Growing Careers and Companies

Welcome to Growing Careers and Companies, the show dedicated to helping you find and navigate your own unique career path. Whether you’re just starting out, climbing the corporate ladder, scaling your own business, or somewhere in between – we can help you gain the insight, skills, and experience to keep your professional journey moving forward, so you can create the life of your dreams. Get ready to discover your true purpose, and take your career higher, with your host Allison S Weiss.

LinkedIn Content Marketing 04/07/2022

LinkedIn Content Marketing Welcome to the Growing Careers & Companies Podcast with Allison S. Weiss. We’re back with a special solo episode, focused on one of our favorite social media platforms, LinkedIn. Today's episode is all about effectively using LinkedIn for the purposes of content marketing and positioning yourself as a thought leader. We talk about how to use hashtags efficiently, how often should you add value on social media instead of just selling, and the best ways to share content. For more resources and news visit: If you're someone who knows that you should be doing more on LinkedIn, we're going to walk you through some of the different reasons why you should be active there and share with you some of our favorite best practices. LinkedIn’s algorithm highly values original content. However, if you’d like to share someone else’s content, there are 2 ways to do it: Simply hit the share button but also add your original comment to the post. A better way is to copy and paste the text of the original post and post it on your page. Always credit the original creator. The algorithm is highly focused on relevance. This means that the people who are seeing and engaging with your posts have to find them relevant. To help with that use hashtags. Only use 3-5 relevant hashtags. You can search for the topmost relevant hashtags on any topic on the Internet. LinkedIn rewards people who are engaging on the platform. If you are posting regularly, but you're not seeing your content grow in terms of views or interactions, it might make sense to start engaging in the comment sections of other people's posts. You can recommend a post to someone by tagging them in the comment section. Ask questions or share your thoughts under a post. Use Gary V’s “Dollar Eighty strategy”. He says to give your two cents on the top 9 posts of the 10 most relevant hashtags. If this is too much, then go for the 3 most relevant hashtags and comment on posts on those a few times a week. LinkedIn rewards its viewers for staying on the platform. The algorithm doesn’t like external links. If you want to use them then put the link in the comments a few minutes after posting. Add value 3 to 5 times as often as you try to sell something. If you are posting a closing or a listing, talk about why that listing or closing is unique. Make your post engaging from an image perspective. Instead of stock photos, use your own pictures. Personalize your content and use an active and conversational voice. If you are still on the fence about using LinkedIn, we want to encourage you to hop on board. It is an incredible tool and one of the platforms with the lowest barriers to entry. You can start a new profile today just by uploading your existing resume or a company bio if you already have one. Resources for the show: Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Growing Careers and Companies Podcast. If you enjoyed the show, there are a few things we would love you to do right now: SUBSCRIBE to the Growing Careers and Companies Podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts Please RATE & REVIEW and let us know what you’d like to hear next Finally, we invite you to for news you can use Please share this episode with someone you think it would inspire! Until the next time, we appreciate you being here. /episode/index/show/growingcareersandcompanies/id/22709255

