Surviving the Side Hustle

From Yankees Fan in Red Sox Territory to Commercial Real Estate Maven

• Coach Rob • Season 1 • Episode 91

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What happens when life throws your career plans completely off track? For Kevin Coleman, COVID-19's disruption of his broadcasting career became the unexpected catalyst for an entirely new professional journey—one that would leverage his communication skills in ways he never anticipated.

Kevin's story begins with childhood broadcasting dreams, mimicking Yankees announcers while watching games with his father. This passion led him to Curry College where he immediately gained hands-on broadcasting experience that larger institutions couldn't offer until junior or senior year. His tenacity and networking prowess quickly opened doors to coveted internships with the Boston Red Sox and New England Sports Network—where he kept his Yankees fandom secret until his final day!

After graduation, Kevin's broadcasting career flourished, first covering high school sports in Connecticut before landing at prestigious WBZ Boston as a news reporter. His first major assignment—covering a rare Cape Cod tornado—became national news, demonstrating his ability to perform under pressure. Yet when the pandemic hit, everything changed. Facing furloughs and uncertainty, Kevin made the bold decision to pivot to commercial real estate rather than waiting for the broadcasting industry to recover.

Today, Kevin leverages the communication skills, resilience, and networking abilities from his broadcasting days to thrive at Coldwell Banker Commercial, where he helps revitalize communities across Connecticut and New York. His approach to authentic networking stands out—focusing on genuine connections rather than transactions. "I'm always my genuine self," he explains. "I'm not going to sell you, I just want to get to know you."

Kevin's powerful advice resonates with anyone facing career challenges: "Have that determination and confidence and don't take no for an answer." His journey proves that adaptability, resilience, and authentic networking can transform unexpected setbacks into remarkable new opportunities. Connect with Kevin on LinkedIn to continue the conversation about career pivots and the power of perseverance.

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Speaker 1:

What's going on. And welcome back to another episode of Surviving the Side Hustle, Today's show. I've got a very cool guest. I'm excited to bring him in and share a little bit about his story and what he's got going on and such. So, without further ado, Kev man, thank you for taking the time and hopping on today, man.

Speaker 2:

No, thanks for having me. I think what you're doing with this show for folks who are tuning in and listen on a weekly basis. I think it's great that you're able to have different guests come on weekly and have them share their story. Everyone's got a story and we can go into as we move along this conversation, but what you're doing is great, so it's an honor to be on. Thank, you.

Speaker 1:

Of course man Appreciate it. So we got introduced not too long ago and I know when we chatted a little bit I got to hear a bit about your story. I thought it was really interesting and I'm excited to kind of share it to the rest of the world. So I will kind of pass it over to you to kind of tell us a little bit about who you are what do you do and let you take it however you want to.

Speaker 2:

You got it. So my name is Kevin, obviously, and I'm a commercial broker with Coldwell Banker Commercial here in the Northeast. So I'm licensed to practice real estate in Connecticut and in the state of New York. So I'm with Coldwell Banker. As I mentioned, we cover all asset classes between, whether it's retail, industrial office, If you're looking to lease, buy, sell. We do a lot of tenant rep, a lot of landlord rep. We represent buyers, investors. So that's what I do here. Mostly what I cover is I cover the whole state of Connecticut, so I've got something kind of in each corner of the state. Pretty much A lot of it is traveling across the state, but I do still do some real estate in New York as well.

Speaker 2:

But I've been in real estate now for about four years four and a half years, or give or take. It's been a wild ride. It's a journey that if you told me before COVID that this is what I'd be getting into, I probably would have laughed at you, and we'll get into why that is because, if we want to rewind the clocks back to when I was a kid, I grew up in Connecticut, here in Fairfield County, and I was a huge sports fan growing up, played soccer, basketball, baseball all throughout high school here in Fairfield County, and I was a huge sports fan. Growing up, I played soccer, basketball, baseball all throughout high school here in Fairfield County. And when I was a kid, my parents are both from the Bronx and so growing up my dad introduced us to baseball at a very young age and, him being from the Bronx, he was a huge Yankee fan. So I grew up during the dynasty years of the Yankees where they were constantly in the playoffs every year. So he would let me stay up late at night on school nights to watch the Yankees play big games in the playoffs and that got me hooked on sports. And then he would mute the TV and I would pick up the remote or the clicker, and I would pretend that I was the broadcaster. So that's what I wanted to do.

