whenever I have shared my story if I can help one child or one spouse of an alcoholic feel a little bit better and know they can move on through this and that they can take care of themselves and they can get you know this too shall pass then um I've done my job [Music] conversation season three we're in the middle of the Season we spent the last couple episodes really digging into the why of our guests from the corporate real estate world uh this guest today I just recently met and I was flattered that she reached out to me on LinkedIn to talk technology and Technology specifically that pertains to her world with us today we have Christina Clark managing principal from cressa who is here to talk to us today about her why Christina nice to see you thank you for joining us thanks so much for having me Bob I'm uh excited and a little anxious I haven't done a podcast before you're my first yeah so far so good um so of course so as we kick the episode off I would like to hear in our audience we'd like to hear a little bit about you so take us through your statement of qualification what brings you to this point in your career yeah thank you thanks for asking so I uh I sort of accidentally fell into real estate I was an executive assistant while going to school full-time to finish my college degree I took a very circuitous route through college hang on Define circuitous for me I'm not like six years seven years took a few stops along the way um and and paid for it myself so the best way to pay for it myself without giving up weekends was to be an executive assistant in a large company I was the executive assistant to the CFO of global Crossing and then um the second assistant to the CEO and I could then go to school at night so Monday through Thursdays I went to school from six to ten at night and finished College while working full-time from there we sold Global Crossing to Hutchinson one POA and I was either going to move to China or Madison New Jersey and at this point I lived in Los Angeles and neither of those sounded so good to me so I had to get a new job I ended up with the year of college left as the executive assistant to the head of Interiors for Gensler the global Architecture Firm in Los Angeles so uh in a small world situation I call my dad and say hey I'm gonna go work for this firm ginsler whatever he's like Gensler art Gensler you know him this is how you met him my father was a developer way back in the day so there was this small family connection and um art had done some work for my dad years ago and it turns out real estate was in my blood but I get to Gensler and I'm finishing school I'm working for nettle laserwitz who is one of my mentors and most amazing women in the world and I finished school and Nyla says to me well you graduated from college what are you going to do with your life and your career now and I was like I'm not going to do anything I'm going to work for you and she goes no you're not you're not gonna work for me you're smarter than that time to go do something went home that night came back in the next morning and I was like okay I get six months to figure it out and you have to help me figure out what I want to do and we started down the process of project management um Business Development what am I going to do at Gensler to move out of the office her office and being an assistant and into a real professional career where I was standing on my own two legs turns out it was Business Development and I went to run business development for buildings and campuses I ended up being recruited away to work for a smaller firm called rtkl which was bought by arcadis we built the Interiors group there we made it profitable within the year this is 2008 when Lehman Brothers goes under the Market's falling apart and arcadis out of the Netherlands decides we're going to cut anything that's not our main river of business we're going to cut sports and entertainment we're going to cut Interiors we're going to cut all these different groups that aren't the core of the company I was one of those people that got cut I sent down an email to everybody I had met in the industry through the two years that I was there um about 1500 people and I got 13 job offers from my one email and my email was something like sorry for the super rude email I was just laid off I need a job would love to connect any way we can I'll reach out personally and all these people came back and took care of me turns out if you can sell people think you can sell anything and I had amazing job offers I am so grateful from furniture vendors to other architecture firms um carpet uh developers were like can you come in and do this there was just all these amazing things and a very good friend of mine who's like a brother to me said why aren't you a broker like why don't you if you can sell the hardest part of our business is selling if you can sell someone can teach you how to be a broker why don't you go make some real money and go have some fun and I was like oh my God how am I going to do that and like here I am this young woman and in LA and um anyway I started meeting with Brokers I had three job offers one from um CBRE one from jll and one from Boutique shop a gentleman named Warren wixon who is like the Silicon Valley Whisperer of startups he had Google from a couple thousand employees through twenty thousand and Warren and I strategize this deal where my job was to open doors for him and his job was to teach me how to be a broker and I was his Apprentice I got to be in every meeting on every legal call in the room learning everything that I could learn as much as I could be a sponge I had access to and all I did was set up meetings for him and he had a great portfolio of work I was eager to learn it was this amazing you know symbiotic