Skip to main content

Frequently Asked Questions – Membership

1. What are the tangibles included with my Membership?

Meeting Attendance:  Your Membership includes meeting attendance for you and up to 4 colleagues* at each of your Mastermind Group meetings.  You may also register Guests, so long as they do not conflict with other Member companies.  Food and beverage is provided by your host, so if you find you are unable to attend a meeting you have registered for, please let us know. Additionally, you are invited as a guest to attend Mastermind Meetings not in your home city.  (*Colleagues are those individuals that fall under an organization’s membership that will be a part of the REAL Professionals Member mailing list for meeting reminders and meeting minutes.  These individuals can be exchanged with others at any time.  The participating individuals should be associated with the exclusive discipline held by the Member.  By way of example, if a company holds the Retail Broker seat, only Retail Brokers from that company may attend as Members. Some memberships may include multiple discipline seats).

Networkwide Sessions:  Members are also invited to participate in Networkwide calls and meetings that cover a wide range of topics and speakers. We hold Industry Segment Roundtables, Property Type Panels, Specialty Topic Webinars, Regional Meetings, a Women’s Roundtable, NextGen RPN programming and Real Estate and Development Happy Hours.

Meeting Highlights:  Following each meeting, you and your designated colleagues as well as your registered guests receive an electronic copy of the meeting highlights and the speaker presentation, if applicable. You will receive meeting highlights from your Mastermind Group meeting even if you are unable to attend.

Introductions:  Following every meeting, Members and registered guests receive electronic introductions to all first-time guests and speakers including vCard’s.

Connections:  Following each meeting, any connections requested by our Members and guests are delivered via email, including connection subject and vCards.  A ‘connection’ is a formal request made during a meeting of one person to another to ‘touch base’ (follow up) outside of the meeting on a certain subject (or sometimes just generally).

Monthly Report:  Members receive a monthly report of all member, guest and speaker attendees from your Mastermind meeting including an Excel spreadsheet with each person’s contact information.

2. What is the financial and time commitment for Membership?

Our Members commit to an automatically renewing 12-month membership. Members are required to provide a minimum of 90 days’ prior written notice if they do not plan to allow their membership to automatically renew.

Each of our Members makes a dues investment which is paid monthly by credit card.

Originating Member dues are $400 per month. Professional Member dues are $500 per month. In certain markets, based upon operational costs, dues are reduced by $100 for both Member types.

In markets where we do not have a Mastermind Group, we offer individual Memberships to allow individuals to participate in our Networkwide sessions for $100 per month.

3. What is the difference in Originating and Professional Member?

Originating Members are brokers, developers, investors and others that typically refer or engage the services of Professional Members.

Professional Members include Accountants, Appraisers, Architects, Attorneys, Engineers, General Contractors and Consultants whose shared business intelligence can or should accelerate the transaction process.

4. What does it mean to “hold a seat exclusively as a Member"?

In an ideal scenario during each mastermind meeting one person from each discipline in the commercial real estate and development industry would share business intelligence that sparked ideas between the participants. The ultimate goal being to help each other and raise top of mind ranking between the participants.

The term ‘Exclusivity” defines the ideal scenario mentioned above where “one person from each discipline” shares. The reality as it relates to senior level commercial real estate and development people is there is overlap. The intent is that each participant over their career has become an expert at an interesting and material niche where others in the group have less expertise and accordingly can help each other now or in the future. As participants repeatedly demonstrate their niche expertise it raises their credibility and top of mind ranking in a particular niche.

As a Member, you exclusively represent the niche discipline you were nominated for (i.e. you will be recognized as the Retail Broker, Attorney, Office Developer etc. for the Mastermind Group). Each of our Mastermind Groups have a unique personality or “Member Mix” (click here for a sample Member Mix Chart). The Members of the Group define and nominate disciplines – and when those individuals chose to become Members, they then hold the seat exclusively.

