Luxury Real Estate Success in NYC | Lynne Mazin’s Journey

Lynne Mazin (00:00)
I was very fortunate because I got myself involved with a team that was very supportive.

Real estate is not a solo sport. It’s a team sport. And if you jump in with a team, it gives you a lot of credibility and a lot of authority in the market very quickly because you can work and leverage everybody else’s skills that you’re working with. And it gives you a lot of insight.

into the hits and misses of the industry so you don’t make too many mistakes out of the gate.

Dylan Silver (01:57)
Hey, folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest is a Manhattan based luxury real estate broker with a JD and MBA from Cornell and a Wall Street background advising global investors and is now launching her own luxury team. Please welcome Lynne Mazin. Lynne, welcome to the show.

Lynne Mazin (02:16)
Hey, thanks for having me.

Dylan Silver (02:18)
It’s great to have you. And I always like to start off at the top by asking folks how they got into the real estate space.

Lynne Mazin (02:26)
I literally got here probably like everybody else. I was sitting on my couch like everybody else watching Million Dollar Listing at some point and I was like, wow, it’s incredible and I think I can do that. And that’s how I got here.

Dylan Silver (02:40)
And so I’d say ⁓ very humble, very humble, right? But not quite like everyone else, because you were Wall Street attorney, right? And then really very much set on a path that was not in the real estate space. Was there a moment in time where you said, hey, you know, I’m going to pivot here. I’m going to go do something different?

Lynne Mazin (03:02)
I just had a passion. I live in New York City. I drive past all the high rises and cabs on the way to work. And I just always thought it was fascinating. I would love to learn more about the buildings and the people in the buildings. that was my passion. And when I saw this show, I was like, I can’t believe this is out there. And that’s how I drove in.

Dylan Silver (03:24)
Did you have anybody, you must have had some people saying, know, Lynne, you’re going into real estate? Like, what about everything that you’ve worked for up to this point in time?

Lynne Mazin (03:32)
Yeah, my mother, yes, yes, her.

Like everyone’s parents. ⁓ You know, I obviously had a very clear trajectory on where I was gonna go, which I really believed in. I was the biggest champion of that path. And at some point it was now or never. I was either gonna make the transition or I never was. And that was just reality. And I just jumped, I just went for it.

Dylan Silver (03:58)
Did you come from a real estate family or did you have a real estate background or lots of friends in the real estate space?

Lynne Mazin (04:06)
No, but as I started to flirt with it and get a lot more serious, I really took time to do my due diligence and meet with people in the industry and start to network and learn more about what they were doing that made them successful to sort out if that’s something that I thought would work for me long-term in terms of building a business and being successful and profitable if that was viable. I did definitely, I didn’t have like a personal connectivity. I definitely took my time to reach out and connect and

Dylan Silver (04:36)
Welcome us through that first year in the real estate space, especially big transition, career transition. What was it like?

Lynne Mazin (04:46)
It was a big transition,

I was very fortunate because I got myself involved with a team that was very supportive.

I believe that you’ve probably heard this before.

Real estate is not a solo sport. It’s a team sport. And if you jump in with a team, it gives you a lot of credibility and a lot of authority in the market very quickly because you can work and leverage everybody else’s skills that you’re working

And it gives you a lot of insight.

into the hits and misses of the industry so you don’t make too many mistakes out of the gate.

So that’s what I did. I jumped in with a team. They were great. They were very supportive of me. They knew I was totally new. And they taught me the systems and the techniques to really.

make a career out of this. I wasn’t successful on day one, but they gave me the tools so I had a shot.

Dylan Silver (06:24)
Now I always ask folks who are ⁓ in the real estate space specifically on the selling side as realtors and as brokers, you know what they did to scale because especially if there’s any newer realtors listening and I’m a newer realtor, I got licensed in April. Often times people are like, well, how do I do X amount of deals? Yeah, how do I do X amount of deals per year? Or, you know, how do I get my first deal or hey, I’m at 20 deals a year. How do I scale to 50 or hey, this is the

Lynne Mazin (06:41)
Welcome aboard.

Dylan Silver (06:54)
avatar of home buyer that I’m working with. How do I go from first time home buyer to someone who’s looking for maybe a couple properties maybe. What was your growth process like and were there any notable pivot points?

Lynne Mazin (07:09)
One of the managers at the firm was actually, I think, very influential telling me to focus on my Hot 100. He’s like, you have a network, whether you realize it or not, figure out who the network is and work the network. It’s a system, he’s like, work it. Don’t overlook anybody. And I really followed his advice. I was like, that’s great advice because he was a manager for very significant names that you would certainly recognize in the real estate industry. And I was like, wow.

