True Trust Is the Real Luxury in High-Value Business with Nikki Beauchamp

[0:00] Welcome back to the REI agent. My guest today is Nicole Beauchamp, a luxury real estate agent at Sotheby’s International Realty in New York City. With nearly two decades of experience specializing in the Upper East Side and international buyers, fluent in English and Spanish and conversational in Portuguese, Italian and French. Nicole has built a multilingual client network that spans borders and has maintained top production through multiple market cycles and brokerage transitions. Nicole, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. What a great way to start off the day. Yeah, I should have done that in a couple of different languages, although the other language I speak, you don’t. And to be honest, my German skills have not really been very helpful in my real estate career.

[0:48] You know, it’s really interesting. German is one of the languages that I was thinking I wanted to start trying to learn. And I also need to sort of brush up the Russian. I think it’s fun to learn new languages. And it’s a great way to connect with people when you travel or when you have new clients from other countries. Yeah. If you are working with a client from Germany, for example, I mean, there’s a good chance that they speak some English, but they probably also speak some French or something else as well, because, you know, a lot of Europeans are multilingual. But yeah, my parents, my mom was from Switzerland. I was born in Mexico. I don’t actually speak Spanish, but dad is a Spanish professor.

[1:33] I’m a black sheep, I guess, if you will. But he’s huge into languages. And, you know, my mom spoke seven languages, you know, again, being from Europe throughout her life. I don’t know if she would be fluent in all those ever. But yeah, so it’s awesome. It’s kind of more rare to have that here in the United States. Like it’s becoming a lot more popular to be bilingual with Spanish, of course. But to learn some of the other languages is a lot more rare. So that’s awesome. Well, I think also when I was growing up, it was it was expected that we would learn to speak a couple of different languages. My family background in the Caribbean, but from Europe and then the Caribbean. So I guess the desire and interest of always knowing how to speak at least English, Spanish and Portuguese is so closely related.

[2:27] We also had family, you know, in Brazil and in Portugal. So, yeah. So what what when did you start learning these languages? Were you, you know, introduced to that early on or when did you start? So English, English, French and Spanish were at home along with a little bit of Portuguese. And I think I started Russian kind of briefly in middle school. And then when I was in college, my best friend from college is of Ukrainian descent. And we met literally the first day of freshman orientation. And I did not need to take another language. I had sort of tested out of the foreign language requirement. And she wanted to learn to speak Russian better so she could communicate with her grandparents. And I was like, oh, well, that sounds like fun.

[3:22] So I took three years of Russian when I was in college. Why not? But also it’s worth noting that I have a background as a musician. So I started piano when I was four and I picked up the clarinet when I was 10. And I went to a famous performing arts high school, the fame school that was a TV show, movie, et cetera. So I think that also helps in terms of picking up languages. Sure. Yeah, I can see that for sure. Yeah. And what a fun way. I never learned German the formal way. I grew up speaking Swiss German. Then I lived in Germany for a year after high school. And I kind of tried to work my way through a Harry Potter book, but I never really had formal training on how to read or write or anything like that.

[4:13] And when I came back, I also tested out of like 12 credits of German, which I was blown away that I could. Not really being able to read very well. But that was certainly helpful. And it gave me a little extra boost in my college. But anyway, you’ve been through multiple market cycles in the Manhattan luxury scene. What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned about staying resilient and adapting your approach when the market shifts? I think the most important thing that any agent can do in any market is know your product really well and know the market data really well. And that enables you to engage in conversation about the market literally at the drop of the hat. I have had conversations while I’m walking my dog.

[5:08] I run into people on the corner. And if someone says to me, well, how’s the market? I can give them a timely answer. I can also probably tell them a property that I either maybe just walked through, just visited. I have a tendency. I tend to be a little bit understated. So I’m not the agent who’s going to talk about what I just sold or what I just listed necessarily as a starting point. I will use, oh, I was just at this new development. Or I just sold this property and then sort of get around to things. But that’s part of my personality. Well, and I think it’s, I think we should always be reminded about what people actually care about. Like what, why are, like with our social media, with how we interact with our clients, they probably don’t really care about what you just sold.

