With In the Black, T. Dallas Smith identifies the centrality of honest and open relationships to success within the world of high-dollar commercial real estate deals. His advice to "build relationships before you need them" is complemented by personal stories highlighting the importance of identifying one's advocates. Smith is keen to recognize the people -- some of them sense-making and some of them unexpected -- who helped lift him up in a field the primary practice of which has been to reject diversity among its practitioners. Smith shows how making one's way in an industry that has historically rejected Black men and women may be challenging but is in no way impossible. His own story is proof that one can both be a trailblazer and use one's hard-won position to open doors for others.

Smith, T. Dallas

T. DALLAS SMITH is the founder and CEO at T. Dallas Smith & Company, a commercial real estate firm specializing in tenant representation based in Atlanta, Georgia . T. Dallas Smith & Company has led projects across the country with metrics exceeding seven million square feet of commercial property leasing and acquisitions and five thousand acres of land purchases. Since the company's inception, the team has led transactions totaling over $15 billion in aggregate value.

Dallas is an innovator and thought leader in the commercial real estate community and is intentional about cultivating and developing diverse talent to help shape the commercial real estate industry. He has served as chair of the Real Estate Committee for the Georgia State University Foundation Board and on the boards of the Council for Quality Growth and the Atlanta Commercial Board of REALTORS. Dallas has been recognized as Atlanta's Most Admired CEO (2017), Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtor's Realtor of the Year (2018), and Empire Board of Realtists Broker of the Year (2018).