Why Real Estate and Entrepreneurship Suit My Life More Than Ever

Let me keep it real with you today, more real than usual and completely out of pocket for me. 

Six years ago, I walked away from local government. I am grateful for every moment of that chapter, but I knew it was time. Time to do something different. Time to bet on myself. Time to figure out what building a life on my own terms actually looked like.

What followed has been six years of growth, learning, pivoting, and showing up — sometimes confidently, sometimes just stubbornly — in the entrepreneurial space. All while being a stay-at-home mom, because that was the point. That was the whole point.

Being a parent looks different depending on which side of COVID you're standing on. Pre-COVID, during, and post, those are genuinely three different seasons of parenthood. Mental health became a major focus for so many of our children coming out of that period. And now, in our house, physical health has taken the front seat.

I didn't think we'd be homeschooling again. But here we are.

My daughter has severe scoliosis. This has been an almost three-year journey — from diagnosis, to bracing, to physical therapy, to Schroth and Scolibalance therapies, to chiropractic care — all in the hope of stopping the progression. We have tried. We have fought. And in 14 days, she will be going into thoracic spinal fusion surgery.

I won't pretend that's easy to type.

My husband, her dad, is a truck driver. He is on the road, doing what he has to do for this family and beyond thankful to him for that! And I will be here — present, steady, homeschooling her, preparing, and soon stepping into the role of her primary caregiver through recovery.

This is exactly why the life I've built matters.

Real estate is not a 9-to-5. It is not a job that requires me to sit in a building from a set hour to a set hour while my daughter needs me. It is a business I have built with intention — one that gives me the flexibility to pause, to breathe, to be here for up to six weeks if that's what this season calls for. I hope it's not that long. But if it is, I am ready, and I am not walking away from what I've built — I'm letting it hold space for me the way I've been building it to do.

Entrepreneurship, especially in real estate, is hard. It asks a lot. There are no guarantees, no paid leave, no safety nets handed to you. But what it does give you — when you build it right — is choice. And right now, the most important choice I can make is to be my daughter's mother, fully and completely, through one of the hardest things our family has ever faced.

And perhaps it is fitting that as we head into surgery, June is Scoliosis Awareness Month. What better time to share our story, shed some light on a condition that affects so many children and families, and remind anyone else walking this road that they are not alone.

So if you reach out and I'm a little slower to respond, now you know why. I will be back. The market will still be here. Palm Beach will still be doing what Palm Beach does.

And I will still be keeping it real — just from the recovery room for a little while.

Please keep my daughter in your thoughts and prayers. 🤍