Abrams of The Lansco Corp. discusses fears when starting out

Name: Robin Abrams Title: Executive Vice President Company Name: The Lansco Corporation Year Founded: 1965 Years in Commercial Real Estate: 35 In the last 12 months, which project, transaction, honor or accomplishment are you most proud of and why? In early 2014 I was honored by the Real Estate Board of New York as the recipient of their prestigious Louis Smadbeck Broker Recognition Award. This award "recognizes a REBNY broker with personal and professional integrity, long term leadership and prominence in the brokerage community. " Past recipients include a who's who in the brokerage industry: 22 men, and one other woman, Mary Ann Tighe. I feel fortunate to be a part of our real estate community, and of REBNY, where I served on the Commercial Board of Directors, and was elected as the first female chair of the Retail Committee. What were your biggest fears when you started out in your profession? My biggest fears when I started out in brokerage were tied to the recognition that I could not please everyone all the time, nor would everyone always like me or the decisions I made. I am a very agreeable personality in general, and it was difficult for me to make unpopular decisions, even if they were the correct decisions from a business point of view. Not until I learned that, was I able to move to the next level. One can behave with integrity without having to compromise strategy. And taking pro-active positions, does not need to relate to aggressive behavior. What is your favorite quote? My favorite quote as of late, is nothing philosophical or deep......it is something one of my partners likes to say, and is not to be taken the wrong way. "Don't be a hero" is what he tells our brokers, again, with the nicest intentions. Taken out of context it would seem that he was imploring us not to put our customer's needs first. But he was saying that we should not put our desire to win, or our ego first, and should be willing to compromise on our customer's behalf in order to get a fair and meaningful deal done. 8. What are you doing to increase your client base from local / regional markets to national / global markets? In order to increase my client base I am travelling more to meet face to face with prospective tenant contacts. In the "old days" one met with customers or called by phone to engage them. Now with email, it is quite easy to reach out but often harder to connect. I have been to multiple European and US cities over this past year, and benefit both from meeting with specific companies, as well as walking around the most vibrant retail corridors in each city that I visit.