Brooklee Han on lessons learned from the Olympics

HousingWire

On today’s bonus episode, Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler talks with Brooklee Han, Senior Real Estate Reporter and a former Olympian, about how her experience at the top of the ice skating world influences her work as a reporter.   Related to this episode:   Court upholds FinCEN’s anti-money laundering rule for home sales  https://www.housingwire.com/articles/fincen-aml-rule-lawsuit/  HousingWire | YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXDD_3y3LvU60vac7eki-6Q  More info about HousingWire  https://lnk.bio/housingwire   To learn more about Trust & Will visit trustandwill.com   The HousingWire Daily podcast brings the full picture of the most compelling stories in the housing market reported across HousingWire. Each morning, listen to editor in chief Sarah Wheeler talk to leading industry voices and get a deeper look behind the scenes of the top mortgage and real estate.

Transcript

00:09welcome everyone my guest for this special bonus episode today is brookley han our senior real

00:15estate reporter who is also a former olympian to talk about the ways her experience at the top of

00:21the ice skating world have translated into her current role before we dive in i want to thank

00:25our sponsor trust and will for making this episode possible brookley welcome back to the podcast

00:30thanks so much for having me well thank you for being on so a couple weeks ago um i had

00:35you on to

00:36talk about all things real estate and uh updates on on different lawsuits and you know that that is

00:42your uh your job with us you're our senior uh real estate reporter people in our industry know you for

00:47your coverage of the of the settlement lawsuits of of all sorts of things in real estate but you have

00:53this whole other side that i wanted to do as this bonus episode because people may not uh realize

00:59that you are a former olympian and you know as the olympics is winding down as skating has been such

01:04an

01:05incredible part of this olympics i i just wanted to kind of pick your brain there so maybe tell people

01:10um about your olympic history yeah absolutely so before uh i was a real estate reporter here at

01:18housing wire i was uh an international olympic figure skater i represented australia my family

01:24is from australia and i have dual citizenship with the u.s uh and australia um and i began kind

01:32of

01:33competing internationally um back in 2010 um as a junior and ended up competing about nine seasons

01:41uh and was selected to go to the 2014 winter olympics in sochi russia um as part of the australian

01:49team and as our uh sole lady there in the women's discipline and figure skating um and it you know

01:58figure skating was and still is such a large part of my life it had been a dream of mine

02:03to compete at

02:05an olympic level as it is so many young kids in a variety of different sports um and i was

02:12one of

02:12the lucky few that was able to kind of make that dream come a reality um you know through lots

02:19of

02:19hard work and sacrifice from myself and my parents and my coaches and my teachers in school who were

02:25also incredibly supportive of me um but you know i was so lucky with skating that i got to travel

02:33around

02:33the world and meet so many incredible people from so many different walks of life and um you know

02:39still have some of those friendships and relationships to this day and so it's just it was such a

02:44important and special part of my life you are um absolutely so if anybody wants any advice about

02:51different airports or different places to stay you have been literally everywhere and you know all of

02:58the tricks of the trade you're like oh you know in paris do this in london do this and i

03:02mean you've

03:03just been everywhere it's it's really fun to talk to you um you know the discipline that it requires

03:08to be an olympian what what i see in your life is that you've applied that discipline now in your

03:13career as well and you're still very involved in the industry but but talk about like when did you

03:18start skating how old were you so i started skating a little bit before my fifth birthday um my i

03:25was

03:26very fortunate and that my parents exposed me to all sorts of different things growing up we would go

03:31we i grew up in the the boston area so we would go to the boston pops every year at

03:36christmas time to

03:36see the christmas concert um you know we'd go and see the boston ballet and see the nutcracker every year

03:42um my parents were both heavily involved in equestrian sports my dad was the junior young

03:48rider champion of australia in three-day eventing and my mom worked for tad coffin who won the gold

03:54medal for the us in the 1976 olympics in three-day eventing um so i you know grew up with

04:01a pony and

04:01horses and was around that world because that was my parents world but my grandmother and my mom

04:07loved figure skating and so we'd go to see stars on ice every year when it was in town

04:13um and i loved it i was absolutely sold that was what i wanted to do um you know i

