Kelly Capolino never intended to become a Realtor. Her background is in construction, and she had a thriving career in New York City working for city, state and federal agencies. In fact, she still has her contractor’s license. “I could build a skyscraper if I wanted to,” she says. But in the mid-’90s, Capolino needed a change. After building out the Ann Taylor store in Waterside Shops in Naples, she decided to make the leap to Southwest Florida, and hired a real estate agent to help her find a place to live.
The two got friendly, and one day the agent said to her, “You know, you’d make a great Realtor.” But Capolino wasn’t having it. “Don’t be insulted,” she told the agent, “but I never saw myself in the real estate profession.”
She laughs when she tells this story today. “And here I am, 26 years later, a professional real estate agent.”
In the last two and a half decades, Capolino has become a top-tier Naples real estate professional. And over the course of her career, she’s gained a number of important lessons about entrepreneurship. Most importantly, she weathered the ’08 recession, which saw many real estate agents leave the business. “You learn a lot in a recession,” she says.
Her most important takeaway from that time? “You have to stay in the grind,” she says. “No matter what, you get up and go to work every day. You keep the same rhythm, you stick to the same schedule. Life is always going to provide you hiccups—a recession, somebody in your life dies, you get a divorce. Your job is to make that hiccup really, really short. Give yourself a day. Drive to the beach, watch TV, go for a walk. But don’t let it take more than that. You’ve got to get back on the horse.”
Even with rising interest rates and chatter about another recession coming, Capolino is confident she can thrive despite adversity. “I survived the down market,” she says. “And flourished.”
Twenty years ago, when she was making the transition from construction to real estate, Capolino hired a business coach. “It’s one of the best things I’ve ever done,” she says. She has a coaching call every week, and her coach is always pushing her to move forward and strive for more in her business. And that’s not all. “A really good business coach is going to look at other parts of your life so you’re a well-rounded person,” Capolino says.
Of course, hiring a coach comes at a substantial cost; hers runs $1,000 a month. “It’s not cheap,” she admits. But the coaching has been instrumental in propelling her into next-level success, and she believes that many entrepreneurs can benefit from coaching. In fact, she paused her coaching sessions for two years during the ’08 recession, and in hindsight she says that was a mistake. “I probably could have gotten out of the recession faster if I stayed with it,” she says.
