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Picture this.

You’re sitting on your couch at 11 p.m. in a city where you know absolutely nobody.

Your baby is finally asleep after three hours of fussing. Your real estate license is fresh, practically still warm from the printer. And you just watched another agent on YouTube talk about how he wakes up at 5 a.m., makes 100 cold calls before breakfast, and then hits three networking events before lunch.

You look around your living room. You can’t even get to the brokerage for training because you’re breastfeeding. You don’t have babysitter money. Your entire “network” fits on a Post-it note… and most of those people live 800 miles away in Atlanta where you spent 11 years building relationships you now can’t access.

That was me.

Tampa. 2015.

Two toddlers.

Zero local contacts.

And a popular real estate coach came to my brokerage talking about all the things successful agents do — early mornings, constant motion, endless face-to-face networking. I remember sitting there thinking, *I literally can’t do any of that.*

But then Arthur Ashe’s words hit me different that night. “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”

Where was I? Home. What did I have? A computer, social media, and the ability to press record. What could I do? I could talk to people — even if those people were behind a screen at first.

So I stopped looking for leads.

I started building community.

And in 12 months, I went from making $40,000 to $150,000 — in a city where I’d started as a complete stranger. By my second year, I was building infrastructure, coaching other agents, and had won an award for being the #1 agent on social media in Tampa.

What follows is the exact five-part system I used. Not theory. Not motivation. The actual steps I took, the scripts I used, and the infrastructure I built when my database was basically empty and my options were basically nonexistent.

The Digital Mayor Campaign: How To Become The Person Everybody Knows Online When Nobody Knows You Offline

The first thing I did wasn’t clever. It was desperate. I couldn’t leave the house, so I brought the house to people online.

I started what I call the Digital Mayor Campaign — becoming the most visible, most valuable person in online spaces where my potential clients already hung out.

Step 1: Find your digital neighborhoods.

I joined every Facebook group I could find that connected to my life — local mom groups, Tampa entrepreneur groups, women in business groups, neighborhood groups. I wasn’t looking for “real estate leads.” I was looking for *people*. People buy houses. And people hang out in these groups talking about everything except real estate.

Step 2: Be a giver before you’re an asker.

This is where most agents mess up. They join a group and immediately post, “Hey, I’m a realtor! Anyone looking to buy or sell?” That’s cold. Impersonal. And it gets you ignored.

Instead, I started doing live videos every Monday night. I called them the Monday Night Grinds. I’d go live and just… talk about what I was learning in business as an entrepreneur. Not real estate. Business. Mindset. Systems. The stuff everyone struggles with.

Then I’d share that video in the groups I was part of. Not as a sales pitch, but as a contribution. “Hey, I talked about XYZ on my live tonight, thought some of you might find it useful.”

Step 3: Engage like a neighbor, not a networker.

When other people posted in these groups, I responded. Not with “Let me know if you need a realtor!” but with actual helpful comments, genuine questions, personal connection. I made friends. Real ones.

One of my closest friends to this day — a woman I’ve visited in London, who’s visited me here — we met in a Facebook group. That’s the power of digital community when you show up as a human, not a business card.

Step 4: Track your consistency with a 90-day commitment.

One of the women I met in these groups ran a challenge: go live every single day for 90 days. I did it. By the end, I wasn’t nervous on camera anymore. I’d developed a skill I didn’t even know I needed. And that skill — being comfortable on video — has driven millions of dollars of business since.

The result? In one year, my real estate page had 20,000 followers. I won an award for being the top social media agent in Tampa. Not because I was trying to win anything — because I was trying to survive with the tools I had.

The key mindset shift: Stop thinking about lead generation. Start thinking about community contribution.

People don’t care that you’re a realtor. They care that you’re someone worth knowing. When they need a realtor, they’ll remember the person who showed up consistently with value.

The Entrepreneur Ecosystem: Building A Business Network That Feeds You Referrals Forever

Once I started connecting with people — digitally and eventually in person — I realized something: every single person I met had a name, a story, and information worth capturing.

So I built what I call the Entrepreneur Ecosystem. Here’s exactly how it works.

Step 1: Collect everyone. And I mean everyone.

Every time I met someone, I got their information. Name, phone, email, what they do. Doesn’t matter if they’re a buyer, seller, investor, or none of the above. They’re a person. They know people. They go in the database.

Step 2: Automate the first touch.

As soon as someone goes into my database, they get an automated email. Simple. “Hey, so glad we connected! I’m looking forward to staying in touch.” Nothing salesy. Just warmth.

Step 3: Call within three days — and make it about them.

Three days after they’re in the system, I call. Not to pitch. To connect. “Hey, I just wanted to thank you for linking up with me. Tell me more about what you do!”

