When is it Time to Pivot in your Career with Nancy Surak

Danielle Cobo  0:05  
Hey beautiful Welcome to dream job within yell Cobo podcast. I am Danielle Cobo, elite career coach, and I believe every woman has the power to step into their dream job, earn the salary they are worth, and live the life they desire. Each week you join me, you're going to hear from these inspiring women who have overcome adversity and leveled up their career. You're going to learn how to eliminate that inner critic that is holding you back from pursuing your dream. How to build confidence, create healthy boundaries to transition burnout to re energize and gain clarity on how to accelerate your career. It's never too late to pursue your dream job. The time is now. Are you ready? Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of dream job with Danielle Cobo. I am Danielle Kobo, and today I have a very special guest. Our guest today is Nancy surfac. She is the managing broker for land advisors organization, West Coast of Florida. She's a 2021 number one woman land broker in the nation. She is a mother to two kids. And she's been married for 25 years. She has an exceptional message to share with you. And I'm so excited. She's joining us today. Thank you for joining Nancy.

Nancy Surak  1:31  
Thank you for having me. I am so excited. And I look forward to our conversation.

Danielle Cobo  1:36  
Me as well. And I know our listeners will as well. So tell us a little bit Nancy, you work in a predominantly male industry. And you've really had a lot of success in your career. Tell us a little bit about where you started. And how did you get to where you're at today, your career journey.

Nancy Surak  1:54  
Okay, perfect. So I actually started in commercial real estate in my mid 30s. So I had a whole nother career before I started doing land brokerage. for about 12 years I worked in and around commercial real estate and I did sales and business development for engineering companies, construction companies, and architectural companies. So it was around space quite a bit I understood commercial real estate was calling on developers. And in my mid 30s, I woke up one day, or maybe a few days and decided, you know, I didn't think that that was where my career was going to end. And I started doing a lot of soul searching as to what I thought I wanted out of life and what I wanted the next step and I kept coming back to conversations in my childhood. Ironically, with my father who had told me in my late teen years or mid teen years that I he thought it would be great in commercial real estate. And then I started to really focus in on hone in on that. And I remembered playing in the dirt as a kid and I was loved to retell this story. I was the little girl in the backyard with my Barbie and like some boys Tonka truck, you know, on the block, and sticks and stones and bricks, and I was always like, building things with Barbie, you know, my Barbie was like, covered in mud. And she was like, a badass. And but it took me to like 35 to think, oh, wait a minute, there's something there. There's some connection. And so when I looked at commercial real estate, I was like, I think I want to be in land. I'm always drawn to that. My dad said this. And so then I interviewed land brokers, and I was like, This is it. This is gonna be the fit. And I've been doing it ever since. And for you know, 17 going on 18

Danielle Cobo  3:43  
years now. Wow, that's incredible, especially a big pivot in your career. You had a moment where you're kind of most people kind of stay in their career, but you did a big pivot and what's the number one thing that you've learned through your experience of pivoting in your career?

Nancy Surak  4:01  
So I was I was I went from having a salaried position that didn't have any compensation package like no commission. All salaried I had managed to was a great female oriented or female owned, excuse me, female owned company. And I managed to get this position to go part time to my kids are young and I had great expense account and I was just not fulfilled. So when I decided to switch to commercial brokerage, commercial real estate brokerage, I was going from a salaried position to straight commission. And I sat down and I did a financial plan on my own as part of my business plan, but I also sat down with my husband. And so for me, I think a lot of my success has been really paying attention to the financial side have a can I afford to do this? What is the reward? If I'm successful, though, return on investment is too are critical for me. really, in any decision that I make, I'm like, okay, if I'm going to spend time there, what am I getting out of it? Is it passion? Or is it money? Or is it something else? So it's a, you know, when I pivoted, I planned, and I set these like goals where I would say, okay, the land market has a really long sales cycle, it can be, you know, nine months, it can be 18 months, it can be three years, I've worked on deals that have taken seven years to close. Yeah, so crazy from that perspective. But you have to have, you have to know that you can, like eat between all of those. So really paying attention to return on investment. And it's been, by far like, the biggest thing for me, and then investing in myself through every stage, like personal investment and personal development. And then personal branding, as well.

Danielle Cobo  5:53  
What do you think led to your success of being a successful woman in a male dominated industry?