[6:02] Well, I think they only care if it’s directly relevant to them. So if we run into each other and we’re standing on the corner of 74th and Madison, it might be relevant that I just visited the new development on 74th and 3rd. It might be relevant that I had a buyer who missed out on a multiple bidding scenario on the kitty corner of 74th. So that you’ve got to make it relevant to where you are and who the people you’re talking to. And the best way of doing that is being so immersed in the data that it becomes second nature. And it’s so much easier to do today than it was 20, 25 years ago when I started. Yeah. Speaking of, what got you into this world of real estate? You were into music and languages.

[6:56] I was into music. I was into languages. I kind of wanted to be a philosophy major. And my parents encouraged me to do what I wanted to do that would make me happy. But they also wanted an underlying element of practicality. And again, sort of into languages, good at math. So I mixed philosophy with economics and computer science. And so my first career was actually in tech and finance. And my graduate studies are in statistics. So I took the math thing a little bit far. And I had a friend who was a real estate agent. And I was consistently sending people to her. Because if I was in an office and I was probably the native New Yorker of the bunch, Nikki, where should I live? What should I do? So I would naturally answer the questions.

[7:53] And I would say, well, you know, my friend so-and-so is an agent. And I was doing that enough that she suggested I get my license so I could be paid a referral fee. I resisted that for quite a bit of time. I’m like, no, I don’t want to do that. That’s too much work. Like, it’s okay. It’s not worth it. But then, you know, she very forcefully went here and said, look, you know, you are actually generating significant opportunities for me. And right now, the best I could do is, like, take you for a cup of coffee. Whereas this is another potential revenue stream. And I’m like, okay. So I took the time. Yeah. Well, I think she also understood that it – I think it’s also gratitude, right? If someone is generating enough and then if there is a little bit of something in it for me, even though she knew me very well.

[8:52] She’s sadly no longer with us. She knew me very well. And she knew that my core was always about the relationship. I wanted to make sure that any introduction that I made – and this is how I live my life – any introduction that I make has to be the right match. So I’m not going to make an introduction just because it benefits me. So I got my license and then I sold my consulting practice and thought, maybe I’ll try starting this as a business and see how it goes. I did not intend necessarily on still doing this or doing this long term. But it turned out to be something that I have really enjoyed. I have enjoyed working with my clients. I really enjoy the relationships that I’ve built with my colleagues.

[9:44] And the relationship is still at center of everything for me. That’s how I’ve been able to maintain my business. I think it’s the – when you get to establish, it might be hard to start a relationship-based business. But I think that is a desired place to be is where you are speaking to warm referrals or past clients, that kind of thing. It’s just – to me, it feels a lot better than a cold call. I’m not saying that those systems don’t work, that that type of business doesn’t work. It’s just I would rather be talking to friends. And I think that also makes it – this is a tough business. This is a business where we can often be working at unusual hours or long hours, although I am very good at boundaries.

[10:38] So when you enjoy the people that you’re working with – and I make that joke that I don’t really have past clients. I have clients. And if there is a sense early on that we are not going to be a good match, you should probably be matched with someone who’s a better match. It’ll mean better trust, smoother. Either I won’t be seeing the phone ring and go, oh, my God, it’s John again. I don’t want to talk to John again. Normally it’s like, oh, wow, it’s John. It’s great. We can catch up. We can talk about the business at hand. And I agree with you. I think it’s hard if you’re starting out. But I think if you think about that as your goal, that you are in essence building relationships. So I wouldn’t view cold calling as cold calling per se.

[11:34] I would view it as you are taking or creating an opportunity to build a relationship. And if you reframe it that way, if you reframe everything you do from that perspective, I think it actually makes things easier. That makes sense. And, you know, you can it probably comes through on the other end as well. Like if their sense is, you know, you’re not just trying to like make a quick sale or whatever, that you’re actually interested in them as people, you can probably convert them more easily as well. So being multilingual is a genuine competitive advantage in NYC luxury. How did you build your international buyer network? And how does serving that clientele differ from traditional domestic luxury sales?

[12:22] So for me, it was a natural kind of offshoot. My network, I was born and raised here. And New York City is absolutely, truly a melting pot. So growing up, I had friends who were literally from all over. My parents used to joke that literally I had the United Nations as friends. So when that’s your background, your sphere of influence is naturally your local contacts and then your international contacts. And one of my first international clients actually was not a friend. It was an individual who rented an apartment. And after about a year or so, it was clear that they were they wanted to stay in New York long term. And their parents were like, well, if you’re going to stay, then maybe we want to buy something.

