272 | What Real Estate Can Cost If You’re Not Careful with Jessica Wade

What if your real estate success is slowly costing you everything that actually matters?

In this episode of The Faithful Agent Podcast, Garrett Maroon sits down with Jessica Wade, a successful real estate agent and mom, for an honest conversation about faith, family, boundaries, and burnout in the real estate industry.

Jessica shares her raw journey of building a thriving real estate business while unknowingly allowing work to overtake her marriage and family life. She opens up about the pressure to succeed, the pride that crept in, and how her real estate career ultimately led to a painful separation from her husband. Through God’s faithfulness, intentional change, and a complete shift in priorities, Jessica and her husband experienced reconciliation and healing.

This conversation dives deep into work-life balance for real estate agents, especially moms in real estate, covering practical boundary-setting, time management, and the mindset shift required to see business as ministry—not identity. Jessica challenges agents to redefine success, protect their families, and build businesses that support the life God has called them to live.

Connect with Jessica:
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/jessicawadeRE
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/the_jessica_wade/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicawadere/

Key Takeaways

• Success in real estate means nothing if it costs your family
• Burnout often starts with unchecked pride and blurred boundaries
• God’s faithfulness can redeem even the hardest seasons
• Turning off notifications can change your life and your business
• Setting clear boundaries restores time, peace, and presence
• Real estate can be a ministry when aligned with the right priorities
• Young moms must guard time with their children fiercely
• GCI is not the measure of obedience or impact
• Saying “no” is often the most faithful decision
• A healthy business flows from a healthy home

Chapters

00:00 – Introduction & Jessica’s Background
02:53 – Marriage, Pressure, and Real Estate Burnout
05:52 – Separation, Faith, and Reconciliation
09:02 – Pride, Identity, and Business Success
12:09 – Choosing Family Over Hustle
14:59 – Tactical Changes That Gave Her Time Back
17:57 – Teaching Values Through Example
21:01 – Advice for Moms in Real Estate
24:13 – Learning to Say No
27:08 – Ministry, Mentorship, and What’s Next

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Resources & Opportunities:

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Transcript

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is fine, we'll record it because we can edit. But it uploads as we're going. So if you see me like pause, just keep going. I'll pause this if not, but sometimes it slows down just because it can't keep up, whatever. um But it should be good. So cool. All right, let me get my joke and we'll jump in. What is up, faithful agents? Welcome back to another episode of the Faithful Agent Podcast. I am truly, genuinely excited for you all to meet my guests today. She and I had the honor of meeting not too long ago at an EXP event that we were both at. And I think she has an incredible story of the Lord's faithfulness through her life. And not everything looked rosy along the way as a spoiler alert there. So I think you're gonna really be encouraged by her story. I know that I certainly have been excited to have my sister here with me. But before I introduce our amazing guest, Jessica Wade, I am going to... I think you're gonna like this one, Jessica. I just read it and it made me laugh. And I think you and I are probably the only ones that are gonna think this is funny, but I don't care. On the Ark. Okay. On the Ark, Noah probably got milk from the cows on board. Well, what did he get from the ducks? Quackers. That's a great joke. You are. If you're not watching on YouTube, Jessica is shaking her head at me, which I'm used to. But that's kind of funny. I don't know. You know, Jessica, like most guests, Jessica, at this point, like two minutes in, you're like, why did I agree to this? And it's fine because you're here now. So you're not going to leave. But I think I like it. I don't know. Quackers. All right. We can move on from that. But we've got Jessica Wade here again. What a joy and an honor it is to have you, Jessica. Most importantly, your lover of Jesus. you're married, you're a mom, and then you have a great business that you run in Georgia. go ahead and do a quick introduction of yourself, Jessica, then I wanna dive right into your story. But again, thanks so much for coming on. Awesome, thanks for having me, Garrett. Yeah, Jessica Wade located in Northeast Georgia, town called Gainesville. Married to my husband, Philip, for 25 years. And we have three kiddos, 24, 22, and 18. So approaching that next season of life, and I'm excited about empty nesting, hopefully, soon. Is that what happens? Yeah, I'm like, do you get to that point? You're like, are you going to stay or uh we get an opportunity? God prepares your hearts for that moment and you will be okay with letting them fly. That's awesome. Because right now, right? I mean, my oldest is eight, the youngest is three and a half months. I'm like, you guys are you can live anywhere within a five mile radius. Daddy will find you a house. Right. And