Her Story
About Victoria
Victoria Jasper is a commercial real estate broker based in Greater Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She works with Cushman and Wakefield, where her main focus is on landlord representation, tenant representation, and real estate advisory transactions. This includes property tours, inspections, RFP processes, and lease negotiations to help corporate companies secure suitable office spaces. Jasper earned her degree from Villanova, majoring in real estate with a concentration in real estate development. She is a member of the African American Real estate professionals in Philadelphia and has volunteered with Habitat for Humanity. She attributes her success to her mentors, her drive, and the discipline she applies to her fully commissioned role. Jasper advises treating every transaction independently, like a golf swing, and encourages young women entering the field to find a mentor. She values honesty, resilience, and hard work, and notes that hybrid and remote work trends have led to shorter lease terms and decision paralysis among companies since the pandemic.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Victoria
01What do you attribute your success to?
My great mentors that I've had over the years. The willingness to take every day as it comes and being very driven. You have to be very driven in this industry, because it's fully commissioned based. The more driven you are, and nobody's following you around to see what time you clock in, what time you clock out, but the more effort and discipline you put into your career, the more you'll get out of it, and that's really attributed to my success.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Treat every transaction that you do, present, past, or future, like a golf swing. Every time, it may be different, you may shank the ball left or right, the whole deal may blow up, you may hit it perfectly onto the green, the transaction will be the easiest deal that you ever do, and you make a bunch of money. But every time you step up to the tee box, we're starting at ground zero, every field's a little bit different, so you've got to treat them independently. And ultimately, never let your previous round dictate your current or future transactions moving forward.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Try to find a mentor when you're entering the business, whether it be primarily, I would say women, but, like, whether it's a man or a woman, because it is a really tough barrier to entry. And it helps when you're going full commission, and things are really hard, and you're reaching out to the C-suite, it's really helpful to have somebody in that corner who's willing to take the time out of their day to teach you things. But in 20 years, you can give back to another mentee.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Hybrid and fully remote work. A lot of companies have decision paralysis, since COVID, a lot of employees don't want to go into the office 5 days a week, so it's tough. Offices that have large footprints have had to scale back significantly. And it's obviously trickles down into their comfortability into leasing. A lot of leases pre-pandemic were 10 year deals, whereas now post-pandemic we are seeing more of the 3 to 7, even 5 year leases. Companies are not sure what their company is going to look like in the future, and if their employees are going to remain fully remote.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Honesty. Resilience. And hard work.
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