IAM1524 – Realty Owners Create an Environment of Success to their Realtors and Franchisees

Passionate about growing businesses and empowering franchise owners and REALTORS® to own their present and future, EXIT Southeast Regional. Owners Kenny Lynn and Stacy Strobl launched their company in 2013 immediately establishing it as one of the fastest-growing real estate companies in Tennessee. They acquired the EXIT Realty subfranchisor rights to Kentucky, Georgia, Florida, and Texas and have consistently earned #1 in Franchise Sales, #1 Region in North America, the Superior Growth and Development Award, and broke the all-time corporate record for franchises sold in 2019. EXIT Southeast has repeatedly earned the Nashville Business Journal’s Best in Business finalist, Stacy was named a 2022 NBJ Woman of Influence, and EXIT Southeast just was awarded Top 50 Fastest Growing Company for 2022 by the Nashville Business Journal.

• CEO Story: Stacy and Kenny have always been passionate about everything about the home industry whether it's a mortgage, title, or real estate. They started in the mortgage industry 13 years ago. They found their lane when they got into the real estate industry and helped grow real estate businesses and realtors.
• Business Service: Selling franchise opportunities. Train professional realtors.
• Secret Sauce: Coaching. Putting the right and coachable people in the business.
• CEO Hack: Establish your own lane and do what you are best at. The system, schedule, and routine-oriented. Support, strategy, and game plan.
• CEO Nugget: Slow down where you are be present where you are at the moment. Keep in the right lane and keep the right people around you.
• CEO Defined: It's about the people, setting the culture. Connecting and knowing your people, building relationships. Life changer.

Website: www.exitsoutheast.com

Facebook: @EXITSoutheast

Instagram: @exitsoutheast

Linkedin: Stacy-Strobl, Kenny-Lynn

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbaHouSCWw3x9o8RS_D8Q6g

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Transcription

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00:27 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

00:54 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have 2 very special guests on the show today. I have Kenny Lynn and Stacey Stobel of Exit Southeast Regional. Kenny and Stacy, super excited to have you on the show.

01:06 – Kenny Lynn

Yeah, thanks for having us. You know, it's a pleasure to be with you today.

01:11 – Stacy Strobl

Thanks, Gresh. It's great to speak with you today.

01:14 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, I'm excited to have you both on and talk about all the awesome things that you're doing. And before we jump into the conversation, of course, I want to read a little bit more about Kenny and Stacey, so you can hear about some of those awesome things. And passionate about growing businesses and empowering franchise owners and realtors to own their present and future Exit Southeast Regional, owners Kenny Lin and Stacey Struble launched their company in 2013, immediately establishing it as one of the fastest-growing real estate companies in Tennessee.

Present and future exits Kenny Lynn and Stacy Stru in 2013, immediately established the fastest growing re Tennessee. They acquired sub-franchisor rights to Florida and Texas and earned the number on franchisee sales in the no.1 region in North America, the Superior Growth and Development Award, and broke the all-time corporate record for franchises sold in 2019.

Exit Southeast has repeatedly earned the Nashville Business Journal's best in-business finalist and Stacey was named a 2022 NBJ Women of Influence in Exit Southeast and just earned a spot on NBJ's list for the top 50 fastest-growing companies awarded this morning. Also, they were awarded that for the 2022 year by the Nashville Business Journal. So you're doing so many awesome things. I'm super excited to have you both on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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02:32 – Stacy Strobl

Let's do it.

02:32 – Kenny Lynn

Yeah, let's go.

02:34 – Gresham Harkless

Let's get it started then. So to kind of kick everything off, I know I touched on it a little bit when I read your bio, but I want to hear a little bit more about when you got started, and what to call your CEO story.

02:43 – Stacy Strobl

Well, you know, We've always been into the home industry. We've always been passionate about everything in the home industry, whether it's mortgages, titles, or real estate. And we really found our lane when we wanted to, when we got into the real estate industry and helped grow the real estate business and realtors. We started in the mortgage industry originally together. We've been partners for almost 13 years now. And once Exit Realty came on our radar, there really wasn't any looking back.

03:16 – Gresham Harkless

Nice, I absolutely love that. And I imagine that having that experience, especially from the mortgage industry because it's so like kind of related, I guess you can imagine that it's probably helped out tremendously. And in addition, you have worked together for 13 years and so, I wanted to drill down a little bit more here, a little bit more on how you work with your clients. Cause Jay, take us through a little bit more on what that looks like and how you're serving the clients you work with.