you got to stay because I'm not used to not having you right here on my hip. So, yeah, I imagine in the words, God, does that shift maybe over time. But so, Jessica, OK, you've been a high level agent. You've done a lot of things in the industry. Maybe we'll get to that. But it hasn't been easy along the way. There's been actual challenges along the way. Right, talk to me about some of those, right? You almost lost your marriage because of real estate. me that story. Yeah, so I got into real estate when my youngest entered kindergarten. So stay at home mom, 12 and a half years. And my husband's like, I think you should get into real estate when Madison goes to kindergarten. And I was like, I don't know, like that might be like salesy. I heard you don't get paid to try it. But I was like, but I heard it's flexible. So let's just go and do that and try it. And so I got a job as an assistant to an agent, which was such a blessing to be able to get paid to try it. Hmm. the position that I kind of put myself in. He and I complimented each other's skill set very well. And so we started a partnership. um We started a real estate team. We had the number one team at the brokerage that we were at. And on the outside, everything looked awesome, right? Here I am getting into real estate, jumping in head first. We were actually over a new home subdivision in the state of, and it was the number one selling subdivision in the state of Georgia one year that we were over it. So. Lots of volume, lots of activity right away. And then we felt like we outgrew the brokerage model and we decided to open our own brokerage. So here I am, still fairly new in the business, about five years in. I'm owning my own brokerage. My business partner retires and I'm like all in. And I feel like in this business a lot of times we are pushed to be over motivated. We're always kind of pushed for what's that next. you know, next year I'm going to double my goals. Next year I'm going to start that team. Next year I'm going to open up my brokerage, whatever that is. We're always kind of striving for more and bigger and better. And what happened in my situation is I went all in in that mentality with running this brokerage and running a brokerage is not all it's cracked up to be. You know, a lot of times agents I will talk to, they start a brokerage because they don't want to pay their anymore. They don't, you know, I can do it for cheaper. And I'm gonna just say, you know, if you're thinking those thoughts, just really find wisdom in that space because you don't understand the pressure that goes into running a brokerage, the amount of liability, the amount of all of those things that go into it. And so from my perspective, my ROI was low. I chose to be a non-competing owner and that Was not smart, know looking back non-competing owner means I'm responsible for a hundred percent of the cost and I am Completely out of control out of my income. I had to rely on the agents in the office And what happened is it took a lot a big strain on my marriage because my husband's like hello You're working all the time. You know, you're doing compliance all the time. You're answering agents questions all the time You're always working but look at what we're you're bringing home Hmm. And I took that in as, you're not gonna tell me what to do. I'm building an empire. Don't try to stop me. So we became just completely disconnected in this space. And unfortunately it led to a separation. God had such a hand in the way that the separation happened. uh I secretly bought a house. You know, like, because we're in real estate, you know, that can happen. oh him knowing? Your husband didn't know. That's what you mean. Secretly. Wow. My husband did not know I was buying a house. um Yeah, I literally, I use an FHA 203K loan. So I bought a house and I rehabbed it. But you know, how incredibly faithful was God was that this house was on the same bus route that my kids rode. It was across the street from my daughter's best friend. uh Just so many pieces that came together. And I was so stubborn that I was like, and I'm not taking a penny or a thing from you when I go. So I left with the clothes on my back, but I had washers and dryers and I had people bringing me groceries and like everything was provided abundantly for me in that season. ah So God's hand was in it. uh the full testimony is just something that I'm so incredibly thankful for. uh We were separated for six months, but during that season, my husband, uh wanted to tell the church what a terrible decision I was making. And that ended up leading him to our biblical counselor at the church. And we were able to put together such an amazing, like, reconnection into our marriage. And uh our daughter got baptized. It was just a really neat story. She was watching us kind of walk through this. So we were separated for six months. uh And she got to see just a lot of just, you know, we had, he and I both had to give some and forgive and, you know, just work through a whole lot of a different emotion. And what a blessing it was for our daughter to see that and to come to us and say, I'm ready to be baptized. And it was such a neat occurrence. Our church was rebuilding a building and they said she'll be baptized in a couple of weeks. Well, it ended up being on our wedding anniversary. laugh. got baptized. And so that's just a special memory for me now is