The Tori Nook Talk Show

Tori Nook

The Tori Nook Talk Show is where real conversations meet real success. Hosted by Tori Nook, commercial real estate CEO, founder of Anchor Retail, author of Intuitive Certainty, and spiritual practitioner, this podcast explores the inner work behind outer achievement. Through candid, grounded conversations with founders, executives, investors, wellness leaders, and personal development voices, the show goes beyond the highlight reel to unpack the decisions that shape a life. The pressure, doubt, faith, sacrifice, and turning points that define true success. This is a space for higher thinkers who want to bridge intuition and strategy, faith and execution, ambition and alignment. Each episode offers perspective-shifting insights and practical takeaways you can apply immediately in business and life. If you’re building something meaningful—and want to do it with clarity, integrity, and intention—you’re in the right place.

  1. 5d ago

    Courtney Ettus: Building Brands at Visa, Beats by Dre, Crexi, and More

    Welcome to this episode of The Tori Nook Talk Show! In this episode, Tori sits down with Courtney Ettus, a marketing executive with nearly three decades of brand building behind her and now CMO at Resimplifi, a commercial real estate data platform. Her career spans Kenneth Cole, Visa, Bank of America, Beats by Dre, Luxottica, Emirates and Slack, a CMO run at Greenfly, and six and a half years scaling Crexi from roughly 30 people to more than 350. She also curates one of the CREi Summit lists and speaks regularly for GlobeSt's Women of Influence community. Courtney grew up outside Chicago, put herself through the University of Michigan, and took a sales job at a local shoe store. When she noticed her sorority friends were cabbing to the mall for dress shoes, she told the owners the store should carry them. At nineteen she was handed a $250,000 open-to-buy and sent to the Las Vegas footwear show, where she met Kenneth Cole and sold out every run she ordered. They discuss brand differentiation, asking for what you want, negotiating as the only woman in the room, taking equity instead of hours, and where AI actually helps a broker. 🎯 Topics covered: Buying dress shoes at nineteen with no experienceA decade in nineties corporate fashionWhy someone should buy your black pantsStarting a media agency job 13 weeks pregnantRunning Visa, Beats by Dre and LuxotticaBecoming a CMO in her fortiesScaling Crexi from 30 people to 350Democratizing commercial real estateWhat makes a brand people actually likeTaking equity in companies she believes inWhy CRE tech has outpaced its usersAI as a starting point, not an endingFinding your slog before buying softwareHow a majority-women room changes the conversation ⸻ 👤 Connect with Courtney Ettus LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtneyettus/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cdettus/ X: https://x.com/cettus Email: courtney@resimplifi.com Website: https://resimplifi.com ⸻ 👤 Connect with Tori Nook Website: https://torinook.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/torirendanonook/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tori_nook/ X: https://x.com/ToriNook Email: hello@torinook.com ⸻ 🎧 The Tori Nook Talk Show is where real conversations meet real success. Subscribe for episodes exploring how leaders build personal and professional fulfillment on their own terms.

