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As a broker, you need to stay up-to-date on the trends, technology, and strategies that continue to shape commercial real estate.
But running a successful CRE brokerage requires much more than just industry knowledge. On any given day, you’re a leader, negotiator, marketer, seller, and, most of all, master of the daily grind.
If you want to consistently win new listings and close deals for your clients, you’ll need a steady diet of education in a variety of skills. Podcasts offer an easy way to learn from—and be motivated by—high performers in each of these disciplines.
Whether it’s upping your due diligence [internal link to due diligence post] game or understanding the new reality of retail real estate, these podcasts deliver insights and understanding from the best CRE professionals in the business.
For more than a decade, host Michael Bull has invited guests—including leading economists, CRE pros, and market analysts—to his podcast to discuss all things commercial real estate.
While there are plenty of tips for brokers embedded in each conversation, the real gold is in the show’s analysis of trends in each market class.
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This episode, for example, in which Mark Mathews, VP of research development & industry analysis for the National Retail Federation, offers a surprisingly bullish forecast for the embattled retail real estate sector.
If you want to know what today's indicators suggest for tomorrow’s CRE trends, America’s Commercial Real Estate Show is a great place to start.
It’s clear that hosts Robert Helm (CRE investor) and Russell Gray (financial strategist) have a lot of fun on the Real Estate Guys Radio show, which is good since they’ve been hosting since it was an FM radio program in 1997.
But the show is hardly fluff. The guys get into some very deep and timely CRE topics, like protecting assets in a digital age and how market manipulation affects real estate.
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In a recent episode, guest attorney Mauricio Rauld explains new regulations for 2021 that could change how CRE transactions are conducted. He also breaks down the different types of legal counsel involved in a real estate investment.
The informal conversations on each weekly episode of the BiggerPockets Podcast expose the inspirational stories of the most creative and successful commercial real estate investors working today.
Hosts Brandon Turner and David Greene—both successful investors in their own right—have a way of putting guests at ease, giving them space to share details that are both educational and, at times, emotional.
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One of the most interesting of the nearly 500 episodes is this conversation with DJ Envy and Cesar Pina. Envy is a mixed-tape DJ and his business partner Pina learned about commercial real estate while serving time in prison.
Envy and Pina’s dedication to growing a multi-million dollar enterprise—and then giving back to the next generation—is a refreshing break from a “win at all costs” investment strategy.
As the name suggests, this podcast is a great starter for new CRE investors. For an experienced broker, it’s a chance to go back to the basics that sometimes get lost in the everyday grind.
Host Peter Harris literally wrote the book on commercial real estate investing. In his show, he breaks down complex topics—like how to make the leap from residential to commercial real estate investing—to make CRE more accessible to all investors.
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Harris’s explanation of what to look for in a CRE mentor is a good place for a broker to jump into this podcast. If you flip the lens on Harris’s advice, you’ll find a checklist you can use to position yourself as a mentor to future investor clients. RIVAT
For experienced investors and brokers, the Private Equity Real Estate Podcast gets deep into the details of growing a commercial real estate business.
Nick Cucci is the host and Director of Content for First National Realty Partners. He expertly prompts guests to share how they take on things, like squeezing profits from retail assets and assessing returns from private equity CRE.
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While Cucci speaks with experts from all over CRE, some of the best conversations are with the FNRP founders. They’ve been in the trenches building a $400 million portfolio for decades.
In this episode, Tony Grasso—managing principal of FNRP—explains how he’s turned tenant expectations and relationships into guidelines to make better investment decisions.
Negotiation, creating sales goals, and turning cold leads into appointments are just a few sales abilities CRE brokers need to possess. The hosts and guests on these podcasts will help you hone these critical skills.
The Salesman Podcast is produced for salespeople in just about every B2B industry, so not every episode is relevant for a CRE broker. But with a little scrolling, you’ll find many of the 700 episodes offer useful and interesting strategies for setting sales goals and automating lead generation, as well as how to leverage emotions during a negotiation.
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Case in point is this episode where host Will Barron digs into the importance of emotional intelligence with Chris Voss, a former FBI hostage negotiator.
Voss explains how anyone can get what they need out of a negotiation ethically and morally by better understanding the person on the other side of the table. He also has an interesting take on why “no” can actually be better than “yes” in negotiations.
