Frank Schilling’s elite team of domain professionals employs of some of the brightest minds in the domain industry.
Domain brokers are an integral part of the Domain Name Sales team, and Brooke Hernandez clearly enjoys her job.
Here’s her story, for today’s exclusive Female Friday interview:
DomainGang: As an American living in Costa Rica, how much does your new home and location inspire your day-to-day professional life?
Brooke Hernandez: I have lived in many places in my life, California, Arizona to name a few but nothing compares to the beauty and climate of Costa Rica. Waking up to the chirping of tropical birds, the sounds and smell of the ocean and fresh fruit on the counter make me realize how lucky I am to live here everyday.
Professionally, the thrill of the kill, the closing of the sale is what I live for.
Today I am getting to work with an entrepreneur to find a new brand for their new social app, tomorrow I could be working with a Fortune 500 company to acquire a premium domain for their future growth strategies.
The pace is fast, the work is engaging and the days fly by. At the end of the day I unwind by taking advantage of the surrounding landscape with walks on the beach, and seeing the local wildlife. It is not out of the ordinary to see Macaws, Monkeys, and even Sloths right in my backyard.
My husband and I have also been very fortunate to meet great people down here, and have a lot of friends as well.
DomainGang: Give us a little bit of background info on your involvement with domain names – what triggered that?
Brooke Hernandez: Before domains I was a commercial real estate broker.
I had basic knowledge as most business owners do of domains but not the full scope of the domain industry. I had recently relocated to California and was looking for a new challenge. I was fortunate enough to get introduced to Tessa Holcomb and Jeff Gabriel and to become a part the DomainAdvisors (now Igloo) team.
With them I was able to bring my commercial real estate background into the industry and be able to help business owners understand that domain names are online real estate. It was with them I was able to get some strong sales under my belt (reversemortages.com, cotton.com, glamorous.com) and fully understand what these domains could do for businesses.
DomainGang: As a domain broker with Domain Name Sales, how do you approach potential buyers? Is it ‘scripted’, or every case is handled differently?
Brooke Hernandez: Every domain, buyer and seller is handled differently.
You have to keep it fresh and tailor the conversation to the person you are speaking with. You are not going to be able to have the buyer understand the benefit of the domain for their company if you use a script.
Each domain and company is different, in order to sell domains you really have to believe in the benefit of them and explain clearly how it will help their company.
The benefits that some buyers are looking for do not coincide with others. You have to figure out what makes a buyer excited. Buyers can sense if your confident in the price, the value and what it can do or if you are not.
I feel being honest, and upfront is always the best way to handle the situation.
DomainGang: How often do you visit the DNS HQ in the Caymans for training and other work-related purposes?
Brooke Hernandez: I try to get back to Cayman at least once a quarter. I am actually heading there on Saturday for a week for a last trip before I have my first son who is due in July. Once he arrives it will probably be a little more time between visits.
I love going back to see the team and feel the energy in the DNS office. You gain a lot of knowledge by working along side so many of our great brokers.
DomainGang: Are women professionals treated equally in this work environment that promotes telecommuting?
Brooke Hernandez: I would say for the most part yes but there are some people out there who just want it to stay as the good ole boys club.
I dealt with this in commercial real estate as well. I believe as long as you are professional woman, who proves herself through hard work and are able to show you get the sales done, then you are taken seriously.
There are many strong women in this industry, Tessa Holcomb, Amanda Waltz, Lisa Box, Andee Hill, etc, that show women can make it in the domain industry.
It just takes hard work, dedication and the know how to be successful.
DomainGang: How important is fun, humor and parody in life; what do you think of DomainGang?
Brooke Hernandez: I love this question because humor and fun is extremely important to me.
I love to laugh and always treasure the good times had by friends and co-workers. If you aren’t enjoying life and what you do then what is the point?
As much as you need the serious news everyday you definitely need some comical relief like DomainGang. Jon Stewart isn’t popular because he is a great reporter; people sometimes just want to laugh at life.
Many thanks, Brooke, for taking some time off your busy day to share some of your insight with us!
You can reach Brooke directly using this contact info:
Brooke N. Hernandez
Domain Broker | DomainNameSales.com
D: 1-480-389-3813
O: 1-800-818-1828 ext. 6279
F: 1-508-365-3930
S: BrookeNHernandez
E: Brooke@DomainNameSales.com
If you enjoyed this interview, don’t forget to read about Andrea Martin, also of Domain Name Sales.
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Is there a lesser ground domain brokerage that deals with representing domain investors with names valued less than six-figure valuations? Say five figure valuations like $10K and above? Any brokerage willing to handle small fry?
George – I’m pretty sure DNS deals with brokering four and five figure domains as well, give them a try.