Posts in The Daily Transcript
How to succeed in (real estate) business

Author: Anne Benge

Gina Champion-Cain, a well-known San Diego real estate developer, investor and restauranteur, surprised the audience at a recent Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) San Diego presentation by admitting to being a strong introvert. Who better than someone who finds "working a room" to be out of her comfort zone to advise others about a winning formula for business success?

As CEO of American National Investments, a retail, office and hospitality development firm, and owner of LuvSurf, a multi-faceted real estate, hospitality and branded merchandise company, Champion-Cain has created significant commercial and residential buildings as well as signature restaurants, a vacation rental business, a coffee roasting company, an apparel brand and more.

As the featured speaker at the CREW Legacy Member-exclusive event, Champion-Cain focused on the role of creativity as a pillar of her success. The mental exercises she experienced through her philosophy major at University of Michigan, she said, as well as with her studies in law school, has been far more useful to her in business than her MBA. Creative and critical thinking has helped her recognize what an opportunity could be rather than just taking it at face value.

Having a diverse educational background, or even one that's just different from many of your peers, can be leveraged as an advantage. She challenges those who work for her to come with solutions, not problems, and advised the audience to "start off the conversation with 'I have a solution' before you even say there is a problem."

Champion-Cain also recommended letting go of fear -- particularly -- the fear of failing. She told the audience that she always knew she would be able to make money, whether that required waitressing or developing a building. Confidence is there for the taking, and she said that self-confidence has been her most important asset in business. Don't succumb to peer pressure or self-doubt, she advised.

Seeking out the right mentors can also bolster your confidence and help gain a new perspective. When Champion-Cain once asked one of her mentors about leadership, he confided that the secret to his success was surrounding himself with people smarter than him.

He also told her to lead with what she knows. For example, his strength was in relationships rather than financials, sales or other aspects of business. Accordingly, he made sure to leverage his interpersonal skills to achieve the goals he had for the company.

For Champion-Cain, leveraging her creativity and curiosity has served her well and guided many business decisions. She wants to be excited about her investments, and knowing and caring about her business ventures has led to making sound investment decisions as well as gaining more control over her money than she might have through a conventional retirement account. "Know where your money is," she recommended.

Another part of her winning formula for business success? Hard work. "I've worked like a dog," she said. Her hard work has been well recognized with many achievement awards and even a "Gina Champion-Cain Day" reserved by a former San Diego mayor. CREW San Diego, along with many others San Diegans, is excited to see what Champion-Cain has in store for the future.

Anne Benge is CEO of Cultura and a CREW San Diego Legacy member.

The Daily TranscriptMandy Irvine
CREW San Diego Announces New Board of Directors

CREW (Commercial Real Estate Women) San Diego recently announced its 2017 board of directors, which will be led by Catherine Hughes, of Ware Malcomb, as president.

 Other board members will be Lauren Slatinsky, of Pacific Building Group, as first vice president - membership; Hallie Putterman, of Bentley Mills, as second vice president -- sponsorship, Dawn Watson, of LevitZacks, as treasurer; Ariel Bedell, of The Loftin Firm, as secretary; Bre'an Fox, of FS Design Group, as director of education and programs; Bryal Wirth, of Heaviland, and Maura Young, of Pacific Rim Mechanical, as directors of marketing communications; Melissa Scofield, of the San Diego Business Journal, as director of special events; Wendy Lanahan, of Qualcomm, as a national delegate; Toni McMahon, of Fuscoe Engineering, as a foundation delegate and Jackie Isidore, of Johnson & Jennings, as past president.

The Daily TranscriptMandy Irvine
What 2017 portends for commercial real estate women

Author: Teresa Y. Warren

The Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) San Diego hosted its annual economic insights forum in January, which provided an expert's opinion as to what may be ahead for the U.S. and international economies.

This year's speaker was Spencer Levy, Americas Head of Research for CBRE and a senior member of the company's global research team. It was the second year that Mr. Levy, based in Baltimore, appeared at the forum to speak to a San Diego audience about a variety of issues of particular importance to the commercial real estate industry.

Mr. Levy's presentation was thought-provoking. And while predictions of experts like Mr. Levy may not always turn out to be correct, the information they present challenges their audience to think critically.

As anyone who attends such events knows, the value of the presentation isn't just found in what the speaker says. Rather, it is what the attendees do with the information they received that has lasting impact.

Taylor Flores, vice president of Cultura, a furniture management and facilities design company, gained a new perspective about how she looks at workforce production rates, based on Mr. Levy's observation that overall production rates are down in the workforce due to lack of innovation.

"Our (current day) innovations such as apps, Uber, Airbnb, etc. are currently taking a piece of the pie, not making the pie larger," said Flores. "I thought that was really interesting, and while I'm not personally an engineer who can 'do' anything with that, it definitely made me look at things differently."

Levy also predicted a likely downturn in the U.S. economy in 2019 lasting up to two years. For Lisa Chappelle, vice president of facilities management for Mission Federal Credit Union, that was better news than she anticipated.

"I plan to center on 'recession proofing' my team by focusing on leadership, strategy and all that our team has to offer our organization in good times and bad," said Chapelle. "We'll be stepping up the PR of our workgroup, emphasizing our contributions and concentrating on advancing our skills, experience and education."

Bryal Hilton, design and development planner for Heaviland Landscape Management, is similarly looking ahead optimistically. She is preparing, both professionally and personally, for smart growth. "With a 'small' recession predicted, focus your business toward services and not goods," she says. "Take this time to really focus on what makes you stand out."

