Creating Calm in a Chaotic Industry | Alexandra Baca - Part 1

Real estate may look like showings and closings, but the real magic happens behind the scenes. In this episode, Beverly welcomes Alexandra Baca, founder of Rise Transactions, to uncover how she turned administrative mastery into a thriving business supporting top-tier agents. From military life and motherhood to mentoring a team of moms and building a referral-based empire, Alex shares how heart, hustle, and human connection can’t be replaced by automation. 

Three Key Topics Discussed:

1. From Educator to Entrepreneur: Owning the Pivot: Alex shares her unconventional journey from political campaigns and preschool directing to launching Rise Transactions, proving that growth often comes from curiosity and courage, not a linear path.
2. Building a Team with Heart: Alex opens up about leading a fully remote team of military spouses and moms, mentoring them with purpose and giving them room to grow under her umbrella. It's leadership that prioritizes flexibility and empowerment.
3. Competing with AI by Being Unforgettable: In a tech-driven world, Alex breaks down why personalized communication, quick thinking, and relationship-building are her business's biggest differentiators, and how she’s navigating the rise of automation and global VAs.

Follow Alex:
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Rise Transactions | Website

Transcript

Beverly: 0:09

Did you know that the average real estate agent spends over 13 hours per transaction on paperwork and follow ups? That is 13 hours. They're not spending with clients generating leads or closing deals, and in a world obsessed with speed and automation, it's the detailed driven behind the scenes prose who are making the biggest impact in today's guest proves that I'm your host, Beverly Cornell, founder and fairy godmother of brand clarity at Wickedly branded. I have over 25 years experience helping hundreds of purpose-driven entrepreneurs awaken their brand magic and boldly bring it to life so that they can magnify their impact on the world. And today's guest is the embodiment of impact. Alex Bacca is the founder of Rise Transactions, a company that doesn't just handle contracts. It creates calm, compliance and connection in an industry that thrives on chaos. Her journey from aspiring teacher and political consultant to military spouse, fellow military spouse and transaction coordinator turned business owner is nothing short of inspiring. Alex, I'm so excited to have you on the show today.

Alex: 1:19

Thank you so much for having me, Beverly. I'm really excited to be here.

Beverly: 1:22

You and I have worked together, which is great. I love that. But we're also military spouses and we also are networking through our church, which is amazing. So I know you through different avenues, which is so fun. And I love what you're about and what you do for your clients and where you are. I was so glad we were able to connect and get this recorded. But tell me a little bit about how you went from wanting to be a teacher. To political consultant to military spouse to rise. How did that all start for you, Alex?

Alex: 1:50

Yeah, so I went to the University of New Mexico. I was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and I wanted to get a degree in economics because I thought I wanted to be a high school economics teacher. And during my time at UNM I did a internship with a national political party, and I went to Florida for the semester, did some grassroots stuff for this political party, and it was really eye-opening to me. I thought I wanted to get into local politics later in life. And that sort of shut the door for me, that whole experience. So after that, I came back, I worked as a contract specialist for the Department of Energy. Married my husband when we both graduated from college and moved around the country. Had a couple of kids and just dipped my hand in anything that I could. I was a barista at Starbucks, a freelance copywriter, a spin instructor, a preschool director, a substitute teacher, and then finally a real estate transaction coordinator. And I did that for a couple of years before I approached the owner of the company that I worked for, looking for just a vision of growth. I knew that the job I was in was very comfortable, but I also knew I needed a goal. I needed something to look forward to. And the owner and I unfortunately just didn't really see eye to eye on those visions. So I decided to step away from that company and luckily some of the clients that I had decided to join me started Rise Transactions and, through word of mouth, we've grown. I now have two full-time employees and two part-time employees under me. And we've really just helped, many real estate agents grow their businesses along with growing Rise Transactions.

