Her Story
About Lori
I've been in my field for about 8 years, though I came from a completely untraditional background. I grew up in Oklahoma and went to school for writing - I always had a really creative background. When it came time to graduate, I really wanted to move to a big city, but I was having a difficult time finding a job that paid enough to live the lifestyle I wanted. A good friend of mine was on the sales team at WeWork and told me I'd be amazing at sales because I'm a people person and easy to talk to. I was hesitant at first because I'd never seen myself as a salesperson, but I gave it a shot. I accepted the job and moved to Chicago 3 days after graduation, starting as an entry-level salesperson. I ended up loving sales and worked my way up through the organization over almost 5 years there. Then my company wanted to move me to New York, which was my ultimate dream, so I accepted on the phone and moved the next week. I've been in New York ever since. Now I'm an account director in a sales role, working in real estate transactions. Day-to-day, I do a lot of client management and account support - my various accounts come to me when they're opening a new market in a new country, and I go out and field the space and work on their behalf to find space in various countries and cities. I also handle operational things like systems issues, billing problems, and helping organize their accounts. It's part sales, part general management. I've been incredibly lucky to work with Fortune 500 companies on major transacting deals, and I'm really proud of holding an account director title and having come from a completely different industry to now being in one of the largest real estate markets in the world.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Lori
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would say I have been incredibly lucky to have very, very amazing managers. I have always had managers who think beyond themselves and who really, really care about me as an individual in my career. I've never felt like they've tried to keep me in a role that I was outgrowing, even if it wasn't at my company. They have invested in my career development so that I can find the perfect job if I was feeling burnt out or capped off. And they have done a really, really good job of pulling me up and setting a great example of what a manager should do and should be. I know a lot of people aren't fortunate to necessarily have great leadership, but I've been very, very lucky, and I would attribute a lot of my success to them investing in me and really pushing me and giving me the confidence to grab that next role, or the next title, or whatever it is.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best advice I've gotten recently was at a women in business dinner where I asked the keynote speaker how she steps into work every day as a strong woman in primarily male-dominated industries while remaining true and authentic to herself and having the confidence to have a seat at the table. She told me: Don't even go into a room with the mindset that you are undeserving of being there. You are invited to the table, you were invited to the meeting, you were invited to the dinner. You have just as much right to be in that room as any man, but if you go into the meeting, or the call, or the interview, or whatever it is, with an automatic place of nerve, or like, oh, what are they going to think of me, or I need to portray myself this way, or any perceived lack of confidence, then other people are going to pick up on that, similar to how a dog will sense if you're scared. She said you need to go into every single room with the innate confidence that you belong to be there, and then people will start treating you in that same manner. I think it's the best advice I've gotten recently.
Keep Exploring
More Influential Women · New York
Join Influential Women and start making an impact. Register now.