04:20was two years old

04:21sitting there glued way past my bedtime not wanting to leave not wanting to look away from the ice um

04:28and i asked my mom you know i was like i want to do that and she's like i want

04:32to be in the show and

04:33she's like well you have to go to the olympics and like do stuff to be in this show and

04:38i was like okay

04:39that's fine um so my my i was persistent and kind of begged and eventually they were like okay yeah

04:47you can have skating lessons and so started skating around uh five years old um and i was definitely

04:54not the most talented kid out there um and not the most naturally talented but i i loved it um

05:02my mom was also very clever and sewed polar fleece padding into the bum and the knees of my little

05:10pants that i had so all the other kids were falling over and crying because it hurt and i was

05:15like well

05:15it doesn't hurt his padding there um so that that definitely helped kind of foster my love of it as

05:21well um but you know i just i progressed through the sport at a fairly kind of average pace um

05:28again i

05:29wasn't very naturally gifted um took me a long time to get some of my kind of earlier jumps some

05:35of the

05:36easier jumps um but i was persistent i wanted it i kept you know maybe it was a bit foolhardy

05:43but i

05:44didn't give up and well and at the same time so many of my other competitors and you know other

05:51skaters that i had grown up with were giving up finding out that you know school was more exciting

05:56you know being a normal high school student or finding other passions as well um but skating was

06:03the one thing that i absolutely loved and when i was about 12 years old i had reached a point

06:09where

06:09it was i was kind of stuck at a plateau and i wasn't really progressing and so my parents were

06:15like you know you can do this one last competition um that i'd qualified for and then do a week

06:21of camp

06:22at the international skating center in simsbury connecticut and then you know you have other

06:27things going on in life i was playing the violin i you know was riding a little bit still um

06:34and i was at

06:35that camp that i met one of my longtime coaches sergey vaipan and uh ended up skating with him for

06:41nine seasons um he was the coach that took me to the olympics and kind of brought me from

06:47basically not very not very successful and not very far in my career to uh you know where i am

06:54today

06:55in a lot of ways and so i'm very grateful for him for that um but yeah it was it

07:00was one of those

07:01moments where it was like okay you know i kind of clicked with him and stuff started progressing and

07:06went to some qualified for a national competition in the u.s at a lower level and then started getting

07:14more jumps in the next season um we had been in contact with australia since i was little because

07:19we had uh one of the top dance teams in australia live with us for a long time they were

07:24training

07:24connecticut with a coach there um and so we had been in touch with them for a long time and

07:31said you know we have a she has triples now you know would you like to potentially see her and

07:38so

07:38i went over and did a ranking competition and then ended up um getting some junior grand prixs which is

07:43kind of like the first stage of some international events as a junior skater um and then you know that

07:49first season went to my first junior world championships and kind of went from there um

07:54and you know the olympics was just such a special culmination of all of that hard work and uh you

08:02know i'm at that point in time i could have retired and gone to school but i ended up continuing

08:07going

08:08and pursuing my college degree at the same time which was challenging but also a lot of fun um

08:15and you know it was it was i still am so incredibly proud of kind of the second half of

08:21my career and

08:22everything that i achieved on the ice kind of in that later stage um and was yeah it was very

08:28rewarding

08:28to kind of pursue skating and still achieve things and compete at a high level but almost be free of

08:35like feeling like i had to qualify for an olympic games again um because i had done that and obviously

08:40i

08:40would have loved to have gone to a second but still you know some incredible things that i

08:44achieved later on you know that explains so much when you talk about training at that level and being

08:50in college brookley because you are one of the hardest working people i've ever met so while you're

08:57uh our senior real estate reporter which is a very demanding job i mean we have you know daily

09:03multiple deadlines every day there's tons of stuff you have to do to do that you still are up at

09:09the

09:09rink training people at what time every day uh this year right now i have one girl who i'm so

09:16impressed

09:16with she's 17 and she's you know not an elite skater but she's 17 getting herself to the rink at

09:235 30 in

09:24the morning and we're on at 5 45 every day pretty much amazing i i know that even when i'm

09:29on a different

09:29time zone like when i uh i was working from um the uk last year and i would you know

09:35obviously i'm i'm on

09:36a completely different time zone i get on at like 3 in the morning and you're like i mean 3