Beverly: 3:51

I feel like that so resonates because with so many of my clients that I first started off when I was just freelancing, when I didn't have an agency per se, when I was just starting off, they were starting off too. So as I helped them grow, they also helped me grow. I learned so much from my clients and how they ran their businesses and had worked worked and what didn't work. And now I have two clients that have been with me for over 12, 13 years that I've seen them really develop. And it's like we've been in the trenches together developing our skills and it's so rewarding to see their success, to like alongside them adjacently see their success and have grown with them in different ways. It's really resonates with me.

Alex: 4:32

Yeah, it's really cool because I get to see it from multiple lenses, not only the employees that I hire. Not many people know how to be a transaction coordinator naturally. So I'm giving them these skills, watching them be able to take on more and more clients and become more and more successful. But also these agents that come on, some are fairly new to the industry and they hire us because they don't know what compliance is. They don't know how to submit the paperwork or what paperwork needs to be submitted. And part of what we do is really help empower them. This is what we've seen in previous transactions and here's how that was accomplished. And now you can do that too.

Beverly: 5:13

In your application, you said something about the line was, I think agents didn't want to lose me. What do you think it is about your service style or the relationship building or even the services that you offer specifically that makes clients so loyal to what you all do?

Alex: 5:28

Yeah, so that was part of the disagreement I had with the previous owner, she was obviously upset that she had given me all these tools and I made it my own. And by that I just mean really made it personal. I developed a relationship with each agent that I worked with. My husband says that I am their emotional support dog uhhuh or emotional support person. Yeah. So I have agents calling me in the morning, Hey, what are we doing today? What's going on? Or, I need help. And so I've tried to just make it personal. People can hire any sort of admin or secretary, but I want them to want to work with me. Just developing a relationship, developing a friendship, they're not gonna wanna fire their best friend. Lots of talking on the phone, lots of emails texting, all that sort of stuff. Most of our clients are in the New Jersey area, and I make sure to make several trips out there throughout the year. So just really fostering a friendship with them.

Beverly: 6:28

So how do you do that? Two things that kind of stand out to me with what you're saying is one is I feel like that's such a big personal decision. When you do buy or sell a home, it's like the largest investment you may ever make in your life, and especially for our life as a military spouse. Every three years I'm having to buy, sell a home. It's a lot of chaos. It's a lot of stress. It's a lot of all these things that have to happen. A lot of details with the paperwork and the bank and the title and the all the things. I feel like there's so many moving pieces and there's so many people who have like a large stake at what's gonna happen with this transaction, and that we trust our real estate agents so much so that we sometimes never even get to see the house in person. Like we're doing video tours'cause we're halfway across the country, so this is such a huge investment, such a thing that we're trusting the real estate agents for and that if we have to rearrange our schedule to get to a closing, all those things, it's a lot to have to figure out. So how do you make that really big decision from like the end user's perspective, the buyer's service perspective to the real estate agent who has. To do a lot of showings and a lot of closings and all the things, and then you have this very personal side of it. I didn't even know there was a such a thing as a transaction coordinator. So like, how do you like super secretly make them look so good at the end of the day.

Alex: 7:49

This is my favorite part of the job. It is not super secret. We are in front of the show. So when a real estate agent gets a new contract, they provide us with their client's information. And the first thing I do is send out an introduction email, and I let them know who I am. I'm here to take care of you. Here's all the important dates, here's your next steps, and here's what I need from you today. And then after that email, I follow up with a phone call just introducing myself again. I wanna make sure you received my email. Are you feeling comfortable with everything? Okay, the next step is going to be this. If you need anything at all, don't hesitate to call me. Don't hesitate to text me. I am here to help you. And how comforting is it for you as a first time home buyer? You don't know what you're looking at, right? You're walking into a dark room and you have one real estate agent who's helping you, but now you know, you have this whole team of people behind you. I'm Alex, I'm going to be an extension of your real estate agent, but I'm also going to help contact your lender. I'm also going to order title. If you need an attorney, we'll get you an attorney. Here's, who we recommend for home inspections or any type of inspections. So it's a whole team. We are that part of that safety net. And my favorite part of the job is just really making these clients feel comfortable.'cause if they go to the agent. Whoa. Alex is amazing. You don't wanna lose her. Then they're happy. I'm happy. And you walk away with a nice home at the end of the day.

