Tarek El Moussa says one of the strangest pieces of career advice he ever received came on his first day at a commercial real estate company, stop being Tarek at work and answer to “Derek” instead.
The HGTV star recalled the encounter in an Aug. 28 Instagram video about the difficult period that followed the 2008 recession. El Moussa said he had lost everything and badly needed work when he finally landed the commercial real estate job, according to PEOPLE.
Then came his introduction to the workplace. El Moussa said the office manager approached him and announced that they were going to call him Derek because it sounded “more professional.” Despite his financial situation, he ultimately decided to leave what he described as a toxic environment.
El Moussa kept his name. Five years after the 2008 setback, Flip or Flop premiered on HGTV, beginning a television career that has since expanded across several real estate shows and businesses.
‘We’re Going to Call You Derek’
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El Moussa put the encounter at the center of his Aug. 28 Instagram video. “The very first day, the office manager came up to me and actually said, ‘Hey Tarek, we’re going to call you Derek. It sounds more professional,’” he recalled.
El Moussaused the experience as an example of what he now considers a toxic workplace and a moment when he had to decide whether keeping a badly needed job was worth accepting treatment he believed crossed a line.
He Walked Away While He Was Broke
Leaving carried real consequences. El Moussa said the recession had wiped him out and that he had no backup plan when he decided the job was not an environment where he wanted to remain.
“I was broke. I had no plan, but I would never give up my self-respect,” he said. Looking back, El Moussa framed the decision as an early lesson in recognizing when a workplace is holding someone back rather than waiting indefinitely for the situation to change.
Five Years Later, ‘Flip or Flop’ Put Him on HGTV
El Moussa’s career ultimately moved in a very different direction from the commercial real estate job. Flip or Flop, which paired him with then-wife Christina Haack as they bought, renovated and resold distressed Southern California properties, premiered on HGTV in 2013.
The series ran for 10 seasons. HGTV said El Moussa and Haack had flipped 155 homes across Orange, Los Angeles and Riverside counties over the course of the original series when the network announced its conclusion in 2022.
El Moussa later fronted Flipping 101 with Tarek El Moussa, appeared with wife Heather Rae El Moussa on The Flipping El Moussas and reunited professionally with Haack for HGTV’s The Flip Off.
The Name He Was Told to Replace Has Its Own Family History
El Moussa has previously written about the significance he attaches to his first name. In his 2024 memoir, Flip Your Life: How to Find Opportunity in Distress – in Real Estate, Business and Life, he wrote that Tarek translates roughly as “the one who knocks,” connecting the phrase to his own persistence.
His name also reflects the Middle Eastern side of his family background. El Moussa previously said his father was raised Catholic in Lebanon and then Egypt before moving to Europe as a teenager, where he met El Moussa’s Belgian mother.
He’s Now Working on Nestla
El Moussa used the same Instagram post to connect the old workplace experience with what he has built since leaving. He wrote that he has now flipped more than 1,000 homes and created multiple real estate businesses.
His current venture is Nestla, a real estate platform that describes itself as designed to give homeowners more transparency when selling and help them protect more of their equity. Its current model includes home-sale guidance, pricing information and a flat-fee approach rather than a traditional percentage-based commission structure.