Grow Your Business Faster: Tips for Agents, Lenders & Contractors

Full transcript:

By the end of this video, you’ll walk away with three practical benefits: first, you’ll see the difference between chasing leads and building a sustainable business. Second,

you’ll learn a few simple ways to find real partners in the California housing industry. And third, you’ll have a repeatable follow-up system that can help you turn each of your deals into a steady stream of referrals.

These are simple strategies you can use right away to become less dependent on cold leads and to start enjoying the benefits of a business growing organically.

Because if growth feels harder than it should, you might need to start carving out time for long-term growth, so you don’t get stuck chasing leads forever.

In the California housing industry, it’s easy to stay laser-focused on the next transaction. Whether you’re an agent chasing new leads, a lender waiting by the phone, or a contractor bidding against ten others, the pattern can look the same: all your energy goes into making ends meet this month with little thought or effort put into how your business is going to thrive 6 months from now.

So, you close one deal, feel that burst of excitement and relief, but then the pressure comes right back. Because if you haven’t built a system or network that gives you regular business, you start each new month right back at zero.

Think about a renovation project where a realtor, a contractor, and a lender work with the same first-time homebuyer. There’s some coordination among the group, communication is smooth, the client is thrilled, and everyone leaves satisfied. And then…nothing. Everyone just moves on to the next lead in their pipeline with no follow-ups or attempts to work with each other again.

Has this happened to you? Have you been so focused on selling something to the next person that you forgot to stay connected with the very people who just proved they work well with you? Where one good project could have become the start of a reliable pipeline—but instead, you lost touch?

This is what happens when you’re too focused on the short-term and you end up relying solely on one-off deals or one-and-done transactions. The cost of relying on these type of deals is greater than the money you’re spending on ads or the time you’re spending prospecting. This hamster wheel drains your energy, makes your income unpredictable and leaves you making less money than you should.

Industry research backs this up. Data shows that referrals create customers with higher lifetime value compared to customers gained through ads or prospecting. In other words, every time you rely on a stranger for business, you’re working harder for less return. But if you’ve worked with referrals before, you’ve probably noticed how different those relationships can be from the very beginning.

I met with a couple in Newport Beach for the first time last week and tried to shake their hands as I introduced myself. The wife gave me a hug instead and said, “you’re a friend of Jen’s so I feel like I already know you.”

A small network of consistent partners could generate more opportunities than hundreds of cold calls. Or at the very least, they can begin to supplement your pipeline with warm referrals that you actually enjoy working with.

So, how do you make this shift? How do you transform your shaky business that’s starting from scratch every month into a more stable business that is being supported by partners in the California housing industry? You start dedicating time to developing relationships.

Here are a few practical tips…

#1 – Make a list of people you want a better relationship with. This list doesn’t have to be big and doesn’t have to be all business. You can add names for clients and businesses you’ve worked with in the past, you can add names for dream clients or businesses you’d like to work with in the future, and you can add names for friends and family that you just want to keep in touch with. However, you make your list, start small and let it grow over time.

#2 – Find time throughout the week to call the people on your list. One of my favorite times to call people is when I’m driving. My current commute gives me about 30 minutes per day, which is 10 to 12 hours per month, to talk to people I like or love while I’m sitting in traffic. Calling while I’m driving means I don’t have to take time away from my family, my work, my health or my down time. I’m able to just repurpose a dead spot in my schedule to make it more enjoyable and productive.

#3 – Have a reason to call. If you’re calling your mom, this doesn’t apply. She will probably be thrilled that you’re calling just to say hi. But if you’re calling someone you don’t have as much of a relationship with, calling ‘just to say hi’ is awkward. And if you’re only calling to ask for referrals or ask something generic like “How’s life?” or “How’s business?”, people will stop answering. So, just have a clear purpose before you call.

And #4 – Repeat this process. Don’t expect everything to change overnight—because it probably won’t. Relationships grow the same way everything else grows: little by little, with consistency. Every time you make a call, you’re making an investment. Some investments pay off immediately while others pay dividends over the long-term. But these investments have a compound effect - so stick with it.

This small tweak to your schedule can be a key difference between chasing deals and building a business. Dedicating time to long-term growth and building relationships with industry partners means you’re not just surviving deal to deal—you’re making investments that compound over time. But that raises the next question many professionals wrestle with: where do you find people to develop relationships with?

As I always recommend, start with the inner circle of people you already know. Past clients, colleagues you enjoy working with, even friends and family who are connected to the housing industry—this is the easiest and best place to begin.

From there, expand your circle outwards to friends-of-friends. If you know an agent, ask who their favorite lender is. If you know a contractor, ask which designers or inspectors they love working with. You can then introduce yourself as a friend-of-a-friend which helps relationships develop more quickly and easily.

Next, check out the California Housing Collective. Our community is made up of people in the California Housing Industry who are looking to work with other people in the California Housing Industry. There’s a link in the description below where you can connect with us and join the waitlist for the community.

And finally, look for—or even create—local industry events. A happy hour, a workshop, or even just a coffee meetup can be simple ways to bring the right people into the same room. Over time, those gatherings can become a hub for the kinds of partnerships that begin moving your business forward.

For this last section, let’s talk about putting together a repeatable follow-up system that can turn one good deal into a steady stream of referrals. Because, if you put a process in place, one transaction can multiply into several more without the same grind of working new cold leads every month.

Here is a simple strategy you can use right away.

Put together a schedule to follow up with clients and partners and stick to it. A good rhythm is to call one week after completing a project, then one month later, and then quarterly until it doesn’t make sense to keep calling any more. Consistency will help keep you top of mind as long as know what you’re going to say. Like we talked about earlier, you can’t just keep asking for referrals every month or throwing out vague questions. Every call should have a purpose—whether it’s checking in on how a project turned out, sharing an update from your side, or connecting them with someone who needs help.

And then automate this process as much as possible. Use your CRM or even just your calendar to set reminders so these calls don’t slip through the cracks. The more you build this system into your routine, the less effort it takes—and the more opportunities will start showing up.

And remember: these calls aren’t random outreach, they are part of a long-term approach to building sustainable success. People in the housing industry often get asked “hey, do you know a good agent or contractor or lender?” And when those questions get asked, you want to be the name everyone brings up. This happens when you stay top-of-mind. And the best way to stay top-of-mind is to regularly reach out to people in your circle. It’s not about calling more people, it’s about calling your people more often.

This isn’t about adding more work—it’s about creating and following better systems. If every transaction feeds into a repeatable process that strengthens relationships and provides opportunities in the future, your business shifts from always chasing the next lead to compounding long-term growth. And that compounding is what creates consistency, stability, and bigger results over time.

So, here’s the big takeaway. One-off deals keep you stuck in survival mode, always chasing the next lead. But when you shift your focus—even just a little bit—toward collaboration and long-term growth, your business starts compounding instead of resetting every month. That’s how you grow faster, and it’s exactly why agents, lenders, and contractors who work together get better results than those who go it alone.

Your next step is simple: start putting these ideas into practice. Make a list of people to call, find the time slots in your schedule that already exist, figure out why you’re reaching out and just give it a shot. Start making investments into your business by making investments into other people’s lives.

And if you’re a California housing professional ready to grow your business through collaboration, please click the link below and join the waitlist for the California Housing Collective today.

Keep learning, keep building, and keep connecting. Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you in the next one.