Dan Leahy is a founding Partner and Executive Vice President of NAI Hiffman. He is also the founding member of NAI Global Logistics (which has evolved into the NAI Global Industrial Council). He is annually one of the most successful industrial and logistics advisors/brokers to serve the Chicago marketplace. He is also one of NAI Global’s Top 10 Producers for 2023, where he finds himself in familiar territory, as Dan is consistently one of the highest performers throughout the platform. The secrets to his success are partially revealed by his methodologies and work/life balance. Foremost, he is a thinker, planner, and goes about his business methodically. That’s not to imply he operates robotically. In fact, he has been able to successfully balance family, friends, work and play. His warm (and family man) personality comes through when he talks about the softer skills associated with successful brokerage work, especially his emphasis as an advisor first, real estate transaction manager second.
Dan Leahy is a founding Partner and Executive Vice President of NAI Hiffman. He is also the founding member of NAI Global Logistics (which has evolved into the NAI Global Industrial Council). He is annually one of the most successful industrial and logistics advisors/brokers to serve the Chicago marketplace. He is also one of NAI Global’s Top 10 Producers for 2023, where he finds himself in familiar territory, as Dan is consistently one of the highest performers throughout the platform.
The secrets to his success are partially revealed by his methodologies and work/life balance. Foremost, he is a thinker, planner, and goes about his business methodically. That’s not to imply he operates robotically. In fact, he has been able to successfully balance family, friends, work and play. His warm (and family man) personality comes through when he talks about the softer skills associated with successful brokerage work, especially his emphasis as an advisor first, real estate transaction manager second.
Understand his background a bit, and none of this comes as a surprise. He was a standout golfer as a teenager and still plays competitively today, for starters. Anyone that knows the game of golf and what it takes to be good at it knows that there is a lot of thought connected to each swing of the club, as well as before one addresses the ball and prepares to strike it. Golf also requires a great deal of practice, and perhaps even more patience. Overcoming adversity, failure and rejection during and after a round of golf is a whole other matter!
Yet his real differentiator was his career before he got into the commercial real estate business – a little more than 25 years ago now. Dan Leahy was a management consultant and corporate advisor on business strategy, technology and other key factors for companies and businesses to thrive, gain efficiencies and increase profitability. And as a young man he recognized that the road warrior life of leaving town on Sunday and returning Friday nights, week-after-week, was not the future he wanted.
One day he “cold called” Dennis (Denny) Hiffman, the NAI Hiffman founder and Chairman Emeritus, for what Leahy thought would be a brief informational meeting that turned into a couple of hours and the unofficial launch of his new career. And the rest is history!
Listen to the podcast for some great insights on how you can up your game as a professional in any industry, though especially commercial real estate.
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Gary Marsh is a writer, marketing and public relations advisor with a 38-year career in commercial real estate that has included commission-based outside sales, journalism covering the commercial real estate industry for a business publication, corporate communications, and since 1998, principal of Marsh Marketing. He has provided public relations and writing services for NAI Global since 2016.