like, how faithful was God that he knew that that would be, and it was our wedding anniversary ended up being a turning point. That was the day that I agreed to come back to the home. And so just so many amazing things. And that was, we left church and we went out to eat as a family. So there were so many emotions on that day. that I will forever be grateful for. So yeah, there's a lot of my story. Well, no, thank you. First of all, thank you for just being willing to share. Right. It's it's uh I often feel like because you're on a podcast, you're on stage or whatever. They're like, you have it figured out. Like I don't at all. If you knew how hard or bad decisions I make or whatever is going on, like it's just not true. So I appreciate your honesty. Right. So you felt like this was a result of buying into that industry mindset of just grind, grind, grind more and more and more. that like, is that, I mean, obviously sin and those are the things that actually happened, but do you feel like that was what was going on? my gosh, absolutely pride. ah You know, I knew at the time the business wasn't financially successful, right? My business, if you looked at my financials, it didn't really make sense to be working as hard as I was for that money. My husband's an engineer. Everything's black and white and on a spreadsheet, right? So I'm over here. it feels like it's getting there. So give me a minute. Okay. Yeah, yeah just tell the tension already? that was, and so when he put his foot down and was like, I'm not giving you any more money to invest in the business. And that was, that pride for me was like, but if you don't give me money, I can't keep going. which meant I had to admit defeat and close a business that I felt was successful or could be successful. So I totally did fall for, you know, the pride and I can do it and I'm going to keep grinding because I finally made it. I got my own brokerage. What do you mean? You're going to tell me I'm not capable of doing this. But the reality was God was resetting me into a different and better place. I couldn't see it at the time. All I see was this tension at home. I think it's amazing in a negative way, whatever the negative word of that is, uh the level of pride that many of us, mean, many believers in general still rustle with, right? But especially in the business world, there is so much, we were talking pre-show, right? One of my struggles is building my kingdom and the Lord's kingdom are just so close and I am... shocked and disgusted how often I jump onto my kingdom, right, and building that for me and not even asking the Lord, like, what do want me to do here? Because pride just infiltrates all of these things. The industry's way of communicating with us, to your point, is it is to build you up, to say you are bigger, you are better, there's more, there's more to have. And, you know, it's hard because it's not untrue that as we develop ourselves and are stewards of what the Lord has given us, that we can't grow to have better thoughts, better actions, right? New ideas, all of the things that could lead to a bigger business. But the flaw that is so minuscule that we miss it, I think, as believers is Proverbs remind us that unless the Lord builds the house, the laborer labors in vain. What the industry says is, no, you get to determine how big your house is going to be. What the Lord says is, I'm going to determine the size of your house. Your job is to be excellent in the work I've called you to do. And that's, it feels so similar. And I fell into that, right? And thankfully my wife and I were okay, but I fell into the trap of the self-help religion of I was just consuming everything and going crazy and all the things and we're going to do this. We're going to double. We're going to build. We're going to do all those things, right? All the stuff that you talked about. in my... Wife Jessica one day I'm sitting there. I'm like, hey, I'm gonna sell I hadn't sold 50 homes before I'm gonna sell 50 homes this year I don't know how to do it in less than 80 hours a week But look what it's gonna buy us and she says I love all that But I need you to do it in 40 hours or less. I was like what you know, I don't even know that's possible But because she asked me and she stopped me and in the Lord's mercy My pride for a second took a hit it was bro. You got to go figure this out, right? Man, you made a covenant to this person And I don't care what your business looks like if you ignore the covenant relationship that I've granted to you. And so, and I've not been perfect by any stretch of the imagination. uh You can ask her, but we get stuck in that mindset, right? It's about more. You are judged Jessica on how, how big is your business? How much have you sold? What's your GCI? Blah, blah, blah. And even if you go home to an empty home, You are number one agent. We're going to take selfies and we're going to cheer for you. And it's a really dangerous uh space for us to be in. Right. So from, from that moment, now, undoubtedly as, as many of us, as all of us, you probably fall into the same ditches sometimes too. Hopefully they're a little less deep. Right. That's, that's the hope is sanctification. But for you from that experience, right. The Lord is, is this outward rebirth sign of your daughter, which is so cool. And the outward rebirth of your marriage and all these cool things. How do you feel like that