Treat your broker like your stylist 💇‍♀️✨

Every four months or so since college, I’ve had the same bad experience at the hair salon. I walk in, bright-eyed and ready for a change -- full Anne Hathaway pre-makeover energy. Princess Diaries OR The Devil Wears Prada -- pick your Anne. Either way, I’m ready to leave that place as red carpet Anne and… it never quite goes that way.

I’ve changed stylists and even tried to lower my expectations, but I couldn’t break the cycle.

…UNTIL I was in a brokerage kickoff call and the lightbulb went off - it’s not the stylists’ fault at all...it was mine. My results stemmed from my own preparation, or lack thereof. 

Hair styles, much like retail spaces, are subjective. Sure, there are trends (The Rachel) and some absolute no-gos (The Kate Gosselin, remember her?), but there are no objectively great haircuts.

We all have different hair (color, texture, etc.) and different face shapes. We have different lifestyles and amounts of time to dedicate to our ‘dos. We have different desired effects for our hair – it actually DOES matter if your goal is to look like a princess or a Vogue employee. And on top of all of that, we have different tastes and preferences.

This insight dawned on me when a Pedal Retailer asked for my opinion on a few of the spaces in her market survey (potential spaces to tour) before offering her own.

💡NB: Any space option we present in a Pedal Retailer’s market survey has already passed the basic sniff test -- it matches their real estate criteria and could be negotiated to fit with their budget. If it’s an absolute no-go, a real estate Kate Gosselin if you will, we wouldn’t present it in the first place.

Of course I have opinions about which spaces I like the most, and I can offer insights on specific priorities (which is the most convenient to Metro? Which has the most visible storefront? Which has the best co-tenancy?) But just as there is no haircut that is objectively "the best," different spaces will appeal to different retailers for different reasons – and that’s great!

When you think about it, that's the challenge and the beauty of choosing retail spaces. There truly isn’t any one best answer – if there were, AI would have replaced brokers already. And so, my job is to 1) understand our clients’ needs, wants and preferences, 2) provide different options that satisfy as many as of those possible, and then 3) help choose one that ultimately fits their business best.

All those years and probably a bajillion dollars later I finally realized – I had been searching for "the hairstyle" that was objectively cool, chic, fashionable, and I had wrongly assumed that I could lean on a professional to read my mind and deliver.

✂️ So now when I get a haircut, I go in with a plan and different pictures of Anne Hathaway haircuts I like. From there, the hairstylist can help translate those goals onto my head, et violá! I leave the chair happy with my hair! 

At the end of the day, I’m the only one who has to feel satisfied and confident with my haircut. The same goes for you, retailer. Other people don’t have to covet or even understand your space. It just has to fit you and your business.