Graduating With Tools

Sarah Posey: Well, hey everybody. Looking out and seeing y'all is just so surreal because this time, seven years ago, I was sitting where y'all are and graduation was rapidly approaching.
And I really had no idea what to expect. So I was perhaps different than some of y'all. Maybe some of y'all feel this way.
I really wasn't nervous about my career and my job after graduation.
The two things that really were overwhelming me and stressing me out were where I was going to live and how to grocery shop.
That may sound dramatic, but I had lived in the dorms the whole time.
I was an RA.
And so I really had never since graduating high school gone grocery shopping or had to cook for myself.
So some of y'all may be worried about that or you might be nervous about, you know, the job that you're going to take after graduation.
But throughout my last semester, I completed an internship at Keller Williams Realty.
I knew I wanted to be a real estate agent.
And so I was taking the steps I could to be ready for that.
There were 180 hours of real estate classes that I needed to get through so that I would be eligible to take my state and national exam.
So quickly after graduation, I took those tests, I was fully licensed, and I was ready to start selling homes.
Except it really wasn't that easy.
I had picked a career that I fully felt God called me to.
I had worked since I was 14, and I often felt bored at my job.
I watched the clock, and because of that, I began at a pretty young age identifying traits that would make a job challenging to me, but also enjoyable.
All I knew was I did not want to live my life waiting for 5 o'clock or waiting for Friday.
So beginning my career in real estate did challenge me, and no two days ever looked
alike, which were two of the things I had really prioritized when looking at careers.
As a realtor, I'm an independent contractor, so even though I work at a brokerage, I own
my own business, and I don't have a boss.
Because of that, there are no benefits and no salary.
But this appealed to me because I liked the idea of working as hard as I wanted to because I wanted to and loved what I got to do, not because somebody was telling me what to do.
So some of the same things that made me love this career were also the biggest challenges.
Some of the challenges are there are over 1,700 realtors in Lubbock.
And again, since you don't have a boss, there's no salary and no benefits.
I remember one night whenever I was starting on my evening walk, just praying and thanking God that I didn't know how challenging this was going to be.
Because if I had known, I'm afraid I would have never started it.
And just, it caused me to think back.
When I was in college, there were challenges I would face that were the hardest thing that I had faced up to that point.
But I got through them through his help.
And I really believe that God only gives you what you can handle in that time.
He prepares you for what you're going to face.
And even now, there's things ahead of me that I'm so thankful we don't know our future.
I don't know the challenges that are going to be ahead of me,
but I just trust that God will get me through them and that he's preparing me for that.
So even starting this, it was something that looking back college, I was grateful for the challenges.
And now looking back seven years ago, I'm grateful for how hard it was to get started.
Even in the early days of my career, though, God provided for me.
It was openly talked about at my brokerage that 75% of real estate agents leave the industry in the first year and 87% leave within the first five years.
I knew I didn't want this to be me, so I didn't have a backup plan.
This was it.
I did have bills to pay, but dual career didn't seem like a good option to me because I wanted to focus 110% on real estate.
The coolest opportunity came up a girl that I went to school with here was doing it and she recommended me
So it was I guess a part-time job, but very part-time. It only took two hours a day
I got the opportunity to walk with a boy named Davey who actually had down syndrome and
His parents just like him to get out of the house. It wasn't good for him to be in his house all day
So sometimes I would take him to the park and walk but mainly they liked him to go to Target
So we would walk around Target for about an hour.
I got really good at learning self-control because, oh, if I really want that, I'll just get it tomorrow.
I'll be back.
So we would walk around.
Then I would take him back to his house.
We would color, and it would be two hours.
They were pretty flexible on times that I went also.
So I liked to go from like two to four because then I could be at my office all day,
and then I was free for evening showings if I had buyers wanting to look at houses.
So looking back on that time, I just get chills at how God provided for me because my job that I was spending all my time at didn't pay.
But he provided a job that only took two hours a day that could cover my bills.
And I like to share real numbers because I think that's more impactful.
Whenever I was going five days a week, I could make $800 a month going, walking Davey.
And remember how I said I was nervous where I was going to live?
