Episode summary
Brooklee Han on lessons learned from the Olympics
HousingWire Daily
· · Hosts: Sarah Wheeler · Guests: Brooklee Han
Summary
Brooklee Han says her Olympic skating career and her current work as a senior real estate reporter are connected by the same habits: discipline, persistence, storytelling, and the ability to perform under pressure. She describes growing up in the Boston area, starting skating around age 5, and eventually representing Australia at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi after years of training, setbacks, and steady progress.
She also explains that journalism clicked for her in college, especially after a creative nonfiction class and a literary journalism class at Wesleyan showed her a different way to tell stories. In her view, skating and reporting both require turning dense information into something compelling, whether that means building a program on the ice or explaining a complex real estate lawsuit so readers understand why it matters.
Han says elite athletes can be valuable in business because they bring focus, goal-setting, and resilience to hard work. She also notes that the sport’s culture is changing, pointing to Alysa Liu’s comeback as an example of an athlete competing on her own terms and with mental health and love of the sport at the center.
Key takeaways
- Brooklee Han says her Olympic background taught her discipline and focus that now help her handle multiple daily deadlines in real estate reporting.
- Han says storytelling is the common thread between skating programs and journalism, because both require structure, narrative, and strong execution.
- Han argues elite athletes can be a “secret weapon” in business because they are used to pressure, goals, and relentless improvement.
- Han points to Alysa Liu’s comeback as evidence that figure skating is shifting toward healthier, athlete-driven expectations.
- Han says coaching and choreography let her keep using the creative side she developed as a skater and journalist.
Notable quotes
“I was one of the lucky few that was able to kind of make that dream come a reality”
“I was absolutely sold. That was what I wanted to do”
“I discovered that there was a whole different way of like the the discipline of English that was not just reading something and telling people what I thought about it”
“if I just put, you know, a bullet point list of facts, that isn't always the most compelling read”
“there is such a I think a benefit to bringing some of these elite athletes into the workplace because of that you know determination, hard work, ability to focus”
How the episode opens
Welcome everyone. My guest for this special bonus episode today is Brookley Han, our senior real estate reporter who is also a former Olympian to talk about the ways her experience at the top of the ice skating world have translated into her current role. Before we dive in, I want to thank our sponsor, Trust and Will, for making this episode possible. Brookley, welcome back to the podcast.
Thanks so much for having me.
Well, thank you for being on. So, a couple weeks ago, um I had you on to talk about all things real estate and uh updates on on different lawsuits and you know that that is your uh your job with us. You're our senior uh real estate reporter.
People in our industry know you for your coverage of the of the settlement lawsuits of of all sorts of things in real estate. But you have this whole other side that I wanted to do as this bonus episode because people may not uh realize that you are a former Olympian and you know as the Olympics is winding down as skating has been such an incredible part of this Olympics. I I just wanted to kind of pick your brain there.
So maybe tell people um about your Olympic history.
Yeah, absolutely. So before uh I was a real estate reporter here at Housing Wire, I was uh an international Olympic figure skater. I represented Australia.
My family is from Australia and I have dual citizenship with the US uh and Australia. Um, and I began kind of competing internationally, um, back in 2010, um, as a junior and ended up competing about nine seasons, uh, and was selected to go to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Um, as part of the Australian team and as our, uh, sole lady there in the women's discipline in figure skating.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- olympic lessons
- ice skating
- real estate reporting
- home sales
- anti-money laundering
Watch the episode
Watch “Brooklee Han on lessons learned from the Olympics” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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