Beverly: 9:22

Tell me a story of a testimonial or a review, a story of really made you so proud of the work that you do.

Alex: 9:29

I had been doing this part-time for a little while and then I switched over to a team of 10 agents, a real high producing team. And I had just started working for them. I had never done so many transactions at once, so I felt lost a lot of the time. And at one point the team was all in training. And there was some sort of tax thing that came up and the seller is freaking out. She's calling me, what do I need to do? And I ended up picking up the phone, calling a township, figuring out why these taxes were owed, what do we need to do to get this taken care of so that we don't delay closing. And I put it all in an email to the seller clearly explaining what we need to do, a few minutes later, the seller had that stuff taken care of. And I'd never received a compliment from this agent before. And she was like, wow, Alex, you are freaking awesome. And it just, I was like, okay, I can do this. And it really, it's not that difficult. The problem people have that I've noticed is people are really hesitant to pick up the phone these days. And there's a lot of times, someone starts texting me and I'll say, Hey, can we chat this afternoon? Actually, I can't. I rather text. Okay, that's fair. But I get to the problem much quicker by picking up the phone and calling somebody. And then of course we follow up with an email or whatever we need to do. But yeah, I think the best one was just. Being able to showcase my communication skills and then getting compliments on that.

Beverly: 10:59

It wasn't just communication skills, Alex, it was also like a little bit of drive and like curiosity and not willing to just accept that I can't handle or help these people right this moment. Let me see if I can figure this out and help them because you don't want them to be stressed or feel the way they're feeling. So I feel like it's one step further that maybe somebody would do and they don't realize. It is like so stressful, in those moments. So we do, we need that voice of calm and somebody who's willing to figure it out with us, it's in it with us because you have far more experience typically than we do with buying a house. Yeah. That's amazing. So when you look at when you first started with the old person you worked for to now, what do you think has been the biggest. Evolution in your business approach. What's changed or evolved the most?

Alex: 11:46

Yeah. So now I get to be in the driver's seat, whereas when I worked with somebody else, I was waiting for them to bring me new agents or bring me more work or tell me what my next step is. And now I get to decide how much I wanna work, who I wanna work with. And I love that part. But I also really love being able to give this gift to other women. I left that company because I didn't see any growth for me, and I didn't feel like, my boss at the time. Cared if I got any more successful or not. And I always tell the women that I hire, whatever level you wanna get to, I wanna get you there. We have basic plans that we start out with, but sometimes an agent wants more. And there came a time when the first woman I hired this agent was really impressed by what she did. And he wanted more. And I went to this woman and I said, look, this is your chance to negotiate whatever salary you want with this guy. You've made yourself irreplaceable to him. I am happy to negotiate that for you and you can continue to use all my resources. And obviously, I will take my cut. But you have your wings, you can fly. Yeah. Or we can, stay in this path together.

Beverly: 13:02

Yeah.

Alex: 13:03

And she ended up staying, she still works with me and so I was happy to see that. Had she even chose the other way, I would've been proud and happy for her. That's the best part I think as far as my evolution is being able to pass this gift on to other, we're all moms four fifths of us are military spouses. Rise transactions is completely a remote job. None of us are in New Jersey. Yeah, that's the biggest growth that I feel I've had.