Show hosts Bill Caskey and Brian Neale—both experienced salesmen and sales trainers—use real-world examples from their own careers to address common sales challenges, like cold calling and buyer objections, many of which are also common to CRE brokers.
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Brokers, for example, often have to keep relationships warm with investor clients who might go years between needing their services. Caskey and Neale explain how they’ve taken on that challenge and why many people think about it the wrong way.
The Sales Gravy Podcast has two formats: long-form, 20-ish minute conversations with sales pros and trainers and quick tips from host James Blount. In either case, each episode stays focused on one specific sales topic.
The single-topic format gives Blount and his guests more time to explore subjects like using improvisational comedy techniques to gain agreement and the benefits of video sales calls.
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One topic nearly every CRE broker could benefit from is how to improve messaging to close deals. Guest Keith Lubner, a sales trainer, explains how to make your sales messages more impactful using stories, empathy, and images. Lubner shows why it’s important and gives actionable tips to make it happen.
Buyers seem to be more skeptical than ever, but they’re still making purchases. On his podcast Sales Influence, host Victor Antonio explores psychology and human behavior to find the complex answers to the simple question, “why do people buy?”
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With 428 episodes to date, Antonio has found plenty of reasons why people buy. Few are as unexpected as the advice from the 16th-century poet Samurai Miyamoto Musashi. Guest Niraj Kapur shows how the poet’s 5 Ring philosophy applies to modern sales and the psychology of today’s buyers.
Whether it’s as a CRE broker or a B2B salesperson, getting a meeting with a cold prospect is half the game. Hosts Bill Hellkamp and Scott Plum of the Minnesota Sales Institute explore strategies for getting past gatekeepers, re-engaging prospects who delay, and defining the perfect-fit customer for your deal.
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In this episode, Hellkamp and Plum talk about the art and science of creating a value proposition. It’s the one thing that quickly tells your client why you’re not just different but also better for them than any other broker.
The first part of this episode is a book discussion, so skip to the 13-minute mark if you want to get to the value prop discussion.
As a broker, you’re the quarterback of both your firm’s internal team and the group of external professionals that assemble to move each CRE deal from listing to closing. These podcasts will introduce you to some of the most effective leaders in the world, giving you the skills to motivate and manage the people who help you prosper.
Brokers are charged with managing communications between sellers, buyers, and just about everyone involved in a CRE transaction. The advice and examples shared on the Engaging Leader podcast by host Jessie Lahey—leadership communication speaker and consultant—and his guests—leaders, psychologists, and consultants—will teach you techniques to keep everyone working together.
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With so many people involved in every CRE deal, you’re bound to work with some who aren’t willing to go with the flow. This episode featuring leadership expert Karin Hurt explores five types of people who cause challenges for leaders. Then Hurt offers tactics to engage them and get them working toward your common goal.
Each episode of the Leadership Biz Cafe features a laid-back conversation between host Tanveer Naseer and his guests—experts in management and leadership.
Much of what’s discussed on LBC leans toward the psychological aspects of leadership. For example, they talk about how to create a leadership mindset, how to manage toxic attitudes, and how to build a culture of teamwork in stressful environments.
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A great place to start is Naseer’s talk with Dr. Timothy Clark on the causes and effects of psychological safety. In short, the pervasive fear of expression can wreak havoc on your firm’s productivity. Dr. Clark tells you how to fix it.
While this podcast is produced with HR leaders in mind, it goes way beyond hiring and employee retention tactics. Expect lots of discussions on how to create a team culture and how to help those around you to improve, so everyone succeeds.
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In this episode, host Chris Rainey speaks with Matthew Smith, chief learning officer at McKinsey. Smith lays out a practical approach to improving your team’s productivity through intentional education.
With the tagline “leaders aren’t born, they’re made,” host Dave Stachowiak challenges his podcast guests to teach listeners practical leadership strategies. You’ll find successful frameworks for delegation, onboarding, and just about every aspect of managing a team.
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One of the best examples in the over 500 episode library is the conversation with Four-Star General and former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis.
