Gratitude and Growth: Why Giving Back Is the Most Underrated Success Strategy

By Jeff Goodman
Licensed Real Estate Agent, Brown Harris Stevens

Introduction

New York teaches you to move quickly, but it also teaches you to look up. When I started guiding neighborhood tours and getting involved in local projects, I wasn’t chasing business. I wanted to share the city I love and help people feel at home—on their block, in their building, and in their day. The irony is that service, not self-promotion, has been the single most reliable driver of my long-term growth in real estate. Gratitude has a flywheel. You give, you learn, you connect, and—over time—opportunities find you because people trust what your actions and how you put yourself out into the world have proven.

As a fourth-generation New Yorker and a real estate professional with Brown Harris Stevens, I’ve seen that the most durable “strategy” isn’t a marketing hack; it’s a posture: be useful, be generous, and be specific. Here’s how giving back has quietly compounded into better relationships, smoother transactions, and a practice that feels aligned with the city I serve.

Service Builds the Only Reputation That Matters

Success in New York is cumulative. You don’t win on volume; you win on reliability. Community involvement is the fastest way to demonstrate reliability where it counts: off the transaction clock. When you show up for a park cleanup, volunteer at a local event, or host a free neighborhood briefing about co-op and condo basics, people see you as something more than a headshot. You become the person who makes complexity feel navigable.

That credibility transfers directly into real estate moments that are full of uncertainty. When a buyer wonders whether the second bedroom will really be quiet at noon, or a seller debates whether to stage for a dinner for six instead of twelve, they lean on the person who has already proven—publicly—that details and follow-through matter. Service earns the reputational compound interest that no ad budget can buy.

Walking the City, Earning Context

My tours started simply: a route I loved, a story I wanted to share, and a belief that understanding a neighborhood’s past makes you kinder to its present. Over time, those walks evolved into a community ritual. We talk about architectural through-lines, view planes that won’t vanish when the lot next door develops, the way certain blocks breathe differently at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. We notice the canopy that tempers a south exposure in July and the stoop where the afternoon settles in winter. People begin to connect their personal rhythms to the city’s rhythms. That clarity makes better decisions possible.

Those tours also help keep me honest as an agent. I can’t market a home with vague adjectives after walking a block with neighbors who live the specifics every day. I write listing copy with the same precision I use on a tour: exposures, ceiling heights, terrace depth, venting, monthlies, and real neighborhood anchors (transit access, park entrances, daily conveniences). The city becomes more legible to my clients because I’ve practiced translating it out loud.

Teaching as a Public Good

New York real estate has its own dialect. The fastest route to trust is translation. I host short, practical sessions—sometimes in person, sometimes online—on how to read a floor plan, how co-op financing minimums actually work, what board packages require, and why a “windowed kitchen with external venting” matters to daily life. None of this is a sales pitch. It’s a public service.

The benefit runs both ways. Teaching sharpens my own standards. If I explain why day-and-dusk photography must match true color and scale, I make sure my next photo shoot honors those rules. If I show how a split-bedroom layout can change noise perception, I ensure the listing notes and captions reflect that. Education makes the city less intimidating. A less intimidated buyer or seller is a calmer negotiator—and calm deals close.

Gratitude as Daily Practice

Gratitude isn’t a holiday; it’s a habit. I try to embody it in small, repeatable ways:

• I write thank-you notes—to a superintendent who opened a roof deck early, to a managing agent who returned a call promptly, to a neighbor who let us time traffic on their block.
• I make warm introductions, without expectation, between people who should know each other—architects and artists, small business owners and local volunteers, new parents and playground veterans.
• I share neighborhood intelligence that isn’t mine to hoard: the café that opens at 6:30 a.m., the express stair that actually moves, the courtyard that gets winter sun.

These gestures create a network of goodwill that often circles back when I least expect it—an unexpected showing, a board chair who recognizes my name, a buyer who already trusts our process because a friend described the way we handled their details.

Community Work Improves Your Craft

Giving back forces you to see the city from perspectives you might miss inside a spreadsheet. Park volunteers teach you how trees change light and mood on specific blocks. Small business owners teach you how delivery rhythms shape noise at noon. School leaders teach you which corners feel safest in the rain. Those insights upgrade your real estate craft.

It’s why I now recommend staging for scenes—two low chairs turned toward a view, a desk niche with daylight, a dining table set for six—because I’ve watched how people actually use rooms. It’s why I measure terrace depth and talk about water and electric on listings—because I’ve seen too many “balconies” that photograph beautifully and function poorly. Community work turns “features” into lived outcomes. The more I honor that distinction, the more my clients feel that I’m advocating for the life they want, not just the deal I want.

Networking Without the Name Tags

My version of networking isn’t a ballroom; it’s a block. It’s walking tours, building briefings, open Q&As, and steady, quiet check-ins with colleagues and neighbors. When you help someone before they’re a client, you earn a different kind of attention: you’re not noise in their feed—you’re a person they’ve seen add value without strings. That attention is patient. It becomes a referral months later, a chance to quietly preview a home, or a call to sanity when someone is about to overreach on price because they fell in love with a listing’s adjectives.

