Six months after being laid off from my career job I started working for what is now, Keller Williams of Central PA, The Dave Hooke Team. You may ask, "Why real estate? Why didn't you start farming at that point?" I was not stable enough yet to take the leap into full time farming and building a business. My confidence was low and I still wasn't sure of my identity. Had I tried then, I would most surely have failed. At the time, The Dave Hooke Team was a small supportive group of people that were willing to be patient with me and help me find myself again. They knew I was hurting but also knew that I had skills and talents that could be rediscovered.
My prior career was with a non-profit organization. Working for Keller Williams opened up the world of business to me that I had not previously known. I became educated on all aspects of running a successful small business. It was not long until the spark was lit in my brain, "I could apply what I'm learning to farming!"
I left Keller Williams for farming after about a year. I am forever in debt to all the wonderful people with this organization. They helped me through one of the lowest times of my life and helped me find myself again. I know they had hoped I would be a part of the business they were building but they were incredibly gracious and supportive of me leaving to chase the dream I'd always had, to farm. Now it wasn't a dream, it was something I could do! The time was right, I had the knowledge and I was ready!
Now this is the part where I'm supposed to say, "But nothing could have prepared me for what was to come!" This wasn't my experience. There have been extremely hard moments in the journey but I believe everything that had happened to me prepared me. I had a plan, experience, knowledge, support from my family and my mind was stronger than it had ever been in my life thanks to the processes of overcoming the struggles of experiencing a drastic life change. It was time to take the leap.
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