Rising Stars: Meet Carey Niravong

Today we’d like to introduce you to Carey Niravong.

Hi Carey, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born here in Nashville, Tennessee in 1989. I am first generation Laotian-American as my parents immigrated to the USA from Laos in 1986 after the Post-Vietnam war turmoil that continued in Southeast Asia. Although I was born in Nashville, I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky where I spent most of my life. My work career started early in life. I began my first job as a busboy for a local Chinese restaurant in Louisville, KY at the age of 15.

Working throughout high school gave me a good sense of time management and money management, but I’ve always wanted more. I learned that I enjoy being in the restaurant setting and found my way to an apprenticeship to become a Hibachi Chef. At 17 years old, I graduated High school and put all my focus on completing my apprenticeship, and enjoyed the chef life for 5 years after that. The restaurant world was starting to take a toll on my home life.

I got married at the age of 19 to my wife of 14 years and did not get to enjoy my life wife her as much as I should have. So I decided to go back to school to pursue the dream that my parents engrained in me since I was a young boy – Becoming a doctor of medicine. While working as a chef, my weeks could easily reach 60 hours and the remainder of my time would be dedicated to studies. I soon retired from the restaurant and my wife and I moved to Murfreesboro, TN in 2012 so I could transfer to MTSU to focus on my studies.

I did not have any financial help from a legacy or anything like that, so going to school was on our dime. With that being said, I still had to work. Going to school full time taking on Pre-Med while working full time to make ends meet, my wife and I began noticing my health declining. 40-60 hours a week, working night shifts at multiple different warehouses, I started getting sleep deprived, malnourished, and developed some heart palpitations that scared me almost to death.

That scare forced me to re-evaluate my goals and weigh them against my health and my life. Was pre-med worth it if I keep failing classes due to lack of sleep and study time? Do I want to be a doctor if it costs me my marriage and my health? the answer for me was – no. I begged my wife to take the reins on our finances and I went to school full-time after the hard decision of changing my major to a degree that would yield me a certificate sooner – Healthcare Administration. My wife took over as the sole income source and I ground out school for a semester taking on 18-21 credit hours – on campus and online.

A couple of months in and our plan begins to take another turn. First my health and now my wife’s health. With her working more and taking more overtime to match our previous income, she started showing physical signs of declining health which we later learned was due to underlying health issues that were not foreseen. 3 months of full-time school, and I had to go back to work again while my wife underwent her first of several different surgeries. I became the primary source of income again and continued my school schedule as I only had 2 semesters left.

My life for the next year and a half consisted of work during the day, overtime on the weekends, school at night, and caring for my recovering wife in between. Again, we did not have any help but we are grateful for the family and friends that did offer their time to assist. I eventually made it to graduation from MTSU in 2017 with my Bachelor of Science in Liberal studies – Biology and Healthcare administration.

After graduation, I continued to work at the warehouse (Manufacturing plant) as I searched for my career job. My focus was to keep making enough money to pay for my mortgage, bills, and hospital bills that continue to pile up from my wife’s multiple surgeries. I must have applied to 30-40 different jobs that would take someone without any experience. 1 year into the job search and I was stuck. Until someone overheard my conversation with my wife at a convenience store which ultimately led to the start of my career at a hospital corporation as a project manager.

3 years into my project management career I quickly moved up and was making great progress professionally. I knew I wanted to do more and what I wanted was to build something of my own. So I started studying all things about real estate. I’ve always worked towards building my entrepreneurial skill sets so I knew that real estate would be the best transition for me. I thought of it as a way to transfer all my previous knowledge as well as incorporate my current project management knowledge into a top-tier real estate professional. I began taking the courses and mapping out my real estate plans.

As I worked on my studies and learned all that I can about real estate my career was starting to become more stagnant. I still felt like something was missing. I continued to chase the next promotion and looked for ways to improve myself and ways to gain more knowledge in my job. That is when I felt reminded that something was missing from my life – Children. We have tried for several years with no luck on having children.

I started to focus on our ability to have children and this is when we learned that my wife had other medical issues that were likely the reason why we could not conceive. After more hospital trips, more doctor consultations, more surgeries, a scary OR moment, and help from our Nashville fertility specialists we were able to have our son, born on May 9th, 2022. Shortly after the birth of my son, I realized that I needed to step up my goals for our future and build a legacy.

I did not see a future for me where I was at (corporate politics) as my search for the next promotion only left me stuck in the circle of trying to gain in areas where I was not a good fit. I learned to adjust my focus and hone in on my current skills in hopes of getting that next promotion or looking elsewhere in the corporate world – this would mean leaving the company I have been with for some time and starting new somewhere else. I was torn, stuck, and felt like I was separating myself from where I was going to where I needed to be.

Then on Aug 15, 2022, I got laid off. I was broken. The timing could not have been worse. My son was 3 months old, my wife was still recovering and not working, hospital bills piled up and I get laid off. I did not know what else to do and did not know how to grieve such a situation as I have never been in a situation like that before. All I knew was that I had to keep pushing – for the sake of my family.

I cram-studied for the real estate exam and finally worked up the courage to take the state and national exams and passed on Aug 25, 2022. When you’ve hit the bottom, the only other way to go is up – is what I kept telling myself. I then joined an amazing Real estate brokerage called Bradford Real estate and am now part of the wonderful team called “The Carver Group” under Brandon Carver.

The Carver Group focuses on building strong real estate professionals out of people that have full-time days jobs and can seamlessly work on real estate at the same time. My resume eventually landed me a great job for another corporate healthcare company that allows me to shine as a Project management professional I learned to be as well as provide great work-life balance so I can build my real estate business without conflicts.

Today, I continue to work on building my real estate business by networking with local professionals throughout Nashville while maintaining my career job to support my everyday life. I am blessed to say that I now have a baby girl on the way and due in April 2023 so I have another great reason to build my real estate business.

I love real estate as I get to work with and help tons of amazing people from all around find their dream homes or help them sell their current homes for something better! I’ve never been more focused and excited about what’s in store for me in the future. I hope to make a strong impact on Nashville by providing the highest level of real estate professionalism and continue to make a name for myself by serving Nashville in all real estate needs.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Yes, there were lots of struggles:

– My health
– My wife’s health
– finances
– career impacts
– Lay off
– Life-changing events- the birth of my son
– Being on our moving to Murfreesboro
– Sleeping in my car until I got a place to stay with my brother
– Full-time job and multiple warehouses/manufacturing plants while going to school full time
– lack of parental support
– probably more that I am not thinking of.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a senior business project manager for oncology programs at CVS Health Solutions I am also a licensed Tennessee Real Estate Agent. I am most proud of where I came from as a Project management professional and especially excited for where I will be as I apply those skills to real estate to build this business.

I’ve also been known for being a good cook. My wife and I carry over our experience from the restaurant world and my work as a chef to continue to cook regularly and host tons of events yearly. I also do a lot of work on cars recreationally as I do have. a fixation for automotive mechanics.

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
What I love about Nashville is the good old southern hospitality. I’ve been in areas where diversity is not widely accepted and ever since moving to Nashville, it has become more like home every single day. The growth opportunities for Nashville have been astonishing. I remember seeing Nashville when I was younger with only highrises. Now there are so many that fill up the skyline, which tells me that our city is growing very well.

What do I least like about Nashville? Not sure. I guess the traffic? with new companies, jobs, and people moving in of course that would increase traffic. But I am sure there will be some road advances/upgrades in the future to accommodate.