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Five referrals in one week. Two listing appointments from automated emails. Closings happening while I’m focused on strategy instead of scrambling for my next deal.

Sounds like a fantasy? It’s not. It’s what happens when you stop blaming market conditions and start building the backend systems your business desperately needs.

Let me give you a paradigm shift that might sting a little: frustrated that leads are taking longer to convert? Feeling like business is scarce and the market’s to blame? Here’s the reality check – the market conditions change. They fluctuate. This is part of being in business, part of the entrepreneur’s journey.

But what we’re really seeing now is a revelation that agents never took the time to actually build a business. When the market was hot, everybody was closing deals not because they were skilled at business, but because it was just easy to convert leads. Now that things have slowed down? It’s exposing and revealing gaps in our businesses.

We can’t keep blaming the market. We have to take responsibility and start looking at the backend systems of our business and build so that when the next slow market comes (and it will come because that’s part of business – it ebbs and flows), we’re prepared.

When Being Busy Becomes Your Biggest Business Mistake

Reason number one why agents don’t build: they choose activity over strategy.

They’re too busy chasing closings – focused on the activities that bring closings – that they don’t think long-term strategy. How do I build something I can walk away from and still have closings coming in?

This is about building your “right now” business AND your “later” business. That’s strategy. The right now business is activities, but you’ve got to figure out how to work both IN and ON your business.

When I built my referral system, I built it knowing that once it was in place, I could walk away from it. Then I could focus on immediate business while having that lever working long-term to grow my business.

Here’s what you need to understand: when you’re stuck in hustle mode, when you’re stuck in “go get it” but never make time for strategy, strategy never happens. When we see what we’re seeing in the market now, it’s just hard for agents to keep up and compete.

The Dual Career Agent Advantage

One reason I started focusing heavily on dual career agents is because y’all have no choice but to operate and execute strategy. You don’t have the time to mess around. A full-time agent can hustle and find their way because they’ll work 60, 70, 80, 90 hours a week (which I think is pointless), but they can find their way because they have the opportunity to extend more time.

When you’re a dual career agent, baby, you’ve got about two to three hours a day to run your business, and you better have strategy or it’s going to show.

Questions for Strategy Building:

– What can I build once that will work repeatedly?

– How am I working ON my business versus just IN my business?

– What systems could generate results even when I’m not actively working?

The Knowledge Gap That’s Killing Your Growth

Reason number two that agents don’t build their business: they just don’t know how to build or what to build.

Many agents don’t realize what building actually means. Let me break down the five business systems, starting with the first one – a lead generation system.

When you’re starting a business, especially real estate, you’ve got to figure out what leads you need to meet your goals. How many people you need to talk to. What the conversations need to look like. This needs to be systematized. Parts of it need to be automated.

The Power of Automated Systems

You also need a client nurture system, a follow-up system, a funnel system to bring them in and follow up with them while you’re doing other things. If you know me, if you’re on my email list (and you should be), you know I started email marketing because it allowed me to be consistent and show up with people without having to physically be present.

I use tech services. I use voicemail drops. All these things are automated as part of my processes to help me grow my business. When the market slowed down, all I did was double up on those systems. Instead of sending one email a week, I started sending two. Instead of sending two texts a week, I started sending four.

All I did was increase the touch points, but I took the system I already had in place and just scaled it. That’s the thing about systems – they’re scalable.

Real Results from Real Systems

This is why building hand-to-hand transactions is so exhausting. With everybody you do business with, you have to call individually. But with my referral system, I got five referrals this week. I ended up taking two listings from systematized emails that went out to clients, and they replied back: “Hey, give me a call. I want to list my house.” “Hey, give me a call. I want to have a coworker that’s interested in buying a house.”

These systems you build – the solid database and referral network – are evergreen systems that can continue to grow your business even if you’re working full-time and have to spend the day at another job. These systems can still work for you.

System Building Essentials:

– Lead generation funnel with automation

– Email marketing campaigns

– Database organization and management

– Referral network development

– Follow-up sequences that nurture relationships

The Boom Time Trap: Why Good Markets Make Bad Habits

The third reason agents don’t build systems: they think the fast market, the boom, will last forever. They ride these waves and totally ignore the importance of stability.

But as I said in my reel today on Instagram: the Bible says there’s a season for everything under the sun. You’re going to have good times in business, but you’re going to have some not-so-good times. Wouldn’t it be good when you have the not-so-good times to have something prepared?

The Joseph Strategy for Business

Let me give you the example from Genesis. Joseph was given a dream interpretation. A king asked Joseph to interpret his dream, and Joseph said, “You’re going to have seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine.” That was a word from the Lord – the same word in the Bible that tells us there’s a season for everything.