Speaker 2:

I wanted to be a broadcaster and so I set myself in high school. I started doing the morning announcements, giving the sports updates, you name it. I talked about it. All clubs, everything, and all the teachers knew that that's what I wanted to do. And so, when it came time to look at schools, my older sister went to Boston College. So when I was in middle school and high school, you would go up to visit her and I said this is where I want to be. I want to be in Boston. And I went to Curry College, which is in Milton, massachusetts, about 15 minutes south of downtown Boston, and I went there and I took one look at the campus and I knew that this is an opportunity where I wanted to go to school. They had a radio station and a TV station on campus. They had all these resources. That seemed incredible and I decided to go to Curry. I went there all four years, graduated in 2015, and I was a journalism major and so right off the bat you got a radio show freshman year.

Speaker 2:

You got to be on TV and really mess up and learn from your mistakes right away, whereas if you go to, like some of the bigger schools, like a Syracuse, the bigger schools across the country, you got to wait until about your junior year to finally get a chance to be on air on the campus's radio station. So that, to me, I didn't want to do that. So I wanted to be on air right away and that was a chance for me to learn and be comfortable in front of the microphone and talk. And I did everything on the radio. I did a talk show, I did a music show, I did overnights, I did it all. And same thing with the TV station. We had great professors who really honed in on having smaller classes. You can have that one-on-one relationship with the professor and that sparked so many introductions for me that I didn't expect and it was a wonderful experience. And with Curry I was able to maneuver myself into a internship with the Boston Red Sox and New England Sports Network.

Speaker 1:

Wow, that's pretty wild.

Speaker 2:

So I joined the Red Sox the year after they won the World Series so 2014,. I was there the whole year working for the Red Sox. So my junior and senior year it bled. That internship went for two years and so I got to be with the Red Sox. So my junior and senior year it bled. That internship went for two years and so I got to be with the Red Sox for all 81 home games at Fenway. I didn't get the travel team, but I was there at Fenway every day and in between, if I had classes or whatnot, I would jump on the tee and I'd be at Fenway.

Speaker 1:

So right away it was. Did that cause a lot of drama at first, being a Yankees fan, it did With the family.

Speaker 2:

A short story I went incognito Throughout that whole internship. They had no clue that I was a Yankee fan, up until the last day. I'll never forget. We went to Jerry Remy's the late great Jerry Remy. He was a former Red Sox player. He was the color guy for Nesson. He took everyone out and I said, by the way, I'm a Yankee fan, and they all were in stitches. They thought it was the most funniest thing.

Speaker 2:

The Red Sox weren't good that year, but the cool part about that internship was the last day of the regular season in 2014,. The Red Sox were eliminated from the postseason. But that last game, that last home game, was Derek Jeter's final game period. He had his last home game in Yankee Stadium about a week prior and he had the infamous walk-off hit. But his last game ever as a professional baseball player was at Fenway and I was there, and so I got to see him come up the tunnel onto the bus and off into retirement. He went. But after the game it was probably around the sixth inning he got his final hit and Joe Girardi, the manager at the time, took him out and at the end of the game was over. Fans were gone. I was still at Fenway clearing up. I went over to first base, scooped up some dirt and I put it in my pocket and I took it home. I still have it. It's still at my parents' house in my childhood bedroom.

Speaker 2:

Experiences like that at Curry College were incredible. On top of that, I got to create a podcast with a classmate of mine where we got to cover the New England Revolution in Major League Soccer. So I was at Gillette Stadium too, on top of having that internship. So I was on AM radio in college in Boston covering all Boston sports, but specifically with the Revs down at Gillette, and so that internship to WMEX 1510 bled into an opportunity as well. And then, when I graduated college, I came back home to Connecticut, where my parents are, and I was still, you know, had that internship up in Boston, but driving constantly up to Boston was. It got to a point where I said, okay, this is a little much.

