You have some strong sentiments about mentoring.

I was at Hubbell for about 18 years, and during that time, I probably trained two dozen brokers, and one of the first people I trained was a young man named Marcus Pitts, who is now over here. Marcus and I are working pretty close together on a lot of things, and it’s just been a real pleasure to experience the mentoring all the way through. It’s kind of rewarding to be able to work with him now that he has become the top producer at Ruhl & Ruhl. Something struck me during a football game I saw a couple of weeks ago. It was a stark difference between quarterbacks injured on the sidelines. Jay Cutler (of the Chicago Bears) was hurt. He pretty well disassociated himself from the rest of team. Another game I was watching, the quarterback was on the sideline for whatever reason, and he was mentoring the young quarterback. I said to myself, that’s the kind of ballplayer an owner could look at and say, I have the right quarterback on my team. The world would be a better place if everybody mentored. The commercial real estate business is very competitive. It’s straight commission, and probably eight or nine out of 10 brokers do not mentor at all.

Was there no one left to mentor at CBRE?

It’s just that it kind of ran its course. It was my circumstance that I seem to like to mentor people, and it’s a rewarding thing to see young brokers who are actively engaged in the market now.

What got you into commercial real estate?

What attracted me was … one of the things I noticed was that people on trips either seemed to be in insurance or real estate. I knew some guys who were making six figures, and I thought what is it that they had that I didn’t have. Maybe they get up earlier, maybe they’re smarter, maybe they work harder, maybe they look better, whatever. Then I realized they were in an industry that compensated them for what they were worth. I was in an industry that, whether you sold a case or a truckload, your paycheck was the same. They were in an industry that if they sold a truckload, their paycheck was not the same. I thought, if you can sell, then you can sell; I guess I’ll find out. I had my eye on Hubbell for a number of reasons. They had integrity and inventory.

Did you have a mentor? Did someone show you the ropes?

Not in commercial real estate. Without being too blunt about it, your training was a phone book, three legal pads and “your office is next to the restroom; here’s a book of prospects” – it’s the whole phone book.

How tough is it to sell right now?

You have to bring your A game; that’s for sure. But things are improving. One of the things that’s refreshing about working with a young broker like Marcus is the attitude and the positive aspect of that attitude. There’s plenty of business. There are companies that still have a need for less space or more space in another location. If you’re first to them and can present yourself well enough on the services you provide, then you’re onto a deal.

What do you do for recreation?

I love to fly fish. I read something that said, “I had a hell of a career going until I took up fly fishing.”

Do you do this to forget about work?

No, I have a personality that takes pictures and a lot of my analogies are based on fishing, specifically fly fishing. There are three aspects to our business: lead generation, discovery-conversion, and service delivery. Discovery-conversion, which is a little like laying a fly out there and something takes it; you don’t know what you have out there, but something is going on. Lead generation is you just keep putting it out there, you put out your best elevator speech, then something happens out there. Something’s either there or you lay it out again, no half measures.

Are you mentoring Marcus on fly fishing?

I’m taking him to Canada this year. He doesn’t know it yet, but I am.