Today's episode is all about what I've learned since I decided to start this podcast. The She’s Wild Podcast started because I wanted to create a platform where I could interview women in commercial real estate, land and development and have them share their career stories.
Welcome back to the She’s Wild Podcast hosted by Nancy Surak! Today's episode is all about what I've learned since I decided to start this podcast. The She’s Wild Podcast started because I wanted to create a platform where I could interview women in commercial real estate, land and development and have them share their career stories. I am so grateful for the support I have received and new relationships I have formed throughout the last 20 episodes. I have loved shedding light on women in this industry and sharing each of their unique stories. Each of my guests has brought something different to the table, from sharing their favorite deal to explaining how they began their careers.
Although each guest has been from a different sector of the industry, all of my guests have given women who are not currently in this field a new perspective about working in commercial real estate and in land and development and challenging the idea that only men select this career path. I am so eager to share some of my biggest takeaways as I review everything I’ve learned so far since I decided to start this podcast and I thank you again for the continuous support as I shed light on the amazing females working in this industry.
Memorable Moments:
Thank you to every woman who has reached out to me, who has sent me mail, emails, LinkedIn messages, Instagram direct messages, or that I have seen in person. When you say to me, “Your podcast is meaningful, I'm so glad you're doing it.” “Thank you so much for giving a voice to women.”. That's what keeps me going.
Women in commercial real estate, and in particular, land and development are total badass chicks. You guys rock. This is a hard business, and we all love it, but man, y'all are awesome women who work so hard for yourselves and for your companies and your investors. You deserve to be recognized.
You do not have to have a degree in real estate, in construction, or in development to get into this business and to be crazy-successful as a woman or man in this business.
I've heard this my whole life that your network is your net worth. And it's really true, the value of networking and the friends you can make in the business and people that you can lean on is really impactful.
All of my guests felt like our industry, and our companies could do a much better job of bringing more women forward in boardrooms and on stages, and in training women in particular, to take on those roles.
I love hearing how important it is for you to hear other women's voices in our industry. And I will continue to do this show for as long as I can because of that. So please do give me feedback, and please help spread the word about the podcast.
The show is currently being listened to actively regularly in 14 different countries in the world. So this little bitty show that I called She's Wild for women in North America that are in land and development now has listeners every week, globally, which is a little mind-blowing for me to know that my content has meaning across culture, right? It's really cool.
If more people can see someone that they can identify with up on the stage, or in a leadership role, more of us will know that we can be that person, we need our role models. And honestly, that is 100% what this whole show is about.
One of the goals that I set originally when I decided to do this podcast was to make sure that women are not misplaced in the industry. I do feel like the woman's voice is getting lost in some conversations, and I think it's important for us to continue to fight for parity in our industry and in potential leadership roles, and especially on board seats.
Connect with Nancy:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/nancysurak
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancysurak/
Website: www.nancysurak.com
She's WILD Sound Production by:
Luke Surak, Surak Productions: surakproductions@gmail.com
Nancy Surak 00:04
Hello, welcome to She's Wild the podcasts for women in land and development. This is episode 20. And I am your host, Nancy Surak. This episode is all about what I've learned since I've decided to start this podcast. Before I jump in, though, I just want to talk for a minute about why I created the podcast in the first place. And thank those of you who have reached out to me since it's been airing. So if you've listened to Episode One or any of my intros, you know that I'm here to create a platform so that I could interview women in commercial real estate and inland in development, and get them to share their career stories that came from a place of me trying to right or wrong in our industry, quite frequently, when you go to conferences in our industry or meetings, is not uncommon to go to different industry events and see all men on stage. And there are some really phenomenal women at all levels in our industry that for whatever reason aren't getting those opportunities. And I wanted to change that. I wanted to create a platform that younger women, or even experienced women in the industry could go and listen to other women and gain some insight, some advice, really be able to connect from a personal development standpoint, with their peers, or people that they could look up to that are other women. So I want to thank you for listening and for being here today with me. First and foremost, if it I do this for you guys, I do it for the people who are here today. But for every woman who has reached out to me, who has sent me mail, or emails or LinkedIn messages, Instagram, direct messages, or that I have seen in person. When you say to me, your podcast is meaningful, I'm so glad you're doing it. Thank you so much for giving a voice to women. That's what keeps me going. When I hear things like the young woman who high fived me in Tampa a few months ago and said, I'm gonna get my general contractor's license because I listen to your guests on your show. And if those women can do it, I know I can do it. To the young woman in the Midwest, who I spoke to recently who told me, I'm gonna go and get my master's degree in real estate development. Can you help me connect with one of your guest speakers? Those are the kinds of conversations that like light me up on the inside. The really remarkable thing is I'm beginning to hear from people almost every day now. And the show is really gaining some popularity, which is really cool. So again, thank you guys.