relationship for five years um after five years it was like well where am I going to go now and I was being recruited by a few firms and I ended up at cressa where I've now been for eight years and at cressa I was able to lead and run you know find lead and run my own accounts including accounts like Twitter and box um New Relic and and a variety of others that I've had over the years so that's how I sort of ended up where I am today I you know had a lot of people help me along the way and you know rolled up my sleeves and worked I really appreciate that origin story because it reminds me it's almost to me it's very Hollywood I I you just I wrote I took down some notes I mean you hustled um you negotiated to the point where you're like I will do this but you're gonna help me do this and you were just you know you were very good what it sounds like about building a network in a community and something that I want to do with this podcast and something I emphasize with junior sales reps and other folks to where um having these connections are super important and you're the embodiment of that I mean you know you you went from 13 job offers to the next one having three very exciting job offer it it sounded like you've built such an ecosystem around you that that ecosystem has taken care of you over the years is that fair yeah it's absolutely fair I I got to um meet a gentleman named Brad Cox who is a um one of the senior people at Trammel Crow now owned by CBRE I met him at a yoga random Yoga Retreat that they took a bunch of us on and late night you know we're we're drinking and his wife is there and a bunch of other people and he says you should do this leadership program with the Southern California Chamber of Commerce with the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce the Southern California leadership program and I was like well how do I get into it he's like well call me on Monday and we'll see if we can figure out how to get you into this so of course me being me I called him on Monday my number one thing is follow up and he goes nobody's ever called me I've said this to 20 30 people no one's actually called me and followed up and said Okay I want to do this leadership program so of course he was connected he got me into this leadership program part of this leadership program was developing your personal mission statement and my personal mission statement is to help people for the betterment of their personal or professional lives in whatever different way I gotta stop you there I gotta stop you there I gotta stop you there that's the theme of the podcast so the next my next question to you now I gotta do it I gotta do it so I get I I get I get my segue into this we heard about the how you did it and I hope other people really listen to that um but now you're getting into the why right so what is your why go on my why is to help people for the betterment of their personal and professional lives and as a result of helping people all those people help me get me to my career where I am today if you take care of people and you add value they also help you and you build real authentic relationships and I have friends competitors exes what have you that I am still close to and still connected with because at the core it's how can we all be better together this you just nailed it in the first few minutes here of where you took us through the how right and then you were getting to the why you were you were telling the story before I could even get into my segue of what is your why and really what I hope what I really hope is anybody who watches this they catch your story your story is exactly exactly what I'm looking for it's it's the hustle it's the tenacity but at the same time you've built all these relationships and it even goes back to how we met that you reached out and said hey I would like to talk about this and I looked at your profiles like she seems very interesting let's let's let's talk about you know whatever topic she wants to talk about and you can and then you were like do you need a job I was like no I'm interested why are you reaching out I haven't talked to you in years so let me ask you this let me let me ask you this where does where did this for me I believe the same thing and I've had great mentors and I call back to my mentors all the time and lessons I've learned from them and all the people who've helped me along the way I saw all my key mentors at the last cornet in in Chicago it was weird I was walking with my current mentor and my one of my first mentors was there that I haven't seen for years from my New York days where I once upon a time uh did work on the Lehman Brothers trade for we used to oh wow we used to move the computers around and pull cable underneath the race dick fold signed my baby book yeah so it's like I have this community too that I I made a concerted effort to build up for me it's important to have that sense of belonging have that sense of something that we all share so that we can help each other and have conversations make each where does it come from for you I have had some twists and turn turns in my life that have led me to understand how important Community is and how important the person that's a few steps ahead of you them bringing you to the table is very important and then paying it forward um I am an adult child of an alcoholic I have spoken at many um different meetings and places about my story and my mother's recovery and how amazingly well that has influenced me now all these years later because it gave me a little bit of grit it gave me an opportunity to see through tough things and whenever I have shared my story if I can help one child or one spouse of an alcoholic feel a little bit it better and know they can move on through this and that they can take