The Rise of Women in Commercial Real Estate
In recent years, there has been a rise of women in commercial real estate. This is a trend that shows no signs of slowing down. There are many reasons for this, but one of the most important is that women are simply more capable than ever before. Back in April, Women in PropTech let me curate my own panel about the Rise of Women in Commercial Real Estate. The panel was a big success and we even had a number of men attend. There were so many golden nuggets shared from some of the most influential women in commercial real estate that I want to make sure this conversation is documented and shared with the world.
First, if you don’t know already I created a list called “Otso’s Most Influential Women in Commercial Real Estate” and this list unexpectedly evolved into a movement raising women up in our industry. I brought four powerhouses from our industry onto this panel with me and we addressed some big topics.
The four women on my panel were:
- DeLea Becker, Owner/Founder Beck-Reit Asset Management and Brokerage
- Carrie Bobb, CEO hellojenny
- Poonam Sharma, Founding Partner, Arden Digital Ventures
- Melissa Swader, President, Ruby Red Media LLC and founder of Women in Commercial Real Estate
Our first topic was about timing. Timing plays a pivotal role in everything and Carrie Bobb feels like right now is the best opportunity for women empowerment. She says there are three glaring problems 1) our industry is late to pretty much all things technology 2) our industry is aging out — less than 4% of our industry is under the age of 24 and 3) we have zero market share in these digital spaces.
So why now? One reason is speed to market — “if you catch the current you could, quickly to scale,” Carrie explains. The younger generation will have opportunities to get into CRE that the older generation did not have. The early career looks a little different and they are navigating new terrain but if they can adopt tech their trajectory will be much faster. Overall, technology is enabling a lot of change and whoever can capture it at a large scale will dominate for decades.
The next topic was about what men can do to empower women in the industry. Poonam Sharma pointed out that when asked the question it feels more like a “well-intentioned favor she needs to be thankful for rather than making a wrong situation right.” Instead, she encourages men to not frame it as what they can do for women but rather address the problem from a management perspective so you are creating an environment where nobody feels like they could not bring something forward.
Two things 1) have a culture where the managers in your company (directed by the CEO) have a responsibility where nobody gets cut off and all voices are heard in a meeting; and 2) have a rule where nobody comes into a meeting without saying something to encourage collaboration and new ideas.
Melissa Swader started the group Women in Commercial Real Estate which has now grown to hundreds of women across the country meeting monthly to help each other with business. She stated that this group proved to be a ‘safe place’ for women to feel heard and ask questions or solicit advice they would not otherwise feel comfortable addressing in their own workplace. As a result, there has been a lot of collaboration in business and a number of success stories of these women helping each other. By the way, men also attend the calls and are extremely supportive.
Poonam also pointed out that the evolution of women groups is different than before. “It’s become where we are transactional, but we’re in transactional in a way that some may not see clearly. I can see a unique lens to see another woman’s awesomeness more clearly and I want to help her because she impresses me.”
We moved on to the topic of addressing the fact that some women often don’t want to relate their successes to gender-breaking barriers. DeLea Becker took this topic and stated that “if I don’t give weight to how far some women have come because of those incredible women and men that came before us then I don’t feel like I’m being grateful and gracious towards those efforts.” She pointed out that a great example of what men could do for women is what Ken Ashley did by creating his own list of influential women. “He now has fans all over the country and will get good out of it.” She added that, in general, women have to work harder from simply getting ready in the morning which is typically a larger feat than our men counterparts. “Look at me and a man that has been in brokerage and you think we’re equal then you are wrong. I have had to work a whole lot harder, smarter, louder, when to shut up and when to be loud that men don’t have to fight against.” DeLea also acknowledged her privilege as a white woman as opposed to women of color. “I hope that I can do the same for disadvantaged people (women, people of color, etc) coming up in the industry as those that have come before me to crack open the door for me to enter.”
We concluded our session with the topic: So what can we do to raise women up in the industry?
Poonam — look around you and remember that everyone needs to feel seen and if you are the one person that does that for someone you have no idea where that will ripple.
Carrie — it’s the little things, not the big ones. There’s a real big difference between expressing empathy and actually having it. I think managers oftentimes go down this path and they try to express things the way they are ‘supposed’ to express but you can tell if someone actually cares about you. People can see right through someone who has an agenda. Carrie added advice she would give younger people in the industry would be “you have to do things differently — it’s a great risk to do things the way they have always been done than to take a chance and try something different.”
Melissa — have someone who can listen that can help you get through and who wants to genuinely support you.
DeLea — be loud, be humble, share experience, share strength, and hope. Last but not least, share your failures! All of this builds relationships.
You can view the full panel discussion here.
*Special thanks to the Women in Proptech Founder, Nikki Greenberg, for inviting me to curate this panel.
