For those of you who know me personally, you know that when I invest in a skill or a practice, I go all in. When I pursued classical flute as an undergraduate, I would practice five hours a day—even on weekends. I received my MBA at 22 without having previous on-the-job training because I knew I needed an advanced degree to help me transition from musician to corporate professional. I had no real estate experience when I got my first real estate job and I’ve been in corporate real estate for six years. However, my attentions are not solely focused on the professional world; when the Great British Baking Show became available on Netflix, I taught myself how to bake and now we have a wood-fired oven in our back yard. Since I started taking Peloton classes, I put in an hour-long workout every morning and at some point post-COVID 19, hope to train and compete in a duathon. See the pattern? “how you do anything is how you do everything.”
It seemed super easy to just let this mantra fall by the wayside once lock down started in late March. The real estate market had basically come to a standstill. What does this mean for the next year, two years, five years? I went through the basic stages of grief trying to figure out what the future held. But, I remembered that I hadn’t come this far by giving up and being inconsistent. I got back to basics of my day to day, got my sourdough starter off of life-support and reminded myself “how you do anything is how you do everything.
This thought process led me back to thinking about the basics. What’s working in real estate? Who do I know? Where can I flourish? I started reaching out to my network, came to the conclusion that a transition would be necessary and went from there.
That process led me down a path where I have been lucky to partner with Kim Ford and join Rise Pittsburgh to lead the Multifamily Division. Without both Kim and I maintaining consistent habits and a persistent desire to create something greater, this collaboration may not have happened. Brokerage ebbs and flows, but you have to remain relentless and steady. The foundation, built on good habits, we create translates directly to our work because “how you do anything is how you do everything.”
Follow me on LinkedIN
Leigh – Director, Rise Pittsburgh