Episode 57 with Tara Samuels

Who is Tara Samuels?‍

– Founder & Chief Networking Officer, Amplified Connections
– Making Apartments Smart at ADT Multifamily by day and Multifamily Mentor Matchmaker by night

While math was never Tara’s best subject in school, she knows the formula for networking success is one-part passion + one-part tenacity. As the Founder & Chief Networking Officer for Amplified Connections, a niched networking group, her mission is to help apartment management professionals "Amp up" their network, one connection at a time!

Like most in the multifamily industry, Tara got her start by accident. She spent so much time in the leasing office at her first apartment community that the property manager called to tell her she might as well get paid for being in there. The rest was history!

Half of her 20+ years in the industry were spent working and living on-site in various roles. In 2009, she went over to the “dark side,” as they say, and has been an industry supplier ever since. Well, except that time she tried to “escape” but boomeranged right back in!

Tara is a HUGE advocate for apartment associations! Before moving to Georgia, she was an active participant for over 15 years at the Chicagoland Apartment Association (CAA) where she served on countless committees and completed two terms as a board member (once as a property manager and the other as a supplier). The CAA celebrated her tireless contributions by appointing her as the first recipient of the Volunteer of the Year award.

Her most recent passion project is Multifamily Mentor Matchmaking, a group she launched in January 2023 to help break down the barriers of finding a mentor in the industry.

A Chicago native, she recently moved to the Atlanta area after a 5 ½ year, long-distance marriage with her husband, Rob – who’s also in the industry! They’re a blended family of five, well…six if you count their miniature schnauzer, Tigger.

Tara loves peanut butter, podcasts, a full-bodied cab, and is one of the last people to still write in a notebook (with a pen) and carry an actual calendar.