03:38 – Kenny Lynn

Well, in 2013, you know, we bought a franchise, okay? We bought the, It was the ninth one in the state of Tennessee. OK, there were 8 other ones. And we purchased the right. I looked at a lot of other franchises. And I chose Exit for, you know, there was residual income. It was very important to me because I knew that I could do a lot of growth and got me hooked for a year. We probably had, crazy, you know, by being in real estate was in a downturn and, you know, why would you do that? And so that actually led to us buying the region, the rights to the region to develop it. About a year and a half later, in 2013, we bought the rights to Tennessee to develop it.

Of course, I didn't know anything about selling franchises or anything. I just, Stacey really came to me and said, she really wants it. And we made a play for it. It was, it didn't make sense to me at the time, but there were 9 of us. 2 of them left immediately and I bought the rights to it. They left the bad stepchildren. You know, we just had some stepchildren. It was bad. The only way for me to show and develop was to sell franchises. So I took off and started selling our first year. We sold 9 and that was incredible and everybody kept saying that's incredible, incredible. But it to me, I'm like, I don't know, you know, we've got to do 15 20, and 25 and we'll speed it up.

And today, you know, 9 years later we got 64 franchises in the state of Tennessee. You know, so I knew how to duplicate. Now I knew that I could go to other states and duplicate and we went on to Kentucky in 2016 and only had 2 offices there and the same thing. Stepchildren of the 2 were kind of not very compelled to us, but they love us today. They're still there. They love us. We showed them what we can do. We've gotten 26 franchises in the state of Kentucky and I said, Well, we can. We need to keep going and duplicating. We bought the rights to Georgia in 2017. And I race cars, you know, I drag race cars.

And I told them corporate that, hey, don't get, give me to January. I'm not gonna be able to work it. Well, I know I was, you know, going to go on down there anyway. So I ended up having my first rec racing in front of all of our people, a thousand people at the racetrack. Never had a rec for all these years. There were only 26 people there when COVID-19 hit. I wanted to be It was already in process rights to Florida in late you couldn't even come out I still bought the rights to Florida. It was already buying these rights to FL in August when you could your house almost, I still to it. And that year in 2 as the state of Florida. I do really sell them again over Zoom.

I'm a face to like that. And then you and we sold 50 franchises and ended up buying the rights months ago. That's got 18 there. So we'll speed us all up. And we've got over 200 offices in 9 years and in 5 states. You know, so it's been an incredible journey. And I want to double the size of this company in the next 4 to 5 years. I want to have 500 of them.

So, you know, we just work hard at what we do and put the right people in business of people that have the desire to be in business. And it's coachable. That's the number one thing. Are you coachable? That's why we're number one baby, because we we stick with what we do. You know, just duplicate and that's what I try to tell everybody. You just got him. If you can duplicate it in one state, you can do it in 50 states. It doesn't matter. So that's kind of what we do.

08:06 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I absolutely love that. And do you consider that to be, I guess, part of what is setting both of you apart? Is that ability to kind of see that talent? And sometimes, I don't want to use the phrase diamond in the rough, but that's what's kind of coming to mind where you're able to kind of see that, hey, if with some coaching, some opportunity, then people have that opportunity to really flourish.

08:24 – Kenny Lynn

You know, I'm one of those persons who believe that if you own one of them and you're successful, you can own 5 of them, work on it, not in it. And that's the biggest thing is making me people come out and work on your business, not in your business. You're not there to be an agent and sell real estate. You're there to develop as I developed. And once they learn that, they just take off, they soar, you know, and they own 4 or 5 of them, 6 of them, and they own their market share. And that's what we're after. We want them to circle the TP, and you own your market share and it's working out pretty well.

09:06 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, I absolutely love to hear that, your growth, and all the awesome things that you're doing. And I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you both more effective and efficient?

09:20 – Stacy Strobl

We have lanes. That's one thing that's really great about us. You know, we learned early on to be in our lanes and stay in our own lanes and then do what we do best. And I'm definitely the more systems-oriented, you know, schedules and following the routines. Those are important and achieving different progress and things like that for our agents and even new franchisees, makes them feel comfortable and stable when they're coming. But the one thing that really helped us was during all of that time with COVID and even today as the market continues to change, being able to adapt, being able to pivot.