  2. Sep 29

    Kaylan Knitowski: 20 Million Impressions and a $60M Track Record

    Welcome to this episode of The Tori Nook Talk Show! In this episode, Tori sits down with Kaylan Knitowski, Associate Director at Franklin Street in Miami, specializing in value-add unanchored retail centers and net lease sales nationwide across the Southeast and Sunbelt. Since entering the business in October 2022, Kaylan has closed roughly $60 million in retail investment transactions and built a following of more than 20 million impressions across X, LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok. Kaylan grew up in Austin, graduated early from the University of Miami, and walked away from law school. With no jobs available during COVID, she took a bottle service job in Miami nightlife, where she spent her nights serving brokers celebrating closings and decided she would rather sell the buildings herself. She started at Sands Investment Group in 2022, landed $24 million in listings in her first three months, then waited nine months for a first closing. They discuss cold calling, mentorship, social media as a listing tool, national tenant rep accounts, fee sharing, and why her competition is other brokers' fathers. 🎯 Topics covered: Leaving a law school plan behindFrom bottle service to investment salesLanding $24M in listings in three monthsSurviving nine months without a closingLearning to underwrite as a junior brokerCold calling and the extra ten secondsDon Tepman's advice that changed her social mediaBuilding a brand on X, LinkedIn and TikTokWinning the Seven Brew tenant rep accountWorking with Culver's and national retailersSelling visibility instead of tenureWhy she has no problem sharing a feeTurning down a commission to protect a clientA $29M portfolio that came from a conferenceAdvice for senior brokers mentoring juniors ⸻ 👤 Connect with Kaylan Knitowski LinkedIn: Kaylan Knitowski Instagram and X: @kaylanknit TikTok: @bottlestobuildings ⸻ 👤 Connect with Tori Nook Website: https://torinook.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/torirendanonook/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tori_nook/ X: https://x.com/ToriNook Email: hello@torinook.com ⸻ 🎧 The Tori Nook Talk Show is where real conversations meet real success. Subscribe for episodes exploring how leaders build personal and professional fulfillment on their own terms.

  3. Sep 22

    Edward Winslow: How Proof Stacking Wins on Google, AI, and Everywhere Else 

    Welcome to this episode of The Tori Nook Talk Show! In this episode, Tori sits down with Edward Winslow, creator of the trademarked Proof Stacking method and a career spanning commercial real estate, investment sales, entrepreneurship, marketing, PR, and now the rapidly changing world of search and AI. Ed was the first sales broker hired by Bob Knakal at Massey Knakal Realty Services, and today he teaches brokers and owners how to build a brand so strong that clients come to them. 🎯 Topics covered: The Coldwell Banker system nobody ever taught himCold-calling Bob Knakal and spending Saturdays learningJoining Massey Knakal as the first sales hire with no deals closedPhotographing every building on the Upper East Side block by blockDigging up 20 years of comps in the city archivesThe research mailing that kept owners on the phoneLanding the front page of the Sunday New York TimesWhy nobody called for 30 daysReverse engineering that article into an SEO structureSteven Pressfield and naming doubt as the enemyTelling owners not to sell (and why it works)Long-tail specificity and winning on AI searchFinal advice: keep stacking and stop being afraid to invest⸻ 👤 Connect with Edward Winslow Website: proofstacking.ai LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwardwinslow/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edwardjwinslow/  X: https://x.com/EdwardWinslow20  Company: https://proofstacking.ai/  ⸻ 👤 Connect with Tori Nook Website: https://torinook.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/torirendanonook/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tori_nook/ X: https://x.com/ToriNook Email: hello@torinook.com ⸻ 🎧 The Tori Nook Talk Show is where real conversations meet real success. Subscribe for episodes exploring how leaders build personal and professional fulfillment on their own terms.

