Karen Storey has more than 30 years experience in teaching & performance based coaching. She is an Environmental Educator and business strategist, with a deep passion for teaching others how to reach their peak performance in life.
In the 1970's right out of college, Karen Fink, Jim Price, John and Debra Disbrow, and Carmelita Moore began Monarch Photographs. Within 22 months from inception, Monarch Photographs was operating 25 cameras full-time every weekend, with a profitability margin of more than 2.5 million annually. When Karen's business partner, Jim Price, took ill and passed away from acute lukemia, the company was sold and Karen moved to Blacksburg Virginia, to attend Virginia Tech. Karen became a high school science teacher specializing in biochemistry, environment issues, and theater. The reason why is another story!
Karen was drawn into the Real Estate Industry in 1999 when she had to relocate from Amherst County, Virginia to Winston-Salem, North Carolina due to her husband's job transfer. Karen found it extremely frustrating to "just house hunt" on the weekends. She found the "web less than adequate" to help her in her search for a home. Karen and her sister posted extra photos and wrote a custom ad copy of their Virginia home and posted it on the web. A family from Canada bought Karen's home, sight unseen except from the web.
It was during this time that Karen was given a wonderful opportunity by her sister, Tricia Fink Andreassen, to meet and chat with the incoming Vice President for the National Association of Realtors, Roy Rainey, over a cup of coffee on a Saturday morning, at the 1999 NAR Midyear convention. Karen shared with Roy her home sale experience from the web. She passionately told Roy Rainey that "someone needs to get out there teaching Realtors how to do a better job of marketing their properties on the world wide web. We need to do a better job attracting, connecting, and communicating more effectively with the on-line consumer".
Karen was asked to become part of the Realtor.com team, teaching Realtors how to effectively market their properties on-line and how to facilitate the home buyer more effectively in their search. Karen understood this process very well, because she sold her home via the Internet to a family moving from Canada. Karen's Canadian homebuyer never saw the home, except in pictures and words, until the day of closing! As Karen says, "Believe it or not, they bought my turn of the century home, site unseen, through the power of the internet. How cool is that"!
In parnership with Realtor.com, Karen began working with Triad MLS and Ed Varner regarding their data transmission. The data transmission went from a manual "once a month feed" to a daily "automated feed" within 2 years to encompass commercial, lots, land, farms, as well as residential properties. From her effective work with Triad MLS, Karen's phone began to ring, and soon she was speaking to Real Estate agents everywhere, teaching them about the power of Internet marketing and how they could market themselves and their homes most effectively. During this 2 year time period, Realtor.com became a household name, enjoying an 87% market penetration and a 98% renewal rate.
In 2001, when Realtor.com and Welcome Wagon merged, Karen was asked to join the Welcome Wagon team and do the same thing for Welcome Wagon that she had done for Realtor.com. This time her goal was to take her message to small businesses owners everywhere. Karen began communicating with small business owners, sharing with them how the on-line consumer shops, and how small businesses could attract, connect, and communicate with the on-line consumer.
Under Karen's direction, small business owners began seeing the results of their Internet marketing strategies, and Welcome Wagon became a household name for the on-line consumer. If you visit Realtor.com today you will see both the Real Estate and the Business Community, via Welcome Wagon connected and integrated.
Karen's heart and passion is growing people and growing companies. You will find Karen either educating Real Estate and Business Professionals or teaching high school students. Karen sees the same passion for success in both of these groups and is very concerned about the aging of the Real Estate Industry as a whole. Karen truly believes that as the Real Estate Industry goes, so goes the community and the education of its children.
Karen believes it takes a community to raise a child and she is passionate to help connect the Real Estate Industry more effectively with the educational needs of the community. Karen continues to see Real Estate and business professionals struggle in their efforts to market effectively via the Internet. She says: our professionals work unselfishly, long hours, going above and beyond, trying to facilitate their clients in the home buyer search and/or working with sellers in effectively marketing their properties. She sees Realtors give of themselves daily to their community, to the point of being overworked and exhausted. The average age of this industry is "the baby boomer generation" and they struggle with all the "new technology" "they are required to know just to keep up" with their market.
Karen sees high school students struggle daily in the need to develop critical life skills necessary for their success. During the 2006-2007 school year, Karen gave her students at Ronald Wilson Reagan High School opportunity to make a difference in their community and witnessed her students first hand give unselfishly of themselves more than 4,000 hours of volunteer time to the Forsyth County Community. Karen sees this same passion for success in the Real Estate and busines professionals she coaches. Karen is convinced if we will unite our professional community with our education community, we will "go to the next level" in personal and business growth, productivity, and environmental sustainability.
Karen teaches Environmental Science and Sustainability to high school students because as Karen says, "It is up to us to save the only earth we will ever have. What we flush today, we will drink tomorrow!" Karen believes that the Real Estate industry "holds the key" to our saving the earth, but it is our children that will "turn the key and open the door". Karen has committed her life to "stitching the Educational, Real Estate, and Business Community together.
Karen does NOT compete with Real Estate Professionals in listing or selling Real Estate. Karen works in a referral based relationship with Realtors accross the nation. Karen believes that if she were to sell Real Estate, she would be competing against professionals she is most passionate to help. Karen does offer referrals, connecting Realtors to Realtors, home buyers to Realtors, home sellers to Realtors, and people to people. You could say, "Karen is in the people business".
Oft times during her many travels, Karen is asked what she does...Karen's quick response is "I am a matchmaker." Karen truly loves connecting, facilitating, inspiring, educating, and empowering people to be all they can be. Her life's philosophy is built on 3 movies: "Pay it Forward," "Field of Dreams," and "Helen Keller."
Karen's Life Mission: Passionate to help others achieve "the next level" in their business to produce measurable, positive, long lasting results. Believe that life is a "win-win" for ALL, when built on a solid foundation of respect, integrity, trust, and accountability.
