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Breaking Records & Building an Unstoppable Business: Interview with Harmony Brownwood

by Isaac Peck, Publisher

Harmony Brownwood is doing what no other home inspection business owner has done before—organically building the largest privately held, single-owner inspection firm to $14 million in revenue (and beyond).

Admittedly, there are now large corporate players in the inspection arena that have grown into high eight-figures of revenue with the assistance of private equity money and multiple acquisitions. But Brownwood stands apart in this regard. She is the sole owner of GreenWorks Inspections and Engineering, and she hasn’t taken on investors, partnered with private equity, or made large acquisitions to drive her growth. Instead, she has built GreenWorks one client at a time.

To put Brownwood’s growth in perspective, in 2023 GreenWorks did $10 million in revenue and in 2024 the firm grew by 40 percent, exceeding $14 million in revenue. All this, despite a historically slow real estate market and the lowest real estate transaction volume the U.S. has seen in the last 20 years. Brownwood’s goal for 2025? $20,000,000 in revenue.

Despite her incredible success, Brownwood is warm and approachable—greeting strangers and old friends alike with an energetic smile and an unassuming, matter-of-fact, confidence. She’s full of positivity and gratitude, but there’s no question she’s here to put in the work.

Brownwood has built her business through trial and error, grit, determination, and vision, all with the help of her incredible team. GreenWorks now employs over 160 individuals and is actively hiring more given the firm’s growth trajectory. People—Brownwood says—are the key.

To better understand her journey, Working RE Home Inspector sat down with Brownwood to learn more about her history, perspective, vision, and what has allowed her to break records and build such an incredible home inspection business.

Here’s her story.

Built From the Ground Up
Brownwood got started in her early 20s and says she happened upon home inspection when she was deciding on a career path and speaking to different real estate professionals. The home inspectors she spoke to explained how they spent half their day marketing their businesses, visiting Realtor offices, networking, and then half their day actually doing inspections. “The realization struck me like a lightning bolt, I could do the marketing part of the business and help home inspectors get work,” Brownwood says.

Despite lacking money, connections, and experience, Brownwood was determined. Initially, she struggled, but she persisted because she was passionate about it. After 16 months, she secured her first customer. Four months later, she got her second customer, who spread the word, leading to more clients.

Her business grew slowly but steadily in those early years. She hired one home inspector per year for the first six years, gradually putting processes in place and finding key members of the team that would help her lay the foundation for further growth.

GreenWorks started by offering home inspection services and focused exclusively on getting people and process right. Today, GreenWorks has expanded into providing a full suite of services, including commercial property inspections, environmental consulting for lead paint, asbestos, radon and mold testing, and structural engineering for renovations and new construction. The company continually brainstorms new services that add value to its clients.

When Working RE’s Kendra Budd interviewed Brownwood in 2023, GreenWorks Inspections & Engineering had 119 team members (Click here to read the story). The team has grown by over 33 percent since that time and now exceeds 160.

But what exactly is the key to GreenWorks’ continued growth?

Leadership and People
Brownwood strongly believes that the owner or founder of a business serves as its ceiling, so she takes personal development seriously. “Personal development for me and my leadership team is so important. I believe if I want my business to improve, then I have to improve. I’m the ceiling for how much my business can grow. So personal development has been huge. I strive to get one percent better at something each and every day,” says Brownwood.

When asked what books she’s found most inspirational in the last few years, Brownwood named three: The Gap and the Gain by Benjamin Hardy and Dan Sullivan, Four Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling, and Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.

Success may start with the founder, but it still isn’t possible without the team. And Brownwood says that so much of her success comes back to (1) having the right people on the team, and (2) holding and communicating a bold and ambitious vision.

In other words, mindset and vision are foundational to GreenWorks. “The company is based on a culture of growth. It is who we are and how we think. It is foundational to the kinds of people we hire. We are always trying to get better. We will never reach our destination and stop. There are growth leaders and everyone else is on the growth team. Momentum will follow that mindset and that energy. Word spreads,” Brownwood says.