The key is to keep the posture consistent. I don’t pivot into a salesperson at the end of a tour. I offer one clear next step—“If you’d like the neighborhood brief or a floor-plan guide, I’m happy to send it”—and I mean it. Offering a useful resource respects people’s time and agency. Respect, in New York, is currency.

Collaboration Over Competition

Giving back shifts your mindset from scarcity to stewardship. When you see yourself as a contributor to a neighborhood’s fabric, other agents become collaborators more than competitors. I trade notes with colleagues on block-level realities, share cautionary lessons (a façade project timeline, a venting quirk), and ask for granular intel when my clients consider a building someone else knows deeply. That collaboration benefits the market and the people we serve. It also reduces the friction that comes from defending “turf.” Real estate works best when agents see themselves as stewards of place, not just pursuers of deals.

How Service Shapes Negotiation

Gratitude shows up most when stakes are high. In negotiation, it tempers ego and invites clarity. You trade instead of posture: price for timing, credit for certainty, early access for a small concession. You respond quickly because you respect the other side’s time. You confirm every verbal in writing because you respect your attorney’s time. You hold tone steady because buildings have long memories and neighbors notice. The goal isn’t to “win.” The goal is to structure an agreement that feels fair, closes cleanly, and leaves everyone comfortable meeting in the lobby a month later. Communities thrive when deals end that way.

A Playbook for Giving Back (That Also Grows Your Practice)

If you want gratitude to compound into growth, keep it simple and sustainable:

1) Pick one recurring contribution. A monthly neighborhood Q&A, a seasonal walking route, or a standing offer to help residents understand board-package basics. Consistency builds familiarity—and familiarity builds trust.  Personally, I host neighborhood walking tours most months of the year.

2) Share one genuinely useful resource. A buyer’s guide with monthlies, policies, and a measured floor plan. A “how to read a floor plan” primer. A short checklist for evaluating outdoor space (depth, utilities, rules). Make it free, make it clear, and update it.

3) Make introductions early and often. Your vendor list is part of your value, but so is your neighbor list: who’s helpful, who’s responsive, who solves problems. Ask nothing in return.

4) Keep your media honest. Straight verticals, true color, day-and-dusk pairs, captions with facts. Gratitude for the city looks like representing it truthfully.

5) Respect the invisible workers. Managing agents, supers, porters, doormen, and concierges hold the city together. Thank them. Ask what makes their day easier. Then do that.

6) Measure what matters. Not likes or views—community outcomes. Did your session reduce board-package questions? Did your tour help someone choose between two blocks? Did your resource prevent an avoidable re-trade? Those are the wins that compound.

Gratitude Through Transitions

People call me during inflection points: downsizing, welcoming a child, moving closer to work, returning after years away. Gratitude sharpens how I show up. I’m not the hero of their story; I’m the person who makes the city legible so they can be the hero of their own. That looks like honesty about trade-offs, patience with paperwork, and the discipline to say, “This block is beautiful, but those loading hours won’t be kind to your schedule,” even if it costs me a contract today. Gratitude says: long-term reputation over short-term win. New York rewards that proposition..

The Return on Generosity (It’s Not What You Think)

Yes, service brings business. But the real return is steadiness. When markets heat up, gratitude keeps you grounded: you avoid promises the city can’t keep. When markets cool, gratitude keeps you moving: you lean into usefulness instead of volume. Either way, you stay aligned with the work that attracted you to this profession: connecting people to places that help their lives work better.

I see this every time a former tour guest becomes a buyer, even if it’s years later, every time a board member emails to say our package was “complete and quiet,” every time a superintendent greets us by name and opens a door with a smile because we remembered to ask about the building’s preferred move hours. Those moments are small. They’re also the infrastructure of a career.

Final Thoughts

Gratitude and growth aren’t opposites. In New York, they’re partners. Give the city your attention and it teaches you what matters. Give your neighbors your time and they teach you how blocks really breathe. Give your clients the truth, presented clearly and without spin, and they teach you that trust is the only marketing that lasts.

My tours, my neighborhood sessions, the introductions I make, the notes I write—none of it looks like a “strategy” from a playbook. But over time, it has built a practice grounded in relationships rather than volume, in service rather than spectacle. That’s the underrated success strategy: show up, be useful, and say thank you—often. New York notices. And when New York notices, it has a way of opening the right doors.

About Jeff Goodman

Jeff Goodman is well known as the “Quintessential New Yorker®”, and he and his team are at leading NYC broker Brown Harris Stevens.  Having an extensive career in the field of real estate Jeff has a deep understanding of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and parts of Queens and the Bronx. Jeff’s clients’ missions are his vision: he guides, educates and advocates for them. This philosophy has made him a trusted advisor to those he works with and for.  Jeff is passionate about New York’s amazing neighborhoods and showcases them through his “Rediscovering New York” podcast and walking tours. This programming has earned him recognition from RIS Media as a “Newsmaker” for six consecutive years.