She Pitched ‪RyanSerhant‬ Serhant With a Monogrammed iPad — And It Worked | Stephanie Bray

What does it take to pitch ‪RyanSerhant‬  Serhant with a monogrammed iPad — and actually land the deal?

In this episode of The Wealth Café, I sit down with Stephanie Bray — a third-generation realtor, native Phoenician, and Arizona luxury real estate agent with SERHANT — to talk about bold vision, building generational wealth through real estate, and why daring to dream big actually gets results.
If you're a high-net-worth woman looking to build wealth through luxury real estate, or simply someone who needs a reminder that audacity pays off — this episode is for you.

🎯 In This Episode:
✅ Stephanie's journey from humble beginnings to SERHANT Arizona
✅ The Ryan Serhant pitch story — yes, the monogrammed iPad moment is real
✅ How overcoming adversity built her resilience and her brand
✅ Why leaving a lasting legacy matters — and how to start now
✅ What's next for Stephanie and SERHANT in the Arizona market in 2026

💼 Work With Stephanie Bray | Arizona Luxury Real Estate Agent
🔗 https://serhant.com/agents/stephanie-...
📱 Instagram: @stephanie.bray.az
👔 LinkedIn: /stephaniebrayaz
📘 Facebook: @stephanie.bray.az

🔗 Connect With SERHANT
🌐 Website: https://serhant.com
📱 Instagram: @serhant | TikTok: @serhant
👔 LinkedIn & Facebook: /serhant

🎙️ About The Wealth Café
The Wealth Café is a podcast and YouTube show hosted by Caroline Tanis, MBA, CDFA®, founder of Tanis Financial Group. We have real, unfiltered conversations about money, wealth-building, and real estate investing — designed specifically for high-achieving women and their families.
New episodes drop weekly. Hit subscribe so you never miss one.

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👔 LinkedIn: /caroline-tanis
📧 Email: caroline@tanisfingroup.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Hi everyone, welcome back to another week of the Wealth Cafe. We are joined for an incredible conversation with Stephanie Bray, who is Arizona's leading luxury real estate agent and strategist in and founding agent of Sirhan in Arizona, a move that she initiated by personally pitching Ryan Serhan himself, a story we are going to dive into today, and she has over 150 million in sales over the past five years. Stephanie is known for her bold vision, high impact marketing, and ability to turn real estate into a wealth-building strategy. She specializes in guiding high net worth clients, particularly physicians relocating to Arizona through a seamless high-stakes transaction. Whether it's luxury listings, investment moves, or cross-state relocations, Stephanie brings a blend of strategy, storytelling, and relentless drive that redefines what it means to lead in modern real estate. Stephanie, thank you so much for joining me today. I'm happy to have you here.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

Thank you so much. What a very kind introduction.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

I love it. You have such an incredible story of how you got into real estate. And I'd love for you to share a little bit of your background because not only are you a real estate agent, but if I'm right, you are a third-generation Asian. Is that true?

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Yeah, that's right. So I really grew up in the business. And when people ask me how long I've been in the business, I say my whole life, and I actually really mean that. Um both of my parents worked in the real estate business. And uh, you know, I grew up going to showings and open houses with my mom. So even from the time that I was a kid, I was selling real estate and knew what an escrow meant.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

That is so funny. So, what was it that made you say, okay, I want to do this as well. I'm gonna continue on rather than people go one of two ways, right? They either think, no, I never want to do this, or they get the bug. What was that moment for you where you got the bug?

SPEAKER_01 2:06

I love that question. Um, so I got my real estate license when I was 18. And at that time, I was like the first category mentioned. Absolutely not. No way am I selling real estate. That's what my parents do. Um, when you're 18, you know everything. And I was uh no exemption from that. I definitely knew everything and that I wasn't gonna sell real estate. Um and so I ended up going to college and got a couple of degrees, and I went into consulting actually in Los Angeles, and it had nothing to do with real estate whatsoever. But when I was 22, I ended up in the emergency room actually, because I was having an ocular migraine and I didn't know exactly what that meant, but I knew that I couldn't see. And so it was super scary. And um basically I was like, why am I dying? I'm only 22 years old. I was having this migraine from staring at a computer for, you know, 15, 16 hours every single day. And it was kind of that moment that made me realize like, do I really want to work like this? I'm the type of person that's gonna work that hard no matter what, but do I really want to work like that for someone else's dream? Or do I want to make, do I want to work that hard for myself and my family and my legacy? And so at that point, I moved back to Arizona and thought, well, I know real estate, let's go for it.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