shifted how you approach your business and how you approach the industry? Yeah, it was a huge shift for me. You know, I was the number one agent at the broker, you know, when I was with an independent brokerage, I was like, I'm number one, top 5 %, go me. And so we do ourselves a disservice when we focus on those exterior motives. You know, I don't want that anymore. I want to be celebrated for who I am, the type of wife I am, the type of mom I am. You know, yes, it's great to get those accolades, but that's not why I'm doing what I'm doing. And so I went through a huge transition of taking control of my business. I got into it because it was flexible, right? And that's what my husband said. He's like, get into real estate, it's flexible. But the problem is we can flexible it to the nth degree. And so I had to be very, very diligent in taking control of my time, taking control of my business. taking control of my clients, taking control, you know, and just setting clear expectations for all parties, setting clear expectations with my husband, you know, hey honey, I'm gonna be having to work late a couple nights this week, is that gonna be okay? Like just having clear and open communication, but then also recognizing when I'm with my kids, I need to be present with my kids. So. you know, off my notifications was a revolutionary idea that I hadn't had before. So, you know, like working through that uh and again, I'm not perfect. You know, it took me, uh I was talking about this earlier to another agent, it took me about eight months to go from, okay, I have to take control of this monster I've built and set up some clear boundaries and some guidelines to where I felt like I was in control. of the business and I had a more proactive business than a reactive business. What are some tactical ways, I I love that, what are some tactical things, turning off notifications, but what did you do to actually take control of the business as you feel like it's taking control of you? Yeah, so just really being mindful of my time. So if you were to look at my time blocks, I did not know how to time block. I had been with a lot of different coaches and they were like, you know, wake up at five, workout, do your devotions and all this. And then I would be like, but I'm not a morning person. So I would fail immediately. And so something that I did that I thought was so helpful was I just took a full week schedule, broke it up into one hour increments. found a spreadsheet and I just wrote down my natural cycle, like what do I naturally do in the morning time? What do I naturally do? I don't like Monday mornings, so like I'm not gonna try to pack a ton of stuff in on my Monday mornings. I like Fridays off, because my husband's off Fridays. So it was being, needed a visual of my week. What was my natural routine and flow, and then how could I systemize my flow and make it more efficient? ah And so that was kind of the heart of taking control was setting some clear boundaries, like Okay, if I'm not gonna show houses on Saturday, how am I going to do my job and not show houses on Saturday? So like working through those types of things. But turning off notifications, like doing the calendar was huge, but turning off notifications was really hard for me because I felt like I'm important, you know? Do you not know I have all these deals? uh But I will tell you, I put it on personal notifications so that means my family can get it through to me. I have no longer put, you know, my social media, my my email, all of that is I have to go and find it. And on Wednesdays, I'm not checking emails till 1130 and it's okay. So it was just a matter of being mindful of where I was, where I wanted to go, and how was I gonna kind of formulate that in my business. That's good. Yeah. I remember the first time I shut down my phone for a day and I thought the world was going to fall apart and I got back and like nothing happened. Oh, I guess I'm not that important, you know, and it is it's amazing when we just stop buying into the idea of you got to be 24 7. You got to do this. You got to be it's momentary reaction. Like everything is speed, speed, speed. And I'm not saying there's not an aspect of good customer service, right? Sometimes, but The reality is if we make ourselves available 24-7, they'll take advantage of that. um But our families won't. And our families are the only ones getting hurt by that, right? So, you know, as you start to make this transition, and you're still doing a lot of deals now, right? But you're making these changes. You have these realizations, this big, massive moment where it just hits you right in the face, right? Of your pursuit of the world, quite honestly, which we've all had a lot of those experiences, unfortunately. em How did your kids react to that? What is your conversation with them? As you come back and you, you know, whatever, but it's, this is what was going on and mommy has to repent of those things, but I'm going back to work. How do you have that conversation as a family, as a unit? What does that look like now? Yeah, so I used to be like looking back at my previous self. I get so disappointed in myself. You know, my kids would get in the car. I always prided myself. I picked up my kids every day from school. I took them to school and picked them up every day from school. But they would get in the car and it would be like, shh, mommy's