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

Real Estate ISA Radio

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 pretty crazy family trauma experience with my child being born and being brought into this world. She was in the NICU for 73 days. So the team being extremely empathetic to that and supporting when it all first started happening. And even months later, it was well, "Well how can I help you?" As a response to everything. I think it's just huge and even more of a win for me. And even more of a reason why I try to work as hard as I can. While I plan... Why I will plan on being on this team for as long as I can.

Robby T: I love it. Can you see yourself leaving your team, Alex?

Alex Vincent: No.

Robby T: Is that something that has crossed your mind?

Alex Vincent: I have people reach out to me all the time. It's actually really flattering about... I don't know if you've ever hard of EXP Realty. It's like brokerage... An online brokerage [crosstalk 00:06:16]. They reached out to me. I've had other... Keller-Williams teams reach out to me, which is like a big no-no. But it is what it is. And it's super flattering and the answer is always the same. It's like, there's nothing that will make me leave here at this point.

Nate Joens: Right? Can I ask a question on that? I was just listening to the "Is your culture wrong?" webinar, or was it a podcast that we had done two or three episodes ago?

Robby T: Yeah.

Nate Joens: I think one of the things that stood out quite a bit for me, hearing about the culture at Hatch Realty with their ISAs was... And this is a repetitive theme that we've talked about before, but a lot of people think that ISAs are the lowest on the totem pole [inaudible 00:07:05] organization. What have you done on your team to flip that?

Alex Vincent: That's a really good question.

Nate Joens: Or how is it positioned in your team?

Alex Vincent: That's a really great question. So, an ISA... You know, I'm like one of a very small team [inaudible 00:07:21] in Maryland that have my role specifically. A lot of other teams, what they tried doing, was making ISA a stepping stone to becoming an agent. Where we know and where we've learned from seeing other teams fail at this time and time again, is that this is just not the way to go about it. Someone who's going to love being an ISA probably won't love being an agent. And vice versa. I have absolutely not interest in being an agent and showing houses and nurturing a client outside of the office in that way. I love being an ISA and that's just a personality thing as well. So, just two completely different people.

Alex Vincent: And then also, they're not only acknowledging that it's not a stepping stone and that it's a role in itself. But also acknowledging kind of the numbers and the i...