Today we’d like to introduce you to Cameron Mai.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Unlike the hardships of many Vietnamese immigrants experienced when they came to the United States after the Vietnam war in mid-1970s, my childhood was filled with painful memories of poverty and abuse, different consequences of war. My parents were divorced when I was 5 years old. Since then, I had experienced numerous sexual abuses from relatives, dad friends, my friends, and strangers. When I was about nine years old, I started to help my stepmother to run her different businesses while going school. My father and my grandmother are never proud of me and my sister because we were born as girls. One night, my mom found me fainting from sleeping pill overdose when I tried to take my life. She called my father for help, but he didn’t seem like he cares. She took me to the hospital, and I was saved. I grew up believing that I am a worthless, useless, powerless unwanted child.
In November 2001, I left Vietnam to United States with F-1 student visa and $6,000 that my mom saved enough for my first semester. I spent my first year in Marshall where I enrolled at East Texas Baptist University, then I moved to Dallas and finished B.S. degree in Accounting at UTD. I got married and had one kid. I continued to study MBA degree while working as an auditor. Unfortunately, my first marriage didn’t last too long. I divorced and jumped right into the second marriage, and I had second kid. Soon my ex and I realized that we were so different. After nine years living together, I moved out of the house with my kids and my old Honda car, the only asset that I bought before my marriage. I decided to rebuild my life from scratch. It was a big milestone for me because I was always dependent on someone else. I quit my accounting job and worked for my ex as his assistant, and no one even knew who I was. In 2020, I came back to the marketplace at 42 years old with nothing but my two kids on my shoulders. Then the Coronavirus pandemic striked the whole world. In March 2020, we found my older son’s father died alone in his home from Covid-19. My son lost his father when he was 16 years old.
Looking back, I really don’t know how could I make it, but I actually did. During the Covid-19 lockdown, many people chose to stay home, I sent my sons to school so I could work. I scheduled to meet clients as much as possible. Many people shut down businesses during Covid and no one wanted to lease new spaces. It was beneficial for me because it gave me time to improve my skills and helped me to get to know more people from community volunteering works. I joined a Plano-based commercial real estate company for about 8 months, then I moved to Weitzman, one of the largest commercial real estate company in DFW Metroplex. I worked at Weitzman for more than a year while studying on real estate broker license. It took me five times to pass the broker license exam, but I knew what do I want. In March 2022, I found my own brokerage company, Texas Retail Services, that offers full commercial real estate services including landlord representation, tenant representation, investment sales, and development. I believe that development is the master class of commercial real estate, so I challenge myself to take on a development project in City of Celina. I was able to pre-lease the whole building before breaking ground. This development project helps me to learn so much and opens many opportunities to accelerate my real estate career.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Texas Retail Services?
Texas Retail Services is a commercial real estate firm located in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex area. We specialize in project leasing, tenant representation, investment sales, business brokerage, and development of retail properties. In 2022, Texas Retail Services successfully closed six investment sales transactions with total $12,216,000 sales volumes, and 25 lease negotiation deals with total 62,357 square feet of retail spaces.
One of the most rewarding of my career is having opportunities to meet clients coming from all walks of life. I have learned a lot from my clients as well. Majority of my clients are minorities working in service industries such as restaurant, retail, beauty, and nails salon. I’m always willing to go the extra mile to help my clients to make sure that they have successful grand openings. I like to keep long-term relationships and continue to support my clients as much as I could. My unique background has trained me to be able to work with clients from different generations, professions, and ethnic groups. I love to connect people from different businesses and industries so they can support to each other, create better communities, and grow together. I understand that once my clients’ businesses are doing well, it means the communities will grow stronger and healthier as more jobs are created and the quality of life is improved.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
I also volunteer teaching Vietnamese class to children at the church on Sunday.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.txretailservices.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TXRetailServices
Image Credits
LAB Photography
Richard Hill
