Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lindsay Bone. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Lindsay thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Was there an experience or lesson you learned at a previous job that’s benefited your career afterwards?

An important lesson I learned from a previous job is to know your worth. I had been working in operations and marketing when I was suddenly let go. I was obviously in shock, angry, and worried what the future held for me professionally and personally. After the initial reaction wore off, I came to realize that I knew in my head and heart that I did my best work for that previous team. I realized I could have a clear conscience knowing I was hard worker and had done everything and beyond that was asked of me. From that experience, I learned that it is so very important to know your worth and value. Moving on from that experience, I was encouraged to start my own real estate team and step into a leadership role. I remind myself on a constant basis the worth, value, and skill set I bring to clients, affiliates, my company and my team. It fuels me on a day-to-day basis. From that experience, I have the confidence to grow my real estate business, team and expand my leadership skills into managing an office within our company.

Lindsay, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started in the St. Louis real estate industry in 2016. I was unhappy in my job at that time and was looking to make a change. I had always been interested in real estate and connected with a real estate team that needed an Executive Assistant. I got my real estate license and worked with that team for a year. In that position, I was responsible for the day-to-day office tasks, administrative duties, paperwork compliance, marketing, event planning and operations. I learned a lot about the real estate industry in that first year and am truly grateful for all that I learned. As I grew in that position, I felt my skills would flourish more with a larger team so in 2017 I started with a different real estate team in the St. Louis area. I was with that team from 2017-2019. As the Director of Operations, my main focus was building systems and processes, training, onboarding/offboarding agents, coaching the administrative staff, and marketing. I was suddenly let go from that position and was left to decide if I wanted to stay in the real estate industry or explore a different job/industry. After many applications, interviews and discussions, I decided to take a chance and partner up with a Realtor friend to go into real estate sales full time. We created a real estate team and have grown our business, team, and skills each year since starting together in January 2020.

Our team, Trinity Select Homes, is currently a team of real estate experts with over a decade of combined experience and continue to grow professionally and personally in the St. Louis real estate industry. Our team consists of Ashleigh Kondracki, Misty Baker and myself. Our goal is to make sure our clients fully understand the buying and/or selling process. We are committed to providing our clients with a jaw-dropping customer experience through our core values: commitment, ownership, drive, humility, integrity and to glorify God. We believe there is always a solution and surround ourselves with top industry vendors and affiliates. We run our business on the philosophy that we, as Realtors, control the process and our clients control the decisions.

While still part of Trinity Select Homes, I am also a broker with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Select Properties. BHHS Select Properties has been named Top Workplace by the St. Louis Post Dispatch 9 consecutive years, is ranked the #1 locally owned real estate company in St. Louis by the St. Louis Business Journal annually, the #1 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices franchise in Missouri and Illinois, and is among the Top 15 ranked women-owned businesses in St. Louis by the St. Louis Business Journal every year. BHHS Select Properties offers so many resources to make me successful as a Realtor and leader in the industry.

I was approached by President and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Select Properties, Maryann Vitale Alles, in 2021 to get my broker’s license and join the company leadership bench. Besides our real estate team, I also serve as an Assistant Managing Broker for the company. I owe my success and confidence as a Realtor, team member, and manager to the faith, confidence, training, and resources that BHHS Select Properties offers. I have also grown in my leadership skills by being part of the 2022 graduating class from the St. Louis Realtors Leadership Academy.

One thing I am most proud of is how I challenge myself to grow within the industry. Whether that’s taking on a leadership role, growing my sales volumes and units year over year or plugging in to the local realtor association boards, I am always looking to grow and expand my knowledge to best serve clients, teammates, and agents. A few philosophies I like to operate by are to 1) Never be the smartest person in the room and 2) Leadership is a journey, not a destination. It is important to me to instill hard work and drive in my kids by showing them how passionate I am about real estate. I’ve found it is important to love what I do in order to divide my time between real estate and my husband and two kids.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

The biggest strategy we focus on as a real estate team and while coaching agents is to focus on your sphere of influence. Truly build relationships and get connected with those around you. Whether that’s church, kids sports leagues, country clubs, PTA…be involved and be connected with who you do life with already. Specific strategies include sending 10-15 hand written notecards per week, mailing something of value and pop-bys, hosting client appreciation events, and coffee and lunches, attending events and much more. Sixty – 65% of our team sales come from our sphere of influence, those we do life with. There’s a statistic that each person knows up to 10 different Realtors. Our strategy is we want to be top of mind when clients are asked if they know a local Realtor.

How’d you meet your business partner?

My business partner, Ashleigh Kondracki, and I have been friends since middle school. Our husbands grew up together. Our families were friends. We’re also both involved in our local church and hold the same values. Our paths had crossed a few times in previous jobs so we had stayed connected throughout the years. Ashleigh had recently started her real estate career in 2019 and when I looked at jumping into real estate as a full time Realtor, our paths crossed again. We had lots of discussions on partnering up…what our team would look like, how we wanted it structured, etc. and finally decided to launch our partnership and real estate team in January 2020. Ashleigh and I are great compliments to each other’s personalities and have learned how to tailor our business to what kind of personality type we are working with based on our own personality strengths and weaknesses. We both went through a lot of personal and family situations during 2020 and we just knew we needed each other during that time and that is why we were brought together as team.

Contact Info:

• Other: We are actually working on rebranding with a new team name and logo so all of our social media outlets will be updated January 2023.

Image Credits
Nicole Byrd