{"href":"https://api.simplecast.com/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbelieve-in-your-office.simplecast.com%2Fepisodes%2Ftom-MOT04s1f","width":444,"version":"1.0","type":"rich","title":"From the Army to the Corner Office: Real Estate, AI, and Why the Office Still Wins with Tom Weitzel","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/4ea12242-a330-4de3-bbdf-204552004316/ab087c15-7bc8-486d-83e8-01f17b938c09/believe-20in-20your-20office-20podcast-20cover.jpg","thumbnail_height":300,"provider_url":"https://simplecast.com","provider_name":"Simplecast","html":"","height":200,"description":"Before Tom Weitzel became a managing director at JLL — one of the largest commercial real estate firms in the world — he was an Army officer deployed to Iraq, a kid from Cleveland with a 2.1 GPA, and a guy who picked real estate over a career in sports because he couldn't put the book down.\nIn this episode, Josh sits down with Tom for a wide-ranging conversation that covers how a transplant from Cleveland with no connections landed in Philadelphia and built a nearly twenty-year career at the top of the tenant rep business.\nTom talks honestly about his non-linear path — from struggling student to enlisted soldier to officer, deployed to Iraq in 2005, and eventually to Philadelphia in 2007 with no network and a willingness to show up at 6am to learn from a mentor who cared. He shares what it really means to do tenant representation work, how JLL has invested over a billion dollars in technology and data tools to transform what brokers can offer clients, and why the commercial real estate market is in a healthier place than the headlines suggest.\nThe conversation takes a sharp turn into AI — and one of the best analogies you'll hear: it's not the washing machine, it's the computer. Tom and Josh debate how AI will change the office, why the pandemic actually prepared companies for what's coming next, and why the human interaction that happens in a physical office is more irreplaceable now, not less.\nThey close on Eric Church's viral commencement speech — and the Ready Player One warning that real life should never be optional.\n"}