The Shift LeaseUp | The CRE deal platform

For the ninth episode of The Shift, LeaseUp’s Kurt Chisholm spoke with Beth Azor, CEO of Azor Advisory Services.

Beth is known as the canvassing queen – a label someone gave her as a criticism that she has turned into an asset and differentiator. Over her 36 years in the industry Beth has literally put in the extra mile, generating leads and new business by getting out in front of prospects instead of relying on cold calls. Today she owns 5 shopping centers in Florida worth $80 million and travels the country consulting and training CRE associates.

While she remains a big advocate of old-school, in-person canvassing, over the last 7 years Beth has increasingly incorporated social media into her workflow: using Facebook to DM prospects, LinkedIn to share her insights and grow an audience, and most recently Twitter, where she generates much of her consulting business today. On the podcast she tells Kurt that it’s necessary to keep up with the times, tech-wise: “AI is probably our future. I won't put my head in the sand on it. I always tell people with social media: do you want to be reluctant, or do you want to be relevant?”

For the eighth episode of The Shift, LeaseUp’s Kurt Chisholm spoke with Tere Blanca, Chairman and CEO of Blanca Commercial Real Estate.

Tere got started in CRE in the late ‘80s, putting in 14 years with Codina Partners and 6 with Cushman & Wakefield before starting her own shop in 2008. Blanca Commercial Real Estate now has >30% market share of all office leasing transactions that close in Miami-Dade County – a staggering number for an independent brokerage.

Tere shares insights on how to grow an independent business, how to transition from rainmaker to a management position, and how she’s utilized AI data analysis and other tech tools to maintain an edge: “We are not shy about signing up for tools that will create tremendous value for our clients.”

For the seventh episode of The Shift, LeaseUp’s Kurt Chisholm spoke with Deena Zimmerman, National Council Co-Chair of Retail for SVN and a VP at SVN Chicago.

Deena has worked across a wide range of “unique use” properties, but is perhaps best known for her work in the cannabis space. She’s been on the ground with Illinois’ legalization of first medical, then recreational marijuana, helping her clients navigate complex zoning and permitting laws around cannabis, earning her the unofficial title “the cannabis queen of CRE” – which she fully owns.

Deena is also a vocally tech-forward tenant rep broker who utilizes GPS software, LeaseUp’s CRE deal platform, and other tech tools to make her clients’ lives easier and help herself win more business.

“A lot of people ask me about tech and they say, 'I just don't have time to learn it.' You have got to take the time to save the time. It is saving me SO much time and winning me SO much business, you gotta look [at the] bigger picture.”

For the sixth episode of The Shift, LeaseUp’s Kurt Chisholm spoke with Ra’eesa Motala, VP of National Industrial and Corporate Solutions at Rokos Advisors in Minneapolis.



Ra’eesa is an industrial corporate solutions broker who focuses mostly on tenant rep with national clients. Her firm is "very tech-forward,” and she advocates for wider technology adoption within CRE.



“Brokers are the last to adapt when it comes to technology,” she tells Kurt on the podcast. “It's so hard for them to go from a shoebox of business cards to a CRM and understand how to implement that in their day-to-day life, because it's so fast-paced and you're trying to just keep up with it.”

For the fifth episode of The Shift, LeaseUp’s Kurt Chisholm spoke with Sonia El-Sherif, Chief of Staff at JLL Spark.

As a former broker now focused on JLL’s venture capital arm, Sonia shares her insights about sectors like climate tech and supply chain logistics that will see growth in the coming years as they are used by more and more companies to meet evolving regulatory requirements and solve for inefficiencies.

She also talks about the support structures that have helped her advance as a woman in a male-dominated field, and how she sees the CRE transaction evolving in the near future: “It'll be more streamlined, efficient, as well as have a little bit more transparency potentially, a lot less paper hopefully.”

For the fourth episode of The Shift, LeaseUp’s Kurt Chisholm spoke with Marissa Limsiaco, president and co-founder of Otso.

As two tech startup founders in CRE, they go deep on the evolving proptech landscape, tech fatigue in the CRE industry, and how to cut through the noise by building solid tech products.

Marissa also describes how her military background has informed her approach to entrepreneurship, and an ongoing generational change in CRE culture that embraces collaboration and technological solutions.