Influential Woman · Mortgage

Jessica NorrisLi

Owner and Production Operations, Sweet Tea Mortgage

Evans, GA

Certifications · Degrees · Memberships

Degree Law Studies Major Degree HCCE Board City Degree Tampa Cert Licensed with the State of Georgia Member Realtors of Greater Augusta - Community Outreach Member Realtors of Greater Augusta - Lead Committee Member HOA Board Member Woodbridge Member Evans Member Georgia Member Band Boosters Member Greenbrier High School

Her Story

About Jessica

I've been in the mortgage industry for over 20 years, starting my career in Tampa. As an active duty military spouse for about 16 years of my husband's service, I followed his career with the military, moving around to multiple duty stations both overseas and stateside. We moved to the Augusta area about 5 years ago, and I've been back in the business for roughly 4 years now. I opened Sweet Tea Mortgage about 3 years ago after working as an operations manager for another mortgage company for about a year. Running my own business takes a full day's work - I handle all the operations of the mortgage company and also originate loans here. I'm very active in my community, serving on community outreach with the Realtors of Greater Augusta, on the lead committee with the Realtors of Greater Augusta, on our HOA board here in Woodbridge in Evans, Georgia, and on the band boosters for Greenbrier High School. My husband retired from the military last year in June after finishing up 20 years, and he helps with the business behind the scenes, doing all of our computers and cybersecurity. We're retiring here, and he's working back at Fort Gordon.

Her Interview

Ten minutes with Jessica

01What do you attribute your success to?

I attribute my success to hard work. I have made sure I basically devoted all my time and energies into growing my business. It takes a lot of dedication and commitment to make it work, especially as a female mortgage broker opening my own brokerage.

02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?

The best career advice I've ever received is just to do it, to take the leap of faith and trust in yourself and always work really hard. Just take a leap of faith. That's what I did when I opened my own business, and I think it takes a lot of courage to do that.

03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?

I think just to attach yourself to probably a mentor, because I've always had that throughout my whole career in mortgages. Finding someone that can kind of guide you along the way and grow your career and grow your business is so important. Just having someone to look up to makes all the difference.

04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?

Right now, the market has been slower because interest rates are higher than they used to be, so it's just basically hitting the ground running and doing a lot of social media. AI is starting to come into play in our business recently, so just utilizing AI and growing our business organically is key to navigating the current challenges.

05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?

Definitely serving my community and taking care of all my clients as family are most important to me. Making sure that they get the best that I can give them daily into home ownership is what drives me, because getting people into home ownership is the root of why I do everything I do. I'm really focused on trying to help people every day.

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