Today's episode is all about my career journey and how I got to where I am today. Although I have interviewed many guests on the podcast, I realized I have never told my story of how I started working in real estate and land development. My career path in this field was untraditional, like many of the guests I have interviewed, and I can’t wait for you to learn more about it.
Welcome back to the She’s Wild Podcast hosted by Nancy Surak! Today's episode is all about my career journey and how I got to where I am today. Although I have interviewed many guests on the podcast, I realized I have never told my story of how I started working in real estate and land development. My career path in this field was untraditional, like many of the guests I have interviewed, and I can’t wait for you to learn more about it. My hope is that this episode lets you learn a little bit more about me and why I absolutely love what I do. I am so grateful for all of the individuals I have met along the way and can’t wait for you to learn more about my career journey!
Memorable Moments:
2:15- It's really funny for me to think back to the fact that my love of land development started when I was really young, without any external influence. I didn't have it around me. I was just naturally drawn to the built environment.
6:12- I was raised, quite honestly, with the lens of my dad. So I was raised to believe that I, you know, from age eight on, I could do anything I set my mind to, that I shouldn't let my gender get in my way that if I wanted something, it was really about hard work.
17:49- Other than when my dad got injured, getting accepted into UF is quite possibly the biggest pivotal moment in my life outside of meeting my husband and having my kids. It completely changed the trajectory of my life.
18:53- I worked for an engineering company that was woman owned, and it was phenomenal. I was doing all their business development work. I was calling on developers, getting deals, and securing their work in the market on the west coast of Florida, and it was great.
21:46- And as I dug into, what do I want to be when I grew up, like literally, I was like 35, right? What do I want to be when I grow up? What kind of impact do I want in my career? I kept coming back to land, land, land, land and development. It was just such a huge draw to me and just a pull in my belly, like I knew that was where I needed to be.
25:57- Today, we're at the end of October of 2022. And I'm reflecting on, you know, almost the two decades that I've been in the business like I literally just started my 18th year of the brokerage side. And, you know, it's really, really awesome for me just to take a minute to pause. And to think about all the lives that I've impacted all the sellers that I've worked with the buyers that I've worked with.
26:52- Over the last 18 years, I've sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of vacant land in and around the Tampa Bay region. Those parcels have already become or they are under construction now or will become 12,000 plus single family homes 6,000 plus multifamily apartments and millions and millions of square feet of commercial developments.
28:57- Last year in 2021. I was recognized by the Realtors Land Institute, I finally cracked through the top 20 Land brokers in the United States. I was the only woman to do so then and still. So I was recognized by the Realtors Land Institute as the top woman land broker in the nation. And I've had just so many awards.
29:52- My best piece of advice is if you have a dream, or you have an interest go after it. Do not stand in your own way to reach the next level in your life.
30:31- Flexing the muscle to take a risk will propel you. It is the best advice I can give. If you want something, work your tail off and go make it happen. Do whatever you need to, to get your goal accomplished.
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 Surak00:00
Welcome back to She's Wild, the podcast for women in land and development. This is episode 30. I am not only the creator and host, but I'm also today's guest of She's Wild. My name is Nancy Surak. And as you guys know, from listening to my intro, I have been a lien broker on the west coast of Florida for almost 20 years. I've been in the commercial real estate space for closer to 25. And I absolutely love what I do. I've had a number of folks who follow the show and of some folks that I know on the west coast of Florida asked me to do a podcast episode that is really just my journey and my story. So I'm not going to have somebody interview me on here, I'm going to try my best to answer some of the questions that I ask other people. Okay, so here goes. My love of land actually started when I was a young girl. If you're a regular listener to the show, you know that I was born and raised in South Louisiana. I am from a little town outside of New Orleans called Gretna. I had a very modest childhood, lower middle class, very hard working parents really inspirational stories. And when I was a little girl, you know, I didn't grow up on land. I didn't grow up on farms, I didn't grow up with a family that was in real estate, or commercial real estate, or had a daddy that did it or build. No my dad worked on the railroad, my mom was a stay at home mom. And when I was a little girl, I actually have very vivid memories of playing in my backyard with a Barbie and a Tonka Truck. For me, Barbie built the community that she played on. So when I was imagining Barbie, you know, being a mom or going to work when I was like five. She was telling contractors what to do in my world. And it's really funny for me to think back to the fact that my love of land development started when I was really young, without