Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Stacey Stambaugh, Broker, Team Lead, and Training and Sales Development Manager with Kentwood

Episode Date: January 11, 2024

Denver Native who entered Real Estate in 2006. My combined experience in managing and selling real estate in Denver, and my expertise in the Denver Metro area, have afforded me an unparalleled knowledge of Colorado and its Real Estate market. Through my experience, I have become an expert with a proven track record of exceptional marketing, negotiating, and innovative solutions to meet my client’s goals. I possess a keen understanding of the ever-changing residential and sales market which allows me to work in close collaboration with my renters and owners to guide and assist them to successfully gain homeownership or acquire the sought-after success of residential investment.Learn more:https://stacey.kentwood.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacey-stambaugh-720-371-4895-38350225/Elite Real Estate Leaders Podcasthttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/elite-real-estate-leaders-podcastSource: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-stacey-stambaugh-broker-team-lead-and-training-and-sales-development-manager-with-kentwood

Welcome to the Elite Real Estate Leaders Podcast, brought to you by Trailstone Insurance Group, bringing you interviews with the best real estate and mortgage professionals, empowering you to understand the current trends in the housing market so that you make the American dream your reality. Enjoy today's episode. Welcome to the Elite Real Estate Leaders podcast. Today we have with the Stacey Stamball, who's a broker, team lead, and training and sales development manager with Kentwood. But Stacey, welcome to the program.

Thank you so much for having me, Mike. I'm honored to be here. You know, it sounds like if we had a hat for each one of those jobs, you'd have a whole head full of hats and when do you sleep. So I want to learn all about what you do and how you do it, but get it started with a little bit of your story and background and how did you get into the real estate industry? Yeah, sometimes I don't know how I do it either, but I get up really early. That's one thing.

But I like to say that I kind of knew all. almost most of my life that I wanted to get into some facet of real estate. My, you know, being third generation native here in Denver, Colorado, my grandfather was a, he was an visionary and kind of a, he was a huge developer here. So I always kind of like had that in my blood, so to say. So then I went, you know, I graduated from Cherry Creek High School. Then I went to the University of Denver.

So I've never left here and got a degree in real estate and marketing. So I kind of knew going into. you know, college, that's what I wanted to do. And then coming out of college, I was like, you know, you're young. You don't really need to know what you're doing. And it's kind of hard to jump right into real estate. But I did. I jumped into more of the property management side of real estate and did that for a few years. And then I started to kind of really dive into doing actual sales real estate. Because I think kind of around that time, my friends started buying, I was buying houses, you know, mid-20s. and worked for a company for a little bit doing property management and sales.

And then they said they're no longer I could do property management, which a lot of people here know a lot of companies don't allow it. It's very complex. There's a lot of legal allegations or stuff that can happen if you don't do it, ethics, and the risk of everyone's license maybe on the line if you do something. So, and the managing broker didn't really know. And I am of the person, the mindset of. you can't tell me what to do, I'm going to go do it myself.

So I actually opened my own brokerage, which was savvy reality at, in 2015, had it open for six years and then got acquired by Kentwood in 2021. And when I moved over to Kentwood, I do wear a lot of hats there, which sometimes I have to remind people like, I'm showing up as a management right now or I'm a team lead or I'm sales. So, yeah, I run all of the training and sales development for all of Kentwood. through the whole state because we have a few different offices. So I run that solely. And then I run a team because my team got absorbed or acquired. So we kind of came over and now we're a team called Savvy Group. And there's 10 of us that I manage run on that. And then I mainly also do my own individual sales. I think managers and team leads need to be doing that and know what's going on in the market because you can then best advise and kind of feel what's going on. So

you know, I could talk about my story, but I hate talking about myself and myself, but that's kind of the short version of how I got into where I am sitting right now. Yeah. And I think being a producing sales manager, sales leader, team lead really does lend credibility to what you're training and guiding your, you know, all of the people that are in Kentwood there because they're like, you're not just reading that out of a book or telling us what we ought to be here. We see you doing it. And that's a big, a big thing there too. Exactly. And that's what like, you know, it's boots on the ground.

