The Secret to Success in Marriage, Values & $800M Wealth | Real, Raw & Real Estate

4: From Divorce Threats to $800M Legacy | Marriage, Faith & The Secret to Success in Real Estate

• Tenisha & Darrell Williams

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What does it take to grow a marriage and a business—without losing yourself in the process?

In this candid episode, Darrell & Tenisha Williams, founders of Elite Realty Partners ($800M+ sold), share how personal development, faith, and intentional communication transformed their marriage and their real estate empire. What started with hidden truths and conflict turned into a story of resilience, leadership, and legacy.

💡 Key Takeaways You’ll Learn:

  • Why being equally yoked means complementing strengths—not being identical
  • Darrell’s early confession: lying about his age and accomplishments, and how he grew into the person he claimed to be
  • The power of clearly defined roles at home and in business to reduce conflict and increase efficiency
  • How counseling and personal development turned emotional reactivity into emotional mastery
  • Why core values must be tested under pressure—or they’re just preferences
  • The danger of being a “public success but private failure”
  • Why emotional maturity directly fuels business results → “I’m a master of my emotions, so therefore I produce massive results.”

Whether you’re married, running a business, or striving for personal growth, this episode offers a blueprint for turning challenges into catalysts for success.

👉 Share this with your spouse, business partner, or fellow entrepreneur who needs encouragement on the journey.



🎙️ About Real, Raw & Real Estate
Hosted by Darrell & Tenisha Williams, founders of Elite Realty Partners ($800M+ sold), this podcast goes beyond real estate. It’s about marriage, faith, business, and building generational wealth. Every Sunday we share the unfiltered conversations that help entrepreneurs, couples, and leaders grow in life and business.

📌 What You’ll Get Here

  • Lessons on faith, family, marriage, and legacy
  • Real estate + business strategies for entrepreneurs
  • Insights on building wealth with purpose
  • The raw truth about scaling as a couple

📌 Prefer video? Watch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RealRawRealEstate

📌 Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realrawandrealestate/

📌 Follow, subscribe & share to help more couples and entrepreneurs grow with us.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes men do make mistakes, right.

Speaker 2:

Mistakes. Listen, it is what it is. I will speak to this, though I lied in the beginning about not just my age, but about a lot of things of what I was doing and what I was having, but the reality is, those things I was lying about, I really could do them.

Speaker 1:

You're listening to Real, raw and real estate where love meets legacy. Faith fuels the hustle and we turn real estate into real impact and we're your host.

Speaker 2:

Daryl and tanisha williams, husband and wife, power couple building wealth. One conversation at a time.

Speaker 1:

Let's talk faith strategy and the truth behind the journey.

Speaker 2:

Let's get into it.

Speaker 1:

The people want to know.

Speaker 2:

The people okay.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. The people want to know the true balance of family life and business life.

Speaker 2:

Okay, all right, again, that's that's. That's bad, you can call it balance all the time, but in actuality it's just, it's a rhythm, finding the rhythm in your family, finding the rhythm in your business, business, understanding that there's no like I'm going to speak directly to you. You're my partner in life, so, of course, you're my partner in business, whether you, whether we were in the same business or not, I know, I know there's nobody that has my back, like my wife has my back, like you have my back.

Speaker 1:

So, that being said, when we went on that personal development journey, we went on it together and that's important and because so, for example, the bible says, um, the importance of being equally yoked, and we know, in a marriage that's so important. So if you're already equally yoked, for example, we know that our marriage is ordained right, we talk about this all the time the fact that you were a single dad. I was a single mom. Your dad suffered from a certain abuse.

Speaker 1:

My dad suffered from the same substance abuse right, it's like we had the same family dynamics right. You being the middle child, and certain things and responsibilities that you feel like you had, and the same thing for me. So, it's almost as if we were living similar lives apart, and when we came together, everything aligned.

Speaker 2:

It balanced and I don't want people to get it misunderstood. When we're talking about, when we're talking about equally yo, that doesn't mean we're the same. Though we have similar experiences, we're still not the same because you say all the time two people are the same, somebody is um, what'd you say somebody's?

Speaker 1:

two people are the same.