If they have any kind of business — any kind — I take note. Because this is where the magic happens.

Step 4: Do business with the business owners in your database.

This is counterintuitive. Most agents think their database exists to send them business. I flipped it. I made my database the people I send business to.

Every closing gift I gave came from someone in my database. One year, every single client got a custom wreath because one of my contacts made wreaths. I bought them from her. She got supported. Her business grew. And who do you think she referred when her friends needed a realtor?

Another example: I walked into a dry cleaner and said, “Hey, can I get a 10% off code to share with people in my network?” He said yes. I told everyone in my database, “Go to this cleaner, mention my name, get 10% off.” Fifty people showed up. He gave me two referrals.

Step 5: Create mutual benefit partnerships.

This isn’t charity. It’s symbiosis. When you support the entrepreneurs in your community, they support you back. But you have to go first. You have to give before you ask.

I started connecting local business owners with each other, doing pop-ups at their locations, and constantly finding ways to leverage what they offered to add value to my database.

The system: Every 30, 60, and 90 days, I touched base with the business owners in my network. Not to ask for referrals. Just to check in, see how business was going, see if I could support them. Referrals came naturally — because relationships came first.

Service First & Hobby Clubs: The Sneaky Powerful Way To Build A Database Of People Who Actually Like You

I joined Mocha Moms. I joined Toastmasters. And every single woman in my first Mocha Moms chapter — all nine of them — bought a house from me.

Not because I sold to them. Because they saw me when I was still figuring things out. They knew me before I had structure, before I had systems. They became my friends. And friends support friends.

Here’s how to replicate this.

Step 1: Find organizations and clubs aligned with your actual interests.

If you like cigars, find a cigar club. If you’re a runner, join a running group. If you love books, start a book club. The key is authenticity. You should genuinely want to be there. People can smell fake a mile away.

Step 2: Serve before you sell. Actually — just serve.

When I joined Toastmasters, I didn’t show up with a stack of business cards. I showed up to learn public speaking. But I also offered to host meetings at my brokerage. Which meant everyone had to give me their contact information to get in the building.

Volunteer for things. Chair committees. Be the person who handles logistics. All of these create natural opportunities to collect names, build relationships, and demonstrate your reliability.

Step 3: Never talk about real estate first.

I have a rule: when I’m with people in personal contexts, I don’t bring up real estate. I ask about them. Their families. Their work. Their interests. Real estate comes up eventually — organically — when they’re ready.

The Mocha Moms women didn’t buy from me because I pitched them. They bought because they knew me, trusted me, and when their real estate moment came, I was the obvious choice.

Step 4: Be curious about people because you actually care.

This sounds basic but I think it’s the reason a lot of agents struggle with connection. They don’t genuinely like people. They like transactions. And people can feel that.

I’m curious about humans. I want to know their stories, their dreams, their challenges. I ask questions because I actually want the answers. That curiosity is magnetic. And it builds relationships that last.

Vendor Symbiosis: How To Build Referral Partnerships That Pay You Back Automatically

Here’s something most agents don’t think strategically about: the vendors you work with are either building your business or just taking your money.

I made a decision early: I would work with one lender, one title company, one home inspector. Not a rotation of whoever was cheapest or whoever answered first. One of each. On purpose.

Why single-vendor loyalty works:

When you spread your business across five lenders, nobody owes you anything. You’re just another transaction. But when you send ALL your business to one lender, you become their priority. And priorities get reciprocated.

Step 1: Choose vendors who understand mutual benefit.

My lender Jonathan and I had a system. If I had a buyer lead I couldn’t get in touch with, I’d hand it to him. He’d work the lead. We’d close it together. When he had buyers without representation, he’d send them to me. We tag-teamed deals. We fed each other business.

This wasn’t luck. It was intentional. I interviewed vendors until I found ones who understood that our relationship should be symbiotic.

Step 2: Build a referral expectation into the relationship.

Track what you send your vendors. If you refer a lender two buyer deals, and next month he doesn’t send you anything back, that’s a conversation worth having. Or it’s a relationship worth re-evaluating.

I’m not talking about being transactional. I’m talking about being strategic. Your vendors should want to help you win because you’re helping them win.

Step 3: Protect the relationship.

I don’t have “backups” in the traditional sense. I’m committed to my primary vendors because I’m protecting what we’ve built. When you constantly switch vendors to save a few dollars, you lose the compounding value of deep partnership.

Step 4: Let your vendors market for you.

When Jonathan refers me a client, that client already trusts me because Jonathan vouched for me. I didn’t have to do any marketing. I didn’t have to prove myself. The relationship did the work.