Speaker 2:

And at the time the local newspaper here in Fairfield County was starting a broadcast company called the HAN Network and I opened up the newspaper and I saw the ad and we'll get into this too. This is something that I still do to this day. This is something that I still do to this day, but I was tenacious about getting an opportunity there because what they were doing was broadcasting sports for all the FCEAC high schools here in Fairfield County and it was a great opportunity. It was a full-time job. So I hounded them for months and I finally got a response and I got an audition and I got the job.

Speaker 2:

So it was me and another colleague of mine were on camera. Every day. We did a daily, you know kind of like a sports center type of show in our studio and then at night we would pick, depending on the season, whether it was fall, winter, spring. We would pick a sport and pick a school and we would go there to do. Whether it was during the fall, it was football, that was the big sport. We did volleyball, we did, obviously, lacrosse, basketball, hockey, baseball, softball, we did it all. Field hockey we covered everything soccer.

Speaker 2:

So getting a chance to do that for two and a half years just out of college not a lot of recent grads had opportunities like that and I was living at home saving money, and that job leapfrogged me back to Boston, where I wanted to be, and it got me a job with WBZ. Wbz is the famous call letters, one of the biggest stations up in Boston, and they hired me to be a and I think a lot of folks were wondering, hey, you're going to news and not sports. I said yeah, but this is an opportunity I couldn't pass up and it got me back into the top five market and it was a crazy job. I still get night sweats about missing my 2.50 in the morning alarm clock to get up for the morning newscast. But same thing I hit the ground running immediately. They gave me about a week of training and that wascast. But same thing I hit the ground running immediately. They gave me about a week of training and that was it. And they said good luck, kid, go out and get it.

Speaker 2:

And I chased news stories all across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts but also covered breaking news stories you name it, I was there. Whether it was fires Unfortunately there was a lot of. You know there were some crime stories that I had to go and cover, breaking news stories as well. I chased the mayor around in Boston. So I did so much up in Boston for WBZ and I couldn't believe it. I had to pinch myself at times saying I can't believe that I'm here, but it was because of what I did to get there, which was just continue to network and get yourself out there, send your resumes out, get in front of people in person, and that's what got me to Boston.

Speaker 2:

And then, about a year and a half later or two years later, covid hit. And when COVID hit, obviously it was such a strange time for not only the country but the world and news stations were struggling. Everyone was struggling. But we were on the front lines covering the pandemic. So I was going all over the city to cover press conferences with the governor of Massachusetts and the mayor, and then in between that there was other lighthearted stories about what folks are doing to help during the pandemic, which was good stories as well.

Speaker 2:

But at the same time, monday through Friday, and then on the weekends as well, I would get called in to do breaking news stories across the city. But then slowly but surely, they started cutting back on hours for the reporters, the anchors, folks in the newsroom, and I was furloughed. And then it just got to a point where I was furloughed to working one day a week for an audit. There was no timetable when I was going to be able to get back to a full-time role because of the pandemic and when that news broke that they were scaling back my hours, I had about maybe two months left on my lease and I had to make a decision and I had a conversation. I said, look, am I ever going to get back to a full-time role.

Speaker 2:

And there was so much uncertainty in the world. So at that point I said, okay, I need to figure this out. And I decided to step away and we came to terms on just parting ways professionally and I moved back home and I was going to try and they were going to let me know if an opportunity came back again that I could come back full time. And at that point I was trying to figure out how to reinvent myself, to kind of come back and try something else or stick with broadcasting. And at that point I was so burnt out from the business that there was one night I was sitting at home with my folks and they were like Kev, you'd be so good in sales and in real estate, you should try and get your license, you should study to pass the exam. I said, okay, that actually seems like a cool idea. I have family that work in commercial real estate. So I said, no, I'll give it a shot.

Speaker 2:

And at the same time I still sent resumes out, sent demo reels out, but a lot of the stations across the country weren't hiring, a lot of them were in the middle of layoffs and furloughs.

