Summary: Industry specialization at CLA is the real deal. Listen to this series of inspiring conversations to hear firsthand how it advances our clients’ success, our professionals’ careers, and our firm’s competitive edge.<br> Narrator: It was 2003 and Jack Rybicki was asked to build our Tampa office from the ground up. He had three staffers, a few referral relationships, and zero clients. Today, Tampa is 70 people and $10 million strong and Jack is handing over the reins to head up our real estate industry practice and create exciting new opportunities in the market. Listen to how he used his entrepreneurial grit to achieve great things and what lies ahead for someone whose vision of success knows no limits?<br> [00:00:31]<br> John: Welcome, CLA family, to “Industry Forward,” a podcast designed to tell the stories behind the CLA promise. We exist at CLA to create opportunities. We create opportunities when we live the CLA promise. We promise to know you and help you. Today we’re gonna focus in on the power of the individual entrepreneur and how that individual entrepreneur builds an industry, which leads to sustainable growth.<br> To help us tell that story, we’ve invited Jack Rybicki, our new MP of the real estate group and former MP of the Tampa office to the microphone. Jack has been with the firm in one way, shape, or form for more than 20 years, and during that 20 years, he’s had opportunities to build the Tampa office, lead a group of people, assemble some who came in via merger or acquisition as well as key hirings, and now is taking on a new endeavor.<br> So let’s dive right in. Jack, welcome. Can you tell us just a little bit about your story?<br> [00:01:36]<br> Jack: Sure, John. Yeah, I was fortunate, following a career with Anderson and then a three-year stint as a CFO at an e-commerce company, I was fortunate enough to join Chastang Ferrell at the time, and Les Eiserman and Lori Sims and Larry Chastang took a bet on me that I could come and open up a marketplace for them in Tampa, and so we were able to come over to Tampa with a brand new office, me and just a couple staff people, and grow that business to over $1 million in three years back in 2003.<br> It was an exciting time, it was a, you know–wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, get back into industry or what, and–but the entrepreneurial opportunities to come in and open a new market for a firm that hadn’t been there before were very appealing. <br> [00:02:33]<br> John: So wait a minute. 12 years of experience, you were hired, we took a chance on you and put you in a brand new office location? How did you feel on the first day?<br> <br> Jack: It was daunting. I mean, you know, walked into the office, met two staff people I had never met before, and asked them what was going on and what clients we had and learned that there was nothing there at that point, that we had a couple attorney referral relationships, and that was it, and so it was definitely scary.<br> <br> John: So no clients. Tell us about the first client. Can you remember?<br> <br> Jack: Yeah, the first client actually was a non-profit, which I really don’t work in very much, but it was the Westshore Alliance. We started networking. That was a business network in the area. We got, you know, heavily involved right out of the gate, and within a month or so, we were able to bring them on as a client for the firm, ’cause they were in a transition period, so just immediately starting to network in the community started paying dividends for us.<br> <br> John: So by the time you joined–the firm joined CLA, that was 2006.<br> <br> Jack: Yep.<br> <br> John: About $1 million, so that was a pretty fast ride to go from no clients to $1 million. How do you manage that period of time? ‘Cause it would have been business development, client service,
