Pay It Forward: "Raise Your Hand" Advice From Sarah Berman President of The Berman Group
"It’s hard to walk into a room without connections but it gets easier and networking is invaluable."
Sarah Berman, President of The Berman Group, New York City.
The Berman Group provides public relations, marketing, and special events services to businesses in the real estate industry. As founder and president of the Berman Group, Sara Berman leverages industry knowledge and relationships and works to develop creative communications programs to increase business and reach new audiences.
What has been your biggest challenge or obstacle as a woman in this Industry and how have you overcome those obstacles/? One of the biggest obstacles as a woman in my role was that I never connected with women role models early in my career and I didn’t have a network of female peers who were my age when I first started out. Most of my early mentors were men which never held me back and fortunately caused me to speak up and seek out mentors who were not exactly like myself. Today I have found women mentors but continue to have men as equally valuable mentors as well.
What is the best piece of advice you have received that has helped you succeed in your industry ? The best advice I received was to put my head down and work hard. I believe this advice would have helped me succeed in any industry. I constantly wanted to learn. I also had to overcome my tendency to be shy to learn how to network and really connect with people. I would give that advice to anyone in the next generation—it’s hard to walk into a room without connections but it gets easier and networking is invaluable.
Where would you say commercial real estate needs to improve for women? Commercial real estate should continue to embrace and advance women but women also need to raise their hands and speak up so that they are embraced. I think it’s a two-way street today and so many commercial real estate firms have put a real focus on diversity -both gender diversity and other forms of diversity-to improve their organizations.
How can women better position themselves for success? Positioning yourself for success in any aspect of the industry is really about raising your hand, stretching yourself to continue to learn and meeting as many people as you can to find quality connections. I have found that if I focus on what I can do for others, people have supported me in return. I am so fortunate to have built a network of professionals all around the country who want to refer our team and see our firm succeed in marketing and PR for the real estate industry.
What can women bring to the table as the industry continues to grapple with this crisis? Women (and men) leaders can bring a sense of calm and creativity as leaders in our industry right now. My team depends on me to forge a direction that will help us during these challenging times or in any future crisis. You can’t forget to innovate and to consider that you may be stronger on the other side of this pandemic or any other event that effects your business or our industry. During the last economic downturn, our firm formed new business lines that are some of the most stable and profitable areas within our business today. You can’t lose sight of potential growth and opportunities even when there are obstacles in the way.