Now let's just dive right in on what I've learned. Okay. So here's number one lesson. And I already knew this. This really is not should not come as a surprise to anybody here. We all know this, but I definitely had it confirmed. Women in commercial real estate, and in particular, land and development are total badass checks. You guys rock. This is a hard business. And we all love it. But man, y'all are awesome women who work so hard for yourselves and for your companies, and for your investors and you really should be recognized. I am in such good company and I am in awe of the talent that's around me. So you know I'm gonna bow down to you guys right now y'all are y'all rock. One other thing that I learned, which I found to be really interesting was that most women who I've interviewed so far, did not study real estate in college. They didn't study construction or development. In fact, many women, I thought this is a really interesting trend, studied international business in college. I have an international trade and finance degree. And I think I've had four or five of my first like 18 guest who also studied international business or international economics in college. And I found that to be pretty interesting. But the lesson there is you do not have to have a degree in real estate, or in construction or in development to get into this business and to be crazy successful as a woman or man in this business. My guest all gave words of wisdom. It's a common question that I asked if somebody contacted you at a point in their career and they're looking for some advice. What would you tell them One thing that came up a lot so far is the value of networking. I've always known personally, I've heard this my whole life that your network is your net worth. And it's really true, like the value of networking and the, the friends you can make in the business and people that you can lean on is is really impactful. So I would agree with that. And one very, very clear. characteristic that has stood out amongst every single one of my guests so far, has been their ability to say yes to new challenges. It's almost a way of life for you guys. It's, you know, of all the women I interviewed, everyone had that as a, a very particular thread in terms of like, what connects one interviewer to the next, being open to new challenges is way up there being willing to take a risk way up there, which is really cool. Because it's very much a way of them saying that they love to learn, and they'd love to be curious. So it's really interesting to kind of see those trends and see them repeated time after time again, I learned that not everybody is active on social media, about 50 50% of my guests are active. It's sometimes a crazy question that I asked, and people don't always know how to answer it. But some of my some of my guests are really active on all social media platforms, but a number of them really are still sticking to the professional platform of LinkedIn. And that's fine, but it's about 50/50. Not that this was discussed on any of the shows, but definitely off camera. All of my guests felt like our industry, and our companies could do a much better job of bringing more women forward in boardrooms and on stages, and in training women in particular, to take on those roles. It came on a lot. As we were doing our preparations to jump on the podcast, or even after we stopped recording, a conversation would sometimes continue. We all feel like our companies and in our industry in particular could just really help us each get better with having opportunities to speak. Another trend that I've noticed is that women who played sports as young girls seem to have a more natural grass, on how to influence the boardroom. And that came out in different conversations as well. And it made me start to think, you know, I wonder is having young girls involved in team sports, maybe a secret weapon to helping the next generation of girls become really effective leaders? I don't know. It's a theory, somebody's probably done a thesis on it. But it has definitely been something that I've noticed. And then another thing is we all absolutely love the Urban Land Institute, and have found that to be a great place for us to spend our career in terms of an association, but a number of women number, my guests mentioned crew and other other organizations that have been really meaningful that to them as well. Okay, so here's the good part. Here's what I've learned about myself. Okay. I do not like hearing myself on audio. And I hate watching myself on video. But now that I've done all these episodes, I am way better with dealing with this than when I first started. I get very, very intimidated by how I sound how I string my words together, where my pauses are the fact that I use the word awesome, like for every exclamation point. But I'm working on it. And I can tell that I'm getting better. So thank you for being patient with me. I was able to confirm this even though I already knew it. I have no fear of cold calling anyone. But one thing I learned through my cold calling in relation to this podcast is how much I really hate it when someone says yes to me, and then proceeds to ghost me. I get it. We're all busy. But if I call you and you're listening, and I asked you to be a guest on the show, it's not because I'm trying to monetize this. It's because I really think that your voice needs to be heard by the folks here today. And I really wish that more people would To be more honest, that they're