Beverly: 13:34

It's a really good reminder, for entrepreneurs who are listening right now in the sense that you get to design the exact business that you want to run and how you want to run it. And if it is. Military spouses, if it is specifically moms, if it is specifically remote, if it is that they have an opportunity to fly and do bigger things. We have the same, very similar model here. We actually have like a real estate lawyer model where I have an umbrella and they use the tools and systems I have, and they are essentially independent contractors and building their own business under mine. But that to me was so important for some different reasons of what you have, but I feel like my core values speak through that. I want to help other people build their businesses without maybe all the mistakes and struggles and stuff that I had to go through and support them sooner and mentor them to grow with the systems that I have created, that I know work that are repeatable, that will make them successful far sooner. And so there's something really innate in that. But that was a choice I made. I had to figure that out on my own. That was even a possibility. I didn't even know that I could, as a marketer have a real estate legal structure of my business, right? I feel like when you are more intentional about your core values and the things that matter to you, and you can tweak your business to fit you more personally, you'll be happier. Your business will be more successful. You'll be distinctive in the marketplace. There's so much that you can lean into when you fully align the business to who you are and what matters.

Alex: 15:03

Yeah. The most important thing for me is running my business in a way where, I have two young girls and. When they ask me what I do or what happened during the day, I wanna be proud to share what I'm doing with them. I want something that they wanna do, or at least, maybe it's not specific to real estate or owning their own business, but they wanna have that same work ethic.

Beverly: 16:38

Yeah. My stepson years ago, there was a question through school that said, what does your dad like to do? And he is oh, he likes to watch football, play video games, or whatever. What does your mom like to do? She likes to work. Clearly maybe I need to differentiate that a little bit more because I do, I work from home. It's a little harder to turn it off, all those things. But yeah, I was like I do love to work, but there are other things that I like to do. Elliot. Yes. I want them to work hard for what they get, but not necessarily burn themselves out. Like I want them to understand the value of all that in balance. And if Zeke takes over the business, great. If not, it's okay too. I don't know about your girls, but Zeke is my biggest fan. I wrote a book and he was like, I'm taking it to school to show everybody. And I don't think they're gonna care about a marketing book, honey, but that's so sweet.

Alex: 17:18

Yes. I love that. I love that. Super

Beverly: 17:19

cute. Yeah. And I think you're just showing such a good example for your children on how you can create the life you want. You can create this business what you want and you can be really proud of it. So what do you think is the biggest challenge in Running Rise transactions, especially as remote and virtual and being not in the same location and some of those kinds of things, and that your clients are in Jersey, not North Carolina. What does that look like? What is the challenges in that?

Alex: 17:46

Yeah, so there's several challenges. One growth. Could be moving into different states, moving into different markets, right? And so the challenge is learning the different compliance, the different requirements for not only each state, for each brokerage, for each area but really within the market that we serve. The biggest challenge I'm having right now is we are in an age where everything can be automated. Everything can go into chat, GPT or some sort of ai. And then we also have lots of people overseas who are willing to do our job for half the price. So what I try to stress is. Real estate is all about building relationships, all about, most of the referrals you get are word of mouth. Those are the best referrals. And same with me. So we don't do anything automated. Everything somebody touches with their hands sends out. Everything, has a personal touch to it. We put your logo, we just immerse ourselves as an extension of that agent or their team. When we're competing against systems and people who are half the price it gets a little difficult. And we have lost clients because of that. But that's okay. I don't lose sleep over that, it's part of just human evolution really. But I still wanna make sure that we. are focusing on building that relationship building.

Beverly: 19:15

AI is never gonna care about you. Despite the fact that it talks like it cares about you, it's never gonna care. About either way, you care about your clients

Alex: 19:23

and how many automated emails do you receive in a day? And, if you were to receive something regarding a house you're purchasing one, you might think that's a scam. How do I know that I'm actually supposed to make my deposit through this link. Wire fraud is huge in title companies with that, even now you don't know. Some listings aren't even real and houses that are occupied, are being listed as for rent. And not even by the owner. AI is great, but it also, can be used for the wrong things.

