We had the opportunity to speak with Anita Verma-Lallian as a part of our Rule Breakers series. Anita Verma-Lallian is the CEO and Founder of Arizona Land Consulting, where she provides full concierge services for land seekers and developers of all types of sites and assists investors in discovering viable properties throughout Arizona. Anita founded Arizona Land Consulting in 2020, a year after she co-founded land development and investment company, Equity Land Group (ELG), and has already closed on more than $100M in deals in the last year.
Let’s learn more about her, from her.
1. What is your no-fail go-to when you need inspiration or to get out of a creative rut?
I’ve started meditating over the past few years whenever I get stuck. It clears my mind, keeps my creativity going, and helps me conceive new ideas. It’s been very helpful for me over the past few years as I have started and grown my business.
Also, talking to different people stimulates thoughts and creativity for me. So I try to set up meetings with various mentors and people in my industries always gets me out of a creative rut.
2. The definition of success is personal to each one of us in the way that we build our own definition. So what is success to you?
If you would have asked me this question 5-6 years ago, my answer would have been a little different from now. I used to think that success could be measured financially and tied to how much money you were making. However, now I think that you must love what you are doing and be able to establish a healthy work-life balance.
Success for me now is having a company that is growing and thriving while also balancing my family and personal commitments. Having something that fulfills you mentally, spiritually, and creatively is what success means to me.
Also, breaking barriers and bending rules are a part of success. I am a woman in a male-dominated field. Being able to do things that only men much older than me were able to achieve is my success story.
3. What obstacles did you have to overcome while starting this business?
I started my business in June 2020. That was during the peak of the pandemic and nobody was certain how long it would go on. Markets were uncertain and real estate deals were being put on hold. It was challenging trying to acquire land and find land investors while trying to navigate a “new normal.”
However, we started doing our business virtually through meeting apps and were able to grow our business rapidly nationally and internationally. After the pandemic, the interest rates were low so a lot of real estate development started taking place and we were well positioned to capture that growth and development.
4. COVID-19 came as a shock to the whole world. It had a deep impact on our lives and work. How did COVID-19 affect your business?
The pandemic was an extremely difficult time for everyone on so many levels. Due to all the uncertainty, all active deals and projects I was working on had to be stopped. It was during June or July, months after the pandemic started that the real estate markets began to bounce back.
COVID changed the way we did business, all of our meetings went virtual. While there were some drawbacks to this, the one positive was you could connect with many more people not only across the country but across the world with more ease.
Another outcome that came out of the pandemic was the amount of money people were saving from lack of travel and spending. This meant potentially more time and money for investment. Although the pandemic slowed down our business in its initial three to four months, we actually saw growth soon after.
5. If you had the chance to start your career over again, what would you do differently?
Everything I’ve done in my career has served as a learning experience and has helped me learn and grow. When I first started out, I wasn’t as confident in myself and spent a lot of time and energy trying to make everyone I was working with happy. Looking back, I would have believed in myself more and affirmed my value and worth. If I had to go back and change something, I would structure my initial deals a little differently in which I would have more decision-making power and control the outcomes of my deals completely.
6. What is an important lesson you’ve learned from running your own business?
I’ve learned many lessons but the biggest one is that in order to be successful, especially in real estate, you have to know and understand your market extremely well so that when opportunities come up, you can quickly analyze and assess if they’re good. Sometimes I am required to make quick decisions about certain deals because I am competing against other people, so knowing and mastering the market is a must.