uncomfortable, upfront. Now granted, I'm sometimes calling you like completely cold. And it's sometimes easier for you to say yes, than to say no. But I am a really nice interviewer. So if you get a call from me, it's because I've done my homework on you. And I think that you would be a great fit here. So, lesson is, let's start saying yes, more and following through. In the start of the podcast, I was really, really overwhelmed. I was so worried, I was worried that I was wasting my time. But I was wasting my money. I was worried that people might think poorly of me. And I was worried that aligning my personal mission of seeing other women be successful in their careers in my industry. And such a public way, could maybe backfire on me. And I was really afraid that women wouldn't tune in, they wouldn't listen. And that many wouldn't agree to be interviewed, that I would run out of people to interview. Y'all, it's hard to do this, it's way harder than what I thought it was gonna be. But it has also been really, really rewarding. But I will tell you, it's hard every week, I look at the time I spend, I look at the money I'm spending and I say like, oh my god, I'm doing this for the right reasons, right? I'm a broker. If you're a broker, you know, we live a commission based lifestyle. And that means every minute of our time is incredibly valuable to us. Because every time every minute, every hour that I'm not working on a deal or cultivating relationship with a buyer or seller, I am potentially losing money. I'm a huge believer in return on investment. And I hate wasting my time. And I hate wasting other people's time, too. So it's been really hard for me, really on a weekly level to get over this overwhelm. But it is getting easier. And I'll tell you, the best part is when I hear from somebody, like I said in my intro, or earlier in my conversation here, when I hear from you guys, and when you take time to send me an email or a message, and you tell me that you want me to keep going. That's important for me to hear. Because the only reason I am here, the only reason I'm doing this is for you guys, I need to hear from you. I love hearing how important it is for you to hear other women's voices in our industry. And I will continue to do this show for as long as I can because of that. So please do give me feedback. And please help spread the word about the podcast. I've been really surprised at how often I'm hearing from different people, how people are talking about the podcasts in rooms that I'm not in. And I'll get that feedback, you know, oh, so and so was talking about the podcast, or we were in this board meeting and your podcast came up. That's awesome. That's why I'm doing this. When I post on LinkedIn, every Tuesday, religiously, every Tuesday, I post the new episode, I give you a synopsis of who the guest is, I tagged them in LinkedIn. And that's for two reasons. One, it's for consistency, too. It's how I'm promoting the show, I only post on LinkedIn, and Instagram. That's it. All the growth of the show is coming through organic development. And so it's important that you guys help me spread the message if you like the content here. And it's really important to that you comment. And you rate the show on whatever platform you're listening to, if you're on Spotify, or if you're on iTunes, or Apple Music, or I guess it would be iTunes or I guess Amazon Music There's there's a bunch of them on all the major platforms. Even if you only have time enough to give me the star rating, that's fine. But if you have like literally five minutes or two minutes that you could just write what you think of the show. It helps those algorithms show show the show to other people who it might be a match for so we'd really appreciate that. Okay, so the other thing I learned, which didn't really surprise me either, but I want to make sure I mentioned it here because I think it's important and I think it's relevant for people listening. Before I did this, I talked to four podcasters who had great successful shows and I asked them for advice, what was a piece of advice they could give me? And they all gave me different pieces of advice. But two of those podcasters actually said to me, Hey, make sure you have 10 episodes recorded before you go live. That will help you from failing out of the gate. That was the best advice that I got was better than the type of mic I should get. It was better than you know where to put the podcast, how to get it launched on the different platforms. It was Do Your Homework upfront, which is very relevant, know your shit, and then launch. And that was great. Now I'll tell you one really interesting thing that happened with having 12 podcasts ready on the first day that I launched on April 14, by the way, is that I have three months of content. And that's amazing. Set that as I continue to record, I do move shows around because I've timeliness conversations, there were some conversations that I would record and I would have to like move them way up in in the list. So literally, I have, I don't know, maybe 10 podcasts right now like ready to go. They're in the bank. And I'm constantly like shuffling them around, because I want to make sure that I'm giving you guys like really good content. So if you're one of my previous guests, and you haven't heard yourself yet, you're coming, I'm sorry, I'm trying to narrow it down. I actually don't think I have 10. I think I have like seven right now. But that was really, really good advice to be super prepared.