09:39in the

09:39morning your time and you're like oh hey and you're answering me i'm like what are you doing

09:43uh there was no getting up earlier than you even when i was on seven hours you know past you

09:49it's

09:49hilarious yeah no i i knew i've always known that i wanted to stay involved with skating somehow but

09:56i you know my parents were very encouraging that i pursue my education um i was very fortunate that

10:04the town that i grew up in um i was able to attend public school from kindergarten all through 12th

10:11grade uh and was you know just in a normal school with normal other kids uh and that was such

10:18a great

10:18balance to kind of everything i was doing at the rink all day and you know stuff at school was

10:24hard i had

10:25skating to kind of refocus and have you know a different outlet and if i was struggling on the

10:30ice or if i was injured i still had school and something else to do um and so i've always

10:36kind

10:36of had that balance on it was more challenging in college in some ways um but i was lucky with

10:42some

10:43great supportive professors both uh when i was at wesleyan and then later on when i was at southern

10:48methodist university um but i think i i always like this is normal for me um and maybe not getting

10:57up at

10:57the crack of dawn every day because i i did skate early but i didn't skate quite as early as

11:01some of

11:02my kids skate nowadays um but you know i love having that balance i love being busy um but it's

11:09just so

11:09rewarding to coach and to work with skaters of all ages um i have some adult skaters a couple of

11:17them

11:17are preparing for adult nationals in about six weeks um and they're so much fun to work with

11:23because they're so uh they have such such internal motivation and they're doing it because they want

11:30to and it's because their passion and something that they you know have an outlet outside of work or

11:35outside of raising their kids and so it's fun to kind of work with them and have their goals um

11:41i'm

11:42the choreographer for a boy who's on the national development team his goals are obviously very

11:48different than some of my adult skaters and so it's fun to kind of work with him at this stage

11:53of his

11:53career um and kind of come up with new programs and really stretch him artistically he's a very

12:00athletic skater and has some incredible technical jumps and technical ability but he you know isn't

12:07he's a 13 14 year old boy so he's not the most artistic skater on the face of the earth

12:11um but we're really trying to push that this year and i'm really excited with some of the things that

12:17we've come up with this season for him um then i have others that i work with on skating skills

12:22um

12:23some i was a single skater so i did the jumps and the spins but i've also done a lot

12:28of ice dance which is

12:29um partnered no jumps uh and the smaller lifts not the overhead lifts that the pair teams do and so

12:37i work a lot on skating skills with people and pattern dances and it's fun to help skaters find

12:44that you know different avenues in skating maybe they don't love jumping or they're not great at it

12:50and they're looking for something else to pursue alongside of you know trying to increase their

12:55technical skills and so it's fun to kind of help that find that other passion um and then i also

13:01coach at boston university as the ice dance coach for the boston university figure skating team which is

13:08so much fun and so rewarding um the college atmosphere is very different than the elite skating community we

13:16still you know on the bu team we have kids competing on the junior grand prix or at a national

13:21level so we

13:22still have some very highly competitive kids but at the same time you know it's like a collegiate

13:27gymnastics team so it's a it's a different atmosphere it's a team atmosphere um and they're all there

13:35because they want to um not because mom and dad are making them honestly some parents would probably

13:40prefer if they were studying and pursuing their academics more um but you know we're fortunate to have a

13:47ton of ice and so they can kind of find a balance between both and you know not feel like

13:52they have

13:52to give up skating and give up something they love just because they're going to college and so that's

13:57that's been so rewarding and so fun as well when did you know that you wanted to be a journalist

14:02um i always loved writing as a kid um but i absolutely did not get along with my english teachers

14:11uh through most of middle school and high school um and i was at wesleyan my freshman year of college

14:19and i decided to take a creative non-fiction writing class after swearing that i would never take another

14:26english class again in my life um but i thought this class sounded really interesting it fit in well with

14:31my schedule which was always challenging to find and i discovered that there was a whole different

14:38way of like the the discipline of english that was not just reading something and telling people

14:45what i thought about it it was you know creating and crafting my own narratives and stories um and as

14:52i

14:53uh kind of looked worked in that more but then also as my skating career progressed i realized that i

