You Can Bank On Roxanne Simmonds Of Premier Sotheby’s Intl. Realty

Roxanne Simmonds of Premier Sotheby’s International Realty and her husband, Dennis, enjoy living the Florida lifestyle. She wants you to enjoy it, too, by helping you find your dream home.

With more than 20 years of experience in banking, most recently as an executive managing teams of people, local Realtor Roxanne Simmonds of Premier Sotheby’s International Realty has the expertise to help her clients navigate the sometimes-tricky process of buying or selling a home.

The Cory Lake Isles resident says she fell in love with the New Tampa area when she relocated to Tampa from Boston 11 years ago. At the time, she was a market executive with Bank of America and was later promoted to area executive for West Florida.

After that, Roxanne worked as a program executive, where she says she traveled all over the country, managing the sale of financial centers to community banks. She explains that when Bank of America executives wanted to sell off financial centers that no longer fit their business model, she would manage that transition, which would include selling the physical building, transitioning clients to the new community bank and transitioning Bank of America associates to their new employer.

While Bank of America brought her to Tampa, Roxanne says it was the appeal of Cory Lake Isles that drew her to New Tampa. She says she always loved her drive back home after working in downtown Tampa. In fact, although she still spends most of her time in the New Tampa/Wesley Chapel area, the Premier Sotheby’s International Realty local office is in South Tampa on S. Moody Ave.

“There’s so much beauty (in New Tampa),” she says. “With the quietness and trees, I feel like I’m going to my country home right in Tampa.”
She says homes in the New Tampa area currently are an excellent value, especially when you consider the amenities offered in many local communities — such as community pools and clubhouses — and the proximity to shopping at two major local malls and the continuing influx of new restaurants.

“We are a community that truly has something for everyone,” says Roxanne.“I love this area,” she adds. “If my husband and I decide to downsize, it will still be in New Tampa. I see the growth of the community, but it seems it’s growing closer together. You have all different backgrounds, and the diversity is fabulous.”
She also enjoys the proximity to downtown Tampa, where she and her husband, Dennis, enjoy visiting Jackson’s of Harbour Island, Armature Works and other restaurants.

Roxanne and Dennis have been married 33 years. They live with their newly-adopted Maltipoo puppy, Webster. Their daughter, Nicole, used to live in Cory Lake Isles, too, but recently moved back to Boston and will be married this October. Their son, D.J., was a Boston police officer who died in 2014 as a result of injuries sustained when he was one of the first officers to engage the Boston Marathon bombers nearly a year before.
“He’s our hero,” says Roxanne.

About Premier Sotheby’s International Realty
Roxanne says she was drawn to Premier Sotheby’s International Realty because it is a luxury brand with a great reputation. Although she is one of the first associates in New Tampa with the company, she is familiar with its reputation from her time in downtown Tampa and Boston. Premier Sotheby’s is affiliated with the world-renowned Sotheby’s auction house (Sothebys.com).

Roxanne, with Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn.

Roxanne left her role with Bank of America in 2016 and took some time off. She earned her real estate license in 2017, and that’s when she says her phone started ringing off the hook from companies who were recruiting her to join their agency.

But, no one from Premier Sotheby’s ever called her. She says that’s because the company is difficult to get into because of its high standards. So, Roxanne decided to call them.

The local Premier Sotheby’s management found her banking background and customer service focus a great match for their upscale company. Plus, Roxanne did residential lending in the early part of her career, so she already understood that important part of the home-buying process.

“I know how to treat people well,” says Roxanne. “I’ve been trained through the companies I’ve worked for, but I also just know that it’s important to treat people with respect and to be kind.”

She doesn’t overlook the simple things: “If you say you’re going to do something,” she says, “do it. Be timely. Return phone calls.”
While the name Sotheby’s conjures up images of luxury, Roxanne says she will help anyone looking to buy or sell a home.

She says her currently active listings go up to $850,000 right now, but she’s also working with a client looking to purchase in the $180,000-$250,000 price range.
“We have multi-million-dollar properties,” Roxanne says, “but we have a wide variety, too. No matter what the price point is, I make sure the client has a luxury experience.”