Speaker 2:

So I said, okay, I'm going to focus on real estate and jump into this world and I passed my exam and I got a job working for Houlihan Lawrence Commercial covering Westchester County commercial real estate, and I was there for about two years and then I was recruited to come to Coldwell Banker, where I am today. So it's my. I was just talking to my aunt last night it was her birthday and she always says Kev, you have such a unique story that needs to be told because you've had so many interesting experiences throughout. You know, since 2015, when you graduated college, up until this point, it's been 10 years and I've done a lot of crazy stuff in broadcasting and now in real estate. So that gives you a little bit of a short version of my timeline. I hope that that makes sense. But it all started with me wanting to get into journalism and broadcasting and now I've honed those skills and brought them with me into commercial real estate.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, I mean, that is a pretty awesome story, so I appreciate you sharing that, thank you. And there's a lot of different underlying themes that I'm hearing you talk about here. First and foremost is your resilience. I mean, I'm constantly, always talking about it with my clients, talking about it on stages, different conferences and even on a lot of different podcasts that I go on and I guest, and to me, really building that resilience means that you are both physically, mentally and emotionally able and capable of handling a lot of different stressors that come at you through different things in life, and really what it comes down to is like having the confidence and the competence to handle the different things.

Speaker 1:

So I got to ask you, like where did you get that confidence? Like because as soon as you got to college, it basically threw you right in. It was like trial by fire and I guess I would assume it was like a sink or swim kind of situation. And where did you get that confidence to just like kind of show up, to reach out and just kind of like hit the ground running? That's a good question.

Speaker 2:

I think it kind of came naturally and I think that has to do with the fact that even in sports when I was a kid, you kind of just get thrown out there and you have coaches that help you, but you're the one who has to go out there and say okay, playing soccer today, I'm going out there, I'm scoring a goal, and it's that determination that I learned as a kid. I think it was just something that came natural to me. My parents were huge in pumping confidence into myself and my sisters when we were kids, no matter what it was, whether it was sports, whether it was school, whatever it was. Also, I think it has to do with the fact that on the side, as more of a hobby that I have, I play guitar, I sing. It's just something that I've loved.

Speaker 2:

Music, and I think as a kid I've always just been comfortable around people. I'm very social, I like to be around folks, I like to talk. As you you can tell it's a blessing and a curse, but I think the fact that in high school I played in a band and I sang and I played guitar and I got up on stage and I just did it sure, there are nerves always gonna be nerves, no matter what, but I think it's just you gotta power through it and you gotta have that determination. It's just you got to power through it and you got to have that determination. It's something that I learned a long time ago and I, you know, going back to when I was at WBZ I was 27, 28 when I first got it, that job, and I'll never forget my they.

Speaker 2:

I had a week of training, that was it, and they thought they said you know what? You're good enough. Here's a microphone we're going to send you out for a breaking news story. And I went out to side note. My first breaking news story ended up being a national story because there was a tornado on Cape Cod. I drove out there by myself and I got there just in time. There was a damage done. There was a hotel that got completely torn apart, unfortunately, by the tornado. But a tornado in Cape Cod, that just never happens.

Speaker 2:

And it became this not just a local story, it became national news and I was doing live hits on I think it was on the hour, every hour, from the morning up until the evening time. They're like you got to stay, You're our guy out there and I remember my first hit. I said, well, here we go. If I mess up, I mess up. And that's just sometimes the mentality that I have and I still use it today. With sales, making cold calls and getting in front of new clients, I know what I can bring and it's having that confidence and that determination that I learned as a kid, that just kind of came natural to me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that and yeah, that's crazy. Everybody's probably evacuating and running for shelter and I could just see you running towards all the chaos and everything that is crazy. Oh yeah, all the chaos and everything that is crazy, oh yeah. And yes, I would assume that all those reps of broadcasting and announcing sports and things like that and a lot of the music and things there that helps obviously still reinforce that reps to build that confidence getting into it. So you've really had a lot of that skill down and everything.

