In a recent episode of The Science of Business Development, Stephanie Welter, from Keller Williams Success Real, interviews Rebekah Carlson from Carlson Integrated.

Carlson's firm specializes in marketing and is also a commercial real estate brokerage. Welter is curious about the structure of Carlson's business and asks how she ended up combining both aspects.Carlson explains that she got licensed in real estate when she first started in the industry as a way to learn the vernacular of the business.

However, when she left her old in-house company, they told her to take her license with her. Carlson then had to take managing broker classes so that she could have her license hung by herself.

Over time, her marketing business grew, but she also began to have colleagues and friends who asked to hang their license with her. These were people who had licensing but were not utilizing it as part of their primary career, and they wanted to have a managing broker who understood that they were not going to be generating leads.

As Carlson's brokerage business grew, she provided opportunities for education, mentoring, and learning, particularly in the commercial real estate business.

While Carlson's primary focus is on marketing, she recognizes the importance of storytelling in business development. She came from the investment side of the commercial real estate world and was the director of marketing and business development for a company that acquired shopping centers and parking structures across the country.

She recognized that no one can do business with someone they don't know about, and she loved the growth that they were able to experience when they raised investment funds.

Carlson's experience in building a business from the inside and her knowledge of the investment side of the commercial real estate world has helped her combine her marketing expertise with her commercial real estate brokerage business. She also recognizes that relationships are a significant aspect of any business, and one should not lose family in real estate but grow it.

Rebekah Carlson's unique combination of marketing and commercial real estate brokerage businesses has resulted in an unintentional growth pattern, but she has taken advantage of this growth to provide opportunities for education, mentoring, and learning in the commercial real estate business. Carlson's experience in building businesses from the inside has also helped her to recognize the importance of storytelling in business development and the value of growing relationships in the industry.