Welcome to Ten, CORE founder and CEO Shaun Osher’s rapid-fire interview series with prominent CORE figures. Read on to find out how this week’s subject deals with being in the hot seat.
Deirdre De Risi has been an agent for close to a decade, managing over 250 transactions and selling over $300M worth of real estate in the last two years alone. While she’s helped clients throughout the City, her expertise is Upper West Side real estate, where she currently resides and is ranked among the neighborhood’s top agents. Deirdre has been making waves in the real estate industry for several years as a part of an award-winning team, but has recently decided to strike out on her own to grow her already successful business. Here are Deirdre’s answers to Ten questions:
1. What did you do before you found this career? 
I worked for a talent management company.
2. What has been the highlight of your career?
Working with celebrity clients is always fun. I think a recent highlight of my career was when I took out two separate clients who both wanted to see what was on the market before they decided to sell and both happened to fall in love with apartments on their first day on the hunt. I was able to secure purchases for each of them and then also sell their current homes in a timely manner.
3. What is your greatest daily challenge?
Finding enough time in a day to complete my daily to-do list. Every day, I create a list of work-related things to accomplish. I also try to add personal items to the list, hoping I can get to at least one of them.
4. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Living in NYC with my family (hopefully with a bunch of kids) and selling real estate. Side note: add to daily list and have kids!
5. Where do you find inspiration?
From my family, from music and art, or just walking down a NYC street. There is so much going on in the City and if you open your eyes and stay present, you can find so much beauty and inspiration.
6. Name one thing we might not know about you.
It would either be that I fancy myself a chef or that I am sort of a tomboy. I like watching and playing sports, I like a good beer, and I am athletic.
7. What’s your favorite movie or book?
I have a bunch of favorites, but if I could only chose one, it would be The Gold Coast by Nelson DeMille. I grew up in the town in Long Island it is based on.
8. What do you do in your free time?
Dance, Pilates, read, run a household, cook, shop or you can find me hanging out with my crazy nieces and nephew – I am really a kid at heart!
9. What’s your favorite restaurant?
I have a couple of go-to restaurants: Spasso, Valbella, Salumeria Rosi, Maz Mezcal, just to name a few. I love food, so it is hard to pick just one!
10. Tell me something about your home.
My apartment was a gut renovation that was designed to accommodate both my husband’s and my very different personalities and styles. My husband likes more of a traditional style with clean lines, and if my husband were to answer this, he would say that I just like things that are expensive (not exactly accurate). Although I do like traditional, I also like contemporary and modern. I am a bit more sassy than my husband, so when renovating, we restored all of the beautiful pre-war detail, but we modernized the apartment by doing things like placing 5” dark oak floors. In my opinion, it is the perfect combination of new and old with lots of character.
-Shaun Osher is the CEO and Founder of CORE.