lundberg & Barbara Zant
www.debbielundberg.com
Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @debbielundberg
TikTok: @DebbieLundbergCoach
Instagram for Barb Zant: @thestayatworkmom
She’s Wild Sound Production by: Luke Surak, Surak Productions: surakproductions@gmail.com
Nancy Surak00:01
Hi, welcome back to She's Wild, the podcast for women in land and development. I'm Nancy Surak, your host today's episode is a rebroadcast of The Business of Life Masterclass Podcast, where I was recently interviewed by Barb Zant and Debbie Lundberg. In every interview these ladies ask their guests 4 key questions to uncover how they live their lives. I'm sharing this interview because I think it's just another way for you to get to know me a little bit better. And for you to learn how I actually live my life. I hope that you'll enjoy it and that you'll let me know what you think.
Debbie Lundberg00:50
Hello, and thanks for joining us listeners. How would it be to see and imagine places and spaces differently? Pretty cool, right? So today's guest is someone who has this creativity and the connectedness to make things happen. So today the business of life masterclass episode is all about relationships and moving forward together with a plan. So Hi everyone, it's Debbie Lambert performance coach and remote work Rockstar author, Debbie Lambert, barbs in here media sales leader and founder of the lifestyle brand and the blog. They at work, mom, Debbie, what an interesting topic and I'm sure our listeners will appreciate our high impact guest today. Who is it please? Well, it is exciting Barb's so our guest is the managing broker for the land advisors organization's Tampa Bay office. She has 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. So highly recognized and and huge accolades. So she was named the top woman land broker in the nation. So that's the entire country by the realtors Land Institute in 2021 for sales volume, and she is consistently ranked among the top commercial real estate brokers in the Tampa Bay area, year after year. So it's very exciting. She was awarded and earned the 2021 best real estate deals Community Impact Award by the tampa bay business journal, and was named a 2021 woman to watch in commercial real estate by globe. It's GLB e s t.com. So the Florida Gulf Coast association of commercial Realtors awarded her the overall deal of the year during the pandemic and 2020 2018. She'd done it already. And in 2014 was her first time. She's also won the land deal of the year in six of the last 10 years. I mean, our listeners are probably googling right now who can this be? She is a graduate of Louisiana State University with a BS in international trade and finance and the University of Florida where she earned her MA in mass communication. She currently serves as the president of Tampa Bay's real estate investment Council, Rei C, and recently served three terms on the Tampa Bay Council for the Urban Land Institute, Uli as the chair of the Women's Leadership Initiative. So if you're not excited by now, we don't know what else we can tell you. But there's a long list. And we'll we'll leave it here with something that we also think is really wonderful. So please welcome our fellow podcast host. She's the creator and host of she's wild, the podcast for women in land and development wild, where she interviews women in the land development and commercial real estate industry across North America. So please welcome Nancy Surak. Nancy.
Nancy Surak04:01
I am so excited to be here, Debbie and Barbara, thank you so much for the invitation.
Barb Zant04:07
Welcome, Nancy. We are excited to have you we asked you on today because you're an expert in all things commercial real estate, leadership and of course, a fellow podcast host. The reason that's important for our listeners and viewers is that everyone could benefit from your knowledge. So glad you are here. Since you have tuned on to our podcast in the past. What's specifically made you want to be on the business of life? podcast show, please.
Nancy Surak04:36
Well, for me, I look at life as to who I surround myself with. So I fill myself up, I fill my cup up with knowledge and positive people. You guys put together episodes every once in a while that are just really truly positive and moving forward. Those four questions are are amazing. The bite sized content is fantastic because it gives me something to think about. I'm an avid podcast listener and audiobook reader or listener. And I just like to fill myself up and surround myself with people things content that's super positive. I'm happy to be here because I hope that I can be that for the other folks that are joining us today as well.
Barb Zant05:17
Thank you, Nancy, thank you so much for sharing your insights and getting us set up for success today. Before Debbie does get into our podcast for what is one thing that you are super excited about right now.
