Episode 386 - Bill Risser - Fidelity National Financial - The Sequel

00:00:03 - Speaker A

You're listening to The Real Estate Sessions, and I'm your host, Bill Risser. With nearly 25 years in the real estate business, I love to interview industry leaders, up and comers, and really anyone with a story to tell. It's the stories that led my guests to a career in the real estate world that drives me into my 9th year and nearly 400 episodes of the podcast. And now I hope you enjoy the next journey. As I have done a few times in the past, this episode will be a monologue. It's also going to be much shorter than a typical interview episode because this seems like a good idea to me. I am in my 24th year in the real estate industry. This is my second career, just like most of my guests.

00:00:42 - Speaker A

After joining Chicago Title in Phoenix in January 2000, I spent a year as a sales executive. In 2001, with no escrow training, I was promoted to branch manager of the Metro Center office. Yep, no experience. I'm sure you can imagine the lukewarm welcome I received on my first day. In fact, let's go with tepid. To earn respect and another paycheck, I quickly learned what the team didn't like to do and got really good at those tasks. Tough signings, fixing trouble files, stale dated checks, purging the older files to Iron Mountain for storage. Look, if you're in title or escrow in the early two thousands, or as we call it, pre digital, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Now. At this point, you're probably wondering where I'm going with this. Trust me, I have a plan. Winning the respect worked well and after a couple of years I opened a branch 20 miles closer to home. The Gilbert branch was successful and we had a great team in place. Then the fall of 2006 hit. That's when we felt the coming dark days,

00:01:43 - Speaker A

That would be very tough for all connected to the real estate industry except REO and short sale experts. It was during 2007 I obtained at a super low lease for the office next to ours and created the Real Estate Tech Tank. It was a former competitor's office. They had stripped out everything, including all the cabinets. I had a good relationship with our facilities manager and he was able to provide two large conference tables, roughly 40 office chairs, and two older printers and an ancient copy machine. We borrowed a lockbox from Jay Thompson of Thompson's Realty and the Phoenix Real Estate Guy blog. He would later go on to work for Zillow, handling the industry outreach brilliantly. He would also later be the first guest on this podcast. In August of 2015, the Real Estate Tech Tank became a place where agents could convene to work, converse with others, or bug Jay about his blog.

00:02:34 - Speaker A

I was able to host workshops primarily on social media and discovered there was a need to help agents understand the latest tech tools and which ones worked for them. In 2010, Patti Counce, the Sales Manager for Chicago Title Phoenix, suggested we explore creating a role for me so I could help all the branches and sales execs in the operation. The Director of New Media and Education position was born. I may be wrong and if I am, I'm sure I'll be called out for it, but I think this was the first position to capitalize on the growing social media and real estate tech boom in the title space. Now, I enjoyed this position. It led to roughly ten stints as an Inman Ambassador, countless opportunities to share what I had learned on local, state, and even the occasional national stage, and relationships with some of the smartest people in the business.

00:03:23 - Speaker A

It also opened up an opportunity for Cindy and I to get closer to our son, who had settled into a role with a not for profit in Washington, DC. We relocated to the Tampa Fidelity National Title operation in January 2017, settling in St. Petersburg, Florida, and my new title was Vice President Digital Strategy and my focus was still on opening doors for our sales team.

00:03:46 - Speaker A

Then 2020 hit. Yep, March would bring the pandemic and no one in the real estate world had any idea what would happen. Just a few months later, the market took off. I hosted over 200 Zoom training sessions from April through July, most, to be quite honest, around how to use Zoom. The other thing 2020 brought was a dinner with, among others, the founders and COO of RateMyAgent, a new review platform out of Australia.

00:04:13 - Speaker A

Since I'm way over time here, let's just cut to the chase. I have always thought startup life would be cool. I got the chance to test my theory when I joined RateMyAgent after 20 plus years with the Fidelity National Financial family in September of 2020. RateMyAgent is the only review platform connecting buyer or seller reviews to the MLS transaction data. This creates a powerful platform. My role was VP of Strategic Partnerships. I talked to franchises, brokerages, MLS, and other data providers. I really enjoyed my three and a half years with RateMyAgent, but it was time to move on. As 2024 arrived, I explored a wide range of options in the tech and SaaS space, but it was Barbara Mott and Patti Counce that suggested reaching out to Jordan Walker.

00:05:00 - Speaker A

Jordan, by the way, has the coolest title ever. It is a business anthropologist, and after the slash, it says Business Strategy and Development. But I love that Business Anthropologist part. Very cool. And I know Jordan well and we've collaborated on a couple projects in the past. Well, wouldn't you know she was looking for the right fit for a new role, Regional Sales Enablement Manager. We discussed what the job would cover and it felt like someone went through my career in real estate and crafted a role designed for me.

00:05:28 - Speaker A

I report to two people at Fidelity National Financial, Jordan and Matt Hidalgo, VP /Director of Sales Enablement. They have worked closely together for years as they bring technology, training and strategy to the company. So here I am now, the regional sales enablement manager of Division VI for Fidelity National Financial. As this episode is released, I'm in week three of my return to FNF. While some tools are still fresh in my mind, there is quite a bit to catch up on as FNF continues to lead the industry in many ways. I spent the second week in Texas visiting operations, Houston and Austin in particular, as I shadowed Matt. That is a quick way to meet many people and gather the knowledge needed for my new role.

00:06:09 - Speaker A

I've got to be honest: I am thrilled to be back with Fidelity National Financial after fleeing to startup land. With 20 years of experience in this space, I believe I can help bring training, strategy, and teamwork to the Division Six operations. Understanding both escrow and sales allows me to work both sides of the business as we strive to continue growing the best title and escrow operations. Thanks for making it this far in the show, and next week, we will return to the more traditional, normal Real Estate Sessions, you know, interview style. Cheers.

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