These days, spoken or unspoken “Thank Yous” are more important than ever. There are plenty of things in our world and in our lives that can make us feel worried or even angry. Those thoughts need to be balanced with genuine acknowledgements of the good in our lives – both people and situations.
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we recently sat down to talk about the things in our professional lives that we’re thankful for. Here’s what we came up with, in absolutely no order of priority:
- The chance to build personal relationships with clients. Whether it’s having a beer, enjoying a round of non-business golf or even going on a mountain-biking weekend adventure, we’re grateful for the wonderful times we’ve had with friends we’ve made over the long term while working professionally on their behalf. Business can be transactional, but we treasure those deeper personal relationships.
- Being part of the Denver business community. This region has a vibe and an energy that makes Denver an exciting, attractive location even during an economic downturn. The business groups, chambers of commerce and economic development organizations that represent this city and the surrounding communities are second to none.
- Family members who understand our passion for commercial real estate. Family comes first of course, but we’re thankful for our immediate family members who give us the space to run our company and to devote the time and attention to our clients that they deserve.
- Technology that allows us to serve our clients anywhere in the world from Denver. We’ve been in this business long enough to remember working with printed resources – listing data, for example, that were out of date the minute they were printed. Now we have up-to-the-minute information at our fingertips, and we receive alerts about opportunities nationally and globally in an instant. We also have tremendous, localized transaction and market data readily available so we can better represent our clients.
- Referrals from clients, synergy partners and others trusted resources in our lives. Over the past decade, more than 90% of our business opportunities were with past clients or through referrals by past clients, members of our powerful network and others who know us well. We wouldn’t be where we are without all of you in our lives.
- An incredible organization called Tunnel to Towers Foundation. T2T provides mortgage-free homes to Gold Star and fallen first responder families with young children and by building specially adapted smart homes for catastrophically injured veterans and first responders. We’re thankful for the brave people who serve our country and our communities, and we’re thankful for organizations like T2T that serve them. We hope you’ll join us in supporting this group.
- Our business partners. We’re a two-man operation. We rely heavily on vendors and partners to do much of the behind-the-scenes work so we can focus on client service. EduCyber, our marketing firm, is a great example of this. They help us get the word out about our services and expertise. And yes, EduCyber Founders Brian and Maki DeLaet have become wonderful friends, too
- Mentors that recognized our potential and helped us recognize it too. Family members, previous bosses, colleagues – both of us can identify 2-3 entrepreneurs or commercial real estate professionals in our past who selflessly took an interest in our success and made all the difference in getting us to where we are now.
Happy Thanksgiving to all our clients, friends, colleagues and business partners. We hope everyone can take some time this season to tally up the good in their lives – the positives will almost certainly outweigh the negatives, and the people in our lives make our short time on this earth even better.
