From Homelessness to Luxury Realtor: Blake Clark's Inspirational Journey of Grit and Real Estate Innovation | #gritandgrowpodcast - The Grit and Grow Podcast

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're tuned in to the Grit and Grow podcast.
Hey everybody, welcome back tothe Grit and Grow podcast.
On today's episode we're goingto tackle the topic how to
leverage social media influenceto increase business.
We thought who better to helpus with this than a guy who has

(00:21):
mastered the craft himself?
He's in the top 1% of luxuryrealtors in Arizona and he's
discovered a way to not onlystay.
Thank you.
He's continuously encouragingothers with his vision of

(00:42):
success.
We'd like to welcome the ownerand CEO of Limitless Real Estate
and visionary entrepreneur,blake Clark.
Welcome to the show, thanks.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Matt, quite the intro .

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, I appreciate that Just for you.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Thank you.
We've been following this guyfor quite a while, Jay.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
We have, and you know you've actually been on our
board for probably about ninemonths or so.
Okay, cool, like somehow I'vegot to get this guy on our show.
Yeah, man, and somehow here youare.
Here he is.
Plug to Justin Mercer.
Justin, thanks for the introagain.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
We really appreciate you.
Yeah, he's a great guy, forsure.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, I'm always looking at your social media
content trying to figure outlike, how do we emulate that
from a mortgage perspective?

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Yes, like, how do you promote our mortgage?
It's so amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
It's like the the cool, you know, the the awesome
listing videos that you do, thepodcasts that you do, it's all.
It all just comes togetherreally nicely.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
Yeah, just try to make it look interesting and fun
.
Man, real estate's not alwaysthe most sexy thing out there,
you know, but I try to make itlook fun.
I like to have fun with it, youknow I think if you don't have
fun, it's going to get reallyboring and monotonous over time.
So I try to entertain myself.
Yeah, that's what it is.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
It's consistent, but it's definitely, it's definitely
fun.

Speaker 3 (01:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
So we definitely.
So, before we get into all that, I kind of wanted to just get
into a little bit of yourbackground, like what's your,
how did you get into this andwhy did you choose real estate?

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Well, and real quickly.
Also, you know, blake is ownerCEO, so that's really why he's
not just a real estate agent asuccessful one, but he's also
owner, ceo, and that's why he'shere.
But but yeah, I mean, tell usyour your background story.
How did you?
How far do you want to go?
I got into real estate.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
So I grew up here.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
I grew up in Las Vegas, so I'll roll with the sad
story.
Nobody cares, it doesn't matter, but for what it's worth, yeah,
we ended up in Arizona.
We were homeless.
I had a little brother when Ilived in Vegas who had
unfortunately passed away andput my dad into a bad spot.
We lost our house and justneeded a new start.
So we ended up in Arizona.
My dad put everything we had ina driveway.
I remember still remember theday he put it up in the driveway

(02:42):
.
We sold everything made like500 bucks, threw it in a U-Haul
truck and then we were.
We didn't have a place to livewhen we arrived in Arizona, so
we stayed.
Luckily, my mom had knownsomebody that had like an office
space in downtown Phoenix.
It was a connection of hers andthey let us stay in the office
building so we lived in forabout a month and a half month.
We lived in the back of theirkitchen in this office building

(03:03):
on air mattresses during the daywhen they weren't using it.
Dad ended up getting a job,finally landed one.
We rented a property in SouthPhoenix, kind of Levine South
Phoenix area.
We didn't know South Phoenixwas South Phoenix at the time
had a couple of cars stolen overa six month period while we
were living there and my mom anddad were like maybe this isn't

(03:24):
the place for us.
Uh, we didn't know.
Just you know, we were happy tohave a roof overhead at that
time and, you know, did what wecan do.
So my dad got us a house.
Uh, he was able to secure asmall little manufactured home
is eight, 800, eight, 900 squarefoot kind of little single wide
out in Maricopa, arizona.
This was back in like 1996.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Wow, okay.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
So I still remember the day.
I was pretty young, I was, Ithink at that time, about 12
when that had happened.
Them taking me out there and youknow, mind you, I come from
Vegas, so it's, you know, hustlebustle city that was my
childhood, my dad had a small,very small, concrete business,
and when I say small, it waslike him and a friend that got

