From Leads to Lifelong Clients: Marketing and Business Fundamentals w/ Jeremy Griffin
Building a Referable Business in a Shortcut World
Lessons from Startup Street’s Jeremy Griffin for Real Estate Pros
Real estate rewards people who can think long term, master the basics, and keep showing up when everyone else gets bored or distracted.
That is the heart of this conversation between the Beyond the Guidelines host and business development pro Jeremy Griffin, founder of Startup Street. His world is startups, launches, websites, and marketing. The principles he lives by are exactly the ones top real estate professionals already know they should be running on.
This blog breaks down his main ideas and translates them directly into real estate language.
From construction jobs to Startup Street: growth is rarely a straight line
Jeremy did not start in tech or marketing. He grew up working construction with his uncle, fixing and building houses. He liked the work, but he loved the bigger idea behind it: growing something, organizing it, turning chaos into a structured project.
In his early twenties he went out on his own. At the same time, he realized he had a big gap in his business knowledge, so he went to night classes at a local college.
One professor changed everything.
Every class started with the same exercise:
Write down your wildest business idea.
Share it with the room.
Watch the professor show you how to name it, position it, find distributors, and think through the moving parts.
It did not matter how “ridiculous” the idea sounded. The professor could see a path.
Jeremy looked at that and thought:
“I want to be that guy.”
That seed became Startup Street: a shop that helps people launch products, build companies, rework websites, and figure out their marketing. It grew from small jobs like business cards into a full build-and-launch studio over 25 years.
Real estate translation:
Your “construction job” might have been open houses, cold calls, rentals, or ground-level processing. The point is not where you start. The point is seeing patterns, learning how business actually works, and then building a path that fits you.
Remember the you from 15 years ago
One of the most practical things Jeremy said in this episode has nothing to do with software or funnels. It has to do with perspective.
He talks about looking back at his younger self and realizing:
15 years ago he would have been thrilled to be doing what he is doing now.
At the time, this exact life would have felt like a dream outcome.
But once you get there, it never feels glamorous. You adjust. Your expectations climb. You forget how far you have come.
For real estate professionals, this hits hard:
The first time you closed 5 deals in a month, it felt huge.
Now you beat yourself up because someone on Instagram closed 20.
You forget that your 3-deal month would have blown your mind five years ago.
Jeremy’s advice is simple:
Pause on purpose and look backward.
Ask yourself:
“If someone had told me 15 or 20 years ago that I’d be living this exact career, would I be excited?”
If the honest answer is yes, then you are not failing. You are just human, and your expectations moved the goalposts again.
Long-term thinking in a world that wants shortcuts
This is where the conversation shifts into the heart of the episode.
Jeremy sees a big problem in business right now:
People want shortcuts.
They want instant results.
If something does not work in a week, they ditch it and jump to the next shiny thing.
He describes what happens when people run 5 or 6 ideas at once:
No real focus on any one strategy.
A year goes by.
When you ask what worked, they have no real answer.
Sound familiar?
In real estate, this looks like:
Trying TikTok, Reels, cold calling, door-knocking, mailers, networking events, and YouTube all at once.
Giving each one 3 weeks of half-hearted effort.
Ending the year saying, “Marketing doesn’t work in my area.”
Jeremy’s standard is boring on purpose:
Pick the right plans.
Give them realistic time and effort.
Focus on doing the work in front of you really well.
If you keep doing good work and stick with the plan long enough, results usually show up. Not perfectly, not quickly, but consistently.
For real estate, that might mean:
Committing to content for 12 months, not 12 days.
Calling your database every quarter for the next 5 years.
Running one core lead pillar at a time until you have real data.
The fundamentals: why boring work wins
Jeremy compares business to great sports teams.
High-performing teams have one thing in common:
They handle the fundamentals very well.
In his world, fundamentals look like:
Attention to detail.
Making sure nothing slips through the cracks.
Keeping up with clients who need small things months or years after the main project.
Answering emails with clear, educational replies.
Delivering work at a consistently high level, even when juggling big projects and small follow-ups.
Everyone wants to focus on “big swings.” The reality is that a healthy business is built on all the small tasks handled well, every day, for a long time.
Real estate fundamentals:
For you, fundamentals might be:
Returning calls and texts quickly.
Explaining the process clearly to buyers and sellers, in plain language.
Following up after showings.
Sending clean, accurate contracts.
Preparing clients for inspection and appraisal before they happen.
Updating them even when there is “nothing new.”
Nothing in that list is glamorous. All of it builds trust, referrals, and longevity.
The three stages of client experience: where agents lose money
One of the strongest frameworks Jeremy shares is how he breaks any service business into three stages:
Onboarding
Delivery
Offboarding and support
Most people, in his opinion, obsess about getting the sale and then wing everything else.
He sees this pattern often:
Onboarding is weak and unclear.
Delivery is acceptable, sometimes even good.
Offboarding and long-term support are almost non-existent.
Yet, the first and last stages are where you have the biggest chance to set the tone and be remembered.
Onboarding: set the stage
Questions he asks clients:
What happens the moment someone says “yes”?
What are they given?
Do they get something physical or digital that clearly lays out what happens next?
Do they feel guided, or lost?
For real estate, strong onboarding might look like:
A simple “welcome” email or packet explaining the entire process in steps.
A video from you walking them through what to expect.
A one-page timeline from “offer accepted” to “closing.”