Cultivating Resilience, with Melissa Wasserman 03/31/2022

Cultivating Resilience, with Melissa Wasserman We’re back after a short break! Our guest today is Melissa Wasserman, psychologist, speaker, consultant, and trauma expert. In this wide-ranging episode, we talk about her untraditional career journey and how the pandemic has caused a lot of chaos in our personal and work lives. Melissa also shares her best piece of advice about navigating challenges, cultivating resilience, and some tools that you can use to implement in your daily life. Learn more about Melissa and her story at: . “One of my biggest values and such a big part of my identity is being relational and being human.” 03:52 Melissa grew up in a Jewish family and her parents both worked in the real estate industry. She was always very active as a child and valued meaningful relationships. She attended religious school growing up and attended religious studies in college. During her years in college, Melissa had a class about American religion and its impact on the Vietnam War. She learned about family traumas in military families and realized that this was her calling in life. She became a licensed psychologist and a trauma expert. “Communication is a mega resilience factor in systems to buffer the impact of mental health symptoms.” 16:47 Melissa shares some advice on how to navigate through challenges. Reflect on previous challenges that have already passed. How did you go through those? What have you learned? Identify some strategies that you already used successfully in the past and think about how could you use those in your current situation. Be aware of the warning signs of burnout. Don’t wait until you feel completely burnt out, practice self-preservation and self-care continously. Melissa is a trauma expert and specializes in generational family traumas. In her experience, family traumas are stronger in families where they don’t have good communication with each other. Communication is key and it is a huge resilience factor, so it’s important to learn how to communicate well and listen to each other. Melissa started her business just a few months before the global pandemic. This presented a lot of challenges for her, but she loves the dynamic work environment and wearing many hats as a business owner. The Final 3 Questions What is the lesson that has taken you the longest to learn? Patience - not just with others but mostly with herself. Making mistakes is part of the human experience, so we need to be kind to ourselves and learn from them. What are the 2 principles from the Growing Careers & Companies Framework that resonate the most with you? Purpose and Community. These two words are greatly interconnected to Melissa as she finds purpose in community and through connectivity. What do you hope others take away from your story? That we are all human and we are all resilient. Be gentle and kind to yourself and others. About Our Guest, Melissa Wasserman Dr. Melissa Wasserman (AKA Dr. Meli) is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist (PSY30983). She has specialty in traumatic stress, particularly how trauma-related challenges impact interpersonal relationships (e.g., couples, families, social, work relationships). While trauma can include a wide variety of experiences and challenges, her expertise includes working with individuals who have experienced interpersonal/relational trauma, war-related trauma and violence, civilian and military sexual trauma, and traumatic loss. She is trained in evidence-based and trauma-informed interventions including Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Families Overcoming Under Stress (FOCUS). She is also trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). Along with her clinical work, she is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Education & Psychology where she teaches master’s and doctoral level psychology students. Additionally, Dr. Meli is the Co-Director of the Pepperdine Union Rescue Mission Counseling Center, a collaboration between Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Education & Psychology and the Union Rescue Mission, a faith-based mission located on Los Angeles’ skid row. Dr. Meli is a member of the American Psychological Association, Society of Indian Psychologists, the International Society for the Study of Traumatic Stress, and Psi Chi Psychological Honors Society. A warm thanks to Melissa Wasserman for taking the time to share his unique insights and experiences with us. Resources from the show: Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Growing Careers and Companies Podcast. If you enjoyed the show, there are a few things we would love you to do right now: SUBSCRIBE to the Growing Careers and Companies Podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts Please RATE & REVIEW and let us know what you’d like to hear next Finally, we invite you to for news you can use Please share this episode with someone you think would inspire. Until the next time, we appreciate you being here. /episode/index/show/growingcareersandcompanies/id/22628534

For Dealmakers in Transition 02/15/2022

For Dealmakers in Transition Welcome to the Growing Careers & Companies Podcast with Allison S. Weiss. We have a special episode today that is specifically tailored for brokers, leasing agents, originators, and other business development professionals who are changing jobs. We dive deep into Allison’s transition checklist that helps you be as effective as possible and point you to some great resources if you feel stuck in your transition. For more resources and news visit: “The first step in making a transition is owning that it is time to go and spending some time thinking about the future.” This winter is a big season for transition in commercial real estate. If you’re considering transitioning and need support or guidance, then reach out to us. Allison is the founder of CRE Recruiting, a commercial real estate focused national search firm. You can email her at . Here are a few useful tips to make your transition smoother and more successful. Know your independent contractor agreement or employment agreement, and locate policy manuals or other documents you might have signed as a part of joining your company. These legal documents govern your relationship with your current company, and can be crucial in your transition. Make sure you understand everything, especially sections that detail “termination”, and if you don’t - seek out expert help in interpreting them. Map out the current deal pipeline. Make sure you understand the deals that you have in progress. Compare that pipeline to any post-termination obligations that your current company might have. Save your contact list privately if you can. Make sure that you have your phone set up to save contacts directly to your personal phone or cloud account to avoid losing them when you leave the company. Some contact information might be subject to a technology privacy policy or non-disclosure policy so learn about that beforehand. Plan the marketing of your transition. Think about how to let people know that you’ve changed firms. Segment your clients into different groups based on how close your relationship is to them, and plan an appropriate approach for notifying each group. Move your license(s) and update your social media with the new company. Your biographical information should be updated across all platforms from your new company’s website to your social media channels. Take your personal belongings home from the office ahead of time. You can leave some of the bigger items in the office as they will be returned to you and would cause unnecessary attention, but you should take home important personal items home with you over time in advance of the transition. These are just a few of the items on our brokerage transition checklist. If you want to learn more about the process or need some in-depth guidance on your transition, then reach out to Allison at . Regardless of the reason, if it is time to go and you need help and support, we are here for you! Resources for the show: Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Growing Careers and Companies Podcast. If you enjoyed the show, there are a few things we would love you to do right now: SUBSCRIBE to the Growing Careers and Companies Podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts Please RATE & REVIEW and let us know what you’d like to hear next Finally, we invite you to for news you can use Please share this episode with someone you think it would inspire! Until the next time, we appreciate you being here. /episode/index/show/growingcareersandcompanies/id/22132832

