Lessons from Local Leaders:

Jess Ernst

Leave Everyone Better: Jess Ernst—Realtor, Creative, and Community Builder

Featuring: Jessica “Jess” Ernst, Founder of Ernst Property Advisory & host of Glow Talks with Jess

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When Jess Ernst says she’s “a messenger of God,” she isn’t being grandiose—she’s explaining the engine that powers everything she does. In real estate, in creative work, in wellness, and in the daily swirl of raising three kids after losing her husband, Jess moves through life with a quiet vow: leave everyone better than you found them.

It’s the kind of promise that turns a house showing into a safe landing, a workshop into a circle of new friends, and a podcast into a spark that nudges listeners toward their next brave step.

From Dirt Roads to Model Homes

Jess’s first brush with real estate came at 15, driving past cow pastures and onto a dirt stretch of Waxpool Road to a brand-new Miller & Smith community near Dulles Airport. She was a sales assistant then—wide-eyed, curious, and utterly hooked. She loved the warm hum of the model home, the way first-time buyers lit up when possibility clicked into place, and the early-internet-era couples commuting to AOL with diaper bags in the back seat.

Years passed and careers layered on—builders, developers, life happening in big, beautiful, sometimes brutal ways. Jess didn’t get licensed until later, but that early spark never left. She’d discovered a calling: helping people create a life inside four walls—and then making sure those walls support the people who live there.

“If I Want More, I Must Care for What I Have”

There’s a thread of reverence in the way Jess treats a home. When her own roof needed replacing, she did it—even while preparing to move. When paint needed refreshing or a repair felt inconvenient, she pushed forward anyway. Not because of resale comps. Because of intent.

“If I wanted God to bless me with more,” she says, “I had to honor what He’d already given me.”

That heart posture spills into everything. In wellness, it’s not the number on the scale—it’s how a person feels walking out the door. In parenting, it’s the soft armor of security and love. In community, it’s choosing to invest where the next family’s memories can take root.

The Pillars: Business, Creative, Wellness

Jess structures her life around three pillars: Business, Creative Arts, and Wellness—and she treats them like seasons. Some weeks are all contracts and closings. Some are flowers on a table, a little event design, a ballroom dance sequence that makes her feel alive. Some weeks the body demands the front seat: sleep, nutrition, prayer, breathing, grounding.

Wellness is the quiet foundation. High performers, she believes, aren’t just relentless; they’re resourced. They sleep well. They practice faith. They cultivate healthy relationships. They listen to the body (even when a food sensitivity list rudely dethrones daily staples). Change comes one small swap at a time, over and over, until it becomes the new normal.

Creativity as Courage

Ballroom dancing gave Jess permission to be a beginner again. To mess up. To laugh. To watch a video back and cringe—and then come back the next day anyway. It softened judgment—first toward herself, then toward others.

On the dance floor, partnerships work when both people bring their best forward and gently re-choreograph the rest. In business and life, Jess does the same: amplify a client’s strengths, adjust around the edges, and keep going together.

Why Northern Virginia?

Jess is Northern Virginia, through and through. She grew up here, loves here, and sees—like only a native can—where the region has been and where it’s heading. It’s more than market knowledge; it’s relational cartography.

She knows which neighborhoods will feel like home to a young family, which pockets will energize a creative, where dancers gather for bachata and salsa, which trails soothe an introvert, and what small local rituals stitch a newcomer into community. For Jess, real estate is less transaction and more transition: You’re not just buying a house—you’re being folded into a place.

Mastering the 20%

Ask Jess what separates top performers from the rest and she’ll tell you: it’s not just grit. It’s direction. It’s the sleep you guard, the prayers you say, the morning breathwork before the household wakes. It’s seeing a brick wall and choosing to go under, around, or over. It’s the team you keep close and the perspective you fight for: step outside your life, observe without judgment, and change one thing at a time.

From Podcasts to Workshops: Bringing People Together

Launching Glow Talks with Jess was scary. She did it anyway. Each episode aims to serve the whole human: business, health, mindset, creativity, faith—bite-sized ideas listeners can try this week (even if it’s as simple as “drink more water—use a straw!”). If one person shifts something small, that’s a win.

And because not everything can be streamed, Jess opened her Great Falls office to in-person workshops—on wellness, mortgages, home buying, even raising teenagers and learning everyday makeup. Real people, real hugs (we all need 8–10 a day, she laughs), and real connections that continue long after the chairs are stacked.

Grief, Fire, and the Road Ahead

There’s a chapter of Jess’s life that reshaped everything: the death of her husband. The ache is still there, but so is the fire it lit. She’s raising three kids with tenderness and grit. She’s building Ernst Property Advisory with the steady warmth of someone who understands that selling a home after eight or ten years isn’t just a transaction—it’s a goodbye to a whole era.

Her vision is both local and global: serve Northern Virginia with unmatched care, and send her podcast out into the world so someone, somewhere, hears exactly what they needed that day.

And through it all, Jess returns to that first vow: leave everyone better than you found them—clients, listeners, neighbors, partners, friends. Houses become homes. Strangers become community. And fear, one small act at a time, becomes courage.

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Work with Jess

• Real Estate (Northern Virginia/DMV): Buying, selling, or relocating—Jess brings deep local insight and whole-person support.
• Glow Talks with Jess (Podcast): Practical, heart-centered episodes to spark small, meaningful change.
• In-Person Workshops (Great Falls): Wellness, mortgages/home buying, parenting, everyday beauty, and more—because community is built face to face.

If you’re moving to Northern Virginia—or moving on to your next chapter—Jess is your guide, your advocate, and your steady voice all the way home.

Reach Jess Ernst Below