Jenny Milian

I attribute my success to the fact that I'm crazy and I like to be challenged. It's my own willingness to push myself, to get out of my comfort zone, to try something new, to bring purpose. I just have this drive within me that keeps me going, keeps me wanting to do more and be more.

The best career advice I ever received came from a young man who is now one of my best friends. He saw so much potential in me and told me what I now tell other women: do not be afraid to speak up. He said, Jenny, you don't have to sit there and be quiet. You have a voice, use your voice, ask if you don't know, educate yourself, and keep pushing forward. You push, and you push, and you push. Listen, we're humans, we're all gonna make mistakes, but if you don't make those mistakes while you're doing small things, when you make it to the big deal and you start messing up in the big things, that's the issue. So learn when you're starting, don't be afraid to speak up, and just go for it.

Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to speak, but speak wisely. Educate yourself. If you don't know something, ask somebody that you can trust. Don't be afraid to speak up. Don't let other people speak over you. You belong. You're here to learn and to do, and to push yourself. I feel like being a woman in this industry is a little intimidating because you have all these tough, experienced men who think that a young woman isn't valuable because she's learning. But this generation comes with new ideas, fresh ideas, new solutions to old problems. And if we don't speak, we will never get ahead of them. So don't be afraid, speak up, and educate yourself. Be smart. I trained a few interns, babies coming into the office, and my number one thing was don't be afraid to speak, but speak wisely.

I would say a lot of fear of the unknown. In this industry, you have to watch the market closely because I live in Florida, and Florida is now very hot. Everybody wants to come to Florida and do everything here, but there's gonna be points, especially with the economy, with everything that's going on politically, everything that's happening overseas, where people tend to put holds on projects and holds on funds. And without projects and without funds, we can't work. So a big challenge is keeping up with what's happening out there, what's happening in the market, finding what is coming next, who's trying to build what, what's up and coming. In the last year and a half, we've seen a lot of multifamily stop at a complete stop, and then a lot of educational buildings, hospitals, data centers, things like that are popping up all around through major cities, just because there's too much multifamily, not enough of this. So you have to be able to be flexible with what you're looking for, what to sell, and also understand that people have fear of the unknown. You gotta find a way to overcome that, be mindful, be educated of what's happening, how you see the market, so you can talk to your clients and bring them some ease as well. You also have to understand that people are going to take advantage of the talk of potential changes, like with tariffs. Back in 2023, we would get random letters from our suppliers saying everything is going to go up 35% because of the tariffs, even when nothing had happened yet. They were taking advantage of the situation.

I'm really big on communication. I think communication is the key to everything. I love when I have clients who sit down with me and tell me what they want, what they don't want, what they like, what they don't like, and the best way for me to give them what they need. I love that communication. If I'm doing something wrong, please let me know. Give me the opportunity to fix it. I really value time management as well. It's very important not to waste people's time. In this career path for me, I've learned that time, unfortunately, is money. And it's go, go, go. Do your thing, make it happen, and if you have people who don't respect your time, you're potentially setting yourself up for failing at something.