By Sheila McGrath
WKTV Contributing Writer
Kristin Ruther has a word of advice for women who feel like they’ve somehow landed in the wrong job.
“You’re not a tree,” she said. “You’re not planted. You can move.”
Over the course of her working life, Ruther has found success in a variety of jobs that made use of her business development skills and her love of bringing people together.
These days, she’s a Realtor who leads the Ruther Daigle Team at RE/MAX of Grand Rapids. She has worked in real estate for the past six years, and as one of the top-selling agents in the area last year, became a member of RE/MAX’s Platinum Club.
But not every job she took over the years turned out to be a good fit. And when it wasn’t, she found a way to move on.
Ruther and her husband, John, got married while she was still in college. Their first child arrived before she graduated, so finishing college and starting a career were temporarily put on hold. Their family grew to include two more children, and she loved staying home with them when they were small.
After going back to school and finishing her degree in 2005, she took a job as a recruiter in Downers Grove, Illinois, with hopes of eventually becoming a human resources generalist.
But the hours were long – she left home at 6 a.m. and couldn’t leave the office until her boss left after 6 p.m. When the opportunity arose to join an architectural firm that specialized in building churches, she jumped at the chance.
“It was really fun to be able to think about architecture and design because that’s what I really enjoy,” she said.
When she joined the group in 2008, the firm’s average project size was $750,000. By the time she left six years later, she was director of strategic partnerships and the average project size had grown to $3 million.
But Ruther and her husband had decided to return to Michigan to be closer to family, and she was once again pondering her next career move. After thinking for a while about becoming a real estate agent, she began taking classes and got her license.
The kickoff to her new career didn’t go quite as planned, though – at her first job, a male colleague introduced her to the rest of her new team by saying “This is my girlfriend.”
“I’m nobody’s girlfriend,” she told him afterward. “It’s not a joke.”
Despite her objections, his behavior continued. So she got out and joined a different brokerage.
“There are so many places where you can feel empowered and strong, and that’s where you need to be,” she said. “I think it’s almost every woman’s experience: of pushing back and saying ‘That doesn’t feel right, I need to move away from that.’”
Three years ago, she joined RE/MAX of Grand Rapids after falling in love with their sleek, contemporary office space on Byron Center Avenue in Wyoming. She describes the office as a “big learning community” where there are always classes going on to help them grow as Realtors.
“There’s always something that you’re learning that they’re pouring into you,” she said. “There’s always something to learn about houses and what makes a good house for somebody, or what some of the red flags are.”
She loves the design aspect of staging houses and helping her clients get top dollar for their properties. And she’s honored by the trust they put in her.
“As agents, we are trusted,” she said. ‘You’re giving me the keys to your house. You’re trusting me with some very big financial things. So there’s a level of integrity you have to have.”
The team Ruther leads now includes her daughter, Lauren Daigle, who does all of her marketing and photography, and her son-in-law, Aaron Daigle, who joined the team as a Realtor.
Ruther said education has been a big part of her success.
“Education is the key. Every time you take a class you gain a little more confidence and a little more competence, and I think all of that really piles up.”
But she said for her, it was also really helpful to have a coach –someone who always has your back.
“There’s always something for you to learn from somebody who has been there, done that,” she said.
