Getting Business in a Changing Market

The listener questions keep coming in, and the theme is the same: how do we get business right now? Where do we find leads? Is online lead generation worth it? What do we do when the market slows down?

This episode is the honest, no-fluff answer to all of it.

Katy and Alissa have taken very different paths — Katy paid for online leads in the early days and eventually left them behind, Alissa built repeat and referral from the start with the Dave Ramsey ELP program as her only cold lead source. Together they break down the full picture so you can decide what actually makes sense for your business.

Here's what we cover in this episode:

- Why lead generation companies are pushing harder than ever right now — and what that tells you about the state of the market
- Katy's origin story with paid online leads: 2006, $250 a month, 70 leads some months, just listed just sold website, and eventually market leader and Zillow — and how she finally got off the hamster wheel
- Alissa's Dave Ramsey ELP story: how she became a certified agent, what the structure looked like when it was just a referral program, why she was getting rejected and accepted all the time, and why she eventually outgrew it
- The Zillow agent who was doing 52 transactions a year, paying $9,000 a month — and still only making money on 20 of those because the other 32 just covered the cost of the leads
- Why online leads convert at less than 5% — and what that means for how many leads you actually need
- The hamster wheel problem: agents are so busy working paid leads they never build the repeat referral machine that was supposed to replace them
- The lender who was signed up for a lead program without agreeing to the terms — and what happened when a lead got assigned to someone else in four minutes while she was still at the grocery store
- The agent who showed up to show Alissa's young buyers a house without asking if they had an agent — and what the 10-minute phone call from Alissa did to change everything
- Stop clicking the button: how to educate buyers (even if they found you through a button) so they stop generating new leads and just work with you
- How to know when a lead is dead — Alissa's system of final emails, the permission-to-leave message, and why the response rate on that email is actually kind of fascinating
- Does real estate need a second job right now? Alissa's take: she's seen it work — briefly, intentionally, with a cut-off number — and never with a full-time job
- Alissa's $6,000 savings rule from her bartending days, and why she kept moving the goal post before finally jumping in
- How to crack the code of past client referrals: ask. Send a note to your high school yearbook. Tell your friend's mom you're in real estate. You ate her mac and cheese at her kitchen island — she wants to help you.
- Why you're not salesy when someone asks you what you do and you tell them
- Is phone duty dead? No. Is open houses dead? No. Are there fewer people on both right now? Yes. Will it come back? Yes.
- How to price in today's market: Alissa's framework for educating sellers on comps, the shift, and the range — and why she watches the actives more now than she used to
- Move-up buyer strategies for a market with no contingencies: the one-time recast, the HELOC, the 401K withdrawal, and bridge loans — and why the one-time recast is Alissa's favorite tool right now
- The mortgage payment skips a month tip — and how to use that window strategically
- Build Your Own Business: the resource for agents who need to stop paying to play and start working their people

Referenced episodes and resources:

- Episode on cold leads and sign calls (follow-up systems)
- Episode on what to do when you're new or slow
- Build Your Own Business: hustlehumblypodcast.com/byob (or community membership)
- Episode with buyer rules (the consumer episode)

Toast of the week from Julie Ray in San Diego — toasting Shannon Dempsey. Julie helped with the Hustle Humbly California meetup and we love her dearly.

Want to toast someone on the show? Email team@hustlehumblypodcast.com.

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Music:
Straight A's by Connor Price → https://connorprice.shop/
The Good Life by Summer Kennedy → https://soundcloud.com/summerkennedy/the-good-life
Be The One by Matrika → https://uppbeat.io/t/matrika/be-the-one