on the phone. Don't say anything. And so I wish I could take that back. But, know, just setting that example, I think for both my husband and I, we've just set an incredible example for our kids that you know, there's gonna be times where things might get hard, but it's worth pursuing God's best for us and just really pursuing that. Like he and I, if you would have said we would still be together, I would have said there was no way. Like things were so, so broken. But to see that come full circle and then to see that, um like my daughter, she's definitely kind of very observant with what mom's doing and... um You know, she came in the other day and she was like, Mom, I'm going to break up with my boyfriend because he's not God's best for me. And that's just so empowering for me as a mom to be setting those examples. Like we want God's best for ourselves in our home lives and in our businesses. Just because it's good doesn't mean it's the best. um And so I've just done my best to just be that role model for my kids. just when I'm working, I need to be working. And so There was a time in a season when I had to work from home and I wish, again, I could take that time back where I was more focused on work so that when I stepped away from my computer, I was fully mom. I tried to multitask in all the things um and my kids are older now and so I didn't catch on to this until it was a little bit more. But they see it now. They see mom disconnecting. They see me. I spent all day yesterday shopping with my daughter after church. you know, like that's what they see now. And I just hope that they kind of embrace the new me, not the workaholic multitasking mom that was just always burned out, right? I was always just short with my family because I've served my customers. Like saying that out loud is so, like it hurts, but at the same time, that was reality. thought I was doing right by my family by providing financially. And in that seasons, they don't need us to be financed. I mean, yeah, we have to have finances, but God provides. And I was chasing a lot of stuff that wasn't worth pursuing. Talk to, cause I have a question from that, right? But pause for a moment, talk to that mom. Cause we have a lot of young moms in the industry, right? Who probably wrestling with the same thing. What would you say to them? What would you even have done differently maybe that they could chew on? Yeah, you your kids are only your kids for a season. And you need to keep that top of mind because that season is finite. Like once they turn 18, you really don't have any more true control over them unless they allow you to have that. um And be mindful, don't try to speed things up. I feel like I tried to speed up my success. um just to be in that place and I wish I would have gone at a slower pace. I was at state home 12 and a half years, but all my daughter knows is mom is a real estate agent, because I started real estate when she started kindergarten. And I just wish I would have been more intentional with turning off my phone when I was with her, not trying to multitask, taking kids to showings. I didn't do that often, but I did it. And I feel like there's a place for that in a way, but in another way, like get your business to a point where you don't have to bring your kids along for some of that because you're neglecting them in a way. Like maybe you're setting a good example, are you really, are you just giving them a tablet to sit in the corner while you do your job? If you were doing a traditional job, you would be clocking in and clocking out and not taking your kids with you. So just be very mindful of the multitasking. think as women, we are awesome multitaskers, but that doesn't mean we should be doing that with our kids around. That's good. Yeah, it's it's it's so true. I mean the struggle of we're always I think we have a flaw that we can say no to something But it doesn't mean we're saying or we can say yes to something But it doesn't mean we're saying no to something else in reaction We think that I can say yes to that and I can say yes to that and also yes to that and yes to that and I can still say yes to everything and that's not the human experience or even capacity, but we do have this this flawed thinking of I can say yes to whatever, go showing these houses to your point. And I'm not saying no to my kids. What do you mean? I'm saying yes to my kids. They're coming along. That doesn't mean inherently you can't do that, right? But uh my best buddy Tyler, who used to be the co-host, he and I both have five little kids. And we talk all the time about how time is not equal. And we have to remember that, right? The time that they're young right now, we both have... My oldest is eight, his, he's got twin boys that are seven and we both got little ones, right? Three and a half and his is probably five months. And that time is uh unequal. Right now it is heavily weighted towards dad mode and presence and just like physical being there. And we don't know anything different. So we like semi understand that, right? We don't have the, you know, we don't look back and say, this is what I remember from that, but it's not equal. And so we've got to remember that all these things we wanna do, uh to your point, they can wait, right? And that's really hard for me. I mean, that's really hard for me. There's a story, Jessica, that Brian Baffini told years ago. I don't