I was an asset manager for 20+ years for an institutional life company, overseeing a large mixed commercial property portfolio before becoming a CRE broker.

All previous challenges have been put on hold. The COVID-19 crisis has flipped CRE and its brokers. Right now businesses are not open, they are working remotely and not making any decisions about their CRE. They are waiting to see what ramifications there will be on their business, and thus their client's business, and those clients are waiting on their clients, etc. It is a true gam of dominos with the CRE requirement and its brokers being at the end of the dominos game. Investors are revisiting what they buy, i.e. non-essential vs essential leased assets. The projects touched the least are those which are under contract with long due diligence periods, i.e. developments and build to suit projects.

I have been with three different firms and in reality, the first and second were really a merger from being a 100% Tenant / Buyer Representative firm to a full-service brokerage firm.

Ironically for three years under the full-service firm, I was a national broker representing one retail tenant only. The pros and cons are really irrelevant. Every company and every industry has its pros and cons. Some are large differences and others are minor. One employee or independent contractor may experience them but others may not while being in the same firm. Some have more of a corporate atmosphere than others. Ironically the corporate-minded atmosphere is not as strong, we are more independent where I am now. However, when you spend 37 years in corporate-minded environments one would think that you could not fit in too well in the less corporate environment. But I seem to do just fine. I think it is easier to be corporate-minded and be in a less formal environment than visa versa. The type of firm you are in is also important to where you are in your career. At KW Commercial we have programs established for the new CRE broker and the freedom for the seasoned CRE broker to practice as they see fit. It's the best of all worlds.

I've won some awards over the years, but given the COVID crisis and the fact that I am working remotely, those awards are in my locked office. Awards do not hold much for me. A satisfied client and the fact that I have clients who have been with me going on 25 to nearly 30 years, the entire brokerage years of my career means more to me. A Thank You So Much, from a client is all the award I need. I am a few hundred thousand dollars away from a One Billion Transaction Career, but again, I'd rather be doing than counting.

Maybe when I walked into a client's warehouse and looked up, realizing that they were using every single inch of their 24 ft. clear ceiling heights, after I dug in and supported the 24 ft. clear heights vs 18 feet. Collectively when I visit a client a few months after they open for business and see that they are very happy with their space or investment. Maybe the fact that I can say that I've been in the commercial real estate industry a total of 47 years.

I use a lot of technology which has proven to be valuable in this current COVID crisis {'CC'} environment. I use on a daily basis, even during CC; CoStar, LoopNet, Catylist, CREXi, TenX, Buildout, Prospect Now, ROI Muse, RPR, Compstak, Client Look, and so many more tools from Microsoft Word to searching and researching the internet for business information.

100% of my business is referrals, past clients, ongoing clients, my own networking efforts.

I have a personal SOI of 1200 people related to a business of some sort. I have never received a referral or a client because they read a review of me online. Commercial real estate is different in that we are working with investors, CEO's, Presidents of firms, and small businesses. Very few CRE brokers have a FB account, not like RRE agents. I use FB because the firm I work for is owned by a parent company that also owns a residential firm. I use LinkedIn and Alignable. But my efforts are in networking. Meeting [now due to CC, phone calls] with other business professionals who share the same types of clients as I do. Often when I see an article from the many CRE and Business news sources I will share those articles online, but my best results come from sharing it with my SOI and my network.

My 47 years in the industry has given me exposure to a plethora of experience and knowledge from which my clients will directly benefit from. I also look at developing a long term relationship with my clients; to be their CRE broker member of their team of outside professionals.