Top ISA Series: Holli Faulkner - Donna & Team New Bern

11/11/19 • 52 min

Nate Joens: Welcome everybody. We'll get warmed up a little bit slowly here because I can still see people coming in. My name is Nate Joens, I am the CEO and co-founder at Structurely. Structurely is an Artificial Intelligence inside sales agent, we help you qualify, nurture and respond to your leads. This is our interview with Top ISA. Today we have Holli from Donna and Team, New Bern Keller-Williams out of North Carolina as well as the usually Robby T. from Hatch Coaching and Hatch Realty.

Robby T: The usual, that's what I am now. The usual. I love that.

Nate Joens: But, yeah I'll let you guys kind of introduce yourselves, Robby how about we go ahead and start with you.

Robby T: Yeah, good to see you all again. I'm glad that I made it in this time, and know that you can see my face and hear me. We, first off thanks to everyone for switching over to Zoom. We switched publishers, we were just having some other problems so glad we did that and this is a lot smoother, I think and I'm excited about it.

Robby T: Robby T here, what do I do? I'm just a nerd. Total nerd who likes to geek out about lead conversion, Star Wars, Game of Thrones, throw it at me we can talk about it. But, you know I'm excited today because one of the first, you know when I got into coaching, one of the first teams that I actually helped out was Holli and Team New Bern. Holli, that was over two years ago? When was that?

Holli Faulkner: 2017

Robby T: 2017 so awhile back. And I have the privilege of going out there and meeting them, and they run a solid, solid crew up there. Donna's great, you guys have a fearless leader as you well know. I'm really excited for this episode because Holli's not just a rock star, but she's got some cool stories to share with us, and yeah, I'll turn it over to you Holli, tell us a little bit about you.

Holli Faulkner: Okay, so I'm Holli I live in New Bern, North Carolina and I've been in ISA since August of 2017. I think Robby you came in maybe, 30 days after I had started, and I was brand new, I had no clue what I was doing. I was the only ISA not only on my team, but pretty much within like 200 miles of me, I mean, the only other team I think closest to me, was the Harlow Group in Greenville, South Carolina. So I really didn't have anybody to shadow or to really talk to. I didn't know all the things I know now, as far as like the Facebook groups and all the ways to talk to different people. So, I kind of figured this out on my own. And our team was kind of trying me out, as far as, "Do we need an ISA? What is an ISA? What does that look like in New Bern?" We're kind of the last to jump on any bandwagon in the whole world. You know, it feels like we're kind of going around an island sometimes. But, it was pretty cool to become that person and kind of pave the way, in my own way.

Holli Faulkner: So, that was the way I got started. I came from time share sales, actually. I sold time share for four years prior to that, and I think that's really what gave me the grit that I have to be the ISA. Because if you can sell time shares, as far as I'm concerned you can sell anything.

Robby T: Truth.

Holli Faulkner: That is a tough business. When you're 24 you don't really care, you're just like whatever. Give me the role and I'll do it.

Robby T: I love it.

Holli Faulkner: That's where I started and now, almost two years later, I've moved into director of legend position for my team, recently in January. And we have just hired our other ISA so now I'm coaching a little bit and helping him work through that and so, I'm slowly building my own team, within my team.

Nate Joens: Sure. Awesome. So tell us a little bit about the team in general. How many buyer/seller agents? Is it just the one ISA right now? And kind of just a little bit about your STAT's when you were practicing it as a ISA as well.

Holli Faulkner: Okay, so we are a team of 19. We have two buyer agents currently, we are looking for a few more of those. We have four listing agents, we have two ISA's. One of those being new starting in April, and then me has a hybrid. We have one director of sales, we also have one listing manager and she has an assistant. We have three admin, and then we have three field care, who run our signs and do all the day to day, kind of you know that stuff there. Those people are so important. They save us so much time.

Holli Faulkner: And then we have a director of sales as well. So, we have our Rainmaker, so we're a pretty large team for our area for sure. We're the largest team in the area.

Nate Joens: Awesome.

Holli Faulkner: I would say that when I was, let's say last year, as the full-time, that was my role, that's exactly what I did every single day, I had 108 closings. So I count my first three months as a ISA kind of like in 2017, I don't really count those. I roll all of that int...

Robby T: The usual, that's what I am now. The usual. I love that.

Nate Joens: But, yeah I'll let you guys kind of introduce yourselves, Robby how about we go ahead and start with you.