That is an incredible story, especially as somebody who has had tons of migraines themselves. I understand, like once you have one of those, you can never come back from it and it changes your life. So I understand, and that is an incredible story. You also have an incredible story of how you then also transitioned while you were in the business. So let's first start with first days of the firm you were previously at in Brookeridge. Tell me a little bit more about your experience while you were there.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

Yeah, I mean, it was fantastic. Like I um I worked for a really great firm in Arizona. Um, I I kind of say that I grew up there in the business. I learned a ton from amazing people that became my friends, they became my family. Um, and I just learned absolutely a ton and really cut my teeth with that first company.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

That is beautiful. Is that how you then got into working with the physicians? Because that is super niche.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

It is super niche, yeah. Um, that was actually uh, yeah, I guess kind of the tail end of my uh my career at the previous company. I started working with physicians. Um and that was really just kind of through word of mouth and through some referrals that I ended up working with a couple. And then, of course, you know, if you do a great job, then they tell their friends. And so that is how I ended up uh really just kind of diving into that niche.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

That's incredible. So we have to obviously unpack the story of you pitching Ryan Serhan with an iPad, which when I heard this story, I was so inspired and I was like, she is awesome! Like that is just absolutely incredible. Let's start. How did you come up with the idea?

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Yeah, so um it was this was early 2024, uh, that I just I frankly had kind of found myself in a bit of a funk in the real estate business. Um, I at that point was in the business for gosh, something like 12 years and full time, and I was feeling super stymied by the industry. Like, uh, do I go this way or do I go that way? There's only two choices. That's how I felt at least. And so I just decided to start looking at some new brokerages in town. I interviewed with everybody, and none of them really had that feeling that I was looking for, like that feeling of home. And so I was just really bummed out about it. And I ended up going on a vacation with one of my best girlfriends, who's now one of my business partners. And um, she said she had just come from Inman and she heard Ryan speak. And of course I knew who Ryan was, you know, being in the industry. He is a pillar, he's super successful. And she said to me, Steph, why don't you go work for Ryan Sarhan? And I was like, Well, obviously I would love to, but he's not in Arizona. And she said, Well, why don't you ask him? And I thought, hmm, okay, interesting concept, right? Um, so I dove into all of his books and podcasts for the rest of that trip. I listened to everything, read everything that I could get my hands on, and basically fell in love with the brokerage at that moment and decided, like, yep, this is exactly what I want. This is what I want for my team, this is what I want for Arizona, this is what I want for the industry. And so then became the question of, well, how am I gonna, what am I gonna do? Am I just gonna slide into his DMs and ask him to come to Arizona? Um, and being that I went to business school, being a huge nerd, I was like, you know what, I'm gonna write him a pitch. And so I went to work writing this pitch. It ended up being about 10 pages long. And it was like, here's all the reasons why you should come to Arizona, and here's all the reasons why you should do it with me. And then I had this great PDF, and I thought, well, great, now what am I gonna do with it again? Am I gonna DM him this PDF? Like, he's so busy, there's no way he ever opens this, right? And so in the summer of 2024, I decided to hire a creative team uh to film my pitch. And so we filmed the pitch as a video. Um, meanwhile, all of this is going on, like he has no idea who I am, right? All of this is happening totally behind the scenes. And we filmed the pitch, it was about three minutes long. Then I had this beautiful video. And as pretty much around the time that the video got completed, the show Only Manhattan came out on Netflix. And I'm not really a big reality TV person. I had no idea that this was coming. And so he went from like being super well known in real estate to being super well known everywhere. And then I'm like, great, well, now what am I gonna do? Third time's the charm DM him this video? I don't think so. So I had to figure out a creative way to get it to him. So what I ended up doing was buying an iPad. I engraved it to say Sir Hans Scottsdale, which of course did not exist. And I put the video on the iPad and I FedExed it to his office in New York City.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

That is incredible. It's also amazing to you to paint the picture for everybody that is listening to this. Once again, this is 2024, right? So this is now a year and a half ago. What then happened when so you send the iPad? What comes next?