At Burger Construction, COO Brian Gates thinks Mr. Levy's insights can help his business in its planning and forecasting, particularly the CBRE researcher's "suggestion of closely watching consumer sentiment indices as a leading indicator of a recession." As with most businesses, said Gates, "we pay close attention to where we are in the economic cycle, and this information will support us in our cycle strategy."

For Natalie Stillman, CFP, CLTC, vice present of financial planning for Hall Private Wealth Advisors, Levy's outlook on a recession also made an impact. "I thought it was interesting how he said it would be better for us to suffer another recession than not go through another one," she said.

"He seemed to feel this was a normal part of a business cycle and expansion would follow. I think we tend to fear the word 'recession,' based on the recent Great Recession, and yet his perspective is that this is a healthy thing."

Flores also took to interest in Levy's advice to detach from the idea of your company selling a product or good because those who sell goods will be at a disadvantage. "Mr. Levy emphasized the need to focus on the overall concept of service versus goods, as goods are a commodity and can be much more affected by political changes, globalization and the economy," she said.

"Our company just went through a major rebranding," Flores added, "to be able to focus on offering just that -- an overall service experience versus selling goods. I think it's something that basically every company can do if they refocus and re-evaluate how they operate."

Teresa Y. Warren is president of TW2 Marketing, which she founded in 1992.

The Daily TranscriptMandy Irvine
Women Leaders Share Success Secrets at CREW Event

By: Katie Thisdell

Carisa Wisniewski can pinpoint the moment when the culture shifted at Moss Adams LLP.

Wisniewski, the public accounting firm's office managing partner in San Diego, was meeting with her fellow partners -- five men and one woman -- about the appointment of a quiet, qualified and distinguished woman to an open leadership role.

When asked to take it on, the woman was gracious and said she would respond after checking her other commitments.

The men in the meeting heard something different, though. They interpreted the response to mean she lacked the confidence and was turning down the position, and they should instead appoint a man who was loud about his desires but perhaps not qualified.

"We had a fabulous partner discussion on, 'What just happened?' " Wisniewski said. "When my female partners and I heard she was going to look at her commitments, we heard respect. She wasn't going to enter into it if she couldn't fulfill the job. We heard that she was taking it seriously. What we heard was so different from what my male partners heard.

"If we hadn't debriefed that as leaders, we would have continued to make bad decisions," she added. "We've tried to set the culture that self-promotion actually could backfire. Generally the people that say, 'I'm the best at that,' are not self-aware."

Wisniewski was among four panelists at a leadership event hosted by the San Diego chapter of CREW, Commercial Real Estate Women.

While little of the conversation focused on real estate, about 30 women -- and two men -- heard stories of success and failures, mentoring and job fulfillment, from leaders in a range of markets during the intimate event, held at the Sanford Consortium on Wednesday. Anne Benge, president of Unisource Solutions, moderated the panel.

Panelists shared their thoughts on how to self-promote -- depending on the environment, as Wisniewski said -- and how their identities as extroverts vs. introverts affects their day-to-day roles.

Lauree Sahba, chief operating officer of the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp., said her favorite phrase to say in meetings, to clarify different perspectives, is: "Can you say that another way? I don't think I understand." Sahba described how, before she turned 35, she believed she needed to make as much money as possible, work as hard as possible and move up the ladder.

"I did those things, and I was not unhappy," she said. "But at about 35, I was at a point in my personal and professional life where I realized I was getting a lot of pressure and accepting a lot of inputs from people" trying to define her success.

Shedding the idea that her career defined her as a person, Sahba, who says she has a great job with a great deal of success in a fantastic environment, has also furthered her personal passion for making a meaningful impact on the world.

Lindsey Back, chief financial officer at J Public Relations, shared how her career path has wound through the financial services industry, startups and working for herself.

"For me success was going to be when I was in a culture that really supported my life, and I was not watching the clock but knowing I had a voice in the company," Back said. "JPR looked to me as a leader, and I felt I was really making a difference. It's the first time I felt my life had balance."

But getting to that point wasn't simple. The bi-coastal, woman-run JPR had been one of her clients while she was in business for herself, and Back continued to do work for them while she worked at a Seattle startup.

During one phone call, she realized the opportunity to ask JPR for the role she wanted -- and her big ask paid off.

"When you finally ask for it and demand what you're worth, it's when it happens," said Back, who had long been accustomed to working in the male-oriented finance industry. "If you don't do that, you're going to keep waiting for them to recognize it."

To be an effective leader -- without being perceived as being bitchy -- Back said she models strong and stern positions, and is confident in her delivery.

"I know I'm a leader and that I need to show up," Back said, adding that a leader should model behaviors others strive to replicate.

Wisniewski and Sahba advised the use of sounding boards -- but not buddies at a bar, boyfriends and girlfriends, or even parents.

They said the role of mentors can be critical in charting a successful career path, as is choosing different people who model particular traits and asking them for help. "Seek them out, but you gotta ask," Wisniewski said.

Gonul Velicelebi, founder and CEO of Camino Pharma, has worked in biotech for 32 years, after choosing the industry over an academic career when she completed her post-doctorate training on the East Coast.

She's had few female mentors -- because 32 years ago, there were no women in biotech, she said.

"I think my role as a mentor has become more important to me than seeking mentors," said Velicelebi.

In the past six months, three people whom she had interviewed and turned down for jobs -- but suggested how they can become stronger professionals -- have come back to her and said her recommendations worked.

But, she said, mentorship is a dynamic exchange, and there is really no end to mentoring relationships. Today, her nieces and nephews continue to mentor her on current cultural customs.

The Daily TranscriptMandy Irvine