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Brokers who’re even barely plugged into the trade will know Josh Crew from his tenure as a celebrated chief at Keller Williams, and Million Greenback Itemizing’s Ryan Serhant from his quite a few actuality TV gigs — to not point out his international on-line gross sales program “Promote it Like Serhant” and eponymous luxurious brokerage.
However how properly have you learnt the fleet of succesful ladies serving to to energy the success of SERHANT.?
As we rejoice Ladies’s Historical past Month, Inman seeks to shine a lightweight on actual property’s underserved majority: Ladies.
Natalie Vitebsky, Jennifer Alese, Renee Fitzgerald and Kristen Kipilla are a few of SERHANT.’s core feminine leaders who assist comprise a management group that’s 55 % ladies. Throughout finance, new improvement, strategic operations, and design and advertising and marketing, these ladies assist maintain the corporate on monitor.
For those who haven’t seemed previous Ryan Serhant’s star standing to the agency at giant, take a second to satisfy the ladies serving to to energy a quickly rising brokerage.
Natalie Vitebsky | SERHANT. Studios
Natalie Vitebsky
Chief Monetary Officer
Natalie Vitebsky is a seasoned finance officer, having spent practically twenty years in such roles in the actual property trade, a lot of it in administration positions at Douglas Elliman and Compass. Earlier than getting into the realm of actual property, Vitebsky was on the helm of monetary planning and evaluation at Avis Funds Group and Cendant, a worldwide supplier of actual property and journey providers.
The strides ladies have made within the trade since her profession started have been big, Vitebsky mentioned. She feels that an emphasis on putting extra ladies in management roles, in addition to elevated alternatives for distant work, have helped present ladies with extra alternatives.
“Having been in an period the place [workplace management] was predominantly male, to now shifting the place it’s at the very least half and half, I can inform you that it’s extra collaborative,” Vitebsky mentioned. “I feel that male environments are typically extra aggressive, simply by nature. With extra ladies, I feel it’s much more collaborative and fewer aggressive. So I feel that creates a nicer tradition.”
When her profession started within the ’90s, Vitebsky mentioned she recurrently confronted discrimination in hiring as a result of most potential employers assumed that she would get pregnant after which go away the workforce, leaving them excessive and dry.
“Once I interviewed for brand new jobs, I used to be advised typically, ‘Properly, you’ll simply have a child and then you definately received’t come again,’ although they weren’t imagined to say that — however they did,” Vitebsky mentioned. “It was exhausting to work in opposition to these predisposed emotions and stereotypes.”
Though she is afforded extra alternatives now than she was in these days, Vitebsky mentioned she nonetheless seems like she has to work a lot more durable than her male counterparts to obtain the identical recognition and promotions.
“I all the time have needed to work a lot more durable to realize what males achieved by working so much much less,” she advised Inman. “That’s simply been a truth of life for me. I nonetheless work exhausting — I in all probability work seven days every week now. I’m unsure that units an excellent instance for girls, however I hope that ladies coming into this trade, or some other trade, can see the rewards and development [opportunities].”
Jennifer Alese | SERHANT. Studios
Jennifer Alese
Director of New Improvement
Jennifer Alese thought she was going to work in title insurance coverage for her complete profession. However after she met Serhant via happenstance practically a decade in the past, she turned enticed by the world of actual property. She joined Serhant’s group, which was at Nest Seekers Worldwide on the time, beginning off with leases and studying the ropes from there.
When she received her first style of recent improvement, Alese was hooked. “I simply fell in love with coping with builders, being that time individual, developing with inventive advertising and marketing concepts,” she advised Inman. “It’s very completely different than a resale — you be taught a unique means of promoting the identical kind of unit to completely different individuals, seeing how they react to what you say and altering your script.”
New York Metropolis’s new improvement has historically been a closely male sector, and there have definitely been instances when Alese has felt that she must show herself to the room.