Nancy Surak  6:01  
I'm a bit of a risk taker. And I joke with people because I'm like, I don't take risks. That's a lie. It's a total lie. I am a bit of a risk taker. And I like to say, You know what? I'm going to try. And if what's the worst that can happen? You know, I always tell my kids, I'm like, Oh, you want that? Oh, you want you're interested in that, like, go after it? What's the worst that can happen? You fail. Okay, so you fail move on you, you are going to learn something, you know, there's a benefit that you're going to gain through going through that experience. So mute proponent of identifying what you want, and going after it and recognize in to that if you're either a in an environment or room where kind of beating your head against the wall, and you're like, I can't get past these obstacles, that it really could be about the art of pivoting, you know, and that could be either moving laterally into another position, or figuring out getting a good mentor and figure out okay, what do I need to do to address whatever the gap is that it can't get over this, this hurdle? Or sometimes just recognizing can't get over the hurdle? And that's okay, that's just an indication that you need to do something else.

Danielle Cobo  7:18  
Yeah, I rather I would say rather failed trying, then never do it at all, and never know, what could what the possibility could be. If you put yourself out there and try to do something that you want to that you want to go after. So you talked a little bit about investing in yourself. And I'm a big advocate of investing in yourself personally, professionally, what do you think of what have been the different ways that you've invested in yourself to set yourself up for success? Okay, so

Nancy Surak  7:48  
in in my field, education has always been like a predominant thing, we're all invest. You know, I have a master's degree from the University of Florida. So that was before I started working. So education has always been pretty high up there. But once I got into the land brokerage business, I invested in getting specific professional designations to help me qualify, like, for my audience, right, or my customer like that I know what the heck I'm talking about, I invested in those, those educational programs. So I've like little initials after my name, and they mean something in my world. But really, it was about leveling the playing field as a woman to say, you know, I go up against men, competitors, all the time. So I'm like, I have to be better than them at every stage, so that my client or the prospective client has a level of trust. So that's why education is one and then you know, I mentioned like, personal branding, but really understanding not only my industry, but how I come across and working on that. And that's a continuous progress. I don't feel like it's ever gonna end. You know, I'm doing things even now with you know, relooking at like my wardrobe and saying, Okay, well, what does that tell my prospective prospective client, I am a huge, like, Bluejeans kind of hurt them. And I don't want to give that up. But I'm like, Okay, what do I need to do on the upper half to sort of balance that out? You know, so So those sorts of things, you know, just making sure that I'm always kind of paying attention to what the latest is and being looked at as in a way that I want to be looked at.

Danielle Cobo  9:34  
Now, you talked a little bit about personal branding. And this is something we had discussed a little bit before we jumped on the podcast, and even though you work for an organization, let's talk about why personal branding is so important to you.

Nancy Surak  9:48  
Okay, so just for your audience. The land advisors organization is across the United States. There's 26 offices across the US and I am over The Office on the west coast of Florida. For me, they do a lot of my marketing. And I'm part of their corporate brand, which is critically important for my thick that. Because I have a business background and a public relations background, I recognize that my personal brand is equally important with that connection with my client, if not more important, and now more than ever before, you know, once once the pandemic hit in 2020, I feel like people got to see people in a much more personable level. And I don't see that ever changing, I think that that is going to be the way of the future. People want to know, what does the inside of your house look like? And what is your life like? Because it helps us all have this like human element and connection. But I feel like a little bit like social media has kind of pulled away from us as a society. Now I think people are like really leaning in and saying like, Oh, my God, I didn't know, Sally had, you know, three kids under seven? How awesome is she? You know, that she's able to do all these other things. So I think you know, not that personal branding is leaning into manhood. But for females, I think it is saying, What do I want to be known for? What am I willing to share with my clients? And then how to how do I package that up in a way that's a meaningful, authentic message? For me, it was about, hey, recognizing that when I'm not in the room, people have an impression of me, when I'm not in the room, they may say things that I can't control. But if I can be proactive, and getting ahead of what is it that they will say, when I'm not there, then that's a personal brand. You know, what is it that my client or an associate or someone else will say when I can't correct them is so important. And and I have the ability to sort of not really manipulate but heavily influence. Afraid is manipulation, but and I want to make sure that I drive home the value or the statement of it's not about being somebody who you aren't, it's about being authentically the person you are and sharing that with your clients. For me, I did a huge branding exercise over the last year. And my, my primary goal was to get my clients to learn who I am on a personal level as fast as possible. Because then they feel like they're connected to me on a trust level as a friend first. That's really important. And I'm definitely seeing the difference in my business.