Nancy Surak05:30
So you guys talked a lot about my professional life. But what I'm most excited about is my personal life right now. One of the things that I'm working on in my personal life with my husband of almost 20, well, actually 26 years, almost 27 years, because we're going to be hiking out of the Grand Canyon this this year. And so we've been training for that. Lots of work, but he told me even last night that we have 5000 steps we have to train for. So that's 500 flights of stairs, and quite overwhelming. But it's a whole different challenge for us in our personal lives and in my physical being. And I'm super excited about that.
Debbie Lundberg06:09
That certainly sounds exciting. And Nancy and I have worked out at different places at the same time are one of us right before each other. So I know you and your husband will do it. So when you follow Nancy on her social media, you'll see her beautiful family and they all are they are about positivity fitness, having fun. So thanks for sharing that that's we will certainly be tracking along and as a lot of you know, and I know Nancy you know Barb's probably making a note that we're going to do some flights of stairs or something here pretty soon, that canyon, but flights of stairs will work. Okay. All right. So thank you, Nancy. We are now moving on to what you reference. So thank you for being a listener. The business of life masterclass podcast for these are those four questions you mentioned that we asked every single guest to share from your perspective and your insight. Are you ready? I am ready. All right, I figured as much. Number one, Nancy, what time do you get up in the morning? And what is your morning routine that gets your day started, right.
Nancy Surak07:10
So my first alarm goes off at 530. Most days I jump out of bed almost immediately. Sometimes I hit the snooze button once or twice. But I come straight downstairs, I put on a weighted backpack about 20 pounds. And I hook up our red lab, Annie. If you follow me again, on social media, you get clips of her. She's just the love of our life right now. But I take her on a 30 minute walk every morning while I'm getting ready for the weight on my back. And we walk around the neighborhood for 30 minutes, 30 minutes before the sun rises. And the reason I do that is really because she is into everything. And if I can do it when no one else is around, I can she has a much calmer walking experience. But for me, it really is starting my day early. And I'm Adam. You know like I've gotten that big huge accomplishment taken care of. And during that walk I usually you know I talked earlier about filling myself up with content. I listened. That's when I listened to podcasts and audiobooks and really set my intentions for the day.
Debbie Lundberg08:11
Sounds sounds like both you and Annie are having a good start to your day. Terrific. All right. And Yahtzee. So sounds like a great way to to be out there before sunrise. And considering that we know that something that is really important to you. What's something other than that, that you believe if other people were to do it or start to do it, it would set them up for an additional level of success. Someone sometimes BB causes the special sauce or the extra of what would that be for you for other people?
Nancy Surak08:42
Because so for me, I've always been a really strong goal oriented person. And a lot of people set annual goals or lifetime goals. For me, I try to break that back. Right. So I say okay, well, what are the quarterly goals? What's my monthly goal? And I even go down to micro micro goals. So what's my one or two goals today that I need to accomplish that if I don't get anything else done, I will have had a successful moment. And so I really think that if folks begin not to just look at the big picture, but also focusing on micro goals, what's the one or two things that they really need to accomplish that they could reach success and a faster pass or faster pace.
Debbie Lundberg09:23
So smart to think about that? Did you say grow my go or grow my grow or grow my goal? Because that's such a great, I know, that's a nugget that everybody's going to want to take. I think
Nancy Surak09:33
It's just growth in general. But for me, it's really just micro goals. You know, what is the one thing if that's all I accomplished today that I need to do? And I will add one challenge that I like to take on when I think about what's that micro goal is a lot of people will say start with your easy thing and get that off so you get a sense of accomplishment. And I don't agree with that. I say start with the scariest goal of your day. The scariest cold call, you need to make the scariest person you want to try to bring in as a new client, whoever that is, if I can tackle that, like the rest of the day is easy. So I usually try to do that before 10am in the morning.
Debbie Lundberg10:14
Oh, good. So before 10am, and we subscribe to that eat the frog philosophy too. So you probably saw Barbra nice smiling, that we're right there with you get that out of the way. And then you can reward yourself with whatever else comes. So thank you, Nancy. Okay, third one, who or what has been the biggest influence in your life and your success personally and professionally? And then importantly, what have you done with that?