Okay, so here's what really, really surprised me the amount of work that goes into me finding a guest, me cold calling or emailing that test, recording. And then editing and getting the podcast up and launched is way more work than what I could ever have imagined. It's like all second job. Now it's not 40 hours a week, I literally like when I tell you how much time I spend, you're gonna really rise. I probably spend on average per week, about two hours. Now, bear with me, it's not two hours every week, some weeks, I spend four to six hours because I love to batch record, if I can, it just helps me with just my overall vibe, how I interview and then I like to batch edit, as well. So I will get a listen to three shows. I'll do all my edits. And then I get that to, a really, really instrumental professional, my son, Luke Surak, who I'm gonna give a major shout out to who does all my sound editing. But I give it to him in groups. So I batch record as many as I can. And then I give him about three shows at a time. And then we go from there to get the podcast over to my graphic assistant, who then takes it how soon with my show notes, does all my show graphics, those sorts of things. But the amount of work that goes into that is a lot. Typically on Monday nights, I'm putting the final touches on whatever the show notes show notes are to get the podcasts loaded so that it can go live on Tuesday morning. Okay, so here's something else that surprised me. I am currently are we the show is currently being listened to actively regularly in 14 different countries in the world. So this little bitty show that I called she's wild for women in North America that are in land and development now have has listeners every week, globally, which is a little mind blowing for me to know that my content has meaning across culture, right? It's really cool. And not that I don't want to understate this next thing because it's not really a surprise either. But it is another thing that I've learned. I absolutely have loved my guest and getting to know these really phenomenal women across North America. And the time that I've spent interviewing them, y'all. These women are like my people and then my network has exploded. Because you when you interview somebody in this sort of a setting, there's something magical that happens where you really feel like you get to know somebody so much better than like going to a conference and talking to them for five minutes. I I would refer work to every single woman who I've had as a guest on the show. And those who I've recorded with, they are really phenomenal professionals. They do their job exceptionally well. And I'm really proud to be able to call them my friends now. Okay, so I promised at the beginning of this, or at least, I think I did that I would get into some highlights from some of the shows. Okay, so I'm gonna start off with the very, very first episode, because I can see the numbers and I see that my first episode hasn't been listened to as much as some of the later episodes. It's literally like five or six minutes. You don't have to listen to it. I'm going to tell you basically what I'm going to say when I say it right now. I talked about in that first episode, why I started this, and why I'm doing it. And I mentioned in that episode, that I've heard the statement, if you can't see her, you can't be her. And I say how I don't agree with that. I don't agree with that statement. I don't think it's 100% accurate. And that's mainly because many of us and almost all of my guests, we couldn't see her. I think a couple of my guests had a mom in the business. But most of us didn't, most of us didn't have a female mentor in this business before we got in. And we still manage to be crazy successful in our roles, or in our companies, or in creating our own companies. So I do believe that you can still be her if you can't see her, right. But I do also believe and I know that there's been a ton of science and research done on this, that if more people can see someone that they can identify with up on the stage, or in a leadership role, that more of us will know that they can be that person, we need our role models. And honestly, that is 100% what this whole show is about. Because when I first got into this business 20 years ago, it was a big deal for me to be the only woman in the room. Yes, I had to hype myself up, I would, you know, talk myself up in the car and walk in with all this like crazy confidence. But it's hard, y'all after doing that for 20 years, day, after day, and I'm tired. And I don't want to be the only one in the room anymore. I don't want to be the only woman in the room anymore. And not only that, but I don't want to be the only woman have two or three women in the room of 20 or 30 or 100 men, we have got to do a much better job of pulling row women in the room with us. And the only way we're going to do that at a more rapid pace is by showing other women that you can be successful in this industry and giving them really good examples and good advice.
So you in my first episode, I talk all about that. I want to talk about episode eight really quickly. Because there was an instrumental person who was my guests on episode eight, and the creation of the podcast and in really getting me over this hump. So episode eights guest is Allison Walsh. Allison is the Chief Executive Officer of Allison Walsh consulting. She empowers women through her business coaching services and has been doing so since 2008. She's a seasoned executive, she has a whole full time job in the mental health industry. She is a philanthropist. She speaks professionally. She's a consultant. I mean, this woman does it all. And I'm always in awe with her. But through her business coaching, she and I worked together a couple of years ago on a personal brand project that I was working on personally. And one of the things that I identified through that work with her back in 2020. And in 2021 was that I wanted to figure out a way to cover the center of my two circles. I have my work as a lamb burger, which is phenomenal. And I do really well on this lamb business. And then I have my personal life. And then I have this little section in the middle where I spend time encouraging other professional women and being their best self. And I was trying to figure out a way to marry all of that together. And that's really how this podcast was born. If you know me Personally, or you might have even heard it on one of the episodes. I talk sometimes about the Women's Leadership Initiative through you ally, I was chairperson on the west coast of Florida. For nearly, I think it was like just over three years, we grew that organization incredibly well. But when COVID hit, I was no longer the chair. And that group stopped the meeting as frequently. And I really, really missed it. But I knew I didn't want to do that job again, as chairperson, I want to do something on a bigger scale. And that was how the podcast really came through to fruition. And Allison was incredibly instrumental in helping me get launched and helping hold my hand and pushing me literally pushing me over the finish line. But in episode eight, we talk about that experience working together and we talk about the power and why you should be investing in your personal brand. If you are a woman in business, why that's so important. We talked about goal setting. We talked about positive thinking, and there's a lot of really good tips in that particular episode. So if you haven't listened to it, I would definitely suggest that you go back and listen to that one because I think that there's something for everyone in there. That's that's just ton packed full of a ton actionable advice.
