Real estate is not short on confidence. It is an industry built on persuasion, presence and performance, where agents are expected to walk into living rooms, boardrooms and auction crowds and speak with certainty, even when the ground beneath them feels anything but steady.
And yet, beneath the surface bravado, many professionals are quietly editing themselves.
They soften the truth to win a listing or they hold back in meetings to keep the peace.
They may absorb pressure without complaint, and they keep showing up, even when the emotional cost quietly compounds.
That tension is exactly why Unmuted, the debut book from transformational coach and former executive Marianne Hynes, is landing with leaders well beyond the corporate world where she built her career.
While Marianne is not from real estate, she understands performance-driven environments intimately.
A former COO at PwC Indigenous Consulting, she spent decades navigating male-dominated industries where success was rewarded, but self-silencing was often an unspoken requirement, particularly for women.
Unmuted, she explains is not a leadership playbook in the traditional sense.
It is an examination of what happens when capable people stop waiting for permission to speak clearly, honestly and in their own voice.
Conditioned to perform, taught to stay quiet
Marianne grew up in remote Australia and was sent to boarding school at 11.
Shy and deeply self-conscious, she learned early how to adapt by staying small.
That instinct followed her into corporate life, where she excelled professionally while quietly believing her voice carried less weight than others.
“I genuinely thought there was something wrong with me,” she says.
“I was capable and driven, but speaking up, especially in groups, filled me with anxiety.”
Like many high performers, she approached the problem logically. Presentation training. Toastmasters. Professional development.
What she did not recognise at the time was that the issue was not skill, but conditioning.
A turning point came in her mid-30s following the sudden death of her first husband.
While seeking help for anxiety that manifested physically, Marianne was introduced to the idea that many of her reactions were learned responses, shaped long before her career began.
Messages absorbed early – such as “be seen and not heard” – had quietly informed how she showed up decades later.
“I did a lot of inner work,” she says. “But it all came from the belief that I was broken and needed fixing.”
It is a belief she now sees reflected in countless high-achieving women she has coached.
The cost of ‘not enough’ cultures
A central theme in Unmuted is the pressure to earn worth through constant achievement. More titles. More credentials. More proof.
It is a pattern that will feel familiar to anyone in real estate, where success is measured publicly and relentlessly.
Sales figures, rankings, awards, social validation. The next benchmark is always waiting.
Marianne describes this as a cycle of not-enoughness.
“You hit the goal, and it feels good for a moment,” she says.
“Then it fades, and the next one appears. Eventually, you realise you’ve built a life that looks successful on paper but feels empty.”
For women, that pressure often sits alongside the expectation to adapt to systems that were not built with them in mind.
Assertiveness attracts labels; boundaries can be misread, and confidence can be interpreted as threat.
Marianne recounts receiving a global award for her work, only to later discover she was being paid significantly less than lower-performing male peers.
Experiences like this teach people to self-monitor, to weigh every word, to stay agreeable even when something feels wrong.
The long-term cost is not abstract. Burnout, anxiety, autoimmune illness and depression are common outcomes of prolonged self-suppression, for men and women alike.
“When emotions are pushed down long enough, they come out somewhere else,” Marianne says. “The body always responds.”
People-pleasing in a client-facing industry
Real estate is, by nature, relational. Agents are rewarded for responsiveness, rapport and their ability to manage expectations, but that strength can quietly slide into chronic people-pleasing.
Marianne sees this most clearly in industries where income is directly tied to approval.
“Telling people what they want to hear feels safer in the short term,” she says.
“But most clients are far more perceptive than we assume. They know when they’re being managed rather than told the truth.”
Her perspective echoes what many experienced principals observe over time: trust is built through honesty delivered with care, not reassurance that later proves inaccurate.
“The best professionals I’ve dealt with weren’t the smoothest,” she says.
“They were the most grounded. They were willing to say, ‘This might be uncomfortable, but here’s the reality.’”
Speaking with clarity under pressure
One of the book’s strongest messages is about learning to speak with clarity under pressure, particularly in moments where staying quiet feels easier.
This is not about becoming louder or more forceful, she says. It is about being more direct.
For professionals who have spent years reading the room and adjusting instinctively, showing up differently can feel unsettling.
Marianne is careful not to advocate dramatic reinvention.
“Change doesn’t start with bold declarations,” she explains. “It starts with awareness.”
Noticing when you automatically soften a point. When you over-explain. When you stay quiet to keep things smooth.
From there, it becomes about small, deliberate shifts: asking the question you would normally swallow, naming a boundary calmly, or saying what needs to be said even if your voice wobbles.
“These moments seem small,” she says. “But repeated over time, they change what feels normal.”
For leaders, this has implications beyond personal wellbeing. Teams cannot contribute fully if conformity is rewarded.
Clients cannot receive honest advice if discomfort is consistently avoided.
Another thread running through Unmuted is the idea that leadership is not defined by role or seniority, but by influence.
How you show up under pressure. How you speak when it would be easier not to.
How you model behaviour for those around you.
In real estate, where many agents operate as individual businesses within broader brands, that idea feels particularly relevant.
Culture is shaped less by mission statements and more by everyday interactions.
“Every time you use your voice with truth and care, you show others what’s possible,” Marianne says.
Starting with energy, not effort
If there is a practical starting point Marianne encourages, it is not a communication framework or mindset shift. It is energy.
“Do one thing each day that genuinely brings you joy,” she says.
“If you’re constantly drained, it’s a sign your energy is going into things that cost you.”
In an industry defined by output and availability, this can feel counterintuitive.
But Marianne argues that restoration is essential for clarity, presence and honesty.
Joy, in this context, is not indulgence, she says. It is maintenance.
