Pamela Goodwin Show Notes

Pamela J. Goodwin is the founder of Goodwin Commercial based in Dallas, TX, a boutique commercial real estate firm specializing in de-veloping retail/restaurant pad sites (Walgreens, McDonalds), broker-age, investment sales and consulting services under one roof.

Originally from Omaha, Pamela graduated from the University of Ne-braska-Lincoln, is a best-selling author, speaker, coach, member and contributor with Forbes Real Estate Council.

When she isn’t working, Pamela enjoys traveling to the beach, staying fit, being a basketball mom, spending time with her family and friends.

Most passionate about

• I’ve been in some form of commercial real estate for more than 30 years and in my own company, Goodwin Commercial, going on 13 years this month. We specialize in 100% retail commercial real estate, and our niche is single tenant net lease properties, which means we buy land and then lease it back to McDonald’s, Walgreens, Starbucks and similar tenants. What I’m really passionate about is helping people learn how to invest in commercial real estate.
• A lot of people are scared and are thinking they don’t have the money or the knowledge, so my passion is to help people buy their first commercial real estate asset. People are surprised by how they can get into buying a Starbucks and not operating it, but owning that investment property and showing you how to team up with partners, so you have cash flow, so you can be at the beach while you have money coming in.

Pamela’s best advice about approaching customers

• Without customers, you don’t have a business. It all comes down to networking and as everyone says, it comes down to having the customers trust you. I truly love meeting people and helping them. I recently helped a couple that designs jewelry. They’ve been leasing space for more than 30 years in an office building.
• I’ve built a relationship with them and true, to show them how to own, have their own building instead of spending all that money leasing space. They closed on their first office space in December, and they could not be happier. It was building that relationship of giving them examples and walking them step by step knowing that you would be with them for the entire process.
• You need to help the customer. You are helping them save time or money. You need to build on that relationship, meet with them, check in with them, and see how you can help them. It’s key for repeat business. If they are happy with what you’re done for them, they’re going to refer you to other people.

Biggest failure with a customer

• I had been working with a client for more than a year; it was a retail tenant looking for space. Sometimes, because I’ve been doing the business for so long, I can trust people, and sometimes I think document and paperwork can get in the way of relationships to a degree, but you still have to be protected and in this case, I did trust this person too much that we were working one on one, meeting with the landlord, and then when it came time to sign the deal, the lease, he requested half of my commission, which was a complete surprise. Which doesn’t happen too often in our business. I refused to pay him half because it was never talked about up front, and then he contacted the landlord, telling him that I was no longer representing him.
• Thank goodness, the landlord protected me; he knows my reputation. But it just goes to show that you definitely, even though you trust people, you still have to have the correct documents in place to be protected, no matter what.

Biggest success due to the right customer approach

• One of the biggest successes that I’m most proud about is one of the first deals I’d worked on, building a relationship with a motel owner who owned it since the 1950s. We had a national tenant wanting their prime corner location for a Walgreens. I must have spent at least two years with a 90 mile one way trip once a week to go visit him. It took almost two years of building trust before he finally sold his motel and now there’s a brand new Walgreens in that space. Persistence and building a relationship.

Pamela’s most recommended tool

• More on the technology side, I still react out to clients more the old fashioned way of sending a letter to them in the mail. I still think everyone likes to open up a letter or a small gift, or if I’m trying to get someone’s attention, I’ll send them a Fed-Ex letter. It always works. Even if I’m trying to get a meeting with someone, I’ll send a one page quick letter, asking if I can meet with them on a certain date and to check back and that letter works every single time.
• Another amazing thing about having a phone is sending a quick video.
• Really, just sending a simple thank you letter after meeting with somebody goes a long way. I have a board up in my office for 2019 of anybody who sends me a thank you note; I love receiving them! I took everything off for last year and I recreated 2019 and anything I do this year from tickets to shows to thank you notes to races I run to anything exciting happening I’ll post it up there.

Pamela’s key success factor

• I’ve been called ‘Persistent Pam’ before. If I want something, I go after it. But what I really like to do is connect people with people that I have met and build that relationship. Building relationships, to me, is key and I think that’s been a success.
• I really like to get to know people and meet with them and help each other in business. Love adventures and trying new things, I think a lot of people get stuck in a rut. People reach out to me saying they’re stuck and it helps to keep trying a variety of things and see what works, see what sticks to the wall.

Pamela’s Mountain

Since we believe that the best way for entrepreneurs to get a fast, big, and sustainable success is by leading your (new) market category, and the entire entrepreneurial journey reminds me of mountaineering, or conquering the mountain; I want to ask you if there is a mountain you dream of climbing or a mountain you have already climbed.

• I work out at least 4-5 times a week, and last year I did climb a mountain. My son was looking at a college in Colorado, so we did attempt to climb a mountain. He and my husband made it a lot farther than I did, but it’s definitely exciting and exhilarating to challenge yourself.
• You start climbing up the mountain, you stop, you take a look at the view and see where you are, see how much farther you can go, and keep going.
• I’ve been working out for something that I’m about to do this up coming weekend climb a total of 888 stairs it’s 45 floors of an office building in downtown Dallas for a fundraiser for lung cancer. So, I’m challenging my self to that.
• My father died early 58 years old, of a stroke, and so health has always been important and so him, as an entrepreneur and health they have to go hand in hand to be able to climb that mountain because you have to keep going and going because when you feel like giving up as an entrepreneur, your customers not responding, you just have to keep going, climbing up that mountain so you can shout from the top of it.

The best way to connect with Pamela:

• Email
• Website
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Phone

Pamela’s Books

• One Cent Lemonade to Million Dollar Deals: 25 Jobs & 25 Lessons I Wish I learned Sooner!
• Winning Ways in Commercial Real Estate: 18 Successful Women Unveil the Tips of the Trade in the Real Estate World
• How To Win In Commercial Real Estate – Zero To $1,000,000 In One Deal

More resources for Entrepreneurs

1. Don’t Miss – Customer Focus Strategy & Execution: Market Analysis for Fundraising
2. Hayut Yogev’s Latest post: Are you an entrepreneur or a small business owner?
3. Former interview: Brian Hart: “… Search engine optimization (Together with PR), is one of the biggest opportunities for small to mid-sized firms”