Today we’d like to introduce you to Janet Souza.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Well, how I got to this place in my journey was definitely not direct, nor well understood when I headed to college. In fact, my focus had always been the arts – classical music, ballet, and art. I sang in choirs, played guitar at church, practiced hours a day at the piano, and entered college as a piano major. Then, it hit me, I really don’t want to teach piano nor do I enjoy performing. Sure, I had some talent, but I was more of the self-disciplined-hard-worker pianist, and definitely not a prodigy. So, I changed majors a few times and ended up getting a degree in chemistry (labs were like cooking to me – you just follow a recipe and voila, the experiment is served!). I have always loved to cook and bake, so this was such fun and I loved the concept of “objective” grading – the answer was right or wrong, and definitely not graded on “feeling or emoting”, like they did in music.
I entered the tech workforce, while still in college, as a student research chemist at IBM in San Jose, California and then after graduating, I stayed on at IBM and held numerous positions in technology, product development, management, marketing, and sales. I had amazing opportunities to live and travel all over the world. I met the most wonderful people, got married, raised a family, and lived in several post-card-worthy towns in Connecticut and New York.
After 27 years, I made the difficult decision to take early retirement and leave IBM three years before all the perks of “full” retirement, meaning no health insurance and about ½ of what I would have had financially had I stayed on. But I needed to be home with our two sons and help them through a particularly rough patch in their early – mid-teens. That decision took a huge amount of faith to forego the steady paycheck!
We had always had a little side business of purchasing / fixing up / selling or renting out homes, so it was a natural fit to just continue doing that, but with a greater emphasis of running it like a business versus a hobby. I also became deeply involved in various charity and community projects, that included our church as well as the music school for the kids. I served on boards and volunteered fervently for several years; it was hugely gratifying.
We, then, decided to move back to my home state of California (primarily to get the boys into schools that were a better fit for them). I opened a small business consulting in interior design, property management, and financial management. I also began diving into real estate head-first. I invested in properties across several states and eventually got my real estate license.
As a small business owner, realtor, musician and mom, I am extremely blessed to be able to do what I love and have found a wonderful balance that keeps me grounded and loving life!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Smooth? Definitely not! But all the struggles, choices, and learning from them are what brought me to this exact moment, and only deepened my sense of purpose.
Raising a family with two stepdaughters (and now four grandchildren), followed by two boys of our own, each with their unique challenges and attributes, all the while working full time and traveling, required lots of stamina, love, faith, and huge doses of support from friends and family (not to mention daily listening to encouraging and faith-based podcasts!).
A few years after leaving IBM, things took some massive turns we didn’t plan for – my husband lost his job and we divorced. The kids and I decided to make the move to California for a fresh start, and their dad decided to also make the move. Family is super important and moving back to my home near all my family with their support, plus the kids having their dad in the same town, was a healing and stabilizing step in our journey.
I’m an eternal optimist and have unwavering faith that things will work out. I’m someone that’s always been involved in the support of charities, whether at church, through music, or for causes I feel strongly about. So when we arrived in California, I immediately began helping out in the community and in my extended family. I provided assistance in marketing, as well as property management, interior design work and financial consulting. I’d been doing all of this for years in a volunteer capacity as well as for my own properties, but now saw that this skill was something that could be turned into a source of income. I opened a consulting business and added clients through word of mouth recommendations. Once established, this became the launch pad into real estate sales.
Bottom line, being open to possibilities and having a passion for learning can provide pathways we never saw coming! For anyone just starting out, embrace every opportunity and strive to exceed all expectations. Then, doors just keep opening, and each new skill you develop builds onto the next, enabling you to feel a sense of confidence and readiness to take on whatever challenge comes your way!
We’d love to learn more about your work. What do you do, what do you specialize in, what are you known for, etc. What are you most proud of as a brand, organization or service provider? What sets you apart from others?