When Joseph interpreted this dream, he was able to help the king prepare for the seven seasons of famine. What happened? In the season of plenty, they put some aside and started preparing. We call that preparing for a rainy day.

That same concept works for us as entrepreneurs because I have bills. Unfortunately, as the market fluctuates, my bills can’t do that. These people still want to get paid on the first and fifteenth every month. They come like clockwork.

My Personal System for Stability

The systems help me maintain consistency so my income can be as consistent as possible. FYI, I don’t know if I ever said this in a video before – I don’t get commission for my business. I am a W-2 employee of my business. Why? Because I can budget for my salary, but also when I bring in a lot of money, I can start to prepare for my salary in the down times. It’s the same concept Joseph used in Genesis.

They don’t think about building a safety net, but the reality is you don’t build a safety net when you need it. You build it before you need it.

The Two-Pillar Foundation: Relationships Plus Conversations

In my next video, I’m going to give you a play-by-play of my referral system and how I built it. But I want to tell you that in that referral system, I focused on two things: nurturing relationships and touch points.

I say this all the time, and if you’re watching this video, I want you to put this in the comments: **Real estate is nothing more than relationships and conversations.**

If you know how to have conversations that convert – meaning you’re skilled at that, you practice that, it’s something you’re learning daily to get better at – and you know how to build relationships, you will be successful in business.

But the reality is the success in building relationships for realtors is in the follow-up. That’s why your funnels have to be in place. That’s why your email campaigns have to be in place. Your touch points have to be in place so you can systematically build relationships that convert over time.

The Faith Element in Business Building

When I developed the referral system, I put it on my Instagram as a reel sometime in the last week with seven steps, but those are seeds that I planted. When I called people, I prayed over them, and God was faithful to bring the harvest.

I want you to understand I’m building a business by faith. This is my opportunity to show God’s grace and mercy to the world and that He’s a keeper regardless of what the market is doing. But I still have to participate in my own rescue. The Bible says we have to work out our own salvation. Think about that in business terms – I still have to participate in the long-term growth of my business.

Your Building Season Starts Now

Let’s talk about why now is the time to build. I’ve said this in previous videos, and I believe people learn by repetition. The reality is when the market is slow, this is your time to build. Why? You don’t have a hundred thousand showings and a hundred thousand clients.

This is the time to build. Use that time wisely. Don’t just sit in fear. Take action. Insulate yourself. Prepare for the market ahead because what’s going to happen is the market is going to be great again. I believe it because real estate goes up and down. But when it gets great, you’re going to be too busy to build.

Then you’re going to keep going through this cycle – one month you make $10,000, the next month you make zero. Like I said, my bills just can’t do that.

Your Action Plan for Building

Don’t just sit in fear. Take action:

– Build your lead generation system with automation levels

– Build your follow-up system

– Use email marketing

– Create a referral strategy

– Organize your database

These are things you can do right now to continue growing your business.

Long Money Versus Right Now Money

My brain always thinks long-term strategy. I very seldom focus on short-term activity because here’s the thing: short-term activity gets you paid now, but I’m interested in long money. Long money.

I had an agent on my team who built a referral system for her clients. Her clients refer most of her business. She made $200,000 in one month. Listen, people are still doing this. I was so proud because everything I told her to do for her business, she did it. She did it her own way and took her own route, but when I said build a referral system, get in front of your clients, send follow-up emails, create these systems to automate for you – she did all that, and it works.

The Systems That Actually Work (Across Every Industry)

I’m not talking to you about something I’ve read or studied in a book. I’ve lived this. I’ve done this not just in real estate, but in health insurance when I was doing that, and in other industries. This is something that works across businesses, any form of sales. I don’t care if you’re selling Mary Kay or real estate – you need to have these levers in place for your business to be successful.

Reflection Questions for Your Business:

– What season is my business in right now – plenty or preparation?

– How am I currently nurturing the relationships in my database?

– What automated systems could I implement this week?

– Am I building for right now money or long money?

– What would happen to my business if I couldn’t work for 30 days?

Your Next Steps:

1. Audit your current systems (or lack thereof)

2. Pick ONE system to focus on first

3. Automate one touchpoint this week

4. Schedule time weekly for strategy, not just activity

5. Start treating your database like the goldmine it is

Even if you don’t know where to begin, invest in yourself. Sometimes building means you need consultation. If I was building a house right now, I would call an architect. I’m not going to try to lay out the blueprint for my house myself.

Coincidentally, my coaching program is called The Blueprint. It’s a one-year self-guided coaching program that helps you build the backend of your systems, but more than that, it helps you understand the mindset of strategy and how to implement that in your business to grow.

The market will shift again. The question is: will you be ready this time? Learn more about the blueprint program here.