any external influence. I didn't have it around me. I was just naturally drawn to the built environment. And so it's actually kind of ironic that I am a land broker though I have somehow managed to weave my love of the built environment, and I've seen things come from just land to think that this started when I was like four or five is just really cool. Okay, so talking about my parents. They were awesome. And again, really hard working people. When I was eight years old, my dad suffered a major, major injury where he was paralyzed. And the same day that I was shoved out of the house to catch the school bus. Not knowing if my dad could actually physically get out of the bathtub. He went into the hospital and had major spinal surgery on three vertebrae discs that had been completely destroyed. That afternoon, one of my sisters actually checked me out of my elementary school. I was in third grade. I remember like it was yesterday. I didn't know what was going on. I didn't really understand it should be home. And within a couple of hours, our house caught fire. Same Day, December 6 crazy to think that while my parents were dealing with a major health issue, our kitchen was on fire. I was outside. Thankfully, my two sisters are inside. They were okay they were able to one of my sisters literally grabbed a burning fry pan full of oil and dumped it outside of the house while it was like completely inflamed, but it was too late for there not to be any damage. Now thankfully, it wasn't crazy, crazy damage. It was really contained to our kitchen. But the kitchen has to be redone and our cabinets are on fire but my sister literally basically put out the fire, grease fire no less with water. And we lived like not even two blocks away from the local fire station. So by the time the fire fighters got to the house, like the fire had already been pretty much like snuffed out, but it happened at the same time. So Major, major drama major trauma, when I was eight, the months and years that followed that were incredibly pivotal for me, and incredibly impactful. My dad never returned back to working on the railroad, he had to take an early retirement or disability retirement from the railroad. And this was before like workers comp. And those sorts of things he had, like, been working there for quite some years. So he had the ability for an early retirement, thank God. But it really was not enough to cover the gap of what my mom and dad's expenses were their mortgage. My mom was really forced back to work, she was no longer the stay at home mom. And that was not that big of a deal for me to adjust to because I was in school all day. But it really did change my entire family dynamic. My mom began working. And my dad was my primary caregiver. And as a result, I was raised differently than all of my siblings. So there's five of us. And the youngest, I was raised, quite honestly, with the lens of my dad. So I was raised to believe that I, you know, from age eight on, I could do anything I set my mind to, that I shouldn't let my gender get in my way that if I wanted something, it was really about hard work. The first I think, six months after my dad's injury, I would actually attend like physical therapy with him from time to time. And ultimately, he regained the ability to walk. But I watched that front and center, you know, be like, take my books, I would do my homework. And I would watch him push through and not give up. Now, obviously, he had the ability to regain that. But there was a lot of work that went into that. And I watched it in for decades. And I'm talking like decades and decades, I always attributed my success, to watching him regain the ability to walk. All my success, my personal life, my private life. You know, my professional career, I always said it was because of my dad. Now that I'm a little bit older, I recognize that that was only part of my story. The other piece was watching my mom go from a stay at home mom for like 20 something years to reentering the workforce in 1979. And figuring out that, you know, she had to look a certain way, she had to dress a certain way she had to manage her career in a certain way. Now, I was the only one left at home at that time, the only child. But I was young, you know, third, fourth grade, and really impressionable. I learned that the image that you pursued to the outside world is what people think of you, I learned the value of personal branding from my mom. I watched her, you know, and I watched them as a couple really commit to each other and figure out like how to work through this, like really, really horrible time in their life. And it was incredibly, incredibly impactful for me. I tell that story before I get into my career story, because I think it is really important for folks who know me to understand that that happened to me at a very, very young age. And it completely changed how I looked at the world. After that, I began to really, really believe that my success was going to be because of the work that I put in. And that who I affiliated with, you know, a future spouse, friends, that they were going to have very significant impact on where I was going in my life. Not that I was going to use people not at all, but that I needed to make sure that those around me were built with incredibly strong foundations, because that was going to impact me going forward if I ever had an issue that I had to overcome. I share that because I think it's important for people to know that I didn't grow up in this industry, no slight to people who did like I'm like, Hey, use whatever advantage that you have. But I moved to Florida in the early 90s I didn't have any contacts. I didn't know any landowners. I wasn't even from this state