Tiaka Anderson

I attribute my success to the support of my loving husband and my determination. I have pushed and pushed myself, and I feel like my drive comes from my passion for people and my desire to continue to grow and not stay stagnant. I always look and say, how can I elevate. Even now, there's a position above mine, and so I'm doing everything I can because I want to continue to grow and then bring people under me so that they can also be successful. So I think my success is between the support of my husband and my determination - it drives me each and every day.

The best career advice I've ever received came from my current CEO, Jennifer Jackson. She has invested and poured a lot into me, especially when I was switching from being an assistant to coming into management. I ask a lot of questions because I'm a list person, and I was looking for a step-by-step method for how to manage. She told me, 'Be you. You're gonna develop and be the type of manager that you want to be. You're gonna be the best manager that you can be in your own way.' I really loved that, because I was like, okay, I'm allowed to do this - take the tools I have and make it my own still. It's not like we're robots and we have to be something else. I loved the fact that you're able to take this career and make it your own. I feel like being myself is how I got where I am, so I value that I'm allowed to keep doing that.

The advice I would give to young women entering my field is: Don't wear your feelings on your shoulder. Be open to learning - learning the old way and developing a new way. There's always room for growth, so don't settle in one space. And I would also say that management can seem heavy and overwhelming, but there's joy. There's joy in knowing that people are looking to you for solutions, and that you can help them solve the problem.

Some of the biggest challenges right now in commercial real estate is the competition. When you have buildings that are occupied, that's great. But when you have vacancies and you're trying to market and lease, there's so much competition. It's kind of like residential - it's competitive. We think, if we just get our foot in the door, or if someone just meets us, we can kind of win them over. So I think the challenge is sometimes there's so much competition out there when someone's looking for a property. And then they have to make that decision - do they want to be managed? They have to make that decision that they want someone managing the tasks. I feel like once they get a management company, then it's easy to see, okay, they're dealing with that, I don't have to deal with that. But actually getting companies to realize the value in a management company is the challenge.