Collegian Profile in Focus – Brianna Williams (Class of 2012)

Collegian Profile in Focus – Brianna Williams (Class of 2012) 

Life Story

My life has stayed busy. In high school, I enjoyed being active and contributing to the school and community and that hasn’t changed. I work full-time as a real estate agent in Canberra and then do hosting events across the capital and have ventured into social media to entertain and inform people.

I lived abroad for a little bit but came back with a fresh perspective on Canberra. Though I never went and studied at university I was still active in the university sports programs. Netball for UC redbacks and then later AFL and ANU Griffins.

After trying different career paths including photography, financial services, and administration I found a career that allows me to be my authentic self, real estate. I get to help people find their new homes and help them sell to start a new story. It’s emotional and rewarding and I love being a different kind of agent in this industry.

Favourite Moment (Story) 

My time in the musicals. I loved the little community you build in those because you spend all this time together and you form these bonds and jokes with each other. During the production of West Side Story I was in year 10 working with yr 11 and 12 and at the start, it felt so daunting to then become friends with these people was amazing.

Being a part of the first Gunawirra trip with H was also looking back so monumental for me and now I see the school. We had no idea what we were doing nor how much it would impact us. So much has changed now based on these trips but the root of all of them comes from H’s deep want for students who are perceived to have so much and so much privilege and show us our Australian community. And that has never been so important as right now.

The Timor Trip as well but from an international community standpoint with Richard Browning. Mind-blowing trip and showed me that Australia should be doing more for our pacific neighbours.

These trips for me taught me about Active Listening and choosing to listen. Which is something I have to remind myself every day due to nature of my job and my want to talk to people and connect.

Do you have a particular role model or inspirational figure from Radford or now?

H and Akhurst. Authentic people that were confident in their delivery and believed what they taught.

Also Richard Browning for his guidance as well.

How easy was it to decide what to do in life?

Impossible. Trying to figure out what to do after leaving wasn’t a pathway. We had spent the last 12 years of our life being told what to do, where to go, when to eat and when it finished and then we were given the reins I had so much anxiety. Was I making the right choice? Will this set me up for the future? Should I do a degree or a gap year? And this feeling didn’t go away in a year which I think people think it will. It follows you and its always there but as we get older and begin to trust ourselves more as independent people the voice becomes softer. I would say this feeling for me didn’t go away until my last job before I started real estate.

Did your further study or career go exactly as you’d planned?

I went and studied at CIT for photography and completed in 2014.

I then thought I should go to University and sat the STATs again as a mature-age student, got into UC for an arts degree with law and PR went for two weeks then got offered a job in Public Service. I deferred my degree and went to work.

My life was anything but planned. I wanted to go to VCA for acting or RMIT for photography and I ended not getting into either.

What do you know now, that you wish you’d known when you were at Radford?

You are going to doubt yourself more than you are now. But what you went through at school and the ways you dealt with it will help you get through it. And don’t be afraid to go on a whim.

What advice do you have for current students?

They say this to you in the Senior School info night when you’re with your parents sitting at TB Miller and you’re starting to think about what you’re going to study and they say,

“do what you like”.

Follow that. If you follow that and then take a leap of faith sometimes in trying something new and different you might surprise yourself.

Also, make the thing, upload it or send it. You are stopping yourself from getting better and learning from it. You have to get the bad ideas out so the good ones can come in.

Anything else that you would like to share?

Radford is a bubble, and that is a good and bad thing. It nurtures you during the time you are there so you can figure out who the flop you are and it can feel suffocating at times but it’s just setting you up, their intentions are good. Don’t be afraid to pop that bubble though once you leave, it’s a lot of fun.

Tell us what you are passionate about?

I am passionate about helping people in the property industry, especially first-home buyers, women and older women in the community who may feel like they are not being seen. I enjoy and take passion in the social media content I create to promote Canberra and entertain my audience in other content as well such as political/pop culture.

When you were young, what were you hoping to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be an actress. I enjoy playing characters but the majority like entertaining people therefore acting felt natural to me and it drew me in.

Thank you Brianna for allowing us to share your profile!