and I figured out how to be successful in my business. So talking about that part of my story, I'm going to tell you, I went, you know, high school was great. My parents figured out things my mom like actually managed to get like promotion after promotion. And she was really, really great worker, and a great manager. She figured out how to do really wonderful things in her career and for herself. And I'm super, super proud of her. When I think back at that I was able to attend all girl Catholic high school, my parents really sacrificed for that. And that was a huge thing. For me, I was the only one in my family that was able to have private education in high school. And it really did set me up for success. I attended Louisiana State University, and I got a degree in international trade and finance in the late 80s. That was during the time of the NAFTA trade. And I knew I didn't want like a traditional finance degree or accounting degree, I just didn't love it enough in fact that hated accounting. And the thought of working in a global perspective was like super attractive to me, I thought that was fantastic. So I did get my undergraduate at international trade and finance. And then when I was a senior at LSU, my dad had such a profound impact on me. You know, he used to tell me, you should be in development, you should be a commercial real estate development. And I didn't want to do that, frankly, because I watched him lose an investment that he made when I was a teenager in a real estate deal, because he was in way over his head. And my view was that folks in commercial real estate couldn't be trusted. So I was like, not doing that. But he also, you know, said like, go and get your education. Both my parents, all they have were graduate equivalency degrees, GEDS from high school, neither of them actually graduated formally from high school. And my dad didn't have any other formal education outside of that. GED. And he was really one of the smartest people I've ever met. My mother had some coursework later in her career. But she never graduated with an AA or anything like that. But she was she was consumed a lot of educational content, and attended, you know, different courses and those sorts of things. But neither of them had anything more than a GED. But my dad looked at education through the lens of it was the great equalizer. And in the 70s, and 80s, he really, really believed that the number one way that he could help his daughters and his children in general, but he had four girls, was to make sure that we each got a college education. And so they sacrificed a lot. And when I was coming into my senior year at LSU, he pulled me to the side and said, You know, I have a few thousand dollars saved, it's really your wedding fund. But I would really like for you to go get your graduate degree. Now, in the early 90s, there was a recession, it wasn't looking great for me to like great prospects to get a job right out of school. And so I took my parents up on that. Now, looking back, I'm like, Man, I was a punk. I chose to go out of state, I chose to get my graduate degree at the University of Florida, which was super expensive. At the time, it was $365 per credit hour, out of state graduate work. Now I know it's a lot more now. But then I was like, Hey, I'm gonna take that money. I liked that deal, put me through school, graduate school. And I'm gonna spend every single penny of it, which is why I said I'm a little bit of a punk. I went to the University of Florida, and I got my Master's in Public Relations. But again, I like to tell the story that I was not actually admit acepted into the University of Florida graduate program, when I started. So I had applied to four different graduate programs, and I caught in quick nose from two of them. I just didn't have the test scores, the GRE test scores, or GMAT test scores. And I was worried that I was going to get two more nose. So I was pretty proactive and called the graduate schools before they did their like, review of my application. And I thought I wanted to attend you if I hadn't been to the campus, but everything I'd read about it was a really good fit for me. And so I started being really proactive on my application, and talking to folks and making friends on the phone, which is so funny. For me to think about now, I was like such the gift of gab. But anyway, I figured out that I was not going to be accepted. I did not have the minimum GMAT score. And so I was going to be an automatic now, before they could tell me no. I managed to learn that there was a way for me to backdoor into University of Florida, and it was called admission as a post baccalaureate student. I have no idea if this is still a thing. It might be I don't know. But in 1992, the University of Florida said, Hey, you can come as a post baccalaureate student, you can take graduate level classes in the program that you want to pursue, and you can reapply and hope that you get the test score that you need, but we'll let you start. And I was like, Okay, I'm gonna do that. I talked my parents into paying for it. I moved from Louisiana, to Gainesville, Florida. And I didn't know anybody. When I got here. I knew one person in the state of Florida. The older sister of one of my childhood friends lived like 90 minutes from Gainesville. So not exactly close enough to be supportive. But that was a I did not know. Anyone got to UF. I studied my tail off. I retook the GMAT. And the day before I was leaving, to go home, in December of my first semester, thinking like this is it, I'm either going to get the test score, and I'm going to be in or not. I got my letter. My GMAT results in I had the minimum score, plus three points. 