I feel a key differentiator in how I work is that I am a collaborator at heart and enjoy the strength of teamwork. I have years of leadership and negotiation experience, which also gives me the humility to know my limits! I thrive in situations that have lots of complicated, “moving parts”, and offer a calm level-headed approach. I’m highly methodical and yet creative and have found that teaming with as many experts as necessary will offer my clients the most successful outcome, no matter how daunting the situation appears to be.
My full-time work is focused on real estate, working for Sereno Group*. As a Realtor and small business owner, I absolutely love having the opportunity to help make someone’s life a little better and a little happier. It’s a privilege to be a part of someone’s life in transition. I work as their advocate, supporting and guiding them, and being by their side every step of the journey to help them achieve their ultimate objective, and creatively solve whatever obstacle comes our way!
I don’t specialize in only one type of real estate client or transaction but serve everyone. That being said, I do especially love to work with seniors and first-time home buyers. Both need exceptional courage, support and guidance to make these significant lifestyle changes, and I am energized by being a part of this with them.
I continue to provide assistance to several of my long-term consulting clients. I have worked with all types of clients, but if we’re to say where I specialize in this business, I would say it’s in helping seniors. These clients have arrived at a point of “overwhelm” and are looking for some help. Oftentimes, when a spouse dies or begins to cognitively decline, all the management of finances and assets lands on a spouse that’s just never had to deal with these items and doesn’t know where to start. That’s where I come in and take a very practical as well as the strategic role in organizing and getting them on track, as their ally and trusted advisor. I recommend and work hand in hand with Trust/Estate attorneys, CPAs, financial advisors and bankers to put in place a structure that is then manageable and no longer overwhelming.
*Sereno Group has a satellite office in San Diego, serving the coastal beach towns and communities. Sereno Group is the largest independent and locally owned residential real estate company in the Silicon Valley area of California. Aside from the exceptionally high-level of services we provide our clients, I am most proud of the deep philanthropic and community involvement we all ascribe to, as part of the mission statement and initiatives we support. Our initiative, 1% for Good, has generated over $2.5 million in charitable donations to local community programs. That doesn’t include the thousands of hours each year that we contribute as volunteers in our community.
Which women have inspired you in your life?
There have been many women that have been inspirational throughout the various stages of my life, but if I were to narrow that down, two stand out as exemplary. The two women that have modeled courage, faith, love and purpose, which are the hallmarks of inspiration for me, are my mom and Mother Teresa.
My mom continues to amaze me. She’s 88 years old, she’s an artist and still paints daily (and shows her art in exhibits), sings with me in a choir (plus still takes voice lessons, sings duets and solos!), and basically runs circles around people half her age! She has a sense of passion and purpose, fierce independence, and a thirst for learning and self-improvement. Despite the many emotional and physical challenges she’s had to face in her life, including polio and the continuing pain from that, she lives her life with deep empathy for others, discipline, purpose, and hard work. I am truly grateful to have a mom that continues to model such strength, spirituality, and love.
Mother Teresa is someone that I felt particularly drawn to for most of my adult life. Her spirituality, passion and deep commitment to helping the poorest of the poor, to offer them love and dignity, and to rally so many to also put unconditional love in action, is a model of living that I try to apply to my own life. If I’m not trying to bring empathy, understanding, love, and joy to others, then I miss the purpose of life in community, and the amazing reciprocal joy that returns from giving of myself, in whatever form that takes. Whether in volunteering to help those in need, or rallying for social justice, or engaging in pursuits that bring meaning and happiness to others, her life models the potentiality we all have to make a difference in our communities and in our world.
Contact Info:
- Address: Sereno Group
1804 Garnet Ave, Suite 344, San Diego, CA 92109
214 Los Gatos-Saratoga Rd, Los Gatos, CA 95030 - Website: www.janetsouza.com
- Phone: 203-610-3425
- Email: janet@serenogroup.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/janetsouzarealestate
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/janetsouzarealestate
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/EstateJanet
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=JANET+SOUZA+REAL+ESTATE
Image Credit:
Mission College, Humanitarian Voices of Hope Choir and Instrumentalists
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