Speaker 1:

And I'm at a situation now with my speaking where it's not as much of like a nerve-wracking kind of thing when I'm going on stages. It's more of that excitement and looking forward to it and almost turning it into a game, so trying to have fun with it, setting new little challenges for myself when I go out there and speaking to different audiences. I would imagine that's something else that you kind of brought to it with a lot of those different things you were going through there. But I do want to kind of shift the conversation into a little bit more of like the networking world, because when I'm listening to you here I know the internships, the being able to connect with other people being personable, like you were saying before. Can you shine a little bit on what your take is on networking and how do you personally be so successful with networking? Because that's how we got connected through somebody down the road, through social media or such, and so I'd just love to get to your take on things.

Speaker 2:

Sure, Networking is so important and I was actually talking to a college student last night who reached out to me asking for some resume help, and that was something that I challenged him. I said, look, even though you're in college, you got to get out there and network yourself. And that's something that was taught to me a long time ago in college, in high school. Up until this point. I mean, it's so important and, rob, you know it too. No matter what field you're in, you can be in real estate, you can be in fitness, you can whatever, it doesn't matter. Networking is so important and being able to show up in person and shake that person's hand and look them in the eye goes so far. And when I started in real estate, covid was still happening, it was still pretty fresh, so there were no networking events. I mean, networking events were getting postponed. But slowly and surely you started to see them come back and now that was something that I made.

Speaker 2:

A goal for myself was to go to more events, get yourself out there. I was covering Westchester County, but now coming back to Fairfield County and covering New Haven County and Litchfield County, I wanted people to meet people in those markets and again, it's so important to go to these events. I know sometimes you want to roll your eyes and say, oh, it's late at night or it's a weeknight, I'm making dinner no, go to the event. Or if it's on a weekend, no go, go to the event. It's so important to be able to just interact with folks, because you never know who knows who, and that goes back to broadcasting.

Speaker 2:

That is how I got. Every opportunity that I got to be on air was through networking. Getting in front of people, shaking hands, asking for business cards, goes a long way, and it still goes a long way now in my world, in real estate, going out and meeting folks. Events are happening. Go to them. They're so crucial and you don't have to be in real estate. It can be in whatever field you want to be, but if you go to these events it goes a long way.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I believe that too, so many people. Even just when I bring up the word network or networking, people often get a bad taste in their mouth and kind of shine away from it. And that's rightfully so, because typically, when you do go to a lot of networking events, it is people just trying to sell you something, trying to surface level conversations and things like that. And how do you, with all of that going on every single day at these different events, how do you make sure that you stand out away from the crowd? So how do you get the most out of these networking events and show up as your best self?

Speaker 2:

Sure, I understand why folks hesitate to go to networking events, especially if you're going solo, because you don't know anyone. You don't want to seem like the odd man out or standing there awkwardly by yourself. I think when you go to these events, everyone feels the same way. But once you have that first conversation, you go up to whoever and just introduce yourself. Now you started. Now John Smith can introduce you to Mary Sue, and then you start circling the room and all of a sudden you picked up five, six business cards. But it's going in and again having that confidence and just saying this is who I am.

Speaker 2:

One thing that I think I've heard from others is that I'm always my genuine self. I'm not going to sell you, I just want to get to know you. What your business is or what you do for a living, kind of like this conversation that we're having now, where I want to learn about your story How'd you get to where you are? Tell me about if you're an attorney, tell me about how you got your law degree, or if you're working for a bank what got you into banking? What got you into mortgages? Stuff like that is what I've noticed lately from these networking events that I attend is just going around meeting people. This person may you guys may be connected in some way. It's a small world, so you're going to have some synergies there. All of a sudden you realize, wow, we're connected to about five different people and now you've built a connection and a friendship just by going up and shaking someone's hand.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that and I'm glad that you really talked about being genuinely your authentic self, because that's the same, or very similar to the same advice that I give to a lot of my clients and other individuals that I'm talking to who are maybe on the fence about connecting and going out and going to these different networking events. But I see so many business people, entrepreneurs and coaches struggling to go to these different events and stuff because they're looking to just go and sell themselves or sell their products or whatever it is, and I tell them like whoa, slow down, go try to genuinely make a connection with somebody. Like, find out something. Who's somebody cool.

