Meet Gerson Seise

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Gerson Seise. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Gerson below.

Gerson, thrilled to have you on the platform as I think our readers can really benefit from your insights and experiences. In particular, we’d love to hear about how you think about burnout, avoiding or overcoming burnout, etc.

I didn’t avoid burnout — I walked straight through the fire.
My first round hit while helping run my family’s café from high school all the way through Covid. After that, I jumped into property management while the property was being sold, taken over, and completely overhauled. Overnight, everything I knew changed. I was expected to train, learn, adapt, and carry responsibilities I’d never handled before. It was a perfect recipe for burnout, and trust me… I tasted the full dish.

What I learned is this: your body doesn’t whisper when you’re off-track — it yells. And your instincts don’t lie, even when you’re too busy to listen. Burnout taught me to slow down long enough to hear myself again, to recognize when something I’m doing doesn’t align with who I am. I’m not talking about the normal “ugh, I don’t want to do this chore” resistance — I mean that deep internal tug that tells you you’re swimming against your own current.

Finding joy again was nonnegotiable. So was reconnecting my passion with the work I do. When those two line up, it stops feeling like you’re grinding your gears into dust.

I also learned that working harder doesn’t always mean working smarter. After years in hospitality, property management, and food and beverage, things that used to drain me now feel effortless — and sometimes that made me question whether I was “doing enough.” But ease isn’t laziness. Ease is experience paid forward.

Burnout happens to everyone. The difference is in how you respond, how you adapt, and whether you’re willing to rebuild in a way that honors who you are. Listening to your body, trusting your instincts, and staying true to yourself isn’t just good advice — it’s survival.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I’m Gerson Seise, a REALTOR® based in Laguna Beach with GERSON SEISE REALTY – Real Brokerage Technologies, and I built my business the same way I’ve built the rest of my life — by showing up for people, being honest, and keeping things simple. I spent years in hospitality, food & beverage, and property management, which means I know how to problem-solve, keep calm when someone else is melting down, and get things done without making a big dramatic production out of it. Real estate was the natural next step: a place where my customer-service backbone, my love for helping people, and my obsession with details actually work for me instead of against me.

I do this work because I know how life-changing it is to have someone in your corner who genuinely cares and doesn’t just “smile and sell.” I’ve lived burnout, I’ve lived the grind, and I’ve learned to lead with honesty, clarity, and instinct. Now I guide clients the same way — empowering them, not babysitting them, and making sure they understand the process so they feel confident, not confused.

My goal is simple: make “Gerson Seise” synonymous with trustworthy, community-driven real estate. Whether someone needs help buying, selling, leasing, or just figuring out where to get a great meal or catch a perfect SoCal sunset, I want to be the person they think of. I love working with first-time buyers, luxury clients, and investors because each group brings a different kind of excitement — from life-changing milestones to strategic wins.

At the end of the day, I do this because I genuinely enjoy helping people move into the next chapter of their lives. Real estate lets me use everything I’ve learned, work smarter instead of harder, and build something meaningful while still living a life I’m proud of.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Looking back, the three things that shaped my journey the most were:

1. Resilience — the kind you don’t choose, but the kind life hands you anyway.
Working at my family market & café through high school, college and Covid, then surviving a complete upheaval in property management, taught me how to stay steady when everything around me is chaos.
Advice: Don’t avoid challenges; go through them. That’s where resilience gets built. And listen to your body—burnout isn’t a badge of honor.

2. People skills — the hospitality kind, not the “fake smile and script” kind.
Years in hospitality, food & beverage, and property management trained me to read people quickly, stay calm when others panic, and communicate clearly. Those skills transferred straight into real estate.
Advice: Put yourself in roles where you have to deal with people face-to-face. Nothing sharpens your instincts faster than handling a stressed-out customer or resident.

3. Organization & efficiency — working smarter, not harder.
After doing a little bit of everything for so long, I know how to cut through the noise and get to the result. Sometimes things feel “too easy” now, but that’s just experience doing its thing.
Advice: Stop glorifying the grind. Build systems that make your life easier. Learn how you work best and lean into it — not every success story requires a 24/7 hustle.

⸻

If I had to boil it down:

Be resilient, be good with people, and learn to work smart. Develop those three, and you won’t just move forward — you’ll move forward without losing yourself in the process.

Tell us what your ideal client would be like?

My ideal client is the person who genuinely wants to work with me. When someone chooses me — whether they’ve known me for years or were referred by someone who has — there’s already a foundation of trust, and that makes all the difference. Real estate is full of agents, and the truth is, not everyone is the right fit for each other. I’m not meant for every buyer or seller out there, and that’s okay.

The clients I work best with are the ones who value honesty, communication, and partnership. I don’t want to spend half my time trying to convince someone to trust me — that’s not the kind of relationship I build my business on. I want clients who trust me enough to trust the process, because my job isn’t to tell people what to do. My job is to guide them so they feel informed, empowered, and confident in every decision they make.

I listen closely to what people want — and what they absolutely don’t want — because I care about how they feel at the end of the transaction, not just whether I can force a deal to close. I want my clients to walk away knowing they were understood, supported, and treated with genuine care.

At the end of the day, my ideal client is simple: someone who chooses me, trusts me, and wants a partner in the process, not just a salesperson.

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