The whole company has to work towards a common vision. “You have to have a great vision,” she says—and then adds something very important and kind of hard: “The vision can’t be about the owner making money. No one cares about any owner making money. Something that I intentionally got very good at is making the wins of the business about the team, and how it helps them in their lives. What’s in it for them? How can I overdeliver for my team?”

Brownwood points out that, in considering whether to join the team, professionals often ask her why they should work at GreenWorks. “I have to have really good answers,” she says. “I have to show up and I have to deliver it.” The vision should inspire everyone to have a stake in the identity and growth of the company.

In terms of the value proposition that GreenWorks offers to its team, Brownwood says it starts with a world class education, but it also centers around the vision of being an elite group of inspectors. “Do you want to be the best or not? If you don’t want to be the best, then you shouldn’t work here. We are for those that wake up in the morning and want to be the best. I am committed to making sure my team has work and to delivering next level opportunities, but I need them to provide a great service and go the extra mile. Every single year something needs to be happening in this company to make it better for the team,” Brownwood reports.

Transparency is a part of that. “There has to be reciprocity and accountability on all sides. GreenWorks’ books are open to everyone who works in the company. And the team can see the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for other teammates and departments. Inspectors know the call center’s numbers. The call center team gets to see their inspector’s numbers. How many reviews did you get? How many people are talking about you and referring you? Everything is open and transparent,” Brownwood says. “The energy around us matters. There’s so much value in being around people who are growing and striving. But people who want to talk about how much life sucks, how much the competition sucks, that’s not helping you much. Everyone can complain; it’s easy to do.”

Brownwood’s leadership style and approach to her organization also sets her apart from traditional business models. Lots of small businesses talk about how everyone in the organization is “family,” but this seldom extends into everyday decisions, skin in the game, or willingness to truly invite everyone in the organization to lead. But in GreenWorks, Brownwood says, “We encourage an ownership mentality. My leadership team acts as owners (See Figure 1). Of my executive team, three of them were with me in the very beginning. They are still with me. GreenWorks has always been theirs.” That sense of shared responsibility is rewarded with the security of knowing they have work and can play a real role in determining how it gets done.

Figure 1: Leadership Team at GreenWorks Inspections and Engineering

Transparency makes it easier to say that things aren’t working, as well as to lean into the things that are working, according to Brownwood. It’s a way to hold yourselves accountable. “Let’s make sure we’re doing what we said we would do.”

In turn, that joint sense of ownership and responsibility also builds a bridge to future stakeholders in the business. The team feels a sense of responsibility for the “next generation” of home inspectors, who will have work because of the reputation built by the current generation. Directing an operation this large gives Brownwood a sense of continuity where inspectors get paid “on the production of the team that they’ve built” and where incoming inspectors can get a boost based on the reputation of their elders. “We have some really cool models that allow us to continue to reward our inspectors on that end of it,” Brownwood says. “People like to share good news. It has helped us.

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 Data and Process
Having actionable data and continually improving processes is another big part of GreenWorks’ success. For Brownwood, this consists of two things: asking questions about where the business is coming from and continually evaluating processes— standard operating procedures (SOPs)—to duplicate and improve positive results.

“Where is our business coming from? That’s so fundamental,” Brownwood explains. “If you don’t know where your business is coming from, how can you do more of it? You’ve got to know. You have to ask. I almost care more about that than anything.” That knowledge is the key to return on investment, as well as building relationships in communities. In one case, the company began giving out cookies to a local elementary school in a community they’d been doing a great deal of business in. “It turns out that community is really excited about us for some reason. So we double down on that.”

Equally important is process: “If you can’t duplicate positive results, you don’t have anything, period. It’s unquestionably a core fundamental to be able to consistently deliver results—very clear processes and SOPs for everything that we want to be able to do.” According to Brownwood, this applies to the sales team, call center, and operations. People want consistency; she argues. “No one wants to use a business if you don’t know what you’re going to get each time you try it.” Learning and improving those SOPs is a never-ending journey, but Brownwood recalls that it was most demanding in the first six years of the business, when the team was learning consistency in home visit procedures, phone calls, the reports they wrote and printed, and an effort to “get the same feeling across the board.”

