Unusual Name
Last month when we were gathering the names for the Leaders section of Realty Builder Connection I came across Kimberley Smith of Prudential Network Realty and prepared to call her for the interview. Imagine my surprise when I found out she was a “He”!
Well, that unusual name column just fell into my lap, now didn’t it!
Kimberley Smith, who mainly goes by Kim, was kind enough to explain the origin of such an original name.
“After some years of questioning, it turned out that I was named after a region in Africa to which my paternal grandfather had been posted,” said Smith. “I had accused my father of being a closet Johnny Cash listener (Remember the song ‘A Boy Named Sue?’), but it seems my grandfather fell in love with the drama of the landscape and passed on that sense of adventure to my father. I left behind my hometown and traveled all over the world. Maybe my name was the catalyst?”
Smith said having an unusual name (for this part of the world) and an unusual accent has helped him stand out from the crowd in real estate.
Smith has tried to come up with interesting tag lines to market himself in real estate but having an unusual name and an accent seems to be enough.
“I had played with a number of taglines but the thing that seems to have stuck is ‘The English bloke with a girl’s name.’ Not quite what I had hoped for, but it brings a smile and people remember.”
Nicknames that Smith has been called have included Kit, Kat, Jim, Tim and, in the Army, it was ‘Floyd’, after a gung-ho cowboy character, constantly after the bad guys.
Now, if Smith had grown up in America where Kimberley was not a typical boy’s name, it might have been worse, but as it was, he still was teased a bit growing up.
“(I was teased) just like the character in a ‘A Boy Named Sue’,” said Smith. “I started boxing at an early age so the teasing never really happened twice.”
I asked Smith to tell me a funny experience where someone couldn’t believe that was his name.
“The number of telephone and grocery store conversations that I’ve had here in the States where I’ve jumped in to forestall questions by offering my ID card or the ‘English bloke with a girl’s name’ comment to convince people that I really am called Kim,” said Smith.
Smith has been a Realtor with Prudential Network Realty for two years and recently took over the International Business Development Committee of the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors.
“I’m passionate about the potential in that field, so watch this space over the next year,” he said. “I’m impressed by the structure to the real estate industry here in the USA and by the integrity of my parent company even more.”
Two different parties: one office
Politics can get messy. Two Realtors in the Watson Realty’s South Beach office have found a way to be very politically involved at opposite ends of the spectrum, yet co-exist peacefully and professionally.
Stephanie Littlefield is the president of the Republican Women’s Club of St. Johns County and corresponding secretary of the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee. Chris Awerdick is the president of the Ponte Vedra Democrat Club for the second time (she was also president back in 2002 for a two-year term) and the fund development chair for the St. Johns County Democratic Executive Committee.
Their political jobs are to get people out to vote for their person who is selected via the primary election and to find, groom and help elect Democrat and Republican candidates for their respective parties.
“We give equal time to each viable candidate until such time as a primary occurs. Whoever that person is, that’s the person we back,” said Awerdick.
Once they have a candidate for the presidential election in November, then - they say - the fun begins.
“We get our poll watchers and at the end of the day, people in your party start making phone calls to see if people have voted or if they need rides,” said Littlefield. “Our job is to get the people out to vote.”
They start holding fundraisers, set up phone banks and open up a headquarters.
How is it working together as Realtors?
“It’s easy because Stephanie and I make it easy,” said Awerdick. “I think it’s personalities like anything else. You could have people who are very polarized and come into an office and bring their anger and everything in with them and just because you are a Republican or a Democrat hate you from the beginning.
“I really think if you see someone as a person first and really respect them and like them and work with them then your political leanings, even though they make up who you are, they shouldn’t be the first thing you look at when you look at a person.”
There are many different perceptions of what a Democrat or a Republican is, but both women say you know what you are by what you feel in your gut. They said to research it and then make a decision based on the facts and how you feel about them.
“I really think both Democrats and Republicans have a belief that they are doing the right thing, not for just a segment of society, but for the country,” said Awerdick (pronounced hourdick.) “It’s how we want to do it that is the differential.”
Is there room for two political party fanatics in one real estate office?
Both Awerdick and Littlefield are aware of the need to keep the politics out of the office - a few water cooler discussions aside, of course.
Talking with others in the office that share their views is fine, but the both agree that there is a time and a place for everything.
Littlefield said when you are in a workplace there are boundaries and you have to have respect for others and their views.
“If you don’t, that’s when the trouble occurs,” said Awerdick. “I respect Stephanie, not for her beliefs because she is a Republican, but for the time and effort that she puts into something that she believes in because I know the time and effort it takes me to do the same. I think the country needs two strong political parties. I don’t think it’s good for just one party to be in charge.
“If we don’t foster discussion or that little bit of friction then there aren’t going to be any more new ideas. You have to have to have that difference.”
Congratulations to
...Portland Stuart of the PARC Group on her recent engagement to Chris Swan, a maritime engineer with Ambyth Shipping.
...Tina Scrudato of Century 21 John T. Ferreira & Son and president of the Amelia Island/Nassau County Association of Realtors on her recent engagement to Robert “Robby” Allen, a captain with the Marine Corps.