Creating a Strong Reputation in the Building Business - Antonia Botero
We're having conversations with entrepreneurs who are innovating and redefining real estate - This week we highlight our conversation with entrepreneur/developer Antonia Botero
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Earlier this year, Rachel Walters and I launched our podcast, Breaking New Ground. In it, we explore commercial real estate with entrepreneurs who challenge the status quo, create innovative paths with bold approaches, and tell the stories of real estate trailblazers who are reshaping the industry.
In a recent episode, we chat with Antonia Botero and explore her real estate entrepreneurship journey, from immigrant to architect to developer. She has worked on various project types and scales across the country. In one of her first development projects worked on the redevelopment of the iconic TWA Terminal at La Guardia Airport in NYC. During our conversation Antonia shares how she grew her business using social media during the pandemic and never looked back. Learn more about Antonia and her company, MADD Project.
Quotes from our conversation with Antonia
On getting started:
A lot of people that come into development, they either come from the finance side, and have a lot of finance connections, or there's family money, or there's family office money.
And that was not my case. So for me, it was like, ‘How do I stand up a development shop, by myself without a fund or any kind of capital backing?’
And the best way I knew how to do that was leaning on the thing that I knew how to do really well, which is the execution of the projects.
Building a track record:
I think what helps are the reps and having the experience. Just putting in the time and putting in the work that gives people a lot of confidence…It's like, when you're learning a sport, the more you practice, the better you get at it, and the more you feel like ‘Okay, I can do this!’ Then you step in without hesitation next time.
On marketing on social media (Twitter/X):
I was listening to a podcast and they said, if you’re in real estate you need to join Twitter. And so I was like, ‘Let me give it a shot”. And so I started posting and realized a couple of things. First was there weren't a lot of women. The second one was, there weren't a lot of like development operators. Does anyone talk about contracts? Would you know how long it should actually take to build a building?
And so I started posting very basic things that I had from my experience, and it turns out that there was a meaningful audience for that. And so slowly, I started building a bit of a following and then I started getting work from Twitter… And so now, I would say about 50% of my work comes from social media.”
Check it out. We hope you find her story as inspirational as we do!
And if you like what you hear, share and follow—and let us know who we should interview next! Cheers, John
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