Profile: Ashley Woodliff
Exploring the value design brings to Commercial Real Estate
Tap the picture or the link below to check out the Miro Board and Ashley’s interview in it’s full-sized glory
TIME IS A SLIPPERY THING. AS WE GET OLDER WE REALIZE THAT LIFE DOESN’T GO IN THE ORDER OF FIRST, NEXT, LAST. BUT THAT’S THE BEAUTY. WHERE DID YOU SEE YOURSELF 20 YEARS AGO AND HOW DO YOU RECONCILE THAT WITH YOUR LIFE NOW?:
If you had told me twenty years ago while walking across the high school graduation stage that I would be living abroad for the second time, self-employed doing a job that offers me complete freedom as well as the opportunity to be creative – my mind would have been blown, this scenario was just unheard of.
Life is very different than what I had imagined for myself, mostly because 20 years ago I wrapped up high school with every belief the path of life would traditionally fall “in order” as you’d say. I had little expectation I would divert from the standard formula plan of school, marriage, settle down, kids, and work tirelessly until retirement. I grew up in a small town in Southwest Florida with limited exposure to travel or other lifestyle opportunities and you just assume this is how life will go. I am extremely grateful for the zigs and zags life has thrown at me and each opportunity that has come my way.
YOU SEEM TO LEAD A LIFE THAT OTHERS DREAM OF. TELL EVERYONE ABOUT YOUR NOMADIC FREELANCER LIFESTYLE.
While I’ve only discovered freelancing in the last couple of years, I’ve been fortunate that prior professional opportunities have allowed me to bounce around the US and abroad, taking me from Charlotte, NC to Seattle, WA then across the pond to Dublin, Ireland and now Amsterdam, Netherlands.
The digital nature of my work allows me to be “time zone agnostic” using a follow the sun approach, which is both efficient for my clients and allows me to enjoy the freedom of movement throughout the world.
This lifestyle grants uber flexibility when it comes to choosing when I work, who I work for and what projects I work on. I’ve had the opportunity to work with clients all over the world – current client footprint is on four continents and across multiple industries. While I focus on CRE graphic design, I’ve had the opportunity to work with opera singers in Norway, non-profit housing organizations for low-income women in Uganda, and artisan furniture makers in South Africa.
YOU DO SO BEAUTIFULLY WHAT OTHERS IN THE BUSINESS AND/OR DESIGN WORLD MAY OVERLOOK: YOU SPECIALIZE IN GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR THE COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY. TELL US HOW YOU GOT HERE.
I’ve always been a very visual person enjoying creative projects. I graduated college at the start of the Great Recession and into a labor market where marketing and creative were the first line items cut from company budgets. After a few years of working in the non-profit industry as a Marketing and Program Manager I decided to pivot in a totally different direction and enter the commercial real estate industry.
My first taste of creating real estate marketing was working at Childress Klein helping prepare proposal and lease materials. I realized then that there was room for my creative skills in an industry that isn’t typically seen as a market leader when it comes to design.
From there I joined Colliers in Seattle where my design muscles really began to flex, as I supported a handful of Brokers across multiple property types. After a year of generalist support, I joined a multifamily investment team within Colliers, specializing in the creation of marketing materials genuinely known to the market as “best in class” and differentiated the team apart from competitors by thinking outside the box of standard CRE marketing and design.
After a few years the opportunity to move abroad within Colliers allowed me to really expand my marketing skillset. I became the Marketing and Communications Manager for Colliers’ entire Irish market. Ireland, and Dublin more specifically, is a huge hub for multi-national tech companies, offering more opportunities to collaborate with the entire European marketing team on high-visibility projects for companies like Slack, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Microsoft. On the other end of the spectrum, the Irish office also has a residential division specializing in selling high end residential and luxury estates (think Irish version of Downton Abbey), so it was exciting to dip my toe into that particular type of marketing.
At the start of the pandemic, I was still living in Dublin and decided to return to the States since this “unknown virus” was circulating globally causing fear. I landed in Portland, Oregon in early 2020 to find myself in an area plagued by political / social unrest and an uncertain commercial real estate market. I turned to Upwork, thus kicking off my freelancing journey.
STEP UP ON YOUR SOAPBOX AND GIVE US YOUR PHILOSOPHY ON THE VALUE GRAPHIC DESIGN PLAYS IN COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE.
So much of selling commercial real estate is telling the story of the property – it is not just cap rates or favorable lease terms – and design is a major factor of this. So much of CRE is done digitally now, you aren’t physically handing someone a flyer and telling them about the property, therefore you need materials designed to capture their attention when they open the file and clearly portray the property’s story.
WHAT’S THE COST OF OUTDATED AND/OR POORLY DESIGNED COLLATERAL?