(04:03):
new concrete jobs.
And then he was a DJ at nightat these little dive bars.
That's how my dad paid thebills out there.
So you know, growing up inVegas we went to Maricopa and I
still remember the day I was inthe back of their car.
I could picture this they droveus through Maricopa and there
was nothing out there andthere's a guy riding a horse
down the side of the street andI'm like where the hell are we?
And so that's where I ended upat Graduated high school, out
there, yeah, 2003, I think therewas like 32 kids in my

(04:25):
graduating class.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
It's pretty quiet out there, very quiet.
It's bigger now, a little bitbigger now 2003,.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
When the economy started, the housing market back
then really got its wind rightbefore the crash.
They started building a lot outthere and Rancho El Dorado was
the first subdivision and thatwas kind of getting completed
right about the time I graduated.
Sounds like your dad reallykind of lived out the grit and
grind.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yeah, he taught me work ethic, man I still remember
Is he still with you?

Speaker 3 (04:48):
Yeah, he's with me.
He lives up in Oregon now, butI still remember being a kid and
looking out the window and hewas that guy that was like sun
up to sun down, you know, andused to smoke cigarettes and I
remember being a kid and I'd seehim at night.
Hardworking guy Taught me workethic for sure.
And now you're a family manyourself, yeah, three kids wife.

(05:11):
Yeah, 16 year old daughter, 15year old son, 10 year old
daughter.
That's exactly where we're at.
Yeah, a lot of fun.
You're in the East Valley.
Yeah, I live in Queen Creek.
Yeah, so I got out of Maricopain 2003.
Just wasn't for me Small townand at that time I was doing
construction and undergroundutilities.
I got my first job.
I actually started working whenI was 12, out there Small

(05:32):
glider ride operation, washingairplanes after school.
Oh cool, I get off school,school bus would drop me off and
then I'd work there from about3 to 530 at night and then my
dad would pick me up on his wayhome.
And then I worked on theweekends out there.
So I've been working since Iwas 12 out there.
When I finally was able to kindof drive and graduate high
school, I moved up to Phoenixand I was doing construction
before I got into sales and hadmy first sales job University of

(05:53):
Phoenix actually.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
Got a break.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
Yeah, a girl I went to high school with called me up
one day and was like you know,do you want a job selling
education?
I'm like I don't know anythingabout sales and I don't know
education.
What does that mean?
And, mind you, this was likeJuly, I want to say of like
2005,.
2006,.
Right around that timeframe Iwas sitting on a tractor.
I still remember it.
I was on the side of thebeeline highway.
We had a contract diggingditches for Cox communications.

(06:17):
They were running the fiberoptic out to Fountain Hills.
So I was on beeline highway andshe had called me.
She's like, yeah, do you wantthis job?
They're hiring people.
And I was like, I don't know,is it in the air conditioning?
Because it was hot in July.
I'm on this tractor and she'slike yeah, it's in the AC and
you get college for free.
And that was my first sales.
No kidding, yeah, I didn't knowanything about sales, didn't

(06:45):
things started?
So what year would that havebeen?
2006, 2006, right, the timingcouldn't have been better for me
on that, because that was whenthe housing market started to
crash and the whole economy hadcrashed.
So I just made the transitionout of construction into that
education.
And then about eight to 10months later that's when the
housing market started to crashmy dad lost his job again
because his company shut downand all the contracting you know
a lot of construction can gohalt which was ironic because

(07:07):
just as I had started at thatcompany, everybody that got laid
off wanted to go back tocollege.
because they're like well, I'mlaid off, I'm unemployed.
What do I do now?
I guess I'll go to school.
I don't have to pay for schoolright now because I get Title IV
funding and might as well get adegree.
So I happened to be right onthe front end of that, where the
economy crashed, theconstruction market went down

