Keynote Speaking

I hope you are doing well. This morning on my way to work I listened to Chris Ressa’s podcast with your CanesWear story. It was my first time listening to the podcast and thought the story was great. I really enjoyed hearing how you got creative to make the deal work and the specific details regarding the rent and sales numbers. It was especially interesting since the shopping center is right in my back yard! I love reading all of your tidbits online and continue to find many of your posts informative and inspiring.

Your presentation and time in the field exceeded our expectations. It was a great refresher course to our senior guys(myself included) but more importantly a perfect day for the newbies that we have recently hired at RCG. I look forward to receiving your thoughts on the Team as a whole. I am also anxious to get your individual thoughts on the surveys and field time with the agents.

Beth Azor is a treasure… Her approach is fun and the skills as well as insight are 110% applicable. This woman walks the walk, talks the talk and is truly a master in our industry.

I have had the honor and pleasure to know Ms. Beth Azor for over seven years. We met when she was the President of Terranova Corporation, and to say that I was impressed with her intimate knowledge of the South Florida Retail Leasing Market would be an understatement. Since then, I have witnessed, first hand, her ability to maximize the potential of a property’s value, by obtaining the highest rents coupled with the optimum tenant mix that market conditions afford. I have interacted with well over one hundred professionals in the Commercial Real Estate field, and WITHOUT EXCEPTION, all have had only the highest of praise for her as a person of integrity and ability. When I ask her something that she isn’t sure of, which is rare, she taps into her vast “rolodex” of contacts and retrieves the precise information needed in a matter of minutes.

I have engaged Beth’s services in the past to train our leasing director who serviced Weston Town Center, together with four other retail centers in Weston, and the results surpassed my highest expectations. She infused my manager with self-confidence, passing on her years of experience in a matter of months.

Beth is a charismatic leader who makes her “students” want to please her by learning. They instantly respond to the fact that they are being taught by someone who has mastered their trade. She commands respect, compels dedication, as she generously shares her wealth of knowledge. One could do no better with their time or money than to engage Beth as a teacher, problem solver, and inspiration. She has tireless energy, and is undisputedly the reigning “Dean” of Commercial Real Estate.

Beth Azor, thank you. Many of the techniques and ideas you gave me in your Rockstar training have inspired me to improve and continue to grow in my career. You and Debbie Harms are remarkable leaders in our industry and I’m lucky to know you both and call you my friends.

Thank you so much for the information at the ICSC convention workshop. I have to tell you that your workshop provided the most valuable information (and by far the least boring presentation!) that I’ve gotten at any of the workshops in my 8 years of attending the Florida Conference. Thanks!

Thank you again for coming in and working with our team. As great as your reputation is, I was not expecting to learn as much as I did. Your canvassing tips were basic and brilliant, but your macro ideas for increasing value in shopping centers were extremely insightful and helpful. Our managing partners were energized by your “back to the basics” approach. I expect to evaluate future acquisitions with a new appreciation for powerful local tenants. I look forward to watching your strategies get implemented in our firm, and expect to work with you more in the future.

Beth brought me into commercial real estate in late 2000 while she was President of Terranova Corp. At that time Terranova was known to have the most effective and most intense training for retail leasing agents known to man – only 1 out of 4 prospective agents would make it. During the training she instilled the discipline to use ACT! database (which I still use today), canvassing on a regular basis (which I still do today), lease negotiation tactics (“telling ain’t sellin”, “you have 2 ears and 1 mouth”, “5 no’s to get a yes”, “sending cookies”, “consistent persistence”, “the definition of assume”, etc, etc), and other skills that made me a great retail leasing agent. Not only is she a legend in commercial real estate but she is an awesome person. She is always helping out new people to the industry (especially if they attended FSU) with her mentor-ship and advice. If you hire Beth to help your leasing or development, she will without a doubt increase the production and value of both tremendously.

In August of 2009 I was tasked with leasing a shopping center that had fallen to 25% occupancy in a very tough market. In October, I took Beth’s leasing seminar and she actually accompanied me on multiple canvassing trips. I have no doubt that the tips and tools I learned from Beth have helped me turn that property around. Not only are we now at 65% occupancy with multiple deals in the works, but I have built up a pipeline of prospects to KEEP the center stable and occupied for years to come!

Just wanted to tell you it was a pleasure meeting you yesterday. Thanks for coming to do your seminar at Urban Edge. I definitely took away some items I am going to incorporate, like thinking about my tenant’s perspective in the negotiation and incorporating some personal touches so that people know me! It was also a great reminder for things I know, but have gotten away from doing.