[13:21] And so they did. They bought something and then they bought something else. But the key thing here is not their multiple transactions just with this one family. It’s that they then every time something came up about New York, it was, oh, you need to talk to our broker, Nikki. You need to talk to our broker, Nikki. So that has been that that’s been the core for me. It’s all been relationship based. Yeah. Yeah, that’s awesome. I mean, how how often do you get like a warm referral like that from somebody out of, I guess, are they likely to living in another country? Are they likely to have friends that are also thinking about buying something in New York? They are likely they are either living in another country or they lived here at one point and they’ve moved back or they or they lived in New York and they have now moved to another part of the world.

[14:19] When I failed to mention that one in my previous career, I spent a lot of time going between New York and London. So myself, I was also very I sort of had what I call it, dual. I couldn’t decide where I wanted to live because I loved living in New York so much. So I wouldn’t fully move. So my my social circle became a key component of that. But to answer your question, I think part of what happens is that people naturally when you have a good relationship and a good experience, even if you don’t transact, because there are often relationships where it did not result in a transaction, because frankly, it wasn’t the right idea for them. It wasn’t the right time for them. But you want to try and share these good relationships and good contacts with other people.

[15:15] And so that’s always the way that I approach things is I want to make sure that your experience and that you feel that I am truly acting in your best interest as your fiduciary, that even if you don’t transact, you want to hand my name to to someone else. Right. And that’s that’s that’s that’s massive. And also because if you keep yourself really attuned to not only what’s going on in your market, but what’s going on in other markets that are of interest to your clients. The question is not just you have to talk to Nikki about New York City. You have to talk to Nikki about real estate. What do you find that there’s other markets that people are shopping in as well? Like like L.A. Is that another one?

[16:05] So L.A., San Francisco, Miami, Chicago. A lot of my contacts are very focused not only in finance, but also the arts and education and often where their children are going to study is a big driver. And also where where their personal interests are. You know, if you are super interested in the arts and you also want to be able to go to Hawaii, you might go, OK, London, New York. I also really love San Francisco because that puts me, you know, X number of hours to Hawaii. But I can also hop on a plane very easily to Santa Fe so I can go to the opera every year for a week. So all of these things. And the more that you are attuned to what your clients are interested in, the easier it becomes. And today, literally, it’s in the palm of our hands.

[17:03] Who would have thought? People used to make fun of me years ago for having a BlackBerry and a cell phone. Oh, man, that’s awesome. You’ve moved between prestigious brokerages and stayed at the top each time. How do you evaluate where to position yourself and what matters most to you in that decision beyond compensation? What matters most is how is this going to enable me to do continuing to do great work for my clients? And, you know, in my most recent move, to me, it was kind of clear that this was the most logical place for me to be. And in breaking the news to clients that I was making a move, not a single person was upset or shocked. They were like, well, of course you would go there. This is amazing.

[17:59] Like, this is going to be great. And that was really reassuring to me that I made the right decision. That’s great. So, yeah, walk me through your career a little bit. You said, I think, a couple decades, right, in real estate? Yeah. So you’ve gone through some ups and downs for sure. Did you ever form a team? Did you ever make hires? Do you have a transaction coordinator? So I had two business partners a couple of years in. Then we went our separate ways. And I have continued to be an independent practitioner. And my belief is partnering as needed when it makes sense for the client. So, like, right now I have been working rather closely with a colleague of mine because, A, it made sense in the initial transaction.

[18:57] And actually when I came to this company and then he moved over to this section of the company, we had always been trying to find ways to collaborate. And this has turned into a series of transactions where it makes sense for us to collaborate. And I’m also, I’m always looking for things like that where maybe I have a transaction in an area or a neighborhood where another trusted colleague is an expert. And perhaps the two of us together can provide an elevated sense of service for our clients. I am a big believer. I joke that when you hire me, you get partnered level service. You’re not hiring me and then being handed off to 16 different people and you never know who you’re dealing with. Like, the buck literally stops here.