Beverly: 19:58

So true. Even the marketing, we use ai, we even embrace AI. And we've even built custom bots for custom clients like you to use for marketing specifically. But it's built on your voice and we can help retrain it if it goes rogue. There's like things that we can do to keep it, but we always say that you definitely need to read it before you post it. Don't just trust it implicitly. There's things that are still wrong with it. I was just reading an article maybe in Business Week or one of those where three different AI learning tools, I can't remember which ones it was, they were told to shut off or turn off, and all three of them. Circumvented the shutdown. They figured out how not to shut down. Wow. And then another client of mine who actually has ai, it's called Foxit, and they actually are a competitor to Adobe. And they do e-sign things like that as well. And he has a podcast like about AI and technology. And there was somebody who, had his own religion based on AI being the all knowing, wow, whatever. And I was like, oh my gosh. Like the implications of this are so different than what I had anticipated. Yeah. I don't think we even we're ready, because we don't even know where it's gonna go. It's so interesting, but also a little bit nerve wracking of where it's gonna go. But I love ai. It has made us far more productive. It's helped so much with ideation. It helps so much with trending. There's so many things that are so good about it. And it can help a small business owner like you be far more productive as well when used appropriately and within guardrails and all the things.

Alex: 21:24

Yeah. I think it's definitely something everybody should be utilizing. But it is a lot of. Company's competition right now. I think about me, what, five years ago? Maybe a little bit more than that. Before I started all of this, I was a freelance writer. I wrote like landing pages for check and go and I'll never have to do that again.

Beverly: 21:46

Prompt engineering and like prompt tweaking as you're going through content will be a superpower. That's gonna be the thing that's so important. So you have to be a good writer to even start, otherwise you don't know what good writing is. So there's still so many skills you're gonna need. It's interesting. And, I am almost 30 years in the business and I have team members who are not that seasoned, and this is all they've known. And I'm like, you have no idea. This is. I'm so proud of myself that I completed a master's degree before ai. I did all my own thinking. It's interesting how and how far it's come, but it could be very dangerous. But also the amount of information we have at our fingertips, the amount, like I can actually go and do some accounting forecasting and I am not an accountant. Based on my numbers, because it helps me analyze the things. So it's giving me access to information I would never have had as a small business owner in so many ways. Yeah. There's a lot of power in it too. So you've worn all these different hats, Alex. I love that you were a barista. Who was it that I was listening to? Somebody was a waitress before she became an actress, and she said every single human being should serve people in the food and restaurant business before they start a business or do something outside of it. You've been a military spouse, which is its own unique thing. How has all of this helped shape your leadership style and your ability to adapt? Because things like AI are like ever changing and moving. How has that helped you and informed you in that?

Alex: 23:05

That's a great question. I married my high school sweetheart and we met when we were in middle school. And in middle school he knew he wanted to be in the military. He knew he wanted to go to a service academy. And at the time he wanted to be in the Air Force. Now he's in the army. But he has always had that strong calling on what he's supposed to do, and I still don't have that. And at first I was really bitter, like, how do you know you wanna be this marketing person? How do you know you wanna be a doctor or a lawyer, you get these callings And I hear these whispers and I go to them for a little bit and then I'm pulled in another direction. But it's shaped so much because I've been able to see so many different industries, so many different ways of working. So many different leadership styles and communication styles. And I think if you asked an agent why they like working with me, it would be because I am that voice of calm, I can have a million things coming at me and it's alright. One thing at a time, what is the most important and let's take it from there. I like to say that I know a little about a lot of things and a lot about nothing. And it's true. You can ask me something from the left to the right and I might know a little bit about it. It helps me to communicate with so many different types of people, young, old, from different cultures, religions, whatever that may be. And I think I have the army to thank for that too. Our lifestyle does have so many difficulties, but it also gives us a lot of privileges. They pay for us to move from one side of the country back and forth. And yeah, that has its own set of difficulties. But also, I've met so many great people. Without the Army I wouldn't have this company. And I tell my kids each time we move'cause they're upset about leaving friends. But how lucky are you that you have met so many great people that you're going to miss and eventually see again one day and now you get to go meet a whole new group of people. And maybe miss them again or be friends with them the rest of your lives. We think of our family or friends back home that are still there. And they have that same group of people. And granted that bond keeps growing and there's benefits to that as well. We can go to different states, different parts of the world, even. And have a friend. It's been a really cool journey trying on all these different hats.

