The Future Of The Future

Technology for greener buildings keeps evolving. From waste reduction, to sustainable materials, from water efficiency and consumption to energy usage and generation, from travel to and from buildings, to smart building automation…Dream a technology, and chances are it already exists.But many times, the public at large is either unaware of the latest developments in sustainability in Real Estate, or unable to get funding for sustainability projects.This is where Anna Maria Kowalik comes into place. A true people’s person, Italian descendant and first generation american, she knows that Real Estate, like many other industries, is a relationships based industry.Anna Maria Kowalik is a Sr VP - Director of Business Development at Inland Green Capital LLC (“IGC”), an environmental finance and investment company that provides capital for Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) project initiatives nationwide. She is responsible for the business development of PACE initiatives through the marketing, education and implementation of this next generation sustainability financing option. Ms. Kowalik possesses almost 25 years of experience in the commercial real estate and property management industries, including with a former Inland REIT where she last oversaw a portfolio of over 30 retail properties consisting of 3.4 million square feet with more than 500 tenants, and budgets close to a quarter billion dollars. Anna and I talked about sustainability and technology in Real Estate, family, relationships, food, Italy and the US, recipes… you name it.She is an amazing professional, but most importantly, a wonderful person to have a conversation with, someone who clearly understands how to build lasting relationships.I hope you can enjoy this episode as much as I did!

What do product management and urban planning have in common?Well… Both require strategic planning, allocation of scarce resources, stakeholder management, communication, and ability to navigate the uncertain.How many stakeholders do you have to keep in mind when planning that new zoning for a commercial area in a downtown residential area? How do you allocate a budget with so many competing priorities?The extreme competency in diplomacy, careful planning and relationship management that is required for urban planning, is very much applicable to product management.What feature should we build next? Do we ask the development team to work on it right away? or do we work on the stability of the system and that growing tech debt first? What is sales asking for? What are customers saying? What do customers really need?I talked to my very good friend David Strathy-Miller to find out the answers to these questions.David is a Senior Product Manager at Centerbase. Like many Product Managers, he didn’t set out to become one early in his career. Far from it… But he was certainly getting ready for it. He has a Master of City and Regional Planning, he loves diplomacy and international relationships, traveled to almost all continents in the world, worked as an Ops Manager for a long time at a Default Asset Management company, and he was one of the first to transition to a Product Role when the concept was implemented there.He is a thoughtful, compassionate friend. I worked with him for more than 7 years at Altisource, and he has become my favorite travel guide, and a strategic counselor for work and life advice.I am sure you will enjoy this episode. Go for it!

Stay humble and flexible, deliver as promised, repeat.So simple, yet so difficult.The paradox about freedom is that you need to work hard to earn it.I’ve met many leaders in the technology space over the last three years. But Paul Dorney has been instrumental in my career and my growth, ever since I met him early on in 2021.I learned tons about software development, how to build products, startups, what to look for in developers, how to drive teams.He is an Irish Software Engineer who emigrated to the US almost 20 years ago, and made his way up the ranks in different companies and startups of his own.I have a very hard time keeping up with his work rhythm, and I can’t even try to follow him if we go out for drinks. He will get up early the next morning, but I probably won’t.Paul will share his compelling journey, laden with startup experiences that encompass both challenges and triumphs. His unwavering passion for problem-solving and fostering a collaborative and inspiring work environment sets him apart. Paul is not only a hands-on CTO but also a servant leader who is results-oriented, builds high-performing teams, and cultivates enduring relationships.Currently the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Bosscat, Paul has been instrumental in elevating the company's award-winning technology and products to unparalleled levels. He has spearheaded transformations in how homeowners and real estate professionals navigate the world of online repairs, renovations, and related services.Before his tenure at Bosscat, he founded Silbo, a startup in the gig economy space. Under his leadership, it scaled to become the largest gig economy platform for sports officiating in North America.Take the time, listen, learn and enjoy!

Why do people have such a hard time opening up and talking about their drivers, their problems, and how they really feel?Is it because they are shy?Or maybe, they think nobody really wants to know?Or maybe, they feel pressured to show the world they are always doing great?I had an amazing conversation with Scott Bond, a lifelong sales and people first leader, who finds happiness in identifying and developing talent in the workplace, to learn more about the answers to these questions and his personal story. He will lay it out pretty simple for you: “you can't help motivate and inspire someone if you don't truly know what truly brings them joy”. Scott is a Proptech Leader, who started out in the media business but later transitioned to RE where he led the Zillow Offers initiative at Zillow Group. He was recruited to move to Dubai in early 2022 where he was able to work with over 40+ nationalities, getting a new perspective on how to coach, lead, support, and address a team. Today, he is responsible for building the US operation for rennie, a Canadian based real estate company.He is passionate about telling stories through his writing, be it LinkedIn, Patreon, Medium, and/or the next book he is always ready to start.Scott and I talked about the definition of success, how to be great at sales, how to build teams, how to deal with change management, where proptech is going, and ongoing learning.I enjoyed this conversation very much, and I am sure you will enjoy it as well.Go for it!

What is the perfect software development process or methodology?Is it Agile? XP? Kanban? Rapid? Devops? TDD? BDD? Other? none?How do you get your team to deliver the best results?How do you manage individuals to get the best results?Should you even focus on individuals? or the systems where they operate?I talked to Francisco Trindade, Engineering Director at Braze, to learn more about the answers to these questions and his personal story.Francisco started out as a Computer Engineer in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and he had an amazing career in different parts of the world. From founding a company while he was still completing his masters studies, to moving to London at age 25 to work for Thoughtworks, to leading large teams of engineers in NYC.Francisco is passionate about management in the Software Industry. He believes software teams are systems, and creating an optimal system can enable individuals within the system to function optimally, to grow and to enjoy what they do at work. His focus is always on the team as a whole, and he believes methodologies need to be looked at from a flexible perspective, like a toolbox that is available for the engineering manager, so that the best tools can be utilized depending on the team and the context (the company, the technology, the customers, etc).Do you lead software engineering teams? Do you work with software engineering teams? If you do, don’t miss this one. I am sure you will enjoy it.

