We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Linda Crawford a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Linda , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear how you think where to draw the line in terms of asking friends and family to support your business – what’s okay and what’s over the line?

What’s that saying? You don’t get what you don’t ask for? Yeah, something like that. When initially starting in my business I had to do the most uncomfortable thing ever- very bluntly calling everyone in my phone to tell them: “I’m in real estate now, and I want to help you and anyone you know buy or sell”. After that first ask, and you’re sure they know, don’t bring it up again. I believe asking for the business and taking yourself seriously enough to ask your friends and family helps them see you as the professional you are. Once you establish yourself as a professional, they begin to see you as that person. It takes years of showing up, and staying consistent before your friends and family begin to trust you.
For instance, last week I called my brother’s father in law. I haven’t seen him in a year or so, and I NEVER call him. His son recently had a baby so I called to ask about that, and see if he was going on the trip we were all set to go on next weekend. I never once brought up real estate. But in the middle of the conversation he began talking about his neighborhood, his pain points of his house, what they’re looking for if they did want to buy. All that to say, when you show up AS the professional at all times, your friends and family WANT to support your business!! I think asking them is essential! Tastefully of course.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m Linda Crawford a local Realtor here in Memphis. I own a small real estate team called “Spotlight Homes” brokered by Keller Williams Memphis Mid-South. I started in this business thinking I would sell houses and have the flexibility to be there with and for my family but this business has turned in to something so much greater than just a way to make some income. It has truly turned into a passion that gives me something exciting to show up for every day. Since launching Spotlight Homes, I’ve found my purpose. For years I was “selling” with no real direction, but having my little team of friends behind me has given me a something to aim for and a reason to build something bigger. Not only for me, but for my girls who deserve all of the success in the world! I truly believe that together we will build something unlike anything else, because we already have! Our passions and talents are exactly what every good business person suggests… complimentary but opposite. I have a heart for the customer experience, making our clients know they’re our top priority and making them feel like they’re the only thing we care about. If you call me and I don’t immediately answer, you can bet I’m in front of another client. Sara is a licensed agent and is passionate about marketing, branding, and social media content creation. Combining our talents was something we both slowly realized would be the perfect combination! Allie is our buyers specialist. Although she’s newly licensed she is the perfect mix of me and Sara and melted into our duo effortlessly! We began our team in May of this year (2024) and began building out the perfect systems, processes, and a marketing plan unlike any agent we know of. (Which is why we didn’t officially launch until Sep. 1!) We really wanted to be innovative. Sara had ideas in her back pocket that I’d never heard of and I’m so honored she shared her creativity with the team so we can serve our clients at a really high level. It’s really what sets us apart from others. Everyone knows 10 realtors, but not every realtor is going to be able to provide you with the same service as us. When you hire one of us, you get all three of us in your corner. It’s really special!

How’d you meet your business partner?

Sara and I met were introduced by our office leadership. Keller Williams has an annual real estate conference called “Family Reunion”, and we both needed someone to room with/split the cost. When we met we were instant friends. It felt like we’d known each other for years. I spent the trip watching her create content, meticulously filming and editing, for what seemed like not enough money. I was basically her agent telling people she wont work for free by the end of the trip! A few months after our trip we decided to split an office space. We figured if we could travel and live in the same place for a week we could handle sharing an office, plus we both like saving money! During our trip and over the next year and a half I watched her put in so much hard/time consuming work creating marketing and content for herself and others. It gave me an appreciation for what she does that I don’t think many people really see. Content creation is truly an art and she literally CANT not give it her best, so it takes her forever! She watched me showing up every day, doing the things no one likes to do and listened to the conversations I was having (for the purposes of this article I’ll say it, but bragging makes me cringe). I’m pretty good at keeping someone on the phone and connecting quickly, which is an art in itself. I think watching each other for so long before launching our team gave us an appreciation for each other’s talents that no one else even sees. The team idea didn’t come about until WAY later. We thought we would just cheer each other on and stay solo agents. But when it actually (jokingly) came up, we realized, DUH. Together we’re exactly what our clients need! I hated the things she was passionate about and She hated the things I was really good at. When you’re starting a business or looking for someone to team up with I think it’s each to try to pick someone just like you, but if you can find someone who’s good at the things you’re not… thats when you’ve struck gold!

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

Ahh, my very first sale. To this day I don’t think these clients know they were my first. What’s our favorite saying in business? Fake it till you make it. When they read this they’ll probably laugh (hopefully). Anywho, my very first client was a family who had sold their larger home and wanted to downsize in the same town. The weirdest part was they had their home listed with someone else and she never asked them where they were going, so they assumed she didn’t want to help them purchase! Long story short, the market was hot and they had some time before they had to be out, but the buyer of their home HAD to close within that calendar year for tax write off purposes. We set to close on December 30th. Rookie mistake, but I didn’t know! The problem was their lender had basically taken the month of December off and I didn’t know what I didn’t know. We showed up to closing without the clear to close (something I didn’t even know I needed). When I asked what we were waiting for they said “They have to pay off some debts when they sell and the lender didn’t get the amounts. It’s too late now. It wont happen today and we’re closed New Years Eve and New Years Day”. I knew the people buying their home would back out if they didn’t close that day, and they couldn’t buy their house with me unless they sold their old house. I called the lender and asked what they needed EXACTLY. They emailed the closing attorney a list of accounts. This couple was old school and paid everything via paper check. They had no online accounts to show balances and no way to get ahold of anyone during the holidays. I sat there in that closing office for over FOUR HOURS creating online accounts for them for each account, on hold with the ones that couldn’t be obtained that way, emailing and calling forever. We were supposed to close at noon and I got all of the info around 3:50pm on December 30th. When we finally had everything we needed that the lender would accept (they can be picky if ya didn’t know) it was almost their wire cut off. The lender told me “sorry, its not gonna happen today. We can close on January 2”. I almost cried when this amazing lawyer grabbed the phone from me and said “this young lady has been sitting in MY office for FOUR hours doing YOUR JOB. I don’t care what time it is and I don’t care what day it is. When you see this email come across someone BETTER be sitting there on your side ready to hit that wire and send it over”. He may have used a few curse words I won’t repeat. Thank goodness for that seasoned lawyer standing up for me and the client or everything would have fallen apart after all of my hard work. I didnt realize that wasn’t normal but I knew I wasnt leaving that office without doing everything I could to get it done. To this day, that was the craziest thing I’ve ever had to do! (Except the time I had to go see if a house was haunted for someone, but that’s a different story).

Contact Info:

• Website: https://spotlighthomes.kw.com/
• Instagram: Spotlighthomes_memphis
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/LeNratYUeD1U2aiY/?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@lindacrawford-km7pq?si=bA3rhYn3SAotH-hU
• Other: Direct Cell number: 901-451-1908

Image Credits

Madi Aldrich for Kelly Ginn Photography