care of themselves and they can get you know this too shall pass then um I've done my job and that just started very young I started going to Al-Anon and allatin meetings when I was a teenager you know 15 16 17 and that just changed my perspective on how people can help make a gray day sunny and I just believe it all the way down to my core um I just had to take a couple deep breaths because you almost made me cry yeah I actually haven't talked about that in a while I'm sort of surprised it came up today but at the core where it came from was that Community was so important for me and is probably the only reason I'm alive that giving back and taking care of people is ultimately what I want to do I've thought about like should I be a recruiter and help people get jobs should I do you know different things that you know really have an impact on the person and helping them find their way or be better at what they're doing I I just you're making me emotional right now and that's that's ultimately I didn't expect that from you I gotta I gotta be honest it really is what I'm trying to do with with the season of the podcast so when we went through the global pandemic right we went through this shared traumatic event which we talked about extensively in the first season of the podcast I found that I wanted to try to build more of a community and be more real about it um the first season I was adamant Do not drop a buzzword I don't want to hear buzzwords I want to talk about real topics I want to talk about how you're getting through how your clients are getting through it um and then as we move through the seasons one and two now we're into three I found people more related to your things like your story about growing up as a child of an alcoholic and your struggles with that and how you relate that to work and it means the world to me that you just brought that up and shared that with us and that we're going to be able to share that with our audience because that's what I want I want I want P I want to drop the Assad because over over the course of those two three years that we went through the pandemic you know everybody I had many conversations with people both good and bad to where somebody came to me with something and I was like do you know what my life looks like right now behind on the other side of the zoom no I know nothing about you well I have an elderly father that I just picked up off the floor that lives with me because I couldn't I had to buy a house to take him in during the pandemic because I wasn't going to let anything happen to him again that's my community my I don't have a big family that's my dad that's I took care of him and they're coming down on me about something and I'm like I just had the worst day and it had nothing to do with the meeting we just had it had nothing to do with work it has to do with what you don't see on the other side of the zoom meeting and the fact that you're taking something that's personal to you and then applying it to your professional career and I'll guarantee you do it in your personal life um that really is impactful to me and I think that's what that's what we're trying to accomplish here that's why we called it connected conversations we want to connect it's great so let me ask you this with all that being said and and now that I've kind of uh I'm not as emotional you know I was talking to you about this before the podcast uh in The Brokerage world only 36 percent of Brokers are women right and I talked about this in season two with Anya who we both share as a as a mutual connection what advice would you give the younger generation let's start with the female um you know because I think you're a wonderful representation uh for the next generation of Brokers and Executives and anybody who takes on a significant role in an organization what advice would you give well the facade we were just talking about you know the facade and what's really happening behind your facade what's happening behind my facade you know there's so much more depth to people than than we give credit for and the the challenge the biggest challenge with the pandemic was the that this became transactional our conversation could become transactional instead of being in a room and feeling someone's energy and it's really important to figure out how to connect over Zoom without it and in my career the facade has been super important as well um I walk into a room I'm decent looking woman I know how to carry myself I know how to dress I can shake your hand and look you in the eye but can you actually run a deal can you actually run numbers do you actually know what you're talking about and then when I can do all that nobody's ready and there's this facade that people think oh well she's just another one trying to make it as a broker or she's doing this but when we actually really take apart a lease or take apart a transaction and figure out how to put it together correctly nobody's nobody's expecting it I can distinctly remember talking to a broker in New York which is my favorite City to negotiate in I do I work globally so I live here in San Francisco but I do work all over the world and in New York they definitely didn't think I was going to be able to negotiate and they thought they had it you know they thought they had a bit like had it had it over me and that they were gonna win this point and I said absolutely not we're not budging on it I don't care who your client is this is this is what my client needs and you know I only represent the tenant we were in a very uh tricky sublease situation and this gentleman lost his temper cussing and screaming and calling me all sorts of B names Etc the next day I got assigned Loi because he wasn't expecting it and so I think oftentimes people say oh there's so few