The brand you build as a REALTOR® is what sets you apart, it’s also helpful to demonstrate your value to both clients and peers. So how do you build a brand that exudes authenticity? 

On this episode of the REAL TIME podcast, three members of the REALTOR® community, Greg Hamre, Tony Joe, and Angie Vazquez, share how their unique brand lays a solid foundation for their professional reputation. 

Transcript

Tony Joe: Brand is what people think of when your name is mentioned.

Angie Vazquez: Oh, you're the REALTOR^® with the bulldog.

Shaun Majumder: I have been in Carrie Fisher's bathtub.

Shaun: What's your brand? You know, that thing that everybody knows you for? The thing that defines you and how you operate, at least from an outsider's perspective. For REALTORS^®, having a strong, distinct personal brand can not only help you stand out from the crowd and make a good first impression, but it can also help you build your reputation. Today, we're speaking with three REALTORS^® who really know how to own their brand and use it to build professional relationships.

I am so excited, guys. This is my third episode. Every single week, I am learning something new about your amazing industry. Today, we're not talking to an analyst. We're not talking to somebody who has an opinion about things. We're talking to the actual REALTORS^®, the soldiers on the ground, getting it done every single day. I'm so excited to talk to you guys. Today we're focusing on brand. This idea around brand. From my perspective, when I think about brand, I think of a company's brand. In your case, you guys, not only are you dealing with a company that perhaps you work for, but you're talking about your own personal brand.

I want to start the conversation today by, why don't you guys tell me what you guys think brand means to you as a REALTOR^®? Let me know, how do you define brand. Greg, maybe I'll start with you.

Greg Hamre: Our brand is our name, Hamre. Our tagline is we know a lot of us who use both of those brands. That shows trust, commitment, longevity. We have three generations in the Ottawa real estate market, so we have legs here. We have multiple generations of clients. It also means we nurtured the client. We give free advice every day and try to promote our city as well as the lifestyle that Ottawa has to offer. We think it's a great place to live, and we love moving people in and out of our city. We love when they return.

Shaun: When you say multiple generations, what do you mean?

Greg: Well, my mother, Shirley Hamre, was an all-star REALTOR^® for many years, starting in the '80s. When I joined the company, she was--

Shaun: Tough time to start.

Greg: It was, but she was very much an entrepreneur, one of the top females in Canada. I'm very proud of her. She founded our business. My brother became my business partner in the early 2000s. Both my son and daughter are REALTORS^® as well and champions, as well as the rest of the agents on my team.

Shaun: Oh, that's amazing. Your mom-- Look, when you were looking up to your mom back in the day when you were just a teenager, were you thinking, "This is what I'm going to do?" Was she like, a South Asian dad who was like, "You're going to become a doctor"? 

Greg: No.

Shaun: You know what I mean?

Greg: Yes.

Shaun: How did that work?

Greg: To me, it was very much a retail job, and I wanted to get out and expand and be more national. Then when I came back in-- I started 25 years ago. I came into the city of Ottawa and understood that there's a relocation part of this business. That's picking people up at the airport, showing them our city, finding the right missing piece of the puzzle to make sure that when they relocate here, they're in the neighborhood that suits their lifestyle, their recreation needs, their work needs, their transportation needs, and their family school base.

To me, I never wanted somebody to make a mistake or move here and say, "This is not the city for me. I'm not happy with my house," or "I'm not happy with my neighborhood. I got forced into it because we were short on time." That never happens. We spend a lot of time before they arrive, on the phone. Today it's with video so we're coaching them, we're understanding them, we're asking a lot of questions. We know the family dynamics. We get really, really deep in the family's needs, their style, what their motivation is.

Yesterday I was speaking to someone from PEI. Earlier in the week we were talking to someone from Vancouver. They got hung up by the snowstorm last week so they couldn't come in, but we're still working with them. A lot of those people – and I just have people leaving today from those, heading back to Nova Scotia – we're so deep with them. They absolutely, in a lot of cases, didn't have to arrive here to look at the house. They wanted to and we wanted them to, but we knew exactly what their needs were, what their style of lifestyle was, what meant something to them, and what the perfect place for them to call home would be, in a lot of cases, before they arrived.

Shaun: What I'm hearing is that as a brand, for your company's brand, for your team's brand, it sounds like you really, really invest in the needs of the client. Is that how you would encapsulate the brand of your particular team? When you think about brand – because I know you have a branding background, right? – how does branding as an individual REALTOR^® differ from, say, when you're trying to build a brand for an upstart company?

Greg: In our case-- and again, a lot of our business is repeat and referral, and referral with other agents across the country, and around the globe, quite frankly. I've done deals, interacted with Tony in Victoria before. We've had the trust from each other to know that the customer that we're dealing with is very important. I would only put them in the hands of somebody on the other end that I know could give them the same style of representation that I could.

Shaun: Love it. How about you, Angie? How do you define brand? What does brand mean to you?

Angie: Brand is your story. I think it's your life story. Listening right now to Greg, I want to move to Ottawa now. It's just amazing the way you're very passionate. I can relate because we're like a tourism guide of our city. I am in Squamish, and it's a very nice community, only 24,000 people. It has been easier to be outstanding because I think-- With the billboards and the bus shelters, I feel like a celebrity in town. Walking, everybody recognizes you, so I like the feeling of the small town as well.

The brand is my story. For many years, when I started real estate, I felt insecure about my accent, if they can understand, and particularly this is challenging. Going to interviews, et cetera, I was like, "Oh my God. Am I saying this correctly?" I think at the end of the day, people, it's what is different about my brand. My person and my accent, it's part of the whole brand. I think at the end of the day it has been an asset instead of a liability.

Shaun: When you talk about story, you talk about narrative and your own story, are you talking about the personal journey that you've been on? How much of that do you actually share with your clients, and how much of that actually helps build value for you and your business?

Angie: That's very deep, because of course we are a public person. Everything we do at the end of the day in the negotiation and in a small community, of course it's more noticeable. I started working at London Drugs 14 years ago when I moved to Canada 16 years ago, and I started to be a part of the community. Of course, being at London Drugs, it was like a shell. I got exposed to meeting people in the community, and I feel that they feel very proud of me that now I'm a very successful REALTOR^® in town. I'm one of the top producers here, and it's like, "Oh my God, I remember when you were at London Drugs."

As a single mom raising two kids in the community and sponsoring now events for the firefighter gala, or going to the Helping Hands, it's nice to give back to the community. Sometimes I feel more like a community promoter, more than a REALTOR^® or a salesperson. My background is computer engineering. I had the opportunity to share this story through social media, and people engaged with me and support everything we're doing, and that's the way we talk to the community as well.

Greg: Be proud of yourself. I think, as REALTORS^®, we're all trying to stand out with our brands. Your voice stands out, and it's really recognizable.

Angie: Can you understand what I'm saying? 

Greg: Absolutely.

Shaun: Oh yes, for sure. Tony, how about you? What does brand mean to you?

Tony: It means what both Greg and Angie have said, absolutely. In addition to that, what I feel is brand is what people think of when your name is mentioned. When somebody says Greg, what does that represent? I think it is within us as real estate professionals to make sure that we build in the background over many years, not a persona, but a personality where people know what they're going to get. Right?

When somebody, a client, is at work and is talking about wanting to buy