At the core of real estate development is the ability to think critically about the world around us. Everyone and everything is impacted by real estate, therefore the need to think critically has a profound impact on the lives of people. In 2015 I left my role as Vice President at the Brazos Valley Affordable Housing Corporation to become a full-time consultant. I noticed some real estate development trends I knew I needed to get out in front of in the private market. Likewise, I needed to build impactful relationships to help my company land larger contracts in the local development space. 

My strategy at the time was to align myself with a candidate running for city council. I became his campaign manager, and we won. As a result, I was able to leverage our relationship to gain more influence in our community. This led to not only more business for my personal practice, but also I helped to steer investment capital into the traditional African American community as well as help the councilman make critical decisions that will impact the district’s capital improvement plan for years to come.

Every since I took a Housing and Community Development course during my undergraduate studies, I saw housing as a primary means for creating intergenerational mobility especially among the African American middle class. Further, as my studies continued, Neighborhood Revitalization and Real Estate Development trends are courses that helped me further develop my theories related to how inner cities can grow and thus alleviate many of the urban ills they face. After an unsuccessful run at an At-Large seat on Bryan City Council in 2015, I saw an opportunity to align myself with the current desires of the faction of people who were in power within local government and the development world. 

Prentiss Madison approached me about running for the majority minority district's seat the following year. Instead we decided he should run considering he already had name recognition. His father served on City Council as well. With this in mind, Madison ran on a very similar platform as I ran unsuccessfully on the previous year. With Madison as the face, we were able to unseat the incumbent council member and thus Madison would become the voice for the affordable housing ideas I introduced him to during many of our discussions. I directly and indirectly was able to help spur development in the area where I so desperately wanted to see "guided growth" by applying some critical thinking to solve the problems I care about most.