Speaker 2:

One person is unnecessary exactly so, if that, with that being said, where I lack, as those are your strengths, and vice versa. So that's why I feel like it works for us, granted is it doesn't being honest. Does it get tumultuous? Does it gets? Does it get, you know, trying sometimes, absolutely. But it would. It would on any other job, it would on any, no matter what I would be doing. But again, it goes back to the foundation. For me, it goes back to the foundation, like I know you really got my back. I know you see something in me. I know you saw something in me before. I saw it in myself. So I appreciate that. But that just makes me want to rise to the occasion.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and that's the importance right of true partnership and alignment to being able to identify things in someone that oftentimes they don't see in themselves, like kind of expound on that, if you don't mind, when you say, oh, I saw some things in you that you didn't see in yourself. Because and only reason why I say that is because, speaking to the men in the audience, sometimes men don't want to listen to their girlfriend, their spouse, their woman, and it was. It may not have been easy for you either.

Speaker 2:

uh-huh, it wasn, it wasn't, it wasn't.

Speaker 1:

I can't keep so like tell me about that transition you know what, in all honesty, and what did I see?

Speaker 2:

What did you see? Well, I'll tell you this. I knew what you wanted because you verbalized that to me. Now, in the very beginning, being honest, I wasn't the most truthful and it was really because I was still young doing my thing. You know what I mean. I wanted to.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so let's talk about the not truthful. Can you believe? Go ahead.

Speaker 2:

We don't talk about not truthful right. Talk about it. It's real, wrong, real estate.

Speaker 1:

It's so funny because I tell you this all the time when we laugh about it. So you lied about your age.

Speaker 2:

I did. Let's talk about it I did, I did, you know how it go so.

Speaker 1:

I thought you were older.

Speaker 2:

Yes, you did.

Speaker 1:

Only because I guess I told you that you know, normally I dated guys that were older.

Speaker 2:

I don't even really think. You told me that I think it was more.

Speaker 1:

Oh, so you just was just lying to all the ladies.

Speaker 2:

No, because you know how it is. Oh, okay, you got somebody you're trying to talk to, especially when we were younger. You're talking about like 21, 22, 23 years old. You were a little bit older. So I'm like, shoot, I ain't finna be the young dude. I'm finna. Okay, you 23? I'm 23 too. I'll be 24. In Nashville I was 21. I was handling my business. Don't misunderstand me. I my business, but I still was.

Speaker 1:

I still was younger right, I still was younger and you know I wasn't truthful. I'm not gonna say I lied in the beginning. Here's the crazy part. This is how I found, so I want to know when did you plan on telling me the real age?

Speaker 2:

because I accidentally found out your real age, that's different. That's deep and I'm gonna tell you why it's so deep. That's deep. And I'm going to tell you why it's so deep. It's deep because the story goes I got dumped in the very beginning. I got to take you back. I got dumped in the very, very beginning. I think we dated for a couple of, maybe a couple of months and then I got dumped.

Speaker 2:

It might have been a couple of months, I write a couple of weeks Dated for a couple of weeks I got dumped. For a couple of weeks I got dumped, I got back in. I still didn't tell how old I was. So when we finally were going on a trip, we were going on a trip, we were getting on a cruise for the very first time both of our first time getting on a cruise and I hadn't booked everything. No, I think you. I think you were booking everything.

Speaker 1:

No, I did not book anything, I booked everything.

Speaker 2:

You were verifying, you were going ahead and, I guess, verifying things. I was trying to finalize.

Speaker 1:

I was trying to ensure that we had everything we needed to go on this trip.

Speaker 2:

You saw my birthday on the thing you were like hold on Go ahead. No, no, go ahead. I can't speak for you. So, yeah, so I saw your birthday on the book in information.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you saw it on the book in information.

Speaker 2:

I couldn't deny that the math wasn't math I get it, but I, but I'm I'm so glad because sometimes men do make mistakes. Right mistakes, listen, it is what it is.

Speaker 1:

Mistakes meaning, hey you weren't truthful about your age, true, true, but I will speak to this, though.

Speaker 2:

I will speak this, and it's something I think the fellas can benefit from I lied in the beginning about not just my age, but about a lot of things of what I was doing and what I was having and my accomplishments. I did lie in the beginning, I'm being honest with you, but the reality is the stuff that I was lying about, that you. I think that I was trying to impress you in the very beginning, but the reality is those things I was lying about, I really could do them, and when you shined a light on, hey, you lying, you lying it was like okay, well, the reality was I realized I could actually do everything that I was even saying that I was actually doing and I wasn't, I was just lying.

Speaker 1:

Evolving.

Speaker 2:

I was evolving For me.

Speaker 1:

Here's the thing with a lot of men and women. It's about accountability right. Like you just said, you were trying to impress.

