Sometimes The Most Powerful Thing I Do Is NothingI have a challenge for you. Do nothing for a minute. How about five? Could you make it to fifteen? Turns out doing nothing at all is harder than it
May 2025 Newsletter - Trying New Things
Dated: May 20 2025
Views: 144
When was the last time you tried something new? Something that really stretched you? And how did it make you feel? New experiences can definitely be fun, but we often enter into them with a level of fear. We don’t know what’s going to happen because we’ve never done it before. What if we try and fail? What if we look dumb, even while we succeed? Some of my favorite parenting memories are of spending fifty hours in the car with my teenagers as they logged their Behind the Wheel time and learned how to drive. Quite a few missteps happened along the way, and they all certainly made some silly mistakes (as we all did). The level of fear that everyone in the vehicle felt was physically palpable. But now, years later, I’m glad to say I feel that they are all safe, competent drivers whom I would happily have chauffeur me around town. What started out as a new activity, draped in fear, grew into a new skill - one they can all execute successfully.
In that same vein, I’m eternally grateful to the clients who gave me, a VERY young real estate agent, an opportunity to help them buy or sell their largest financial asset. I’m going to guess that signing a contract with 23-year-old Clint may have instilled in them a sense of fear much like tossing my car keys to my teens did for me. I know I made plenty of mistakes along the way, but I also know that I have learned and grown a ton in the years since then. If we worked together two decades ago and you weren’t impressed, I encourage you to give me another chance - I’ve improved.
Buying and selling a property looks very different today than it did over 20 years ago when I got started. Some of the changes have been fantastic. I certainly don’t miss triplicate forms and fax machines. No need to tell my clients to “press hard” so that their signature makes it all the way to the third page, and I don’t have to stand next to the fax for half an hour to make sure my new file makes its way to the lender and title company. Other changes have been much more stressful. The push to move into video for marketing purposes has been challenging. I’ve certainly sweated through more than a few shirts as I’ve worked hard at learning a new skill that doesn’t always come naturally to me. And I look back on some of my earlier work and cringe a bit.
But that cringe is one measure of our progress. It’s good to look back and shake our heads at our former selves. That means we have grown and improved in our skills or beliefs.
A lot of new, enticing technologies could prove to be effective for the future of real estate transactions. I’m watching the areas of lead generation, listing exposure, networking strategies and, of course, AI, for tools that could potentially help my clients. But it’s also important to hang on to the things that continue to work. There are definitely times when the oldest tools we have - a face-to-face conversation or a phone call - end up being the most effective ways to sell a house or communicate important information.
I’m exploring these opportunities and am excited to share them with you as I learn the skills necessary to excel at them. Stay tuned for updates from me in the future! I have a couple of items in the works that I’m especially excited to share with you.
Clint Kuipers
Clint Kuipers
Clint Kuipers specializes in complex and emotionally significant real estate transitions in the Twin Cities, including divorce, estate sales, downsizing, and buying and selling at the same time. With ....
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