15:03um

15:04loved the storytelling aspect of skating so amidst all of the um ice skating and all the the physical

15:12preparation for that and the mental preparation where did where did your uh desire to become a journalist

15:17fit in yeah so i as a child i loved writing um but i didn't always get along with my

15:24english teachers

15:25in middle school and high school and really like i was a math science kind of kid that was not

15:29my scene

15:30um and then my freshman year of college at wesleyan i decided to take a creative non-fiction writing

15:37class and it kind of opened my eyes to this other side of like the english discipline and that it

15:44wasn't

15:45just you know reading books and disagreeing with my teachers about what i thought this one metaphor

15:50meant or something like that um and it really opened my eyes to this ability to create and tell my

15:57own

15:57stories and uh i was also then able at wesleyan to take a literary journalism class with ariel levy who

16:05is a wesleyan alumni and at that time was a staff writer at the new yorker that again really opened

16:11my

16:12eyes to kind of the storytelling that is in journalism um and i really kind of fell in love with

16:18that and it

16:19was around kind of that same time as well that i also became a bit more involved in the creation

16:24of my

16:24own programs and this idea of still telling stories on the ice um and creating a narrative

16:32through my performance and at the same time that i had to craft that narrative i also had to fit

16:38in

16:38all these technical skills that you know were required similarly to in journalism how i have

16:45information that i need to get in there but if i just put you know a bullet point list of

16:49facts

16:49that isn't always the most compelling read and not always the best way to get some of this information

16:56across to people and so over time um and more so now that i do a lot more choreography work

17:03i've kind of found a nice balance between those two and um you know obviously choreography gets i get to

17:11be a

17:11bit more creative and i get to play with movement and shapes um but i still love kind of crafting

17:17narratives and using my words to tell stories um sometimes it's funny with some of my choreography

17:24students i will sit down with a google doc with them and we'll take their piece of music and maybe

17:30they have an idea for a story or i have an idea for a story and we'll kind of work

17:34together to

17:35craft a narrative that we're going to tell with their program and with this music um and then you know

17:41you go in and figure out where you have to put in the elements and what the music is telling

17:45you to do

17:45where and so um yeah that's a joke with some of my kids that you know this is what happens

17:51when you

17:51hire a journalist to choreograph your program well and we benefit on our from our side on your you know

17:58that ability to tell a story right you've you've really um distinguished yourself among the real

18:04estate journalists i feel like in our space to to be like someone who can take these really dense

18:10uh lawsuit stories and make them understandable and also like okay why should i care like it's the

18:16it's the 13th lawsuit for this one company what and and really get to like this is why it matters

18:21for

18:21your business it's not easy no it's not it's it's definitely a challenge and you know that's one thing

18:27i love too about journalism and skating is you know skating i was constantly pushing myself to learn

18:32new skills or improve things and in journalism i'm constantly get having the opportunity to learn new

18:39things expand my knowledge and my uh you know understanding of the world around me and that's

18:46just so much fun so you've already talked about the creativity that you developed you know as a skater

18:51and what that looked like and how that um has you know uh implications for your job now what other

18:57things

18:57do you feel like especially being an olympian competing at that level what does that mean for your

19:02for your everyday life or your everyday work now yeah i mean i think there's a lot of discipline

19:07and a lot of um you know the ability to kind of buckle down and focus and get the job

19:13done

19:13um and you know not shy away from challenges or when things get hard or maybe overwhelming um

19:22that's honestly when i do my best work i feel like um because you know that's that was so much

19:28my

19:28environment for so long um and yeah i think you know there's more so now um in this day and

19:36age

19:37uh conversation about you know hiring elite athletes into different fields that obviously

19:43you know are very different from their prior experience but um you know there is such a i think

19:51a benefit to bringing some of these elite athletes into the workplace because of that you know

19:55determination hard work ability to focus uh ability to set goals and you know work toward those goals

20:02and different objectives and it's been great to see kind of some of that workplace culture shifts

20:08a little bit um over the past i'd say probably five ten years um because you know athletes really are

20:15kind of a secret weapon i think at a lot of different companies and that's why i love talking to

20:21some different athletes or even like uh performance artists as well that have transitioned from their prior

20:27career into the real estate space um because you know even though we may have come from different

