When I started building HUNTERS again, I began reaching out — to my own database, and to people on LinkedIn. Most of them I actually know. We've been in touch or worked together before.
In many cases, what came back was silence.
It surprised me more than I'd like to admit.
So I started paying attention to it. And my sense is that ghosting has quietly become the default at work — especially when you're answering to someone else. I'm only guessing at the why, but it seems to come down to this: you don't have to think, evaluate, or take responsibility. You don't have to say "no." And because "no" is uncomfortable, silence ends up feeling like the safer option.
I don't take it personally anymore. It's just the reality now. But here's the thing I keep turning over:
How often do we do it too? Not out of malice — just because the honest sentence is hard to say.
I keep coming back to twenty-two years in real estate.
The real value a seller wants from an agent isn't good news. It's the truth — even when it's only the agent's truth. And the deepest frustration a client feels isn't a low offer. It's being ghosted. The agent who can't bring themselves to say:
"There are no viewings."
"Buyers think it's overpriced — and honestly, I agree."
"I was wrong on the price. We need to adjust."
And notice this: an agent usually works for themselves. No boss to hide behind. Their own name on the line. And still, so many go quiet.
That's how hard it is to tell your own truth.
My honest guess is that AI will only make this matter more. As the routine gets automated, what stays distinctly human is exactly this — the courage to say "I was wrong," to stay in real contact with another person. That's the part no model does for you. And I think that's where the real value will increasingly sit.
Silence builds nothing. Truth does.
So I'm genuinely curious — not rhetorically:
Where do you choose to tell the truth, even when silence would be easier?
And when you've been on the receiving end of a hard truth — what did it actually feel like?