Introductions to your team or partners, so no one feels like a stranger.
This is where you position yourself as a calm guide, not just a salesperson.
Delivery: do the job well
Delivery is the part most real estate pros know:
Searching for homes.
Negotiating contracts.
Managing the loan process.
Solving problems when things get messy.
Jeremy’s bar here is straightforward:
Do the work very well, consistently, so people feel safe referring you.
That is harder than it sounds. Doing “good enough” work will not build a referral-based business. It might get you paid. It will not get you recommended.
Offboarding and support: where you’re probably leaving money on the table
This is the stage almost everyone ignores.
Jeremy points out that many companies do a poor job staying in touch or adding value after the project ends. They think the relationship stops at the closing table or handoff.
He does give real estate some credit here, especially on closing gifts. At least many agents try to mark the moment in a meaningful way.
But the real opportunity comes after that:
Do you check in 6 months later to see how they feel about the home?
Do you have a simple way to connect them with a lawn service, handyman, or financial planner?
Does your database have actual notes so your follow-up feels personal?
Are you present in their life in a way that is helpful, not pushy?
He suggests going further than “Let me know if you need anything” and actually anticipating their needs.
Example he gives for homeowners:
“Everyone with a new house needs their yard taken care of.”
You know that need exists. So you could:
Gift a lawn service visit.
Partner with a local company and send a voucher.
Host a short email series on “first-year homeowner checks” with simple tips.
Now you are not just asking for business. You are bringing something useful into their life.
Automation vs. human touch: finding the line
The episode spends a lot of time on tech, AI, and automation.
Jeremy is not anti-automation. In fact, he uses AI-driven guest services for Airbnbs to handle repetitive questions about check-in, Wi-Fi, and standard details. For those tasks, automation makes sense.
His warning is about going too far.
He has seen businesses:
Try to automate everything to “free up time.”
Fire off long email sequences instead of making any real calls.
End up with a cold, sterile client experience where no one feels seen.
His view:
Some things should be automated.
Some things should never be automated.
The hard work is deciding where that line is inside your specific business.
He suggests:
Map your entire client journey on paper.
Mark all the touch points after the sale, for example 10 different contacts over a year.
Decide which of those can be automated and which need a personal voice, text, or call from you.
If your client journey is:
100% manual, you will burn out and drop balls.
100% automated, you will feel like a robot and so will your clients.
The goal is a smart mix:
Use automation to schedule, remind, share links, and deliver basic info.
Use your voice, calls, and real check-ins to show that you actually care.
This is exactly where many real estate businesses are struggling:
Agents who never adopt tech waste hours chasing paperwork.
Agents who over-automate send generic emails that sound like every other inbox spam.
The sweet spot is personal systems that still sound like you.
When life hits: keeping the boat afloat
This episode is not just tactics. Jeremy also opens up about the emotional side of running a business.
He built a separate platform, Startup District, to connect startups and investors without huge upfront costs or platform fees. He launched it, went on vacation with his wife, came back ready to push hard, and then hurricanes hit.
Life forced a reset.
Instead of holding on to a “crush it” mindset, he had to shift into:
“Let’s keep the boat afloat.”
He had learned the hard way that trying to push full throttle while your life is in chaos can make everything worse. Sometimes you have to:
Lower your goals for a season.
Protect your mental and physical bandwidth.
Build your momentum again slowly.
Real estate is full of these seasons:
Market shifts.
Family health issues.
Personal burnout.
Local disasters.
If you are wired to always “go bigger,” this kind of reset feels like failure. It is not. It is survival.
Once things stabilize, you can rebuild momentum. It just takes longer than you think and is easier to lose than you realize.
Community, mentorship, and doing work that is “good for the soul”
Near the end of the episode, the conversation turns to why Jeremy keeps doing what he does, even after decades.
He mentions:
Mentoring students at the University of Tampa and a local community college.
Building Startup District even if it never makes real money.
Connecting founders with investors because it feels right and meaningful.
He calls this kind of work “good for the soul.”
Real estate has a similar lane:
Helping a first-time buyer who is not your “ideal price point.”
Mentoring a newer agent on your team.
Creating community events with no direct ROI.
Those actions:
Re-center you when the grind feels heavy.
Raise your status in the local market over time.
Often lead to opportunities later, in ways you cannot predict.
When asked what he would do if he suddenly had 100 million dollars, Jeremy’s answer was simple:
Keep doing the work he is doing.
Maybe buy a bigger, better office.
Open the doors and invite more people in.
That is a good sign you are building from the right place.
What all this means for real estate professionals
If you are in real estate, here are the core takeaways from this episode that you can act on:
Play a longer game than everyone around you.
Stop judging your efforts after 10 days. Start judging them after 12 months.Master your fundamentals.
Make “no balls dropped” your brand. Quick responses, clear updates, clean files.Fix your onboarding and offboarding.
Map what happens the second a client says yes and the year after a deal closes. Fill in the gaps.Use tech without losing yourself.
Automate reminders and simple touches. Keep real conversations and key check-ins human.Protect your momentum, but respect your seasons.
Some years you will grow. Other years you will just keep things stable. Both matter.Serve your community even when there is no clear payoff.
Mentorship, connection, and “good for the soul” projects make business worth doing.
If you build a business that is referable, consistent, and human, you will not have to chase every trend or hack. Deal flow, repeat clients, and real relationships will stack on top of each other.
