Listen to this articleHeidi Addo’s mother was a teacher and her father worked in commercial real estate. Growing up, Addo said she felt like she was a natural teacher and felt her mother’s profession calling to her.
So she went to school, got her license to teach, and landed a job in Coon Rapids.
Then, about seven years in, Addo said she realized she was burned out from the profession. After thinking about it, Addo went to her dad, Steve Michel of Michel Commercial Real Estate and asked if she could join the firm.
“When I asked if I could join the team, he hesitated, which I wasn’t expecting,” Addo said. “Now that I’m in this job, I know why. It is cutthroat, it is tough. It can be a slog. It’s a season of feast, seasons of famine.”
But eventually Michel relented, telling Addo the business is “sink or swim” and that there wouldn’t be handouts.
Almost seven years into the career change, Addo said the business remains tough but that she would never look back. She sat down with Finance & Commerce to talk through her career transition, the market and what it’s like to work in the family business.
This interview has been edited for and clarity.
Q: Could you talk to us a little bit about your past life as an educator? What that looked like, what brought you into the education world?
A: My dad is Steve Michel, who started Michel commercial about 40 years ago, and my mother was an educator. She was a teacher. So that was definitely a part of my upbringing, a part of my nurturing, and I knew I wanted to be a teacher, probably toward the end of high school, and then right in college, I knew I just wanted to be a teacher. I love kids. I do have a nurturing side of me.
When I landed that first job, the stars had aligned, the heavens had opened up. I was thrilled. I absolutely loved every minute of it. I’m an all-in kind of person. When I’m in something, when I’m passionate about it, it’s my hobby, passion, drive. It’s my identity. In a way, that’s kind of being silly, but that was how it was for teaching for so long, and teaching, I’ll just say, the luster wore off about four years in. I was in grad school because I wanted to be principal of a school, not because I necessarily wanted to be on the administrative side of things, but I’m a natural leader, and I really felt I could lead a school and a team.
I was getting burnt out in the classroom and I thought that would be a natural transition for me. I went to grad school to be a principal, and then I did a little stint with the principal of my school, and I really realized I’m burnt out in the classroom, and I just don’t think education is a fit for me anymore.
Q: When you look back on your work as a teacher, how do you feel that informs the job that you have now?
A: Teachers know how to work hard. You know how to cram your day so you’re incredibly efficient. I found that when I was a teacher, I was always finding more efficient ways to do things so that I didn’t have to always work till midnight, which, that’s kind of who I am. I’m an all-in kind of person. I just go 100% all the time.
Something I noticed that’s different about myself from other people, I really understand what drives people, and that definitely goes back to teaching, because in my class, I had 28 students. All these students, I was trying to teach them, for example, a math concept. Everyone’s brain is wired so differently, and so you really have to learn and get to know people and really figure out “How is this presented best to you?” To really help you with greater understanding. That’s kind of the teaching side of it.
For me now, when I’m talking with a client, you know, and I’m looking to help them, advise them to position their property the best, to maximize their value, I really understand them. I understand what drives them. I understand what they need and what they want. And it can kind of be summed up as a listening skill, but it really is also this intuitiveness and this higher level of that active listening of really homing in on that person and their motivations.
Q: You’ve spent six years in the commercial real estate industry now, and I’m curious, what’s that transition been like?
A: On that first day I started, I was on a tour with a colleague, and we were touring a property of a deal that our team had listed at the time. That was awesome. I thought that was super fun. Then the next day, I go to my office, which was then a room in my home, and I just opened the program that we have, and it just started calling people. And that is how you start in brokerage. That’s how you keep going at brokerage. You just pick up the phone and start dialing. And I did that for 12 months straight. Actually, I probably did that for over 24 months straight.
And that was the only thing that was in my day when I started. But now it’s a rhythm, a part of my everyday as well.
Q: Your father, Steve Michel, founded the firm. I’m curious, what is it like working at a family business?
A: My dad and I work really, really well together. My dad, Steve Michel, has experienced incredible success in this business. He is not someone that wants to hold success for himself. He’s definitely been someone that has mentored many people, and he’s someone that has reached behind to pull up many, many times, and he’s done that for me.
Part of that family business that’s been a huge blessing is it wasn’t just Steve. It was my other colleagues, Pete Michel, who’s actually my uncle, so that’s even more family business, my colleague, Phil Reesnes, and then my brother, Ben Michel, was a part of our firm many years ago now, but he started his own investment firm.
The negative side is we’re at Memorial Day weekend, hanging out, and we’re talking about real estate, or Thanksgiving dinner. And all of a sudden, the ones who are in the business start talking about business and we’ve got a large family, so then there’s 10 other people who aren’t in the business, and they don’t want to hear about the business. And so that is definitely the downside. That’s kind of a self-discipline thing that you have to work on to turn off.
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