Speaker 2:

I was, and that's really keeping it all the way real and raw right now, because it's my first time even hearing you say that, yeah, but you, you allowed me to see that those things that I was lying about were actually achievable by me. Not just, not just something, not, it wasn't just things that the, the extraordinary man, could do and achieve, it was. It was me I could do. I could do all of those things.

Speaker 1:

Here's the thing, what you're missing. You are already great and already extraordinary, without even having to fabricate anything.

Speaker 1:

You are already taking care of your mom, taking care of your household, trying to buy a house, you know, working seven days a week. You are already those things right. So I think oftentimes people get lost. And here's the thing research shows that most people don't know who they are because they're so busy trying to be someone else. And if you're not trying to be someone else, it may be trying to be like someone else. And I think that what I really shine light on is you're. You're great just the way you are Like. You have so many natural talents, naturally smart, and it was just about you amplifying those things. And now here we are.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I'm saying yes like I agree, but not that I'm agreeing on on what you're saying about who I am. I agree that you shine the light on it. You get what I. I took it put my ego all the way to the side and it put me back in the mindset of go get that.

Speaker 2:

Right Go achieve that Go to the next level, level up, and we talk about personal development and the and when we actually went on that journey and what it was like. That was actually before we were even in business, business, business together. We were already in. We were already a business, business, business together. We were already in. We were already a family, growing a family.

Speaker 1:

But here's the thing when you have a family, you're in business together that's what I'm getting.

Speaker 2:

That's what I'm getting that. So it kind of just made sense yeah you get what I'm saying. It kind of made sense because, again, you were already a single, a single mother, and I was already a single father. So now we combine what we had and and and develop that and grown that from from the very beginning and what do you need in business?

Speaker 1:

you need active roles right and what do? You need in a family you need active roles you know there's so many, the divorce rate is high and certain things like that, mainly because People have not Identified the roles and I believe that we are very gender specific.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, in our household you ain't touching no trash can. You're not touching the trash can.

Speaker 1:

So I am. I do not Take out the trash. True, have not Taken out the trash. I've been married to you for how many years? 13 years. It's about to be 13 years.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I have not taken the trash out Period. Yeah, I mean I can't go on vacation either. I have not taken the car.

Speaker 1:

I have not taken the car to the shop. You know the same way. You have not washed a load of clothes, you have not Hold on of clothes you have not.

Speaker 2:

Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. You have not washed the dishes. Don't tell the people that you have not. I 100% have washed a load of clothes, at least a load of clothes.

Speaker 1:

You've washed in 13 years? You've washed a load of clothes.

Speaker 2:

I'm not going to say a.

Speaker 1:

Have you folded any?

Speaker 2:

Listen, we talking about roles here. Have you folded any? Listen, we're talking about roles here. You're talking about washing the clothes, and here's the thing, and whatever works for some families may not work, for others but my point is whether it's gender specific roles or roles in general.

Speaker 1:

Identifying roles are important, of course, and the same way you have that in your family. That's why the best partnerships are spouses, because that just can transfer over to being role specific in your business. Oftentimes, when you haven't identified the roles, you begin to clash.

Speaker 2:

So what do I mean by that?

Speaker 1:

If the trash is running over. You're not looking to me. It's not my fault. We already know that's you or the boy's job, right, if the laundry room is out of control.

Speaker 2:

Thank God for my mom now right, she's taking over that role because she lives with us.

Speaker 1:

But prior to that, you're looking at me. So when roles are identified, let's translate that to business. At Elite Realty Partners, you're responsible for paying out the agents. You're responsible for being sure that corporate filings and everything is in order and up to date. You're responsible for paying out the agents. You're responsible for being sure that corporate filings and everything is in order and up to date. You're responsible for CPA taxes, all of this stuff that I know nothing about as far as finances, don't even know how to pay a bill, which card to use. That's your responsibility, right? So if anything goes wrong in any one of those areas, we know who to look for. Now, when it comes to coaching the agents and it comes to trainings and it comes to all of those things, I don't want nothing to do with that If anything falls through, we know whose fault it is.

Speaker 1:

And that's the importance of being in alignment, understanding each other's strengths. Because guess what, I wouldn't be great at anything tax related. I wouldn't be great at anything tax related. I wouldn't be great at anything regarding the CPA. I wouldn't be great at anything. I don't even understand the language Right. So I think it's important to say you know what, what are your strengths, what are my strengths? Because oftentimes we're majoring in the minor things and what's major for you is minor for me, and what's major?

Speaker 1:

for me is minor for me, and what's major for me is minor for you, correct? If that makes sense that's I wish.