I think. And it's hard when some companies, you know, get so big or teams get so big that they are doing more administrative stuff or they're doing deal doctoring. They're trying to manage everything where they don't even have time for that. Or maybe they don't want to and just be that lead. I don't think personally that best serves that people below you. And I think that's what's going to make you successful. So that's why as, you know, the team lead that I am, like this that's why I will always sell and I'm in the top producing person on my team.

And but from that I feel like I'm talking from this is what I just saw this weekend. Has anyone else been seeing this? Ooh, this is an interesting situation. So you kind of, when you get farther away from it, you kind of forget those, those ways that happen and stuff that happens in the complexity of transactions, you know. You know, it really does. And I think that you've heard the cliche kind of things in many industries, but it's like, like, oh, they just don't know what it's like on the front lines.

You know, here comes, here's the word down from corporate. They said to go out and do this and that just doesn't work. And it probably doesn't. But, you know, corporate is just saying to do it, whatever that might be. Well, here's you that you went out and you're doing it and you're tweaking and you're wanting to improve for your personal and team production. And then when you're telling people, you know, throughout the organization, hey, here's what you, you know, one thing that I noticed is I've been saying this a lot.

And it's been really resonating with our prospects and clients. So this is a great way to freeze, whatever the case is. That's just really strong. Exactly. And you know, it adds a little credibility of like, I've seen success with this and I've seen failure with this. And I'm a complete, like, open book at Kentwood and especially with my team. I mean, my team, I'm like, you guys can copy and duplicate any and everything that I'm doing.

But there's also a piece of that of either it may be marketing or something else that you have to be authentically you. So this might be very Stacy. You need to make it your own. so it speaks and people can see that, you know, may it be marketing or the way you talk or the way, whatever it is, do transactions. Like, you've got to find your own groove. And I think I kind of learned that in the beginning when I was trained.

I honestly, I bet some other agents have me on the like blacklist of do not do a transaction with me. Because I was trained by someone that had that mentality of I am right, you are wrong, and I want to win. And I had this like paradigm shift like three years into my business that I was like first off, it's not the way to like treat people. Number one, like just be kind. But number two, it's like what is the end goal of this? It's I have a buyer or seller.

You have a buyer or seller. And someone wants to sell. Someone wants to buy and what's our end goal. And there's a respectful way to do a transaction. And when I shifted that and saying let's work together, then I noticed, I felt a shift in myself because that's me. You know, and I was trying to be someone else, how they, he did transactions, which isn't, I don't think right, but it worked for him and that's his personality.

That then I felt like stuff just really started clicking and happening more and more for me, if that makes sense. It totally does. And I think that you, you kind of change your mindset around to giving and serving and providing value rather than. then let's just push, push, push. And I think that the old sales saying of, you know, prospects can smell commission breath. You know, when you've got to sell something, you tend to not be communicating from a position of abundance.

And so it's exactly what you were saying there is like when your prospects, your prospective clients can just feel this relaxed vibe and like, hey, there's plenty to go around for everyone. You're not trying to, you know, hoard deals. Your clients are feeling like you're giving and serving. that really does change the vibe of the whole transaction. And I mean, I just actually posted a video on Instagram. I don't like posting my sales volume or transaction count because I feel like it takes away from the people that I've helped get in those houses that I've built these relationships and it makes them into a tally or a notch on my belt.

And it kind of like, every time, and last year was the first year that I like, vocally said something like anytime award seasons or anytime everyone's like I sold this many and this and I'm like it just takes away the story and the people from what we're actually doing and I it it kind of grosses me out when I see it so I mean that's another thing that is just the commission breath on that it's almost that's like commission breath of like look at what I did and it's like that's great but those are people that you've helped in their stories that matter not just a number you know. I've seen those posts. I feel you there and I'm really glad you brought up your Instagram actually, Stacey, because you do such a good job branding. Do you help your team at all

with branding or can you give anybody out there listening tips on just being a brand and how you go about doing that? Yeah, for sure. You know, Instagram and TikTok, I'm on a little bit too. I've dabbled back and forth and then, you know, YouTube shorts and LinkedIn. But each platform, me do a little bit different. Like I do not post what I post on Instagram on LinkedIn because those and on branding you got to really look. LinkedIn is very business based. So if I do market stats, real estate education, any of those posts that I post on my Instagram, I will then upload them and post them to LinkedIn. So you also kind of need to know your audience. The branding piece like really, I think the best thing to do is start with one. You know, start with one platform that you want to really