women or there's oh so few of this or that in the room like that's that's not an Achilles heel that's a muscle and we all need to be flexing it we all need to be the unexpected we all need to you know use that as this thing of you're gonna underestimate me so I'm gonna double down on how well I perform and as a result I've had clients for years and years and years I've had clients leave one company and go to another company because they want someone that knows how to work it and knows how to work it correct quickly and thoughtfully and I think you know my biggest frustration with like the metoo movement and different things is I want to push my way through the door because I earned it and I'm really good at what I did or am doing not necessarily because I'm a woman or anything else and I look at being a woman and a leader and a top ten at cressa for all these years because I I have earned it and I have worked it into the room I have I know how to do great transactions to take care of my clients well you just gave us the title of the episode oh I did yeah thank you for that it's not an Achilles Achilles heel it's a muscle with Christina that will be the title yeah I love it I mean thank you for doing my job for me um that is Christina I I cannot tell you how inspirational that was um were you an athlete by any chance I was a little bit I mean I'm definitely competitive um you know I was a tennis and swimming and field hockey I'm a sailor um so yeah absolutely a little bit but um yeah I mean I think I'm an athlete at life you know and like where are we going how is it changing um what's next and you know how can we how can we be prepared for it um I think being prepared is something if I was to give like actual tactical things being prepared when I meet with someone or talk to someone I've I've looked them up I know who they are um follow through as I already said is so important it's it's something that our generation is not very good at and so often you can get a meeting just because you followed up or you even made the ask um and then you know people and staying connected um really makes the world go around I read Keith frazi's book Never Eat Alone years and years ago I was in a little tiny apartment and I did what he said you know order a pizza and have a few friends over and talk about how you can help each other and I believe in doing that I think you should write a book well it seems like that's coming because you're like the third person to tell me that in the past 30 days so things happening when things happen in threes it means I gotta go somewhere and do something there you go um and then I would also say even you know even as our careers mature like who is your network who is your team uh in the pandemic I have a coach Eric Horowitz and he he built a little Network that he called the gems and we met initially weekly on Wednesday evenings and it was just like how are we going to get through the pandemic and what are we going to do people from all over the world from London San Francisco New York anywhere um doing all different things and how are we just going to get out of whatever we're sitting in this moment to think bigger about where is the world going what's happening how was your day today Bob how is your day Christina and um I think it's important to to think broader than what you do day to day what's your community maybe it's a church maybe it's a an AAA program I don't know but where are you in your community and and and like take taking a bigger look on life than what your job was or just what's happening in your home as important as those are Community is too I have so many things to respond to here my brain was racing like uh like a car engine first of all I think you would be really awesome at working with athletes um I really do because that talk you just gave I wanted to run through a wall I'm like ready to run through a wall and like when people like I I was an athlete things didn't work out like I said a number of injuries and I never got I always wanted to be a Collegiate athlete never got there um so you have to Pivot in those moments um but as I got older I got really into doing things from a fitness perspective and and people would say what are you training for I was like well I'm training for life and you said that you said the same thing I'm an athlete of life and I could see you another so you got to write a book um I think I got a to-do list from this yeah I'm gonna give you a to-do list I think you would be really good at talking to college athletes or high school athletes I think what what you're the message you're putting out there um is is something that could be applied across a number of different areas and I just I am really Blown Away by it and I I I think of um I think of people who give these types of Talks on YouTube that I watch sometimes now I'm not I'm not a big you know I'm not a big inspirational quote like I feel like people who post inspirational quotes on social media it's in action you're not actually doing something but then there I think we're very similar in a lot of ways yeah we get up and go do something about it right you go do something about it I'm not gonna sit here and write in it I may I may spit one out as I'm going on my my uh my journey my my vision quest if you will but at the same time I'm gonna go do something and that's what you strike me as you're like you're the I'm gonna go do something about it and if I can help some people along the way I'm gonna do that absolutely yeah I mean uh to quote someone as we just said not to you know Tony Robbins says take Massive Action yeah there's a lot of things we can all learn there's a lot of people passively reading information or learning how to do this or that what's the action that's the word I was looking for