1 2 3 points above the minimum score. I jumped on my 10 speed bike, I flew across campus so I bicycle I ran into the dean's office of the of the program that I was studying. And now I made friends with all these people in the Dean's office, the admins, the assistant dean, the dean, like I was in there all the time, like greasing the wheels, making sure that you know, if I got the test score that I was going to be in, and they knew I was like, waiting and holding my breath. I ran I flew the door open, you know, in. I can remember the secretary of the Dean like kind of jumping up when she saw me and I was like, I got it, I got it. I got the score. And literally like the assistant dean and the dean of the college, I actually came out of their office, and it was like this big group hug. Other than when my dad got injured. It's quite possibly the biggest pivotal moment in my life outside of meeting my husband and having my kids. It completely changed the trajectory of my life. I stayed in Florida, and I hate have left once. But I've come back Florida is my home. I finished my graduate studies, I moved to Tallahassee, I got a great job. It was going well, I ended up getting a second job with a construction company. So my second job out of college was I was with a construction company. And that's where I like started to see the pattern of commercial real estate, and how much I loved it and how much I loved the built environment. So I did that for a little while I met my husband, we moved to North Carolina for five years. That's where my babies were born. We moved back to Florida in 2002. So it's been 20 years that we've been back. And when we came back, I worked for a engineering company that was a woman dome. And it was phenomenal. I was doing all their business development work. I was calling on developers, I was getting deals, I was securing their work in the market on the west coast of Florida. And it was great. You know, I had managed instead of getting raises, or big raises, I was getting raises. I had managed to tuck the owner into the of the company into giving me a company car. I had an expense account. I had great benefits. And by my third year of working for her, I had managed to get her to allow me to manipulate my schedule so that I was working most days 730 to 230 which allowed me to swap off like drop off and pick up responsibilities with my husband. So one of us or him we would drop the kids off at daycare and like 230 I was like, I was out downtown Tampa and I was on my way home to pick them up. So that you know, at three and four years old, I was like securing them at like 3pm in the afternoon. Really awesome situation. I did that for a number of months. And then I was like, I don't know what else to ask for. I've got this great job on like slaying my career, I get everything I want. I mean, on the surface, like I had the best job for a working mom with a career that I could even design was amazing. But it wasn't enough. And in 2004, I decided, or 2005, somewhere in that range. I decided that I was going to get my real estate license. Now years prior, my dad, again, had mentioned to me, you should be in development, you should get your real estate license, he was like always after me like always in my ear, get your real estate license, get your broker's license. And I was at the time I was like, I don't want to go to real estate. And I don't want to sell houses like I am not interested in that. Only in the early 2000s. That's exactly what I ended up doing. I ended up getting my real estate license in that I started to interview brokers in Tampa, in the commercial real estate space, because I was smart enough to realize that that's where the money was. And I was also beginning to connect the dots to my love of the front side of deals of the built environment and of working on things before other people could see what they were going to become. And as I dug into, what do I want to be when I grew up, like literally I was like 35, right? What do I want to be when I grew up? What kind of impact do I want in my career, I kept coming back to land, land, land, land and development. It was just such a huge draw to me and just a pole in my belly. Like I knew that was where I needed to be. So I began to interview land brokers all over the West Coast of Florida. And it was like super apparent to me that it was like mostly guys, mostly men, mostly older men, mostly white men. Like all of them. There were I think one or two women I met or talked to. And out of like, maybe a dozen, I had managed to interview every single land broker in the region. I selected one to go work with. And I basically told him at lunch one day, hey, I'm coming to work on your team. And it would be really silly for you to tell me now. Because if you tell me no, that's okay, I'm gonna go work with your number one competitor, and I'm gonna put you to shame. So bold, God, so ridiculously bold. He was like, Alright, come on over, I'm gonna give you a phone and a desk. And that's it. And that was our relationship. I worked there for 10 years it was a boutique firm, I'm not going to mention the name, I had, for the most part of a really positive experience until I didn't. And I'm not going to go into that. But in 2015, an opportunity became apparent to me that I just really needed to take, I had been with this other firm for 10 years. And while I was learning, I had begun to hit a production ceiling, I was not getting some of the deals that I should get. I was being pulled off of assignments that really were mine, that I had earned, I was recognizing that I was never going to own the company and that I was never going to be allowed to be an investor in the company, that that was someone else's opportunity and not mine. And