Conversations With Captivate: Q&A With Carrie Antrim
COO of Multifamily Leadership & Co-Founder of Multifamily Women®
Real Estate’s C-suite hasn’t always been the most diverse, but recently women have made inroads into the industry’s top management ranks. Meet Carrie Antrim, COO of Multifamily Leadership and Co-Founder of Multifamily Women®. Carrie creates content, and hosts podcasts and events that serve to educate and inspire a path towards a more inclusive multifamily industry. Through in-depth conversations and meaningful experiences, Carrie helps Real Estate leaders bring a human-centric experience to every level of an organization.
In this interview, Carrie sits down with us to offer tips on creating a more diverse work environment, offer advice to women starting out in Real Estate, and share her journey to find her voice in the multifamily industry. Enjoy!
Q&A with Carrie Antrim:
Q: Tell us a bit about Multifamily Leadership. How did it get started?
Multifamily Leadership launched in 2014 with the national research program, Best Places to Work Multifamily®, which is a one-of-a-kind research project designed to recognize companies building healthy organizations.
What began with a single annual summit, has since grown into the Multifamily Leadership platform that serves Investments, Technology, Innovation, and Leadership through the Multifamily Innovation® Advisory Council, Podcast and Summit; the Multifamily Investment Summit which includes the Wealthy Apartment Investor Podcast; and the Multifamily Women® platform which includes the Podcast, Summit, and Leadership Series with a private networking community.
After building these platforms from the ground up, we realized that everything has to do with trust and credibility, and gained millions of units without using traditional strategies like trade shows, client entertainment, or sales. This began the creation of our Multifamily Strategic Business Growth Agency Mclients.com and our all-in-one Marketing Platform MultifamilyClients.com.
Q: What sparked the creation of the Multifamily Women® Summit?
We realized that one of the keys to a healthy, balanced organization was having every voice represented at every level. It is crucial to have women represented, as we are driving anywhere between 70-80% of all consumer purchasing decisions. If you look at the residents we are all ultimately serving, they represent a wide range of backgrounds, life experiences, wants, and needs. Our products must reflect that fact and deliver with quality and efficiency.
Our vision at Multifamily Women® is to empower emerging leaders to think bigger about their future and to help them realize their big dreams, whatever those may be. It might be a Regional Manager who wants to be CEO. Or it might be a CEO who wants to own the whole community and become a successful multifamily investor. That is why we seek out and extract the wisdom from expert leaders in the industry who are doing these things every day and empowering those around them to make a real impact in the world.
Q: You’ve mentioned in a previous interview that you focus on creating “relatable and bonding” experiences. What sorts of activities do you do, and what can team leaders achieve by doing them?
One of the benefits of having a balanced organization is that leaders are given the opportunity to understand varying perspectives, personalities, backgrounds, and belief systems. Co-founding Multifamily Women® with my husband Patrick has allowed us to think through every interaction we want our audience to have with our brand.
When we were in the designing phase of the annual Multifamily Women® Summit, it was very important to me that there was no “forced networking” as I like to call it, being an introvert at heart. On the other hand, Patrick had a deep understanding of the importance of providing time for these crucial connections to happen with our attendees and speakers.
So, we made the decision to do something that would facilitate real, not forced, connection. We begin every summit with a unique experience that gets people out of the “I’m at another industry conference” mindset. We’ve done everything from helicopter rides, to yoga, hiking to the tops of mountains and even bringing in improv comedy troupes. All of these unique activities automatically create bonding experiences and you end up leaving with a whole new group of connections.
Q: As an influential leader in the multifamily industry, what are the biggest challenges you’ve faced, and how have you conquered them?
I have the privilege of speaking to and working with so many incredibly brilliant executives, owners, and investors in this space on a daily basis that it can get overwhelming. In fact, at times the intimidation factor has been crippling, but I quickly realized that was all in my head.
All of the leaders I have ever interviewed and interacted with have all been nothing less than wonderful. Human. Relatable. Kind. And that’s the magic of multifamily.
Q: What do you think the multifamily industry needs to do to support the next generation?
Sometimes I catch myself saying something that sounds eerily similar to my mother. My mother is an angel, so absolutely nothing against her, but it’s a gut check for me to question whether I’m taking a certain stance because I really feel that way or because that’s the way it’s always been done.
I think it’s really important to be open to the ideas of the next generation. We’ve got to create organizations with executive teams who are willing to think differently, try new things, and stop doing things that are outdated or ineffective just because that’s the way they’ve always been done. It can be scary for investors, owners, and operators who are cashing big checks to even think about challenging the status quo, but those who do are the ones who are making the biggest impact. Besides, the expectations of our residents are changing so quickly we cannot afford to stay stagnant.
Q: What advice can you give women entering the industry?
My advice to all emerging leaders, regardless of gender, race, background, etc., is to learn everything you absolutely can from those who have gone before you, but take that wisdom and make it your own. Do not be afraid to innovate and come up with new, fresh ideas that can improve your organization and/or the lives of those you serve. Remember the goal and stay focused on that with a heart to serve. To women specifically, you can do it. You deserve it. You are worthy of all of the success. You got this.
Q: To end the interview – what would you tell your younger self?
Ha! So many things, where do I start? Wear more sunscreen? Invest in Bitcoin? Listen to your mother because she’s right about pretty much everything?
Jokes (not jokes) aside, if I could go back in time and talk to my younger self, I’d say dream big. Scarcity is a mindset, coupled with fear, that can keep you from having what you want, but if you break free from that box and allow yourself to have those big, scary, crazy insane dreams, you’ll achieve more than you ever thought possible.
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