  4. Sep 15

    Anthony Behar: What Nobody Sees Behind Being a Top Producer 

    Welcome to this episode of The Tori Nook Talk Show! In this episode, Tori sits down with Anthony Behar, Executive Vice President and Partner at Major Properties in Los Angeles. Anthony has spent more than two decades specializing in the sale, leasing, and acquisition of commercial and industrial properties throughout downtown LA and surrounding markets. He has earned Major Properties' President's Award and multiple Salesman of the Year honors, and is recognized as one of commercial real estate's top LinkedIn influencers. Anthony is a second-generation LA native who studied speech communication at San Diego State. He spent his first eight or nine years after college in advertising sales, selling commercial television time for ABC, Disney, CBS, and Katz Media Group, then briefly working in the dot-com world. When the internet bubble burst after 9/11 and his father became seriously ill, he took a year off, then networked his way into real estate through a charity connection with one of Major Properties' owners. He joined the family-owned boutique firm in 2002, was eventually made partner, and has never left. 🎯 Topics covered: Second-generation LA native and San Diego State gradNearly a decade in television advertising salesDoor knocking in college and why those skills transferredJoining Major Properties in 2002 and becoming partnerWhy he chose a boutique firm over a big corporate brokerageWalking downtown LA district by district for five yearsWhat nobody sees behind being a top producerWhy there's no paycheck for the first few yearsTraining juniors and senior broker responsibilityHow the LA market has changed since 2002Best advice: learn to be a chameleonThe habit that mattered most: taking emotion out of the deal ⸻ 👤 Connect with Anthony Behar LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonysbehar/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anthonysbehar/ X: https://x.com/Anthonysbehar  Company: https://www.majorproperties.com/  ⸻ 👤 Connect with Tori Nook Website: https://torinook.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/torirendanonook/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tori_nook/ X: https://x.com/ToriNook Email: hello@torinook.com ⸻ 🎧 The Tori Nook Talk Show is where real conversations meet real success. Subscribe for episodes exploring how leaders build personal and professional fulfillment on their own terms.

  5. Sep 8

    Helen Chong: From a Student Visa to the Top 1.5% of Real Estate Teams

    Welcome to this episode of The Tori Nook Talk Show! In this episode, Tori sits down with Helen Chong, CCIM and founder of HAYLEN Group in San Jose, California. Helen has spent more than 20 years in real estate, moving from analyst work into residential, ultra-luxury, and finally commercial real estate investing. She serves on the board of the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors, is a two-time president of the Northern California CCIM chapter, was named one of the top 100 Women of Influence by the Silicon Valley Business Journal, and her team ranks among the top 1.5% of real estate teams nationally. She is also the author of Power to Change Lives. Helen's family went through bankruptcy when she was twelve, sending her parents to work in Indonesia and leaving her largely on her own by sixteen. She joined them in Indonesia, working in the restaurant they built where a plate of fried rice sold for fifty cents and a good day meant ten dollars. At eighteen she secretly applied for a student visa and came to America alone, starting at Santa Monica College while waitressing, selling pastries, tutoring, and taking unpaid internships to build a resume. They discuss learning English by refusing to only socialize with other Hong Kong and Indonesian students, sending out hundreds of resumes to find a company willing to sponsor an H1B visa, why watching retirement accounts crash as a pension analyst pushed her into real estate, leaving a stable job in 2004 for mortgage brokering, founding HAYLEN Group around 2009 to do things her own way, and how earning her CCIM changed her career. 🎯 Topics covered: Family bankruptcy at twelve and living alone by sixteenWorking her parents' Indonesian restaurant for penniesComing to America alone at eighteen on a student visaLearning English by immersing in every culture but her ownHundreds of resumes to find an H1B sponsorBeing the only woman in an all-male sales departmentWhy the pension analyst job pushed her into real estateLeaving a stable job in 2004 to become a mortgage brokerFounding HAYLEN Group to do business her own wayBeing questioned about how she earned her listingsHow the CCIM designation changed her careerFinal advice: success is happiness, not numbers ⸻ 👤 Connect with Helen Chong Website: haylengroup.com Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenhchong/ Book: Power to Change Lives Instagram: @haylengrouprealestate ⸻ 👤 Connect with Tori Nook Website: https://torinook.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/torirendanonook/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tori_nook/ X: https://x.com/ToriNook Email: hello@torinook.com ⸻ 🎧 The Tori Nook Talk Show is where real conversations meet real success. Subscribe for episodes exploring how leaders build personal and professional fulfillment on their own terms.