[19:55] Yeah. Now, I’m sure that helps with the relationships going forward and the referrals that come in from it. It really does. And then it also causes me to look at the providers that I recommend to my clients in the same way. I am not likely, if they do not already have a New York City real estate specific lawyer, I am not likely to refer them to a lawyer or a firm where I might make an introduction, let’s say, to the partner. And then they get passed around to 16 different people because my clients work with me because they do want that really high-touch personalized service. So I look for that in the providers that I refer and partner with as well. Yeah, that makes sense. You mentioned boundaries earlier, that you maintain strong boundaries.

[20:51] I’m curious what that looks like for you being a solo practitioner. How are you able to have those boundaries and how does that look like for some sort of work-personal life balance? So my family might argue that I don’t really have balance. But I want to say it was in 2012 where, 2011, 2012, I decided to do an experiment. But at the time, I was getting random text messages and people were not identifying themselves. So I thought, I’m going to remove my cell phone number. And my office number is there. At that point in time, my office number, when you left me a voicemail, I would get the MP3. I would see the caller ID. I would get the MP3. It was actually easier for me to listen to the voicemails that way than if you had left me a voicemail.

[21:50] And I returned calls almost instantaneously, no matter the format. But what that did is that it enabled me to have a layer. So now, as an example, when my cell phone rings, I know that it is a client or a colleague because I have actively given them the information. And so that enables me to create a distinction between accessibility and availability. If you need to have a call at 9 p.m. because you’re on the West Coast or whatever the reason may be, let’s schedule it. I can make myself available if it’s absolutely necessary. And it also depends on why do we need to talk at 9 p.m.? Is this a routine discussion or is this time sensitive because we’re in the middle of negotiations? There are different levels of need for access depending on what’s going on.

[22:55] And I think we talk about that at the beginning when we do sort of like a consult. And we try to figure out what’s going to be our communication style and our pattern. And I take notes. And so I make notes of that in sort of the entry for each person. Like, okay, this person prefers text messages or they can only speak to me during these times of day because, you know, they’re a doctor, they’re a nurse. And I can be flexible, but I don’t automatically have to be available by default. And that’s a really key thing because if you think about it, when you’re working across time zones, I had been on calls at 4 a.m. Because that’s the time that worked for the client, whether where they live, where they were traveling, and for me.

[23:46] So I get up and I adjust a little bit. And then maybe I take a nap later on in the day. But addressing that early on is really key. And it’s very funny because every so often I’ll get somebody like, you know, I can’t find your cell phone number. And I’m like, well, you’re talking to me now. You called me. You maybe left a message. Maybe you didn’t. I called you back and said, hi, you know, sneaky motion from Sotheby’s International Realty. You know, I just missed your call. You know, how can I help you? Or if I’m in the middle of something, I like to focus on who I’m with and what I’m doing. But if I need to quickly shoot off an email or shoot off a text and say, hey, you know what? I can’t talk right now, but can we talk in an hour?

[24:34] It seems to work okay for me. And you know what? If you need constant unlimited access in that way, I might not be the right person for you. And that’s okay. No, 100%. I think knowing when to fire somebody is a really hard lesson to learn. It’s a really hard lesson. And I had a scenario last summer where we kind of mutually fired one another. Like we decided we were not going, like that was the end of the relationship. And then it was so much of an end that I wasn’t like, oh, hi, you know, happy Thanksgiving and happy holidays. Like it was hard stop. That’s it. I’m done. We’re done. And they popped back in and said, hey, you know, can you, would you be interested in pitching for this? Would you be interested in pitching for that?

[25:41] You’ve always done great work for us. You know, let’s talk about what this would look like. Let’s set up, you know, predetermined calls. And let’s, and we came up with new terms of engagement that were satisfying to them. Also satisfying for me. And we, we figured it out. So sometimes, sometimes like Ross and Rachel, you need a break.

[26:07] Sure. My wife would love that reference. It’s not often that I have a relevant pop culture reference that I can actually remember. Because knowing me, I would have remembered this like long after we recorded. So I’m very proud of myself for that. Nice. Nice. What other ways are you able to make sure your mind is bright? Like what do you need to do personally to, to kind of keep yourself centered, balanced, whatever you want to call it. I don’t know if balance is really what you can do. I think balance, integration, this is, this is, this is also, this is a very challenging business. And I so often work with people that I know well or get to know well that the boundaries are almost non-existent.

