07/10/2025
Two young Bay Area professionals reached out to me, one leading a small team at Adobe in enterprise storage, the other working in international markets at Apple.
We met up at Loyal Coffee downtown. It was a blind meeting, but it was on my calendar for a couple of weeks, so I took the meeting.
She mentioned she helped open the Chinese market, which instantly told me she was sharp, strategic, and globally minded. I had a bit of a nerd crush on them almost instantly - “Wow, impressive!” I said.
They had found me on social media and wanted to pick my brain about life and real estate here in Colorado Springs.
But this wasn’t just about homes, she specifically asked about my experience as a person of color putting roots down here.
I appreciated the honesty of the question and shared my perspective, starting from a broad view and narrowing it down to how it feels living and working in this city.
I told them about the deep sense of welcome I’ve felt in nearly every neighborhood I’ve done business in or called home.
I let them know that, for me, the community here has felt real. I told them that Colorado is boring and you must like nature or at least appreciate it living here.
Then I shared something I’ve come to believe:
“People here have always treated me with respect. I think the military presence has a lot to do with it.
I’ve never served, but many of my clients have, and that “warrior ethos” rubs off. It’s about looking out for each other, no matter your background, because when it counts, you need each other.”
They kind of just looked at me, smiling, nodding, maybe taking it all in.
So I added, “Look, in 30 minutes I can’t tell you if this is your place, but I can say this: people here respect God, Country, and Family. When you put down roots, that pride builds. And around here, folks genuinely take care of one another.”
I wasn’t there to sell them a house or a neighborhood.
I was there to be an ambassador for the city. Honest, impartial, and grounded.
I think that landed with them.
They left with more than market data, they left with a sense of optimism.
And maybe just as important, they left knowing they had a resource and a friend here.