it's passive yeah well what's the action you can take um even coming out of this pandemic for me it's what's the action I can take right now with my business where am I going who are three new people I can reach out to that I find interesting that maybe has some news to tell me or something interesting which is how I got to you and who are three old people that I haven't like old friends or connections that I haven't talked to because of the pandemic or career changer you know just being busy um that I can talk to and the amount of momentum and interesting conversations I've had just from doing um three a day of each of those is amazing and that also gives me a measurable action item to take every day who are three new people I can ping in one way or another and who are three people that I haven't chatted with in a while and it's really fun to reconnect with them and say hello and it's also great to have new conversations and meet new friends you never know where it's gonna go um so so that's been a great action item for me the other point I want to touch on too is um I read years and years ago I read Carly fiorina's book and one of the things that she said in it this is when she was working for Pac Bell or at T or something and they had a huge RFP do and it wasn't right it wasn't perfect but if she didn't get it in by the deadline they would fail altogether and she said perfect enough and that's one of my mottos is is it perfect enough you know don't beat yourself up about everything having to be just in the right place just the right you know this or that um it doesn't have to be perfect enough it has to have the right effort and energy behind it but it doesn't have to be perfect and you know my life isn't perfect either and um even from growing up as as I've already shared that I did with with my mother's drinking it's one of the best things that ever happened to me in my life because it's given me my tenacity it's taught me how to look at people and say you have no idea what happened behind their closed doors last night as people used to and do judge me um it's just it's given me you know a different way of looking at things and working and understanding the community so even when it seems like it's not right or it seems like you know poor me or why did this happen to me something comes from it that is so much better than whatever the you're in you just gotta get through this are we allowed to cuss I don't know is that a cuss word I guess we'll find out that I mean you know there were so many things that that resonated with me with with what you just said there um I just I really appreciate all these things about you and um because I do you know I take on a very um jovial kind of friendly approach to things but I have moments where I don't know maybe sometimes I've been called too intense at times um to where I started my career in New York City and you had to be intense you had to and there's an intensity in me at one point in my life saved my life it saved my life um I had I had a medical emergency and if I didn't have that intensity I'd I would have laid down on the ground and died and when somebody says that to me I get very emotional because it's like you don't understand me and you don't understand that intensity and I've lived through some very intense things in my life as you have I can go down a list of all these things that have happened since I was a little kid and I think it shapes you into a person that turns out like a Christina Clark really I really do it shapes you to where I've been through some stuff um but I'm going to be successful and I'm going to find my formula you found your you have a formula yeah you know you really have a formula and it shaped you into this person that you are today to where I mean we met and we talked about technology we didn't have a conversation like this but if you can't tell like you're you're you're you're everything about you is really resonating with me yeah we'll start in the near term with the pandemic where you said reach out to three new people three old people I just had this conversation last night with somebody who wants to be more of a seller they're a consultant but they want to be more of a seller and I was like I could teach you how to do that and one of the things I talked about was being social about it and it's I'm gonna bring what you said I wrote it down reach out to three new people and reach out to three old acquaintances and see where it gets you because somebody very smart uh taught me that um but when I go back to what I was saying about the in everything you said about Community that's what I wanted to do during the pandemic because I felt very isolated and I almost in my head and again full transparency it was like a social social experiment for me I was like can I build a community from a foundation that I have remotely and try to connect people and connect stories and be a storyteller and one of the things I wanted to share with you was once upon a time I wrote screenplays um you know I I never sold one I came very close and the reason why I came very close to selling a screenplay was we were introduced to a woman who was an agent her name was Sherry smiley um and I thought the world of her and you Christina remind me of Sherry Smiley um you you have this every time I got on a phone call with her I was really nervous and that's such a presence and she was she was so like I never knew what she was gonna say or if she was how she was going to respond to a joke I cracked and I just she had such a presence about her and she even though it never came to fruition but she gave me confidence and she gave me um such an exciting moment in my life to where and you remind you even kind of look like I'm gonna have to look her up I love it well you know and