Nikki Krueger

I am just really stubborn. When my name gets attached to something, it is truly a part of me - if my name's on something, I'm going to give it 1010%. I learned that from my mother and from great mentors growing up. I think it's okay to be relatable, it's okay to be a little bit funny, it's okay to be authentically you, and it's also okay to be really stubborn and say, no, we're gonna make this work. A lot of things that happen in development happen because somebody is just really stubborn and says, no, I believe in the vision, it has to get in the ground. I am that person for this role.

I had great career advice from one of my first general managers in the wedding world, and it was about tempering the cake cuttings. We had 7 different venues within the hotel that could have a wedding at any time, so on any given wedding night, you could have 7 people needing to have their cake sliced. The advice was to make sure you're spacing them out - tell one bride the cake should get cut before photos, and another after the first dance, so that your staff behind closed doors could efficiently do it with the client being happy. That mentality of making sure that all the pieces of the puzzle behind the scenes are doing well so that your product shines and your people shine really shaped how I approach everything. Whether it was catering in a wedding, flipping a room, dealing with business accounts within Marriott, or now into the CESTA development, I've always kept that mentality of understanding the big picture, understanding what needs to happen with your team so they can shine, and then sell it in that regard. You always have to temper when you cut the cake - you gotta space out the cake cutting. That's a great piece of advice I've never forgotten that translates to any industry for me.

In the industry specifically, I think what a lot of times people will find in senior living and even in hotels to some extent is kind of a cookie-cutter salesperson. My advice is just wear the Nikes. It sounds kind of silly, but I have a passion for coordinating my outfits with Nikes, specifically dunks or fun colors. That is, for me, saying here's a little bit of my personality. I'm gonna present to you in a well-put-together outfit, but I'm gonna have my Nikes on because I'm still me. Coming across as a person first is really important in any sales process. I don't want to be sold to - I want to have a conversation that lends me to feeling relatable. I want to be able to say I'm a person too, I've got a personality, I'm fun, I'm outgoing, I'm also going to give you what you need, and I'm going to be probably your biggest advocate in this journey together. Do something that makes you different, and do it without any worry about how it's impacted, because if you're authentic, people can tell. Wear the Nikes, but wear them in a way that commands respect and also gives people exactly what they need from you. Be authentically you, and the rest will fall into place, because if you believe in the product and yourself, people will feel that from you.

Specifically in my field right now, you've got people that are aging in - the boomer population is aging into this decision-making process, and they are the most underserved population in existence. Not having adequate housing for the entire generation that's coming in is a big deal. That's a big, broader challenge. For me personally, there's no building, so I have the challenges of city council and approvals and zoning and permits and prices and construction opportunities and availability of goods. Prices of things keep rising, and we're constantly fighting against all of those current challenges. But on a bigger scale, definitely the underserved population of the boomer generation - there's gonna need to be housing. There's gonna have to be housing, and there's gonna have to be a big push for that. We're just doing our little part here to try and ease some of that in the Madison area.

I'd say, first and foremost, transparency and integrity. If I don't believe what I'm selling, how do I expect someone else to? For me, the perspective is treat the people that I'm honored enough to be around like I would want my parents treated. Integrity and transparency is really big, and this organization itself has that, so it's really easy to emulate it. Follow-through is always key for me, always going to be key for me. Being transparent and having integrity with what you're doing - what you're saying to people actually needs to be authentic and true, and if it's not, you need to be upfront about why it's not so they understand what you're working with. And then from there, it's just follow-through. Those are the three main pieces of the puzzle for me that make up the day-to-day.