  6. Sep 1

    Melina Cordero: The Winding Path from CBRE Research to Leadership Coaching

    Welcome to this episode of The Tori Nook Talk Show! In this episode, Tori sits down with Melina Cordero, former real estate executive, speaker, facilitator, leadership development advisor, and founder of P20 Leadership. After building her career inside commercial real estate, Melina shifted her focus to helping organizations and leaders build stronger communication, trust, and inclusive cultures, with a major focus on helping women in commercial real estate become stronger leaders. Melina was born in Washington, D.C., raised outside the city and later in New Jersey, and grew up bilingual in a bicultural Puerto Rican household that valued curiosity and reading. She studied urban studies and international development in grad school, focusing her thesis on the shopping mall explosion in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Her early career wound through market research, a mobile data startup that closed suddenly, and then CBRE, where at 28 she became global head of retail research. She later stepped into leading CBRE's retail investment sales and capital markets brokers, the only woman and the only non-former-broker in that role, after her predecessor Mark Bratt put her name forward as his successor. They discuss the power of sponsorship, why almost no successful CRE executives have a straight-line career path, splitting her time between Mexico City and D.C., leaving corporate to found P20 Leadership, her CRE Women's Leadership Lab and the Speak Up program, and the number driving her mission: female representation in commercial real estate's C-suite has moved just one percentage point in the last ten years. 🎯 Topics covered: Growing up bilingual in a bicultural Puerto Rican householdStudying shopping mall development in Sao Paulo, BrazilEarly jobs in market research and a mobile data startupBecoming global head of retail research at CBRE at 28Leading CBRE's capital markets brokers as the only womanThe power of sponsorship and being put forward as a successorWhy career paths are rarely a straight lineSplitting time between Mexico City and Washington, D.C.Leaving corporate to found P20 LeadershipThe CRE Women's Leadership Lab and Speak Up programWhy the C-suite gender gap has moved one point in ten yearsChanging what leadership looks like, not lowering the bar ⸻ 👤 Connect with Melina Cordero Website: www.melinacordero.com  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melinacordero/  Programs: CRE Women's Leadership Lab, Speak Up ⸻ 👤 Connect with Tori Nook Website: https://torinook.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/torirendanonook/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tori_nook/ X: https://x.com/ToriNook Email: hello@torinook.com ⸻ 🎧 The Tori Nook Talk Show is where real conversations meet real success. Subscribe for episodes exploring how leaders build personal and professional fulfillment on their own terms.

  7. Aug 25

    Alreen Haeggquist: Breaking Generational Trauma, One Case at a Time

    Welcome to this episode of The Tori Nook Talk Show! In this episode, Tori sits down with Alreen Haeggquist, founding and managing partner of Haeggquist & Eck LLP, recognized as one of the best law firms in America. For more than 23 years, Alreen has dedicated her career to standing up for people who have experienced sexual assault, sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and other workplace injustices. She is also the author of Fired Up: Fueling Triumph from Trauma, and founder of the HAE Fired Up Foundation. Alreen grew up in the San Fernando Valley in a household with an abusive father and a mother who stayed silent. She moved to San Diego for UCSD, then attended Cal Western School of Law, discovering in college that education could be her way out. After realizing criminal defense work only made her sad, she spent five years at a class action firm before launching her own firm in 2008 with just $5,000 and no clients, at a time when woman-owned law firms were rare. She and her co-founder worked out of their home, reinvesting every dollar back into the firm, and slowly built it into a 25-person team. They discuss why she never marketed at first, believing good work alone would bring clients, until she realized survivors didn't know she existed as an option, the case against Trump University, having a survivor advocate on staff to help clients process trauma, the emotional toll of writing her book and reliving suppressed memories, why releasing the book meant exposing her family's secret, breaking generational trauma for her daughter, and why her advice to her younger self is simple: start sooner. 🎯 Topics covered: - Growing up with an abusive father and a silent mother - Discovering college as her escape and path to law school - Realizing criminal defense work wasn't her calling - Five years at a class action firm before striking out alone - Starting her firm in 2008 with $5,000 and no clients - Learning that clients can't find you if they don't know you exist - The case against Trump University - Having a survivor advocate on staff to support clients emotionally - The emotional toll of writing and publishing Fired Up - Why releasing her story meant exposing her family's secret - Breaking generational trauma for her daughter - Final advice: start sooner and take action ⸻ 👤 Connect with Alreen Haeggquist Website: alreen.com Book: Fired Up: Fueling Triumph from Trauma Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alreen-haeggquist/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alreen/ ⸻ 👤 Connect with Tori Nook Website: https://torinook.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/torirendanonook/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tori_nook/ X: https://x.com/ToriNook Email: hello@torinook.com ⸻ 🎧 The Tori Nook Talk Show is where real conversations meet real success. Subscribe for episodes exploring how leaders build personal and professional fulfillment on their own terms.

