Episode 317 – Stacey Soleil, Head Of Community And Industry Relations, Follow Up Boss

  Do you want to thrive? Then you need to learn how to talk to people. Bill Risser sits with Stacey Soleil, the Head of Community & Industry Relations at Follow Up Boss. Stacey shares how social media changed her life because it taught her how to be a connector. You have so much opportunity and power to stand out and connect through these online platforms. Digitize your real estate transactions, and remember to partner up with older real estate agents. Want to hear more? Tune in as Stacey shares more wisdom and insight on thriving through social media. --- Stacey Soleil, Head Of Community And Industry Relations, Follow Up Boss I'm back after a brief hiatus. I took a little time off through the end of the conference season to recharge my batteries. I'm now back with new episodes and I'm starting off with a bang with episode 317. We're going to be talking to Stacey Soleil. She is the Head of Community and Industry Relations for Follow Up Boss. She has been in the business for a long time and has done a lot of different things. I'm talking about working with tech startups, sales, marketing, sales training with brokerages, and contributing writer for news. She has done some great stuff and doing a whole lot more. It's going to be fun to catch up with her. Let's get this thing started. Stacey, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. It's going to be a lot of fun. We're Inman buddies. I think that's a safe way to put that. Katie Lance got me involved in the Inman world back in 2010 and I've been connected to it ever since. You're now deeply connected here. Not only being an ambassador multiple times, but the WomanUp group does some great stuff at Inman as well. Tell me what it is like and why the Inman community is so important to you. I was thinking you have probably seen so much change, fun and drama in all the events if you started back in the day. I want to come back and ask you questions. It's funny because people will say to me all the time, "What is that ambassador anyway? What does that even mean?" It means different things to different people. For me, it's way more than a social influencer position. Originally, when Katie had created this role, it was a way to amplify the community, connect people at the events, and try to bring more awareness using the tools that we have in social. For me, it's even more than that. The reason why is the way I look at everything that I've had the opportunity to connect the dots with inside the industry, everything that has been an open door moment or an opportunity, I take it very seriously. Sometimes people will laugh at me because I take things so seriously. If I say yes to a volunteer opportunity, I go in all the way. I am that person who's like I'm getting paid $1 million to do this role. I'm a very enthusiastic ambassador. I love connecting with people. In fact, when we were in New York, the very first evening before the event started, there were lobby cons. We all know about that. Everyone is hanging out in the lobby bar area, catching up with each other after post-pandemic craziness. I was scanning the room. I knew pretty much everyone, which was so fun, but then there were these people that were in between the tables. They didn't look like they knew anybody and they were watching. I got up from the table and excuse myself. I said, "Are you here for Inman Connect by any chance?" They're like, "Yes." I said, "Do you know any of these crazy people talking or is this your first time?" "This is my first time." I was like, "Okay. What's your goal? What made you decide to sign up?" They told me about what they were doing. I said, "I'm going to introduce you to a few people. Are you ready?" I took him and introduce him. By the end of the thing, I saw them all over the place. Long story short, they got opportunities to move their business forward. That's the Stacey energy right there. In my opinion, that is the definition of an ambassador. I've taken multiple people to lunch. I headed out to lunch and you see a person standing by themselves in the lobby and you go, "Are you here with Inman?" "Yes." "What are you doing for lunch?" "Nothing really." "Come with us." It's the best way to meet these people. That's part of connecting. It's awesome. [caption id="attachment_4240" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Social Media: The more you surround yourself with different cultures, the better connector you become inside your community.[/caption]   I feel like you sympathy lunch to me once too. I appreciate you. It's a connection lunch but that's great. I want to go back to the beginning. You live in LA and lived there for a long time. Are you a native of Southern California? No. I don't live in LA but I have lived in LA. I live in Temecula which is more inland from San Diego. I have my daughters go to school in San Diego. I'm closer now. I'm not even from California. A lot of people don't know that about me. I am a military brat. My dad was in the United States Air Force and I grew up traveling all the time. I never had roots anywhere. I always tell people that I'm like a gypsy nomad. Honestly, I have lived in so many places. That is what has helped me to be a social butterfly because I learned at a very young age. You're showing up new to a small town in Ohio or you're over here living in New York, or wherever it is you are, and everyone is already established and has their people. If you want to survive, you had to figure out how to talk to people. Give me the year in high school that you had to relocate. How tough was that? What city did you move to? I remember when I lived in Beavercreek, Ohio. I was a beaver. My school mascot was the Mighty Beavers. Beavercreek Beavers, everybody has heard of them. It's awesome. It wasn't like Oregon Beavers. When I was in high school, it was the late '80s or whatever. I had this boyfriend. I thought my life was so great because I was going to have a date to the next dance and all the things, and then dad got relocated. I was devastated. "I can't leave. My life is never going to be the same." We relocated to Northern California and I had an accent. Did you know that people in the Midwest apparently have accents? Ohio is generally pretty bland, but if you get a little bit further north of the Midwest or you get towards Michigan or Wisconsin, there's definitely some accent. [bctt tweet="When you say yes to an opportunity, go all in as if you’re paid a million dollars to do the role. " username="billrisser"] Apparently, I had some farmer girl accent which is Northern California. It’s funny because if you live in Southern California, you say that Northern California people sound like farm people. I must have sounded country girl. When I got over there, they said, "What is this girl from Beavercreek, Ohio doing over here?" I had to figure it out and I auditioned for the cheerleading team and that helped. Somehow, we got to get you to Southern California. Eventually, you ended up living in the LA area region, now in Temecula. How did that happen? Over time, I did end up getting married and starting my family. My husband at the time got relocated to Southern California. We were living at the time in Portland, Oregon and the relocation happened. I worked in real estate in Portland, Oregon. I worked in a real estate office up in North Hill. For anyone who's reading that is from Portland, you know how the West Hills up in Portland was the old money area. I worked for the Windermere office. I was the person who would create the ads for the newspaper every weekend when we had the open houses or the new listings would hit. I was doing that old school newspaper stuff way before the internet. That's how it started in real estate for me, but then we got transferred to Los Angeles. My husband's job was moved over there. I found myself living in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles right next to the CBS Studios and right by The Grove. It was an Orthodox Jewish Community. At first, I had no idea about moving here. It was fascinating because I look around and everybody has a very specific look. I was like, "This is crazy cool." I didn't know that you're not supposed to shake hands. It's against the cultural norm. There was a park across the street from the house and I was trying to meet new people. I walk up to this Orthodox family and I stick out my hand. I'm like, "Nice to meet you. I just moved in." They backed up and it was like, "Do I smell? What's going on?" I then learned that you got to figure out people's cultures before you jump in, but I loved it. When you think about real estate, you have to connect with everybody. You never know who your client is inside your SOI. The more you're able to surround yourself with different cultures and understand what makes someone tick or what is acceptable and not acceptable, it makes you a better connector inside your community. I'm grateful for those moments. I've been working with real estate agents for so long, helping them to grow their businesses....