This is leverage. This is how you scale without hustling.

The Agent Referral Machine: How I Called Five Agents A Day And Accidentally Launched A Coaching Business

Florida is where everybody moves. I figured out early that agents across the country were sitting on referral gold — they just needed someone in Tampa they could trust.

So I built a system.

Step 1: Call five agents across the country every single day.

I would Google “top real estate agent in [city]” and just… call them. Cold. Introduce myself. Tell them I was based in Tampa and asked if they ever had clients relocating my way.

Most people think cold outreach has to be awkward. It doesn’t. I wasn’t pitching. I was connecting. “Hey, I’m Cheesette, I’m in Tampa, I’m always looking to build relationships with great agents in other markets. Would love to stay in touch.”

Step 2: Add them to your database with a system.

Every agent I talked to got added to my database. They received an automated email thanking them for connecting. I called them two days later to follow up. Then they went on a 30/60/90-day touch cycle. Every single time.

Step 3: Add value to agents the same way you add value to clients.

I didn’t just call agents and disappear. I started sending them videos. Little updates about what I was learning, what was working in my business, mistakes I was making, strategies I was testing. Not polished. Just real.

One video went semi-viral in my agent network. It was about being yourself in real estate — how I hated that every realtor I met only talked about real estate, how clients don’t want that, how being human is actually a competitive advantage.

Over 300 agents responded to that email. They were hungry for someone who was just… honest.

Step 4: Let consistency compound.

One agent told me, “You’ve sent me a birthday card every year for eight years.” That’s how you become unforgettable. That’s how you become the obvious choice when someone has a Tampa referral.

And here’s what happened next: agents started asking me to show them my systems. They wanted to know how I built my database, how I followed up, how I stayed consistent. They were essentially treating me like a coach.

Which is when I realized… maybe I should actually charge for this.

The Real Secret: Your Database Is Your Business — Everything Else Is Just Activity

I’ve watched agents work 12-hour days with nothing to show for it. I’ve also watched agents work 90 minutes a day running a system and stack wins every single week.

Same market. Same talent. Different database discipline.

The difference wasn’t how hard they hustled. It was whether they treated their database like a random list of names… or like the actual engine of their business.

Your database is the only sellable asset you have. It’s the only thing that generates income whether you’re on vacation, sick, or just taking a break. It’s not a nice-to-have. It’s the business itself.

And most agents don’t have a database problem. They have a systems problem.

They’re meeting people. They’re having conversations. But they don’t have a collected place, a consistent format, and a follow-up process for what to do with those leads. So everything falls through the cracks.

What Would It Mean If You Actually Built This?

Think about where you are right now. Maybe you feel like you’re on an island. Maybe you work long hours and have no time to network. Maybe you’ve been in real estate for a while and your database is just… sitting there. Dusty. Unorganized. Silent.

What if in three days, you could clean it up, organize it, install actual follow-up systems, and walk away with appointments on your calendar?

What if you stopped guessing who to call and started booking appointments on purpose?

That’s what the Database to Databank Challenge is about. Three days, live, roll-up-your-sleeves work where we build this together.

March 10, 11, and 12.

Here’s what you’ll leave with:

– A clean, tagged database — your top 200 contacts imported, duplicates removed, properly staged

– A follow-up operating system — Hot/Warm/Future cadences that actually run without you babysitting them

– Booked appointments — 2–5 new buyer, seller, or investor conversations on your calendar

– A weekly CEO scorecard — so you always know what’s working and what needs fixing

Early bird price is just $97, and that ends this Sunday. After that, the price goes up and seats are limited because I’m supporting everyone live. This isn’t a watch-and-pray-it-works situation. We’re doing the work together, in real time.

If your database has felt more like a burden than a business asset, this is your moment. Grab your challenge pass and let’s turn your database into a databank in three days.

If You Want To Go Deeper

The Database to Databank Challenge is perfect if you want a sprint — a focused three-day transformation with immediate results.

But if you’re looking for more than a challenge… if you want ongoing support, personalized guidance, and accountability as you build the full infrastructure of your real estate business… then consider booking a free strategy call with my team. We’ll map out where you are, where you want to go, and whether our coaching programs are the right fit.

And if you’re earlier in your journey — maybe you’re still trying to figure out how to actually structure this whole real estate thing — my 5-module course How To Start & Structure Your Real Estate Business is available now. Inside, you get the exact blueprint, scripts, models, and checklists to build a real business. Not just a hustle. A business.

Start building your business the right way HERE.

You don’t need to know everybody. You just need a system for knowing the right people and staying in touch with them on purpose.

Start where you are.

Use what you have.

Do what you can.

I’ll see you in the challenge.