If he’s giving me this advice, he’s giving them this advice and I’m confident it works. So I went back to the drawing board. I really started day one looking, who is it that I know that can help facilitate my career? And that wasn’t just colleagues I had in the present day on Wall Street. It was going all the way back literally to people I went to kindergarten with. And I looked, who did I go to high school with? Who did I cheerlead with? I went to University of Michigan. Who did I go to Michigan with?

My law degree is from New York Law School. Who was I at law school with? Who did I get my MBA with at Cornell? There are different pockets of people through all walks of life. And then obviously I have kids in the New York City kid community. Those moms are very powerful influences. Like they have big voices and they’re big advocates for other women in any industry, right? Like you need to find people that really cheerlead for you.

And I reached out to everyone. said, listen, I’m making a hard pivot, but I’m going to work with one of the leading teams here in New York City. I’m confident I’m going to have the skillset to get top deals done. I really appreciate if you can connect me, if anyone’s buying, selling, investing, renting, I’d love to help and get started. And people really jumped in and they were supportive out of the gate. And that’s been really the secret of my success, really helping other people and things and help them achieve their dreams. And they in turn.

reach back out and try to help me achieve my.

Dylan Silver (09:07)
This is actually, I’ve probably done 160 plus episodes of this show and ⁓ this is the first time that I’ve talked about the Hot 100 list. I’ve heard of this idea before, right, and I’ve done it, but it’s interesting, you know, it doesn’t take ⁓ a JD or, you know, multiple advanced degrees to work through a network, but it’s such a simple process, but not easy, not easy, right? And one of the things that it makes me think about is it’s amazing how interconnected we really are. Like if you look at

the even the 50 people that half of that you could probably mind that almost to infinity right and there was actually I forget what it’s called but I saw this on Instagram there was a page that connects modern day people to like ancient historical figures so it would be like how would

celebrity be connected to like Jesus like by

the number of people that they spoke with, to spoke with here, to spoke with here, and you’re like, my gosh, we’re all connected. And ⁓ you can feel the same thing, I think, in the real estate space just by mining your network, right?

Lynne Mazin (10:51)
And one of the important things I want to highlight is it’s people you least expect it. It’s the gym instructor. It’s the bartender. It’s the person that cuts your hair because they see lots of people every day. They could see 10 people a day, right? If you’re the person cutting hair, you literally could have 10 appointments a day. So if you tell that person that you’ve probably known for years, every single week you go in and get your hair cut by the same person, right? So you say to them, listen, I’m starting a new business.

Anyone you know buying or selling, would love the introduction. Thank you so much and I will absolutely send clients your way. You know, obviously we’re gonna find opportunities to collaborate together and when you least expect it, the hairdresser is gonna say to you, hey, the person who just got out of the chair is looking to buy an apartment. I gave them your name. So it comes from all of these small personal connections. Like you’re sitting at the bar where you go every night anyway, you know everyone, but it’s much easier for the bartender to actually

reach out to everyone that they know sitting there and say, starting a new business, if anyone’s buying real estate, take his card, then it is for you to scream that across the room, right? So all the people that you know throughout the course of your day, really, they become like your marketing team and they’re great and they’re really successful at it.

Dylan Silver (12:08)
Yeah.

And that works whether you’re in Manhattan or San Diego or in Dallas or, you know, in Oklahoma City, Miami, really wherever. But I do want to… Australia.

Lynne Mazin (12:13)
everyone.

You could be in Australia. The

strategy works. It’s just simply using that human connectivity, high touch. And again, you have to be authentic, right? You have to be authentic and real and thankful and grateful that people really support you, obviously. Like that’s a critical element. But the same way if a friend asked you to do something, you you do it, right? Like you have a friend call up and say, hey, I’m out of town. Can you go over to the house and water my plants? You’re like, yeah, absolutely. No big deal.

It’s a small ask to just get some of those introductions as you’re starting a business, but it goes really, really long.

Dylan Silver (12:55)
I people listening to this may say, you know, well, what do I have to do to be successful in real estate? And hearing that working your hot 100 list in Manhattan will work, they’ll say, okay, if it works in Manhattan, I probably got to do this over here because there’s definitely competition in Manhattan. I want to pivot a bit here, Lin, and ask you about that element. I Manhattan, I grew up 27 or 28 miles from Manhattan in Caldwell, New Jersey, Caldwell West, Caldwell, New Jersey. And Manhattan is…

another world. mean, even from where I grew up, which was not very far from it, another world. And it’s like nothing else really in the country. And I can say that pretty, pretty safely. I’m curious if you ever take a step back and look at and say, wow, you know, what I’m doing is actually pretty niche and pretty novel because I’m selling real estate, some of the most high end real estate in really the world and also in America’s major metropolis.