(07:28):
and I happened to be just hoppedover into education, which that
thing really ramped up andstarted booming because
everybody was unemployed andwanted to go back to school, Yep
, Yep.
So what was the spark for realestate?
Like what Complete accident?
Tell us about that.
So I, you know anyways went,played it out at that company
ended up leaving, started acouple e-commerce businesses,
did freelance marketing for awhile, drove semi-trucks for a

(07:48):
while, got a CDL, did fooddelivery at night oh wow, Did
freelance marketing during theday, and then I'd also started
some e-commerce business.
So I was kind of like doingthree little hustles at one just
to kind of pay the bills.
My wife had just had ouryoungest daughter, so she kind
of she was supposed to stay homefor a little bit and then go
back to work after maternityleave and then had made the
decision to not want to go backto work and so I just took
another job at night, drivingsemi-trucks, so she could stay

(08:11):
home.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 3 (08:12):
And so I was making decent money at the time between
all three jobs, but I had lostmy 401K in retirement because I
didn't have University ofPhoenix.
I didn't work for a corporatejob anymore, really.
So I had read all these booksand everybody I knew that was
wealthy and seen as wealthy.
You know just the common trendowning real estate makes you

(08:33):
wealthy.
That's literally what I knewand I was like maybe somehow I
need to get into real estate, Ineed to buy some rental
properties, and I had bought myfirst rental property at that
time off my grandma actually.
She had owned this little tinyproperty.
I bought it off of her for$30,000, and she didn't own her
finance, so I made payments toher and then paid it off with
one of my tax returns and thenput a renter in there and I was
making like $500 a month passiveon that property for a $30,000
investment.
And I was like okay, maybe Icould just replicate this system

(08:56):
.
So I only got my real estatelicense with the intention of
building some kind of retirement, had zero intention of selling,
had zero intention of doingproduction, just literally
wanted to go find and sourcesome deals for myself to park
some money into.
And yeah, it was crazy, I gotmy license.
And then a guy I used to workwith at the time he was like,
hey, you got your license.

(09:16):
I was like, yeah, he's like youwant to sell my house.
I was like sure, so I Put hishouse up for sale and it sold
really quick and I was like, wow, that was easy.
Okay, this is a cool sale,right.
And then my second transactionwas a complete nightmare.
Wholesaler had a deal.
I didn't know what a wholesalerwas, but a wholesaler had a
deal, listed it on MLS.
One of the owners was.
It was literally.

(09:37):
I went from the highest of high, like this is amazing, super
easy.
Okay, I love real estate.
Never mind, I hate thisbusiness, I'm out, I'm never
going to sell another propertyagain and this is it.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
This is the real estate industry.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
We kind of experienced that type of roller
coaster in our business.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
Oh my gosh, so I went from the most easy transaction
to immediately followed up withone of the hardest deals, and
that's how I got into realestate.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
It seems like there's a sprinkling of that, maybe
once or twice a year, where youjust are like, oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (10:05):
When did you know you wanted to start your own, your
own group, your own company,again by accident.

Speaker 3 (10:12):
Everything.
I did nothing.
I wish I could tell you guyslike I had this grand plan of
getting into real estate andstarting it.
It all happened out ofnecessity.
So I had a background inmarketing through doing some of
my e-commerce stuff.
So I was doing pay-per-click.
Ebay started.
This is way back in the eBaydays.
Um, I was buying car parts andreselling them on eBay.

(10:32):
So I would go to junkyards inlike the Chevy Silverados that
had the little powerful mirrorsand stuff like that.
I was going to junkyards andI'd buy those for like 50 bucks
and I'd go on eBay and flip themfor like two to 300 bucks and
so I got really good at likejust taking photos and videos.
And then that turned intomanufacturing my own products
and at one point I got all theway up to like 800 products and
I was spending quite a bit Stillcar parts.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yeah, yeah, very cool .

Speaker 3 (10:53):
Just kind of white label branding stuff.
And then I moved off eBay andAmazon, moved into my own
platforms, got into PPCcampaigns, hired a mentor who
taught me how to really scaleand we got up to doing almost a
million a month in sales ande-commerce.
And so I took a lot of what Ilearned from e-commerce and just
rolled that into real estate.