[26:55] So I love walking. I love walking. I can get lost, lost in thought just walking for hours. And thankfully I live in New York City. So it’s something I can do very easily. I love Central Park. It is one of my favorite places to be. I love walking in Central Park with my dog. My dog is probably my favorite living being. Working out, you know, spin, Pilates, just anything, anything really where I’m able to disconnect. Like I recognized maybe about six or seven years ago, I got super obsessed with, with spinning. Like I was spinning every day at the gym, probably going to two or three SoulCycle classes a week. Then I got a Peloton. And when I recognized why I like spinning and why I like Pilates and things like that, I can’t be on my phone.

[27:57] Because previously working out, I wanted to listen to a podcast or I wanted to listen to some music. And once we stopped carrying around, you know, Walkman and Diskmans and iPods and everything was on the phone. If it’s on the phone, chances are, oh, I’m just going to check into my email and you totally lose focus. I never thought of that. Right? So things where I literally cannot be on the phone. The phone is in a different part of, you know, it’s locked in a locker. And so now when I go to the gym, my gym has done this thing where we, there’s an app where some of the classes I can do like running classes and walking classes and spin classes using the app on the phone. And I kind of hate that because the last thing I want is to actually be on the phone.

[28:54] So if I’m going to the gym and I just want to be on the elliptical, I will still leave my phone in the locker. And that’s actually been a good thing. Maybe the second thing I like most about having the Apple Watch. Yeah. Yeah. No, I, I, I’ve been a big fan of classes, um, for, for exercise. Um, I did like an orange theory kind of thing for a while before COVID and then decided I wanted to try something a little with heavier weights and tried CrossFit, um, after and got completely addicted to it. And I always thought, you know, there’s like a huge benefits to having a coach, a, and B, um, having a tribe, having the people that you kind of show up with all the time. Um, uh, I know that I’m going to work a lot harder when I go into that kind of environment, but I actually never thought about how, like, you know, I’m also like totally disengaged from my phone and that kind of environment.

[29:50] And that’s definitely plays a factor as well. Absolutely. And then this, this last summer I decided to try, um, boxing. Oh, fun. And oh my God, do I love, love, love. There’s something really, I think there’s something really primal about it as well. You know, like if I’m having a pad day, that’s a really, really good way of, uh, you know, getting the aggression and releasing stress. And it’s, I hear it’s like one of the hardest like workouts. Like you don’t, you wouldn’t think about it being like, so demanding, but I hear it’s just absolutely like. Yeah. And I think the challenge for me is that I’ve, I’ve always had, um, some knee and hip problems. So I have to do lots of modifications, but I have loved, loved, loved it.

[30:39] In fact, um, I keep, I had been keeping a spare pair of gloves in my office. I would, I’d been keeping a spare pair of gloves and like a spare kit and sneakers because I think twice a week, there is a class at one of the locations at my gym that is walking distance from the office. So I’m like, okay, well, if I keep a kit at the office, I can run and do that and shower and come back. So, yeah. That’s awesome. Um, Nikki, what, I mean, you’ve, you’ve already given us some good golden nuggets, but, uh, what golden nuggets do you have for us today? I think keeping, keeping the relationship at the center is, I think becomes really transformative in the way that you communicate with people in the way that you market.

[31:38] And I think in a world where there’s so much technology and there’s so much talk about AI and everybody’s trying to automate a million different things. If you lean in and you’re even more personal and intentional, I think that’s really going to set you apart. Yeah, no, I agree. I think there’s a, there’s a need for genuine, um, connection, um, content in general. Um, so yeah, I would agree with that. Yeah. And don’t get me wrong. Like I love, I love, I have been integrating AI into a lot of my workflows. So it is making me more efficient, which means I can spend more time, you know, walking with my dog. It also means that when I get a call and I’m on a call about my lit, let’s say a listing.