Holli Faulkner: 2017

Robby T: Truth.

Holli Faulkner: That is a tough business. When you're 24 you don't really care, you're just like whatever. Give me the role and I'll do it.

Robby T: I love it.

Holli Faulkner: And then we have a director of sales as well. So, we have our Rainmaker, so we're a pretty large team for our area for sure. We're the largest team in the area.

Nate Joens: Awesome.

Previous Episode

Top ISA Series: Alex Vincent - The Simone Group of Keller Williams Legacy

Nate Joens: All right. Welcome everybody to our third interview with the top ISA. We're really excited about this one today with Alex Vincent. Robby T is, of course, joining us from Hatch Coaching after one of their very successful webinars, it sounded like, of their own. Again, for all of you watching, my name is Nate Joens. I'm with Structurely. We are joined today by another top ISA, like I mentioned, Alex Vincent of the Simone Group.

Nate Joens: This is going to be another detailed discussion about how she's running her ISA team, how her practices might differ from other practices of ISAs that we've had on the prior webinars in this series. And with that, Robby would you like to introduce Alex?

Robby T: I love it. First of, if any of you don't know, I only call Nate, Nate Joens like the rapper Mike Jones. And if you want a funny laugh, just go look up who Mike Jones and it's going to be the worst song you ever heard. Some every time I see Nate I think of-

Nate Joens: Not very good.

Robby T: Not very good. Anyways, Alex, super excited to have you on today.

Alex Vincent: Thank you.

Robby T: I first had the pleasure of meeting you... Was it about a year ago now?

Alex Vincent: Over a year. It was December 2017.

Robby T: December of 2017. It's been far too long. And we were doing in-person league immersion trainings, and Alex came up here with a team member, correct?

Alex Vincent: Courtney. Yeah.

Robby T: Yep. Yep. I remember you... Too many names, faces. You know how it goes. But what I loved is... Alex is, I believe, one of the most talented ISAs I've ever met. And I think, when you were up here, you just naturally showed that you get this role. And I think we have a lot of the same core beliefs. What I was most impressed about is: Alex is not afraid to share her opinion. And we had about 30-some people in the room, and I love it. You were very direct, you gave your thoughts. And more importantly, if you didn't agree, you named something. And that was really cool.

Robby T: So, super excited to bring your perspective to the role. In a moment I kind of just want to have you start off by telling us about you and who you are. I'm disappointed that baby Elliot isn't in the webinar right now. And I was kind of hyping that a baby would be involved. In crisis of leadership. But I get it. I get it.

Robby T: Anyways, Alex, tell us about you. How the heck did you join the Simone Group? And just give us the 101 on Alex Vincent.

Alex Vincent: Yeah, so. Commenting on Elliot not being here, she would've cried. It would've ruined the whole thing. So I definitely want to be [inaudible 00:02:55] of that. But yes, normally she is with me. I bring her to work every day. And... All day long. And it's actually a really great conversation starter. I think it's giving me an edge, not going to lie.

Alex Vincent: So joined the Simone Group back in 2017. And this was with the intention of building an ISA department, helping build up the team in sales. And it's been so rewarding. Our director of operations, Zach, was actually a close, personal friend of mine for years. And when he was kind of talking to me about our brokerage and the team, and the goals and kind of vision, really, it definitely drew me in. The ability to build something and have this kind of start-up feel, but with the support of a team that's been around for years. And the leverage and the money, which is a big part of startups. It's a big sore spot for some people.

Alex Vincent: It just... It really elevated me and brought me into some high level conversations. So I'm really excited to be here. I love Mondays. Not many people can say that. So yeah, we're just... I'm really excited to be a part of the team.

Robby T: I love it, I love it. So, every team in brokerage... We kind of talked about how that drew you in. What are some of those key things, like... There's a buzzword, right? Culture. And culture's just a placeholder in my world. It's a word that has so much more meaning than just culture. Give us some insight, like what drew you in? You said you wanted to build something, the startup feel. But if you were to say, "This is why this culture is really great," what would it be?

Alex Vincent: "Why is this culture really rare?" Well, you know, we are all workaholics, if you will. And we all like to play hard.

Robby T: Sure.

Alex Vincent: And I think that's been really awesome to be a part of over the past couple of years. You know I'm also, like I said, I've known a couple of teammates before I even joined. So, you know. Opening day, baseball season's a huge day for us. We all take off, we all go out, we all cannot remember the next day.

