by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Sitting across from Jon Singleton of Watson Realty, he looks like any other businessman enjoying a cup of coffee.
But, his story runs a lot deeper than most.
Singleton recently returned from a 15-month deployment with the Navy Reserves where he was stationed in Afghanistan, an experience that changed him in many ways. He says it gave him a new sense of humbleness and appreciation for his family, his business and his life.
Gone is the man who used to rush from one listing appointment to the next, barely taking time to eat. Forced to put his life on pause as he served his country, Singleton now has a whole new perspective on life.
“I now realize that you can’t be so self-centered because we really kind of all need each other,” said Singleton. “I think I really found out how much you really do need your friends and family and how important that is. That is one reason for my shift in focus. It’s not that I didn’t want to spend time with my kids, it’s that it means something different to me now when I see them and particularly when I hold them. There were a lot of nights where all I wanted to do was snuggle up with my kids.”
Singleton realized while he was away that he was working too much in an effort to produce.
“What my focus now is not in what my production is, but how productive can I be in 40 hours a week,” he said. “I was on five different boards when I got called up and I was chairing two of them, I think. I was in the Reserves and doing that one weekend a month and working full steam in real estate. I had just purchased four properties for development. It was too much.”
Singleton discovered he needed to balance his time more effectively so he can spend time with his family and take better care of himself.
“I was not working out enough,” he said. “I was running around and skipping meals. I had actually lost quite a bit of weight. I’ve gained 40 pounds since I left. I’m healthier and my anxiety has been less.”
Being called up for active duty served as a bit of a wake-up call.
“I am kind of control freak, which I think most Realtors are,” he said. “I was trying to control so many different things and it was interesting that I got a clear ‘You are absolutely not in control’ message. My whole life was going to be hold for 15 months and it was interesting just having to let go of a lot of things.”
The time away also gave him a new perspective on how to better use his time in his career.
“It was really good to step away from what was emerging as a successful business and refocus on priorities and what I’ve been doing to meet those priorities,” said Singleton. “It was good. There was downtime and time to reflect on a lot of things. I’m really hoping I can come back and put those things into use. I want to see what I can do to not lose that perspective.”
Singleton said he wants to shift his focus from quantity to quality.
“I really want to focus on better quality of service to a fewer number of customers,” he said. “Instead of listing a property, running to the next appointment to list another property, go to the next appointment to show 10 houses to folks that are buying — I think I need to focus on taking care of each of those customers and planning time to get the paperwork in order, get the virtual tours done, making sure the place is in show condition and make sure it is handled and ready and that I have provided good service.”
Singleton said he was trying to do too much. He wasn’t taking care of the customers as well as he could have, not taking care of himself and not scheduling time with his family.
“I think in the past I was too busy and too distracted,” he said. “I think it’s more of a personal decision to not chase everything.”
So, how is it being back?
“It’s great,” said Singleton. “It’s kind of like my life was on pause.”
He started back to work two weeks after his return and was already named Top Lister of the Month for his Avondale/Ortega office.
Singleton joined the Navy 16 years ago and has spent time overseas with the Navy before. But, this deployment was different.
“It was the first time on the ground in the middle of a combat zone,” said Singleton. “It was a little scary. We spent a lot of time going from one place to another on convoys. We spent a lot of time with our armored gear on and our weapons ready, but fortunately we didn’t have to use them. There were several days where we were dodging bombs and things. There were mortars and explosions. I’ve been close enough to have shrapnel rain on the roof.”
Since it wasn’t his first deployment to a combat zone, Singleton said his recent stint was easier.
“Fortunately, it wasn’t my first time and I felt like it was something I could deal with,” he said. “I had a lot of great support from friends, family members and the community. That really helped me get through a lot of stuff. I really don’t feel like I did anything that I need to worry about having nightmares over. But, when people walk into a Starbucks with a big bag I still watch it. I just check them out. I’m a little on edge, but not much.”
A heightened awareness is not always a bad thing.
“Hopefully that is something that will help,” he said. “When you are doing open houses and people walk in, Realtors sometimes have a false sense of security because they are just a Realtor and they think no one is going to bother them. But, there are problems. That’s why Andrew Wooten from S.A.F.E. has spent a lot of time teaching classes at the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors and other organizations talking about how to stay safe. It’s not about carrying weapons, it’s about being aware.”
Singleton got out of active duty 6 1/2 years ago and went into the Navy Reserves. As a part of the Reserves, he goes to training once a month, keeps his status as a Commander in the Navy and the government’s health care.
