We were lucky to catch up with Stacy Strobl and Kenny Lynn recently and have shared our conversation below.

Stacy and Kenny, appreciate you joining us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Success is definitely subjective and determined by your goals and vision. It can get skewed when you allow others to define success for you or you dwell in comparison, the thief of joy. For us, we measure our success by those whom we have helped seize opportunity, find their niche and community, and have nurtured the success of their own teams! Today, we look across EXIT Southeast in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Texas and see these determined franchise owners, brokers and agents who are serving their community, colleagues and making a better life for their families and that is success!

Also being validated for our record of success has been gratifying. Our leadership team has earned top real estate franchise sales for the past eight years for EXIT Realty Corp. International. In addition, in 2019, we broke the all-time corporate record for sales and the day we earned this recognition will always be special for our partnership.

Ultimately, the course of our success has been set by our unyielding belief in what EXIT Southeast offers from technology and training to culture and the unique residual system which has been life-changing for many. This success is backed up by hard-work and determination which has been tested by health challenges we’ve both faced as well as the global pandemic. We’ve met these challenges head on and adapted to whatever is necessary to keep our vision alive including embracing Zoom meetings! Critical to this success was staying in our lanes and surrounding ourselves with a team of experts who share our passion for helping agents, owners, brokers and admin staff chart a new course within an industry which needs disruptors who help people develop long-term wealth beyond the last commission check.

Stacy , 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?

We’ve just celebrated a decade of partnership in EXIT Southeast with a huge Rally in Orlando, Florida with top tier talent challenging us for our next decade of success! It has been exciting seeing the lives changed and the impact being made in communities within this five-state region with franchise ownership and real estate business opportunities but Kenny and I had very different beginnings leading to our partnership.

As the child of educators, I grew up in Clarksville, Tennessee and earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Education from the University of Memphis teaching in the Shelby County School System for seven years before earning a real estate license to help further support my growing family. Sadly, I easily made more than teaching within about a month! Now, I’ve got over two decades of experience in the real estate and mortgage industry. In 2004, I co-founded a mortgage company in Franklin, Tennessee. After working with Kenny in the mortgage industry, in 2009, he joined me as a partner. Four years later, we acquired the rights to EXIT Realty Tennessee and became Regional Owners establishing it as one of the fastest growing real estate companies in the state of Tennessee.

For Kenny, he’s always been passionate about coaching, leadership and recruitment. This is something he’s has been driven to accomplish even from a young age when he worked as a softball and baseball coach taking a team to the Little League Baseball Championship and winning! Transitioning this passion into the business world, Kenny owned several businesses before entering into a partnership with me growing from two loan officers to 52 and licensed in four states. The original plan was to grow this business when an opportunity to diversity with EXIT Realty was presented.

As mentioned, in 2011, we bought our first EXIT franchise in Madison, Tennessee. With only nine franchises in Tennessee, Kenny was convinced we needed to buy the franchisor rights to state of Tennessee thinking it was a game-changer and everyone should want to do it! Although it was the tail end of a recession, we saw clearly the opportunity and it began an incredible growth and success story. Within the first four years, we quadrupled the number of Realtors® in Tennessee earning our first #1 Region in North America with EXIT Realty Corp. International. In 2019, the duo broke the all-time corporate record of franchises sold! We’ve also been a Nashville Business Journal Best In Business finalist multiple times and I’ve has been honored as a 2022 NBJ Woman of Influence.

His off-hours find Kenny drag racing, something he’s done since the age of 16. Kenny holds a National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) license and you can find him racing up to 155 MPH on the weekends with his latest dragster, funded by residuals he has earned through the EXIT system.

As a single-mom of two active sons, Brady and Tyler, our world revolves around school, sports and extracurricular school activities with Brady now studying at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

EXIT Realty was founded on the concept of exiting the traditional way of doing business within the real estate industry. At EXIT Southeast, Stacy and I are passionate about offering solutions to help grow real estate businesses, mentor and develop leaders while serving our community as well as offering agents an additional stream of income – a definite positive disruptor for our industry. Add a unique culture where franchise owners can share their secrets of their success in an open and supportive way and you can really see the EXIT difference. In addition to supporting and encouraging one another in business, we also have created an environment of being there for one other through good times and tough times. Ultimately, we describe our real estate opportunities for franchise owners, brokers and agents as more than a game-changer but life-changing. That’s a lot to live up to and we are driven to accomplish this daily.

We hope our hard-work, dedication, pride in our company and passion for helping others is seen as an inspiration and we want to provide tools to help this be a possibility for anyone within our orbit. We see the human behind the transaction, the interaction, the comment posts and the engagement we experience in person or via email or social media. After earning accolades within our community and nationally, we’ve taken to adding the hashtag #1Baby. This is something we’ve earned over the years and it is also something we strive for daily. Beyond our partnership, this is something we want to inspire in anyone who crosses our path whether it is a franchise owner, an agent, broker or admin staff.

This goal of excellence is also something we want our community to experience whether we are selling a home, building a habitat house, participating in Climbing for Kids or supporting the incredible community service projects our EXIT Southeast community hosts.

Ultimately, we are proud that EXIT provides life-changing opportunity and know this is something we can continue to grow and to nurture.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Since we are in the real estate industry, building our reputation has definitely been a brick-by-brick operation. We stepped into a role as franchise owners and realized the underdeveloped potential of an EXIT office in the Nashville area. It was a very exciting but challenging time launching a brand which didn’t have a lot of market recognition, but we saw the opportunity and potential. This belief helped us as we launched in 2013 acquiring the rights to EXIT Realty Tennessee beginning an incredible growth story and established it as one of the fastest growing real estate companies in the state. Within the first three years of ownership, we quadrupled the number of EXIT Tennessee agents and earned EXIT Realty Corp. International’s top regional owners for North America in 2015, which we have now earned repeatedly. An important part of building our reputation has been person-to-person marketing, networking, advertising as well as building a social media following. We are incredibly grateful to have taken a winning concept, provided opportunity and to have mentored and supported so many people who are achieving and soaring daily! Another important part of building our reputation has been the unwavering support and accessibility for our owners, brokers, agents and admins. Take a look at our blog and reviews to see what our owners say about this support. When building and developing a brand, this has been essential.

Can you talk to us about your experience with buying businesses?

Before becoming regional owners, as business partners, Stacy and I wanted to expand beyond our successful mortgage business to purchase a real estate franchise. After researching the many options, I kept coming back to EXIT and was impressed by the business model and felt strongly this was the next logical expansion move for us. We could see clearly that EXIT was offering something no one else was and backing this up by culture, training, technology, branding and residual income. When acquiring our first franchise, the acquisition process was very transparent. Communication and discussions were thorough with the folks ushering us through the process. This is something we’ve modeled taking it a step further by going over each line of the contract and making sure anyone buying a franchise understands the investment and the value. And, we’re available night or day. The real estate business doesn’t stop at 5 p.m. We’ve lived it, understand this and make ourselves available in any capacity.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.exitsoutheast.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/exitsoutheast/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EXITSoutheast
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/exit-southeast/about/?viewAsMember=true
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/EXIT_Southeast
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbaHouSCWw3x9o8RS_D8Q6g

Image Credits
#1 Photo courtesy of EXIT Southeast #2 Photo by Geinger Hill #3 Photo courtesy of EXIT Realty Corp. International #4 Photo by Nancy McNulty #5 Photo courtesy of EXIT Southeast #6 Photo by Geinger Hill #7 Photo by Martin Cherry