I moved to Bluffton in 2017 with no clear career plan. A few years later, the work I picked up in Marriott lobbies, Sonder Buildings, commercial properties, and residential real estate all came together in the launch of Zenith Degree and Blue Rabbit Group.
A New Beginning in Bluffton
Before property management, I was a child model and actor. I had a lot of success when I was young, but that faded as I grew into adulthood. Maybe the luck wore out. Maybe the talent did. Either way, it was time for a new beginning.
My wife had just graduated from Albany Law School and accepted a job at a law firm in Bluffton. I was born and raised in New York City, so moving to the South was a major change.
The firm my wife got an offer at had a location in Charleston and they let us choose between Charleston and Bluffton, but Charleston, but it felt too busy. Bluffton felt more like the kind of change we were ready for.
We moved in 2017 expecting something close to Schitt’s Creek. Instead, we found a growing town next to Hilton Head Island, which felt more like the Hamptons of the South.
Learning Hospitality from the Ground Up
While looking for a new career, I landed a job at Marriott as a Loss Prevention Officer making $11.75 an hour. Peanuts.
I picked up every shift I could and said yes to whatever was asked. One director called me the “do boy” because I would do essentially anything that needed to get done.
That willingness to say yes moved me through guest relations, activities, back-of-house operations, and even bicycle rentals for a summer. I became a supervisor, absorbed everything I could, and eventually landed a role as Front Desk Manager.
Sonder, COVID, and Operating Without a Playbook
In March 2020, a recruiter from Sonder slid into my LinkedIn DMs. The mission sold me. It was a technology-enabled startup trying to change hospitality through design, unique spaces, and an experience without a traditional front desk.
During my first week, COVID arrived and most of my team was laid off. I kept my job, took a pay cut, and was told I would be fixing toilets, helping with room turns, and handling everything in between.
During that period, the market grew to seven buildings and 63 units around Broughton Street. I shifted into property management, focusing on maintenance, vendor coordination, and room efficiency. I also had the opportunity to support teams in Palm Springs, New Orleans, and Atlanta.
There was no clean lane between hospitality, operations, real estate, and problem-solving. That ended up being some of the best training I could have received.
Moving into Residential Real Estate
Eventually, I felt like I had hit the ceiling of what I could do at Sonder. A layoff gave me the perfect exit I needed. I was burned out on hospitality, but I was not done with property management. I wanted to see how those skills translated into residential real estate.
I asked a broker friend to lunch because I wanted advice. By the end of lunch, he had recruited me. His point was simple: the best way to learn was to work for his company.
During my time at AIM Real Estate Management, I got my South Carolina property manager license and oversaw three commercial properties and 175 residential properties, and stepped into projects across several of the 14 communities under management.
I learned an immense amount and had a lot of fun, with plenty of headaches mixed in. I learned how to pitch to owners, manage assets outside hospitality, and communicate with people when the answer was not always clean.
Property management is partly about properties. But most of the work is about people: expectations, personalities, communication, and trust.
After eight months, I gave my two weeks’ notice with nothing lined up and no perfect plan for what came next.
Building Blue Rabbit Group and Zenith Degree
I kept thinking about a call I had with Sonder’s CEO. His advice was to go out and create something because starting a business was the best thing he had ever done.
I also remembered driving home from Savannah one day and realizing it did not add up to keep putting my blood, sweat, and tears into something that was not mine.
Like many of my relationships from Sonder, I stayed close with a former colleague who helped the company acquire new properties. When I mentioned I had left where I was working with nothing lined up, she pitched the idea of a boutique multifamily management company that combined our real estate experience with the hospitality mindset.
Many calls about what it would mean to “bring hospitality home” eventually became Blue Rabbit Group.
While that idea was taking shape, I met another local real estate agent for coffee. He asked what I planned to do with my property management license. Letting it go inactive felt like a waste, so he encouraged me to complete the South Carolina Property Manager in Charge course and getting my PMIC License and to form an LLC.
That’s how Zenith Degree was created.
Funny side note: Zenith Degree was originally a domain and project I created to help people with financial literacy. I had saved and invested most of what I made early in my career, which gave me flexibility when I decided to change direction. The education project never took off, but the name stayed with me.
Zenith Degree was supposed to serve close friends and family. Organic growth took it well beyond that. Today, Zenith Degree manages more than 50 doors and counting.
Where It All Connects
Hospitality taught me service. Marriott taught me to say yes and learn quickly. Sonder taught me systems, scale, and how to operate when the playbook disappeared. AIM taught me the fiduciary and relationship side of residential management. Running Zenith Degree and Blue Rabbit Group brings all of that work together.
That is the real synergy I see in real estate. Property operations, hospitality, investment thinking, technology, and communication are not separate lanes. They overlap every day.
I did not leave a traditional job with a perfect plan. I left because I knew I wanted to put that effort into something I could build, own, and keep improving.
What Comes Next
Looking back, the advice from Sonder’s CEO held up: go create something.
I had no idea whether any of these ventures would take off. I am grateful they did because the learning and growth have been the most rewarding part.
I plan to keep sharing the real work behind property management and real estate, including the systems, mistakes, lessons, and choices that come with stepping outside a traditional job and building something for yourself.
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