For those who don’t know, I started a new full-time role in February of this year. This came after a year of learning, new challenges, new relationships, and generally getting a better understanding of both myself and the world of corporate real estate.
There are a whole lot of people I want to thank for helping me through my 2025 Year of Transition. Very special thanks to Julie Henline at Apex42, Nic Halverson and team at Occuspace, Brandon Medeiros and Garry Yeung at REKalibrate, Raj Krishnamurthy and Kat Karasyova at Freespace, Julia Kean and Sherri Parman at Incendium Consulting, and Kayley DiCicco at Expansive. There are many I don’t have here, but every one who had a conversation or helped me out is appreciated more than you know.
It’s been six months since I started this new role. The role is a lot of the same things that I’ve done in the past, but from a completely new angle. I’ve spent a good amount of the last few months reflecting on how to take experience and apply it somewhere new without simply saying over and over, “well, at my last place…” There are few more annoying phrases from my personal experience.
But this means figuring out how to take past examples and apply them anew while maintaining context. This is the equivalent of Show, Don’t Tell in writing. Instead of saying, “At my last place, I used this format,” say, “Based on these 3 criteria you have, a format like this could work for us.” Both end with the recommendation of a prior format. However, the first almost gives the impression that the last place was simply better and we should start from it by default. The latter bases the recommendation on the current rationale that allows us to edit and adjust based on current state facts.
It’s a small difference, but it forces me to stay in the moment. I can’t assume that what I did before works here or is best; it forces me to stop and think. All those past experiences are still part of the toolkit I have, but they are just tools to be used when a situation calls for them.
A huge part of this thought process was developed through the many conversations and viewpoints from the groups above. Every single person there is an absolute expert in what they do, yet they all do things differently from how I do. They gave me a better understanding of the state of the industry, the state of the average customer, the challenges they hit, the actions that enabled their successes, and the roadmap that they saw running toward the future. Every one of them was grounded in their current reality and not letting history establish their path forward.
All this is a long way to say two things:
- Thank you to too many people to list.
- Don’t get stuck in the past, regardless of whether that past is associated with your current role or simply experiences you had.
Look forward, be in the moment, think freely. It’s advice I’m currently trying to practice.