Intelligent Luxury — Episode 4: The Art of Curiosity

Featuring:
Asha Saxena — Tech entrepreneur, Professor at Columbia University, best-selling author (The AI Factor, The Digital Human Advantage)
Julie Faupel — CEO & Founder of Realm Global
Heather Domi — Guest; luxury real estate professional with 25+ years of experience (New York & Miami), specializing in properties ranging from $2M condos to $60M listings

Key Takeaways

1. Be a student of the business — If you're not constantly learning, you will get left behind. Staying current means reading, researching, and connecting with peers.
2. Get into the advisory stack — Luxury real estate agents should position themselves alongside wealth advisors, CPAs, and family offices as trusted advisors to ultra-high-net-worth clients.
3. AI is the silent partner — Use AI tools to deeply understand your clients — their likes, dislikes, history, and communication patterns — before every meeting.
4. Google Suite + Gemini AI tip — Connect your Google Calendar/email to Gemini and ask it to summarize 12 months of communication with a client before a meeting. It delivers a one-page briefing instantly.
5. Build a multi-channel presence — Newsletters, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, and blogs are all necessary touchpoints. Clients consume content differently; cover all buckets.
6. Trust but verify — AI gives you ideas and speed, but always fact-check, validate, and stress-test what it produces before using it.
7. The right tech stack matters — Agents need to thoughtfully build a tech stack (CRM, digital advertising, retargeting) that supports their business without overwhelming it.
8. Human connection is irreplaceable — AI cannot replace the empathy, intuition, and relational nuance required in luxury real estate, especially in complex vertical markets like NYC.
9. Use AI to elevate, not deceive — AI-generated imagery and content must be used authentically. Misrepresenting properties erodes trust and wastes everyone's time.
10. Curiosity is the core skill — The single biggest piece of advice: be curious. Ask questions of AI the same way you'd ask a mentor, without fear of judgment.