Growing Pains: What My First Year as a Broker Taught Me About Time, Confidence, and the Power of a Good Team

A year and four months ago, I walked into this industry knowing very little about what I was getting myself into. I knew commercial real estate was competitive; I knew it would demand long hours, and I knew I'd be learning on the fly. What I didn't fully appreciate was just how much of that first year would be less about closing deals and more about learning how to operate: how to manage my time, how to manage expectations, and how to grow into the kind of broker that clients could trust with some of the biggest decisions of their professional lives.

Now, having decided to specialize in industrial real estate as part of the Peterson-Bourdeaux Team here at Legend Commercial, I can look back on that first stretch with a lot more clarity than I had while I was living through it. This team brings more than 35 years of combined experience to the table, and being surrounded by that kind of knowledge has taught me more in a year than I think I could have learned on my own in three. I want to share some of what that first year looked like, the struggles that came with it, and why I believe having a strong team and mentors around you is the most important.

The Biggest Struggle: Managing Time and Managing Expectations

If you'd asked me a year ago what the hardest part of this job would be, I probably would have guessed it was learning the market or getting comfortable with negotiations. The hardest part has been something much less glamorous: managing my time and managing expectations, both my own and everyone else's.

Being busy is never a bad thing in this business. But early on, I found that being busy without a system was a real liability. There were moments where important tasks or follow-ups slipped through the cracks simply because I didn't have a reliable way of tracking everything I had going on. And in this industry, that's a dangerous place to be. I've learned firsthand that a deal depends on three things staying in sync at all times: what I know I need to do, what my teammates think is happening, and what the client expects to happen next. The moment any one of those three gets out of alignment, deals can start to fall apart, sometimes before you even realize there's a problem.

That realization forced me to get serious about building a system. Today, I run on a combination of an Excel spreadsheet, a running Word document, and an up-to-date calendar that I update constantly throughout the day. Between those three tools, I always know what's on my plate before I leave the office each night, and I know exactly what the day ahead holds before I even sit down at my desk in the morning. It's not a flashy system, but it works, and it's made me far more reliable to both my team and my clients.

My advice to any newer broker reading this is not to wait until something falls through the cracks to build your system. Buckle down early and create a process for tracking your tasks, your deadlines, and your communications. It doesn't have to be complicated. It just has to be something you trust enough to use every single day.

Growing Into the Role: Building Confidence as a Young Broker

The second major struggle I've worked through this year, and honestly one I'm still working through, has been building the confidence to see myself as the expert in the room. That might sound strange, since being the expert is quite literally the job. But when you're young in this industry, there's a real mental hurdle in accepting that clients are relying on you, especially when a lot of the people I work with are first-time lessees or first-time commercial buyers who are trusting me with genuinely life-changing decisions.

Being young in this business means you have to grow up quickly. There's no way around it. You have to carry yourself with a level of maturity and confidence that doesn't always come naturally when you're a year or two into your career, because that's what it takes to earn the respect and trust of your clients. Over the past year, I've felt myself grow into that role. I'm far more comfortable now walking a client step by step through the arc of a transaction, and I can genuinely feel that they trust me with decisions that matter enormously to their businesses and their livelihoods. That shift, from feeling like I was performing confidence to actually having it, has been one of the most rewarding parts of this first year.

Why a Team and a Mentor Make All the Difference

If I had to point to the single biggest factor behind that growth, it wouldn't be a class, a certification, or even reps on deals. It would be the fact that I didn't go into this industry blindly. I went in as part of a team.

My mentors and teammates have taught me how to navigate harder conversations, the kind that used to intimidate me but now feel like just another part of the job. More importantly, they've helped me find my own voice in this business and understand how that voice can actually help push a deal across the finish line. That's not something you can learn from a manual. It comes from watching people who are good at it, getting feedback in real time, and having someone in your corner when a negotiation gets tense or a client relationship gets complicated.

There's also something to be said for the day-to-day experience of simply enjoying who you work with. Coming into the office every day and genuinely looking forward to working alongside your team makes a real difference over the long run, especially in a job that can be as demanding and unpredictable as commercial real estate. I knew very little walking into this business. Joining a group of people who were invested in pushing me to be the best version of myself, while also taking the time to actually teach me the fundamentals, has been one of the most valuable parts of this entire experience. 

Why Legend Commercial Has Been the Right Environment

Beyond my team specifically, I've found that Legend Commercial as a whole is an environment built for growth, especially for someone new to the industry. Everyone here is genuinely willing to teach, and in turn, I've tried to stay just as willing to learn from anybody who's willing to offer advice or information.

That's advice I'd pass along to any first-year broker: be willing to learn from anyone, about anything, at any time. Don't take information for granted, even when it seems minor or unrelated to what you're working on at the moment. You never know when something that seemed unimportant six months ago will suddenly become exactly what you need to navigate a tricky situation with a client or a deal.

Looking Ahead

A year and four months in, I don't have this business figured out, and I don't think anyone ever fully does. But I've learned how to manage my time, how to manage expectations across every party in a deal, and how to carry myself with the confidence my clients need from me. None of that happened in isolation. It happened because I had a system I could rely on, and because I had a team and mentors willing to invest in my growth from day one.

For any new agent starting out, my advice is simple: build a schedule you trust before you need one, be patient with yourself as you grow into the role, and find a team that will push you and teach you in equal measure. The growing pains don't disappear, but they get a lot easier to manage when you're not navigating them alone.