Vija Williams is the Director of Growth for the Ben Kinney Companies (BKCO). BKCO was founded by Ben Kinney in Bellingham, Washington. BKCO owns and operates 6 Keller Williams Realty Franchises in 10 offices that include 1300+ agents across Washington State, which Vija leads. Vija also owns and runs The Vija Group at Keller Williams Eastside. This team of residential real estate specialists focus on the move-up and luxury segments in the Seattle, Washington market. The Vija Group is in the top 1% of Keller Williams worldwide for volume sold. Keller Williams Worldwide has over 170,000 agents. Vija is a co-founder of “Amplify,” a national women’s group that hosts annual events and is comprised of some of the top female business leaders and influencers in the nation.
Vija entered the residential real estate industry in 2001 after a successful career doing marketing and sales for builders and developers. She has been an award-winning Realtor ever since, consistently performing in the top 1% of the nation in sales volume. In 2009-10 Vija took time off to have her third child. She researched and assessed the shifted market and re-entered the industry at a new brokerage, Keller Williams, in January 2011, intentionally targeting the upper-end real estate market. As a result of this renewed focus and energy, Vija tripled her luxury portfolio by 2013. She closed $9M in sales in 2012, and by 2016, Vija Group closed $70M in sales volume, the majority in the high-end and luxury segment. During that time she was a coach for MAPS and part of Gary Keller’s top agent group, a group of 100 of the top Keller Williams real estate agents from the company of 160,000+ agents.
She has appeared on stage at real estate conferences around the nation including the main stage with Gary Keller at “Keller Williams Family Reunion,” and “Mega Camp,” a keynote at the prestigious Inman Connect San Francisco, and a keynote at the Zillow Summit. She has taught and presented numerous times with Ben Kinney, and is a multiple main stage speaker, moderator, interviewer and panelist participant at Inman Connect conferences including Inman Connect New York, Inman Connect San Francisco, and Inman Luxury Connect in Beverly Hills. She has been a guest on numerous podcasts and webinars and panelist, moderator and featured speaker at many regional and local real estate events around the country.
She co-hosted a weekly radio show in the Seattle area called “Real Estate Radio Via Vija” which aired on KKNW 1150 AM and Blog Talk Radio. She runs a leadership program with Ben Kinney to train and mentor current and future leaders in the real estate industry. She is in demand as a teacher and trainer for real estate companies and offices around the nation focusing on how to build and grow real estate teams; how agents can increase their price point and get into luxury; leadership; how to be awesome at failing, and many more.
A Seattle area native, Vija graduated from University Prep High School in Seattle. She received a BA in Political Science from Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. She has been married to her husband Ben Williams for 23 years and lives in Kirkland, WA where she is actively involved with her three kids aged 10, 16, and 18.
In this episode, Karen and Vija discuss:
- Success Story of Vija
- Commit to Get Leads
o Lead generation is a discipline and a habit.
o Learn how to ask really good, open-ended questions.
- Connect to Build and Grow
o Grow through others. Listen, establish trust, and know your team.
- Success Thinking, Activities and Vision
o Amplify those around you. Go into everything with a mindset of adding value to someone else.
