The Prescription for Success in Commercial Real Estate

0:00 There's no cap on your income, but there's also the downside of 0. If you're in the beginning of your career, it's OK to get a second job, and when you can avoid that and put hay up in the barn, you'll sleep a lot better. Today on Commercial Real Estate Secrets we have Ken Ashley. Ken is not just an all time broker, father and friend, but today he's an author. Ken Ashley is a broker with Cushman Wakefield out of Atlanta. Correct me if I'm wrong. And today I wanted to talk to Ken about his new book, The Prescription. Ken. Yes, let's jump into it.

0:40 What's the prescription? Well, first of all, here it is. I'm excited and it's, it's been a passion project that I've been thinking about for a long time. And I thought about it during COVID. I didn't act on it during COVID, but we came out of COVID about two years ago. I got serious on Saturday mornings. I'm just writing down my thoughts about what I've done professionally now for 30 years and some things that I thought young people would like to know. And the, the idea for the book came because when I meet with young people, we go through a diagnostic, ask them just like you ask them a series of questions about what they want to do. And then I would, I started as a joke. I would take a a pad and write prescription at the top and write 6 or 8 things that they need to do and then sign it and date it. And some people still have those. And so that's why we call the book The Prescription. So Ken and I have something in common, which is that during the pandemic, we put our heads down and we did something a little different.

1:40 I focused on building a brand on social media and Ken focused on building a brand essentially harboring the relationships of brokers on social media called the CREI Summit, the Commercial Real Estate Influencer Summit. Now I am a big fan of the summit so I wanted to give it a shout out. I will be there in Savannah, GA September 23rd to the 25th of 2026. Cre@summit.com. Correct. And Ken is the founder of the CREI Summit. So we have a big dog in the room, but I want to talk about new brokers in commercial real estate because I understand that there's a lot of misconceptions about our business. And I'm assuming that you wrote this book because you were getting asked the same questions over and over and over again. Indeed.

2:33 What is your most commonly asked questions from new brokers in our business and what's your response? Sure. And if you, if you'll allow, I would build on that to say people trying to get into the business. The book is in three parts describing our industry because there's a lot of people that compare it to residential and there's some similarities, but not all similarities. The second is how to go from sitting on your couch watching Netflix to getting hired. And then the third is what to do once you get hired from day one going forward. I think once you're a young broker, the biggest common theme is fear, managing through fear and lack of self-confidence to be able to repel you forward. I will admit it's tough when you're 25 to talk to a senior executive that's 50 or 55, but we talked about something called the ask for advice approach as a way to talk to executives.

3:23 I think the second thing that I hear over and over again is how do I know each day if I've done the right thing? Because I'm busy. Everybody's busy putting you the right kind of busy. And the worst is if you don't know that you're bad busy, that you're working on low payback activities. And the way that manifests, especially when you're 25, you know, we have assistance in this business for a reason, but a 25 year old feels like they want to do it all themselves. I don't think they've earned the right to be able to delegate. And that, my friends, is a mistake. I've been in this business for 10 years now. Sigh. Because you're right. I want to talk to you about an issue I've had or or a pain point I have found.

4:05 Sure. You know, when I started posting online about commercial real estate, I found that I was leading with maybe the wrong benefits of working in commercial real estate, which would be financial. And then I started to get these calls from my friends and from people I have known in my life because they were seeing the content that I was putting out, the big commissions and fancy dinners in commercial real estate and they wanted to get into the business. However, they were probably not the right, you know it. Come to find out, this business is not for everyone. What are, we'll say, 3 things you think a broker starting out in commercial real estate needs to understand before the big payday comes?

5:00 Sure. I appreciate the question. So fundamentally this business is about service and and service to others. What I think a lot of people misconceive and you're exactly right, they think about a big Commission check. But in reality what we're trying to do is serve a business. In my case, I work as a tenant Rep that has a need and the real estate is just a way for them to propel their business forward. So people become myopic and they focus on the sticks and bricks, which is OK, we need to be an expert at that. But then they forget the next question of why is my client leasing or buying this building? I think the second thing that's wonderful about our business that doesn't get talked about enough is that once you become successful, so you're you're kind of a few years into your career, you control your own time, which is a double edged sword. You can choose to not work hard, but if you work hard enough, you can do very well.