Okay. Episode 3 was with Taya Cook and Sherry Larjani out of Toronto, Canada. So these two women I literally read an article years ago about them. I think it was in the New York Times I know they've been featured in Oprah's magazine. Oh, and like literally all over like international media. Because these two women came together to create an all female development team on a nine storey condo project call Reina up in Toronto. Reina actually broke ground. Just a few weeks ago, I was super excited literally like celebrating with them through Instagram, like I was like busting because I already had interviewed them there show it up there episode aired. And then I was literally watching them break ground on this momentous project. Like I'm I feel like it was like part of it. But these women managed to carve out their own niche. And not only that, but they did it with all these other women in their industry, you know, in their area. And they're like crazy experience. So Sherry was an experienced developer and entrepreneur and Taya was as well. And they build these projects within their different companies. But they came together with all these other women, A to Z, like everybody working on the project women, and I'm so excited for them. And I can't wait to get up Toronto to see the project. But that episode, episode three, was all about why they did this. And getting to a point of trying to find purity, right? Sherry said in the episode, I wanted to show everybody in the industry that I can be just like them that I'm an equal. And she said she's always done that even on every site that she's ever done. But if she was on a site, that she was building something that she would have no trouble doing the hard work, that she would pick up a piece of metal or wood or drywall, drywall or whatever, even when she was like big and pregnant. She still did it. And Taya basically told the story about how she just seeing men continuously win like industry awards and being highlighted as the Kings a condo. How just a fleeting it was for her. Because there are so many awesome women in the Toronto market. Let me just tell you, they're like awesome up there that are at the top yet they're not eyelid. And she was like it was enough already. It was enough. So I didn't want to spoil the episode if you haven't listened to it, but definitely go back to episode three.
Episode 2 was Tia Jesse out of Southeast Florida with EDEN multifamily quick story totally called Tia cold. She was a cold call. I pitched her to be a guest on the podcast. And I've recorded her and let me just tell you like I instantly fell in love with her personality and what she does. And one thing that we agreed on, which was really interesting was she said, I can't believe that there's not more interest from women in our industry. This is a great industry for women. And I 100% agree with her on that. So that's why we did this right. Again, that's why we're here. But she basically talked about all things from the roles that she's had in her past to how she got to her role today. And just how to build your experience and you'll hear it if you listen to this episode, you'll hear her passion for what she does, and she gets really really good advice. And she also made a point of saying you know before she was in the industry that she never ever could have imagined. Until she got in the business, the sheer number of people energy, effort, time and talent that it takes to get the built community finalized, right to get these projects from a piece of dirt to a completed project, regardless of what you're building, whether that's multifamily apartments, single family communities, industrial buildings, retail projects, whatever it is. It takes a ton of people and a ton of effort to get it completed. And I think that was a really good time just to sort of say, like, yeah, man, we are in a really awesome industry. We create places where people live, work and play where we spend our lives. So yet another reason why it's really important for us to continue to advocate for other women to get into leadership roles, and to get their respective respect in our industry, because we need to have that female voice making in particular, design decisions. So for every woman who's out there in design, architecture development, I want to thank you, because when you pick flooring out that my high heel is not going to get stuck in, I can always tell that that was a woman designer that picked out that flooring. Like always still, I want to thank you, for every woman who has changed a glass or see through stairwell to something that's solid, I love you. Because that means I can wear my skirt and still climb the stairs. So thank you, for every woman who has designed or worked on a construction project where the elevator bank comes together literally with the floor when the doors open, and you can roll out your stroller to push your child in without having to like pop it back. So you can get the wheels over the little lip. Thank you. Those are the little bitty details. That means so much in everyday life that any woman who is on a design team or in a project, when those little bitty details are taken care of. Unlike a woman did this, I can tell I can also tell when a man made those decisions to buy. We won't get into that right now. Okay, so let me keep going. Kind of going in order now. And I feel like I'm going to be rattling off all the episodes. Okay. Episode 4. Stephanie Rodriguez from Duke Realty and southeast Florida. This woman let me just tell you holy crap, is she the real deal. I met Stephanie at the Globe Street, Women of Influence and commercial real estate conference in July of 2021. We had a mutual friend who was supposed to be the conference, who was going to introduce us and that didn't work out. So we literally like hunted impact through the conference to find each other instant, great friend, love her. She's amazing. She was a great guest. She talked about how she started her car her career off. She was literally a receptionist, she's now running the state of Florida for Duke Realty, and is helping them build and manage millions of square feet of industrial properties. So totally bow down to her. But she talked a lot about in her episode, building your network and how important it is to have people around you that are experienced, so that you can go to them when you feel vulnerable and test things out. And she also talked about gave a really great piece of advice about just really working on your self confidence and knowing what you bring to the table and being willing to share that and get in the front. Because every time you step in front and you learn and you share your experience, that's really where you will gain runway and it's gonna make you better for the long run. So fun episode. Great story. Absolutely love her.
