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THE DEAL MAKER
Maria Makaj, 29
Realtor, Houlihan Lawrence—Yorktown
Although the real estate market was looking grim, if not downright depressing, in 2009, Maria Makaj, didn’t let it get her down. Instead she got resourceful.The Yorktown- based Houlihan Lawrence Realtor took to social media— Facebook, in particular—to double down on her sales efforts and drum up whatever business she could. Amidst the year’s gloom, Makaj transacted more than $3 million.
Makaj, today 29, moved to Mahopac, New York,
from Michigan in 2003 with every intention of becoming a teacher. But she wound up in real estate, teaching first-time homebuyers the ropes of pre-approvals and property taxes.
“I didn’t know how to get to the grocery store, and there I was selling real estate,” says Makaj. “I drove down every street I could just to learn the area.” The hard work laid a foundation of loyal, devoted customers. By 2007,
Makaj’s transactions amounted to more than $8 million. “She has that great dynamic of a full-on entrepre-
neurial businessperson,” says Barry Graziano, Makaj’s former manager in Yorktown and the current manager
at Houlihan Lawrence—Chappaqua. “People sense that I’m working for them,” says Makaj. “Happy cli-
ents are what keeps me doing this job.” Today, Makaj is number two in the
Yorktown office. She’s a regular recipient
of the Multiple Listing Service’s (MLS) Gold designation, and she’s won Houlihan Lawrence’s Gold, Platinum, or Silver Award every single year of her career. What’s more, Makaj is well on her way
to pre-bubble highs, transacting $7 mil- lion in 2011 and $6 million in 2012. She’s still using social media to entice buyers and sellers, most recently leveraging Instagram to drum up interest.
Clients Timothy Michalowski and Allison Leighton of Putnam Valley, New York, say Makaj “exceeded our expecta- tions throughout the entire process” and
“was an outstanding agent from the first email until the closing.” Another client, Rick
Kaplan, says he’s indebted to Makaj for her “willingness to go the extra mile wherever it
was required.”
Says Makaj, “It’s great that I do well,
but, at the end of the day, I’m not thinking, ‘Oh gosh, I just made this much money.’
Iit’s about having a happy client.”
—Philip Garrity
THE ADMAN
Franco Cabral, 28
COO and National Sales Director, Adcorp Media Group
Imagine our bewilderment upon learning that 28-year-old Franco Cabral, COO of Adcorp Media Group, earned $97K in his first year—when he was just 20 years old—at the Irvington-based seller of supermarket advertising. Those staggering wages, driven by his own sales, ignited an eight-year climb to the C-suite, where he now reigns as an equity partner of the 82-person company.
Adcorp CEO Peter Broccole hired Cabral in 2005 as a part-time indepen- dent sales contractor at Broccole’s employer at the time, TV Fanfare, which also sells local advertising. A year later, Broccole founded Adcorp Media Group and brought Cabral
into the fold. Then a Tufts University student taking prerequisites for med school, Cabral dropped out to pur- sue his sales career. “I decided
I loved what I was doing,” says Cabral. “I saw Peter’s company wasn’t even scratching the
surface of what could be
done.”
By 2007, 23–year-old Cabral was the sales man- ager leading a team of five. In 2008, he invested to become an equity partner.
- (His share is now 35 per
cent.) A year later, he was
appointed SVP of National
Sales. By 2010, at just 25,
Broccole promoted Cabral to
COO. It’s no wonder: Due in
large part to Cabral’s steward-
ship, the company’s sales ballooned from $700,000 in 2005 to $8 million
in 2012, averaging 35 percent annual growth. It was explosive; Adcorp moved offices four times in seven years, doubling its office size with each move (tripling office size with its last move). The company is on track to generate $10 million in sales in 2013.
And Cabral remains one of the company’s top sellers. “I lead from the front,” he says. “I’m the guy that everyone in the room views as the best of the best, which stems from me being actively out in the field, practic- ing, selling, always getting better.”
Last March, together with Broccole, Cabral launched Adcorp Latino, which caters exclusively to the Latino market. That company is on track to bill $1.5 million in sales this year. Yet Cabral is far from satisfied: “I want to be the number one company in the US doing what we’re doing in the next five to 10 years.”
—Philip Garrity
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