CHRIS BLOCK

Faith, Family, Friendship and Fostering Long Relationships. Meet Chris Block

You could say that Chris Block’s professional career in the business world got off to a rocky start. And you’d be partly right, but not in the way you’d think. You see, Chris left the family farm in 1998 to begin work at Duininck Inc., a company that was focused on gravel, rocks and aggregate.

Learning from the Ground UP

Chris started on a paving crew (hard, hot difficult work) and worked his way up the corporate ladder, eventually becoming Aggregate Acquisition and Sales Manager, also serving on the Senior Leadership Team. “I was responsible for negotiating, managing and developing land leases and property purchases across the Midwest,” explains Chris. “I also managed and leased out the agricultural land that Duininck owned.”

The World of Land, Leases and Negotiation

In fact, Chris has been a part of the buying, selling and leasing of property for the last 25 years working for Duininck. You could say he knows a thing or two about property, land, leases and the art of negotiation. And you’d be right, in exactly the way you’d think. The aspect that Chris enjoyed the most in his tenure at Duininck was being part of the Senior leadership team, helping to forge the framework of the operation and its processes. “I loved that I was working for a family-owned company, directly impacting its success through my contributions. Being able to mentor, guide and train team members I worked with, seeing their growth and accomplishments, was especially rewarding to me,” he notes.

Big Life Change…For the Better!

After 32 years, Chris took all that knowledge about the corporate world, land, leases, properties and large dollar negotiation strategies and joined the Kristi Jo Block Real Estate Team. And he hasn’t looked back since. “I had been working at Duininck and watching Kristi Jo work so hard to build her successful real estate business,” explains Chris. “She is such a go-getter, so competitive and driven. In fact, her business had grown so much and there was so much energy and great things happening. I was looking for a new challenge, so I made the decision to leave Duininck and join her team.”

Win/Win/Win

That’s what you call a win/win/win! Chris was able to work side-by-side and spend more time with his best friend, his wife Kristi Jo. He brought all that knowledge, experience and insights to the team, and the unique synergy has been explosive and so productive, taking the team dynamic to a whole new level. “I plan to bring knowledge of business structure and look forward to helping to adopt processes to make our business operate efficiently,” Chris says. He also has found that it’s refreshing approaching real estate from a person-to-person perspective, and being able to make a huge impact in the lives of families the team serves.

Teamwork, Character and Integrity

Chris enjoys being on the team. He knows a lot about teamwork from being involved in sports growing up, including football, hockey, golf, trapshooting, and skiing. He played football at Southwest State University for a while until it got to be too much with his studies, always his main focus. Chris was also an Eagle scout and was involved in scouting for a good portion of his youth, as well as being active in his youth group at church. When it comes to character and integrity, Chris has been instilled in a do the right thing, always mentality all his life, and he carries that into his work on the Kristi Jo Block Real Estate Team.

The Great Outdoors and Family and Friends

Chris is avid outdoorsman. When he’s not hard at work helping his real estate clients, he enjoys hunting and fishing. “It allows me time to spend with family and friends in the outdoors, two of my favorite things!” Chris exclaims. Family and friends, and fostering long lasting relationships is an important part of Chris’s life.

Chris and Kristi Jo enjoy going ice fishing in the winter and staying in their fish house on various lakes in Minnesota and South Dakota. The Blocks love the lake life and being in and around water. “I have spent, and continue to spend, a good portion of my time on the area lakes fishing and pontooning when the weather is great. I love enjoying the beautiful Minnesota summers,” he says. “Life is good. I’m working alongside my wife, we’re growing and building our family business and we’re making great things happen for so many people in the area. I feel truly blessed and look forward to the future.”