Ep 37 - Featured Episode 4: Top 10 lessons learned from CRE Elite

12/01/15 • 9 min

Commercial Real Estate Elite: Broker to Brokers

Through my podcast Commercial Real Estate Elite: Broker to Brokers, I’ve spent a year talking to some of the best and brightest commercial real estate brokers in the country. To date, I’ve interviewed over 35 top men and women in the industry sharing best practices, techniques, resources, stories and more. And as an active commercial real estate broker, I realized that I just took a year of graduate studies with the best professors in the country.

One of my last guests, Bo Baron, challenged me to come up with a top-10 list of lessons. I thought that was a great idea and spent some time revisiting each episode. So here are my personal top-10 lessons from a year studying the craft through the country’s Elite (and one Canadian Paul Eric Poitras).

Previous Episode

Ep 36 - North Dakota: Cutting out the "noise" with Jill Duemeland

In this week's episode of Commercial Real Estate Elite: Broker to Brokers I visit North Dakota and talk to Jill Duemeland, a fourth generation of Duemelands Commercial. At Duemelands, Jill specializes in tenant and landlord representation and sale and leasing of industrial, medical, and retail properties in Bismarck-Mandan, North Dakota; South Dakota; and Minnesota.

Jill earned her CCIM designation at the age of 26 and is also an active member of NAR and ICSC. In 2009, Jill was invited to become a member of Vistage International, a chief executive organization. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in real estate from University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota and is licensed in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota. In 2010, Jill received the honor of being listed as a Rising Star by CCIM Institute and in 2009 Jill received the distinction of being listed in North Dakota Business Watch's List 40 under 40. And i first learned about her through Rod Santomassimo's great book Broker's Who Dominate.

I am extremely impressed by Jill. She obviously has the business in her blood. But she also took great strides to create her path. In fact, she promotes moving away and working outside of the family at the onset of her career as one of the best things she did starting out. She also stresses delegation when trying to balance between brokerage, firm presidency and mostly maternity leave!

What struck me most in this interview is Jill's efforts to "cut out the noise". Our business is all about focus and she shares several techniques and anecdotes on the importance of this concept. We also touched upon pushing your clients respectfully but confidently as we are the market expert, not the client. Among a lot of other great tips, she also suggested tracking lessons learned from each deal and discussing them as a team or firm.

Jill is a talented and hard working broker. I enjoyed this talk and hope you do as well.