  8. Aug 18

    Tracey Watts Cirino: From Cutting Hair to Coaching Entrepreneurs on Their Voice

    Welcome to this episode of The Tori Nook Talk Show! In this episode, Tori sits down with her longtime friend Tracey Watts Cirino, a six-time number one international best-selling author, business growth strategist, and founder and CEO of Beyond Common, a coaching and consulting company based in Cleveland, Ohio. Tracey helps business owners, coaches, and creatives turn their voice into cash through her signature Voice to Cash method, refining their messaging and building profitable brands that connect with the right audience. Tracey grew up in Cleveland, got her cosmetology license at 17, and started working under her mentor Ron before she'd even graduated high school. She began traveling the world teaching advanced cut and color techniques, which eventually led to opening her own salon that she ran for over a decade with a highly trained team. They discuss selling mixtapes to her uncles at age 9, why she never set out to build a business but felt God pointing her there, believing for 40 years she "wasn't good at grammar" because of a failed ninth-grade English class before writing six bestselling books, the myth that you need 250 no's before a publisher says yes, building a publishing division within Beyond Common that has helped 13 clients become bestsellers, and how the Voice to Cash method shapes how entrepreneurs tell their story. 🎁 Free gift for listeners: DM Tracey and let her know you heard her on the Tori Nook Talk Show to receive her free gift. 🎯 Topics covered: Selling mixtapes to her uncles at age 9Getting her cosmetology license at 17 and her mentor RonTraveling the world teaching advanced cut and colorOpening her own salon and running it for over a decadeNever planning to be an entrepreneur, feeling God-led into itThe limiting belief from failing ninth-grade EnglishThe myth of needing 250 no's before a publisher says yesWriting six bestselling books and building a publishing divisionHelping 13 clients become bestselling authorsCreating the Voice to Cash methodWhy your voice is either making or costing you moneyFinal advice: show yourself some love ⸻ 👤 Connect with Tracey Watts Cirino Website: tracywattscirino.com Podcast: Beyond Common Business Secrets Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/traceywattscirino/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/traceywattscirino/  ⸻ 👤 Connect with Tori Nook Website: https://torinook.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/torirendanonook/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tori_nook/ X: https://x.com/ToriNook Email: hello@torinook.com ⸻ 🎧 The Tori Nook Talk Show is where real conversations meet real success. Subscribe for episodes exploring how leaders build personal and professional fulfillment on their own terms.

5
out of 5
29 Ratings

About

The Tori Nook Talk Show is where real conversations meet real success. Hosted by Tori Nook, commercial real estate CEO, founder of Anchor Retail, author of Intuitive Certainty, and spiritual practitioner, this podcast explores the inner work behind outer achievement. Through candid, grounded conversations with founders, executives, investors, wellness leaders, and personal development voices, the show goes beyond the highlight reel to unpack the decisions that shape a life. The pressure, doubt, faith, sacrifice, and turning points that define true success. This is a space for higher thinkers who want to bridge intuition and strategy, faith and execution, ambition and alignment. Each episode offers perspective-shifting insights and practical takeaways you can apply immediately in business and life. If you’re building something meaningful—and want to do it with clarity, integrity, and intention—you’re in the right place.