Referrals Are Key
“You can’t be shy. That’s our mindset at GreenWorks,” Brownwood says with conviction. “If I’m going to do the hard work of being a five-star inspector and provide a five-star service, I’m not going to be shy about asking you to share that with other people. Period. We absolutely ask for our clients to refer us. We’ll ask them for a five-star review, and we ask that they refer us to their Realtors, to their friends and family, and their neighborhoods.”

In a world where the “art of asking” is often talked about but not always practiced, Brownwood embodies this mindset fully. She knows, lives, and promotes the idea of not being afraid to ask for help when needed. “How can they help us, and how can we help them?” she asks, highlighting the reciprocal nature of relationships. “Not being afraid to ask. Things are hard out here; would you mind helping? We probably do a better job of asking—more than your typical company.”

This proactive approach helps send the message that the company and its people are eager to work, and in doing what it takes to convey that message, Brownwood is willing to be in awkward situations and vulnerable contexts. “You’re not going to die just because you have to ask them to refer you to a friend,” she jokes. “I want work more than I want to feel comfortable.”

Through her willingness to reach out and be open, Brownwood finds that good relationships are earned relationships that are built on trust and mutual respect. She emphasizes the importance of putting oneself into environments that foster mental growth and encourage personal development. Brownwood also recommends doing lots of reading, listening to insightful podcasts, and seeking opportunities to join groups and networks to expand one’s horizons and knowledge base.

Abundance
One noteworthy thing about Brownwood is that she isn’t worried about the competition. She prefers an abundance mindset, the idea that there’s enough business out there for everyone, over a scarcity mindset. But more importantly, if you’re worrying about the competition, you should stop and instead commit to getting more business proactively. “If I have the idea that I need to call ten Realtors today,” she says, “but I never do it, why am I sitting around worrying about the competition? Don’t worry about it, do something about it.”

“When we first got started, we used to be very closed off to our competition, thinking that we couldn’t share anything, or be around anyone, that we had to silo ourselves and keep ourselves away, fearing the competition. Now we’re the complete opposite.” That shift has made it easier for the business to scale and grow. “A rising tide lifts all boats,” Brownwood says, quoting the well-known proverb. “I’m huge about speaking kindly of others. We want to cooperate with other people and make things better for everybody.”

Courage and Teamwork
The company’s website is colorful and dynamic, proudly displaying it’s 2400+ monthly inspections and over 160 employees. “Serving residential and commercial properties across Texas, Florida, Colorado, Georgia, Ohio, and Oklahoma,” the site reads. It’s a very professional finished product that hides each (sometimes excruciating) step with which Brownwood has built her business: trial and error, grit, determination, and vision.

Each new problem, question, and challenge can create feelings of self-doubt. Unsurprisingly, Brownwood dealt with those doubts by being open about them. “How am I going to do that?” she would ask herself. “I had to solve it every single time. It was scary every single time. You go as slow as you need to—or as fast as you can.”

Throughout it all, Brownwood credits her success to one key element: her team. “People are the key,” she says. “I’m not classically trained in business. I wasn’t the inspector. I didn’t come from a traditional business background—I’m self-taught.” That humility has driven her to seek help when needed and to surround herself with capable, committed people. When it comes to managing the complexities of a growing company—tracking numbers, navigating cash flow, and ensuring profitability— she’s clear in her advice: “If you need help with it, get help.”

“One of the greatest challenges is overcoming the limiting beliefs that exist in all of us. That’s the hardest part,” Brownwood says. Business success is never just the result of strategic planning and innovation. It almost always includes some person or people’s personal journeys of growth and resilience. Harmony Brownwood is just more open than most people in the profession about that journey, facing fears head-on and constantly striving for improvement, both personally and professionally.

About the Author
Isaac Peck is the Publisher of Working RE magazine and the Senior Broker and President of OREP.org, a leading provider of E&O insurance for savvy professionals in 50 states and DC. Over 14,000 professionals trust OREP for their E&O and liability insurance. Isaac received his master’s degree in accounting at San Diego State University. Reach Isaac at isaac@orep.org or (888) 347-5273. CA License #4116465.

OREP Insurance Services, LLC. Calif. License #0K99465