“Probably the most challenges I’ve confronted have been in conferences with a desk filled with males and having to confess that I’m the one lady within the room and have to talk up and show my level,” Alese mentioned. “I feel that was one thing I needed to discover ways to do pretty shortly and never really feel like they’re going to assume I’m lower than them or they’re not going to respect me. It’s actually a mindset shift.”
As we speak, Alese is the go-to level individual for brand new improvement at SERHANT. and has managed greater than $10 billion in new improvement apartment stock throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn and Lengthy Island Metropolis. She mentioned that she hopes her instance might help empower extra ladies to grow to be eager about new improvement, too.
“I feel it’s actually vital for extra ladies to get into new improvement, even on the event facet, as a result of I feel gross sales and advertising and marketing versus the sponsorship/developer facet are nonetheless type of two completely different worlds,” Alese mentioned. “Whereas I’ve labored with builders who’re ladies, it has been a very nice expertise to see a robust lady on the head of the desk, main the room as a primary developer, and I don’t assume that’s as frequent because it might be.
“Even the best way we function as a gross sales and advertising and marketing group, all the time propelling ladies to maneuver ahead and be in these management positions is vital. So I hope that leaders throughout New York and the world proceed to try this.”
Kristen Kipilla | SERHANT. Studios
Kristen Kipilla
Director of Inventive and Advertising
Like Alese, Kristen Kipilla first related with Serhant in 2015 when he had The Serhant Crew at Nest Seekers Worldwide. Kipilla graduated from graphic designer to design supervisor to inventive and advertising and marketing director for the group in lower than 5 years, whereas additionally engaged on advertising and marketing campaigns for Serhant’s on-line gross sales course, “Promote it Like Serhant,” in addition to consulting for a number of the course’s high members.
As we speak, Kipilla leads SERHANT. ID Lab, the agency’s inventive company, to create model identities for brand new developments, properties and brokers, whereas additionally working with SERHANT. Studios to create video content material.
She mentioned working in such a collaborative, empowering atmosphere has been thrilling.
“[Ryan] actually empowers individuals to make choices even on our personal whereas being collaborative — he trusts in our experience,” Kipilla mentioned. “He was principally my mentor in advertising and marketing, and that received me so far. So I feel he trusts I’m an extension of his inventive and advertising and marketing experience.”
As a result of she recurrently works round so many ladies at SERHANT., Kipilla mentioned that being a feminine advertising and marketing chief at one of many nation’s up-and-coming companies doesn’t essentially seem to be a singular place. However due to the stigma historically related to ladies’s feelings within the office, she does typically discover herself subconsciously making an attempt to squash her emotions in skilled environments.
“Typically, I attempt to seem much less emotional or [avoid reactions] that males would possibly choose,” Kipilla mentioned. “So day-to-day, I’m simply making an attempt to be very pragmatic, logical and withhold emotion when attainable … It’s simply one thing that I feel is ingrained.”
Renee Fitzgerald | SERHANT. Studios
Renee Fitzgerald
Director of Operations
As Director of Operations, Renee Fitzgerald is answerable for rising and scaling the agency as SERHANT. expands throughout completely different markets.
Working with a majority group of ladies isn’t one thing that Fitzgerald usually dwells on, however she mentioned that the ladies leaders within the agency do have a particular connection and comparable approaches to collaboration that enable them to thrive collectively.
“I feel we name on one another and actually rejoice one another’s wins,” Fitzgerald mentioned. “That offers us the braveness to maintain going and share that information with others.”
On the whole, Fitzgerald mentioned she feels that having various views represented in management is extremely vital.
“All people walks a life expertise, and that informs the way you present up every single day,” Fitzgerald mentioned. “The extra variety you may have in these experiences, the higher you’ll be able to meet your shoppers and workers. So [we make sure] that we’re drawing on all that and taking the most effective knowledge, as a result of nobody thought is the most effective one.”
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