Aaron, your success story over the past 5 years is extraordinary. What’s your secret, or since you probably won’t really give that away, what’s the reason clients are so happy with you?
I’d say by always staying self motivated and hungry, setting new goals all the time & once you have defined your aims and goals you are motivated enough to go all the way. Also staying humble, trying to improve year by year on every level – personally, physically and also in my career. I want to feel some sort of growth every day.
The reason my clients are happy is that I always provide an exceptional or excellent service. That means regardless of my personal situation, what kind of day I’m having, the level of my service never drops. It’s a service based industry of which most clients are millennials. Over 60 percent of the buyers market are millennials who expect quick response because they are so used to that type of technology. So for me to be on top of that makes them happy and then I get to introduce my knowledge. To be fair, after the right start it’s an easy sale in my opinion. You only have a few seconds to gain somebody’s trust. I like this way of saying it: sales is a transfer of enthusiasm. No matter what time you’re in demand or how you feel you gotta keep the same energy and deliver it.
You’ve spent 2 years in medical school and worked 4 years at the hospital, including the ICU. Did that time shape you in a way that you benefit from it today?
Absolutely, for the hospital you always have to be ready and prepared, there’s life or death situations demanding quick decisions, instinct, simultaneous, every second counts. That helped me as far as being responsive. To gather a lot of crucial information in a short amount of time and relay back as much as possible. It’s been 10 years now and I still think of some of those situations. It also taught me to work efficiently as a team, no link in the chain can afford to fail.
Medical school taught me time management, having to memorize 500 page text books all the time while studying, constantly absorbing new input. I definitely kept my work ethic from medical school, we were trained to work 80 hour weeks as I was looking to become a physician. I put the same work ethic in now.
Define the character of your business Epoch Chicago?
We are super knowledge driven so we can provide the best service no matter what the situation or commission is. Every client deserves and receives our excellent service.
We are quick and precise in response and always one step ahead.
After playing a major part in the Hope+Flower project in Downtown Los Angeles, you’ve only just begun to step into the city’s scene. What’s next and do you see any differences between your approach in LA and your work in Chicago?
It’s been great to see that I can reciprocate what I did in Chicago in LA. I found that I can use the same recipe work ethic in a new market, I pretty much go back to the elements that got me where I am.
Transfer of information and gathering knowledge about the market and places. You have to be a master of your location, an expert in the area, not only the building. For example downtown, you have to know every restaurant, know where to get groceries. But one of the biggest adjustments in LA is the people. You have very different types of personalities, people tend to be a little more laid back compared to Chicago or NYC, you have to be able to adapt to that. It requires a different way to be relational in Los Angeles and it’s also much more of a pro-active approach.
With economy and businesses being massively disrupted by the pandemic this year, how has it effected your business so far?
In different ways. Take Chicago’s downtown for example, it’s a very corporate driven lifestyle, now that a lot of them are working from home, business is impacted for sure.
LA on the other hand is so diverse and the economy with the business and entertainment industry brings in a variety of people that are still renting because they have the reasons to do so, they’re still going places, spending time outdoors, etc. Life hasn’t really stopped there at all.
Chicago is highly dependable on businesses being open.
Thank you for your time. To finish this interview, I’d love to hear three goals that you have for your future.
Oh, three goals, let me see. Definitely to be number one in volume in LA one day, I want to work on big projects in the city and leave my foot print on the market. Maybe also looking into another market, after success in LA and Chicago, maybe there is another city with a market that intrigues me?
One of my more personal goals is the NY marathon, which I couldn’t fulfil this year because of covid, so I’m hoping to finally tick that box next year.