Okay, Episode 6, another one of my favorites. All of these are my favorite. Actually all of my favorite let me be honest. Okay, so episode six was Britney hurdle. Britney hurdle literally in her 20s. So you guys are here today and you're listening and you're like, Oh, I'm 25 Or I'm 28. Like hit me up. I will feature you. I want to know you because it's important for me. Like I don't only like diversity for women, but I like it for h2 in for other ethnic backgrounds as well. But on the show, it's all about women. Those are going to be my guest. Back to Brittany. Brittany is a land broker. She's relatively young, she grew up her father or stepfather is a land broker right outside of Nashville. And so she sort of grew up with being around the industry in her teens. And she was awesome. She's actually my mentee. She's actually in the process right now, as the show is airing. I'm moving from Tennessee to Texas. So we're gonna give her a little shout out because like, Brittany, if you're listening, I hope that everything works out for you in Texas and you find your love for the land and doing great deals and bigger deals. But let me just tell you, she talked about two things in her podcasts that really stood out to me number one was, and I've had people repeat this to me when I talked to them, because they'll say, Oh, I love the girl from Tennessee who said that she reads the notes or the agenda notes from the planning commission, and city council meetings. And that she does that so that she knows what the hell is going on so that she can help her clients know what's going on. And I'm like shaking my head when I hear it back. And I'm like, yeah, no, that's what good labor brokers do. But she talked about how important that is. And she also talked about something I didn't. I mean, I had a little bit but not nearly as today, the power of the internet and the power of Google. And she said, you know, she'd been doing this for like five or six years that she does a lot of digging on Google. Especially when she first started out to learn, like everything she could about contracts, and how you reach out to people and how to network in who the developers were in her kind of her area. And, you know, we all know that, but it's a great reminder, like, literally, Google is your friend. and utilize it. Not that y'all need that reminder. But I thought it was an awesome piece of advice for somebody especially like maybe a little bit younger.
Okay, Episode 9, another land broker, female total rockstar, Michelle Pino. Michelle is my associate in Phoenix, Arizona. For land advisors. She's one of the commercial land brokers out in my corporate office, really, really awesome woman with a phenomenal background. And we talked all about the anatomy of a land deal. And we share experiences in episode nine, where we talk about like some of our deals. And it's really clear when you hear us chatting, like, why she was awarded the most influential woman in Arizona commercial real estate and 2021. I mean, she's, like, really phenomenal. But one of the things that she really stressed was the value of teamwork. So again, I mean, it's sort of like, again, is just a different word. But it's really network, right? She talked about how his broker and I 100% agree with this, you have to have an architect and engineer, some other folks, planners that you can call on when you need to get deals done, that you can either refer work to or like pick their brain, but there has to be like mutual respect there. So so that was really great. But she also left at the end of her episode, she gave a piece of advice, what I absolutely love. And she said, You cannot, as a woman continue to stand on the wall. Well, those weren't her exact words. But those are that's my paraphrase of it. She said, It's okay to say to a senior person or somebody you work with, I'm supporting you on this deal. Awesome. But she said, You have to look for when you can get out front. And when you need to take your place. And you need to step out front and the deal, negotiate the deal and take control. And that is a really, really good piece of advice and insight. Because I will tell you, I've never had an issue with that. But other people trying to keep me suppressed in past experience has led me to leave companies and to say like, No, I'm doing that deal. And I can be out in front. And I do have my clients best interest at heart at all times, and I know what I'm doing. So don't be afraid to step away from the wall and claim your spot at the table or in front of them.
