Sid Knight
Associate
Retail Specialists
What has been the most rewarding moment of your career? The most rewarding moment of my career has been helping individuals successfully open and start businesses, which will ultimately create generational wealth and change the trajectory of their family’s lives for years to come.
What is a life lesson you have learned while on the job? I have learned through my career that every aspect of life is filled with numerous peaks and valleys, especially your career. It is within the valleys that you learn who you are as an individual, which allows you to truly flourish and appreciate the peaks.
What’s your ultimate career goal? My ultimate career goal is to transform my experience in brokerage into a position of fundraising private equity, investing in favorable return commercial real estate investment opportunities.
What’s the biggest challenge facing your industry in the long term? The biggest challenge facing the world of retail commercial real estate in the long term is non-conformity to the changing tides of today’s consumer trends. If you cannot adapt to emerging trends, you will fall behind and get left in the dust.
What’s the biggest opportunity for your industry in the long term? The biggest opportunity for the world of retail commercial real estate in the long term is data and technology. There is a plethora of platforms and software in today’s world that can give businesses a leg up on their competition in terms of understanding their clientele and the underlying trends in retail. Those who lean into these technologies will understand their customers on a new level, providing a better sense of what their competitive advantages are over their competition.
What do you think will be the biggest changes in your industry over the next 10 years? Over the next 10 years, the biggest challenge in the world of retail commercial real estate boils down to who can survive and adapt to the changing economic climate that looms over our country as a whole. I think the best way to survive the next 10 years can be found by studying the businesses that survived and thrived the years following the 2008 financial crisis.
What’s the most important factor for you when it comes to having a satisfying career? What’s most important to me when considering my overall satisfaction in a career is being in a position that allows me to enjoy balance and harmony between my family, finances, work, faith and fitness. In my opinion, the key to a happy life is finding a perfect fusion between the aforementioned areas of life.
What can employers do to attract young professionals? Employers who want to attract young professionals need to offer a lively work environment that encompasses hard-work, collaboration, creative freedom, and camaraderie. A company who emphasizes and hires off these principals, will have no issues finding talented young professionals.
How has the pandemic impacted your career as a young professional? During the pandemic, professionals were forced to get introspective and figure out what drives and gets them out of bed everyday. Challenging times, like the pandemic, will bring out the best and the worst of people, and those who can self-reflect and better understand themselves based on their findings will come out on the other side as better humans and professionals.
What is the biggest challenge facing Birmingham right now, and what is the biggest opportunity? I think one of the biggest challenges facing Birmingham, is also one of the biggest opportunities, and that is the fact that our incredibly diverse city is not only a boiling pot of creativity and culture, but is, in a sense, still a hidden gem. National companies are starting to discover the opportunity that lies within The Magic City, but across the board, Birmingham is not yet being seen and perceived as it should. This provides an opportunity for companies and individuals to take advantage and be on the forefront of growth here. I have no doubt that our great city will continue to grow exponentially, especially when seeing the success we had, and are having, with events and venues such as The World Games, Protective Life Stadium, the Garth Brooks sold-out concert, and many others.
What’s your dream job? Commercial Real Estate Private Equity Investing
What is your favorite office configuration? (e.g. open office, cubicles, offices with shut doors, hoteling, WFH, hybrid, etc.) Hybrid
What office configuration do you wish we would stop using? Full time WFH
NextGen BHM: General will recognize up-and-coming leaders in the Magic City that are under 35 years old.
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