Nancy Surak10:40
So I actually been thinking about this question all week. Because typically, when I've been in interviews, I usually share the story about my dad and his influence on my life. And the fact that he had a major injury when I was eight and had to relearn how to walk in, through movement therapy, and how I watched that as a young child and what it taught me about being resilient. I've been really thinking about who's been the most impactful in my entire life recently. And I really have to say, it's my husband, we've been together for almost 29 years, we've been married for 26, almost 27 years. If it weren't for his impact in my daily life, I couldn't have accomplished all those things that you rattled off, in my introduction, there wouldn't have been any of those awards, because I wouldn't have had that support system, He's my rock. And really the most consistent relationship I have in my entire life, he helps me just look at life through a different lens, encourages me when I'm frustrated, lets me vent when I need to, but also prompts me up and is definitely my biggest cheerleader. You know, when we were younger, earlier in our life, we look back. And when we were first married, it was really about career advancement. For both of us, he's a civil engineer, back then we would have these like many competitions as to who would cook and make the most money, who would have the best title, and really just like kind of give and take in our relationship. And then when we had children, our relationship moved away from career advancement as much and more into being the best parents we could be. And really parenting our children to be decent human beings, and really productive citizens of society. And then now that our kids are grown and out of the house, our relationship is morphing into a new phase, where it's, you know, what is it that we want next? What is this next phase? What does it look like? Where are we in our career, and we're doing it together? And that, you know, people say, Well, if you've been married that long Witcher, what's your secret sauce? And you know, what's secret? what's some advice? And I'm like, you know, you have to do it together, we moved together, like our interests are different. But we check in with each other really routinely, regularly, like, Hey, how are you doing? What, what's your goal? Once a year on our anniversary, we actually sit down and we outline our personal goals in our marriage, and our professional goals in our respective careers. And I really think that that's helped us move together towards the life that we want.
Debbie Lundberg13:11
Well, it certainly shows Nancy and I'm smiling, because having seen you out personally, professionally, and having met your children, and now see them and their success through getting little snippets, in social media, or when we do see each other, you're certainly accomplishing all of that. So what a wonderful, what a wonderful tribute to him to, not only because you realize it's more than half your life, you've been been with them and had that support, but because you really thought that through. And I know Barb, and I appreciate your attention to that. And I know our listeners will, too. Alright, so here's number four, we have moved through beautifully with all of your ideas and inspiration. And so while while the podcast and ultimately the masterclass focuses on the positive and how to move forward in life, and you certainly share that about these these different phases. Nancy, is there anything that you're noticing right now that you wish people would stop doing in order to allow them to move forward?
Nancy Surak14:11
Absolutely, I believe that our reliance on standing behind the screen really needs to change as a society. And look, I'm not going to say that I'm perfect, because I've definitely not. But I am working on making more authentic in person interactions and really incorporate incorporating that into my personal and professional life. What I have noticed since COVID, is that folks really have been reluctant to come together in person. And I don't like what's happening with our culture. And you know, you have to break bread with people. That's really where you get to know folks, and you recognize that, you know, we all want a really good life, and we have way more in common than we then what we disagree on, but one way way to do that is by actually having physical in person interaction. So I'm making a very strong effort in my profession and in my personal life to reconnect with folks to reconnect with friends and say, Hey, let's go take a walk, let's go grab a meal, let's grab a glass of wine. Let's connect what's going on in your life and in your profession. and I are you doing? We are so connected to our phones and our tablets and our computers. That I think it's a huge part that's missing today. And I think we all need to fix.
Debbie Lundberg15:32
Well said, and, you know, certainly we didn't know what Nancy, how you are going to answer this. But you demonstrated that though, because you have the grace, we asked if we could reschedule. So we've rescheduled this a couple of times, because both times that we did was because Nancy wanted to be with somebody in person. And because Barb and I wanted too. And Nancy, you demonstrated that beautifully, because you made that a priority. You are graceful with us when we asked you if we could and and as a matter of fact, so our listeners know Barbra and I got to go see Bob Miles speak this morning. And Bob was on our show before and what you just said, Nancy, you exemplify it because you're doing it I've been seeing you out with with engagements and sharing with people and you were really on a personal level, you did it for Barbie me to get to go be in person with somebody before this interview. So thank you for not only sharing it, thanks for living that and walking the walk.