Building a Life, with Leka Devatha 02/08/2022

Building a Life, with Leka Devatha Our guest today is Leka Devatha, a real estate developer, broker, and the host of the wildly successful meetup, Real Estate At Work. In this episode, we follow her journey from India to the US, leaving the corporate world to chase her entrepreneurial dreams, and we hear some of her most successful and challenging deals throughout her career. Join us and get inspired! Learn more about Leka and her story at: . The more you can put yourself in that growth-mode, the more amazing and bigger things you're going to do.” “The beauty of real estate is that there is no roadmap. You literally can go and create the life that you want.” 02:14 Leka has always been entrepreneurial. She started her first company at 18 years old in India. When she got married, she moved to the US and worked in fashion merchandising. Leka didn’t feel empowered in her day job and wanted to do something more entrepreneurial. One day she was listening to the radio and heard an ad from a real estate flipping company that held a seminar in her city. The seminar changed her life as she got very interested in real estate. Leka’s first fix-and-flip was in 2014. Since then, she’s flipped over 50 properties ranging from residential to commercial and she started her first syndication this year. “I try to find 3 to 4 different exit strategies for every project that I take on.” 10:39 Leka talks about the difference between passive and active investing. She sees a lot of value in passive investing as it is a great way to diversify your investments. She shares some interesting stories from her real estate career. Once she bought a house that burnt down just 4 days before closing. Another time, she held onto a property for 4 years that she initially planned to flip in 3 months. According to Leka, she learned a lot from her deals and continues to learn every day. Leka’s best pieces of advice on how to succeed in real estate: Find 3-4 exit strategies for every project you take on. Don’t be afraid to make decisions and be flexible. Always be open to learning new things. Find off-market deals by networking in the industry. Network with your community and the wholesalers. Do what you say. Follow through with your promises. Leka is running a successful virtual meetup called Real Estate At Work where she features prominent speakers in the real estate industry. Join her meetup . The Final 3 Questions What is the lesson that has taken you the longest to learn? To hold everything she buys. Leka started as a flipper, but over the years, she learned that there is only so much real estate to go around. Now, if she finds an amazing deal, she holds on to it. The way to build long-term wealth is through appreciation and cash flow. What are the 2 principles from the Growing Careers & Companies Framework that resonate the most with you? Community and Innovation. Innovation for her is learning or finding things that nobody has done before. As long as you are in putting yourself in front of a learning curve, you are constantly innovating. What do you hope others take away from your story? That she’s just a normal person. She didn’t come from wealth but she put in the work and reached success. Leka encourages everyone to take one step at a time and play the long game. Eventually, you will succeed. About Our Guest, Leka Devatha Leka is a real estate developer and broker based in Seattle, WA. She is the President of Rehabit Homes, Inc. a company focused on residential and commercial redevelopment. She has spearheaded hundreds of transactions, developing around 100M in real estate. Leka brings 8 years of experience in construction management and redesign. Leka has been featured on numerous podcasts and other media including Business Insider and BiggerPockets. She is a chapter contributor in the recently published book 'The Only Woman in The Room'. In an effort to give back to the community, she hosts a popular virtual networking mixer, 'Real Estate At Work' featuring prominent speakers from the industry. Leka moved to the U.S. from India 14 years ago. Prior to investing in real estate, she worked at Nordstrom Corporate in merchandise strategy and financial planning. A warm thanks to Leka Devatha for taking the time to share his unique insights and experiences with us. Resources from the show: Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Growing Careers and Companies Podcast. If you enjoyed the show, there are a few things we would love you to do right now: SUBSCRIBE to the Growing Careers and Companies Podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts Please RATE & REVIEW and let us know what you’d like to hear next Finally, we invite you to for news you can use Please share this episode with someone you think would inspire. Until the next time, we appreciate you being here. /episode/index/show/growingcareersandcompanies/id/22054535