[32:33] And this actually just happened a couple of weeks ago. Someone called about one of my listings that was gone. I called them back because I was on a call when they called and we spent 90 minutes chatting throughout the 90 minutes, connecting about why they called in the first place, learning more about their background, learning more about the parent who is moving to be closer to the children. And guess what? They have a need to sell a property in order to move this parent in and they don’t already have an agent. So guess who now has built a trusted connection with them? And I will try to batch make them with an agent that makes sense. Yeah. That’s great. That’s fantastic. And I, yeah, I agree completely.

[33:26] I’m actually, uh, haven’t really announced this yet, but, uh, we’re developing a CRM that is, uh, it is AI heavy, but not in the automation and taking you out of the relationship building framework. It’s more about, um, trying to be smart in regards to like, Hey, you know, this person’s kid, you entered their age or whatever is coming into preschool, maybe reach out and see how that transition is going for them. Um, that kind of, uh, intelligence. And I think that kind of intelligence is really important. And we sometimes forget that we are a part of, especially on the residential side, we are a part of something that is so innately intimate and personal. Yeah. We have all of the information that we can integrate into building better relationships with our clients, but too many people don’t do it.

[34:28] Look at what are the NAR stats that, you know, most people would have worked with their agent, but their agent kind of disappeared. So they go on to the next transaction and they’re working with someone new. So my goal is to not be that, that type of an agent. I kind of want to make sure that you’re, we’re almost talking and engaging so, so frequently and so naturally that you naturally call me and say, Hey, you know what? I’m, I’m thinking of, I’m thinking of painting. I, we want to renovate the apartment. What should we do? Or, you know, I’ve had conversations about school during the pandemic, actually, um, right before locked out here. One of my clients said, Hey, I need to figure out what to do for story time.

[35:18] I think her younger son was maybe like, maybe like three at the time, plus or minus. So she used to take him to an in-person story time. And she wanted to figure out how could they continue story time while they were locked down. So we, we tested, I think we tested discord. Don’t ask me why she came up with discord, discord, Google meet, um, zoom and teams. And so in going through that process, was it relevant to me? Not really, but I was able to use something that I know because I’m always on all of these different platforms to help her come up with a solution for something related to her family that enabled her to create some sense of normalcy and continuity for her kids. And then, you know, as time goes by and she’s working from home and the husband is working from home and they’ve got these two kids and they’re like, Oh, you know what?

[36:32] We, we’ve been talking about maybe getting something bigger. We weren’t sure if we wanted to leave the city. We tried, we tried doing the combinations of, Oh, maybe we try to buy an apartment next door, et cetera, et cetera. Maybe let’s go out and see what we could buy. And then we sell this. What happened a year and a half later? Sold their apartment. Sold their apartment. Okay. Can you help us? Because now we need to sell this and we need to buy something else. The more that you are integrated into the conversation and your clients lives, the transactions, the opportunities for transactions are literally in the people we’ve already worked with. And we already know. 100%. Yeah. I agree completely.

[37:57] What about a favorite book? Do you have a book that you think is fundamental that everybody should read or maybe one you’re just currently enjoying? One of my favorite books is called the speed of trust. It’s by Stephen, Stephen Covey, the son, not the father. It is a phenomenal book. I think I was introduced to it maybe about 13 or 14 years ago at an event where he spoke. And I have, it is by far one of my favorite books. And I think, again, it goes back to reframing. How do you speak and use language so that you are engendering someone to trust you? And I think that it goes back again to the focus on the relationships, the focus on building trust, the focus on expertise, and how you can then use that in your business.

[39:09] At least that’s my approach. I know different people have different approaches. And the beauty of this business is that there are lots of different ways to, I don’t want to say to skin the cat, but. No, it’s true. If people are interested in following you on social media or want to reach out and speak French to you or something, what website, what social media platforms are you on? I am super easy. I am at Nikki Beauchamp on Instagram, Twitter. I still call it Twitter, TikTok, my website, NikkiSellsNYC.com, Nikki Beauchamp. Like I’m super easy to find. Well, Nikki, thank you so much for being on the show. It’s been a lot of fun talking to you. It’s been a lot of fun. It’s been a pleasure. Thank you for having me.

[40:08] Thanks for listening to the REI Agent. If you enjoyed this episode, hit subscribe to catch new shows every week. Visit REIAgent.com for more content. Until next time, keep building the life you want. All content in the show is not investment advice or mental health therapy. It is intended for entertainment purposes only.