IAM1026- Managing Director Helps Client’s Reduce Facility Expenses

Adam is a Managing Director at MGA, a highly strategic commercial real estate advisory firm focused on caring for the needs of occupiers of office and industrial real estate. Adam and his team provide expert consultation in analyzing and executing solutions aimed at reducing their client's overall facility expenses while maximizing workplace efficiency and productivity. They never represent institutional landlords and therefore can eliminate the inherent conflict of interest many commercial real estate firms have in representing both tenants and landlords.

• CEO Hack: (i) Coaching and appropriate mentoring (ii) Implementing things gradually
• CEO Nugget: Network and don't put all your eggs in one basket
• CEO Defined: Thinking and planning with a long-term view

Website: https://www.mgaco.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-collins-commercialre/

Full Interview:

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Transcription

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00:22 -Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

00:50 – Gresham Harkless

Hello, Hello, Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Adam Collins of MGA. Adam, it's awesome to have you on the show.

00:58 – Adam Collins:

Thanks Gresh. I appreciate you having me.

01:00 – Gresham Harkless:

Definitely. Super excited to have you on. And before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Adam so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. Adam is a managing director at MGA, a highly strategic commercial real estate advisory firm focused on caring for the needs of occupiers of office in industrial real estate. Adam and his team provide expert consultation and analyze and execute solutions aimed at reducing their clients' overall facility expenses while maximizing workplace efficiency and productivity. They never represent institutional landlords and therefore can eliminate the inherent conflict of interest many commercial real estate firms have in representing both tenants and landlords. Adam, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:43 – Adam Collins

I am. I'm ready to go.

01:45 – Gresham Harkless:

Let's go. Let's do it then. So to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit, hear a little bit more about your story, and what led you to get started with all the awesome work you're doing.

01:52 – Adam Collins

Yeah, so you know, I was, I practiced in the DC, Maryland, Virginia area, but I'm not, but not from here originally. But I've had a lot of family in the area for the last 150 years. So I knew that, you know, after graduating college and high school this is where I wanted to end up. And, I wasn't sure what real estate was, but I knew that I was fascinated by it because everybody in the Forbes top 100 seemed to have real estate listed as one  of their sources of wealth. And so in high school, I've kind of got to meet and started just reading about and learning about real estate from real estate investment to residential real estate, commercial real estate, investment trusts, and all the different facets of commercial real estate. And then about 8, 9 years ago, I got my first taste in the business as an intern and, I've been doing it full time ever after that, ever since after that summer.

02:43 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. It sounds like the rest is definitely history and it's great to kind of hear, you know, how you had that interest or had something you saw kind of, it sounds like began with the end of mind, so to speak, where you read and you saw the success that people were having, you decided to drill down and become more fascinated and more knowledgeable about the real estate industry.

03:00 – Adam Collins

Yeah, that's correct. Yeah, of course. I then just got obsessed with it from there. So it's been a passion of mine for quite some time.

03:07 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. Well, I wanted to drill down a little bit more and hear a little bit more about the passion and how it manifests itself in MGA. Could you take us through how you work with your clients and what that process looks like?

03:17 – Adam Collins

Yeah, I think one of the just the overarching themes that have made me successful is to just provide such great service to my clients that, you know, commercial real estate is very competitive. So I find that if I can just provide such great service to my clients that they have no interest or would never consider working with another broker, then I've done my job. And that comes from having a really well-rounded knowledge of commercial real estate, as well as the needs of business owners. You know, it's, it's maybe not necessarily just enough to know all about commercial leasing and tenant representation, you know, I use facets of my business that I've learned from studying real estate investing, even from a resident, my own residential real estate investing. And I kind of put all of that into the advice that I give my clients and how we, you know, execute a successful transaction.

04:11 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that makes so much sense, and being able to kind of sharpen the saw, so to speak, and to be able to learn more. And for people that may not understand, I guess, and I know it's probably more complex than we can drill down all the way into, but could you take us through a little bit more on people that may not be familiar with, I guess, the commercial real estate world and what exactly that is and how exactly that manifests itself in things that we see?

04:30 – Adam Collins

Sure, So what we do is we work with businesses, like government contractors, law firms, trade associations, and nonprofits, and advise them on real estate, so their office space needs mostly. So we're talking about everything from workplace strategy to how you function in the office space? How do we make it more productive and more efficient to go out and find the right space or in negotiating the lease terms in the concessions packages, you know, the free rent, the tenant improvement allowances, and everything else that goes into that 50 or 100-page lease? And then just ongoing service to make sure that everything is going according to plan with their build-out. And then while they're occupying their office space, There's a number of value-added services that we offer as well.

