5 Questions with... Sheryl Vickers, the woman every Kansas City CRE woman should know

Sheryl Vickers is owner of real estate firm Select Sites LLC.

With more than 25 years of commercial real estate experience, Sheryl Vickers has made it her mission to give women a fighting edge in a male-dominated industry.

As the owner of Select Sites LLC, a woman-owned commercial real estate firm in Kansas City, she specializes in retail tenant representation, shopping center leasing, commercial and investment acquisitions, and retail consulting.

She also is the president of investment company CRV LLC and the Airbnb Superhost management company Guest Suites KC.

She co-founded WIRED — Women in Real Estate Development with Audrey Navarro, a managing partner of Clemons Real Estate, after the duo realized they were gaining momentum in their careers. The informal organization gives women in the industry a place to congregate for resources, support, and mentorship.

The Kansas City Business Journal interviewed Sheryl Vickers about her career and the industry. This conversation was edited for length and clarity.

What was the catalyst to create WIRED?

Sheryl Vickers: After the 2016 election, I started thinking that the only way I can make a change is if I help women start competing in the commercial real estate arena.

The experience of working at Clemons with Audrey was so drastically different than all the years of working with men and trying to have a male mentor.

I thought to myself, "Holy crap, now that we're figuring this out it feels like there's momentum and I didn't want any other woman to need 20 years to get to this point. It needs to happen faster."

The tagline we use at WIRED is, "We want to be the mentors we never had."

It shouldn't take this long for women to get their momentum. So how do we create this momentum for women in the industry? It's all about transparently sharing what we know and being the mentors we never had.

Women aren't always given the real estate in their families. With the women I know, the sons of the family get the real estate. The daughters don't.

There need to be more women in the industry to compete, help, and advocate for one another to build our cities.

Reflecting on when you first started in real estate to where you are now, what have your biggest takeaways been? What advice would you give to women starting out in the industry?

Living paycheck to paycheck is so stressful, and there's so much anxiety. It's devastating when you lose a deal.

Starting out, I didn't understand what roles were played or what value I brought, and I didn't know how to put it all together. Now I feel like I understand that when you see an opportunity, you learn to trust yourself and your capabilities. But how do you get there?

You have to fail, and you can't be afraid of failing so that you can learn something. Women are taught not to take risks. Men are taught to take risks. Take risks, figure it out, and have the resources and people you can trust to ask for help.

Commercial real estate can be a pretty lonely place where you've got to think about who you can ask for help that won't take advantage of you or be self-serving.

If you're at a company that does development, you're going to learn how the industry works. Try to have a different job within the industry so that when you're ready to jump in, you already know the game. You know the people, and you have the network.

If I could do it over again, I would have worked for a developer just to learn.

I also don't believe that getting into commercial starts with residential. A lot of people work in residential thinking they're going to move into commercial, but I don't think that makes sense. It's a different process, different network, different paperwork—different everything.

What has surprised you since WIRED's beginnings? Where do you and Audrey see WIRED flourishing in the future?

We started out grassroots without any organization, and we didn't have any committees.

Over time we grew to have volunteer-based committees like the mentoring, education, investment, programming, and diversity and inclusion committees.

What has surprised me is how many women have wanted to be involved and how hard it is to grow an organization when we're all volunteering to make WIRED a priority every month. We do it because it feels so great to have a tribe and know you're not alone.

We've also recently had men who want to support us. Initially, we didn't quite know what to do with that. Now we have WIRED Wingmen, where men support, advocate for, and help us accomplish our goals while centering our voices.

I see us doing outreach with young women in schools, colleges, Girl Scout troops, and people aging out of foster care, helping them understand what commercial real estate is and how it can change their lives.

If you don't see women in your own world owning shopping centers, apartment buildings, or office buildings, how do you know it's possible?

Another one of our goals is investing money in properties. It's been surprising to see how quickly we could raise hundreds of thousands of dollars from the women in our group and put a down payment on a building together. Women not only want to invest, but they can commit the capital.

How would you describe Kansas City's commercial real estate industry and some misconceptions around it?

It's generally a legacy industry. I think it is in many places, and it's hard to break into if you weren't brought up in a family involved in it. But it's possible.

Women and minorities have a place in commercial real estate and can build their own communities.

We need a portal into commercial real estate so that people who aren't inheriting property can learn how to build their own communities. There are not many ways for people to learn this industry.

Kansas City needs a more diverse commercial real estate industry, and there isn't a clear pathway in.

What are your hopes for the future of women in commercial real estate?

I wish women were 50% of all brokers, investors, developers, C-suite executives of commercial real estate firms, and members of industry boards.

In five years, I'd like to see a real change. I'd like to be able to say, "That project should be led by a Black developer," and have several qualified Black developers ready to take it on.

We don't have enough people from every community who are prepared to develop their own neighborhoods.

I'd love to see neighborhood leaders become developers through training and mentoring. That would reduce friction because the people developing projects would be from within the community rather than outsiders.

I think many of the concerns around gentrification would lessen if there were a diverse group of developers improving neighborhoods—people who understand the difference between building with communities rather than building for communities.

It has to be done from within.

That might mean a 50-50 partnership with a seasoned developer who knows how to do it successfully.

Women need to think bigger. I catch myself every day thinking too small, and I believe that holds us back. The sky should not be the limit for us.