Although Vija Williams was doing well financially running her own real estate team, she realized that she was miserable.  She felt she had to do 17 different things to run a good team, but she wasn’t good at any of them.  And her profit margin wasn’t high enough to support the number of staff she needed.  So at 48 years old, despite having doubts about whether people would still hire her because of her age, the mom of three took a leap of faith and took on a role that she believes she’d be really good at, a leadership position in a corporate setting.

In 2018, Vija Williams became the Director of Growth with Ben Kinney Companies.  For the last three and a half years, she has helped walk them through two acquisitions and grow the company from 1200 to 1700 agents.  Today, Vija is the Head of Industry for PLACE, a tech and business services platform for real estate agents.  Goldman Sachs, along with 3L, recently invested 100 million dollars into PLACE at over a Billion dollar valuation.

Brian Charlesworth joins Vija Williams as they talk about her journey from being a solo agent to being a successful leader, her insights on the value of leverage, what makes PLACE a very unique model, and why she thinks women from all industries become stronger when they come together. 

Top Takeaways:

• (07:14) Why Vija felt miserable despite having a successful team
• (08:48) How Vija decided to shift her career to running brokerages
• (11:18) Why does the real estate industry need more women in the leadership role?
• (12:38) How Vija manages to juggle all her businesses
• (15:18) What it’s like to work with your spouse
• (22:04) What motivates Vija
• (24:54) What PLACE is all about
• (25:34) The vision of PLACE
• (26:45) The biggest challenge teams face as they’re growing
• (28:39) Why every agent needs to get at least 4 checks for each transaction
• (32:44) The three types of teams
• (35:32) Who is the right person to control the client experience?
• (37:31) What the future looks like for agents who aren’t on a team
• (43:28) How the women’s group Her Best Life started

Connect with Vija Williams

Email: Vija@place.com

Website: https://place.com/

Website: https://www.herbestlife.com/

Podcast: Empire Building Podcast

About the guest:

Vija Williams always knew she would go into real estate but her path to it wasn’t as straightforward. She graduated college, sold radio advertising, and worked for some builders and developers prior to becoming a real estate agent.  She was 30 years and had her first child at that time, had her second child at 32, and her third at 39 years old.

She was making good money juggling her role as a mother and a real estate agent. But when the market crashed, it fried her and her husband to the point where they almost lost their house. Luckily they still had assets to sell to survive.  When the markets turned, she switched brokerages and went from being a solo agent to building a team.

In 2012, Vija met Ben Kinney and he started coaching her.  Her volume increased from 25 million to 70 million in just four years.  Although she was extremely successful, Vijya felt unhappy.  She wanted to try a leadership position in a corporate setting but she wasn’t sure if anyone would accept her since she was already 48 years old.

But with people supporting her, she was able to achieve her goal and became the Director of Growth for The Ben Kinney Companies.  Today, Vija Williams is the Head of Industry for PLACE, President of the Brokerages Division at Ben Kinney Companies, Co-Founder of Her Best Life - a national women’s group, and co-host of the Empire Building podcast.