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This week on Brick & Brand, the guest seat got flipped.
Delaney Roche — commercial real estate broker, entrepreneur, and co-founder of Brick & Brand — opened up about what it actually feels like building two businesses in your 20's while trying to keep pace with an industry built on perception, confidence, and pressure. Growing up as the middle child — the "forgotten" child in many ways — meant mastering independence early. Self-sufficiency stopped being a trait and became survival instinct. That mentality followed directly into business: work harder, move faster, need less, keep pushing.
But there's a side of ambition people rarely talk about publicly. The relationships that fade when your priorities change. The pressure of trying to look established before you fully feel it internally. The exhaustion of turning ambition into identity. This is the unfiltered internal dialogue behind ambition, pressure, and performance.
Twas many nights before Christmas, and one woman knew, she needed a Christmas tree, so to Wayfair she flew, finding just the right one, and for years it will last. Wayfair shipping was free, and remarkably fast. What's this, Garland, a wreath, essentials to host? Good things she celebrates way longer than most. As her cart filled with magic and decor from the heart, Merry Christmas to all, get your Wayfair Head Start. For holiday decor you can count on year after year, Wayfair delivers. If you're listening to this, there's a good chance you're a small business owner. And like every small business owner, you started with a dream, to do what you love and watch it grow. What you probably didn't dream about, keeping up with cyber threats. That's where MasterCard can help, with access to tools that help identify cyber threats to better protect your business. When you dream business, priceless, for cybersecurity in a changing world, there's MasterCard. Learn more at MasterCard.com/smallbusiness. It's Sunday night, we all have the Sunday night scaries, as usual, we're gearing up for our huge ICSC conference next week. I can't believe it's here. Yup. They already have a series right now. It's the one highlight on the horizon is that we're living together in the same hotel while we're there going through absolute misery. The funny thing is last year, when we stayed together, I don't think we even really saw each other. We were in the same room, but it was like ships passing in the night. Yeah. I would stumble in at like 2 a.m. completely drunk. No, all I remember is I was walking down Las Vegas Boulevard, literally down the strip with all my luggage in 100 degree heat in my heels, and I'm drenched in sweat. I'm getting like cat called at every light. I finally get to our hotel and I walk in, and in the room, you have a checked bag, and I don't think you even brought clothes. There was like one change of clothes in there, and then everything else was like self-care equipment. There was a stack of face masks this big. She had shoe insoles, the their gun, self-massager. You were telling you Delaney by year five, I could literally make a business out of how to get women through the most brutal two and a half days of their life. I had such an insanely difficult first two or three ICSCs that I told myself. I will never do that again. I will be as prepared as I can, and I remember you were like so exhausted them first morning when we were going to our 12 hours of meetings and I was like getting out, setting out all the coffee, putting on my under eye patches, like I'm ready for the day. I know. Thank God I had you with me. I had no idea what hell it was about to experience. And you're like truly you were the most valuable player on the team that whole weekend. You had everything I could possibly need that MVP for any woman listening to this who is going to Vegas next week.