All right. Episode number 10. Yes, I know you're thinking you're gonna go through all of these. No, I'm not. But a bunch of them all have like kind of strung together. Episode 10 was Brooke May. If you have not listened to Episode 10. Like literally go listen to her right now. Like right, as soon as you're done with us when you go listen to books. I love this woman. I've known her for years. I've known her since she first started in the business we got started around the same time. She is a phenomenal badass professional woman and construction. But she shares a story in her episode that I didn't know. That was a total shock that I think about every single week. I'm sorry that I think about every single week. Since we had our conversation since I've recorded, Brooke talks about not only being a woman in In land and development, and in construction, but being the only woman in a room, relatively recently, like in the last five years, and actually being physically assaulted by another man on a project. It is raw, it is thought provoking. And I think it's important for everyone to go listen to it, whether you're a man or a woman, if you listen to the show, go listen to episode 10. And recognize that these things still happen to women that would never in a million years happen to a man on a project site. So go listen to that. But I don't want it to only be her episode really be about that, although it was very, very impactful. She said, something like, you have to know your stuff. Obviously, us women in this business, we know that. But she said, If you do not know your stuff, other people are going to walk all over you. So grow a backbone, great advice. And she said, you know, don't be so quick to not being willing to learn. She said, You know, you could have five years when you're in construction, you gotta have at least five years. And you have to do the grunt work. So for those of you who are newer to the industry, like put your time in, because that's what you learn, and be happy there. Because I'm going to tell you, like I learned on every single deal, but on every deal that I encountered today, I typically I might learn one or two new things, but there's a lot of stuff that I learned 10 years ago, 15 years ago, because I've seen it before. And that's really where my value is to my clients. So put yourself out there and really learn. And one thing the other thing she said was don't be afraid of the word. No, that was not a punishment. No, it was not anything bad. No, it was just no. So go listen to the episode with Brooke May.
Episode 12. Again, gotta keep saying this. I sound like a broken record. Episode 12 was Britney Mroczkowski. Down here in Tampa this woman has like a whole fan club down here. And let me just tell you, she's gone from being a broker or an agent. Or actually, I think sort of in research. She started off in research, then became a broker then went to work as a developer now she's like a broker again. And she's got like two side businesses maybe more. Actually, three, I think you just got an Airbnb. We talked about it on the show. She's got a development company called builder Brett, which we also talk about a lot on the show. And because she's running the brokerage house for exp commercial for the state of Florida. Amazing episode so fun. I literally for those of you've listened to the episode 12 You might remember this. Literally, I started off the episode laughing because I could not pronounce her last name. And we were crying in our recording. I was crying not her like she might even cried. I was definitely crying in the episode because it couldn't get her name, right. And I've known her for like 19 years or 15 years. But anyway, she's got a great story about how she used to write on her mirror, build it bred these words of affirmation, because she was a developer and like, really taking huge risk in her careers. And now that's her like whole personal brand. That's the name of her company that she's doing like development, consulting work and doing some of our own smaller deals and just certainly really cool story. So go a listen to that one.
Okay. I think I only have one left. Oh, maybe two. Okay. Oh my goodness. Episode 15. Meg Epstein. Meg Epstein was a total cold call as well. Actually. No, that's all right. Meg was referred to me by a gentleman in Nashville that I knew in the business. Because he was podcaster. I reached out to him for advice. He was actually one of the people that told me, you know, make sure you have like 10 or 12 shows, like already recorded before you ever go live. His name is Evan Holladay. He's great guy, so affordable developer up in Nashville. But anyway, he gave me Meg's name. And I called Meg and I was like, hey, like, I want to interview you for the show I'm doing and she was so gracious and so lovely. And told her whole career story. And it was really, really fun to hear about how she started her company ca south, literally from like, running on the riverside, in Nashville looking at land because she's on a jog and thinking like, I'm gonna go buy that piece of property. I'm gonna build something they're like, ah mazing right. But she talked about the value of cold calling, which is like so near and dear to my heart. Great episode sheds a lot of light on what it's like to be a leader in the in the industry. And she's great to follow on social media to buy it. That's how she got her first 100 million dollar deal funded totally by cold calling, which I thought was like a phenomenal lesson for all of us.
