From Junior to Rainmaker: Building Talent and Trust in Commercial Real Estate

Summary

In this insight-packed episode of The Blueprint Tour, hosts Kenny Shultz and Carter Huddleston sit down with Brandon Avedikian, founder of Aspire Commercial, live at the 2024 CREI Summit in Atlanta. Brandon shares his playbook for building a commercial real estate brokerage from the ground up—covering everything from training junior brokers to managing global support teams. This conversation goes deep on what it really takes to build trust, create systems that scale, and mentor the next generation of CRE professionals. Whether you're launching your own firm, hiring your first analyst, or scaling your operations overseas, this episode is a masterclass in modern leadership inside the brokerage world.

Keywords

CREI Summit, commercial real estate, brokerage training, mentorship, CRE team building, remote operations, offshore teams, Aspire Commercial, Brandon Avedikian, real estate recruiting, business development, junior broker training, real estate careers, PermitZIP

Takeaways

• Junior brokers thrive with structured mentorship and salary-based analyst roles—not commission-first pressure.

• In-office collaboration is critical for learning CRE deal flow and building long-term trust.

• Remote teams can be highly effective with clear processes, mentorship, and cultural integration.

• Encouraging junior staff to ask “why” helps them understand the bigger picture and grow faster.

• Leading a brokerage requires balancing vision, training, and relentless communication.

Sound Bites

“We don’t just hire brokers—we build them.”

“Learning the business comes from watching the real conversations happen.”

“If you’re only working for commission, you wake up every day unemployed.”

“Remote teams work—if you treat them like part of the team, not a task list.”

“I promise you, I’m not giving you work just to keep you busy—there’s always a reason.”

Chapters

1. Welcome and CREI Summit Intro

2. Meet Brandon Avedikian & Aspire Commercial

3. The Blueprint for Training Junior Brokers

4. Salary vs. Commission: A Smarter Start

5. Mentorship and In-Office Learning

6. Competing with Bigger Firms: Culture Wins

7. Building an Overseas Ops Team

8. Time Zones, Tools, and Team Communication

9. Creating a Remote Team That Thinks, Not Just Does

10. From Analyst to Rainmaker: Earning Autonomy

11. Why Culture and Training Beat Hustle Alone

12. Final Takeaways on Building a Real Team

Where to Find Brandon Avedikian

Twitter/X . LinkedIn . Company: Aspire Commercial

Where to Find The Blueprint Tour

YouTube . TikTok . Kenny (Host) . Carter (Host)