Five Women. Five Careers. Five Ways of Reading Commercial Real Estate

Colleen does not need to raise her voice to influence the direction of a room. Often, one thoughtful sentence brings clarity. Conversations settle, ideas sharpen, and when tension begins to build, she has a way of easing it with a smile, keeping expectations high while ensuring people feel supported.

That sense of precision isn’t simply personality; it reflects a deeper philosophy. She does not believe an industry changes through enthusiasm or speeches. It changes when a company dares to examine itself from within. When it aligns incentives with purpose. When it decides which behaviors move forward and which do not. When it manages capital and risk with discipline. In her view, transformation starts with the internal architecture of a company.

“The evolution of an industry follows the companies that first redefine their own standards.”

She is not interested in leadership that announces itself. She is interested in leadership that organizes. With the same logic, she understands the importance of support among women in the sector.

For her, support is not celebration; it is commitment. It means understanding ambitions, strengths and real pressures. It means opening opportunities, giving direct feedback and being present when reputation and capital are at stake. It is not competition; it is shared construction.

“When we lift each other up, we strengthen the entire organization.”

And in a market where uncertainty has become the norm rather than the exception, she doesn’t claim to have simple formulas. The indispensable skill, she says, is learning with humility. Learning, unlearning and learning again. Operating without perfect visibility. Adjusting before the environment forces it.

Because, as she often says, the future will not belong only to those who react well, but to those willing to change first, even when the room is still quiet.

“It was an industrial park just a few meters from the US-Mexican border,” recalls Carla. “The map said it was close, but the access was a very long detour. On the way a police officer approached… well, someone dressed as a police officer. He said he could show me where to enter. In the end, he asked for a few thousand pesos.”

She paid. Took the directions. Kept driving.

“In that moment you think many things,” she says. “But I had already made it that far. And the building was on the other side.”

That is how she works.

After years traveling through industrial parks across northern Mexico, the Bajío and the center of the country, she learned that the market is rarely understood from a database. You have to see it. Confirm it. Compare what the reports say with what actually exists on the ground.

Carla is reserved. In a meeting, she speaks little. But when something does not add up, she says it. She has a quick instinct for detecting inflated numbers, weak assumptions, or stories that sound too convenient.

That is why, when younger women ask her how to advance in an industry where many decisions are still made in rooms dominated by men, her answer is simple: prepare well and make your voice count. Judgment, she says, is built through work.

For Carla, research does not mean describing the market. It means understanding it. And if necessary, driving a few more miles to verify it.

Outside the reports, she celebrates discoveries with a cold beer and returns home to Pippen, her dog. The next day it starts again: the road, the data and another question to solve.

Majo often says she could sell almost anything.

Once she tested that idea with something improbable: her own mattress. A mattress where, she says with a laugh, an older woman had died. She even marketed it that way, calling it “a mattress with a ghost included.” And she sold it.

The anecdote is more than a joke. It says a lot about how she understands her work.

When she walks into a room, she does not think first about closing the deal. She observes. Who listens. Who interrupts. Who weighs every word. Because in real estate—she knows—decisions are rarely made with numbers alone.

As a product manager and marketing strategist, her job is to translate information—data, metrics, market behavior—into decisions others can use. Interpreting trends, anticipating movements and building value propositions.

“You can have all the data in the world,” she says, “but if you don’t understand the people making the decision, that data doesn’t mean much.”

When she talks about growing in the industry, her advice is direct: master the business, build strong networks and find mentors who push you forward. And something else: do not wait until you feel completely ready before taking on a new challenge.

Many careers, she says, move forward this way: accepting opportunities that force you to learn faster than planned.

For her, the real estate market will become increasingly analytical and technological. But those who lead the next phase will be the ones capable of combining three things at once: data, strategic vision and strong relationships.

Mariana rarely stays still for long.

A few years ago, her life seemed fairly defined: a wedding ahead, a course already paid for in London, clear plans. Then everything changed. London was no longer an option and another possibility appeared: moving to Dubai.

She went without a plan. A friend told her to try her luck. If she found a job, it would be a sign to stay. If not, she would return.

On the third day, she landed a job at a fintech. She stayed for four years, and from that experience she drew a lesson she now applies in the real estate business: new markets are rarely discovered in reports.

In business development, her work involves starting conversations when a project does not yet exist and identifying market movements before they become evident.

“Markets begin to move when someone decides to start the conversation.” That is why, for women interested in real estate business development, her recommendation is less comfortable than it may sound.

“The sector still operates largely through informal networks: relationships, calls, meetings that are not always on the calendar. Sometimes it means walking into rooms where you are the only woman or where the dynamic already seems defined. But that is also where the opportunity appears. Those who learn to listen better, read each actor’s incentives and sustain a difficult conversation can change the direction of a project.”

For Mariana, the real estate sector will become increasingly technical. But she believes the advantage will continue to belong to those who move first, because markets do not always wait for someone to understand them fully—sometimes they wait for someone willing to step in.

Camila still remembers the first time she had to sit alone in front of a client. It was not a particularly large meeting, but for her it was. She came from the technology world, where she had spent years selling software and cybersecurity solutions to companies used to making decisions quickly.

Real estate, by contrast, taught her a different speed. Here, projects take time. Decisions do too.

Today, she works in business development in Colombia, helping companies understand the market and turn information into action. At first—she admits—it intimidated her to sit alone with certain clients. But over time, she discovered something she now sees clearly: in this industry, many rules remain in place not because they are the best, but because no one has questioned them. And that is where the space to change the conversation appears.

“The real estate sector talks more and more about data,” she says, “but many decisions are still made out of habit. Those who learn to question those routines start to move the market.”

So when other women ask her how to advance in the sector, her answer does not begin with titles or years of experience. It begins with judgment.

“Listen carefully, understand how the different actors think and dare to ask questions when something doesn’t add up.”

Because sometimes the transformation of an industry does not arrive through a major disruption. It begins when someone looks at the same thing everyone else sees… and decides to think differently.