Did he think he ever think he’d be put on active duty?
“Well, as far as we can tell, this is the first time since World War II that they’ve called up a large number of Navy Reservists, so it was a surprise,” he said. “One Saturday morning, I received a phone call. They gave me four weeks’ notice to get ready to leave. Two weeks to deal with whatever contracts and listings I had. Then I had a week to prepare some of the Navy stuff at NAS Jax. Then I took a week for my family. We just went down to Disney World and just kind of huddled with my 2- and 4 year-old.”
Singleton gave a little history as to what preceded his deployment.
“Al Qaeda had their training camps and actually did the planning for Sept. 11. in Afghanistan with the Taliban,” said Singleton. “The U.S. has been there since 2001 and spent several months getting the Taliban and Al Qaeda out of Afghanistan.”
Singleton was involuntarily mobilized by the Navy Reserves to go to Afghanistan in February of 2006. He was sent there to help train the Afghan army.
“We were training them to be able to protect their country and to build a peaceful, stable country,” said Singleton. “Countries need militaries. It certainly helps as both deterrents and also they have a lot of counter-insurgency stuff going on. They have a huge drug trade going on. There is a lot of criminal activity going on in Afghanistan. They really need an Army and a police force that is going to be adequate to provide peace and stability there. That’s what we were there for. I was working with the Army, but we were trying to build a police force also.”
He said there are several groups including the Taliban, Al Qaeda and others who are anti-government that were trying to attack the U.S. soldiers and create an Iraq-like insurgency in Afghanistan.
“They had been quiet for about four years, but in 2006, they really started coming back,” he said. “So, the entire time I was there, the violence escalated a lot.”
Singleton said the weather there wasn’t too bad and they had pretty good housing.
“I think we were at the best possible base,” he said. “It was called Camp Alamo. We had single rooms which was nice. Our rooms were railroad cars stacked on top of each other. They made housing out of it. The cars had been renovated on the inside, so there was drywall inside, air conditioning with a window and a door. It was a 7x8 foot room, which isn’t big, but it was private, which was nice. We also had Internet in the rooms. We had cable television, but I was so busy, I actually never got a television. There were enough demands on my time, so what free time I had, I wanted to spend e-mailing folks at home and talking on the phone with my wife and children via the Internet on Skype.com.”
During his deployment, Singleton sent out a mass e-mail update about every 10 days totaling about 45 e-mails during his entire stay. The e-mails were sent to about 275 of Singleton’s family and friends, but were forwarded to about 1,000 more.
Singleton has an affinity for Starbucks coffee, so he ended each and every e-mail with “Raise a cup of Starbucks for me and I’ll hurry home.”
Singleton said most mornings he can be found at the Starbucks in San Marco near his home, meeting with customers or friends and talking about real estate.
“Starbucks in many ways was symbolic of home,” he said. “Starbucks was just a place people knew they could find me and they kind of associated Starbucks with me.”
In his e-mails he told of his daily activities and his progress with the Afghan military. The entire collection can be accessed at his Web Site, www.jonsingleton.com.
“It was very important to me to maintain two-way conversation with friends and family,” he said.
Singleton said he really enjoyed getting care packages from home, especially the ones with Starbucks coffee in them.
“I received about 150 pounds of coffee and I brewed coffee for everyone,” he said. “I provided coffee for tons of people. We would just brew it all day and it gave us a little reminder of home. I had 500 boxes that came to me and a lot of them I gave away to others who didn’t get mail.”
While he was gone, Singleton had the help of other agents in his office, which led to 12 closings in a 15-month period.
“It wasn’t a traditional team, but more of a virtual team,” he said. “But I had some folks who did a great job of keeping things running while I was gone.”
Singleton was in the ROTC in college where he earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Vanderbilt University and a master’s degree in management from Troy University.
Before real estate, Singleton had a multi-faceted career with the Navy ranging from being a pilot to installation management to financial analysis. He got out of the military in 2001 and worked as a consultant with the SAIC at the Pentagon. After his son was born, he and his wife moved to Jacksonville where he started a business development consulting firm, The Singleton Group, and then got his real estate license. He joined Watson Realty in 2002.
Before he left, Singleton was also actively involved in many community and business organizations, including recent past president of the Northwest Area Council of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce. He has been married to Candace for 11 years. They have two children, Brandon, 6 and Emily, 4.