Influential Woman · Property Management

Aim'ee Blassingame

Assistant Property Manager, MIDWEST DIVERSIFIED PROPERTIES, LLC

Greenville, SC

Her Story

About Aim'ee

I've been in property management for 2 years, and what inspired me to get into this field is the satisfaction of being able to help others. In essence, you are helping others to give them a place to live when maybe you might be their last hope. Before property management, I was an operations manager and assistant general manager at Spare Time Entertainment, which is very similar to a Dave & Buster's with restaurants, gaming, escape rooms, bowling, and catering and events. I used to say it was a lot of little businesses in one, so you just had to control them all together. I started at the bottom in property management as a leasing consultant and was promoted to assistant property manager. My next goal is to obtain my licensing so that I can become a property manager and be able to help more people and know a little bit more about everything that's going on as a whole. The biggest challenge in my role is being able to separate how you feel about people and know that it is a business and it is your job, especially when people don't pay their rent and you have to follow all of the correct procedures, and sometimes that means someone losing their home.

Her Interview

Ten minutes with Aim'ee

01What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?

The biggest piece of advice that I've received would be just to always believe in yourself. Even whenever you feel like no one else does, just always believe in yourself and know that you can go bigger and do better. I've had two mentors who were really important to me later in my career. One was Roger Philippi, who is a girl dad and is all about women seeing them succeed and helping them get there, always motivating you to do what you have to do to get there. He was always willing to be your stepladder if you needed it. The other was Steve Klotz, who I describe as a gentle giant. He had a very strong voice, but if you heard it, it's because you did something that you shouldn't have and he wanted to direct you in the right way. What I really loved about him is that when he sets his eye on you and he knows he sees something in you, he doesn't tell you, he just gets you there. He does it behind the scenes to make sure that you get where you need to be. That's a gift, because people usually talk about it, but instead he kind of does it behind the scenes.

02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?

It's super important that you treat everyone fair and you're consistent with the things that you do. It doesn't only affect people, but it could affect you and your job and a lot of things because of the fair housing. But sometimes that could be a challenge, because you let how you feel about people get in the way, so you have to just make sure that you have that line. You have to treat everyone the same, and you have to be consistent. It means a lot. And it gets better, it's just really hard in the beginning. This goes back to what my biggest struggle is, separating the two, the personal from the professional.

03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?

I think that some of my professional values are loyalty. It's important to me that I am loyal to the people under me. To me, you can't work without them either way, so you all have to be loyal to each other. Integrity is a really big one. I'm all about being honest in the ethical issues. Again, it goes back to being consistent. I would say accountability is a huge one for me, because I like for people to be accountable, you know, to say, raise your hand and say you did it, it's okay. It doesn't mean that you're in trouble, it means you can grow from it. Those might be some of the bigger ones.

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