CREW Upstate (a local chapter of the 12,000-member-strong national CREW organization) brings together professionals from every area of commercial real estate to support women having a stronger voice in the commercial real estate industry.
Now, they’re making that voice heard with a new, biweekly podcast called “Candidly CREW,” available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube and on the CREW Upstate website at crewupstate.org. In each episode, co-hosts and CREW Upstate members Chesley White and Mareena Register talk with prominent leaders in the commercial real estate industry, learn about their respective career paths and life in general through a storytelling/interview format.
“The idea is basically to step through the life and careers of our guests to talk about the victories as well as the challenges that they’ve overcome in order to get where they are today,” says Register. ” The hope is that our listeners will be able to glean nuggets of wisdom or transferable knowledge and inspiration to help them to grow in their own careers.”
The “Candidly CREW” podcast has recorded five episodes so far and plans to release them on a biweekly schedule going forward. Their first episode with Kimberly Bailey, senior project manager at Brasfield & Gorrie, LLC, is available now for streaming.
White says the idea for the podcast came from a conversation between herself and Register about how to share the knowledge of senior CREW Upstate members with more people and potentially create mentorship opportunities which would in return provide for value to their chapter members.
“I’m a huge podcast fan, first of all,” White says, “and we have a lot of experienced leaders in the chapter that have knowledge and expertise they could share. And so we were trying to figure out what kind of format would work to distill some of that information about careers and mentorship to our members.”
Both hosts say they’ve learned a lot from their guests so far and hope their listeners will feel the same way.
“I’ve really enjoyed getting to know our guests on a deeper level,” White says. “Being in the chapter for so long, we both know these individuals fairly well, but it’s interesting to hear their stories in this interview format. We learn so many new things, especially regarding how each of them approaches life and their career differently, there’s not a right or wrong way.”
“Our original desire was to share stories in a way that would open the door for CREW Upstate members to interact on a deeper level with these guests to feel comfortable reaching out for further mentorship.” says Register. “Now, instead of being restricted to a one-time live event, we have this podcast as a continuing resource to our members.”
