We were lucky to catch up with Sarah Ganann recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sarah, thanks for joining us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Success looks different every day! True success to me looks like Balance, Flexibility & the ability to Give Back. Prioritizing time & energy as needed to many different areas of business and life in general.

Balance has been a focus the last few years since starting my entrepreneurial journey. How can you say you’re successful if you don’t spend time enjoying life in addition to producing for your business? How can you say you’re successful if you are stressed out & working too much? For me, spending time with my family, friends & time outside makes for more successful and productive time spent working on my business. Giving yourself time to rest & recover will skyrocket success & provide more valuable productivity.

Success gives the opportunity for flexibility. As a Mom, I am so grateful to have the opportunity to take time off during the week when my son runs at his track meets, when he has a school Holiday or if he just isn’t feeling well and needs the care of his Mother. Having the ability to focus on family, friends and activities that you love when there are important events facilitates a much happier business owner. When you’re happy & love what you do, what you produce through your business will reflect that.

One of the most important things about success is having the ability to give back to your community. I have been blessed throughout my life with people pouring into me & that has attributed to the track in my career that has led me to business ownership. When you do for others you also do for yourself & it cultivates a lot of joy. My company gives back a portion of commissions to charity as well as taking the time to volunteer for multiple causes throughout the year.

Sarah, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I found my love for Commercial Real Estate when I was restructuring a development firm. It was in my 30s that I realized what I wanted to be when I grew up! Once things started moving smoothly, I decided to start my company, CDS.

CDS is a full service Boutique Commercial Brokerage. Given our experience in development, we can work any side of the commercial real estate transaction. We work with Retail, Office, Warehouse/Industrial properties & Land for Development. We specialize in Property Management, Listing space for sale or lease, Investments for passive income, Buyer Representation & Tenant Representation. We love working with start-ups & preparing to get into a commercial space.

Something that sets us apart is the importance we place on communication. I always give out my cell phone number to clients & they can text or call at their convenience, not your typical 8am-5pm availability. Sometimes our clients are transitioning from working full time as an employee to business ownership & we understand time limitations in those types of transitions. You will always know where we stand even if that’s waiting on information from another brokerage. Questions get answered and you’re not left wondering. I also love educating clients on all things commercial real estate. How to look at your target market, employee base or logistically what makes sense for the success of your business.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Not being able to ask for help! This lesson comes along with my favorite quote, you can do anything, but not everything. Growing up, I was always very independent. Take that along with working in a male dominated industry trying to prove myself, which made for a lot of difficulty when asking for help. Now, I believe it shows confidence knowing that you cannot do everything & being able to ask for support. It takes a lot of vulnerability and I’ve learned that is true strength!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Reputation is such an important part of business. Being educated & experienced in my industry has been the most impactful characteristic of credibility. In commercial real estate, there is not a clear path of education which makes a lot of the industry skeptical of abilities. You can usually see it on a colleague’s face when you’ve convinced them you’ve done this before! When you truly put client’s interests above your own and advise on what’s best for them, not what’s best for your pocketbook! Integrity is another huge part of having a great reputation. Clients as well as the other brokers that you are working with in deals see how you work & in the small world of commercial real estate in Houston, that reputation will follow you.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.constructivedevelopment.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cds_commercial_re/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/constructivedevelopment
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-ganann-37b265b3/

Image Credits
Pittari Photography Studio