Danielle Cobo  12:53  
Yeah, it's creating that know, like, and trust factor. Absolutely. You know, yes, people buy from organizations, and there's a product associated, but really, people buy from people. And in order to create that relationship, people want to know you, they want to like you, and you got to earn their trust. And in order to do that, it's not only how you show up and interact with people in person, it's how do you make them feel when you leave the room? And then how do they get to know you. And I agree with you leaning into this opportunity with social media. I know that when one of the biggest struggles I had when I was a manager at a fortune 500 company was I covered five states. And I got to see, you know, I had a team that was supporting customers, but my top customers I maybe was able to see once or twice a year, but my customer still wanted to feel connected with me. And so it wasn't until I leaned into social media and saying, Okay, I'm going to connect with my customers on social media. I'm going to give them the opportunity to not only know me, when we interact together in person, but also what's my life like outside of that. And it was interesting every time from doing that from moving forward. I would I would arrive into a meeting and my customers go oh my gosh, your kids are so cute are all we're so grateful you're here today we know how much you travel thank you so much for visiting us. It created a deeper connection with my customers. Even the only thing that changed was just leaning into social media and just giving them an opportunity to get to know me more.

Nancy Surak  14:33  
Yeah, absolutely. i i for really until 2020 Like I kept my LinkedIn was my professional profile. It's super polished right like all the reasons why you need to know me and my profession. And my Facebook was all my personal stuff. And and I I was raised to know not to put your garbage out there right like my parents even then like the 70s and 80s like, Listen, don't put your garbage out for the public like, you can't, it's hard to recover from that. So I've always known like this, okay? Am I gonna post this? How might this come back in a negative way? And if I even had an ounce of this might not go over? Well, I don't post it right even on my personal Facebook, but for me, I'm not being real. It's just that I have another layer of is this going to serve me later? You know, and asking that little question and I teach my kids to do although I don't know. It when one COVID head, I was like, I gotta figure out a way to marry these two things, right? Like, where am I going to marry this, because I don't want to go all personal on LinkedIn, that would be weird. And I don't think that my Facebook people, friends and family really want to see all my corporate stuff. So I decided that I was going to use my Instagram, as the place where I would highlight both, because I wasn't super active on Instagram. And I thought, You know what, that's where I'm going to do it. And I won't be heavy in either direction. But I'm going to do both, because Instagram has really taken off. So I don't do any like, real, like, hire me to sell your land on my Instagram, but I promoted on those other places, right? Or like the big wins my big awards, all push out everywhere, right? But on my Instagram, I'm promoting that more on my about marketing with my clientele. Because I'm finding that more and more people are out there in that space. And even when I was like talking, interviewing my clients when I was working all of this, and I was like, hey, where do you spend time on social media? And a number of my clients were like, I'm 60. I'm on social media. And I'm like, like, not at all? And they would say no, but my children are always on. And then it dawned on me like, okay, you know, what, their adult children are going to be influencing them, they do influence them. I go to to Google immediately when I'm talking to anyone to like, check them out. Who am I talking to? Where are they coming from? And, and I would say that most professionals are doing that. All right, I believe that they are. So leaning into that social media, you can always create the narrative. What you want people to know is, is always 100% up to you. But knowing that you can't pretend to be somebody that you're not is is important, because it's going to be exhausting. To try to always be somebody who you aren't,

Danielle Cobo  17:37  
we will be right back to today's episode. Whether you want to get a promotion, find a new job, increase your sales performance, the feeling of clarity on how to accelerate your career is priceless. The risk of uncertainty is missing out on promotions, lacking leadership experience, unclear on how to break through that glass ceiling, you're left feeling stuck, frustrated and discouraged. 74% of employees feel like they're not achieving their full potential because of lack of development opportunities, it becomes a lot easier to get there. When you know where you're going. How would you feel if you knew exactly where to go and how to get there. With 15 years of experience in corporate America, and in certified leadership coach, I've helped 1000s of professionals transform their mind from self doubt, to confidence and courage and gain clarity on how to accelerate their career. I invite you to go to my website, Danielle kobo.com, at CEO Bo and schedule your career discovery session with me. Thanks for tuning in. And back to today's episode. Yeah, I and I agree with you so much when it comes to it's, it's important to invest in your personal branding in creating the narrative when it comes to what you want people to know about you. But it's so equally important to also show up authentically. And there's ways that you can show up authentically and talk about I would say you could talk about your struggles, but also talk about how you overcame them and and what lessons you've learned because that's very inspiring, to give people the opportunity to hear some of the challenges you've overcome, what you've learned from them what your successes are. And that's another way that you can show up authentically, while also making an impact in creating that relationship with people.

