In this podcast episode, we spoke with Bryce Custer, SIOR, CCIM, a scientist by background and real estate investor that entered the brokerage business in 2009 and hung his license with NAI Spring in Canton, OH. Fast forward to the present, and Bryce still works in the Ohio market and is affiliated with NAI Spring there, yet also, he was just made Vice President of Energy Services with Pittsburgh-based NAI Burns Scalo to run his energy-focused, commercial real estate practice in West Virginia and a portion of Southern Pennsylvania.

In this episode of How’s Biz, we invited three professionals from different industry sectors to discuss the state of the office market, and more specifically, how the ongoing remote and hybrid workforces and practices have operated since the pandemic. The panel discussion offered tips on successfully managing in this new era, as well as Return-to-Office mandates and how all this impacts the office market across the U.S. The panelists were: Jim Scalo, CEO of NAI Burns Scalo, based in Pittsburgh. Just before the pandemic, in 2019, he published a book, Work Them to Life, Upgrade Your Office Space to Win the Talent War. Toni Navy is a Future of Work Keynote Speaker and Global Workforce Consultant. She helps companies overcome the challenges of leading a global, multi-generational and hybrid workforce. Mike Robbins is a Keynote Speaker and expert on teamwork, leadership and emotional intelligence. He’s an author and former professional baseball player.

Bjarne Bauer, Managing Partner at NAI Sofia Group Shanghai, gives us an insider look at why companies are struggling to move away from China for manufacturing, how foreign companies are incentivized to do business in China, and the real state of Chinese residential and office markets.

Dan Leahy is a founding Partner and Executive Vice President of NAI Hiffman.  He is also the founding member of NAI Global Logistics (which has evolved into the NAI Global Industrial Council). He is annually one of the most successful industrial and logistics advisors/brokers to serve the Chicago marketplace. He is also one of NAI Global’s Top 10 Producers for 2023, where he finds himself in familiar territory, as Dan is consistently one of the highest performers throughout the platform. The secrets to his success are partially revealed by his methodologies and work/life balance. Foremost, he is a thinker, planner, and goes about his business methodically. That’s not to imply he operates robotically. In fact, he has been able to successfully balance family, friends, work and play.  His warm (and family man) personality comes through when he talks about the softer skills associated with successful brokerage work, especially his emphasis as an advisor first, real estate transaction manager second.

James Horrocks, MRICS, Senior Director of Global Occupier Services, and Alex Cooper, Senior Director of Flexible Offices, with NAI UK, discuss NAI UK's new enterprise, CORE Working, and the advantages that flexible office spaces have over traditional ones.

Kevin Goeller (pronounced Go-Ler), CCIM, SIOR and Principal with NAI KLNB in Tysons VA, is one of NAI Global’s Top 10 Producers for 2023. Some 20 years ago, Goeller began shifting his focus to the emerging niche industry of data center development, and now he is recognized as one of the foremost commercial real estate experts in the U.S. on data centers. Goeller talks about the astronomical growth of data centers, the factors driving that growth, and the dilemma of America running out of power.

NAI Global’s President & CEO Jay Olshonsky, SIOR, FRICS, CCIM, gives a bird’s eye view of global commercial real estate trends. Olshonsky shares his perspective on the global economy, foreign investment into the US, the future of the office sector, and how NAI is strategically navigating the commercial real estate landscape.

Tony Machabee, CCIM, a Senior Director with NAI Alliance in Reno, NV, serves as the NAI Global Veterans Council Chairman. Machabee’s work with the USAF National Security Emergency Preparedness directorate, its close coordination with the Federal Emergency Response Agency (FEMA), connected him to the commercial real estate industry in the arena of industrial and logistics requirements associated with disaster response. Along with his long-time friendship with a successful broker with NAI Alliance, Machabee turned to commercial real estate for his post-military service career. In this podcast, Machabee relays some of the transferable skills from the military to CRE and also the formation of the Veterans Council.