(11:14):
I was like hey, you can takereally cool photos of properties
and then you could do like PPCcampaigns and you can utilize
like Facebook groups and stuff.
And this was 2015, uh, kind oflike.
Not as many agents at that timewere really rolling into
Facebook Instagram was really athing back then as far as like
marketing and brand building.
So I was right on the front endof that and so I started really
like learning how to generateleads and everybody was like

(11:35):
what the hell are you doing?
And so I got pretty good.
Didn't have anybody, I didn'thave a TC, I started off at a
flat fee broker just because Iwas cheap.
I was cheap, I was like I wantto save money and so I went to
this guy that ran his brokersuit.
By the way, I don't mean thisin a negative way, cause this
guy was like the dawn of realestate, like did a bunch of
sales.
He'd been in the business 15years.
Anytime I needed something,like he totally helped me.
But he had been in the businessfor 15 years and he got into a

(11:57):
prior to social media marketing.
He just built his by good oldyou know marketing and or you
know good old networking andthings like that.
So but he ran it out of hishouse, had no transaction
coordinators, no, nothing Likebasically, and I would do a file
and he would give me a piece ofpaper and he's like write out
all the deals and fax it to meor bring it to my house.
That was that's what I did myfirst two years in real estate.

(12:18):
I didn't know what atransaction coordinator was.
I didn't know what a team was.
I knew none of that.
I just did some sales, did somedeals.
I got to the point where I wasaveraging about four to five
transactions a month.
At one point my wife was like Idon't see you anymore, like
this sucks, like you're workingweekends and that's four to five
deals.
Yeah, yeah, cause I was still atthat time.
I was still running mye-commerce businesses too Okay,

(12:41):
Still doing some freelancemarketing for a chiropractic
office as well.
So I've always had like justdifferent irons in the fire at
one time and totally runningevery deal, because you didn't
have a yeah, I didn't even knowa transaction coordinator
existed, because the fact that Iwent to that brokerage they
didn't do any of that.
So I didn't learn any of that.
I didn't network, I didn'treally care what other agents

(13:01):
were doing, I just was likefumbling my way through this.
Again, keep in mind, I had zerointention of doing volume.
It just happened where I wasdoing a sale and I was like all
right, and then another friendand another friend and
generating leads and justfumbling my way through this.

Speaker 1 (13:12):
No real system.
No real like zero system zeroprocesses.

Speaker 3 (13:15):
My CRM was an Excel spreadsheet at that time.
Okay, so my wife had actuallymet a girl.
Our daughter went to a cheergym and she had just got her
real estate license, just movedhere from California, and she's
like, yeah, I need some help.
And she's like I think yourhusband does real estate right.
And my wife's like, yeah, gowork with him.
And so my daughter had a cheerfunction at our house.
They all got together for lunchand this lady comes and she's

(13:36):
like I want to come work withyou coach anybody.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
I'm just here to do my own sales, I don't?
Yeah, wow.

Speaker 3 (13:44):
Okay, interesting.
My wife's like, yeah, youshould hire her, like give her a
chance, she can help you andI'll, you know, take off some of
your workload.
And I was like, no, I'm good, Idon't want responsibility, I
don't want to worry aboutanybody else's income.
I don't even know if I cantrain anybody in real estate
because I don't really know what.
I'm sitting in there working.
She pulls up a chair.
She's like you know, I'd reallylike to learn and anyways, I

(14:05):
ended up caving.
So that was my first officialquote.
Unquote.
Team member Didn't even have ateam agreement.
Just like a handshake deal oflike you're going to help me go
show some homes my buyers andI'll split with you.
And then, as soon as I got onFacebook, I was like here's my
team member, a girl I went tohigh school with, that just
happened to follow me onFacebook.
She's like well, can I comework with you?
And I was like, I guess, whynot?

(14:26):
I've got one of these two.
And then she brought a friendof hers and so I went from like
none to four of us running outof my house Still no TC, no,
nothing.
And then it got reallydisorganized for me.
So I'm like well, this ischaotic, we don't have time to

(14:47):
like help you guys do paperwork.
And so I had found a friend ofmine who at the time, had had
about a big team of like 60people, and I ran into him at a
networking event.
Somebody asked me to come speak.
They're like hey, you're newand you're doing some pretty
good volume.
Can you come speak?
And he was speaking there.
So we met and he was like hey,it seems like you do a lot of
stuff online with likee-commerce and stuff too.
I was like, yeah, he's likeI'll tell you what can you teach
me.
And I was like, yeah, but canyou teach me how to do?

