Consolo of Douglas Elliman Real Estate honored to be director on the national board of Commercial Real Estate Women's Network

Name: Faith Hope Consolo Title: Chairman, The Retail Group Company Name:Douglas Elliman Real Estate, The Retail Group Years in Commercial Real Estate: 25+ In the last 12 months, which project, transaction, honor or accomplishment are you most proud of and why? In 2014, I began my term as a director on the national board of Commercial Real Estate Women's Network (CREW), an honor I found both humbling and exciting. It's been a delight to meet such accomplished women in our industry, and to be a part of the team helping to forge an even more successful future. On the corporate side, my team and I completed a complicated trifecta deal in Long Island City, which consisted of relocating a prestigious art dealer from Manhattan to the area, relocating an existing LIC Media conglomerate within a two-block radius even as it more than doubled in size from 40,000 s/f to 100,000 s/f. That entailed yet another deal, arranging the disposition of an entire building so we could recapture space from a Fortune 50 company to accommodate the media conglomerate and gallery! Not only were all three companies relocated successfully, income flow for the properties rose by 50%! What were your biggest fears when you started out in your profession? The word "fear" isn't in my vocabulary. I wasn't sure that Real Estate would be the right fit for me because my previous careers were entrepreneurial and on the creative side: the modeling agency that I founded and sold to a national company and the interior design firm I founded and sold to an architectural company. But when I returned to New York, someone suggested I enter a career where I had no experience or training. Could an art student transition to a real estate mogul? Turns out I could! 3. Who are three women- living or dead - that you would like to have drinks with and why? Elizabeth Taylor- I'm a hopeless romantic and I want to know first hand why she loved and sometimes married and remarried some of the most famous, powerful and magnificent men in the world Nora Ephron - because everything she wrote resounded with my beliefs, my approach to life... she mirrors my emotions. Must it be just three? I'm torn between Mary Wells of Wells, Rich & Green because she was so brilliant at marketing and advertising, and Suzy Welch because in addition to her own journalistic expertise, I might get the benefit of knowledge from her husband, Jack Welch! 4. What was your first job and what did you learn from it? I founded the modeling company and learned that no one should discount how important good looks are in ANY Field. Looking your best increases your confidence -- and that increases the confidence others have in you. 5. What is your favorite quote? Anything from Vince Lombardi, a man who knew how to win, how to motivate others to achieve their best, and to do both with integrity. 6. What social media and/or face to face networking activities do you find most beneficial professionally? While I believe that social media is critical to getting information out quickly, and great to begin a relationship, nothing replaces fact-to-face interaction. That's why I'm so deeply involved in CREW Network and NYCREW. People learn best in groups, and real estate will always remain a relationship-based business. You learn a lot by looking someone in the eye when communicating. So I find NYCREW, CREW, ICSC and other educational events some of the most beneficial to me professionally. You never know whom you'll meet! 7. What are you doing differently in 2014 that has had positive impact on your career? I'm doing the same thing I've done for the last 25 years in this career "work, work and hard work". I have a "trader's" mentality that every day is a new day ...new deals..new beginnings, closings, openings. That hunger has kept me active and successful through good and not-so-good times -- and resulted in a fulfilling career that now reaches worldwide. 8. What are you doing to increase your client base from local / regional markets to national / global markets? I've had national and global market contacts for decades now, so it's nothing new. But as the rest of the world becomes more globally oriented, I'm extending that reach through the SBS Network I co-founded to include more contacts from Asia, South America and Australia. New and imaginative retailers and brands are coming from everywhere now!