Before Aaron Graham got into the land business, he was playing in some of the fiercest football games in history. NLR Creative got a chance to sit down and hear his story about being a professional football player and the transition into a new field (no pun intended).

National Land Realty’s President, Aaron Graham, played football for the University of Nebraska where he was an All-American center and served as co-captain on the team winning back-to-back national championships in 1994 and 1995. He was drafted in the fourth round in the 1996 NFL draft by the Arizona Cardinals. He played seven NFL seasons with the Cardinals (1996-1999), Oakland Raiders (2001-2002), and Tennessee Titans (2002-2003) alongside NFL legends such as Jerry Rice, Boomer Esiason, Aeneas Williams, Steve McNair, and Pat Tillman.

Around the same time, he was planning on going back for his eighth NFL season with the Tennessee Titans, he was also looking for a recreational hunting property to purchase. So, he contacted a land broker out in western Nebraska which led to a conversation that would be the start of his career in the land business.

“I came across this recreational land broker, a term I had never heard before, and I called him up,” Aaron said. “I asked him if he liked his job and he told me he loved doing what he does, spending time on a 4-wheeler out on the river bottoms, showing his clients these river hunting tracts. I was just completely intrigued by it. He asked me if I happened to have a real estate license and I did. He then said he had an idea for me once I was retired, and told me to give him a call.”

When Aaron decided it was time to hang up his cleats, he picked up the phone and gave him a call. And it wasn’t very long before he began selling hunting and fishing properties, marketing his listings through Cabela’s Trophy Properties. With each land deal he made, he gained more and more knowledge and experience which led him to open his own company, Premier Outdoor Properties, in 2006. He grew his business into four states: Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri. And in 2012, he re-branded Premier to Land Pros Realty with the purpose of expanding more into the area’s farm and ranch sectors.

Just a few years later while attending the 2015 Realtors Land Institute Conference in Tucson, Ariz., Aaron met Jason Walter, NLR CEO.

“I had spent a significant amount of my time outside of brokering deals on developing a back-end land brokerage software for my business, and Jason had spent his time as a broker developing lead generation methods,” Aaron said. “We agreed that combining our brokerages would result in a 1+1=3 scenario for both of us. We left that conference knowing that we were going to merge our companies, which we successfully completed on January 1, 2016.”

After Aaron shared his story with us, we asked him a few questions about the merge and his transition into the land industry.

How has merging to become NLR made a difference in the Midwest?

Our brand is key. There’s a national audience for land buyers, and I think a lot of sellers are realizing that there are a lot more people who could be interested in purchasing their farm or ranch or hunting property than just those people who are within a certain radius of their property. The marketing area for a listing has expanded beyond a local or even regional level. It has grown to a national platform, and being with National Land Realty just makes sense. We have local land professionals on our team who know their areas, but we’re bringing a national marketing presence to our clients’ properties.

How has your football career helped you in the land industry?

There were so many great coaches and players that I was fortunate enough to play for and with throughout my career. I think I’ve taken little bits and pieces from each of them. Whether it’s the steadiness and consistency of a Tom Osborne, the competitiveness of a Tommie Frazier or a Steve McNair, or the communication skill of a Jon Gruden –  having had the opportunity to work closely with those guys has allowed me to take what I admired most from them and try to emulate those things in my own personal business. I think I’ve also been able to use my experience from being in critical game situations, where your whole season could be on the line and your team is counting on you to perform. The life lessons that come out of being in situations like that, performing under pressure in front of, sometimes, millions of people, gives you a tremendous amount of confidence. That experience is why I love what I’m doing at National Land Realty. Because it’s allowing me to surround myself with people who are passionate and driven and want to be on a successful team who ultimately want to win for their clients.

How does the team-playing aspect relate to National Land Realty?

I personally like winning from being part of a team more so than I like winning on my own.  There’s something extra gratifying to me when I find success alongside others who are wearing the same jersey as I have on. I mean, I like golf, right? But beating my buddy on the course is nowhere near as exciting to me as beating some guys in a 3-on-3 pickup basketball game, or doubles match in ping pong. I like giving out high fives and fist bumps. It’s hard to do that when you’re a lone ranger. So, we tend to look for team-oriented type people when we’re out recruiting a new broker or agent, or hiring a new employee. We like people who are excited to be part of a team because those types of people have the tendency to go the extra mile for clients and never want to let their teammates down.

Aaron Graham is an Accredited Land Consultant (ALC) with the Realtors Land Institute (RLI) and has brokered over $250,000,000 of land transactions throughout the Midwest. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for RLI and also serves as the Chair on the Future Leaders Committee.

Just last year, Aaron received the RLI Rising Star Award, which is presented to one individual each year for making significant contributions to the land profession and the Institute.