Roxanne adds that if you’re considering selling your home, there’s no reason to try to make that decision alone. “If you are even thinking about whether or not to sell your house, contact me,” she says. “I can give you information to help with the decision, either way.”

She can help you understand the value of your home and have a conversation about where you want to go in the next season of life and how to get there.

She helps buyers who are relocating, those who are buying a first home, a bigger home or downsizing. Whether they need to know how to get electricity, what a CDD is, or how flood zones work, Roxanne says she can help guide buyers and sellers through all of their questions. She adds that she enjoys helping people find the special place that will become their home.

“It is just a material thing, but it’s where memories are made, where we celebrate holidays and birthdays, and at the end of a hard day, it’s where we retreat from life,” Roxanne explains. “So, we want it to be comfortable, whether it’s 1,000 square feet or 7,000.”

Premier Sotheby’s International Realty’s Tampa office is located at 202 S. Moody Ave. For a consultation with Roxanne Simmonds, call her at (813) 613-3687 or send an email to Roxanne.Simmonds@PremierSIR.com. For more information, or visit RoxanneSimmonds.PremierSothebysRealty.com.

Excel Music Helps New Tampa Students Hone Their Musical Skills

Since 2006, Excel Music in the Cory Lake Isles Professional Center on Cross Creek Blvd. has been teaching students of all ages to sing and play a wide variety of instruments with some of the area’s top teachers. As your kids getting out of school for the summer, it may be the perfect time to bring them to Excel Music to try new musical endeavors.

John and Sheri Thrasher are the husband-and-wife team who own the school.

“We’ve helped thousands of students of all ages reach their musical goals while enjoying the journey,” says John. “We like to say Excel is both the place you start and the place you stay.”

Excel Music has 20 teachers on staff and all are either university trained (many with Master of Music degrees) or they have at least 10 years of study and performing experience. The faculty teaches voice and nearly every traditional musical instrument, including piano, guitar, drums, violin and so many more.

“There’s a lot of excellent science out there that shows the benefit of a broad education that includes arts and music,” John says, adding that Excel provides a variety of opportunities for people of all ages to experience and connect with music.

Beyond Just Lessons
Excel Music offers the New Tampa Choir, a singing group for kids ages 5-12, and no experience is necessary to participate. It’s currently on hiatus for the summer, but will start back in September.

“It’s a learning experience, and it’s fun,” John says. “We want to give students a venue to sing songs they know, and some they don’t. In addition to traditional choir music, we do Broadway songs, Disney songs and more. We are always looking for more opportunities for this group to perform.”

Excel’s choir is for those who aren’t interested in solo performance, although the choir will offer opportunities for small group instruction.
John explains, “This is not a huge choir where no one even knows each other’s name.” He adds that the choir will provide a way for New Tampa kids to meet new people and get involved in the music school.

The school also will start up its Excel Rock Band again this fall, but students can apply to participate at any time.

“We’ve done a rock band a couple of times over the years, and its success depends upon the right mix of students,” John explains. “We make sure to group students by age, skill level and instrumentation.”

Excel Music offers a preschool music class for ages 18 months to four years, enjoyed by both kids and parents. The class lasts 45 minutes, once a week, for 10-12 weeks.

“It’s a great way to engage with both the parent and the child,” John explains. “The smiles on the faces of the parents are often as big as the ones on their children.”
John adds that the classes help parents learn ways to engage musically with their preschoolers at home. “This is a participatory class in which we teach parents how to bring music into their kids’ lives,” he says, “especially if they’re not musicians.”

The school’s students have the opportunity to take part in recitals twice a year, but John says these performances are always optional and low-pressure. “Recitals are part of what we do,” John says. “But, we aren’t a performance-driven studio.”

Adult Training, Too
While many of Excel Music’s students are kids, the opportunity to learn to sing or play an instrument is certainly not limited.
“A lot of adults come in for lessons, too,” says John. “We get retired people who say they’ve wanted to play their whole lives, and now they’re finally going to do it.” He says one of his favorite stories was about teaching an 86-year-old man how to play the trumpet.

