How Does a 24-Year Old Develop Commercial Real Estate Business? – Part 2: Make it a Profession, Not a Job
I will never forget one of the best pieces of advice I received from an industry veteran I sat down with while going through the job interview process just more than 2 years ago. He told me (I’m paraphrasing here), “Don’t get into the industry if you think you are going to fail or switch jobs any time soon, because who the heck is going to hire you to sell something else if you couldn’t make it in the brokerage world, and you already tried to sell them your services in commercial real estate.” At the time, I didn’t quite understand what he meant. I thought maybe he was just trying to scare me away from the business or something, but shortly into my young career, his words became crystal clear to me. Essentially what he was telling me is what I would now tell anyone interested in commercial real estate brokerage: To be successful in commercial real estate, you have to make it your profession, not your job. This blog is about how to do that at an early age, and why it is important.
What’s the literary difference between Job and Profession?
The dictionary definitions for job and profession are actually quite different. See below.
- Job – a specific piece of work required to be done as a duty or for a specific fee
- Profession: a calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation
If you have a job, then you go to the job to complete your required tasks, get paid, maybe try to get promoted, and then go home. You are paid a specific fee for your specific piece of work that takes 40-50 hrs of your week. You guys know what I am talking about. It’s a job, maybe a means to an end, maybe you are just satisfied with it, or maybe you are just lazy with it. Bottom line, it’s a job you are doing to get paid, and you do it because it is your duty and you need money.
Contrary to the definition of a job, a profession is defined by the dictionary in terms of a “calling”. When most people think of the word “calling”, they think of religious direction from God. That actually is not a bad parallel to commercial real estate for two reasons:
1. Commission only jobs will make you talk to God more often than you used to
2. The desire to be in commercial real estate must go deep and you must be so certain of it (at least 5 years certain of it), that you are willing to stick with it through thick and thin.
Diving deeper into the definition, a profession also requires specialized knowledge and long, intensive preparation. This is certainly true of commercial real estate, and it becomes obvious to a young broker like me whose jaw dropped the first time he realized 1 transaction can take on average 6-8 months to complete. To become good at commercial real estate, it clearly takes specialized knowledge and long learning and preparation. It takes time to develop a profession.
While there are many more examples than I have time to provide, below are 3 practical examples of how I have learned to treat my career in commercial real estate as a profession. Each of these is starting to pay off as I get ready to finish my 2nd year in the business. Hope they are helpful to you.
- Time Commitment – This one is fairly obvious, so I figured I would get it out of the way. Unfortunately for those who are lazy (but heard people in commercial real estate make a lot of money), making money in brokerage actually takes A LOT of time on the front end. Most people only look at the large check a broker gets paid when a deal is done, and forget that the broker spent 6 months chasing that client, and another 6 months working the deal, only to have it false start, re-start, and then finally close 14 months after getting hired. If you are not getting into the office early, leaving late most days, researching companies in your free time, etc. it may take even longer for you to chase that deal before getting hired.
I learned quickly that you have to manage your time extremely well, track your progress, and measure your results. For those of you who haven’t already hear my rant on the awesomeness of IRUNURUN.COM , check it out. It truly is the only way I have ever been able to easily define what is most important in my day, measure my progress, and feel confident enough in my work to take a day off when I can and need to. Without any measurement of your time, you are just shooting into the wind and guessing at the results. When you measure things, you can confidently make decisions about when you have spent enough time in the office to go play golf, and when you need to stay until midnight.
- Let it all hang out – This one is a little bit more confusing, so let me explain. What I mean here is that you cannot be afraid to let it all hang out on a day to day basis, in a way that might make you uncomfortable. Part of being in brokerage is realizing that you are selling yourself as much as you are selling your firm, and that involves creating personal brand that people can relate to. It was very natural for me to focus on selling our firm, or my boss, or my boss’ relationships early on, but long-term success is built on developing your own relationships with decision makers and having them remember you, not your firm. So how am I trying to do this? Several ways:
- Letting people (friends and family included) know exactly what I do. This was the hardest thing for me to do early on. Being a prideful guy at times, it can be intimidating to let everyone know you are in a commission only job, long before you have made it in the industry.
- Using social media. This follows closely behind the previous answer, in that in order to use social media to create a personal brand; you have to be active on it in a way that non-commission earning employees may not understand. They are not incentivized to be active, make relationships with strangers/prospects, and project to the world exactly what they do for a living. So, when you constantly update your profile, tweet articles, blog regularly, or any number of needed activities to stay relevant in your industry, they may provide a jab or two in your direction.
For example, I have had a friend tell me: “I see your LinkedIn updates all the time….you really like that stuff don’t you?” This simultaneously freaked me out and got me excited. I was taken aback because I didn’t realize how many people actually read that stuff, but I was excited to learn that people actually read that stuff. In addition to staying top of mind, Twitter and LinkedIn updates have become a great way for me to show my friends and clients that I take my job seriously and I know what is going on in my industry. It shows them that my job is something I am committed to on a long term basis, as a profession.
- Asking for referrals . Lately, I have been getting 3-5 referrals a week directly into a decision maker or influencer at different companies. This is partly through LinkedIn and partly through typical networking relationships. Early in my career, I was somewhat hesitant to ask people for their help, and I didn’t know how to do it correctly. As I have become more confident in the quality of work we provide at SWA, it has gotten increasingly less difficult to be bold and ask someone for a referral. I have learned that people genuinely want to help you, but you have to keep them informed of your progress and return the favor as soon as you can. It has to be a cyclical relationship. It is a lot easier to sit on the phone and make cold calls all day to people you don’t know, but the long-term benefits of networking effectively far outweigh the initial anxiety that it creates. If your job is a profession, you can’t be afraid to ask for referrals.
- 3. Avoid the temptation to focus on small deals or one-off transactions. This is the hardest day in and day out challenge of working in commercial brokerage. When you are commission only, it is very hard to turn away business and avoid pushing existing deals through just so
you can get paid. Smalldealitis, as it has been called by my boss and partner Scotland Wright, is the trap of worrying about making money so much that you allow yourself to take on jobs that will not bring the highest return on your time investment. One of the most telling things Scotland told me was: “if that 2000sf tenant doubles in size, they will still only be 4000sf.” Unless that small tenant has potential for multiple transactions, it is probably a waste of your time. Part of making my job a profession has been learning to take the risk of delayed gratification and chasing the quality tenants that are less frequent, but much better to work with.
Anyone have any other ways to treat your job as a profession? Please comment below.
