Conversations With Phil: Meet Phil Stevenson
The first thing you notice when you step into Phil Stevenson’s office at 120 West Pearl Avenue are the windows. Stretching from floor to ceiling and occupying nearly all of the available wallspace, the windows are a charming, albeit unavoidable distraction into the magnetic buzz of daily life in downtown Jackson. Phil’s back is turned to all of them. Surrounded by stacks of neatly organized spreadsheets, The Clear Creek Group founding Partner and Responsible Broker sits unconcerned, completely engrossed in his work.
In the ten years since leaving Atlanta and staking his claim in the competitive Jackson Hole real estate market, Phil has emerged as one of the leading brokers in the valley. Formally the development partner at the largest real estate firm in the southeast, Stevenson moved to Wyoming with his wife Betsy in 2004 to embark on what he refers to, with a smile, as his second act.
Personally, Stevenson has very little of the highbrow manner you might expect of someone with an industry leading portfolio, and given the significant nature of his accomplishments, he is exceptionally modest. In many ways Phil is both a perpetual optimist and an uncompromising idealist. His belief that the most profound outcomes are a result of the smallest details have helped to make The Clear Creek Group synonymous with an upper echelon of personal service.
For all of Phil Stevenson’s driving convictions – the idea that motivates his decisions most, the one that guides his philosophies, that sometimes keeps him at the office late into the evening is the notion that authentic personal relationships have the power to move mountains. Still, as he reflects on life, work, community and his love for the Jackson Hole lifestyle, he occasionally slips into the offhand intellectual persona so familiar to his colleagues, clients, and family.
Who is Phil Stevenson?
(Laughter) what a question. First and foremost I’m a family man. Betsy and I have seven children and nine grandchildren, and my family is really what keeps me going. I also think I’m basically a happy person, a disposition which is reinforced every day by living in this very special place.
What about Phil Stevenson the Professional?
A gentleman I used to work with in Atlanta had a saying – it’s a bit of a truism, but it’s always stuck with me – he would say; “People do business with people they like doing business with.” I’ve always tried to be relationship oriented. To be an effective broker, you need to be able to build relationships based on trust. You just can’t do that without putting others before yourself.
Jackson Hole is one of the more competitive real estate markets in the country. How did you carve a foothold for yourself?
Jackson Hole is the most beautiful place in the country, but 10 years ago if a family wanted to come out here and rent a nice house – not a mansion, not an estate – just a nice house, like they were used to back home, they couldn’t do it. At the time we saw that as an opportunity, but we knew we had to make the market on both ends, identifying both homeowners who wanted to selectively rent their homes and guests who appreciated the quality inherent in those homes. When Betsy and I were first introduced to Morgan Bruemmer, who subsequently partnered with us to form The Clear Creek Group, it was clear right away that he shared our passion for quality. There was this confluence of seeing a market opportunity and wanting to do things in a high quality – high touch way. That concept of exceptional levels of service is what we stood on and what we continue to stand on today.
“People do business with people they like doing business with.”
You work with many people from various specialties; real estate, architecture, interior design. How do you manage professional relationships across so many industries?
Our clients are extremely intelligent and sophisticated. We very much – Janet Helm, Reynolds Pomeroy, and I – feel that we are here to add value to their experience. We do not want to simply move papers around – “Here’s an offer. Here’s a counter offer. What do you think?” – and we generally go so far as to recommend service providers to better serve our clients. These service providers are organizations that we have built relationships with based on trust and quality of work. We seek out specialists for their ability to raise the bar for our clients, and in turn these types of specialists look to us for the same reason.
What excites you?
In terms of business? In terms of the day to day?
In general. What gets Phil Stevenson going?
Personally it’s family. Spending time with them is what I look forward to. But I also love my work, and I often feel that I’ve left the office too early and at the same time arrived home too late. On the professional side I love seeing the look on a client’s face when we exceed their expectations. When our clients feel good about it, when we’ve been able to help them make their dream a reality, that’s what makes it fun.
“I often feel that I’ve left the office too early and at the same time arrived home too late.”
Does anything tick you off? What are your pet peeves?
(Laughter) this is silly, but people who don’t check their text messages before sending them.
Autocorrect!
Yes! When you go to check a message and all you end up getting is a lot of “gobbledegoop”, it’s frustrating. Beyond that. . . when I first started in business, I thought that if you just did good work and kept your nose clean you could rule the world. I came to realize pretty quickly that those first two things were prerequisites, but you also had to be able to communicate effectively. I have always been a bit of a nut about grammar, punctuation, spelling. It comes down to doing things thoughtfully. I think my pet peeve is when people don’t care enough to do something thoughtfully.
What’s next for Phil Stevenson?
I’m going to continue doing what I am doing here at The Clear Creek Group as long as it continues to be fun, and I’m effective in what I do. I’d also like to grow the company into exciting new areas along with Betsy and Morgan, and I can foresee some extraordinary developments for our firm in our not so distant future.