A Special Prayer

Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, "Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain." And God granted his request. -Chronicles 4:10

This simple Old Testament prayer has been adopted as a template for living by countless believers who say that repeating it, and having faith that it will be answered, has brought them prosperity, health and happiness.

Naomi Lumley, sales and marketing director at Palencia, a popular master-planned development in St. Johns County, will tell you that the Prayer of Jabez has certainly worked for her.

In fact, she says, the prayer led her to her current position with Hines, developer of the 1,450-acre project that hugs the western banks of the Intracoastal Waterway and the Tolomoto River.

"I still pray that prayer every day," says the soft-spoken Lumley, who is today one of the most respected real estate sales professionals on the First Coast. "God's timing is always right. And this is where I need to be."

More specifically, Lumley regarded the portion of the prayer that asks God to "enlarge my territory" as the impetus for taking the job at Palencia. When the project was announced back in 2001, the location was regarded as beautiful but remote.

"When I first came out here, it was just woods," says Lumley, a self-described "Navy brat" who moved to Jacksonville with her family when she was 11 years old and is a graduate of Englewood High School.

"I was trying to decide what I should do. Then [developer] Walt O'Shea took me to the back of the property in his four-wheel drive. I saw the oaks and the marshes, and he showed me where the third hole of the golf course would be. It was all so beautiful the hair stood up on the back of my neck. I said, 'This is it.'"

Although some of her real-estate colleagues thought Lumley had taken the territorial expansion line a bit too literally, going with Palencia turned out to be the right decision. Since then, hundreds of families have been attracted by the development's elegant homes, resort-style amenities and lush natural surroundings.

Lumley's job with Hines is the latest chapter in a storybook career that started in 1978, when Lumley heard a radio ad promoting Watson Realty's Real Estate School.

She signed up for the course and so impressed her instructor, Watson vice president Bob Ransom, that he hired her as an on-site sales agent at Secret Cove, then a new development on Jacksonville's Southside.

Shortly thereafter Amos Almond, owner of Almond Construction and a builder in Secret Cove, hired Lumley to become one of the region's first builder-employed on-site sales agents.

"Amos was a master salesperson," Lumley recalls. "But basically, he just handed me a set of keys and said, 'OK, start selling homes.'"

It was then that Lumley and a handful of others began to recognize the need for specialized training for on-site salespeople, particularly those employed by builders. After all, despite their sticks-and-bricks expertise, few builders had much marketing expertise that they could share.

In the meantime, Almond sold his business to North Florida Builders, where Lumley remained with owner Howard White for eight years as a salesperson and a sales manager. She later spent nine years with Taylor Woodrow before joining Hines at Palencia.

But during that time, she was doing more than selling homes-she was also helping to elevate professionalism in the real estate sales industry.

In 1986 Lumley and several others started the Sales and Marketing Council of the Northeast Florida Builders Association. The purpose was to provide training and professional certification opportunities for on-site salespeople, to improve sometimes-rocky relations between builders and real estate agents and to educate general real estate agents about the nuances of selling new construction.

The SMC developed a curriculum for Certified Sales Person (CSP) and Certified Site Agent (CSA) designations. Then, as the organization grew, its activities expanded. Today, the SMC runs an astonishing array of educational, charitable and social functions designed to help the community and boost the skills of its members.

In fact, the SMC, which has long been the nation's largest, was finally recognized as the best last year at the National Association of Home Builders' International Builders Show in Orlando. The organization had taken top state honors in 1989, and had several second-place finishes in national competition.

Lumley is proud of the SMC's big win, and doubly proud that one of her protégés, Pud English, is the organization's 2006 chairperson. English, who works as a sales agent at Palencia, has known Lumley for more than 30 years and credits her influence as a key reason for her success.

"Naomi has always given me great advice, from my personal life to my business life," says English. "She's a friend and a boss rolled into one. Plus, she genuinely cares about people. She's fun to be around and everyone loves her."

Indeed, Lumley feels that her purpose at this stage of her career is to be a mentor. "As a manager, if I haven't helped to make other people successful, then I've failed," says Lumley, a trim, stylishly dressed woman with a warm smile and striking green eyes.

Clearly, however, Lumley has been both a successful mentor and a successful sales manager. In addition to the countless professionals she's helped indirectly through her SMC activity, there are others in addition English who count Lumley as a personal inspiration.

"I've known Naomi since she was president of the eighth grade and I was vice president," says Marge Van deBoe of North Florida Builders. "She was the sweetest, prettiest girl in school. What you saw was what you got. And she hasn't changed a bit."

Van deBoe says Lumley has been successful "because of the way she treats people and the way she lives her life, plain and simple. Working with her was like working with your girlfriend. Even though she was the boss, she would never ask you to do anything she wouldn't do herself."

Lumley's professionalism has brought her numerous honors, including a Laurel Award as Marketing Director of the Year. She's also a past NEFBA Associate Member of the Year and was recently installed as a NEFBA Life Director. For many years she chaired the association's annual Charity Gala, one of the region's most successful fund-raising events.

Her other activities include hosting dinners for Womenade, an organization of real-estate professionals who raise money for Daniel Memorial, and overseeing her employer's plethora of community outreach programs.

In her free time, Lumley, who is divorced, enjoys weekend visits from her grown daughters, Colleen and Kathy, and her grandchildren. She still lives in Secret Cove, the community where she started her career, and is known for cultivating beautiful roses.

"I enjoy loading up bouquets and giving them to people," Lumley says. "I believe that it's a law of the universe, God's law, that if you perform random acts of kindness, you'll get so much more back in return. And by that I don't mean monetary rewards."

Van deBoe and others say Lumley's generosity and kindness are indeed the real deal.

"Naomi's the type of person you want to be," says Van deBoe. "You want to emulate her. If there's a saint on earth, it's her. I think the lesson she brings is, if you live your life like her, you'll go far."