at the same time that I was seeing all of that Land Advisors had been sort of watching the land market in Tampa, and they wanted to expand here. And so it was really just things aligned for for me and for them at the same time that we decided, You know what, I'm going to go off on my own. I'm going to plant my own flag, but I'm going to affiliate and become part of the Land Advisors Organization here in Tampa Bay. So that's my current role since 2015. I've been running the office on the west coast of Florida, for the Land Advisors Organization, and for those of you not familiar with Land Advisors. It is I believe the only national commercial real estate firm focused solely on land, we do not do other asset classes. We only sell land as of this recording we are in 29 different markets gets across the United States, from California to Florida, and lots of markets in between. And it is really one of the best career decisions I have ever made. Great, great organization credible tools that they provide me. And then the research is like, hands down, like the best in the business. I've never known anyone, even the biggest firms in Tampa, have access to the information and the depth of the information that I have. From a land perspective, we have so much money that is getting pumped into research, and into data. And it's been phenomenal. It's been a complete game changer for me. So in 2015, I established the office, and it's been going great ever since, like, it has been a phenomenal opportunity for me. Today, we're at the end of October of 2022. And I'm reflecting on, you know, almost the two decades that I've been in the business, like I literally just started my 18th year of the brokerage side. And, you know, it's really, really awesome for me just to take a minute to pause. And to think about all the lives that I've impacted all the sellers that I've worked with the buyers that I've worked with, I'm really just say, so thankful that this worked, you know, I'm so thankful that I had you know, the ability to say I'm going to take this risk. I'm really, really grateful for my husband, who was like, we're gonna figure it out, go chase your passion. Over the last 18 years, I've sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of vacant land in and around the Tampa Bay region. Those parcels have already become or they are under construction now or will become 12,000 plus single family homes 6,000 plus multifamily apartments and millions and millions of square feet of commercial developments that included retail, industrial, and office. I have been privileged enough to have deals that have sold to the Trust for Public Land that are now parks or communities today. I've sold land that has gone into conservation. And I recently sold a small piece of land about 40 acres in a tertiary market Tampa for a Bee Apiary. I've done a little bit of everything when it comes to land. And it has been truly such a rewarding career. And I'm super, super thankful for that. During that time, I have been awarded Land Deal of the Year by our local commercial realtor organizations six times in the last 10 years. Three of the last I think five or six years, I've won the Overall Commercial Real Estate Deal of the Year. And those awards are based on the service that I provided to my client. Sometimes, sir, the sexy deals that are like huge, huge amounts of acreage like 1000s and 1000s of acres or millions and millions of dollars of land. But many times those deals are being recognized for the complexity of the transaction and the amount of service that I provided to the ownership. Last year in 2021. I was recognized by the Realtors Land Institute, I finally cracked through the top 20 Land brokers in the United States. I was the only woman to do so then and still. So I was recognized by the Realtors Land Institute as the top woman land broker in the nation. And I've had just so many awards. It has been really a very cool few years. And then this year you guys know that in addition to all my deal work, I started this podcast because I want to make sure that our industry continues to embrace really kick ass women. I asked the question on all of my shows that if somebody were to call and ask for advice, what would you tell them? My best piece of advice is if you have a dream, or you have an interest go after it. Do not stand in your own way to reach the next level in your life. I've always had it. I think it came from that day in December when I was eight, knowing that my life completely was about to change. But it got reinforced when I went to high school. When I went to the University of Florida, when I decided to change my career, flexing the muscle to take a risk will propel you. It is the best advice I can give. If you want something, work your tail off and go make it happen. Do whatever you need to, to get your goal accomplished. Now, I'm not saying being sketchy, or not being a good person, I'm saying put the work in and invest in yourself go make it happen. That's the best advice I could give.The other thing I want to share here today is just and I think it's apparent, but my pure gratitude. I have had a great career in this industry. And there have been so many people who've helped get me into the right rooms who have helped me get in front of the right sellers or the right buyers. And I owe enormous amounts of gratitude. So many of you who listen have talked about me in a positive way. And for that I There really aren't enough words of thanks or gratitude. So with that, I'm going to end here. Hopefully, you enjoyed my story. That's it. That's who I am. That's why I do this. I absolutely love you guys. And I hope that you enjoyed today's show. Have a great one. And we'll see you next week.