Beverly: 25:40

I feel as a military spouse too, that we also get to experience the country in ways that most citizens do not. We lived up and down the Eastern seaboard, essentially. So we lived in North Carolina, we lived in Virginia, we've lived in Pennsylvania, we're from Michigan. But we've essentially lived up and down the Eastern Sea Ward. In those areas specifically, there's a lot of history of our country. First state, Virginia Jamestown, Williamsburg, Petersburg. All these places that are so critical in our history, we've been able to take our children to see these places that we wouldn't normally have been able to do if we lived in Michigan. It has allowed them to even see northern versus southern experiences. There's. A whole culture. Yes, ma'am. Yes, sir. Like opening doors, like there's so much difference in the way each area is, and plus, I think part of, for me has been beautiful, like when we lived in Pennsylvania, I don't think I'll ever live in a more picturesque place in my entire life in Pennsylvania. And I would never have chosen to live there. I would never have said, oh, I wanna live in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I would've wanted to live in like New York City or like someplace probably a little bit more quote unquote sexy than Harrisburg. But the people there and the friends that we made, and it's so incredibly sad to leave them. It's heartbreaking to leave the people we've bonded with. And I think as spouses we typically bond quicker. But we have learned, like you said, so much about the world around us by the experiences that we've had and the people we've been able to care about and been in our lives. We take it for granted for sure, Alex, because it is a hard life and all the things. But I had the same experience as you. But I was an optical assistant. I worked in retail I worked for Burger King and McDonald's when I was in college. I was a reader for the blind in college. I did all these different things. And I think when you have these different experiences, they just really enrich and make a much more holistic perspective, for sure. My husband feels kinda the same way. He's never really had a quote unquote career until he entered the army. But. Those experiences he had before actually informed so much of his career now. So it's interesting how beneficial they can be, even though it wasn't maybe so planned and organized, or intentional in some way, right? I love that you're sharing that you weren't necessarily a career driven, like always wanted to be this thing. I was an accident entrepreneur due to my husband's career as well. If that's resonating for people who are listening I love that. If that feels like something good for you, we'd love for you to let us know. If you're loving the conversation, leave us a review and talk about what's connecting because that helps us see that this is something that resonates, but also helps other people discover this conversation, which is so incredibly important. Okay. Alex, here's the season's. Big question. Last season was all about brand magic, and I feel like we spent a lot of time together awakening some brand magic for you. But what does confidence look like for you as a business owner, and can you share a moment when you realized you were really showing up more with confidence and what kind of attributed to that?

Alex: 28:40

I think, my superpower I'll call it is I am very aware of my weaknesses. I know that I'm not the best business owner. I never wanted to be a business owner, but I'm a great leader. I also know that I don't have the answer to every question. I don't know the mortgage loan process. I don't know the title insurance process or all those things. But I am willing to figure it out or at least direct you to somebody who is. So my confidence comes from knowing that I don't know everything and the willingness to ask for help. I guess it comes from others, right? I know that I can't do this alone and, I wouldn't have a job by myself. Being able to ask others for help or for direction and then giving that back to the clients, to the agents or whoever needs it really.

Beverly: 29:36

Was there a moment where you felt like you knew you got it? Like no matter what's thrown at you, is there a moment that kind of solidify that for you. Hey there, you've just finished part one of the Sparking Night, your marketing episode. How are you feeling? Excited, inspired, but we're just getting started. Next Tuesday we're dropping part two, and you won't wanna miss it. Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter, so you'll be the first to know when it goes live. Until then, take a breather, let those ideas simmer, and we'll see you next week.