remember what the context was, but it stuck with me forever. He said, he remembers a time, he's young in the business. I think he has six kids. had two maybe at the time. and he's coming home and his wife's making dinner and he's on the phone doing a deal or whatever he was doing for work. And his kids, two boys were as old as his, boys run up and daddy daddy and they're hugging on his legs. And he's on the phone talking to a client. He hears his wife say, boys, don't bother your father. He's not home yet. And man, that still sticks with me, right? Like we as agents can fall prey to, no, I'm here. What do you mean I'm not here? But we can, we are so good at being here without being here. You know what I mean? And so. We've got to remember that if we're saying yes, we actually are also saying no. And so we got to weigh the cost of what it is, right? I love um you were sharing a story about your daughter saying that this boy is not what the Lord's best is for her, right? I love the example of your daughter learning to say no to something that maybe was good, but perhaps not the best. We can learn from that, right? Do you find Because I do think that's true. Do you find now that it is easier for you to say no to things ah because you recognize your yes is gonna mean no somewhere else? Do you feel like that's growing? ah Where are you in that journey? Yeah, it's definitely a growth because, you know, I've added onto my business and so I'm learning it again, you know, where I had done such a great job with my production business and putting it in its compartment and really tightening up my systems and tightening up the time and, you know, getting the help and the, you know, being able to kind of uh have a little bit of leverage in that space. And so, yeah, it's a work in progress, but The no's come easier. It's one of those, I'm such a yes person always, oh that I have to pause and say, okay, God, is this where I need to be? But definitely a work in progress on different fronts. doubt. And again, I love your daughter's example. You said she's 18, right? She's the youngest one. Yeah. The ability to learn, to practice that no, it is an incredible, you know, I am amazed. You read in the New Testament, you read about the story of Jesus and, you know, the times where he's healing and he's talking to the people and then they're lined up waiting for him. And he's like, actually, we got to go to the next town. And you're like, wait, what? You know, all these people waiting for you here, but he had No, he's Jesus, but he a clear understanding of where he was supposed to be and what he was supposed to do. And so it'd be easy to look and say, you know, if we were agents or if he acted like us, we'd probably say, well, we're just going to say, yeah, we're going to bring them with us. We just won't sleep. It'll be fine. We're going to text all of them. Right. And then we're going to go to this. We're going to take care of them and them. We're going to do all of it. And that's just not true. Right. Like, it's not tangibly true. It's not real. It's none of those things. And I think, you know, I've been thinking so much more after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, right? Like the goal should be well done, good and faithful servant. And as few times as I actually pause to say, OK, Lord, what does that look like? Right. What kind of life is going to lead for you to say, well done, good and faithful servant? And it very well could be. Well, go sell that home. Right. That could absolutely be like I'm not. Throwing shade on that at all. It could be that. It very well could be you saying, I'm gonna grow my business. I'm gonna build a team. I'm gonna open a brokerage, whatever it is that you're gonna do. It absolutely could be those things, right? Because like we don't own anything. We rent from the Lord. We're stewards of whatever he's given us. But a lot of times as agents, I love what you said. It's easy for you to say yes. It's easy for us as agents to say yes. Any agent that's had any level of success, I think that's typically our default is like, yeah, I'll do that. Or that sounds good. I'll do that too. Right. And so we have that default mode, but what would it look like to well done, good and faithful servant? Is that mean that I have a big business that causes me to miss out on too many family dinners? You know, there's seasons. I don't know for you. I'm not going to make a rule where there isn't one, but we need to ask those questions. Right. If I poured in Lord to my family more, and that meant I had to say no to a client who demanded me to show houses every Sunday and miss church, whatever the scenario, Lord, I'm going to say no, because I want to hear, well done, good and faithful servant. And I believe this is what a good and faithful servant would do. So therefore, please bless this decision that I'm making, right? Those are really difficult decisions for us to make. And in a bubble where, to your point, we are so driven as people pleasers, it's really, really hard. It takes a monumental effort to say no. It is super easy, like, I'll come. That sounds amazing, right? You did an event this morning and we got on here and you said, it's pouring down rain. And so we set the room for a smaller amount of people and then they all came and we're like, what are you doing? It's raining. Why are you here? Right? Agents are good at saying