Nancy Surak16:31
Yeah, and same. You know, I say this, I see the same thing with you guys as well. So, but I really, really believe, and I'm really trying to encourage those around me how important that is how that personal in person connectivity is so important to make a better life for all of us.
Debbie Lundberg16:51
Agreed. Thank you.
Barb Zant16:53
Thank you so much. You might have noticed that I was taking notes. And I have a two pages over here. Super insightful. Thanks again. We talked about possibly doing some steps, Debbie. So get ready because I see a weighted backpack with that. So I love that have not heard of that. micro goals. And I did write down bro my goal goals. I love that I'm gonna play with that. I love the micro goals. And then I also have an anniversary coming up with my husband. So I That's a fantastic idea of going over our personal and professional goals. Debbie, are you willing to incorporate some of these, if not all of these in the next couple of weeks so we can get together and tell everybody how we did? Heck yes, I'm happy to it makes me think I wish I had my weighted vest from skydiving that I could have carried but I guess we're going to be stuffing some some weights. And I'll do it. You know, I'll do it. Because that's I see. I see how fun loving and life loving Nancy's whole family is. And of course, we want to incorporate that. So I'm in BB. All right, Nancy, if that wasn't enough rich information, we do have time for a final thought, please. It's a quick closing statement or something. Maybe our listeners didn't know about you before our interview today.
Nancy Surak 18:12
So I mentioned my dad earlier. And so I'm going to close with the last words that he shared with me before he passed away. Because I really believe that I live my life this way, or at least I try. The last thing he said to me was live your life, right. No matter what happens. He was heading into a major surgery, we knew it was a huge risk. He said, There's one thing I leave you with, I want you to live your life, right. If you do that everything is going to fall into place beautifully, and you won't have any regrets. And so anytime in my life when I'm struggling when I have a client that's struggling, when I'm overwhelmed, I take a step back, I take it take a deep breath. And I say am I living the life that I should be living? Am I living the right life for me? And that's going to mean different things to different folks that are here today. But I think asking yourself and sort of having that gut check pretty regularly to say, is this the life I want? And am I living my life right? It's just just the best thing that I can share at the end of our conversation today. Live your life. Right.
Debbie Lundberg19:15
Well, thank you. Thank you, Nancy. I've gotten to hear you speak. So it's such a heartfelt love and appreciation for your dad. So thank you for sharing that with our listeners. We really appreciate it. So listeners know that you can stay connected to this inspirational woman who's living her life, right? Nancy Surak on all social media under her name and her podcast, she's wild is on all the platforms too. So I get a lot of mine through Facebook and Instagram with Nancy and I'm sure wherever you want to follow you will find that really interesting and even if you're not in the same industry as Nancy, the podcast gives you those nuggets from these Women who are leading and and making a difference to so we encourage you to no matter what industry you're in. So similarly you can follow Barb and me on Instagram at the business of life masterclass Barb at the Stay at Work mom and I am Debbie Lundberg most everywhere so if you like this positivity and purpose everything that we do at the business of life masterclass then please rate this episode with Nancy fivestars download listen, you know, we'll be coming back in a couple within seven to 10 days and sharing with you what we did with Nancy's good advice advice as she is our five star guest we know. So stay tuned for our follow through episode as Deb said it will be coming up soon. Thank you for joining us for this episode of the business of life masterclass the podcast for successful people embracing every chance to accomplish at experience all you can in business and in life. Listen, choose do Thank you. Thank you
Nancy Surak21:15
Thank you for listening today to this rebroadcast of the Business of Life Masterclass Podcast if you enjoyed the show, please go out and check out Barb and Debbie's other episodes that you can find on all major platforms. Please also remember to rate in review, She's Wild. And reach out to me if you know a woman in land development or commercial real estate anywhere in North America that you think I should interview. And finally, do not forget to tune in next week for the 50th episode of She's Wild for a special show, where I'll actually sit down with you guys and share key lessons that I've learned from all the guests that I've interviewed so far. Have a great week, everyone and I'll see you soon