Early on in life, I realized a funny thing about success… You don’t have to be the biggest, most talented, strongest one out there. In fact, in most of life’s arenas, I’ve been the underdog. Born premature, asthmatic, and legally blind in one eye, being a successful athlete, let alone becoming a thought leader in one of the biggest industries in the world, never seemed possible, let alone imaginable.

But from the time I could first remember, till today, there’s always been at least one coach who helped me rise up and change the trajectory of my life by reinforcing one statement… Knowing Isn’t Doing. These coaches forced me to do small tasks every day.

All of those small tasks compounded into things like playing Division-1 college lacrosse, becoming an EVP, COO, and CFO in various industries, and then in 2008, launching and building a multi-million dollar CRE Coaching business.

I know you’re probably asking yourself… Who the heck would start a business at the beginning of a major recession?

Well, at the start of the Great Recession, I found myself at a crossroads. I was unemployed thanks to corporate downsizing and knew I had a calling for so much more than the corporate rat race.

I was a coach at heart and had a love for helping others achieve success. When I finally put these two pieces together, I found my life’s mission.

I realized that in a tumultuous economy, so many commercial real estate professionals would be struggling to survive. I also knew (with my then 20+ years of CRE experience) that I could truly help them not only survive a recession but thrive and come out stronger.

Thus, The Massimo Group was born.

It was certainly not an easy road. I started with an old beat-up laptop on a 6-foot folding table in our vacant living room. It was just my wife and me — I did all the marketing, sales, and coaching. She oversaw our operations and the company’s finances. Looking back now, it still shocks me how we grew from a simple concept to a team of 30+ coaches and clients from all corners of the world. It took many personal coaches to make this possible.