SPEAKER_01 8:39

So I send the iPad, um, and he responded pretty much right away. Uh, he the first email I ever have from Ryan Sarhan is in all caps, which I just absolutely love. And it says, Wow, you didn't have to send an iPad. To which I thought to myself, well, yes, I did because you looked at it. It worked. Um, but he said in his email, now this keep in mind was about September now of 2024. And he said, Wow, you didn't have to send an iPad. We have no plans to be in Arizona. But when we do, dot, dot, dot, end of email. Like, shoot, okay, well, it's not a no, but it's also not a yes. And so he copied a guy on the email whose name was Todd. He was the VP of growth at Sir Hant. I reached out to Todd and I basically said, Hey, I want to get to know you. I want to find out how we move Arizona up on the list, how we can make this happen. And so he and I had a chat. Um, he said, you know, hey, Steph, you do a great business, but in order to go into any market, we really have to have X amount of dollars of agents doing production. And I said, Okay, got it. And I felt I ended that call by asking him, Todd, if he was going to be in New York City for Ryan's conference uh later that month. And he said, Yeah, why? And I said, Well, I bought a ticket. I'm coming to the conference, I'm coming to New York. I would love to meet you and have 30 minutes. And he was like, okay, he was a little skeptical because he thought I was some super fan or something weird. Um, but anyway, I went to New York, I met with Todd, and I sat with him. I had, I said, Look, I we've got like 27 minutes left of the 30 that you've given me. Um, I said, you know, it took me six days, but I got you that X amount of number of production plus 10%. And he sent a picture of the piece of paper that I had. He sent a picture of it to Ryan while right while I was sitting there. And he said, To Ryan, are you ready for Arizona? And uh total goosebum moment, like I'm, you know, get goosebumps now, still thinking about it. And I was obviously inside, like screaming and shrieking. Um, and we ended up opening Arizona six months later. Uh, so we opened in March of this year, 2025, um, with 70 agents in Arizona.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

And how many are you up to now? Just so people also understand that 70 is incredible, but also fast forward to do you know how many agents you're up to now?

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Yeah, so we are at about 92 agents right now, six months in. Um, and I just got some very cool Q3 stats, but we as Surhan, Arizona, are the 40th brokerage in Arizona in terms of production uh in six months. And in a town, in a city, I should say, of Phoenix, where there's 56,000 realtors, we are just beyond stoked with that.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

That is amazing. Congratulations, number one. And number two, that is a beautiful story. I mean, even just like the way that you were just so bold and persistent and went after what you want, but in a way that was really creative. Because you could have sat there on that video and said, No, you know what, I'm gonna just slide into his DMs. I'm gonna keep keep posting it and tagging it and found every reason or excuse, or they we all come up with them, right? Of why we don't want to do it, but you found a creative way, and how amazing to look back. You essentially had this conversation with him a little over a year ago, right? Am I calling time correct? And here you are a year later. What has been the biggest accomplishment from this year? Like if you look back reflective, okay, here's year one since I've had that conversation. How do you what is your biggest takeaway of the year?

SPEAKER_01 12:31

I love that you asked me that question. And I think like the part of the story that is like in the background of the story, but really truly my biggest takeaway is what was going on in my life at the time and how it's made such a tremendous impact on my life. Um like the personal side of the story during all of that craziness, like pitching Ryan's herhand, right? It was 2024 was probably undoubtedly the hardest year of my life. Um, I was going through a divorce. Um, my dog died the day that I got back from New York, the first time that I met Ryan. And he was like, you know, the dog that like takes half your spirit when he goes to heaven, that kind of dog. It's a real thing. And uh like a couple weeks after that, the sewer line under my house collapsed. And I had to literally tear up the floors of my entire house, like foundation and all. Um, there were like piles of dirt in my house, five feet tall, because they were it was nuts. Um and you know, a handful of other things, right? Like I was blowing up my real estate career um all on a all on like a whim, all on a hope and a belief that like this thing was gonna happen. And there were, you know, some very dark and hard and challenging days. Um and the during during all of that, right? Like I had no idea if the Sir Hand thing was gonna happen. I was hoping and working really hard at it, but I basically like put all this money into the mail and kissed it goodbye, right? Uh and so it's a long-winded way of answering your question. But the thing that's really, really impactful to me is that during that time it felt like every day was so long and like, what am I doing here? You know, but now I look back and I'm like, it's 10 months, it's 12 months, and look at how you can totally change your life if you just decide that you're gonna do it and you take one step towards it every day. Sometimes it's a tiny step, sometimes it's a big step, and frankly, sometimes it's five steps backwards. Um, but really truthfully, like you can change your life. You just have to decide.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