5:57 And there are a lot of studies that show that people in knowledge work that control their time are the happiest people around. And certainly the bell rings, the client calls, You got to do a deal, you got to get something for someone. But being able to control your time is a sure path to a happier life. And then I think #3 there's no cap on your income to talk about that for a second. But there's also the downside of 0. And so the way to be to manage your finances is to begin. First of all, if you're young in your career and you can avoid building debt, that would be great. To the extent that you have debt. I just, I want to say if you're, if you're listening to this and you're in the beginning of your career, it's OK to get a second job.

6:44 When I started, my wife told me she was pregnant with her first child. I got a job, valet and cars and I was terrified that someone would see me and they would say, oh, Ken's out of success. I just started. There's there's, it's OK if you wait tables. It's OK if you work in the mall or work retail to generate some income because you're the smart person. And when you can avoid that and put hay up in the barn, you'll sleep a lot better. I worked as a waitress at night. I was actually a busser at night and then you close up your first few commissions and then you see yourself out of that. But but I agree 2 jobs is and I actually had that same fear. What if I see someone? What do they think of me?

7:25 And it's funny, the mountains of fear that we can come up with in our head and then how unrealistic they are and in reality. And on that point, Viva, I just want to encourage you, if you're experiencing, you know, Sunday night frights, you're worried about the week or you got this fear like you just described in your head. But to talk to someone in your life that you trust and, and try to understand and validate it. Should I really be worried about this? Because I think when you get perspective, you get out of your head. And we, we talked before about, you know, the gratitude audit and how to bring perspective to the good things in your life. We everyone has fears, everyone has issues and everyone you see walking down the street has concerns just like you.

8:14 So, Ken? Yes, ma'am. I want to talk about tenant Rep I'm I'm kind of got a little little I'm into it these days. If someone who's never heard of tenant Rep before is listening, how would you explain tenant Rep brokerage? Sure. So it's it's where the fiduciary or the responsibility is. When you're when you're helping someone sell a building or lease a building, your fiduciary or responsibility is to the person that owns that asset in tenant Rep, the fiduciary responsibility is to the corporation that you're representing. In other words, it's pretty simple. I help companies solve real estate problems. And if you think about incorporate America, in most cases the biggest cost is labor, the second biggest cost real estate.

9:04 There's a big ability in real estate because these are high profile projects. Everybody sees them, their long term commitments A decade or more and there's the ability to commit ACLM. That's a career limiting move. And we specialize in avoiding CLMS and we've taken this test thousands of times. And I think one of the biggest that they're, I'm proud of my team and and the value that we add. But one of the biggest things that we can do is, is to help them evaluate business risk. For example, let's say we're in the middle of the lease document and the lawyers want to talk about condemnation, but we know it's a 50 story office building. It's never going to be condemned. Now we will always want you to follow advice of counsel. We'll be very clear that, but we can bring perspective to from the business viewpoint of problems and help our clients solve them.

9:56 And then the other thing we bring is a sense of urgency. I tell people all the time, this is your company, but it's my deal and I'm going to get it done. I like that. I'm probably going to take that line from you and pretend like it's my own. Feel free. OK, so I this is a hill I die on. OK, if you were to choose to broker multifamily commercial real estate, your avenues of income are when you sell a property or when you represent on the buy side. However, if you work in office industrial or retail, there is an additional avenue of income leasing, right? And I, I don't think, you know, when new brokers come to me, they say I want to get into the business and I'm underwriting these multifamily deals.

10:52 It's a big, it's the first thing that comes to mind because I think of 2024 was a little messy for sales. The amazing thing about office, industrial, retail and tenant wrap is that it's an additional Ave. for income in our business that doesn't rely on the sales of the property and that makes me happy. How did you decide that you were going to only navigate in the tenant Rep lane and when did you decide that? Well, it was decided for me at the beginning of my career that I was going to be an industrial broker and now I'm assigned as an office broker.

11:34 But we do plenty of industrial for our clients around the country. But I fell in love with it. I am a, what I call a strategic cowboy. I love going from company to company, boardroom to boardroom and, and, and hearing what are the issues, what are the challenges that executives face. You know, some people love sports. I love talking business and understanding where we are in the economic cycle and what are the impacts of an M&A or, you know, whatever strategic move that the company is going to make. So for me, it keeps everything interesting. People say in a parallel question, you know, if you've done this for 30 years, aren't you bored? Absolutely not, because it's always changing. It's always different. And you think about it, how we use office has changed. It was different in 2019, that is in 2026 and it was different in 1970 and it was not from the 1950. Remember the pictures of the Boeing guys with their white shirts and ties laying over the tables drawing? So it it the movie is always interesting because it's changing.

