Exploring Life & Business with Jen Daniels

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jen Daniels.

Jen, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’m originally from Charleston, South Carolina where I began working in real estate in 2006. When I moved to Nashville a few years ago, I pursued a couple of different opportunities in real estate and found some success but nothing was consistent. That caused me to redirect my attention back to my business in South Carolina. I traveled back and forth quite frequently for a while and after a trip ran longer than planned, I arrived home in Nashville to a dark and cold house, frozen pipes, and an empty fridge.

The frustrations of that moment were completely avoidable and that made me start thinking about the need for a home management and personal concierge service that could’ve dripped my pipes and stocked my fridge. I’d done those things for clients in South Carolina but more informally and as a side business, so I ran the idea by a couple of trusted friends here in Nashville. Shortly thereafter I started Homeward.

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?
It’s definitely not been a smooth road. I think everyone faces challenges though and if you haven’t, it’s probably because you’ve been playing it safe. I moved to Nashville after the end of a particularly bad relationship and I was alone in a new city. Trying to find community, build a new business, and heal from a toxic and abusive situation was a lot all at once. It has honestly been the biggest risk and biggest challenge of my life. Nashville and the people here really did take me in and put me back together.

Now when I encounter obstacles or challenges, I really listen to what my own intuition is telling me. Is this resistance a hard stop indicating that this thing isn’t right for me? Or is this just the discomfort that comes with getting out of my comfort zone and doing something that’s meant to make me grow? Being able to discern the difference is really key.

Of course building Homeward hasn’t been without its own challenges but perhaps because my mentality is so different now, my approach to challenges is so different. As with any new business, you don’t know what you don’t know until you’re in it. I didn’t know anything about things like websites, finances, or the legalities of a business but I have confidence in myself that I can navigate those things or seek out someone who knows what I don’t. That’s another incredible thing about this city; there are so many wonderful entrepreneurs who are willing to offer guidance and support.

When you’ve really struggled and have been through incredibly challenging things, I think it’s easy to become hardened by it all. If you can resist the natural inclination to let those challenges harden your heart and allow them to bring you resilience and empathy instead, that’s the gift that comes from the struggle.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Homeward?
My team and I still serve real estate clients back in South Carolina but right now I’m really focused on building Homeward in Nashville – a city I love so much. We provide home management services like home checks for second homeowners or those who travel frequently, overseeing renovation projects and sourcing vendors. We also provide personal concierge services like grocery shopping, general errand running, scheduling and wait service for vendors.

I’m proud of the fact that we really lead with a servant’s heart and genuinely want to help our clients live better lives. Sometimes that means outsourcing your to-do list so you can spend your time on income-producing tasks instead. Other times it means routine home checks that provide clients peace of mind knowing all is well while they’re away. And should anything happen, someone with extensive experience will be their boots on the ground. I have a small team but everyone has experience in concierge services, real estate, property management and/or project management beyond Homeward and that enables us to really provide that higher level of service.

Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I’m most definitely not a risk-taker by nature. In fact, when I started in real estate my prospective broker gave me a personality test and when I tested as someone who craved stability instead of risk he almost didn’t hire me.

From what I’ve learned up to this point, sometimes there are situations where you have to make a decision, but you really don’t know what to do so you just jump and try to figure it out on the way down. Then there are times when you do your due diligence and take calculated risks because the potential benefit outweighs the risk. In either instance and in life in general, I think it’s important to see things as they truly are, not better or worse than they are. It’s so easy to see things worse than they are and not do anything out of fear of failure or to get stuck in that analysis paralysis.

I used to be so afraid of taking risks but falling on my face and having my worst-case scenario actually happen – and surviving that – gave me the confidence to take more risks. I just don’t want to look back someday and wonder “What if” or say “I wish I had”. There’s always going to be a critic but now whenever I allow the opinions of others to creep in, I remember the famous words of Teddy Roosevelt:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena… who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.homewardconcierge.com
• Instagram: @homewardconcierge
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/homewardmodernconcierge 

Image Credits
Victoria Armstrong