Nancy Surak  19:29  
Absolutely. I also want to say, you know, for me creating a personal brand was not only getting more active on like, on all those social medias places, but it was creating my own website that was independent of my corporations website that really honed in and talked about me. I talked a lot about my career achievements. But I instead of it being like a one page bio or a two page bio through my corporate program. It's multiple pages where I can say this is who I am and this is what I want my I wonder if another place for people to go to say is this someone I want to work with. But knowing that a number of your a lot of your audience may work for corporations where they might not allow that potentially, I could say, still have your invest in your own website, even if it's just one or two pages, that gives a snapshot of a really awesome headshot in like a few facts about yourself. Like that shouldn't be off limits. You know, and really, one, one thing that I really can't tell you enough, is investing in awesome branding photography, then y'all, you have fantastic branding photography, I don't know who did it. But there's a woman who works on the west coast of Florida, her studio, I think, is Daydream photography, or a mazing. She did all my photography, and I'm still year ago, and I still have images I've yet to use in like social media. And it's made a huge difference for me, like people are like, I will go to different industry events or have meetings, and people will be like, Oh my god, I saw that picture of you in this color. And it was so great. I'm like, people are watching. They're paying attention. So you know, for me, it's like set aside whatever I tell people set aside whatever money and if you can't, if you don't have the resources, find your friend who takes like the best pictures and be like, Alright, I'm gonna buy you a drink. And we're gonna go to this venue, and you're gonna see pictures of me. And edit that, like the editing tools that are available now are like phenomenal, but invest in that, like, if there's one thing that I can leave your audience with, is get really good brand photography, not a headshot, not a, you know, $250 headshot, brand photography that really helps expose and share your personality. Yeah,

Danielle Cobo  21:57  
I agree with you 100%. Because definitely have a LinkedIn profile. And the number one I see as an opportunity on LinkedIn profile is to have a professional headshot, no doubt on that. And then also what's having branding, it's like lifestyle photos, which are photos that show who you are, you know, it you know, it could be like you said, wearing jeans, but maybe we wearing a blouse and a blazer, something along those lines, where it's still professional, but it's a little bit more personality to it. But yes, even if you're working for a corporation, investing in your personal brand, can open up opportunities for your career, it's not only beneficial when it comes to working with your clients and giving people the opportunity to get to know you that know like and trust factor. Also, it opens up the opportunities where if you're working for a corporation, you can either if you have a really solid brand, either other companies will recruit you, or, or you've got opportunities to accelerate within the organization because you've developed yourself as this really strong personal brand. And I always say people don't get promoted for doing their job. Well, people get promoted for the potential that others see in them. And if you create this strong brand, it can really accelerate your career.

Nancy Surak  23:16  
Yeah, 100% Agree.

Danielle Cobo  23:19  
So what's the one thing that you want to leave our audience with based off of kind of your career journey? We've talked about personal branding. I also would like to just touch base real quickly on some of the accolades that you've talked about, and why you share that with your with your clients, and why you share that on social media.

Nancy Surak  23:39  
Yes, so I talked about like awards. This past year, I won like some pretty amazing awards in I've always been one person who's willing to raise my hand to be recognized them that way. But in my industry, there's an application process. It's not necessarily in corporate awards. And so what I would say to your audiences, if there are Industry Association, that do recognition or awards or rising stars, or whatever, fill in the blank, or even if it's in your personal life, and it's maybe something philanthropic that you're doing. If there are awards in your local community or region or state, or industry that you have the ability to either self apply for, or someone else a boss can can make the application on your behalf. I would definitely say to do that. Because you never really know. And this may sound silly, you never know who you're going up against. We're all busy. We're all going 100 miles an hour. And sometimes you might only be up against two or three other people. And that award could be so substantial if you are elected that it just helps propel you in your either in your company or in your That's us. So I would say, you know, take the time to fill those things in. Because you just never know. And you never even really know that you might be named as a finalist, well, being able to say, Oh, I was, you know, recognized and won this award, or I was recognized as a finalist for this award is equally as meaningful. And then, you know, tooting your own horn a little bit, like put that crap out on Instagram, put it on LinkedIn, and just say, like, Hey, make sure you think whatever organization it is, or your boss, or whoever likes suggested you do this, thank them for acknowledging or recognized for the recognition, or recognizing the talent. And then when you see other peers, even another company that are doing this, as well, and there's literally congratulate them, and highlight them, and say, like, hey, and that's a challenge I have in general, you know, like, I do it, but sometimes when is my competitor, I'm like, yeah, like, I don't want to say go to my competitor. But that doesn't mean that I won't do it privately, you know, pick up the phone, or send a text and be like, hey, it was like, super proud of you. You're making a difference. But I would say, you know, look for those award opportunities, raise your hand for them, fill in the the application, take the time, that's a great use of, you know, an extra hour a week. Just raise your hand, really, that's, you know, what I say you know, invest in your education, invest in your personal brand, invest in really good photography, and raise your hand to be recognized. And then share that with your peers and your family and your friends and your professional network.

