Small Business Today Magazine MAY 2014 CUSTOMIZED REAL STATE SERVICES | Page 11

After working on getting a meeting with
Shell Oil for four years, Connie finally got
the opportunity. To her delight and also
to her dismay, she was advised that they
were expecting her to do a PowerPoint
presentation for all of Shell’s people in
their real estate department. Connie had
never worked with PowerPoint and had
no idea what it entailed! Fortunately, because she had a scholarship with WBEA,
she was able to take a class on PowerPoint
in time for her presentation that had been
scheduled 30 days out.
After giving the presentation, Connie
asked if she could call in a week to get
feedback on her presentation and how
she could improve. The Real Estate Manager, John Greene, replied that she didn’t
have to wait to find out.Thinking the worst,
Connie’s mouth dropped open from the
shock when he informed her that it was
the best presentation that he had ever
seen! By the time Connie returned to her
office, she received a call from the Shell
Supplier Diversity Manager who told her it

was going through Shell how well she had
done. Then Connie was told that she got
the contract. Since that milestone, Connie’s success has soared and she attributes
that success in part to all of the help she
has received from WBEA.  

One very important class that Connie took with a WBEA scholarship was
a weeklong seminar on negotiations and
the differences in how women speak
compared to men. Connie learned to
stop always saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’
when she was negotiating. Connie elaborated, “You lose your negotiating power
when you start saying things like, ‘Well, if
you don’t mind, could you give this to me?’
When you are negotiating, you have to
be on the same level.The hardest part for
women is that they give away their power;
it is not taken from them. They say things
like, ‘When you have time, send me a proposal.’ They need to say, ‘Send me a proposal by this date.’ Sometimes women are
way too polite in negotiations and, to be
effective, you have to learn you are work-

ing on the same level as everyone else.You
should never let anyone speak down to
you. Business is business. I always try to be
nice if I can; but it’s not always possible in
negotiations. If you have something they
want, you have the power; but I’ve found
the best outcome is always a win-win scenario.”
 “When I do things, I don’t just do it to
benefit me. I always do it with the thought
of how I am going to make things better.
That is also important if you want to be
successful in business,” Connie expressed,
“I get great pleasure from helping other
women succeed. I feel blessed that I have
helped others get in doors where they
have previously failed. Somehow, I will meet
someone who knows someone and suddenly the door is open. I think it’s because
they know that I am genuine, I try to help
others, and that it’s just not about me.”
She added, “At CRES, we strive to be
bigger than ourselves. Our mission is bigger
than our bottom line.” Connie doesn’t just

Connie feels very blessed to work with so many great
clients. Many of them have become dear friends and
many friends have become her clients! She is pictured
here with her clients from Swift World Wide Resources,
Amber Polk and Jessica Delarosa.

[ MAY 2014 ] www.SBTMagazine.net 9