Speaker 2:

When we were getting started, I think, um, I was maybe, maybe 25, 26, 27 years old. I was newly married. Truth be told, we were going to the courthouse every like every weekend, seems.

Speaker 1:

Oh, we were threatening the courthouse we were getting divorced. Every other day I was running away.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, big shout out to, uh, big shout out to stephanie. Listen, stephanie, you would run away to stephanie house all the time and I knew you was running away to stephanie house. I called stephanie and stephanie be mm-hmm. Stephanie, she over there, mm-hmm, I don't know what's going on over there.

Speaker 1:

Oh, she was telling you?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, she would tell me, Stephanie's my buddy. Oh, okay.

Speaker 1:

Stephanie's my listen, big shout out.

Speaker 2:

Big shout out to Stephanie. It would take you like 30 minutes to get there walk. I can only imagine what you were talking about when you was walking solo by yourself. I don't know if you were calling her, let her know you was coming. Did you call her? You just walked all the way to her house. Did she come get you? No, you walked all the way to stephanie house I did.

Speaker 1:

Here's the thing.

Speaker 2:

Here's the thing, it's, it's about.

Speaker 1:

But this is what I love about it, because we were so immature back then yes we were so immature, we did not know what personal development was, we did not know effective communication. And if I can correlate anything, I can really honestly say the more we grew in our marriage, the more we grew in our business a hundred percent.

Speaker 2:

That's why I'm getting. That's why I really wanted to speak to that, because I didn't know that was preparing us for better. I was, you know, we were emotional. You said it. We were immature. Fellas, fellas, fellas. Control your emotions.

Speaker 2:

Granted, you're human. I understand it. Listen, I used to be the guy so hot, running around throwing things out. Listen, it is what it is. I wasn't the guy, I wasn't the. We went to counseling and he called me like a roaring lion or the Incredible Hulk. Tanisha would call me the Incredible Hulk. You get so mad. Yes, I'm not proud of it, but I stuck around long enough. I personally developed and I realized that those times that my life prepare me for better. It prepared me for better because, to be told, if you live long enough, you're going to get tried. You're going to get tried by people that look like you and people that don't, in business and personally, you're going to crash out. You're going to lose out. Prepare, understand that you're being prepped and ready, getting ready for the next level don't lose it, meaning it's important to prepare for conflict yeah, but you don't know.

Speaker 2:

you know sometimes you don't know because you're not you're, you're living it and you're, you're quick, very quick to react and crash out and how we say, you get tricked off the streets or tricked out of your spot because you, you overreacted or you weren't prepared or your emotions wasn't intact long enough to see that this is just preparation for the next level. You said something. I remember what you said. I am a master of my emotions, so therefore I produce massive results and, for god, put that in you at that particular time, well before you even really needed it yeah, you get what I'm saying so I'm so thankful for elite realty partners because I I know that god birthed this business through us to make sure that it brought us closer.

Speaker 1:

Like, if you really think about elite realty partners, saved our marriage, helped our communication. Like we wanted to win so much in elite and with the agents that we had no choice but to become better entrepreneurs. And the more we worked on becoming a better business people, the more it helped us become a better wife or a better husband. Because here's the thing I wouldn't dare work on being a better leader for agents before I work on being a better wife for you.

Speaker 2:

Well, truth be told, counseling helps, helps, fellas, I know that's that's kind of a pet peeve For a lot of us. It definitely was that for me. I'm not saying I constantly speak to a therapist.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, let's talk about it, because you didn't want to go to counseling.

Speaker 2:

I didn't Okay, let's be 100%, but it shined a light on. It shined a light on. It shined a light on me and I needed it. You get what I'm saying it was. It was. It was needed because you get perspective and in this particular, in that particular case, that there was a. It was an older man who was relatable, spoke calmly, spoke firmly, but he shined a light on me. He had his own experiences that I could relate to, or he could. He could present a scenario and I was. I would describe how I would handle it, and he was like, okay, well, maybe, maybe this would work. You get what I mean. I know how it worked, I know the results based on, I know what, I know what the results are based on, how I handle it and I didn't like what happened. So keep it together long enough, young fella, so that you can get the better results. So try this way.

Speaker 1:

I know one thing you always say is you know, if you're going to have a therapist, they must be a male and they must be married. For you, you know, and that's what you say right, even lately, when we were trying to find a new therapist, only because the old therapist is no longer in practice. But why is that important to you? Because so many men just they write off counseling, they write off therapy altogether. But the way you're saying that particular counselor was relatable for you, why is that important?

