Kelly Olsen knows better than anyone that nothing in life is guaranteed.
In 2008, just a few months after starting her own real estate brokerage, her husband was killed in a car accident by a drunk driver. In an instant, her world – and her priorities – changed forever.
“It took me quite a while to regroup,” Olsen recalled. “But when I did, I decided that I wanted to refocus and dedicate my remaining career to projects that would encourage people to just slow down and spend time with the people they care about.”
That’s exactly what she’s done. As the president of Mound-based Olsen Global, LLC, she’s committed to creating community and connection through land development and collaborative problem solving. And by combining her two decades of real estate experience with her tenacity and willingness to take risks, she’s been able to find success while staying laser focused on her goal of bringing people together in a meaningful way.
“I’ve had the opportunity to talk with a lot of people who have already retired about the things they cherish and value most in their lives,” Olsen said. “No one says they wish they would have worked more. It made me think about how I was really spending my time. Was it important that I stay those extra few hours at work? Or would I rather have extra time with my husband and my family?”
With those ideas always at the forefront of her mind, Olsen continues to seek out projects where she can create spaces that encourage connection. To that end, she recently purchased a bed and breakfast in Excelsior and together with eight women from her networking group, transformed the 1858 Victorian home into a vacation rental property called The Guest House. With 11 bedrooms and nine bathrooms across the main structure and carriage house, the property can host up to 24 people.
“We’ve been filling up with wedding parties and family reunions and people who are just coming to town to hang out,” she said. “And the feedback we get over and over from our guests is how much fun they had reconnecting with their families again, especially post Covid. It’s been so long since we’ve really been able to do this and I think the pandemic has given all of us a different perspective on life.”
Olsen’s latest project is even more ambitious. She’s purchasing The Yacht Club, a 22,000 square foot office building located directly on Lake Minnetonka and converting it into a 29-room boutique hotel, restaurant, marina and co-working space.
“The Yacht Club would be the only lakefront hotel on Minnetonka in literally decades,” she said. “At one point in time, there were maybe 20 different hotels on the lake and now there are none. We’re trying to bring that idea back.”
Just as The Guest House has helped friends and family reconnect, Olsen is hopeful that the co-working space at The Yacht Club will do the same for entrepreneurs in the community, including those who may be charting a new path after the pandemic.
“With the whole ‘Great Resignation,’ people are literally leaving their careers because they’ve decided that their priorities are different. They want to do more of the things that fill them up and less of the things that drain them,” she said. “I think with the co-working space, there’s a great opportunity for people to collaborate with other individuals and other businesses right from where they work and that can be incredibly impactful.”
If you’ve been contemplating making some changes in your life but aren’t sure where to begin, here are a few of Olsen’s suggestions:
- Make a list: In 2018, Olsen was asked to give a TEDx talk about her experiences. The main point she drove home was this: if you don’t like the path that you’re on, you’re allowed to rewrite your future and you don’t have to wait for an awful thing to happen to decide to go in a different direction. Following the death of her husband, Olsen made a list of all the ways she was spending her time and after each item, she wrote down the first word she associated with it. “If it was real estate, what was the first thought I had? If it was family, what was the first thing that came to mind?” she said. “And then I went down that list and I decided the things on it that were positive I was going to do more of and the things that were negative I was going to do less of. It really was that simple, and it was incredible how quickly my whole life changed as a result.”
- Be willing to take a risk: When Olsen’s husband died, she was “literally penniless” and had to cash in a jar of change just to buy groceries. At that point, she felt that she’d already lost everything so why not take a chance? With her skills and passion for real estate, she put her nose to the grindstone and spent a lot of sleepless nights searching for deals. “I looked for things I could buy on a contract for deed, short sales, bank-owned foreclosures and estate sales,” she said. “I just did whatever I could to work it out.” And as she continued to purchase and sell properties, she learned to be creative and collaborative with the person on the other side of the table. “Most of the projects I’ve done have involved understanding what it is the other person needs and then figuring out how we can make it work for everybody,” she said. “A lot of times, I’ll have people tell me ‘oh, that’s not your problem,’ but to me, it kind of is because if I can solve the other person’s problem, then that will allow them to say yes.”
- Step out of your comfort zone: Many people have plans and ideas for what they want to do “someday” but never feel fully prepared to take the plunge. And as a result, they never do. Because Olsen has learned the hard way that tomorrow is not promised, she’s learned to embrace stepping out of her comfort zone while still doing her due diligence to ensure she’s making informed decisions. “For me, the risk of not doing something is worse than the risk of trying,” she said. “That’s because if you try and you fail, you can always shift gears and reassess.”
- It’s OK to start small: You don’t have to quit your job or liquidate your life savings to pursue a dream. Olsen, for example, had been searching for somewhere in Minnesota to rent or purchase a cake for her mother-in-law to jump out of at a party. Finding nothing – and noticing that a lot of other people were looking for the same thing she was – she decided to make her own. It was a huge hit at the party and buoyed by the positive reaction, she created a website to sell them. “I think we had a total of $500 invested in this, and then all of a sudden, we started getting an order a day from places as far away as Dubai and Australia,” she said. Eventually, after getting her cake designs patented and finding a local manufacturer to create them, she was bringing in $40,000 per year on the side while continuing to work in real estate. “That income allowed me to invest in other things,” she said. “It was really small things that led to really large changes.”
- Listen to the advice of others: With Olsen’s Yacht Club project, she’s sought feedback on social media to help guide her decision-making process and she’s gotten some valuable insights along the way. “I didn’t even think of the idea that people living in the area would want to have their family stay at the hotel but it turned out to be something a lot of people said they wanted,” she said. “That’s why the listening part is so important. Listening to the universe. Listening to people. And if you have a good idea, the solutions find themselves.”
- Tap into the wisdom of those who’ve come before you: Through her work and her travels, Olsen has met a lot of retired executives from large corporations who have been eager to share their knowledge with her. “There are so many people who would be more than happy to mentor you if you just ask,” she said. “In fact, they want to be asked. They want to be valued and stretch the part of their brain that they don’t really use during retirement.” Olsen recommends doing some research to find people who have done the type of work you’re interested in and reaching out to them. “Take them out for coffee or to lunch and get as much information from them as you possibly can,” she said. “Then, you’ll have someone on your side to support you so you won’t feel like you’re doing it all on your own. It’s a win-win for everyone.”
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