Speaker 1:

Like I go to different events with the purpose of seeing like, okay, who here do what I want to ask to go get like sushi with me or something Like cause, I love sushi and I love to sit down and chat and stuff like that. So I try to go into those again, trying to make it a game, like, okay, well, who can I meet? That'll be something cool, maybe we'll grab some pizza or something along those lines. And then from there, like you said, you never know who knows who and I find it hilarious when I meet somebody who knows somebody that I already know, and then that's just easy to carry on the conversation and it's fun if you know how to look at it through a fun lens of. So I'm glad that you kind of shared some of that 100% and that just happened to me.

Speaker 2:

Two months ago I went to a networking event in the area and I ended up meeting someone who's a banker that's actually now we're in business together. I got him connected to a client of mine who's looking to buy a piece of property because he needed some financing. That was all through networking. So again, it's so important that you go, you start getting referrals and referring business. It's huge.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it really is. Well, for one, I want to appreciate and send some appreciation your way and gratitude for taking this time to cut out of out of your busy day time of recording. We're recording this beginning of April on a Wednesday middle of the day, so you taking the time out of your schedule is really helpful for me and I appreciate that. And sharing your story is awesome because it's very inspiring and just seeing how the confidence and the consistency putting the work for the networking things has really turned different situations on their head into such a beneficial opportunity for you. So it's just awesome and amazing to hear that. So if people are interested in connecting more with you or if they're looking to get into some real estate or something like that, how do people find you or stay in touch with you?

Speaker 2:

Sure, you can find me on LinkedIn. I'm really active on LinkedIn as well. You can find me, kevin Coleman, on LinkedIn. You can find me on the CBC Worldwide website, colwell Banker Commercial. We're actually the Connecticut, I'm in the Danbury office, so if you want to find me, that's where you can find me on the Colwell Banker Commercial Danbury website. You can find me there. All my listings are there.

Speaker 2:

But if you're looking for real estate, happy to help you. It's 2024 and now going to 2025. With the pipeline that I have, we're looking at a really strong year coming off, one of the best years I've ever had. So, again, just really excited to hit the ground running. It's been a great start to 2025. But, hey, you can find me on LinkedIn email as well. I'm sure you'll share that, rob.

Speaker 2:

But yeah, it's one of the things that I love about this business is helping people, and one of the cooler things that I've done so far, especially here at Coldwell, is getting back to where I was from and helping communities that I grew up in, and one of them was Norwalk, where I'm very active in and doing work on Wall Street in Norwalk, being able to bring in two new retail tenants to the neighborhood in Wall Street, an area that was struggling but now the city is bringing it back. It's becoming a destination where folks want to come and check out the restaurants, the retailers they have, the Wall Street Theater. Being able to help in that neighborhood was so fulfilling, and it's great to get deals done, but it's even better when you're helping a community and neighborhood that you're very attached to emotionally.

Speaker 1:

And to help these two tenants get into the spaces that I represented and to represent them was wonderful and again thank you so much for taking this time today, but before I let you roll, I got to ask you if you were to wind back the time, have a quick conversation with the younger version of yourself, and you only had the opportunity to give yourself one piece of advice to help young Kevin make sure that he's kept driving forward and break through to that next level. What would that piece of advice be?

Speaker 2:

Have that determination and that confidence and don't take no for an answer. I've dealt with a lot of adversity growing up throughout school and then you know, in my young professional career, being told no is something that I've been told way more than yes, and that goes with my previous career in broadcasting. Up until now, be okay with no. Be okay with it, because no is not an answer. You'll figure it out and just continue to fight through the adversity. That's something that I've dealt with as a kid and it's still something I'm fighting through today. And that's what I would tell my younger self is keep going, don't take no for an answer, keep fighting, keep having that tenacious attitude that you always have and that confidence and that smile.

Speaker 1:

Love that. Some powerful words of wisdom sharing there at the end. Thank you, kev. This has been an incredible conversation and again, seriously, I appreciate it so much so we'll have to have you back in the future. And that gives us a wrap for today on Surviving the Side Hustle. Make sure you guys go check out Kevin on Instagram or on LinkedIn and tell him what you thought about the episode. Until next time, guys. Peace, peace, peace. Thanks, rob, appreciate it.