"I can do this. When I had fear about going out on my own, I gave myself a pep talk. You never know what’s on the other side until you step out."
Spelling bee champ. Accomplished Pianist. Advertising fashionista. Christine Kim was destined for the spotlight.
Her parents prepared her well to be comfortable leading a successful real estate brokerage by putting her in front of crowds from an early age. She learned to put in the work to prepare herself for any situation, and how to trust herself along the way.
Christine arrived in the industry by way of the quintessential cheesy real estate investment seminar. She dragged a friend with her, committed to gain access to the business and the deals lurking in the MLS. Before she knew it, she was showing homes to her upstairs neighbor and the rest is history.
As the president of Climb, a Bay Area, marketing-driven brokerage, she is able to bring all of her talents to the table. With limited female representation in leadership roles, Christine decided it was her time to WomanUP, for herself and for all the others waiting in the wings. She sat down with Debra Trappen in January 2019 in a joint partnership with WomanUP!® and First.io.
Rather read it? Check out the full transcript below.
CK: Hi, I'm Christine Kim. I am the president of Climb Real Estate. And I'm from the San Francisco Bay Area. You know, when I first got started into real estate, it was a career that I thought was going to be a forever career. I was going to a top producer. I was gonna be a huge team member, and have a mega team, and, and, and make all this money and be really, really independent. I never thought I would get into leadership, um, but as I went through my career, uh, the ebbs and flow of a career, starting a brokerage, selling a brokerage, um, getting involved in the community, um-- it was a really interesting, interesting turn that my career took.
I started the Silicon Valley chapter of AREAA, the Asian Real Estate Association of America, and really realized that I had a knack for leading people and growing the organization from 0 to 500 people in one year. So, you know, as I went through my career, I was approached to become president of this amazing company. And, my first reaction was, like, "Oh, no." You know, "That's, that's not me. That's, you know, something that's for somebody else." Uh, but then, you know, when I really started thinking about it, I really thought about some great advice that my mother once gave me when I was really young. And it had nothing to do with my career, but it was just about events that happen in your life. She always said, "Just go for it, because it might seem a little scary in the beginning, but you don't know what's waiting for you on the other side until you try." And it's one of those things that just really resonated with me for years and years and years. And so, when this opportunity came, it, it was this moment of just realization that I had to do this because this is what, this opportunity is so rare. And it's a once in a lifetime thing.
And, so, I just was like, "Wow, this is it. I gotta step up. I gotta Woman Up, and really take this opportunity." Because, if I look into the leadership rankings, in the real estate industry, or just in any industry but especially in the real estate industry, women are really underrepresented. And this is the perfect opportunity for me to have a voice in how this industry is formed. And if there's anything that I would urge all the women out there to do is take that opportunity. As scary as it might seem or, you know, you might not think you're as qualified, it's just amazing what other opportunities start to unfold on the other side. So, like I said, go for it. Do it. And, you won't be sorry.
I am Woman Up.
Was that alright?
Yeah, that was good.
That was awesome.
Yeah, it was great.