Devyn Bachman (Mktg’11)
Chief Operating Officer, John Burns Research and Consulting
Devyn Bachman has been known as many things—a dedicated college student, NBA dancer, radio show host, and real estate professional. As she progresses in her career, she now wants to be known as a leader.
"At the end of the day, I just want to make an impact,” she said. “I want to leave this world a better, smarter, more informed place, and hopefully grow and help some people along the way.”
The Ultimate Balance
Bachman was born and raised in Colorado. An avid dancer, she joined the CU dance team her first year and then made the dance team for the Denver Nuggets a year after. She had the opportunity to travel all over the world with the Nuggets, including to China, Taiwan and Indonesia.
Along with being a full-time student and professional dancer, she was also a co-host for a Denver morning show on HOT 107.1, a member of the sorority Chi Omega, and interned in commercial real estate.
“I got really good at time management, because I had to be a full time student, have internships, and dance for an NBA team all at the same time,” she said. “Needless to say, I was pretty exhausted.”
Though she focused mainly on marketing while at Leeds, she decided to give real estate a try and fell in love with the industry. “It's an extremely dynamic career field, no day is ever the same. The people are interesting and vibrant.”
Bachman graduated with a degree in marketing and a certificate in real estate. She was also engaged to her college boyfriend, who was starting his career as a goaltender in the NHL with the Dallas Stars, and the pair moved down to Texas.
Rising Through the Ranks
Coming out of the Great Recession, Bachman struggled to find a job in commercial real estate. Then, eventually, she got a job interview with the Pulte Group, a publicly-traded home builder, where she landed her first job in strategic marketing.
A few years later, her husband was getting ready to move to upstate New York to play for a new NHL team. Bachman left her job at Pulte with plans to go back to school for an MBA, but a new opportunity came up with John Burns Research and Consulting for a remote position. Now, she’s been with the company for almost nine years.
Bachman has always been one to hit the ground running, and continues that momentum throughout her career.
“I’m not scared of a challenge. As a leader, you learn to bring a solution rather than a problem.”
Devyn Bachman (Mktg’11)
Chief Operating Officer, John Burns Research and Consulting
“I came in and I worked my tail off, and I did everything that needed to be done and some stuff that didn't,” she said. “But one thing I always did was do my job and then ask, ‘How can we be better? What should we be doing differently?’”
Bachman moved through many responsibilities and roles—from launching products, redoing John Burns’ purpose statement, and even changing the name of the company from John Burns Real Estate Consulting to John Burns Research and Consulting. Now, she’s fully focused on the operations side of the company as the Chief Operating Officer.
Though there’s always challenges—from the operations side of business, working full-time remotely, and raising two young children—she thinks that it’s important to face them head on.
“I’m not scared of a challenge,” Bachman said. “As a leader, you learn to bring a solution rather than a problem.”
Her work has paid off. Bachman has been recognized as a top professional in her field, earning spots on the Pro Builder Media 40 under 40 list and the Business Insider’s Rising Stars of Real Estate list.
She’s not stopping there, however. Bachman likes to have big, hairy, audacious goals—the next one on her list is to give a TED Talk.
“You have to have drive,” she said. “You have to have just this inner drive that's like, ‘I will stop at nothing to accomplish things.’ But it's not that I will stop at nothing and hurt people or damage relationships along the way.”