So many materials come across my “desk” from clients that look like they’ve come straight from 1995 or are using some generic template with little to no effort made to put the property’s best foot forward. The quality of CRE materials, especially from institutional level brokerages, has improved greatly in the last 5-7 years and it is imperative for local or regional companies to keep up or even simply to make an effort to better compete in their market.
The biggest take away from my time in Ireland was that the approach to marketing varies from region to region, even office to office within the same organization. Each market is unique, and the marketing style must adapt to fit the expectations of the local market and clientele. One template or method doesn’t necessarily work across the board.
ARE THERE ANY OTHER PEOPLE IN THAT SPACE THAT INFLUENCE YOU, OR IS IT A CORPORATE SNOOZE-FEST?
Honestly it is a bit of a snooze-fest. The majority of my CRE clients aren’t willing to think outside the box when it comes to how they showcase their listings. I get sent examples of what they’d like me to create for them and typically they just want to replicate what others are doing. It is very rare, yet super exciting when someone says they want to break the mold and do something that no one else has seen – in my opinion it really is an opportunity to set themselves apart and become a market leader.
I HEAR REAL ESTATE FOLKS ALL THE TIME ASKING ABOUT DESIGNERS, TEMPLATES, HOW-TO’S ETC. PEOPLE ARE COLLECTIVELY FREAKING OUT. CAN YOU GIVE THE DESIGN-UNINCLINED ANY GUIDANCE HERE?
Using templates is great, if you have a great template – invest in creating an awesome template that works for you and makes you stand out.
Sometimes less is more – don’t cram content onto pages let the story/graphics speak for itself.
And, don’t be concerned with page count - many are concerned with limiting the number of pages but isn’t the best way to showcase your content.
Less word count, more bullet points, and visualizations / infographics – people tend not to read lengthy descriptions, get your point across in a sentence or two.
White space IS OKAY – intentional whitespace can be as powerful as a thoughtful pause in a great speech.
Lastly, stay away from using PowerPoint as your design tool, this is not the intended use for this program. If you don’t have access to a proper design software or a marketing department, I’d recommend using a web-based program like Canva or Adobe Creative Cloud Express – templates within these programs are super easy to use or you can have a designer create a custom template in these programs for you to use.
TIPS FOR CRE AGENTS HIRING FREELANCERS: QUESTIONS TO ASK FOR AND RED FLAGS WATCH FOR.
Pressure is not a friend to design - don’t wait till the week of your deadline to find a designer, designing something worth putting your name on takes time.
If you don’t have company branding in place, provide your designer with some samples of marketing that you tend to gravitate towards – it doesn’t even have to be real estate specific, it can be digital ads you see, websites you like, etc. It really helps to set expectations. A great source for inspiration is Behance, Dribbble, or even just scrolling through Google images for “modern real estate brochure”.
Get straight to the point when asking your questions: Have you designed a "insert project here" before? Many designers can pull a great flyer or brochure together but have no idea what an Offering Memorandum is or should look like. Vet them to ensure they know what it is you are asking for. It will make things go smoothly if the designer has even a little knowledge of CRE and it will save you time (and money) in the end. If they do have CRE experience, ask to see their portfolio or samples of work and make sure they are up to your standards.
Also, be clear in how the final product will be delivered. For example, do you want only the PDF of the final collateral? Do you want all the design files to keep on file for future changes? If so, specify which program they need to be in.
If your project is large, like creating a new OM template, consider breaking your project into segments or milestones to avoid reworking the entire project if you are unhappy with the output. Trust your gut when it comes to red flags, most are pretty obvious:
Has no CRE experience.
Doesn’t ask for branding guidelines or design “look and feel” preferences.
Doesn’t ask for clear timing expectations or offers to turn your project around very fast (there is a chance the work might be a generic template being used).
WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU? HOW DO YOU ENVISION YOUR CRAFT EVOLVING AND WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO TAKE YOUR BUSINESS?
I’ve recently taken on a larger role with my previous multifamily investment team from my Seattle days as an Independent Contractor, so for the time being I am slowing down on freelancing full-time.
Eventually I’d love to turn this into a boutique business with a few designers on staff to specialize taking properties through the deal pipeline – from pitch to OM to closing tombstone materials.
SPEAKING OF WHAT’S NEXT! TELL US ABOUT SOME OF YOUR UPCOMING TRAVEL PLANS.
As travel restrictions ease here in Amsterdam and across Europe (yay!), I have a packed calendar to hopefully alleviate the cabin fever from the last two years of sitting in the living room! Highlights include lots of cheese, wine, and kayaking (though maybe not at the same time) in Southern France’s National Parks, celebrating Summer Solstice with friends in Sweden, hiking the fjords in northern Norway this summer and through the Slovenian Alps this Fall, then maybe some real estate shopping in Umbria, Italy this winter…
Find Ashley Here: Her website is super pro
Here’s the link to Ashley’s Miro board. Take a look!
