When you think about influential people in the commercial real estate industry to network with, or follow their strategies and techniques, who comes to mind? Perhaps the first person you think of right now is Donald Trump. “The Donald” (at least at the current time) is a true “love him or hate” him kind of guy. He’s rubbing a lot of people the wrong way, and depending on where you stand, he’s saying all the right things. Politics aside, there’s no arguing that he’s a very influential person. I would recommend following him, even if you hate him, simply for the entertainment value alone.

Michael Nash is the  CIO of Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies, and Executive Chairman of Blackstone Mortgage Trust. He’s been with Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies since it’s inception in 2007, and has helped develop their portfolio into well over $10 Billion in assets. Since 2012, they’ve generated over $4.5 Billion in commercial real estate debt alone. In May of 2013, the company re-branded it’s most recent acquisition of the commercial real estate company Capital Trust, as Blackstone Mortgage Trust, and has since generated more than $1 Billion in offerings.

Ted Tye is a founding partner of the northeast commercial powerhouse National Development. He’s very influential on the Twitter scene as a commercial analyst and advisor. National Development has been operating since 1983 and has developed over 22 Million square feet of commercial space. He’s the co-founder of two minor league sports teams, chairman of NAIOP of Massachusetts and is involved so deeply into causes he believes in, that he’s won several charitable awards including the YMCA Red Triangle Award and the BBNE Distinguished Achievement Award. It’s safe to say that this a good guy to model yourself after.

Grant Cardone is a well known real estate investor, NY Times best selling author speaker and show host. He’s appeared almost anywhere that people watch or pay money to go (including the Pentagon). He has very straightforward views on leadership, and has been quoted saying “Success is your duty, obligation and responsibility.” His web-based training “Cardone Sales University” was launched in 2010, and since then sales organizations have viewed and tested on over 10 million videos.

This is obviously not an exhaustive list by any means, but we hope that it may have introduced you to a few people that you may have not heard of (except for The Donald, that is), commercial real estate investors come from all walks and from many different places. Investors can have a whole host of different professions, not just full time investors.

If you want to be successful in this real estate world you should read this.