For more than two decades now, the Charlotte Business Journal has highlighted leading ladies in the local community through the Women in Business Achievement Awards program. Winners of this prestigious annual award were just announced and Boston National Title’s own Lisa Vogel is among the deserving recipients.
In four short years, Lisa has set an extraordinary example in commercial title services — a segment of the real estate business with very few executive level women.
In 2015, and only 6 months into her new position at Boston National Title, Lisa was tasked with starting up the company’s Commercial Division. She had to do it all: educate herself about very complex transactions, create the in-house commercial title workflow and process, implement a marketing plan to establish company name recognition among commercial real estate professionals and forge relationships with commercial real estate agents and attorneys responsible for assigning title.
John Keratsis, CEO of Boston National Title, knew he was taking a risk by assigning a task critical to the organization’s development to someone brand new to the business and who had taken a 17-year hiatus to raise her children. But Lisa’s background was enough to overcome his doubts: University of Pennsylvania/Wharton Business School alum followed by an MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School and several years of consulting work in Atlanta (The Alexander Group) and Washington, D.C (Beth El House). He also appreciated her competitive nature (Lisa was a top-ranked tennis player during her youth and college days) and knew she would need it in the commercial real estate arena. Lisa’s analytical nature served her well as she developed a repeatable strategy for networking and building her business. But commercial real estate deals take a long time to develop, and of course so do those relationships.
By April 2017, Lisa had made hundreds of new contacts, but her division was still burning bright red. She implemented a fresh strategy: Serving as a relationship catalyst, she began making professional introductions on behalf of her contacts. Her strategy and perseverance paid off and the second half of 2017 saw significant revenue growth. The following year Lisa landed a monster deal well over $100MM.
2019 was the year for stability and solid foundation. The momentum kept driving north and the Commercial Division’s profits grew to new heights. Her client base has increased by 42% and her revenue growth is up 236%. Equally important, her client attrition rate is extremely low thanks to her determination to deliver best-in-class service levels on each and every transaction (no matter the size); including taking the time to carefully debrief clients post-closing.
Recipients of the CBJ Women in Business Achievement Award must also demonstrate a record of community service. Lisa recently led BNT’s involvement with CREW (Commercial Real Estate Women) Charlotte’s “Queen City in Pink” program in October to support breast cancer awareness. In addition, she and her son Kyle visit nursing homes where Kyle provides free tech support to residents and she also visits homes with her stepdaughter Alexa and the family’s therapy dog, Cooper.
Lisa is very grateful to her peers at CREW Charlotte for sponsoring her nomination for the CBJ Women in Business Achievement Award.