i'm nancy ales and tenured professor in the business program and the real estate program in the business engine nearing and i teach division i am also the real estate coordinator for the real estate program i started my business career when i was nine years old and i sold household cleaning items door to door up and down my street and a couple of other blocks i ended up becoming one of the top sickles people admitted le my room was not very clean but i ended up becoming very successful selling household cleaning to my neighbors and strangers that lived within a three block radius i even created a particular file so that i would call them every two weeks tell me about new products so business has been very good to me even from those humble beginnings i was able to save money and i started three different savings account one for car one for a trip to europe and one for my first home and that continued to grow when i graduated high school from charlotte high school and sure like washington i procrastinated in getting a summer job so i ended up applying to kelly girl which is a temporary secretarial service and i took all their tests and i basically failed every one of them including typing where i typed fourteen words per minute with three mistakes oh they basically said nancy you're qualified to answer phones and file police i knew my e c s the next day i was called to go to advance mortgage which used to be house just across the street from our c e o community college and they hired me to answer phones and file because that's when a new law came into effect called respa and they had to learn about it so i answered the phones with such enthusiasm and i filed so accurately that by lunchtime the manager came out and said nancy we'd like to hire you would you like to be a loan processor and i said but i can't tie you and he said you'll learn and that was my start in real estate i was a loan processor and i worked while i went to the university of washington i was a loan processor and then i became an underwriter and then i became an underwriter for five states and regional underwriter and then when i was ready to graduate two weeks away from graduating with my business degree with a marketing major from the university of washington i went to my regional manager and said you know i'm going to get my degree and i expect a promotion and a raise and more responsibility and he looked me in the eye and said nancy you're a girl you won't get it and i said oh all right thank you so much and i started applying for other jobs well my manager contacted the regional manager and said you're going to lose nancy if you don't offer something more so the regional manager flew back out to seattle washington and said you know what how would you like to open our anchorage alaska office our branch office and down you would be the branch manager you will be the first woman to manage an office and you'll open it you'll hire the staff and you'll also make sales calls while being in the underwriter for alaska  two weeks later i moved to encourage alaska with all my clothes a rice cooker and that was all i had and i said to myself well i'll give myself six months to see if i like it or not well i've loved alaska i love the attitude the culture it was a pioneer spirit plus i loved opening up an office and i was the first person to ever hire a male loan processor and when i hired him but he told him you know i expect you to wear shorts because i like legs and he's six foot two inches tall i'm i'm on a good day five four so it was a jump in the very funny my language branch became so successful based on the sales calls and being so accessible with my underwriting and talking to people that we increased our market share so significantly that within a year and a half i was stolen or recruited by the competition and they hired me to be a regional director which my present company said they could never be because women are never regional directors and in the mortgage insurance industry a regional director gets a significant salary and regular bonuses or commissions based on their sales i was doing all the work of a regional director and underwriting the loans and running the branch office while being paid as a branch manager underwriter and so i had asked them you know gee would you consider me for the regional director position as i'm doing it anyway and i've already proven myself and again that regional manager basically like tapped me on the head and said no you're a woman and women will never be regional directors so  oh thank you and out of my competition another private mortgage insurance company recruited me and hired me as their regional director where i got a significant almost double my salary and commissions and because i was taking away their business and my present company so i started working for them and increase their market share significantly but then i realized you know there was politics and i just don't really want to get into negative negative behaviors with my colleagues and and those kind of things and i realized what i really needed to do with the self a became a realtor he ended up with in the first year i sold well actually let me let me go back so it took me four times to pass the alaskan state real estate sales exam four times that's because the first time i sat in the back of the class or read the newspaper and figured i'd learn by osmosis and i failed the second time i sat in the front the very front row taking copious notes even though the the person who was teaching the class spoke in a monotone and discussed every sentence in on every page of i was bored stiff but i did it  but i didn't pass because i missed by one question and and you had to pass both portions at the same time you have the state portion and the general portion of the bill is dave exam so  my study that portion as die passed that the next time but i failed by the one question the general portion which i did pass previously so then this time all i did was practice taking the exams for both or since and on my fourth r the first thing i would say is be proud of yourself you have accomplished a lot by graduating with any certificates or degree when you leave your seattle community college because when you walk away with these certificates and agrees you're walking away with knowledge and i'm sure you've heard knowledge is power and if it is so when you interview when you write that cover letter and fine tune your resume you sure you write down about the accomplishments that you received and you earned it nor seattle community college your education from your seattle will help you open doors and quite frankly windows into your new career paths  interest where you want to start a business and he just graduated with your entrepreneurship certificate or you want to start or start working at a corporation or a large business or you want to get involved with marketing or you want there during that interview and you will get that job because you have a lot to offer that company because not only did you learn the content this information but you also learned about communication