Danielle Cobo  26:43  
Yes, and in to kind of highlight specifically a little bit in the industry that I come from its, you know, highlighting whether you've earned President circle any year to date, attainments that you've had over 100%, if you've finished in the top 10%. Also, if you've been a part of any advisory boards, or you've been a part of any emerging leadership development programs, highlighting those successes is so beneficial to your career. And it's also good to take inventory in every kind of year reflect back at the successes that you've had. Because that in itself can give you a really good confidence boost.

Nancy Surak  27:21  
Camp, which is another thing, I'm glad you brought that up. Because you know, not everybody has great days. And I get that, especially in sales. Like I'm a salesperson, like it is in my blood. It's in your blood. Like it's just who I grew. I was that person when I was like five, right? But we have bad days, there are days when I wake up and I'm like, or lose a deal right that I put my heart and soul into and it can knock us or loop this all I woke up one day, I think it was this past fall, I feel the timber and I'm like a rotten like a couple like $40 in that negative voice was just like yelling and I'm like, oh my god, I gotta turn this off. And I shared that with someone that I trust. And I'm like, I can't keep it out of my own head. And they said, Okay, well jot down your last five ways. Oh, let me be careful, like two years ago, what are your last five wins? What are the things that you're like, super proud of. And I jotted them down. And it was like an immediately just complete change of like state of mind. My confidence, like came immediately back. I was like, Yeah, I did that. And I like to say, you know, no matter where we are in our life, we all have those little those wins, sometimes a really big sometimes our little. And that's okay. So I would say in addition to, you know, talking about like the major ones, I think it's okay to go on LinkedIn, or your stories, whether it's verbally by video, or just posting about it, saying, Hey, I've been chasing this account forever. And I finally got my first meeting. Give yourself a pat on the back, or, you know, or you tell your peers, like don't give up or I finally landed that account. And I am like, so excited. It's not it doesn't have to be this big award. Right? It can be something that you've been working on that you're like, Heck, yeah, I want the world to know about this. I put a lot of work into it. And showing that you know, that it can be done and sharing that experience. For a long time. I thought, you know, people might think I'm braggadocious, right? Like, oh my God, I want to be braggadocious. Now, I don't care anymore. I'm like, no, because that's what helps me get into other doors.

Danielle Cobo  29:43  
Yeah. And there's something to be said. I mean, I there's something you said about not only celebrating your successes, but also celebrating the successes of your customers. So for example, I've had clients where, you know, they've been searching for a job for six months and then all of a sudden an hour for 30 days of working with each other, they land the job of their dreams or they accept an offer at a higher pay, or they've maxed out their compensation plan after working together. It's it's not only celebrating your successes, but also your customer successes and how you help them achieve it. It's such a rewarding experience. So thank you so much, Nancy, for joining us. I know you have such a powerful message about branding about investing in yourself and your personal development as well as really celebrating your wins and being a prominent successful woman in a male dominated industry. So thank you so much for joining us.

Nancy Surak  
Thank you so much for having me, I really enjoyed it. I'm like oh I really want to talk to Danielle everyday now! 

Danielle Cobo 
Well thank you! And for those of you that are listening, I invite you to tune into next week's episode, I release an episode every Wednesday. Also, write a review, we love your reviews. If there's a topic that you specifically want to hear on our podcast then I encourage you to direct message me. This podcast for you it's to support empower women to have not only a thriving career but also balance in their life. So thank you for joining and create an intentional day.