God provided for that too. I lived with two girls I went to college with, so my rent was only $420
a month. So real numbers, things were very tight, but I had $800 a month I was making, $420 going
to rent, so I had money left for gas and groceries. That was about it, but it kept me where I could
keep putting my all in real estate and not going and getting a job that took more than two hours a
day. So it's just cool to think how he even provided where I was going to live. I wouldn't
have known I could find a place that cheap. I only share that because I think it's easy to think
college is the hard part. And once I get through college, I'm going to be making a lot of money.
I'm going to, I won't have tests to study for, like I'll be set, but I really disagree with this.
And I think you should too, because the time after college is the time to take a chance on yourself.
I knew it was better now than later because I could just keep living like a broke college kid.
And that's exactly what I did.
There were times I wanted to give up.
I called my parents so many times just like,
I had no idea this was going to be this hard.
And my dad was trying to be encouraging a lot of my family as farmers.
And so he told me,
well, the posies always have a first hard couple years farming
and then it works out.
So just keep doing it.
Don't get me wrong.
It's still a grind even now, but it does get easier.
So in closing, my five thoughts or pieces of advice for going out into the world after graduation are,
one, you know, even if you're a freshman, it's going to be here before you know it.
And so spend time thinking about what you enjoy and how you can use that in a job.
Not what job I want, but what do I like?
What am I good at?
Pray, reflect on that, and see how you can implement that into a job.
You don't graduate with clarity.
You graduate with tools.
Do not just do what is easy
and be willing to let go of looking in charge
or like you have it all figured out
because we're all going to be clumsy
when we start something
and you're allowed to grow slowly.
Success is usually slow
and then all of a sudden.
Two, do not rush.
Fully live in the season that God has placed you in.
This does not mean being complacent,
but it means trust God
that he has you where you are for a reason
and be all in on that season. I've always been big on goals and I work hard at whatever I decide to
do. But I'm so happy, like, so after graduation, I was so nervous to start real estate, but I knew
that's what I wanted. Again, no backup plan. So I wasn't rushing into that next season.
One time I had an LCU basketball game my senior year. I remember I was sad to graduate. LCU was
the happiest time of my life I'd ever had. I loved it here. I was super involved. And I just,
I was saying in a basketball game, I hope I'm this happy after graduation because this has just been
so fun and I can't believe it's going to be over. And one of my friends looked at me and he said,
you will because that's who you are and you make the most of wherever you're at.
I share that because your words matter. Him saying that to me made me want that to be true.
And it made me reframe in my mind of, that's right, why can't the next thing be as good as LCU has been?
So enjoy this season, but know the next season can be just as good or even better if you keep living life with that attitude.
Number three would be just start implementing.
When you figure out what you want to do, don't wait around for it to be perfect.
Analysis paralysis is real, and you just have to start and not be afraid to fail.
Let go of your ego and just do it.
Four, this is, I would say, the most important piece of advice.
Have a mindset of gratitude.
I believe that you either can have a victim mindset or a gratitude mindset,
and everything can be placed into these two things.
For example, like if y'all have a test this weekend or next week,
you could be thinking,
ugh, I have to study, I want to hang out with my friends, I don't like this.
Or reframing it to think, wow, I'm so blessed that I got the opportunity to come to college
and I have this test and I'm just thankful that I do have a test to study for.
And even me, like all the time I have to reframe things.
Like with open houses, for example, they're usually on weekends.
And so I can look at it one of two ways.
Oh, I have an open house this weekend that I don't get to leave town.
I don't get to hang out with my friends.
I have to host this open house.
Or reframing it to, I get to host an open house this weekend,
and I might be helping two families accomplish their dreams
by holding an open house open for two hours this weekend.
One family dreams of selling their home and moving on.
The next family is dreaming of starting their life there.
So just if you ever find yourself feeling negative,
reframe it with gratitude, and it'll change your whole outlook.
And finally, my fifth piece of advice would be,
Every day when you wake up, just starting with,
how can I make somebody's day better today?
Because as Maya Angelou said, people will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did,
but people will never forget how you made them feel.
And with that, you are dismissed.