20:33sporting backgrounds we're now kind of in the same area but it's fun to hear their stories of how you

20:39know the lessons they learned as an elite athlete have served them so well in their professional life

20:45now um you know in real estate or title insurance what is it like uh watching the olympics this has

20:51been a

20:51really fun olympics i think this this winter olympics as somebody who is a former olympian what does that look

20:57like

20:57it's a lot of fun this year was really special because um i still obviously have a lot of friends

21:02competing both uh in figure skating and then some of my former teammates uh in the australian team

21:08that are competing in kind of uh ski and snowboard disciplines and so it's fun to cheer them on um

21:15i was so excited australia has had its best winter olympics ever in terms of medals and results and so

21:21that was

21:22really awesome to to see um but with the figure skating this year there's been so many kids that

21:30uh i've known since they were little um that are competing and at this stage and it's been you know

21:37it's so fun to remember them cheering me on during my olympic experience and them being so excited for me

21:44to now see them achieving their goals and you know having seen and witnessed so much of their careers and

21:51hard

21:51work over the years um and you know them to achieve this dream it's been so special but

21:57it's been a really you know overall i felt like a really strong olympics there's been some great

22:02performances um and it's just fun to see the athletes put out these performances on such a special such a

22:10big stage um knowing all of the hard work and the years and the determination and the setbacks and

22:16everything that that went into that recreation of that moment for them i feel like um specifically

22:22in figure skating the uh gold medal winner from uh the us right she from my perspective echoed kind

22:31of what simone biles what we saw from simone biles in the last olympics where it was like um maybe

22:37we're

22:37hopefully moving into a space where mental health is also really prized and not just like you know because

22:43in the past it's you know i would think the whole the whole discipline is like just keep going it

22:47doesn't matter and like this is the ultimate goal and seeing people who took breaks or who are

22:52approaching it differently i feel like that's probably healthier for everybody absolutely no

22:56alissa lu who won uh the women's discipline uh earlier this week for the u.s uh she is such

23:04a special

23:04athlete she was you know absolutely a child prodigy and then you know went to the olympics in 2022 in

23:11beijing and ultimately took a step back from and retired for two years before deciding to come back

23:17on you know her own terms and setting kind of her own rules for how she wanted to approach skating

23:24and

23:24just seeing an athlete you know be in it for all the right reasons and be in it because they

23:30love it

23:31and have that kind of desire to just do their best and be their best be their primary driving factor

23:38is

23:38just so special to see and i think you know that's why alissa has you know part of why she's

23:43been so

23:43successful in this comeback and you know so much credit to her team and everyone around her for you

23:50know supporting her and um you know allowing her to kind of be who she wants to be on and

23:57off the ice

23:57and supporting that but yeah it's it's been interesting being in the sport as long as i have and to

24:04kind of

24:04see this culture shift right now and you know try to be part of it as well as a coach

24:10nurturing kind

24:10of this next generation of athletes um and reflecting on my own career and my own experience as an athlete

24:18and knowing kind of some of the things that i went through that maybe i don't want my skaters to

24:23go

24:23through but also you know taking that knowledge and that experience and using that to kind of hopefully

24:30make me into a better coach myself and you know just be able to focus on fostering that love of

24:38the sport because obviously it's something so special to me and i i want to pass on that love and

24:43enjoyment

24:43to all of my students well brookley thank you so much for letting me uh you know ask you all

24:49these

24:49questions about this whole other part of your life pull back the curtain a little bit uh something that's so

24:54important to you and um just we so appreciate the your capacity to work your ability to um see the

25:02situation find the story uh connect with people in our in our industry has has been really valuable

25:07for for us at housing wire um so thank you so much for the good work you do on the

25:12real estate side

25:13and thanks for pulling back the curtain a little bit on on this other part yeah of course no i'm

25:17just so

25:18grateful for you guys for you know supporting me as a journalist and kind of supporting me coming

25:25into an industry i didn't have a ton of background in and taking a chance and and i'm just so

25:30excited to

25:30be here and have had the opportunity to uh share my story with everybody today amazing we will talk

25:37again soon i'm sure it will be on uh you know potentially some more lawsuit coverage you never know

25:42well i yeah i fear it will be but well thank you so much for having me

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