Loving What We Do: The Passion Behind Our Work

At the heart of every great career is a sense of purpose—an excitement for the work, the people, and the impact we make. When you love what you do, it’s more than just a job—it’s a craft, a challenge, and a way to help others succeed. We asked our colleagues what fuels their passion, and their answers reflect the creativity, collaboration, and dedication that make our team so special. 

Here’s what they had to say:

Why are you passionate about what you do?

Gladys Cabrera, Principal

I think it's because I love helping people and I love connecting the dots. I'm a regional, so I work with a bunch of different market leaders and managing principles and I love being like, “Oh, this guy down here is doing this. You should look at this.” I like helping them help each other because it's silly to reinvent the wheel in every region. And I love commercial real estate. I've been a part of it for a long time, even before 2005, when I was working for a developer, and prior to that I was working for a very small apartment rental company. I've been a part of real estate my whole career. I love how fun it is and how different every day can be.

Cheryl Davis, Graphic Design Manager

I love helping people and I love creating things, so this is the perfect combination of those two passions.

Hayley Mueller, Principal

I'm passionate about what I do because I think being an advisor is the perfect medium between my creativity and analytical side. When you mix those together, they create a synergy that helps business owners, which I think is really exciting. These people are depending on us for the physical place that their business is going to rely on to exist. It’s a huge responsibility, and to see things come together and work out, that's like magic to me. I think that may be kind of nerdy, and maybe just us at Cresa or people in the industry get that excited, but that's why I'm passionate about it.

Jodi Mullins, Director, Finance

I get true gratification from doing a job well and helping others succeed. I love seeing the spark in someone’s eyes when I see that I have made a connection, and they have learned something new. I am also passionate about supporting other women in the workplace and firmly believe in assisting people to help them succeed. I am only as strong as the amazing people I surround myself with. I do not view anyone as competition. Instead, I see a united team that is only stronger because of our unique attributes.

Joe Rattan, Senior Vice President, Marketing

I’ve created visual art since the time I could hold a crayon in my hand! I found my true passion for this when I learned to combine creativity with communication, studying Design Communications at Texas Tech University with Frank Cheatham. He was tough, demanding, and inspired his students to go further and dig deeper. I had the great opportunity to join Woody Pirtle (Woody is an iconic American designer and an AIGA Fellow) who taught me how to distill and refine visual ideas and was a master of typographic design. These people, and so many others, continue to stoke my passion for what I do.

Malia Rosado, Vice President, Client Solutions

In my role, I listen to the ideas of each team member and develop cohesive messaging that reflects our collective insights. There’s something gratifying about helping people clearly articulate their thoughts. Whether I do it on paper to create marketing collateral or verbally to help frame a pitch strategy, it’s the storytelling aspect of marketing that appeals to me.

Rachel Trice, Senior Vice President, Finance

I am excited when I get to build something. For example, a new project has lots of hair on it, none of the software works for it, and you need to start from scratch to think about how you present the numbers and the stories to clients to have it make sense to them. I love the challenge of building something new that other people will benefit from.

Craig Zodikoff, Managing Principal 

I love working in an environment where you can combine business and creativity. From the earliest days of being a broker, I enjoyed having so much face time with clients, and seeing the impact my work has on their lives every day. My favorite projects are the ones with the most complexity, because I know the end result will be transformational for their organization.