FROM BOARD ROOMS TO DREAM HOMES

By Karen | KarenK Sells AZ

May 29, 2026

Let me paint you a picture.

It's 7 a.m. on a Tuesday. I'm in a conference room with four blank walls, nursing my second cup of coffee, staring at a PowerPoint presentation and reports that will be revised, re-revised, and ultimately forgotten a year from now. My calendar is stacked: back-to-back meetings, an annual multi-day conference to run, nearly 400 volunteers, sponsors, board members, executives and other clients to juggle. I was good at this. I was a professional hand-holder. I was at the top. I was quietly, slowly, burnt out.

That was life in the corporate and non-profit world, and I'm guessing a few of you know exactly what I mean.

Here's what I didn't expect: the moment that changed everything was not a dramatic breakdown or a lightning-bolt epiphany. More than five years ago, I met with a friend who switched careers to real estate. No agenda. I watched her face completely transform when she started talking about her leap. This is it, she said. And I felt something I hadn't felt at work in years: excitement. Pure, uncomplicated, contagious excitement.

I drove home that evening thinking, What if I got to do that every single day?