That was beautiful, and thank you so much for sharing that because I know it's a hard story, especially to unpack. And I've seen you share parts of it too on social media, and you had such a while, I'll call it a wild year with so many ups and downs. And I know just that story you're sharing is gonna help so many women that are listening to this that we all we have so many excuses, right? Of I'm not gonna do this, I'm not going to pursue this passion. There's so much change in my life, I can't go for anything else. And so I appreciate you sharing that because I know what a difference it's gonna make.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

Well, thank you for asking. And I think that's kind of like a really it's a very cool lesson and something that I honestly feel blessed to be able to have now is like, look, I feel like it's my responsibility to share it, to empower other people. You know, I told my friends a lot of times, like, I don't necessarily know that everything is gonna be okay, but I trust my friends and my family who are telling me that it's going to be well enough to know that it's going to be. And so, you know, if I can be that friend to one person that tells you, like, hey, it's gonna be okay, keep going, then that's what I want to do.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

For that one person that's listening, that's trying to take even that like one tiny step. What was it that you were telling yourself that you would also tell this person in order to start taking those steps?

SPEAKER_01 16:05

I think just having like a great, like a clear picture of what I wanted my life to be, you know, like I I didn't know how I was gonna get there and I didn't know what it was gonna look like. Um, but I knew that like deep down how I wanted to feel about myself and like what a cool and amazing life you can have, I can have. Um, and so you know, the phrase that's that's inspiring when you're going through hell, just keep going. Um, I thought I thought about that often in terms of like, okay, there's a vision for my life. Um, and I'm just gonna keep on going until I get there.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

Are you a journaler? Are you a dream board person? Like, what is your? I always love to ask people this and know what their way of putting their vision together is.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Oh, I love that. Um I have started journaling in the last year for sure. I think it's very interesting. It's something that Ryan does quite a bit and coaches on quite a bit, especially when you're feeling really heavy emotions or really something that feels so big and so crazy. Um, he has this great tip that you should go into your calendar 30 days from right now and write down exactly how you feel. And then in 30 days, you get that reminder of how it was feeling. And more than more often than not, it's gonna be not as big, not as scary, not as overwhelming. And that gets us in the practice of showing us like we can do hard things, right? And we can overcome things, overcome challenges, and feelings are for feeling and they'll pass. Um, so I've definitely started doing a lot of that per Ryan's great advice. Uh, and I also love a vision board. I mean, there's nothing better than just putting some actual, you know, pictures to it and looking at it every day. It's it's subconscious most of the time, but I've seen it work a lot.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

So as you are getting ready to do a vision board for 2026, and if so, I'd love a little insight of what is on there for you and if you're willing to share even personally and professionally.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

Yeah, I love that. Um so next year I have some aggressive uh sales goals for myself and my team. So that's definitely going to be on there. Um it would be like record breaking for personal sales and um and then team, of course. And we've been doing a lot of really good systems and structure work this year, especially, you know, building up the brand with Sur Hand that I think we can, I know we can get there. So that's been really exciting. Um, and besides that, I mean, it's it's travel for me. Um, next year I really want to go to Spain, um, maybe back to Italy. It's my favorite place ever. And then um I'm definitely throwing another investment property on the vision board for next year.

SPEAKER_00 18:52

That is awesome. I love it. I love it. And then especially too to see how you are supporting both yourself and your team because it's you you took the big step of being this founder for Surhan. And I love that you're not just sitting here saying, Great, I founded it. See you later. I did what I did. Um, I'm just gonna go build my own business now. The fact that you still have that team mentality, I think is what really makes you stand out. And I noticed like even you and I met at a conference, Ryan Surhan's conference in Orlando. You can tell too when we meet in person that you care about those around you. So to see that reflected in your goals and the future, I just think is an amazing thing.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

Well, thank you. Thank you for recognizing it for sure. And um I feel obviously like you and I have that kind of kindred spirit, which is why we hit it off when we met, um, for sure. But, you know, I that was something that was really, really important to me about bringing Storhan to Arizona, just having that spirit of collaboration over competition. Um, real estate can be very cutthroat, it can be very lonely business if you don't have friends in it, um, you know, if you don't have mentors, if you don't have people kind of supporting you and cheering you on. And, you know, realistically, there's enough business for all of us, right? So I don't want to ever be a gatekeeper when it comes to real estate. Um, there's tons and tons of ways to be successful at it. And honestly, you know, like the person who's standing right next to me, those their clients probably aren't my same clients anyway, right? You work with people that um that are attracted to you. Your vibe is your tribe. How do you say that? Tribe is your vibe, whatever, however that goes. Um, and so, you know, so there's no sense, there's no sense in just being competitive all the time.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

I agree. And that's something I think that especially as women, we do differently. So I would also love to hear your experience, and we can end on this note is how you have really grown, especially real estate can be a very male-heavy, male-dominated world. And a lot of the the women that listen to this are in that world and they are trying to figure out how to make a space for themselves. How do you do that in your own business and also in your own life?