Pete Laches is quite a bit younger than that, but he also is one of the school’s adult students. Pete says he has been taking guitar lessons at Excel since his daughters were in middle school. One is now in college and one just graduated from college.

“They started taking lessons right after we moved here, so they were in third or fourth grade,” he explains. “Rachel played the cello and piano, and Elizabeth played viola and guitar.”

He says that while his daughters no longer play their instruments, the investment he made in their lessons was well worth it.
“It’s a well-run place,” Pete says. “The instructors are good, and it seems to be a pretty stable staff. I like that they can teach every instrument, so your kid never feels stuck if they try something and hate it.”

Pete adds that, as an Arbor Greene resident, the location can’t be beat. It’s “right around the corner” — a huge convenience when his girls were taking lessons, and now for him. “I’m trapped in an office 40 hours a week, so playing guitar is an outlet for me,” Pete says. “It was a bucket list item and it’s a mental challenge, using a part of my brain that I usually don’t.”

About The Owners
John explains that he and Sheri originally opened Excel Music with the dream of providing the opportunity for young people to be trained for the kinds of careers and lives they once experienced themselves.

“We both had long careers in music, and were professional musicians who were able to make a living performing,” John says, adding that he was the drummer for country singer Mickey Gilley for many years, giving him the opportunity to perform on TV, at the White House and for people all over the world.

In the 1990s, John and Sheri had success together with a band of their own in Japan called Tz, where he says they sold tens of thousands of CDs. They also found themselves immersed in a culture that revered teachers, which led them to start thinking about passing on the knowledge and experience they had gained to the next generation.

“We met tremendous people, saw great places, and made a living,” John says. “We started thinking, ‘What if some of the kids who come through our school can experience what we’ve experienced?’”

They landed in New Tampa, where they had relatives, and have been building their school ever since. With nine years now under their belts, some of John and Sheri’s long-term students are now growing up and moving on.

“We’re seeing many students who have come through our school go on to college, and some are majoring in music,” John says. “This dream we had is starting to come true.”

John explains, however, that he and Sheri recognize that the vast majority of their students will not go on to have professional music careers.
“Our teachers are good enough for that type of student, but most of our students will go on to have another career such as a doctor or lawyer or something else,” he explains. “We hope that when they go to a concert or experience music, they will appreciate it on a different level, because they truly understand the challenge of playing music, and the dedication and skill of the performers presenting the music to them.”

For the past four years, Excel Music has been a business partner at Hunter’s Green, Clark, and Pride elementary schools. Students who attend those schools can enroll at Excel Music with no registration fee, which is a value of up to $45.

Excel Music is located at 10353 Cross Creek Blvd., Suite I. It is open Monday- Thursday, 2 p.m.-9 p.m., 2 p.m.-7 p.m. on Friday, and 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on Saturday. It is closed on Sunday. Call (813) 991-1177 for more info or to schedule lessons.

Which Social Platforms Should Your Business be Using?

Many business owners are jumping into social media advertising and marketing without researching which would work best for the product or service they provide. The first thing to keep in mind is figuring out your ideal audience, and how you’ll reach them. Sometimes it comes down to realizing that not all companies can be effective on each social platform, so instead of being mediocre on all of them, be awesome on a few of them.

 

Facebook:

Originally for college students, Facebook formed in 2004 and now has more than 1 billion active users.

Facebook is a good place to start because of the size of the network. It’s safe to assume that a large portion of your target audience is on Facebook, which makes it the best platform for increasing brand awareness. Facebook is flexible because it gives business owners more ways to represent themselves by choosing what to share and what to look at. All businesses should be on Facebook.

The platform is all about building long term relationships, so it can take time to see results. On the other hand, it also allows you to communicate instantly through comments, “likes,” shares, and/or messages, so there is some sense of immediacy. Many businesses use Facebook to sell their products, and while it could potentially work for certain businesses, it usually serves as a short-term gain. People want to see who’s behind the logo, and are more responsive to a person rather than a business. Keeping your page transparent will make people want to follow you (this is true for all platforms).

