Lindsay Noll on 20 Years of Marriage, Business, and Serving Others
Relationships · From Student of the Game
Lindsay Noll on 20 Years of Marriage, Business, and Serving Others
This special episode of Student of the Game was recorded on Brad and Lindsay Noll's 20th wedding anniversary. It also marks 20 years of Noll Team Real Estate. Brad calls Lindsay the queen of their family and their business, and he asks listeners to do something before the conversation starts: tap your chest and listen with your heart.
Lindsay is co-owner of Noll Team Real Estate and owner of Noll Team Interiors. Her story runs from a second-grade calling to nursing, to a career-changing conference, to a design business born during COVID. Along the way, she and Brad share the hard seasons and the habits that have kept their marriage and business healthy.
From the Playground to the Nurse's Station
Lindsay is an identical twin. In elementary school, her sister fell on the playground and hit her head, and Lindsay stayed by her side as the calm voice until their mom arrived. "I think I could do more of this," she remembers thinking. From second grade on, she took every science class she could and set her mind on nursing.
Brad's family moved to Spring Arbor, Michigan, when he was in sixth grade for his dad's new coaching job. At lunch with a well-known local couple, the grandfather mentioned he had twin granddaughters in sixth grade. A week later, Brad met Lindsay in Sunday school. They passed notes, played on the same co-ed travel soccer team, and got back together their senior year of high school.
Lindsay earned her nursing degree at a school about an hour from Brad's college, then worked seven years on a medical-surgical floor at a Fort Wayne hospital. Brad jokes that she was his sugar mama when he started in real estate, where there is no promised paycheck. When they bought their first house, he was the realtor and she was the buyer, because she had the job.
“You need people in your life who are going to speak truth to you, even when it's hard.”
Lindsay Noll
Hard Seasons and the Power of Community
Early in their marriage, Lindsay worked nights, and they sometimes went three days without seeing each other. What helped most, she says, was a Sunday school class for young married couples and mentors who had walked the road before them. "I think that was probably one of the best things that we could have done," she says.
Then came a stretch that tested everything. Their first daughter, Bree, was born, they bought a bigger house, Brad switched companies, and the recession hit. There were months when they had to decide between paying themselves and paying their staff. Because their first core value is serve others, it was an easy decision. Brad tells business owners that if you have never paid your staff before yourself, you probably have not owned a business long enough.
Another hard season came later, when one of their children faced two years of health challenges. Lindsay believes God made her a nurse for that time. She is also honest that, after running on adrenaline, she needed to ask for help herself. Brad shares a saying from his childhood: tough times don't last, but tough people do.
A Benefactor Finds Her Purpose
About seven or eight months after Bree was born, a mentor told them to leave the baby behind and attend a Buffini & Company conference in San Diego. Lindsay went kicking and screaming, arms folded. She was a nurse, not a realtor. It turned out to be one of the best things they ever did, because it was the first time she wrote goals.
A strengths assessment called the Heritage Profile showed Lindsay's top trait was benefactor: someone who loves to help others. Brad explains that every trait has a traitor. A benefactor can help people who did not ask and never help herself. Lindsay now encourages moms and business owners to take care of themselves too. "If you're not taking care of your own health, then you can't take care of anyone else," she says.
Brad connects it to Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, which describes three paths to purpose. The couple adds two practices of their own:
- A passion or project you can pour yourself into.
- An optimistic outlook on suffering, knowing it builds you rather than wastes you.
- A community of people who love you and whom you love to be around.
- For couples, add a regular date night. Brad and Lindsay usually protect Tuesday nights.
- For parents, remember that children watch what you do more than they listen to what you say.
Building Noll Team Interiors
Lindsay had staged homes for the Noll Team for years, partly because Brad is colorblind and could not answer paint questions. Still, without formal training, she felt like an imposter. When COVID began, Brad had the family write seven-day goals. The kids picked bonfires and bike rides. Lindsay picked a staging and redesign certification, and she earned it.
Brad sees a clear line from nursing to staging. Lindsay walks into a home like she is taking vital signs, assesses calmly, and makes a plan. The fundamentals, she explains, start with simplifying an overwhelming process: a list of suggestions on lighting, furniture, and space planning, always leaving the final call to the homeowner. Selling a house is different from living in one, and she helps sellers see their home through a buyer's eyes. And she promises clients she never judges a messy house.
Noll Team Interiors also serves people who are not moving. Sometimes a refresh is all a family needs. Lindsay creates design boards so clients have a starting point, whether they shop on their own or through her vendors, and she offers virtual design for clients in other states. She also decorates for the holidays, including trees for a local Festival of Trees.
What Makes a Marriage and Business Partnership Last?
For Lindsay, winning looks like it does in real estate: friends and family introducing the people who feel stuck in their space. For their partnership, the answer runs through the whole conversation. They lean on mentors, protect time together, model what they want their children to see, and keep people close who will tell them the truth.
Lindsay sends virtual flowers to her parents, who supported her through nursing school and when she later stepped away from nursing, and to longtime mentors and friends who challenge her. Brad closes with a reminder for every listener: your identity is not the work you do. It is who you are, and whose you are.
▶ Listen to the full episode
20th Anniversary Edition: Vital Signs of a Healthy Marriage and Business, on Student of the Game.
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