By Angela Higginbotham
angela@floridanewsline.com

Growing up in Pensacola, Josh Rogers would often make his way to the Jacksonville area in search of better surfing conditions. When his high school sweetheart, Sarah, decided on nursing school at the University of North Florida, he followed her east and earned his degree in business management from UNF. The two have been married for 12 years and live in the Bartram area of Mandarin. They have four sons, often referred to as the “Wolfpack,” ranging in age from two to nine years and a foster daughter whom they adore.

“At the beginning of our marriage we saved money and planned to take a six-month trip around the world. When we found out that Sarah was pregnant, that changed everything. The travel fund became the family fund,” Rogers said.

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With a growing family and a desire to have a more flexible schedule for traveling and homeschooling adventures, Rogers began his career in real estate. He got his start with Pulte Homes and 11 years later, he serves primarily the Mandarin and North St. Johns County areas. Rogers is currently ranked 15th of 8,000 agents in Northeast Florida and he credits a lot of his business growth to stressful times financially not that many years ago.

“We were up to our eyeballs in credit card debt and we started a new budget following plans from Dave Ramsey,” said Rogers. “We hit reset and flipped the switch. I started treating my business like a business owner, working hard and seeking wisdom.”

  1. What do you enjoy most about living in Mandarin?

Mandarin is ultimately centralized. It’s great for easy access to the beaches, the river and the St. Johns Town Center. It’s a great place for family activities and also running a business.

  1. Serving as a foster parent is a special part of your life. What would you like people to know about fostering?

Awareness for fostering is so important. Our foster daughter is nine months old now and we brought her home from the hospital when she was only two weeks old. There is a tremendous need for foster families, yet if just one family from every church took in a child, then the need would be filled. Kids need a safe environment while their biological families are working towards healing and staying focused on recovering from the difficulties in life. We get to love on this little girl every day and treat her as our daughter. People always ask, “Won’t it break your heart if she leaves you one day?” Of course, it will. If it doesn’t break our hearts, then we aren’t doing it right.

  1. You take a more personal approach to building relationships through your business. Do you think this benefits your success?

I think it does but regardless, it’s just more important to me to spend time actually getting to know people and contribute to their lives in some way. I have a life on life approach in business and I want to be a part of long term relationships with people. I can spend thousands on advertising or I can buy coffee for as many moms who will show up for a Mother’s Day treat. I can build a fire and keep throwing cash on it or I can cut down logs and it will burn for a lot longer. I love this community and I love the people in it. The relationships are important to me.

  1. What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

I enjoy gardening and videography. I am a trainer for a class at Trinity Fitness in Ponte Vedra as well. We stay involved in our church and we focus a lot on homeschooling and taking adventures as a family. We decide each year what is best for each child and if homeschooling isn’t the right choice for any of them down the road, then that’s okay. We are just focused on enjoying the journey now and I want to get this stage right with no regrets. Business deals will come and go, I can’t control that but I can control the influence I have on my family.

  1. What’s your secret to managing a happy family and a successful business?

Sarah. Each month I send her to a hotel for 24 hours. It’s a game changer. She comes back a new woman. Chocolate and wine helps for the in between days.

 

Photo courtesy Josh Rogers

The Rogers family

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