(15:07):
You run a big team and I needhelp.
And he's like, yeah, so weexchanged.
I taught him how to do somee-commerce stuff.
So I remember showing up to hisoffice and he was like, yeah,
so who's your TC?
I was like what's a TC?
And he's like you don't have aTC.
You have a team and no TC.
I'm like I don't know what a TCis.
He's like it's somebody thatdoes your paperwork.
And I was like somebody doesyour paperwork you can do that

(15:28):
in real estate and he's likeyeah, you have this person.
All you should be doing is outselling and training.
I'm like no way.
He's like yeah, so leave myoffice.
And that was a game changer forme.
I scaled up to 10 people,capped it at 10 because I didn't

(15:49):
want any more and we did reallygood for about three to four
years.
So were you still producing atthis time?
Yeah, I've never been out ofproduction.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
You've never been out of production.
Okay, so to this day you'restill producing.

Speaker 3 (16:01):
Oh, yeah, yeah, I did , yeah, so fast forward.
I had to leave his brokeragebecause he told me he's like hey
, he was trying to retire, hewas heading into year 20 at this
time and of real estate and hewas he's already like 60
something, heading in thesixties Like hey, I've made my
money, I'm going to go retire,I'm going to move up North.
If you want to do this teamthing and keep doing, you're

(16:29):
going to have to go somewhereelse.
He's like I love you but Idon't have.
He didn't even have atransaction coordinator
assistant.
It was him personally doing allof his files and he had about
50 agents at the time that wereall kind of like part-time here
and there.
Then you have me coming in anddoing full scale with my team.
He didn't even have any otherteams there.
He didn't even know whatfoundation.
So I was.
I was kind of like man, thissucks, I gotta go somewhere else
and it just so happened inQueen Creek.

(16:49):
It was still a smaller town.
This was about 2018, 2019.
The only other big brokerageout there was a franchise,
homesmart.
At the time this lady had ranit and she was like showing up
in my house leaving gift baskets, trying me for the last time
like no thanks, I'm good overhere.
That's awesome when thatconversation came yeah, I was
like, well, this lady's beentrying to get me forever.

(17:11):
I guess I'll go interviewanother.
Flat fee brokerage went overthere.
Um did my thing and we scaled.
We had an amazing like two,three years.
We just killed it.
My team, like she had 300 andsome agents and my team, pretty
consistently for about two tothree years, was doing about 20%
of their production with 10people.
Uh, the turning point for thatwas COVID had happened.
Everybody's favorite year, 2020.

(17:34):
And I had my own office.
I had my own thing, I waspaying for my own systems, my
own CRMs, just hung my licenseunder there.
She called me and she's likeyou got to shut your office down
.
And I was like, why?
She's like cause COVID.
I was like, so I'm not going toshut my office down.
It's how I make a living, it'show my agents make a living.
Why don't we do this?
Let's just give them a choice.
If they want to stay home, theycan.

(18:04):
Uh, if they want, frigging nameoff my door because I'm not
going to shut down.
And so she did.
She de-designated me, came andtook her name off the door.
I rolled out that year and Ihad one of my best years in real
estate as all of her agents.
She was basically telling themlook, it's okay, stay home,
don't do anything.
Me and my team were like let'sjust let's kill it.
Let's, let's, pick up the slackhere.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
So at that point is when you transitioned from.

Speaker 3 (18:26):
Yeah, by the end of 2020.
So we're really, really.
The breaking point for me wasat that brokerage, for every a
hundred K in GCI you get, youwould get what's called a
diamond award.
Okay, and so I had did thatyear.
I hit, I said who?
I told her cause she wastelling everybody to shut down.
I said who's your highestproducer in this brokerage?
And she was like me and I saidwhat's the highest you've ever

(18:47):
done?
She's like three diamonds,which is $300,000 in gross
commission.
And I said I'll double it.
And she laughed at me.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
I was like.