5. I was Nominated to be a Member? What does that mean?

Your nomination letter was originated at the request of one of the Members. They want YOU to be a Member of their Mastermind Group because they value your friendship, insight and want to mutually share business intelligence and relationships with you.

6. I was invited as a guest? What does that mean?

As a guest, one of the invested Members of the Mastermind Group thought you might have an interest in attending a meeting based upon a particular speaker or topic. The Member may also want to gauge your potential interest in Membership.

Frequently Asked Questions – Meetings

1. Do I have to register for the meetings or do I just show up?

All Members, Nominees and Guests are expected to register.  We need an accurate headcount for our host to buy your breakfast or lunch and we want to include all attendees on the meeting materials.

2. How large is a Mastermind Group?

A Mastermind group is generally stabilized at 10 Members, full at 15 Members and capped at 20 Members. Typically meeting attendance is 14 to 20 people including Members, Nominees, Guests and Speakers.

3. How often are the various meetings held?

Mastermind Group Meetings are scheduled monthly to recur on the same date/time/place each month (except for holidays or known conflicts). Dates are set in September of each year for the following year.

Our various Networkwide meetings occur every month with varying topics and formats (panel, roundtable, webinar).

4. How long do meetings last?

Mastermind Group Meetings typically run 1.5 to 2 hours, with the first 15-20 minutes consisting of typical networking (when live) as attendees arrive and get their breakfast or lunch, an hour for the roundtable discussion where all Members, Nominees and Guests share intelligence*, request connection** reminders, and the last 20-30 minutes a Speaker (if scheduled) to presents and field questions.

Networkwide Roundtables, Panels, Webinars and Happy Hours are typically capped at one hour.

5. What do you mean by share intelligence*?

During the roundtable portion of the meeting, each discipline is asked to share 3-5 minutes of market intelligence, recent comps, specific terms and conditions, and information that will stimulate subsequent conversations or meetings between the parties. Share quality information that shows you are the expert that should be at the table representing the discipline.

Please do not share your elevator pitch or bio – for those that don’t know you, your bio will be projected on the screen for people to read (or ask for a connection with you).

6. What is a connection**?

A ‘connection’ is a formal request made during the meeting of one person to another to ‘touch base’ (follow up) outside of the meeting on a certain subject (or sometimes just generally). The Meeting Coordinator will record the connection request, and the RPN Team will send an email jointly to the parties of the connection that contains hyperlinked contact information, vCard’s and a reminder on the subject they wanted to connect on. We will tee up the reminder – you need to follow up.

7. How often do you have Speakers at the meetings?

At a minimum, we have a Guest Speaker at every other meeting, but the frequency of having Guest Speakers at the meeting depends upon the wishes of the Group Members – some groups want a speaker at every meeting, some only every other time. The Members suggest the topics – the RPN Team does the legwork to find the speaker and get them to the meeting.

8. What must a Member do to be successful at REAL Professionals?

  1. Members MUST show up or send a colleague to every Mastermind Group meeting. Your fellow Members are depending on your participation and hearing your exclusive insights from your discipline.  If a company is not represented in three meetings within a twelve-month period, the company will lose its exclusivity.
  2. Members MUST share information in the meetings that will stimulate thoughts, ideas, subsequent conversations and the need for subsequent meetings between the Members and their business networks.
  3. Members MUST ask for connection reminders to follow up outside the meetings with Members, guests and speakers regarding specific topics or to strengthen your relationships. You asking for a connection gives others permission to ask for connections. This is not the place to suddenly find your hidden shyness.
  4. Members MUST follow up on the introductions and connection reminders.
  5. Members MUST schedule and hold subsequent meetings.
  6. Members MUST bring guests, suggest speakers and nominate new Members. Everyone attending a REAL Professionals meeting is there to gain access to each other’s business networks. The Members that share their business networks notice the Members that don’t.

We help accelerate deal discussion and
follow-up by making it efficient,
accountable & measurable.

We provide senior commercial real
estate and development professionals a
meaningful way to exercise their
relationships.

We help you build trust and improve
credibility with the people you think
are important.