my mentor did the same Nyla Nyla has this presence and this elegance and sharpness so do you thank you um well I I wanted to grow up and be like Nyla so I'm glad that people are starting to see me that way thank you I don't know know who you are where you are but Christina did a fine job of becoming um you know your Protege and really caring forward anything that that you ever taught her so hopefully she sees this oh she will I'll send it on excellent so um you know really I I just again I can't say enough how this what what what we talked about here today truly was the spirit of what the season of the podcast was meant to be Christina and I'm so glad you asked me to join okay so now I'm going to give myself a little bit of credit and I'm gonna pull back the curtain a little bit as I do so when I when I approached the podcast and I approach um my guests I'm very selective in who I asked to be on the podcast and number one I want to make sure I have good chemistry with them because there's there's nothing worse awkward conversations to spread in any space whether it's a podcast whether it's a business meeting a date whatever it is a pod uh awkward conversations the worst um so as I was going through and choosing my guests for the podcast um I didn't have them all figured out I had a couple figured out um but I leave gaps I leave I was like I want to leave this slot for somebody who's gonna surprise me and when I spoke with you I didn't I didn't know you I've always I've always appreciated the cressa brand um I like what you all do being in the workplace um industry for all the years I've been I've come across plenty of people from cressa and in and out of accounts and where you have a footprint but my point to all this was that when I met you I felt like you had a story to tell and I'm going to give myself credit for that that I kind of you gave off a sense of well I feel like she would be an interesting guest for the podcast even though I just met you so um but what I will go further and saying and pulling back the veil I never in a million years expected what you just gave to us and I'm gonna say you gave us something you gave me something and hopefully you gave our viewers multiple things to work on things to think about and what I take away from you is tenacity tenacity and everything and that's the way I am too tenacity and everything follow-up uh reach out to three old people reach out to three new people build a community talk about how you can help one another um take the things in your life that may have been a challenge and find some good in it find some good in it and then bring some people along yeah and really what you said about surprising people in a negotiation um you know you're you're full of surprises Christina in general gotta keep you thinking yeah keep you on your toes but thank you I it's you know it's been an honor and obviously when I reached out to you I had no idea what you know where it was going to go and then and when you started and you said do you need a job I was like so taken aback I didn't even know I like sort of fumble there I didn't I was like at a loss for I was like do I no I don't think so um but I and I didn't know where you were going with that so um you know this was really fun I mean it's this is great I mean I I love what you're doing I love how you're bringing our community together and asking different questions than what we're constantly being asked about the return to office question that this is not doing it don't yeah my first my first answer back is how do you want to work yeah Mr executive then we'll solve so I uh yeah I I felt like in our um in our chat I don't know was it two weeks ago you you weren't expecting to necessarily ask me and then you were like hmm let's see what happens here so um yeah it's it's it's I wasn't expecting to talk necessarily about my mom or my background I didn't know where we were going but um I love that I love the questions you've asked and how you've weaved my whole life into this discussion it wasn't uh it wasn't really about that but really what I what I wanna um say to you first and foremost is thank you um for all of that and you said is it true this is your first podcast yeah okay I gotta Pat myself on the back for that as well um it absolutely is I have I it's yes the reason being I say that again pulling back the current non-connected conversations what I said to Chris who helps me produce this podcast is I want folks who haven't necessarily been out there and there have been beating the same drama and I want to expose the industry um to Fresh voices and fresh faces and people who I think can really offer uh the corporate real estate uh the workplace any anybody in who's on LinkedIn who stumbles across my podcast to voices like yours so with that I want to thank you very much for sharing your professional experience and all the personal stuff you shared I encourage you to write a book and encourage you to become a motivational speaker particularly for sports teams because again I'm ready to go run through a wall on conquer life today I love that but mostly thank you for being with us today thank you for making this your first podcast Christina I am thank you for asking me I am honored to have had you on the podcast and again you've got me emotional a couple times and uh I really do appreciate that so with that this is connected conversations I'm Bob mustache from nuvolo that's Christina Clark from Cresta we're going to see more of her um out there in the world because we we got to get her out there and we got to hear more from Christina Clark so with that thank you very much for your time today thank you for joining us and I'll see you on the interwebs take care thanks for having me 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