September 16, 2025
Career Story

Kai Hochhausen’s Career Story

Director of Marketing & Business Development – SERVPRO of Calgary

This series features the professional journeys of a wide range of individuals across Canada’s real estate development industry. Often, these stories highlight how rewarding careers in real estate development are the result of following your interests, fostering personal and professional networks, and keeping an open mind about what a career in real estate development might be.

Meet Kai Hochhausen, MBA – Director of Marketing & Business Development – SERVPRO of Calgary Downtown, Skyview, South-Southeast.

How did you get started in your career?

After graduating with a degree in International Relations and international travel in Asia and Latin America, I initially fell into sales, first selling home telecom services door-to-door. The emotional swings of B2C are tough, but they were formative. After about a year, I took my skills abroad to England and Europe, working and travelling for over the next year, driven by curiosity, as I bounced around between cities and countries. I met many people, made genuine friendships, and enjoyed learning about their motivations in life and travels. I returned to Canada with a newfound love of conversation, exploration, and heartfelt interest in others and have let that curiosity guide me in my career ever since.

Today I work for a family-owned and operated restoration firm, SERVPRO of Calgary. SERVPRO provides fast, effective, and stress-free restoration services to customers experiencing fire or water damage. In my role as Director of Marketing & Business Development, I work with property managers at various property management companies across many asset classes, including industrial, retail, office, condominium, and residential.

What inspired you to pursue this career path?

My current role is a perfect blend of office work and field visits, balancing outreach and sales with informative presentations and structured networking. Marketing in a relationship industry like real estate is very exciting. We get to really understand the “why” behind “what” our clients need and want.

Was there ever a moment you considered switching careers or industries?

While customer service remains at the heart of my career progression, I have by most measures successfully “bounced around” industries ranging from metal and automotive recycling to telecom, sports marketing, start-up brand management, and hospitality sales and management. I can attest that our ecosystems in business will either prop us up or bring us down and all we have in business is our reputations. I learned resiliency, perseverance, and hard work through sport and saying yes to opportunity, coupled with eternal optimism, I try to find the silver lining wherever I can. But, too, curiosity led me to a recent add-on to my career in a pretty unique opportunity to teach for the last 4 years at SAIT, initially in Marketing and most recently in Personal Selling. It’s an awesome self-check and keeps me grounded to my roots. I am motivated by learning something new every day, and luckily for our field of work, “new” keeps coming. I would recommend everyone understand their “why” and set micro-goals; for me, as long as I am learning something every day, motivation is a free-flowing tap and keeps life very exciting.

What role have mentors or key influences had on your career?

I have had three particularly influential leaders, and with their combined wisdom, I have three main workplace mantras that shape my perspective on work, life, and balance.

1. “Minimum plus 1” Never meet expectations; always exceed. This advice came from a leader who pushed the idea of “inspecting the expectation”. If I can’t be proud of my presentation, how will anyone want to buy from me? So, in preparation for each day and each task, I ask myself what the expectation is of me that day and, somehow, go beyond what is expected.

2. “Don’t focus on things you can’t control.” There is a lot of noise in the workplace, and I had a very wise boss express, “I’m not worried until you’re worried”. Trust your team. You’ll know if your team isn’t performing (and likewise if you aren’t performing for your team), but they should be empowered to tell you what resources, time, or assistance they need, with leniency and without judgment.

3. Take a lunch break and leave your desk. Taking 30 minutes to yourself (or for a non-work-related visit) will help reframe your day. Stepping away helps clear your head, and you return with a fresh perspective.

Tell us about a project or achievement you are most proud of?

Changing industries in the face of adversity is one of my great personal achievements. I did this by putting myself in a position to meet influential and genuine people and keeping an open-mind, while leaning on my network to continue to grow. I love bringing people together, so finding allies in the new industry and creating something for us to collectively celebrate around creates immediate and ongoing joy.

To that point, I’ve attended, participated in, or volunteered with several associations during my time at SERVPRO. Volunteering has been a great way to meet and work with new people. Some of the associations I’ve participated or volunteered in are:

What advice would you give to someone starting out in the field?

Keep an open mind. Network. Volunteer. Meet new people all the time. Break down personal boundaries and push your comfort zone. Don’t be afraid to ask stupid questions. Be humble, but be brave and stick up for your ideas.

Want to curate your career in real estate development? Connect with us to explore how our experiential, industry-connected programs can support your professional development at any career stage.