learn and know and and dive into that follow a lot of people like I followed a lot in the beginning a lot of social media influencers or they would be managers and they're giving these free tips free things here updates of what Instagram is like I just recently said some saw something that what's shifting now on Instagram is people want the authenticity of you they want you talking you don't want the voiceovers they don't want certain stuff which makes sense and that's kind of how I fell into the social media part is being me and I get I don't and to be honest I don't get that many like sales from it of anything that's staying in front of my clients and being in another way to be in front of them and provide value but then also more importantly show them who I am so I'm a single mom of two boys

and it's freaking hectic sometimes so I do reels with them I you have to show that and connecting with them and not just completely business, that's when my Instagram followers and stuff really excelled. And I connect with a lot of other agents and other states too. I've made wonderful connections, wonderful resources. And again, I'm an open book. Like, I don't really care if someone takes my stuff and does the same thing. You know, but find, as I said in the beginning of doing transactions, same with social media, find what is you and who is you. Because if you do something that I do, people are going to be like, well, that's not Tia. That's not Mike.

Be like, she wouldn't say that normal. They're going to see that. And that it's not authentic. So that's the big thing that I would say is stick to one platform at first if you're getting into it because it can be very overwhelming and start little. But just bring it back to who am I and what am I trying to convey in this. And tie in story and relationship. You know, I think that's a huge thing that you're describing here is, yeah, you don't want to be overboard in any area.

You know, you want to provide some facts and figures, but not too much. You want to give a little bit of a taste of what you did this weekend, but not too much. So when you can give that insight into your personal life and also tell some stories mainly about the success you provide to those clients, what did they get? What did that client get from working with you guys? And now all of a sudden the prospective buyer or seller is putting themselves in the position of, ooh, I'm now engrossed in that story. That could be me. That's way better than call us today for a whatever analysis.

And agreed. And the same with like being a boy mom too. It's like that's why I put that out there. You connect with people too. And people want to work with people that are like them. So social media is great in that is to find other people that are like you that are, you know, And with that, then you start to try, like, they want to work with someone that they like, no and trust.

And how do you start to like them and get to know them is on a platform like that? So I, you know, try to have my personal post be more fun. That's who I am to show that side. And then my business post be more business and have a business aspect to it. So it also sounds like you really know why you're on there. You have a reason to be in front of your clients. And it's just to simply connect with them. It's not to gain more sales.

Some people do, and that's fine, you know, their whole goal of being on social media is to get leads, but it sounds like you're using it to authentically connect with your clients, with your friends and with, you know, other people in your network. So I think that that also is a big thing for people who are branding. They need to figure out why they're doing it. Exactly. And going with the mindset, like I'm not, it might not get anything from this. Why am I doing it? You know, again, I don't go in the mindset of I'm going to get a lead. I'm going to get something. But it's staying. in front of your clients and providing value and a resource. Nowadays, people go to research on Instagram almost more than they do on Google because they can actually see the people interact with whatever it is, with the product. They can see the person. So that's why it's really important. So like if you get a referral from out of state, they most likely, and if I do this too, if I'm trying to find an agent in another state that I don't know, if I got, oh, someone says this person's good. I'll look on their Instagram first because I'll see them talking. who they interact.

You can get a lot from that. And if they don't, if they just have blanket of posts and stuff, I'm like, I don't know if they're the same like me and I would want to refer my clients to it. And that's just my personal opinion, you know. Same.