In this episode, Mattis explains a communication tool he used called “focused telescopes” to improve the transfer of critical information during the chaos of battle. For a broker trying to coordinate information from dozens of sources, focused telescopes can be a useful tactic.
Business Wars is a very long-form (think, multiple episodes for each topic) podcast that narrates the knock-down-drag-out fights between some of the most well-known organizations in existence today.
While telling the stories, host David Brown exposes insights into how leaders guide their companies to success or, many times, to failure.
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Start with the seven-part SpaceX vs. Blue Origin series. It’s the classic Goliath vs. Goliath story of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk’s race to space. It’s not just an interesting tale; it’s also a peek into the brains of two ultra-competitive business leaders.
The secret to CRE success isn’t a single hack; it’s the daily grind of banging out cold calls, email campaigns, and constant networking to get the next listing.
These podcasts feature people who have pushed through seemingly insurmountable barriers to achieve incredible things. Their stories will leave you ready to push whatever wall is holding you back.
Each episode of the Rich Roll podcast features an in-depth and intense conversation with some of the “brightest and most forward-thinking ... minds” around. More practically, each episode introduces you to someone who has seen a challenge and forged a way through with clever thinking or brute force.
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Listen first to Roll’s conversation with David Goggins. Goggins has overcome obesity, asthma, and sickle cell anemia to become the only member of the U.S. military to graduate from Navy Seal training, Army Ranger School, and Air Force Tactical Air Controller Training. He’s now an ultra-endurance athlete, and just hearing him describe his own incredible journey will push you to give that extra 10% to achieve your goal.
Host Jayson Waller is a true underdog story—he grew up in a trailer park and was a teenage father—who bootstrapped himself into building multiple fast-growth companies. In the podcast, he speaks with other entrepreneurs who share how they’ve built incredible businesses from scratch.
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In one episode, Waller speaks with David Nurse about the power of perseverance and pivoting when life doesn’t go as planned.
Nurse had a lifelong dream of playing in the NBA, failed, then lost a high-profile job as the shooting coach for the NJ Nets. Instead of throwing in the towel, he created a program to help NBA players squeeze every bit of ability out of their talents. You’ll get to see how he used his “improve 1% every day” to achieve goal after goal and learn how to employ that strategy for yourself.
In his podcast, Tim Ferriss deconstructs the success of high-performers to parse out useful strategies that apply to any field.
The conversations in his podcast are long, often lasting well over an hour. And they get into some interesting topics. Think: how mindfulness helped Michael Jordan win six NBA championships, and how mental toughness is something you can cultivate within yourself.
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A perfect example of Ferriss’ overachieving and highly motivational guests is Josh Waitzkin. He’s an eight-time national chess champion, Jiu-Jitsu black belt, and Tai Chi world champion who now teaches business and finance professionals how to maximize their own potential. Waitzkin and Ferriss go deep on prepping your personal and professional life to stand up to turbulent times.
Host Guy Raz is a journalist and radio host who knows how to dig into a story to pull out the most important parts. Using that skill in his podcast, Raz encourages his highly successful guests to share the critical decisions they made at the most important junctures in their life.
Many of his guests have true rags-to-riches stories—like a world-renowned chef who started off chopping vegetables and the rise of the exercise empire SoulCycle—that will leave you anxious to tackle your next challenge.
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Imagine you had just landed your dream job as commissioner of the National Women’s Soccer League. Two days later, the entire professional sports industry effectively shuts down due to Covid. Lisa Baird tells Raz how she navigated that exact situation, not only keeping the league afloat but even launching the Challenge Cup tournament in the midst of it all.
The guests on The School of Greatness podcast come from incredibly diverse backgrounds. One episode features a TEDx-talking neuroscientist, another a stock market billionaire, and then a teenager who's built a mini-social media empire worth millions. In every case, host and former pro-athlete Lewis Howes coaxes out the secret sauce that made each person successful.
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The conversation with Ryan Serhant will hit close to home for CRE professionals. The billion-dollar real estate broker and star of Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing New York explain his secrets to winning every negotiation and busting through financial plateaus.
Podcasts are a great medium for learning, but they’re also a fantastic public relations and marketing channel for your CRE business. You can passively access a podcast audience by paying for ads or be a guest and offer your expertise in exchange for a willing audience’s attention.