Lynne Mazin (13:57)
Yes, there are days when I’m like, wow, it’s pretty remarkable getting to see all of this and have the opportunity to be impactful in this space. It’s something, though, that I’m confident that you can achieve in any city, in any town. It’s just simply being committed to a goal and discipline. Every day you have to be disciplined because obviously,

It’s like going on a diet. There are definitely weeks you’re motivated, you have a goal, you go to the gym on January 1st, on January 10th, and by January 30th, you’re tired of the gym, right? But if you’re disciplined, and it’s the discipline that trumps the motivation, if you’re disciplined and every day you put in your calendar, you’re going to put out a new post on LinkedIn, you’re going to go to the coffee shop and meet a new person, you’re gonna, it’s something probably specific to New York City, but.

I’ll walk down the street and I will bring donuts. I’ll grab Dunkin’ Donuts and have my business card out to the doorman because it’s been 100 degrees here for the last couple of weeks.

It’s a hard job and they’re really thankful. I’m like, hey, I was just thinking about you because I know a of the doorman in the buildings and I’ll swing in with donuts and I’ll be like, hey, if anyone’s buying or selling, think of me. I give them some business cards. It’s discipline. It’s waking up and having that on your to-do list.

like literally on the calendar. And you’re like, I’m doing it even though it’s hot and probably don’t even want to do it, but you do it.

Dylan Silver (16:06)
A lot of that is like the time blocking, right? mean, people think about real estate, you have unstructured time, it can be a little nice because you control your schedule. That’s also a gift and a curse, right? So people can think, you know, we were talking about before hopping on here, kind of the leads could come to you if you’re doing something a little bit more passive. But also what you’re talking about is really like a contact sport, like buying donuts, handing them out to the doorman. And they’re thinking, well, if she, I know our listeners are thinking if she’s doing it, I gotta be doing.

the version of that, wherever I’m at, you know, it might not be handing… Yeah.

Lynne Mazin (16:36)
I don’t tell anybody to do

anything that I don’t do. I don’t tell you to make calls that I won’t make. I don’t tell you to meet people that I won’t meet because it’s hard and it sounds like easy things to do. But a real element of this business that probably doesn’t get enough focus is rejection. The most successful person in the room made a hundred phone calls before one person said yes. So they heard no 100 times.

100 times somebody said, don’t call me, don’t bother me, don’t waste my time, I don’t care. People are not, especially in New York City, not that warm when they say no. They say no hard, it’s a hard no. But when you find that one person, there’s your win.

Dylan Silver (17:18)
You’re kidding!

I mean, you’re definitely spot on about New York City being maybe a little bit ⁓ less than warm at times, but it’s because there’s so many people there. ⁓ I wanna ask you about ⁓ not just scaling the business, but also now launching your own team, right? And ⁓ what that entails, and then also what the focus is, and ⁓ maybe something you’re doing to differentiate.

Lynne Mazin (17:56)
My view of real estate over the last couple of years is real estate started to get very connected with Hollywood and it became very sexy. It’s really sexy to be on some of these shows and show sexy penthouses in Manhattan and in California and Miami. I get it. It’s very sexy. But we’re also handling somebody’s largest asset in their portfolio.

It simply is. Somebody’s home is probably the most expensive thing that they’re ever going to buy in their entire lives. And there needs to be a skill set behind that. And like I said, I have a JD, I have an MBA, I was one of the leading producers on Wall Street for many years. I have a phenomenal, absolute phenomenal network of people that I work with, whether it’s on the legal side or the financial side. That element of real estate, that really is what differentiates you from everybody else in the industry.

having skills that are really.

I want to say it’s specific to what you do in any industry. If you’re a surgeon, you want to be the absolute best surgeon. If you’re a real estate agent, you want to be the absolute best real estate agent. I’m confident when somebody works with me, I am delivering them the best deal that they were going to get.

Dylan Silver (19:12)
Lynne, are coming up on time here. Where can folks go if maybe they’re looking at properties in Manhattan or if they’d like to reach out to you and learn a little bit more about your business?

Lynne Mazin (19:23)
I’m very easy to find on Instagram, Lynne Simone Mazin. I just launched a new company, Opry Global team here at Compass. You can find me at Opry Global, you can find me at Lynne Mazin. I’d love to connect and find opportunities to collaborate together.

Dylan Silver (19:40)
Lin, thank you so much for coming on the show here today.

Lynne Mazin (19:43)
Thanks for having me, Dylan, it was awesome.