Working as a family: Martin DUMONT and Celina MACHADO

Martin and Celina launch our Working as a Family theme with this first interview! Martin and Celina are married and have a 5 year old daughter. They work together in groupe sutton - synergie inc. alongside brokers Marie-Claire Laroche, Cynthia Boucher, Carmen Owaida, as well as their assistant Géraldine Chanloup. Let's discover this pair together both in personal and professional life!

Celina and Martin, could you please introduce yourself?

Martin:

“I have been a residential real estate broker since 2016. I started this profession at Sutton Quebec just after my training, part-time with my former job as Director of Business Development for The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. I have been working as a real estate broker for 4 years and for 2 years, the volume of business has continued to increase. So, I surrounded myself with a team. We all work for the groupe sutton - synergie inc. agency. "

Martin Dumont Sutton Quebec real estate broker

Celina:

“I joined Martin as an associate last May, deep in the lockdown! I am the director of operations and marketing. The team grew and needed structure, procedures to better manage the volume of business. I am therefore complementary to Martin who is more in the field dealing with clients and who doesn't like to deal with all this management (business planning, accounting, communication, etc.). I worked for 15 years in public relations and marketing before this career change.To get even more involved in the team, I decided to take the exam to become a real estate broker. " 

Celina Machado team Dumont real estate for Sutton Quebec

How did your family work duo come about?

Celina:

“Martin had been a broker for some time and because of my marketing experience, he always asked me for my opinion on his commercial tools, a sign, a brochure… I wanted to take on a new professional challenge and entrepreneurship has always attracted me. Then, in the middle of the 2019 holiday season, chatting with Martin, we realized the obvious: why not partner up with my husband and optimize our business. Therefore, I made the choice to be independent and that's how I joined the current team. My mid-term goal is to increase our business volume and strengthen the team to reach around 10 members. I'm also giving myself time to see if Martin and I can work well together ;)”.

How do you operate?

Martin:

“We each have our strengths and therefore we divide the work. I ama lot in the field with my clients because my strength is relationships. We have a motto within the team: we treat our customers as we would like to be treated. Since Celina joined the team, I have spent more time with my clients and we have a real development strategy with a real work organization. Celina is a woman orchestra”!

Do you manage to separate your professional and personal life and how?

All in chorus… NO!

Celina:

“I know there are couples who work together and make rules like not talking about work after dinner, but we don't. Work is, with our daughter obviously, our center of the universe. We have also started to work together with the Covid period… other subjects have become rarer: no family outing to do or vacation to schedule”.

Martin:

The profession of real estate broker is already very demanding in itself and it is already complicated, not to mention working as a couple, to separate your professional and personal life. I sometimes work 7 days a week and can come home at 9 o'clock in the evening. My only conduct is not to process my messages on Sunday evening. The fact that my wife works with me is a real support, she understands my files, my problems. And my 5 year old daughter comes to plant the signs with me on Sunday morning”!

What do you like most about working as a family? 

Celina:

“The fact of better understanding Martin's job and being able to complement him. But above all, to be able to build something together and both put the same efforts into it. Not to mention that we have gained in quality of life and our agendas can also work out for our daughter." 

Martin:

“That we can help each other, I know I can count on her”.

Working as a family: Martin DUMONT and Celina MACHADO

Have you encountered any difficulties?

Celina:

“I was a little apprehensive at first of coming off as the wife who wants to change everything in an already established team. But my fears quickly faded, I integrated well into the team and we put a lot in place to improve the quality of everyone's work."

What would you advise families who would like to work together?

Martin:

“Have the same intensity of work. I know Celina is as hardworking as I am. The family must also be a real support”. 

Celina:

“You also have to know how to remain totally professional; we don't speak in front of the team like we would in our living room. We take care not to make the people we work with uncomfortable". 

What are the reasons why you chose Sutton Quebec?

Martin:

“For the values shared by our agency director Yvon Cousineau. He is always there for his brokers, very helpful”.

Celina:

Yvon Cousineau has Sutton tattooed on his heart and conveys the same values. We don't want to perform but to build”.

Sutton Quebec is proud to have brokers within its banner who speak sincerely and share family values. Celina and Martin are also people involved in the community. They took the initiative with their entire team to support our common cause: the organization Dans La Rue. They thus collected hygienic products as well as clothes within their agency to give them to young homeless Montrealers.

Martin also rode Kilimanjaro to raise funds for The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, a challenge that mainly happens in the head ... perseverance ;)

Martin Dumont on Kilimandjaro