Robby T: Yes.

Alex Vincent: You know, it's things like that. Some of us are very family-oriented. Me, personally, I was just out for the past four months. Had a...

Next Episode

Top ISA Series: Tyler Stracener - The Novak Team at KW Everett

Nate Joens: Welcome everybody. My name is Nate Joens. I'm the CEO of Structurely and welcome to the... What are we on, the fourth episode of the top ISA series?

Robby T: I think we're actually on... Is it six?

Nate Joens: I can't even remember.

Robby T: A lot. We're on a number. We're on some number of the ISA series.

Nate Joens: Yes, whatever number it is, we're excited to be here with Robby T from Hatch, as usual, joining us today with Tyler Stracener from the Novak team at eXp Realty in Everett, Washington. Robby, give us the intro to him, or Tyler please introduce yourself.

Robby T: For sure. So, obviously I go by Robby T for one simple reason. My last name sounds like the pharmaceutical drug and I joke that it sounds like that with all the problems and none of the money. So I have no qualms with calling Tyler, Tyler S. So Stracener, Stracener, whatever your crap is, I'm just going to call you Tyler S though this whole interview. If it [crosstalk 00:01:06] undo it.

Tyler Stracener: Yep.

Robby T: Anyways, super excited. We were supposed to have Chris on today and something that came up, a family emergency, and, frankly, super excited because I reached out to Tyler. I've had the privilege of coaching him now for a while and although he is somewhat new to the game, not been doing this for years yet, his skills are unparalleled for being at this level of the game. And he naturally gets it.

Robby T: It's deceiving, but he's a tall man. If he were to stand up, he'd kind of disappear on us. And is a former basketball coach and fell into the ISA world. But I've said enough about you. I would love for you to kind of share about yourself Tyler.

Tyler Stracener: Yeah. Right there. I come from a huge basketball background. Lots of coaching, lots of playing. Plenty of injuries, which ended my career. And a lot of that just kind of translates into what I'm good at now, and that's relating with a lot of different people. But then also just the personal competition with yourself 24/7 and the performance aspect has always been something that's been there in my life and has been a motivation for me to keep pushing forward.

Robby T: I love it. And you guys have a pretty large ISA department, don't you guys, Tyler? It's how many ISAs now?

Tyler Stracener: Well we've got three ISAs now.

Robby T: In addition to you, or three total?

Tyler Stracener: Three total. So I'm one of those three.

Robby T: Awesome. And you oversee that department, correct?

Tyler Stracener: Correct, yeah.

Robby T: I love it. Good, good. So I think one of the coolest things I want to make sure we hop into today is you talked about how you were a coach for basketball, and I'd love to hear, how is that coaching of basketball translate into coaching and leading your ISAs?

Tyler Stracener: Well, I really believe that coaching is coaching. It doesn't really matter what you're coaching. Early on in my coaching career, I started off coaching third grade boys and went all the way up through high school coaching boys. And then I made the abrupt change to be the varsity head girls coach at my old high school.

Robby T: Ahhh.

Tyler Stracener: One of the questions that I just... For some reason it just kept coming up, of, "Well, how are you planning on adjusting from coaching boys to coaching girls?" And my answer was, "Basketball is still basketball." It doesn't matter who's playing it. It's the same thing. But then making the switch to being an ISA and leading our ISA squad, I've really found that coaching is just coaching. It doesn't matter what you're coaching.

Tyler Stracener: So everything that I do now is still things that I did when I was a basketball coach. From putting trainings together, what people will need to work on, observing every single day. That's kind of one of the biggest things that I do as a coach. One of the habits was watching the players as they're walking in the door. Are they sluggish, do they have a hop in their step, what's their gait like, are they excited? Do they come in together, do they come in separate? There's so many things to watch. And I still do that with the ISA squad now. And how they walk in the door is kind of that immediate, "Oh, today's going to be a good day." Or I might need to throw in some motivation into the day.

Robby T: I love that. Good, good. So, I mean if you were to summarize, you said it a couple of times, coaching is coaching. And what is coaching? And obviously you've coached boys, you've coached girls basketball. There is one difference between the two, by the way. The balls are slightly different in size.

Tyler Stracener: Slightly.

Robby T: Slightly. That's all I know about basketball. Let's be real. Anyways, what does coaching really mean? If you were to break that down, what do you think coaching really is if you were to...