I'm the same type of consumer as you. So I completely agree. Yep. Yep. And if you want to follow my Instagram is just savvy underscore Stacey. And then you can find my group from that too. So perfect. So Stacey,

it seems like in the real estate industry, there are all kinds of flavors of, hey, come work with us because we, what, we'll help you, succeed, we'll help you. What are some of the things that you would say, you guys provide as, you know, Kentwood benefits to a new team member to come in and get plugged in for success? Yeah. So kind of talking like on my team, we, I first off, never promote like, hey, we're hiring. Everyone that's come on my team has been through a connection or someone I've met, done a transaction with, or kind of known in the past, because I'm very specific on who I take on. We have become a really tight-knit group that works very closely together,

but we all have our individual business goals and what are what we need to do. Because we each run, I don't, I'm not like a normal team where I'm like, come in and I'm going to give you leads. And here are my buyer agents that are calling expire listing. Here are. my seller agents and my marketing team, I don't do that. Everyone has their own business, but we work together. We have weekly meetings as well, but keeping them accountable, I do major coaching with all of my agents to make sure I want to set them up for success because if they're successful, we're successful. So I mean, I'm always taking new, like I meet with a lot of people and some people, I'm like, this wouldn't be a good fit because it would shift the dynamic of how our team is.

we were recently on the cover of Real Producer Magazine, and they wrote a beautiful article about how we interact. And we were wearing these bold colored suits, each a different color. Like I had a pink one. Someone had red and green, which shows we all are the same. We're wearing the same suit, but we're all a vibrant different color and the way that we are within the team and kind of how we work and support each other,

which I wish I had when I was a newer agent. Like I meet with so many new agents. they're like, I want to get into real estate. And I'm like, cool. The first question I ask them is why. They're like, I love Hentas and I'm like, you shouldn't be in it because you'll be in a house 10% of the time, if that. And I tell people that. They're like, what?

I'm like, yeah, we're out negotiating, marketing, doing education. There's so much other stuff that goes into it than actually opening a door and walking into a home. And I wish when I was new, I had someone to kind of mentor me and to fall back on and ask questions. and ask questions in a space that was a safe space and not like, oh, you don't know that answer, you know? Because I don't really like fake it till you make it. Because in this industry, if you fake it, there could be some major lawsuits and major liabilities that are on your shoulder.

So the one thing with newer agents that come on my team that I like is, you can say you have my experience because we as a team are all together and we work together. And especially with new agents, I'm on every transaction with them. walking them through. So they almost get two agents for the price of one with, you know, if they're working with one of my newer ones. So. Yes. You know, and it's like from what we've said over and over and over again here, it's not taking something in the textbook conjecture that

should work, maybe work. This is things that is working right now because you're doing it. You're seeing success. And now people can come in and feed off of that energy. And it's not a team of two. It's a team of many, many, many with all the experience that goes along with it. But you have one main point of contact. You have one really, but you have this backing. Like I mean, again, in real estate, I love it. But sometimes it like drives me crazy. Like every transaction is different because every house isn't the same. Even if it's the exact same house built next door the same, the lot's different. Every buyer's different. Every seller, every market, everything is ever changing. And there's always something that's thrown at you that you have to maybe

figure out and overcome and learn about, which is what I love learning and education. So each transaction, I'm like, what did I learn from that? What was something new? And there's always something that I did not know before. And being able to, that's why like saying fake it until you make it, like pretend all this stuff. I'm like, I never advise on that at all because it's, it could be a huge liability, as I said on you.

Yeah. And then it goes to authenticity and people not trusting you when they find that out. Exactly, exactly. But you can say with confidence, if you're on my team, hey, I'm on a, yes, I'm new. And I always tell my newer agents, I'm like, address it a beginning right up, be like, hey, I'm going to talk about the elephant in the room. Yeah, I just got my license. But I'm part of a team of a team of broker who has been doing this from 2006 is going to be or not managing broker. Team lead is going to be with me the whole time through this. And so you get both of us and both of our experience, both of all knowledge, you know, making sure that we do everything correctly for you, you know. Yeah.

Wow. Well, Stacey's been a real pleasure learning what you do and how you do it and the passion you have behind that. So if someone is interested in learning more and connecting with you, what's the best way they can do that? Yeah. Social media is great. Or you can, I, you know,

know, I would love, I love coffee meetings. I love meeting with people. I even do Zoom copy meetings. So you can feel free to reach me on social media, which is Stacey or Savvy underscore Stacey or cell phone is 720371, 4895. Excellent. Well, Stacy, thank you so much for coming on today. It's been a real pleasure talking with you.

Of course, of course. I hope everyone has a great day. Thank you for listening to the Elite Real Estate Leaders podcast. Brought to you by Trailstone Insurance Group. To learn more about the topics mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, visit www.org.com.