Lauren Larson is with NAI Affinity in Ft. Collins, CO. At the beginning of 2024, she was promoted to Managing Broker for the Northern Colorado-based office, where she is responsible for her own book of business (she’s a teammate with company CEO Ryan Schaefer and President Jake Hallauer, CCIM) and also manages the other brokers at NAI Affinity, providing guidance so that each of them achieves their respective goals as measured by key performance indicators (KPIs) and principally, revenue. She started her career at the company while still a sophomore in college, and has been on an accelerated path in commercial real estate ever since. Last year Lauren was asked to join NAI’s national self-storage investment sales group based out of NAI Horizon in Phoenix, AZ, and more recently was added to NAI Global’s National Logistics Team, based in NAI James E. Hanson’s Teterboro, NJ, office. Learn more about Lauren in this podcast.

Amber Brandhagen is a Principal and Chief Operating Officer of NAI Global Wireless (Wireless), an NAI Global member and one of several specialized commercial real estate service providers operating under the NAI Global umbrella of offices. Her business represents property owners and landlords to establish cellular tower infrastructure that is subsequently leased to cell phone carriers throughout the U.S. In fact, approximately 80% of their business comes from NAI Global offices in the continental U.S. and broker referrals, making Wireless one of the most opportunistic fee-sharing and revenue generating members with NAI Global.

On this episode of “How’s Biz?”, Gary Marsh sits down with NAI Global’s Senior Vice President of Capital Markets, Gisella Haidar. Gisella has worked in Commercial Real Estate for over a decade, first at C-III Realty Services in Dallas, then ultimately transitioning to NAI Global several years after it was acquired by C-III. Gisella has had a year marked by several notable achievements, including earning a Master’s of Science in Real Estate Development from NYU and being named one of Trepp’s Future CRE Leaders to Watch. Tune in to hear more about Gisella’s story.

On this episode of “How’s Biz?”, Chase Miller discusses his explosive first years in the Commercial Real Estate business, establishing himself as a top producer - not only at NAI Robert Lynn, but within all of NAI Global - in addition to being named partner at his firm. He notes how his collegiate athletic career helped provide the momentum which he could directly transition into his current work.

On the first day of February in 2023, Bhagyesha Darji left her job as an assistant controller at NAI Chase Commercial in Huntsville, Alabama, to become a commercial real estate sales professional. Three days later she was on an airplane bound for Las Vegas to attend the annual NAI Global convention. Her journey as a rookie broker had begun.

Based in Portland, Zongazo focuses his retail brokerage practice in the region’s suburbs (the metro market has some 2.6 million residents), preferring to represent tenants, though he does some landlord work as well. He uses a product called Retail Lease Trac to identify tenants in the market for nationwide expansion space, but he also uses good old fashion cold calling by walking into local retail stores and asking to talk to the management or proprietors.

This podcast shifted gears to host one of NAI Global’s rising stars and an excellent representation of the Next Generation, Marcus Daniels, a Vice President with NAI Michael based in Prince George County, Maryland. A region that borders the eastern portion of Washington, D.C., Daniels works in a market with about 1 million people.

Arie loves the business—the competition, the knowledge, client service and particularly creativity. One of his team’s biggest deals last year exemplified his creative approach to brokerage, as well as his persistence, and by his own acknowledgement, the transactions (yes, plural) came about by a bit of luck.

A high performing broker of many years and Executive Vice President with the Industrial Services Group at NAI Hiffman in Chicago, Kelly Disser III was one of NAI Global’s Top Producers in 2022. Early in the year, the How’s Biz host, Gary Marsh, spoke with Kelly about his career path and history, some of the work he and his team have been doing and what are some of the contributing factors to his success.

Todd Hubbard, SIOR is a player-coach with NAI Robert Lynn Fort Worth office and one of NAI Global’s Top Producers in 2021. He opened the Fort Worth office for NAI Robert Lynn several years ago. The company now has over 100 employees and 65 agents between Dallas and Fort Worth, the latter of which has 16 agents. NAI Robert Lynn’s core businesses include office, industrial, retail and capital markets brokerage services, as well as property management.

Doug Sharpe is one of NAI Global’s Top Producing Brokers in 2022. Based in Silicon Valley and specializing in tenant representation and corporate services with NAI NorCal, Doug has leveraged his 30-year career and relationships to become one of the leading experts on real estate requirements for Electric Vehicle (EV) car companies and more recently, a rocket (ship) manufacturing company. He is also working with Vietnamese-based VinFast with site selection and location requirements associated with the company’s first batch of Electric Vehicles that were recently shipped to the U.S.