Speaker 3 (18:53):
OK, we'll see.
So that year I had hit $200,000.
By March, quarter one, I'dalready hit 200.
And so she gave me diamond one,diamond two, diamond three I
hit by the end of April and shewouldn't give it to me.
She would not give me thataward because it meant that,
like she would have to recognizethat I passed her at that time
and by this time she was tellingeverybody to stop working and

(19:14):
I'm the guy that's like stillkilling it out.

Speaker 1 (19:26):
Like my agents were now as a reminder, and so I just
said I'm done here, Like I'mnot going to be in a culture
that doesn't promote growth orsuccess or competition or
anything.

Speaker 3 (19:34):
It's a sales environment.
Got my broker's license.
I started in October of 2020.
I finished by December.
January we submitted for ourbrokerage name.
We got rejected like five timesby ADRE because our name was
like we had a couple names thatwe were trying to go with and
they're like oh, it's too closeto this team name that's
registered.
We got kicked back and ADREwould take like 20 days to

(19:56):
reject.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
You're not just fighting like company names,
like broker names, there's teamnames that you actually yeah, so
adr you had this rule where itwas right around that time.

Speaker 3 (20:05):
They're like his team started blowing up around 1819
and they were being thecommissioner at that time.
They were like judy lowe, Ithink so it was.
I was saying teams were too.
There had to be a distinctionbetween like brokerage and team
names and too many people werethinking teams were brokerages
so at that time they were reallyaware of like hey, your
brokerage can't like a team,like we're trying to segment it.
Anyways, we got it took likeliterally three months to get a

(20:25):
name approved.
That was the biggest delay.
Finally got it approved.
Finally got our insurances, ourlicenses, everything in order,
and by May of 21, we launched.

Speaker 2 (20:34):
And Limitless Real Estate is what you landed on.
That's a freaking great name.
It is amazing.
I love it.
Yeah, so, and it's a testamentto like your story?

Speaker 1 (20:42):
Yeah, and it's a testament to like your story?
Yeah, totally.
Don't put a cap on me.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
Where were you in your social media journey.

Speaker 3 (20:48):
At that point you know I started documenting from
day one, and I had always usedsocial media as a diary for
myself, so I have a personalInstagram page.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
I keep it locked up, it's private.

Speaker 3 (21:00):
But the biggest thing was it was just a documentation
of my life, Like it's a digital, like I got pictures of my kids
on there for me, Like I've beensuch a car guy since I was a
kid cause we grew up withnothing.
We were like I was a kid thathad that Lamborghini Countach
poster on the wall of thetrailer and I was like one day
it'd be so cool to own this.
Like I remember, I bought it ata book fair in third grade.
It was a white Lamborghini hadon the checkered floor.

(21:25):
I thought that was so cool andso um.
So I kept my personal Instagramas that and then when I got I
got into real estate, I rememberI posted a house up for sale.
Mind you, I come from aconstruction background, so you
know the guys that are inconstruction uh, truck guys,
cause I was into diesel trucksat that time, so just kind of
the rough neck guys, reallyreally good group.
But I was like trying to be aprofessional so I was like I'd
get a listing photo.
I'd be like, all right guys, Igot this new property and these
guys would make, like thesestupid comments on my.

(21:46):
They're my friends but like, ohyeah, let's go whatever, go
throw a party there or whatever.
I'm like God, dang it, allright, I just have to start a
new social media.
So my buddies like stopcommenting on my.

(22:06):
And for my first I wish I couldtell you like day one it was
just what I have now.
It's it's.
If anybody has the patience togo back to my Instagram, you'll
see.
I've made transitions over timeto finally like the iteration
of who I am today, which is justmy true version on Instagram.
But back in the day I shouldjust post just houses for the
longest time on social media.
People probably thought Ilooked like a two-story.
You know it's like 2,000 squarefoot it's all this posting like

(22:26):
no pictures of me, no picturesof my family, no, nothing.
Get like five likes, ten likesit's a house, whatever, yeah.
And I remember one day I posteda picture of my daughter my
family, I think, or somethinglike that and also boom like a
hundred likes on the businesspage.
Yeah, yeah, I'm like, huh, okay, nobody gives a shit about my
houses, but my family, okay,cool, okay.
And it just starts to click andit's like okay, people care

(22:48):
about you.
It's not really your business,it's you.
And so from there I startedintegrating more of, and then
just yeah, so that's interesting.