Something to keep in mind is that your posts on Facebook usually can last a day or two on other people’s newsfeeds. Photos generate 100 percent more engagement than text alone, and videos are even more effective. If you stick with text, keep it short and sweet.

 

Twitter:

A micro-blogging social media giant that also formed in 2004, now with more than 300 million users worldwide.

Twitter isn’t Facebook. It’s more in the moment. Posts have an average lifespan of about 45 minutes. It’s an ongoing conversation, so be ready to reply. Breaking news, updates, questions and opinions all are great ways to utilize Twitter to reach your audience. If you don’t want to constantly monitor a platform or if you don’t have much to say, Twitter isn’t for your business.

Another cool feature about Twitter that differs from Facebook is that users ‘follow’ each other rather than ‘add’ each other. If someone follows you, you can follow them back, but you don’t have to. It’s easier to gain followers this way.

A lot of businesses have both a Facebook and Twitter account and post the similar things on both platforms at the same time. While this works with some content, keep in mind the difference between the two social platforms and use them each to their advantages.

 

YouTube: 

A social media site owned by Google, with more than 48 hours of new video uploaded every minute.

YouTube is powerful because so many successful advertising and marketing strategies are purely visual. Video is taking over visual content. With video, you have the freedom to feature your business, products or services in a more creative way. However, people set the bar high for videos. No one will watch a boring video. Search for videos that are similar to what you want to feature and grab ideas. What do videos with millions of views have in common?

 

LinkedIn:

LinkedIn was launched in 2003 as the top B2B social networking site, now receiving two new members every second and housing more than 135 million users worldwide.

LinkedIn is the social networking media platform where you can grow business connections and utilize them professionally. People connect with you for your service, or if you’re in a similar field as them. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn offers professional groups and discussions, where you can find people with similar interests, ask questions or even answer questions to let your expertise shine. It’s not a super visual platform and usually sticks to professional blogs and articles. LinkedIn is a great place to show off your business a more professional way.

 

Pinterest:

One of the newer platforms, Pinterest was launched in 2009, and is known for connecting visually appealing products with consumer through shared interests and likes.

Pinterest is a content-sharing platform that allows its users to share “pins” in the form of photos or videos to pinboards. The user-base is predominantly female, but it’s still an awesome way for businesses to use visual imagery as a main selling point. Some of the most successful businesses on Pinterest are decorators, food, fashion, travel and wedding planning companies.

Pinterest has a niche market, and you’re doing your business a disservice if you aren’t finding a way to be a part of it. Like LinkedIn, it’s a great way to inspire consumers or other business owners.

 

Google+:

The search engine company originally launched in 1996, and has continually adapted, updated and created new features to its now 1 billion visitors per month. One of its most recent applications is social media site Google+

Google+ should be on the list simply because it’s Google. While Facebook has the most active users for a social media platform, Google is still the number one site visited per month. Being on Google+ gives you the potential to rank higher on search results and the ability to bring in customers by providing key info about your business (location, directions, phone numbers, photos, reviews, etc.).

The main difference between Google+ and all other social networks is that it’s tied to Google, giving it the huge benefit of SEO value. If you combine your Google+ Local Page (map listings) with your Google+ Business Page, you’re more likely to rise to the top of results during location-based searches.

 

Instagram:

Also a newer platform, photo and video sharing site Instagram was founded in 2010 and has over 300 million users worldwide.

 Instagram is a tricky one. It’s primarily a mobile social media site, so you have to download it on a mobile device to create an account. There’s not a way to create a ‘business’ account, but you can create an account for a business the same way you’d create a personal one.

A unique feature about Instagram is that it’s strictly photo- and video-based. Users can post images and short videos, but not simple text updates like on Facebook and Twitter. It’s all about tagging, mentioning, liking and commenting on photos to interact with other users. Like Twitter, if you can’t keep up with constant contact, Instagram might not be for your business. But if your business is very visual or has a lot to say (newspapers, media companies, fashion, cooking, ad agencies, etc.), Instagram is a great way to keep up with the visual-centric social world.