Speaker 2:

It's important for me because I feel like my background or my upbringing is unique. My core values are my core values for a reason. So I would always want someone that I'm getting some of this knowledge from, or getting their perspective, have some type of experience or at least really values the same thing that I value, whether it be family, whether it be business, whether it be this. Who are you? You get what I mean. It's just like a mentor. I don't want to, not that I don't want to. I would prefer to learn and seek advice from someone that's done it. You get what I mean.

Speaker 1:

And here's the thing, ladies. I know oftentimes we want men to lead in every single category, but in some categories that they're not accustomed to, it's okay to be the leader in it.

Speaker 1:

Meaning, you know you weren't pro-counseling but, yet it's about going through the back door. Sometimes it's about going through the chimney. Sometimes I say you might have to build an underground railroad to get through to your husband and there is a science behind being a great wife and it's learning your husband's communication style, learning their love language and when to hold it and when to fold it, which I'm still working on in real time, in real time. It's always a work in progress, because here's the million dollar thing as we continue to grow uh-huh what used to work may not work anymore yeah, because I know them tricks.

Speaker 2:

I seen you coming through the window. I don't put, I don't put, I don't close the blinds, I don't got a key on that. Now you can't come through this door, no more. I seen you coming through the window. I don't put, I don't close the blinds, I don't got a key on that. Now you can't come through this door no more. I see you come, no, you know what the problem?

Speaker 1:

is. You've heard me speaking to too many women, trying to give them tips about the Underground Railroad Now you know about it. That's the problem.

Speaker 2:

I got to stop talking in front of you sometimes I don't want to be a private success and a public failure, or public failure or public success and a private failure. Wait, you got to say that again, I don't want to be a public success and a private failure. Yeah, so that means you look at me in business and see all of the success and then there's no peace at home or there's no successful family. There's no success. You get what I'm saying. How you do anything is how you do everything. I'm not faking who I am at home or out in public.

Speaker 1:

And in the world where so many people are faking, it's so important for us to be authentic, like I thank God that both of us are not living our lives or are running our businesses to impress others. Yeah, like we really want to be great people. I heard someone say the other day and it was so great when it's when we're talking about communication where if you cannot practice your core principles when under pressure, those are not principles, they're just preferences. Ooh deep when I heard him his Instagram conflict-ish or something like that.

Speaker 2:

But when?

Speaker 1:

I tell you that was so amazing because you talked about the story of when God put in my spirit when Elite First started, and now I understand it. When Elite First started, I didn't know why and we'll have to talk about this in one of the next episodes and kind of expound on it but it was, yes, I'm a master of my emotions, so therefore I produce massive results, but it's because I led with my emotions and I knew that in business and in life, you cannot wear your emotions on your sleeve. You have to be able to operate in your core values. When under pressure, and when I started really living those principles, I was able to watch others overreact.

Speaker 1:

I was able to watch others be disrespectful and even in that moment I'm like, wow, that's what you used to look like wow, that's how you used to sound yeah and it's like God was able to let me see who I used to be by way of others in front of me, and I didn't want to look like that even now when I, when there's conflict, whether it's, it could be with you, it could be with the agent, it could be with the agent, it could be with anybody. I just sometimes now you can see I can I completely be quiet, and the old Tanisha could never write Never, never.

Speaker 2:

I could never. You want to know why.

Speaker 1:

Because no matter what somebody does to me now, no one or nothing is worth me going back to who God delivered me from. Like I am proud to be this emotionally developed, I am proud to be this spiritually developed and I almost feel like I can't afford to let God down because if I do go back, if I do slip up and yes, I'm human, but he, like I, just want to make him proud because it doesn't matter. If there's no pressure, what do you do when the pressure is on? What do you do when there's no money? What do you do when the transactions are low? What do you do when you're fighting with your spouse? Like, how do you stand up and represent for God? In those moments You're tuned in to real, raw and real estate.

Speaker 2:

That's right. New episodes every Sunday on YouTube and every Tuesday on all your streaming platform.

Speaker 1:

So if this episode touched you, please make sure you share it in the group chat. Share it with a fellow entrepreneur.

Speaker 2:

We are jam-packed with power and purpose and we want to share it with you. Fellas, if this helped you, if you felt like at some point in your life that everything was falling apart, tune in. Tell a friend to tell a friend. Hopefully this video helps you guys out. Tell a friend to tell a friend.

Speaker 1:

Hopefully this video helps you guys out. People don't make an announcement when their admiration turns into envy. There's not an announcement made. So it's up to you to ensure that you are spiritually inclined to discern those things.