12:32 I've been having this conversation a lot recently, how 2019 was just like a different universe and now here we are in 2026 and it's it's a different world. And had somebody told us in 2020, hey, XYZ is going to happen and then this would be the result, I don't think anybody would have believed you, you know, but or me or anybody. So is Office space dying? Yeah, well, the pundits said in 2020 that we would never return to the office, that this big cost, the second biggest cost to American corporations, was never going to occur again. And it while it was scary to hear that, I I fundamentally knew that they were wrong.

13:13 Because what we know today in 2026 is we haven't changed as a species in six years. We still need to be together. And there are a lot of reasons. There's a lot of survey data now to support that. But I'll just highlight 21 is young people need to learn how how to operate in the business environment. When I was a young person, all I want to do is send in my broker's office to learn to speak real estate. I can't do that on a teams meeting. And we don't have the personal interaction or someone giving me the attaboy. You know, we demonstrate that we're working hard by our physical actions, turning off and turning on the lights and workplace. It just shows hustle and we're humans. We we look at people and we take a lot from their non verbals. Hard to get that in a, in a teams or a video meeting. I think the second reason that it's so critical to be together is this came from a director of real estate and one of the largest tech portfolios in the world. And we talked about all the normal reasons. But he said something that I've been thinking about ever since and that is the speed of business. And what he means by that is Aviva, let's say I'm trying to get a meeting with you.

14:19 You're very busy and I look at your calendar and for 3 1/2 weeks I can't get a meeting or you're walking back in from lunch. I know where your office is. I walk by, say hey, what do you think about this? Bam. And in 30 seconds we've solved the issue. Human connection, There's something to it. Yep. No, it's, it's an, a very interesting pendulum swing. You know, I, I understand the use case for work from home, but I'm right there with you. I don't know how I could have ever learned this business sitting here in the comfort of my own home. And there's something about that connection with others that certainly in our business where the magic happens. Yeah.

15:00 And you know, I think the, the idea that we can convene is important in the office now more than ever. I also encourage my clients to treat their employees like adults with respect and dignity. And mandates have a purpose. They they, they sometimes are required, but really we ought to earn the commute. Because think about what you're asking the knowledge worker to do. There's this grand bargain. They're getting paid a salary, a living wage with a potential bonus, but they're being asked to, you know, dry clean clothes, leave kids and dogs behind. Dogs are a huge deal. You sometimes want the kids to get in their car to pay for gas, to spend their time to commute and then to buy lunch. All of that requires a lot of activity, a lot of friction. And so now to your point about 2019, what has changed? I think we were in some ways thinking more about density than dignity.

15:58 We were trying to get more people into less space. And today we know it's more about creating for an environment where we we honor the worker and help them to be more productive because saving money on rent is one thing. Having our knowledge worker be productive can earn many times their salary. That's that's profound. Thanks, Ken. Yes. I didn't mean to deviate so far from the prescription. That's correct. Tell us, where can we find it? How do we order it? Everything you need to know, Yes. Well, you're you're kind. So the website is the prescription dot pro. We chose that handle for sure intentionally and just just to tell you, if you're interested in commercial real estate, that's great. But you may have friends in your life that are in the knowledge workers in the first third of their career or their students. And this book is targeted to them because a lot of people are justifiably terrified that AI is going to take their jobs. This is the antidote to the AI fear, the real estate prescription.

17:05 You can find it on any of the sites on Barnes and Noble, walmart.com, Amazon, Goodreads. And in in in about 10 days, we'll have an Audible version out. And also pleased to announce here for the first time anywhere that we will have a workbook. And you know, part of the prescription is you internalizing this information and creating your own personal plan. That's what a prescription really is. And now the entire book is available for you to go through in a workbook process. We took a student through it, but when it was in formation, and I'm pleased to tell you he's on our website, that student got a job at Colliers in New York City and he credits the the prescription in the workbook.

17:49 You heard it first. Not only is Ken Ashley a badass broker, but today he's also a doctor and he's serving the prescription for success not only in commercial real estate, but in business and life. Ken, thank you so much for being on the show today. Great to be with you. Thank you so much. One more time, the prescription dot pro. Indeed. Thank you so much and for everybody listening, go grab the book. We'll link it below in the show notes. Ken Ashley, thank you for your time today. You're the best. That's a wrap for this week on commercial real estate secrets.

18:29 If you found value, do us a favor and subscribe. Leave a review and share it with a fellow commercial real estate lover. For brokerage services or to connect, visit warehousehotline.com. I'm Aviva. We'll see you next week.