05:19 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that's huge. I appreciate you giving kind of like a lay of the land because I think so many times when we're, you know, I guess patronizing businesses and going to different areas, we don't realize like all of the behind-the-scenes that it takes to get a business there and what that looks like. So it sounds like, you know, you definitely help that come to fruition so that they can get patronized and actually have that opportunity to serve the clients they even work with.

05:39 – Adam Collins

Yes, correct. Yeah, of course. It's not a widely known field. I mean, there's a lot of money going out and being exchanged. But most people don't really think about, hey, a business needs representation when they go out and find their office space. You know, they here in DC, they most likely don't own the building. They're leasing from a larger landlord property owner company. And there's, there's, you know, a lot that goes into making sure that that 5, 7, 10-year, sometimes 15-year relationship goes smoothly.

06:11 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. So I love that you all are able to kind of bridge that gap. And what would you consider to be what I call your secret sauce? This could be for yourself personally or the business or a combination of both, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

06:25 – Adam Collins

Well, one of our specializations is solely representing tenants or owners of real estate, right, So we don't ever represent those big real estate investment trusts. So we don't have that conflict of interest that is generally found in a lot of larger firms. one misunderstood is that in some instances, corporate America or these nonprofits or whoever these office tenants are, really are actually kind of a bit of an underdog in the fact that a lot of them, they're being represented by somebody who's also representing their landlord or representing their landlord, maybe not at that building, but in California, it's tough to really say that, can you really negotiate as hard as you can when you're representing both sides or you're trying to represent both sides.

So for us just having that complete focus on only representing the tenant or the buyer of the real estate, as well as, you know, so that also gives us a unique perspective because that's what we're doing all day, every day. Our entire company is focused and built around exactly what a tenant would need when thinking about their real estate, whether that's going out in finding space or just, you know, in the middle of their lease term and just want to know how do we become more productive and efficient in our office space? How do we pay less money than we are today? You know, even though we still have several years left in our lease.

07:48 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And I think being able to kind of lean on the expertise that you all have and you have to be able to understand and ask some of those questions, especially if you're not as aware of all the different, I guess, moving parts and things that you can ask or look for is absolutely huge. And I love that kind of specialization as well too. Cause I think that you know, when you're getting representation, when you're getting that, you know, consultation and the services that your firm provides, it's all about knowing that your best interests are at heart.

Because as you mentioned, it's not sometimes a 30-minute thing, sometimes it's a 10, 15-year relationship that you're building. So you wanna make sure that you're putting your best foot forward and you're setting yourself up for success. 100%. Awesome, awesome, awesome. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. This could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

08:42 – Adam Collins

I think the, I guess the main driver of everything that I do to help me get better, I think comes from coaching really and appropriate mentors. So through, I have a coach who specializes in commercial real estate, working with commercial real estate brokers. And from there, that's where I get a lot of my education from. So there's, you know, a lot of little hacks that come from working with my coach and being around other brokers who are also working with their coach to get better at their business. So that's kind of the overarching theme. And, you know, there's a lot of different things that we implement in my business to make myself more efficient or make me more effective at different parts of my business.

And I guess everybody wants every when you read a new book, you want to implement everything. And it's very difficult to implement everything. You have to test everything, but then really, to implement something and make it a habit and make it a permanent part of your business, I find it best to do it one step at a time. You know, implement something for, you know, maybe if you want to do a newsletter, start off on a quarterly basis, and then maybe you go to monthly, and then if you wanted to go to weekly or bimonthly, that gradual development, I think, has made it last longer for some of the different initiatives that I've started my business over the years is to just gradually implement them over the course of time and not trying to do everything at once.

10:15 – Gresham Harkless

Definitely appreciate that. And so I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So that could be more of a word of wisdom or piece of advice and might be something you would say to a client or if you hopped into a time machine, you might tell your younger bits of self.

10:27 –  Adam Collins

At least for me in my business, and we're talking about business generation or generating revenue, it doesn't come from one source, right, so I guess it goes back to the old adage, don't put all your eggs in one basket. So, I started growing my network here in the DC area when I first started and now it's starting to pay off. If I'm doing outbound prospecting or sales calls, those take a year, 2 years, 3 years to start to pay off as well. So I just think that plants, seeds in different areas, if you're in the sales or you're trying to generate new business, you know, it's the networking, it's the digital presence that you have, it's the in-person presence that you have, as you meet with colleagues and different influencers.

