When I first started selling real estate, I was working the business part-time.
In 2017, I attended a class taught by a local CPA about how real estate agents should structure their businesses. As agents, we're self-employed, and whether we feel like it or not, we're also small business owners.
At the time, I didn't feel much like one.
But I made an appointment with the CPA anyway.
We talked about where I wanted the business to go, and she helped me create a structure for what I was trying to build.
Financially, it didn't make much sense yet. My income didn't support the structure I was putting in place, and initially, it was actually going to cost me more.
But something in me knew I would eventually grow into it.
So I ate the cost.
By 2019, I had transitioned into real estate full-time. My income started growing, and eventually the business caught up with the structure I had created before I needed it.
Looking back, I wasn't responding to what I could see at the time.
I was responding to what I believed was possible.
Faith Before Evidence
I've noticed this pattern in different areas of my life.
Sometimes I can see something clearly in my mind before there is any physical evidence that it will happen.
And then I move toward it.
Sometimes confidently.
Sometimes shaking.
But I move anyway.
For me, that is faith.
It's acting on something I believe before I can see it materialized in its natural form.
But recently, something as simple as a plant made me question whether I live with that same faith in every area of my life.
Most mornings before work, I straighten up my home. I have a money tree sitting on a glass table, and I always get excited when I notice new leaves growing.
One morning, as I was cleaning around it, I thought:
Maybe I need to give it a bigger pot.
I had been waiting for the plant to grow bigger, but it had already grown into the space I had given it.
Maybe the problem wasn't the plant.
Maybe it was the pot.
That same day, I went to Lowe's, bought a bigger pot and more soil, and replanted it.
And then it hit me.
Years earlier, I had done the same thing with my business.
I gave it room to grow before the growth was there.
And that's when the question became much bigger than the plant.
Where else in my life am I asking for growth while continuing to give myself only enough room for who I've already been?
-Maria Mendoza
About the Writer
Maria Mendoza is a Myrtle Beach real estate agent, Certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialist, and team leader serving buyers and sellers throughout the Grand Strand. With more than a decade in real estate, she writes from the perspective of someone actively working inside the market, not simply observing it from the outside.
Her writing explores real estate, business, money, AI, personal growth, faith, leadership, and human behavior, drawing from the experiences that shape how she thinks, leads, and serves others.