yes to things. And that's a good thing to show up to, right? But we were very, very bad at saying no to most things. you know, as you... have had this experience, you've been in the industry a long time, you've done a lot of different things. You've excelled in those things that you've done, right? Sometimes up and down with the family as we all experience in different ways, right? And you're coming out and you're kind of like in this new season of life. What do you most look forward to now in this new season? Maybe about to be an empty nester, still in pursuit of business growth and whatever that looks like, right? Like what has you excited now about still being here in this industry? Yeah, you know, it was interesting. When I was thinking about getting out of real estate, I had a biblical counselor who said, this is your ministry. And I was like, how is this my ministry? And he said, uh how many pastors would want the opportunity to be able to sit down in somebody's living room and help them through a life process? And that really kind of changed my focus on really looking at my clients as my ministry. And... You know, I have such a heart to teach and encourage others. And, you know, I think God has given me a lot of stories in the real estate space. We only touched on one. There's a few more that we could have touched on. Sounds good. But, you know, God has given me such an incredible testimony in so many different ways. uh you know, when I was going through those hard times, I was like, you know, okay, God, teach me the lesson, teach it to me fast and let me use it for your glory. And so with my, with my gifts and my heart, I do see myself pursuing the ability to mentor and encourage other real estate agents. I think I have a heart for it I think I have, I know I have a heart for it, but I think God is, wanting me to kind of share the message, you know, just to be, just to help all of your listeners. But just help agents recognize that it's not about their number, it's not about our GCI, it's not about those things, it's about the time that we spend with those who are around us, whether that be our clients, but most importantly, our families and the relationships that are most close to us. It's good. love that. I love that your answer was about your family. Not, you know, more than anything, right? Like that's what we want to go out and share with anybody. Your broker, you made the point earlier, you are a non-competing broker. You weren't out there selling homes, in other words. And so for anybody, maybe in a scenario like that, right? When one of the agents in our organization today, he just came from a brokerage like that, really liked the people, but he literally said, they kept telling me. You need to do more next year. Why aren't you building bigger? And he was like, because I kept telling him, I'm good where I am. Like, I want to stay here. But in a situation like that, of course, they need you to sell more houses, right? That's the reality of what it is. And so to your point, you've you've run all of those things. Right. And I love that on the other end of that it is no one gets to define what that's supposed to look like other than the Lord. Right. Your pursuit of that. But your your husband, right, your your wife, whatever your scenario is. Those are the ones that define what winning is supposed to look like for you. And at the end of the day, if every agent at Realtor Prom at the end of the year or at beginning of the year, right, if every one of them is cheering for you, but your spouse, your kids are wishing you were home, that's not winning, my friends. That's not a well-done, good and faithful servant, right? You are in a loving way, you are building your own kingdom. and it needs to come down. And we don't want to have to fall into ditches, but in the Lord's kindness, He will make that happen sometimes. Right? So get into the reason I said, get into community, be surrounded by people who know and love Jesus, and we'll hold you accountable to what really matters. Because if not, the industry wants us to be in pursuit of bigger, better, faster, all the things, right? To Jessica's point. And sometimes the Lord wants you to, but sometimes He says, maybe you should slow down and be patient. Maybe you should be present where I want you to be present and keep your feet right where they are. uh And we need to have the moments of listening for that, right? So uh anyways, I just love and have loved hearing your story, right? And just so appreciative of you and just your friendship too, but your willingness to share those things. So uh Jessica, if they want to connect, which they should, how do they do that? What would be the best way for anybody to reach out to you? Yeah, I'm on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, Jessica Wade, Real Estate Agent. Just find me there. Easy to spell. uh Our audience knows how bad I am at names as I shared with you earlier. So, like that. uh Awesome. Jessica, seriously, sister, thank you so much for coming on. I know that the agents will be encouraged by this, right? The pinnacle of success is not everything you defined and experienced. It's being present with your loved ones. That's the pinnacle of success and having a business that allows that to happen, right? So, I hope that's what our agents take away. Paypal agents, I love you. I'm here for you if you need anything, reach out.