It's the actually outbound prospecting going to ask for business, you know, it comes from everywhere and I don't think, I think a lot of people think, all right, I'm just going to be cold calling or I'm just going to be networking to generate my business. And that can put you in a bind. For instance, once COVID hit, in-person networking dropped. And that was a really significant part of my business which was the in-person networking. But luckily, it wasn't the only part of my business, it wasn't the only way that I generated revenue. So I would just say that you know, do what you're best at, but also make sure that your company is able to generate revenue from different sources.

11:49 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. And so I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a quote-unquote CEO. We're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Adam, what does being a CEO mean to you?

12:00 –  Adam Collins

I think being a CEO is, I guess, I may or may not be a CEO, but I think it's operating at a high level in your business. For me, it's very easy to get caught up in the day-to-day, But I always think of the CEO as looking at the long term. And I think as business owners or as entrepreneurs, we oftentimes are stuck right here in the moment of, oh man, that prospect said no, and we didn't get hired, or maybe we messed up on a project or something, whatever it might be. But it's important, or maybe my networking hasn't been paying off yet, and I've been doing it for 6 months or a year.

It's important to think about that 5, 10-year plan as you're the CEO. So you're also working on your business, not just so much working in your business. And I think that that's a big distinction. It's hard for a lot of people to make, but I plan out portions of my day to think about the long term. But I also need to plan out portions to think about the here and now, because that's still obviously very important dealing with the clients day to day. It's still a huge aspect of my business, but so is whatever my business looks like in the year 2031. That's still important to me as well.

13:20 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I love that kind of holistic approach. And I think, you know, I see visions of kind of like a balance beam and being able to kind of balance both of those is that, you know, not getting stuck in working on your business or in your business, I should say, because when you do that, then like we talked about before, when things happen, a lot of times you can be caught off guard because you haven't been looking at the trees, the forest for the trees, I should say.

And then understand that you also have to balance that with making sure you're taking care of the clients, making sure they're being taken care of. So if you get too caught in the cloud, so to speak, you can lose that kind of grounding to understand this is how I'm gonna continue to kind of sustain and grow. So that balance being back and being able to kind of understand the nuances of that is absolutely huge to be able to kind of grow and be a business leader.

14:02 – Adam Collins

Yes, I think it is. And when you're starting out, it's difficult because you don't have a lot of help. So you're wearing a lot of hats. But, and then I think the sooner that you can get some help, whether it be a virtual assistant or an actual person that you see on a daily basis, It's an expense upfront, but it does pay off quite significantly. And it allows you to do what you're best at, which is what's gonna make you the most money and make your company the most successful.

14:30 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And that's a huge point. I appreciate you for bringing that up. And I even like to think of it like an investment because you're investing in the business. And when you bring on that virtual assistant, whatever it might be that will help you out, it allows you to be more in your zone of genius. The thing that you do better and you need to do in order to drive the business, the more time that you spend there, the more likely the businesses succeed. And we have to kind of understand what things need to come off our plate, what things we need to try to do, and what things and which goes into which bucket, so to speak.

15:00 – Adam Collins

Yep, exactly right. Exactly right.

15:03 – Gresham Harkless:

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, Adam, truly appreciate that definition. Appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do was just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people can get ahold of you and find out about all the awesome things you're working on.

15:17 – Adam Collins

Yeah, sure. I mean, I guess the best way to get a hold of me is through LinkedIn, Adam Collins at LinkedIn. You know, I'm the one that's working at MGA. And, you know, I hang out there a lot, You know, I'm all over the LinkedIn platform. And what was the second part of the question?

15:38 – Gresham Harkless

Just anything additional?

15:41 – Adam Collins

I guess that means that I don't have anything else to say if I can't think of anything. So now, yeah, I just appreciate you having me on the podcast and appreciate your audience for taking a listen.

15:51 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I definitely appreciate your time. We will have the links and information that show knows. I appreciate you as well for the kind of like going to bat, I think for lack of a better term for the clients that you have and making sure that they do have someone they can lean on for something that is a long-term relationship, it sounds like. So definitely appreciate you again for hopping in on this podcast, Adam, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:14 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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