Okay, finally, now you're like, Thank God, Nancy is almost done. Finally, Episode 17 with Sally Riker. Sally is a partner at Lowe's engineers in Atlanta, she has 25 years of AC experience. Oh, my God, this woman was completely infectious and just are really, really wonderful guests with just tons and tons of advice. But one of the things that she left me with was how important it is to be responsive and communicative, how important it is to always communicate with your clients, and to respond to them when they reach out to you. Now, that doesn't mean you have to respond to them at nine o'clock at night, right. But if you get an email from your client or text, like they need to be early in your day, the next day, but she talked about how just really being super responsive and communicative, that you could avoid like 99% of problems that show up on deals, because you can nip things in the bud early. So I thought that was really good advice.
And there's so so much more and oh up look, see I some notes that I'm going through, I guess I love , Episode 18 oh God, I hope that if you're a guest that was on one of the other episodes I didn't mention, it's not because I don't love you. It's just I was trying to like narrow this down. And this is sort of where I got and just decided, you know what, I just gotta get this recorded. Episode 18 was April LaMon. April is a proptech CEO of a company called Alsoant. I loved interviewing April, oh my gosh, her company completely started, because she had a client that asked her to create an app for community that he was developing in California. And because she didn't want to tell her, her client, no, she and her business partner created an entire business that has been around now for I think four or five years. And they're killing it. They're in like 70 different communities across America and helping developers connect on this, like really cool prop tech technology platform with future residents. And such a great interview, she had tons of great advice and tips as well. And I'll leave you alone won't leave you with us, I still have some more things to say. I'll leave you with her piece of advice. And then we'll jump into what's coming next. Her piece of advice was to stay curious, and to explore what you have in front of you and to really think about problems, because the first and the quick answer might not be the right answer. So she really said, you know, make sure that when you're in this business, and you're growing No matter your level, to really stay curious. That was her best piece of advice, which I thought was phenomenal.
Okay, so I have no idea how long this is going. So I apologize if super long. Okay, what's next? So as I look out, she's wild. And you can hear the enthusiasm. In this whole conversation about all the things I learned about how jazz I get when I hear from you guys, about how we're in 14 different countries and continuing to grow and how much I love these conversations. I don't know what's next. Well, I do a little bit. But I need to hear from you guys. Okay, so what's next, I promised myself originally that I would get through 2022 With these shows, and so much money set aside, and I will reevaluate in December kind of where we go from here. But there's three things I really want to kind of focus on going forward. Number one, I really want some higher level women, CEOs or women in the C suite to allow me to interview them. I have found it to be interesting that women who are more entrepreneurial, had been way more willing, especially at the higher levels to let me interview them. But women who are in more corporate settings who are in really really structured environments, their gatekeepers are like working overtime, and they will not let me either get close to them or these women are so pressed for their time and attention that those are the ones that are always hear back from and it's a little frustrating for me because I think, you know, those women need to share their experience with us. So if you know a woman that's a CEO or super high C level suite woman in development, I would really like to get an introduction and have her come on so that she could share her experience with all of us here. I do think I'm going to do a few more solo episodes. Maybe not as long as this one, but I do think I'm going to do my career story probably around episode 30. So stay tuned for that. And then finally, one of the goals that I set originally, when I decided to do this podcast was making sure that women are not misplaced in the industry. And for as much as I love DEI initiatives, and I absolutely do, I think they're really critically important. I do feel like the woman's voice is getting lost in some of those conversations. And I think it's important for us to continue to fight for parity and our industry and in potential leadership roles, and especially on board seats. And I would love to figure out a way to tie my experience, ultimately, in my career and on this podcast, with folks who are doing like national research or and global research on women's voices, and how important it is to have women out front and figure out how to put together a panel of women to talk about why it's so important to have other women in rooms that are making decisions and up on stages. So if you're interested in helping me with that, or you have some resources you want to share with me, I'd love to hear from you. So that's it, y'all. No idea again, how long I just stopped. And I apologize if this is like an hour long. But I really, really wanted to get on and just do like a total brain dump. And thank you guys and tell you, you know, kind of what's on my brain and what's on my heart. Thank you for being a listener. And thank you for being here today with me. I hope that you enjoyed hearing my brain dump and I hope that I'll continue to hear from all of you guys and you'll help me spread the word on how great of an industry commercial real estate land and development is for women and for young people, globally. Thank you and have a great rest of your day.