Storytelling Using Social Media, with Kyle Inserra 01/25/2022

Storytelling Using Social Media, with Kyle Inserra Our guest today is Kyle Inserra, a “recovering” restaurant owner, commercial real estate advisor, and prolific content creator. In this episode, we dive deep into Kyle's twisting and turning career journey from working in finance to the restaurant industry and commercial real estate. We talk about what people get wrong about social media and digital marketing platforms, what makes a great brand, and how can you do more business simply by showing up and being yourself. Learn more about Kyle and his story at: . “You are only one step away from potentially changing your life.” “If your gut is telling you that, that's what it is. It's gonna be scary but you have to do it.” 02:25 Kyle grew up in a family of educators and he thought his path was to be a lawyer, a doctor, or work on Wall Street. After graduating from college, he started working on Wall Street but soon realized that it wasn’t for him. In 2001, he decided to go after his dream of working in the restaurant business. Kyle graduated from The French Culinary Institute in 2002 and dove into the industry. In 2007, Kyle co-founded 2 successful restaurant concepts in New York. After working in the restaurant business for 15 years with 55-60 hour workweeks, Kyle decided to use his expertise in another way. He transitioned to commercial real estate in 2020 and now works as a CRE advisor for restaurant owners. “Ultimately people want to connect with people who they can relate to. Once you put out there who you are, you're gonna start attracting people you actually want to work with.” 21:30 Kyle is very active on social media, and he coaches his clients on how to use these platforms creatively. Today, it’s important to be authentic and good at storytelling - just be yourself so you can attract people who can relate to you. Kyle created an accountability group for CRE advisors where he helps them navigate the various social media platforms to get better at digital marketing. The Final 3 Questions What is the lesson that has taken you the longest to learn? Patience. He learned over time that the real reward and the real goal come with patience. What are the 2 principles from the Growing Careers & Companies Framework that resonate the most with you? Authenticity and Community. For Kyle, community means education and networking. He learned a lot from different communities that he could use in his own career, so he encourages everyone to dive into different communities and learn. What do you hope others take away from your story? That you can do what you want to do because there are options out there for you. You got to be your true, authentic self so you can start connecting and working with people who you enjoy working with. About Our Guest, Kyle Inserra 20-year restaurant industry veteran meets working with emerging independent restaurants and franchise groups across the country providing ownership insight and solution-oriented energy. Kyle started his career at Ogilvy & Mather as a media buyer, then switched careers and began working as a Financial Advisor at Prudential Securities when two planes hit the World Trade Center - and he realized he wanted to pursue yet another new career. In 2002, Kyle graduated from The French Culinary Institute and worked his way around New York City, New Jersey, Mexico, and the Caribbean. In 2007, Kyle co-founded two restaurant concepts in Westchester County, New York - eventually successfully exiting both businesses in 2021 and began to leverage his experience as an owner-operator to advise restaurant owners as a CRE advisor. A warm thanks to Kyle Inserra for taking the time to share his unique insights and experiences with us. Resources from the show: Join his Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Growing Careers and Companies Podcast. If you enjoyed the show, there are a few things we would love you to do right now: SUBSCRIBE to the Growing Careers and Companies Podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts Please RATE & REVIEW and let us know what you’d like to hear next Finally, we invite you to for news you can use Please share this episode with someone you think would inspire. Until the next time, we appreciate you being here. /episode/index/show/growingcareersandcompanies/id/21881315