Speaker 2 (22:56):
So you are posting some personal stuff on the
business page.
So, yeah, I want to explorethis with you, because my
Instagram page I've got rightabout 5,000 followers.
And it started out as apersonal page.
And I kind of sprinkle in alittle bit of business, but I
don't do not very much businessand I'm trying to figure out.

(23:17):
You know where's the balancethere, what?

Speaker 3 (23:19):
advice.
Do you have?
Great question, man.
So it's the thing that we oftenforget in business is that
people do business with us, forus, but it's often the thing
that we market the least is us.
And so if you look at everyagent not every agent there's
some that are amazing, but youlook at a majority of real
estate agents especially youcould always see this rinse and

(23:40):
repeat get a brand new agent.
What do they do?
They start a new Instagram andthey post nothing but real
estate, just like everybody else, and there's no differentiator
there because you have 66,000other realtors doing the same
shit.
You just blend in.
You know what I mean, and sothe game you have to play is is
who am I as an individual?
How much depth is there to me?
What's the evolution of me?
And, by the way, these aresubtle reminders of what I do

(24:02):
for a living.

Speaker 2 (24:03):
Yeah, Boy, is that interesting.
So that's cool.
Yeah, because I've alwayslooked at social media as an
opportunity to develop as partof the know, like and trust
process, whether it's agentpartners or previous customers,
for example.
But I've always been afraid toreally kind of up the business
posts.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
Yeah so just to back up really quick.
So you said you're to try toreally figure out the evolution
of you, so how would you advisesomeone to do that?

Speaker 3 (24:36):
It's easier said than done.
So, and I do believe you haveto earn this.
By the way, I would not here'sthe thing like you have to be
willing to look like an idiot.
That's all I could tell you.
Um, so, for example, what thislooked like for me, the
evolution of I posted nothingbut business, just like
everybody else does, and Ididn't get a whole lot of
traction.
I got some and I got someinterest, and I'm not going to
say I didn't get deals from it.

(24:57):
Some people are like okay, yeah, you could sell real estate.
Okay, this guy posted, on theright day, right time, a house
that reminded me okay, great,I'm going to use them.
I wanted more than that,because what was important to me
was what I understood.
Just my background in e-commerceis that every product has a
life cycle, and so when you lookat the life cycle of a product
and you look at, like I wasselling products online, you

(25:23):
play the game of like how often,how long is this product going
to last?
How often was the turnovergoing to be?
If I, if this is a customertoday, when could I expect that
they may come back to me to buysomething else?
So am I selling a productthat's um, for example, we'll
just call it toothpaste, right,cause toothpaste.
You know that that customer, ifyou do right, you have a great
product and great servicethey're going to come back and
buy toothpaste from you likeevery month because their tube's
going to run out.
So you can plan on okay, I needto start retargeting this

(25:45):
customer within 30 days.
The housing cycle is a three tofive year process, sometimes
longer.
So I always looked at thingsvery differently, from an
in-depth manner of like okay,realistically, if I'm trying to
build my business to be repeatbusiness, what does that mean?
That means I need to figure outhow to stay connected with my
client and keep them engageduntil they're ready to purchase

(26:08):
again.
Well, if I'm only posting aboutreal estate and they don't care
about real estate because theybought their house and that's
the last thing, it's kind oflike the analogy I tell people
and we've all heard it whereit's like hey, I want to buy a
red car, and you see them allover the damn place.
You're driving on the road likered car, red car, red car.
It's like cause it's on the topof your mind.
You see it everywhere, right.
And then you go out and you'relike all right, I bought myself
this really nice, shiny red carand then it's done All of a

(26:30):
sudden, all the red cars on theroad disappear because you have
that red car.
And it's the same thing in realestate, where somebody buys a
house and then if all I talkabout is real estate and they
don't, really that's not ontheir radar now for another is
really going to be relevant tothem.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
And they're going to lose engagement with your social
media.