Being successful is hard, in any line of work.The more you are trying to achieve, the more challenges you will have. The more challenges you have, the more chances of failing.And when you fear failing, or when you get knocked down, the right mindset will make all the difference in the world. It will first lead you to get in shape and put in the hard work and the investment needed in your skills to succeed, and it will then inspire the courage and confidence you’ll need to overcome fear when things get tough.I recently had the absolute pleasure of interviewing non-other than Chris Heller, to talk about his story, and learn how he got to where he is, what challenges he faced, and what lessons he learned along the way.Chris Heller earned his real estate license when he was 20 years old and went on to build one of the most successful real estate teams in the United States. Named President of KW Worldwide in 2010, Heller launched the company’s first regions outside of North America, leading Keller Williams to record productivity and profitability markers. His vision and leadership helped grow the Company into the most dominant worldwide real estate franchise in history. In 2015 Heller was named CEO of KWRI, where he led the transformation into the technology company KW is today as well as record growth and profitability. He also led mellohome as a CEO in 2018 and 2019, amongst various other leadership positions he has held during his career.Chris Heller currently serves as a President at OJO Labs, an Austin-based real estate technology company guiding more people to successful homeownership.I know you will enjoy this one. Listen, learn, apply, repeat.

Building and leading relationships with customers is tough. Whatever you do when you are in the frontline, it will affect the fate of the business relationship.So… what do you look for when hiring your frontline employees? What College did they attend? What is their network? Their Title? Or maybe… if they had experience waiting tables? What can MBAs learn from waiters? What type of empathy and people reading skills can you pick up as a waiter? What makes up a good salesperson anyhow?I talked to Jazon Rozenblat, a sales professional with over 20 years of experience in high-growth technology startups, to learn more about these questions and his personal story, the future of work, and many other topics.He is a first generation American, with Argentinian roots, who grew up in NYC and then Miami, surrounded by latin music stars like Gloria Stefan (though he had no idea who she really was at that time).Jason is an extroverted introvert, who values empathy and stoicism as traits that he believes will make you successful, not only in sales, but in so many other aspects of life.I hope you can enjoy this episode as much as I did, lots of fun anecdotes and golden nuggets of advice in it. 

Rewind to March 2023, just a few months ago, and it seemed the AI holocaust was near.I, personally, got very anxious about it.I still get anxious from time to time, but in a more optimistic way.My feed isn’t as packed with AI experts these days. My friends still have their jobs. Some of them are using AI to be more productive. AI engineers are certainly on demand.But where are we now? What is really going on, beyond the hype? How are AI Engineers, Data Scientists, and Software Engineers going about their lives nowadays?I talked to 4 of my coworkers, to ask these questions. 1. What is your role today? How do you use AI? 2. What is your assessment of reality versus hype? 3. Where is AI going from here? My coworkers are:Andy Correa: A  software developer and advanced computer engineering student, specializing in all things JavaScript, deeply immersed in the world of PERN and MERN stacks.  Diego Cortés: Data Engineer. Passionate about data with almost 15 years of experience in Data Architecture, Data Engineering and Data Analysis.Carlos Jimenez: Systems engineer with 5 years of experience in data science and AI, with focus in NLP applications, he's passionate about the world of AI and LLMs.Diego Martinez: Operations Research Analyst, Data Scientist (DS), and Machine Learning (ML) Ops Lead with more than 15 years of experience.Join me as I talk to these brilliant professionals, to learn more about AI and its practical application in the real world.Enjoy!

Voice over actors engage in what is called voice acting, an art that involves providing voices for characters, narration, or information in various media forms. Voice acting involves various specific skills, such as creating distinct characters, adjusting tones, and adapting voices to match the roles they portray. But, how do you become a voice over artist? How do you stay creative? How do you make a living from it? Who hires you? What does it take to be a good voice artist? How is AI impacting this industry?I interviewed my friend Anthony Hewson, a voice over artist with more than 10 years of experience in the industry (and many more as a creative copywriter before that), to answer these questions and learn more about his story. He is a twelve-times One Voice voiceover awards finalist and a finalist for best male voiceover performance at the VOX Awards in both 2021 and 2022.I enjoyed our conversation and could spend hours listening to Anthony, his stories, and simply the quality and cadence of his voice.Enjoy!

Sales is an art. Closing a deal is an art.Reading your audience, improvising at the right time, adjusting your messaging. There is only so much you can teach about sales.That is why the best sales people don’t want to be bothered with process nonsense and engineering concepts.But… is sales really an art?Or is it a process like any other process we can find within business organizations?And if it is indeed a process, can it benefit from tried and true methodologies that keep the most complex organizations running like clockwork machines?What can a sales process learn from the big mac elaboration process if anything?I had a very enlightening and entertaining conversation with Steven Morell to learn the answers to these questions, and talk about his personal story. He is an IT industry veteran that worked in many places across the world, including my homeplace Uruguay, Germany, and none-other than Silicon Valley. He is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, a certified Revenue Architect, an experienced Sales Leader, and a former Full Stack Software Developer. So he’s been there, done that.If Sales matter to you, then you don’t want to miss this one. Enjoy!