How Did I Get Here?

I saw this quote today and it made me think about my career journey. It’s been interesting to see that people make assumptions about my Real Estate career based on my gray hair and my age. They assume I have been doing this for a really long time. Interesting.

In fact, I have been in Real Estate for 2 years in late August. This is my second career. Previously, I had a very long career working in Early Childhood Education and Childcare Management, which I loved. But there came a time when I needed to move on from that career to my second career. So, allow me to share my story.

I started with a very large Early Childhood Education corporation in 1981, long before it was called that. I had gone to college to be a teacher, but midway through, decided it was way more important for me to get married and I moved to Alabama with my husband. I became a Kindergarten teacher, then a teacher of 2 year olds, then a preschool teacher. Later, I became a Director of the school and got to participate in many test programs as our corporate headquarters was located in the same city.

Now, this was during the time computers were new. I know, hard to imagine if you weren’t there. During that time, I participated in an advisory group and testing of a new program designed to convert our accounting system from paper to online. It was life changing for me, to include being recruited from managing a school to helping with the training and rollout of the system and to work the help desk to support 1,100 schools across the country. I left the school and moved to the corporate headquarters for a few years before the company was sold and the headquarters moved to Oregon.

I did not want to move to far away Oregon. And I missed working with the schools, the teachers, and the families. So the company moved me to Tennessee and I became a District Manager. I supervised Directors and schools across Tennessee and Alabama. It was wonderful. Nothing was the same from day to day, always a new adventure. Some days were on the road and some in the office or in schools, meeting new people and supporting teachers and families. And I did that for 20 years.

Then, ironically, the online system that I helped develop, train and rollout over 20 years before, was being replaced. And I volunteered to be on the team. So over the next few years, traveling between Tennessee and Oregon, I worked with the team to test, develop training and roll out the new system. And then, when that came to an end, there was nothing for me to do.

I couldn’t go back to my old position and I couldn’t continue to travel between Tennessee and Oregon. There wasn’t a position available for me. Believe me, I tried. So, after just over 37 years, I left. It was time to move on to my second career. Yes, I was scared. I moved on to a job as a consultant for another smaller Childcare corporation for 6 months, then decided it was time to move on from the field to something completely new. So I went to Real Estate School in 2019.

I had always toyed with the idea of doing something in Real Estate but wasn’t sure I wanted to do “sales” and I wasn’t going to leave the company that I had been with for so long. Sometimes you just need a push. After Real Estate school, I got my license and affiliated with a local agency, United Real Estate Solutions. The atmosphere was great, there was lots of support and training and the people were so open and helpful. It was the perfect fit for me.

And I learned quickly that Real Estate is not about sales. It’s about relationships. And so much of my old skills came into play. I am a teacher at heart and I found so many people are not comfortable with the home buying process but are “afraid” to ask questions. I love working with First Time Home Buyers and walking them through the process with explanations and support.

And I have gained a lot of experience. Even though Covid came about 6 months after I started in the field, I was still able to sell homes, although it has been slower that a typical first year. And I had a great mentor agent through our agency and the support of my sister who is also a Real Estate Agent in Nashville.

I’m glad I moved on to my second career and my second phase of life. It was time for me to move on from my first career and I’m glad I did. I have great memories and it will always be my first love but I have found a second love. This career is perfect for me in this phase of my life. How many people get the chance to say that?