Choose better people to grow your commercial real estate business.

CRE Success Principle: You do not raise performance by lowering your standards. Every difficult client, unreliable team member, or flaky collaborator costs you financially, culturally, and operationally. Define your non-negotiables, then stick to them.

In commercial real estate, your success is shaped by the people you allow into your professional world. Clients, colleagues, collaborators, and service providers all play a role in how smoothly your business runs. If you find yourself using negative labels in your head, that is usually a sign that someone is no longer the right fit.

Why Standards Matter
When you tolerate behaviour that frustrates or drains you, you pay a bigger price than you realise. It affects your mindset, your culture, your productivity, and ultimately your growth. High standards are not harsh. They are essential for building a business that performs at a consistently high level.

Defining Your Five-Star Client
One of the simplest tools I’ve learned is the five-star client filter. When you define the five attributes that make someone ideal to work with, you give yourself a way to quickly identify who belongs in your business and who does not.

Choose Your Orbit Wisely
You always have a choice about who you associate with. When you choose well, business becomes easier and more enjoyable. You attract people who energise you and you avoid those who drain you.

If this message resonates, I invite you to listen to episode 249 of Commercial Real Estate Leadership. It will help you raise the bar and grow your business with less stress.

Episode transcript:

Life is too short to deal with (insert your preferred pejorative here).

If you think that a client is a jerk, maybe stop serving them. If you feel like a team member is a moron, well, maybe they shouldn't be on your team. Maybe you shouldn't have hired them in the first place.

If you are not in charge of who is working in your business, well, maybe don't co-list with them if they're a colleague. And if you feel like someone you're doing business with is an idiot, maybe stop transacting with them.

In today's episode, I want to talk about the opportunity that exists for you to take some responsibility for the people who you choose to associate with.

Lead better, grow faster and stress less. This is Commercial Real Estate Leadership.

My name is Darren Krakowiak. We're up to episode 249, which means we are very close to 250. That's going to be our episode next week, and we'll have a good one for you as we hit that milestone.

I've been talking a lot about Agent Accelerator, which is our program for commercial real estate agents.

So, I've neglected talking about the main thing that I do, which is working with commercial real estate principals.

So if that's you and you want to make 2026 a little bit different, you want to make it easier.

I was talking to one of my clients yesterday, rolling out the one-on-one framework for him, and he said, “You make it sound so easy.”

And the little smart Alec in me was about to go, well, that's because it is.

But he then said, well, I guess that's because it is. And that's my job as a coach, as a partner, as someone to help my clients - it's to make things easier.

So, if things feel harder than they should, I want you to jump onto cresuccess.co/leadership. Lead to details, and we can have a private and confidential conversation about where it is that you want to get to in your business, what's going on right now, and all the roadblocks—the things that are standing in the way of getting from where you are to where you want to get to. And we can create a plan that can help you get there faster.

If you like the sound of that, cresuccess.co/leadership. Just fill in your details on that page. That's the first step to getting your business growing with less effort in 2026.

So, we're talking about pejorative terms today, and I'm not here to encourage people to walk around and use pejorative terms, even though we're going to use a few just to labour the point in this episode.

And just for the purpose of definition, that pejorative term is when you express contempt or disapproval for another person.

So, some examples might be calling someone an idiot, a moron, or feckless if they are incompetent.

It might be for a real estate agent who's unethical—they're dodgy, they're a dirt bag, they're a crook.

And if we're talking about rude people, you might be calling them an asshole. Maybe they're a prick or they're a jerk.

And then if someone's just not a very serious person, you might call them a dickhead, a smart ass, or a wanker.

So, if you've used any of those pejorative terms to describe people, I want to talk to you about why you shouldn't be using them or why you don't need to be using them in a professional context.

And I know there's probably other words that I haven't used that you might be using to describe people, and I haven't expressed those because I don't want to have to reclassify the rating of this show on podcast platforms, but you get my point.

I think using these words to describe people is not good for your mindset, and it's not really great leadership.

But if those words are creeping into your thoughts, even if they're not coming out of your mouth, that is an important sign. It's a sign that someone doesn't belong in your professional orbit.

And I think there are a couple of things that you can do to stop using these kinds of terms to describe people.

On one hand, you can just become more tolerant. You can adjust your expectations. You can understand that not everyone works the way that you do.

And I think this is a really good strategy to apply for people that you are dealing with in everyday interactions that aren't work related.

So, there might be someone at the coffee shop. Maybe it's a random service provider, or maybe you're at a networking event.

Maybe it's somebody that you have to deal with, like the parent of one of your kid’s friends or a relative or a person on someone else's team.

You've got to deal with these people, and if you can do so pleasantly, I think that's a good test of your character.

But in business, particularly in your own business, when it comes to clients, colleagues, and collaborators, being too tolerant is really meaning that you are lowering your standards and you're not raising the bar.

Because if we are honest, if you are regularly being frustrated by someone who you're working with professionally, they're probably not the right fit for you to be working with.

And the cost isn't just emotional, it's financial, it's reputational, and it's probably operational as well.

That difficult client—while they're draining energy and demotivating your team, the unreliable member of your team—they're pulling down productivity. And they're damaging the culture that you're trying to build and protect.

And if you're dealing with a flaky service provider or referral source, well, you are getting damaged by association.

So, before you start getting frustrated and you start blaming these other people for the way that they are, I want you to remember that you have a choice.

In most cases, you are not stuck with these people. You have a choice about who you associate with, and you are responsible, particularly in a professional setting, for who you choose to do business with.

So, here's the mindset shift that I want to encourage: You don't need to tolerate people who consistently frustrate, disappoint, or drain you.

I'll say that again: You don't need to tolerate people who consistently frustrate, disappoint, or drain you.

Instead, define what your non-negotiables are. What are the things that you just don't want to tolerate that's now beneath you professionally? What does a hell yes client or business partner look like? And use that as a filter.

A simple one that I've been taught is a five-star client. What are the five attributes that tell us that a client is the ideal future client for us to be working with?

And the other thing that you can do is just hold people accountable. And when they don't align, you can decide if you want to let them go.

When you set really high standards and you actually stick to them, something amazing happens.

Firstly, you stop calling people idiots. You stop also attracting idiots in your life, and you are then able to build a team, a client list, and a network of people who energize you, not exhaust you.

So, if you've caught yourself using pejorative labels, even if it's just in your head, don't get stuck in that negative thought pattern and trick yourself into believing that you are trapped.

But I do want you to listen to what that label is telling you. It's usually a sign that you've let someone into your business, into your professional orbit who does not belong there.

And the sooner that you act on that, the better for you. The better for your business. The better for your colleagues. The better for your clients. The better for your mindset. Everything will get better once you decide that you're no longer going to tolerate that.

This episode I decided to record because I've heard people using pejorative terms recently to describe people who they are dealing with professionally. And I kind of reflected on that and I thought, “You know what? They don't need to deal with that.”

And I recorded this episode for them, but I've also recorded it for you.

And if this episode hit a nerve, maybe it's time to take stock. Who in your circle do you need to let go of?

But also, if you know of someone who regularly talks about people who they deal with professionally using these types of words, maybe you can pass this episode on to them because maybe they need to hear this message.

That is our episode for today. Thank you so much for listening, and I will speak to you soon.