SPEAKER_01 21:02

Um, I love that. So I think a couple ways. Like one of the kind of reasons that I was feeling super stymied by the industry when I was feeling that way was like, okay, well, if you want to be in luxury real estate, you have to wear a suit and say, welcome to 123 Main Street and do this video where you're just walking up to the house, right? And it just felt so inauthentic to me. And I think that that's probably my biggest advice to anyone who is feeling stamied by their industry or pigeonholed by their industry, whether it's because of you know it being male or female dominated, or whether it's for any other number of reasons. But like the sooner that you can just be fully authentically yourself in your business, you're going to attract the people who are meant for you. And if you're attracting people that are for you, you like them, they like you. Business is fun, it's seamless. Not always, right? Problems come up, but but you have a much higher likelihood of working through them together. And um And when you like what you do and when you're having fun with it, you're going to be way more successful. And so circing it was a definitely a platform for me to just go full in on like, hey, this is who I am. I don't always wear a suit. You know, sometimes I do. When I do, it's pink, right? And like you're gonna see me on Instagram with my dog, or you know, going out to different restaurants or in my Jeep, right? Like, I'm not just this one thing that's a realtor. I'm Stephanie. I also sell real estate. Um and just kind of giving myself permission to be authentic and be myself is definitely a game changer.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

I think that's really what you know, we talk so much about okay, what is gonna happen with AI and technology and how are we all going to be replaced? And people forget that we're humans, right? And seeing you and your Jeep and you with your dog and you out having coffee, it may not relate every time to real estate, but when someone sees that, they're like, oh, that's right. Like Stephanie's a human, like she's a good human, she has a life, and that then creates like boundaries and they respect you, but they also want to work with you because they remember that all right, there's a human behind this that's looking out for me and that cares about me, which is something that AI and tech can never do.

SPEAKER_01 23:09

Yeah, yeah, for sure. And I'm a huge proponent of AI and tech. I mean, I use ChatGPT and Sora and Vito and all the things, right? Like I think it's amazing, and I think you have to, but you know, I was telling a friend or a team member actually not that long ago, you know, I was in um a meeting recently with a family that's going through a really tough time and they're um, you know, gonna be selling their house. And she's, you know, the the woman is showing me around the property. And, you know, I just kind of pulled her to side and I was like, are you okay? She's like, nope, not really. And you know, I just like squeezed her hand. And no matter how many like processes and systems and tech and AI and stuff that we have, it's never going to be able to do that, right? It's never gonna be able to like squeeze someone's arm or squeeze their hand and tell them it's gonna be okay. I mean, sure, it could type that to you, um, probably could even say it to you now and Sora, but um, you know, but yeah, I think you really have to remember that that there's a human element, uh, and that's where like the most successful people will be who use AI.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

That's beautiful, and that is a perfect note to end on. And I like to ask everyone one final question before we end our episode, and that is what is one thing you do every day that makes you feel wealthy?

SPEAKER_01 24:31

Oh, I love that question, and I wasn't prepared for it.

SPEAKER_00 24:36

That's why I love to catch people off guard too, because then I get the honest answer.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Yeah. Um, I think, you know, one thing that makes me feel wealthy is like walking my dog every day. And maybe that's kind of a sillier thing to say, but it's you know, like I have the time to do it. It's something that I really enjoy doing and it kind of grounds me and sets me up for success for the rest of my day. So I would say that.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

That's awesome. I love it. And I hope you do it with a coffee in hand and enjoy every second of it, especially before well, fall is not really gonna fully hit in Arizona, so it's a little different, but before the winter starts to kind of hit while you're there. Awesome. Well, Stephanie, if people want to connect with you, talk to you, if they're relocating, especially to the Phoenix area, what is the best way for them to connect with you?

SPEAKER_01 25:23

Uh, so Instagram is definitely uh one of the best ways, or my cell phone. Um, I'm sure you can put that maybe in the show notes or whatnot, but my Instagram is just Stephanie.bray.az. I'm there all the time, so you can find me there and I would love to follow you back.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

Awesome. And we will be linking all of that in the show notes here and absolutely connect with Stephanie. Thank you so much for joining us today, Stephanie. This was a wonderful conversation and happy holidays, everyone.