2018 Women In Real Estate, Professional Services: Nicole LaRusso, CBRE

Name: Nicole LaRusso 

Title: Director of Research & Analysis, CBRE Tri-State

Company Name: CBRE

What blogs, resources, podcasts or influencers have helped you?

Spencer Levy, head of research for CBRE Americas, has been a big influence for me. He’s pushed me and my team to develop a strong point of view for a certain topic and taught us how to properly communicate that point of view to our brokers and clients. Mary Ann Tighe, CEO of the Tri-State region, has also been a big influence. She is very good at providing the full picture when it comes to market trends, which in turn helps the research team create complementing materials that looks at the market in a holistic way. 

How many messages are in your inbox right now and how do you manage email?

5,055. I only read the top-priority emails that come in daily. I make a point to focus my time on what seems to be most important. My next personal project will be to clean out those non-important emails! 

What do you do like to do for fun?

I enjoy spending time with my husband and our two children, whether at our home in Jersey City or on a fun family vacation–we’ve traveled to Michigan and Iceland this summer! I also love to karaoke–my go-to artist is Pat Benatar. 

In one word, describe yourself: 

Collaborative

What are some of your biggest accomplishments in the last 12 months?

Over the past year, we have further streamlined our reporting process, making it a well-oiled machine. We produce our quarterly research reports ahead of our competitors, leading to a significant increase in press coverage across the Tri-State.

My team and I also worked on several “Market ViewPoint” reports, which take a deep dive into a specific industry trend. We produced the Tri-State’s first report on coworking and flexible space providers in Manhattan. The report has been referenced in more than 15 media placements since it was published and has guided several discussions that our brokers have had on the topic.

How important is it for women to create a personal brand?

I think a woman’s role in the commercial real estate industry determines how important branding is. For a broker interacting with clients, I think it’s crucial to develop a brand, whether through social media, public relations or another channel. For my role, it was more important to focus on building an internal brand, so brokers and other CBRE employees understand what it is that my team does for them. I’d like to think that I’ve established myself internally as a hard worker that takes the time to analyze the content of every report and statistic that we produce as a firm.