You know, as he said, we sold all the franchises during COVID as well, because we learned how to do it. You know, we learned how to be good over Zoom. We learned how to be good over the phone. It's always going to be a people-to-people business. And so being able to adapt with that. But that's definitely the hack part would definitely be that I think we've mastered how to stay in our lane. So I'm more the systems and the, you know, maintenance and the support, and Kenny's more the builder strategizer game plan.

10:36 – Kenny Lynn

I have 3 simple rules when I tell everybody and it's really easy. You know, always do your best, you know, be at 110 percent. If you're going to do something, do your best. And then the next thing is always do what you say. If you say you're going to make sure you do it. Do it out there. And then the people know you love them and they know that t on the other side. They know if you're sincere. But actually, go and say when of me, I can change your life.

And I can make you have a better family, a better wealth, and help your family buy the real estate that you sell. You know, you'd be surprised how many agents don't own a home and nobody's taught them and we teach that, you know, we teach you to buy the property that you sell and become an investor. It's just 3 simple rules in life. And that's all you gotta go by and you'll be successful. If you can do those 3 things, you'll be successful.

11:37 – Gresham Harkless

Nice, I absolutely love that. What would you consider to be what I like to call a CEO nugget? This is a little bit more word of wisdom or a piece of advice. You might've already touched on this, but this is something you might tell one of the people that you're working with or potentially you would tell your younger business self if you were just hopping in a time machine.

11:52 – Stacy Strobl

I always think that it's, it's more about, you've got to slow down and really experience where you are in the moment and be present while you're present. If I could tell my younger self to do that, I would. I was always, I'm never satisfied. I was always looking for the next level, always trying to go after the next, you know, attainable thing, whether it's a closing agent or whatever it is. And sometimes you can really learn from the experiences that you're having if you're paying attention right then and there that would help you go and actually do that instead of constantly, you know, looking, looking forward. So I think for me too, it would have to be to slow down and really be present while you're present.

12:37 – Kenny Lynn

Well, you know, I think for me is, you know, is we've probably already touched on this is keep everybody in the right lane and keep around you and you can't a person in that just do But I like staying in you like whatever you learn h duplicate it, you know, tweak it as you're doing things because the environment changes. Nobody knows that the interest rates are gonna go up and can it affect your market? Absolutely, it affects your market, but you gotta stay 6 steps ahead of all that.

13:16 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So now I wanted to ask you one of my absolute favorite questions, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So Kenny and Stacey, what does being a CEO mean to both of you?

13:27 – Stacy Strobl

For me, being a CEO is all about the people, all about our culture. We call it the Exit Southeast family. We mean that when we say that. And that's probably the best way I can describe that. A title is a great thing. A CEO, a title is a great thing. But really connecting and knowing your people and getting to meet new people every single day and having those relationships and networking is probably one of the best benefits of this business.

13:59 – Kenny Lynn

I love being a leader that can change your life. You know, I'm not talking about a game-changer. I'm talking about a life-changing event for you and your family and watching your family grow and experience things that they've never got to experience. You know, that they didn't think they could make it And I really looking back and like watching them grow over the 2 or 3 years, they were coachable. That's probably one of the most important things to me being a CEO is giving them back the ability to earn income and change their family and change their life. That's my biggest thing.

14:37 – Stacy Strobl

That's kind of our tagline. As Kenny said, it's not a game changer, it's a life changer. So we have we have fun with that, but we mean it.

14:46 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, Kenny and Stacey truly appreciate you again for jumping on the show. And what I want to do now is pass you both the mic, so to speak, to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome life-changing things that you all are doing.

15:03 – Stacy Strobl

Yeah, you can, you can get in touch with us. Stacey, STACY at exit, Southeast.com or, Kenny KENNY at exit, Southeast.com. We've also got, social media, for Instagram it's exit South at exit Southeast and then Facebook, exit Southeast or Kenny Lynn or Stacey Strobel. We'd love to connect with everybody. It's been a pleasure, Gresh. We appreciate you.

15:34 – Kenny Lynn

Yeah. Thank you for having us on. Just like you said, if you're looking for an opportunity, I'm the man. Can we change your life? Yes. Do you need all the money in the world? No, you know, but we can definitely change your life, you know, for sure. So just get in touch with us and let's see where it goes.

15:57 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And to make it even easier to get in touch, We'll have the links and information the show knows too, so that everybody can follow up. I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:05 – Kenny Lynn

Yes. Thanks, Gresh.

16:07 – Stacy Strobl

Thanks, Gresh. Nice to meet you. Appreciate it.

16:08 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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