The
InterviewLauren
Klapper

Lauren Klapper, former retail executive turned real estate agent, on reinvention, self worth, and what happens when you stop waiting for permission.

By Michael Shimbo

Photographs
Scott Witt

Spring 2021. I witnessed my best friend Lauren Klapper go all in. She was cramming for the California real estate exam like it was the bar. Day and night. Textbook in hand, flashcards everywhere. Nerves locked down, eyes forward. Watching her, I remember thinking: this is what it looks like when you stop waiting for permission and bet on yourself.

Lauren and I met in Aspen circa 1999, two scrappy kids working in retail with big plans and no patience. She was electric then. She’s electric now. The kind of woman who can talk to anyone, sell ice to a glacier, and laugh louder than the room. Her career ran through beauty, fashion, and consumer brands, building and hustling at every altitude. Then she hit the question that eventually finds all of us: what now? What’s next.

She didn’t just answer it. She rewrote the whole damn chapter. It was a transformation so profound I knew I wanted to talk to her about it for Seconds. I wanted to capture one person’s journey making the leap to a new life. What follows is our conversation about work, reinvention, self worth, fear, momentum, and the quiet power of starting over. It’s her story, yes. But it’s also many others.

Making the pivot when I did showed me that this is a career I can grow with over time. My other roles felt temporary. This one doesn’t.

Michael Shimbo: Take me back to the spring of 2021. COVID, everything in flux. Before real estate, what did life feel like?
Lauren Klapper: I had been working for 15 plus years in retail and life felt stagnant. I was starting to feel aged out of the space, and the industry itself was changing around me. Amazon was getting bigger. Overnight shipping became normal. Consumer behavior totally shifted. I could tell it was changing fast.

My role was working with emerging brands and helping them build out their wholesale business, mostly brick and mortar. But stores were closing left and right while everyone was moving online. Life started to feel stuck, and honestly my career did too. I wasn’t evolving with the times, and I could feel that pretty clearly.

MS: When you are staring at that cliff, how do you even start moving? Did you have to convince yourself you could pivot that hard?
LK: Honestly, it wasn’t even a conscious choice. Nobody was hiring. I was out of work for about six months with no real end in sight, sending my resume out and not hearing anything back. I was still focused mostly on retail because at 49, in the middle of COVID, you’re kind of asking yourself, how do you even pivot.

So I went online and started looking at classes. Not with a big plan. Just to keep my brain active. I started Duolingo and brushed up on my Spanish.

MS: And then you land on real estate. Why that?
LK: I came across a real estate class and thought, huh, I’ve always been interested in real estate. I never really considered going into it, but it had always interested me.

There was a Jewish deli my family used to go to every Sunday when I was a kid. I’d sit there for hours flipping through the open house book, begging my parents to take me to the homes I loved. They reminded me of that after I got my license, which I had completely forgotten.

I started taking a class and realized pretty quickly that I was really into it. I liked the material more than I expected. That’s when I thought, why not just get my license. And once I got it, I thought, why not try.

MS: You started practicing in July 2021. When you look back now, what surprises you most?
LK: Honestly, how much it feels like a fit. I didn’t expect to love it as much as I do.

Some days I feel like I haven’t made a dent. Other days I’m proud of myself and honestly impressed with how far I’ve come. It changes day to day. Some days it’s imposter syndrome, like how am I doing the volume I’m doing, with where I am, after just a few short years. It’s mixed emotions.

MS: We talk a lot about reinvention at Seconds. Do you think there’s something about this stage of life that makes people more willing to take the leap?
LK: I think we have a real advantage. We have tech skills that the generations before us didn’t grow up with, and that matters.

At the same time, I don’t think the younger generation always has the same people skills or comfort level with real in person interaction. That combination gives you confidence. It gives you guts. It makes trying something new feel possible.

MS: Real estate is outward hustle. But it also seems like inner work. Has it changed your confidence and how you handle yourself?
LK: Absolutely. It’s customer facing. You have to have faith in yourself and feel confident in yourself. As much as I’m selling real estate, I’m selling myself to people.

As much as I’m selling real estate, I’m selling myself to people.

MS: Who helped you get over the hump early on?
LK: I really couldn’t have done this without my friends and my family. And honestly, you in particular were there the whole time. If anyone had a front row seat, it was you. You were cheering me on, especially on the days when I questioned the transition.

And trust really mattered. Early on, I was told it could take years to ramp up. I was told people might hesitate working with me because they knew when I started. There were moments of discouragement. Learning to trust myself through that and stay the course ended up being really important.

Two of my good girlfriends really bet on me in my first year and hired me, separately. One of those deals was only my second transaction. They trusted me as a person and believed I would do a good job for them.

It’s easy to get comfortable and not realize you’ve stopped growing. Midlife is still young. There’s a lot of life ahead.

MS: Career is identity, whether we admit it or not. What did it feel like leaving one identity and claiming another?
LK: When I look back, I don’t think I ever identified in the retail space. I loved it. It suited the time. But I didn’t hold my career as anything more than making money to do the things I love to do.

Whereas as a real estate agent, I feel like it has become part of my identity. Making the pivot when I did showed me that this is a career I can grow with over time. My other roles felt temporary. This one doesn’t. I love it and can see myself doing it for a long time.

MS: Let’s talk money, because money is real. Did earning potential play into your decision?
LK: Absolutely not. I was so scared of going into a 100 percent commission job that was completely new.

I didn’t have a big safety net. I was focused on staying afloat. I wasn’t chasing more money. I was just trying to make it work.

MS: For someone standing at the edge of reinvention but afraid to jump, what do you tell them?
LK: Jump. Absolutely. It’s easy to get comfortable and not realize you’ve stopped growing. That was definitely true for me. And midlife is still young. There’s a lot of life ahead.

In the last four years, I’ve felt reenergized in a way I hadn’t before. If I were still in my old role, I know I’d be bored intellectually.

There’s always room to work on yourself and strive for more. If you want more, jump.

This is what starting over looks like. Not a clean break with a plan. Six months of silence, a Duolingo streak, and a class taken just to keep the brain awake. Then one small yes, and another. Lauren didn’t chase the money or wait for permission. She jumped.

Michael Shimbo is the founder of Seconds, a pub loyalist, and a builder of ideas. Currently living across multiple zip codes and often found at 35,000 feet.