Speaker 3 (26:45):
So then it goes back to the game of who do I need to
be as a person that would engagepeople and make them?
How can I add value to them inother ways over the long term to
get them to stay engaged withme until that life cycle comes
back up?
Or maybe they're ready to buyand sell again and if I did a
good job, they'll call me back.
So I always play that game ofthe human development side of

(27:07):
things, cause I like to developpeople.
We're all like.
Here's the thing everythingthat I have today I never
thought I would have had.
And if you would have take halfof what I had today at one time
, that was my dream, right.
So, and what I have today, it'snot the end for me.
I'm going to keep going, and Idon't even know what that looks
like.
I don't think any of us doright.
The goal is I mean, I think thegoal of life is to keep growing
.
It's kind of sad if you're like, hey, my end goal is to be this

(27:28):
, and then you hit that, andthen what do you do?
The other half of your life,maintain, you're not growing,
and that's the lead todepression.
So it's an evolution.
I like a person and for those ofyou guys that follow me, you
guys mentioned some of themotivational quotes.
That's often a conversation Ihave with myself every day.
I literally make those littleyou kind of see the motivational

(27:50):
quotes and the thoughts.
I'm at the gym, I just got donewith a workout and I'm laying
on a cryo chair.
As I write those out and then Ipost it.
You guys will notice, most ofthe time those are being posted
at about 6 am the thoughts I hadin my head that day that I try
to share with otherentrepreneurs.
So I know that people that buyhouses yeah, they don't care
about houses, but I know thatthey're living life just like I
am.
I know they're trying todevelop and grow just like I am.

(28:12):
I know that they probably wantto see success at some level and
I know that if they're anentrepreneur, they're getting
their face kicked in every day,like I am, and sometimes it's
okay.

Speaker 2 (28:20):
It's okay, you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (28:21):
Like not everything every day is supposed to feel
okay and sometimes that hardstuff is going to help you grow.
So that's why I share a lot ofthat stuff is to keep them
engaged and let them know that,hey, you're on the journey with
me, I'm right there with youdoing it too, so Instagram
YouTube.
Yeah, like I don't know youhave a channel.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
I have a channel.
Clearly, you've spent most ofyour time your social media
following.
Yeah, like, how do you seeYouTube fitting into?
I don't.

Speaker 3 (28:49):
Here's the thing Like everything works if you do it
enough.
like everything right, I'm sureyou could advertise in the
newspaper enough and you wouldsee success at it.
My personality is I'm veryone-tracked right, so I don't.
It's too.
This is just me.
Some people, they have a muchdifferent mindset.
They can multitask like crazy.

(29:09):
For me, I found that when I tryto do too much, it's almost like
when you think about like agarden hose, and you have a
nozzle on it and you're tryingto like clean this area and you
put it on the mist, it's justgoing to get the area wet, but
it's not really going topressure and clean that area.
Yeah, you're touching a hugesurface area, but you're just
drizzling it with a little bitof everything.
When you turn that nozzle andyou put everything you have into

(29:29):
that one section, it's going toclean the heck out of it and
you're going to literally dosome damage on the dirt there,
if you use that analogy.
And so my energy is very muchthat and what I focus on every
day.
It's like listen, because Itried that game, I've tried to
be the master at this Jack ofall trades master of none.
Just don't it, just yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:48):
And here's the thing.
So you would say, yes, focus onone platform.

Speaker 3 (29:51):
Yeah, if it works, don't just go all in on it,
right?
Because here's the thing, howmany people do we know out there
?
And I see, this business is theworst.
The shiny object, the sign he'soh me, youtube.
Well, I went to this conferenceand they told me Twitter.
Well, I went to this conferenceand they told me open houses.
And then you see the agent justevery month doing something
different or doing nothing yearslater and they're still, their

(30:12):
results are still mediocre, andit's like you're doing all this
activity, You're so busy, butyou have nothing to show for it
at the end.
And I'm like if you took all ofthat and you just put it into
one thing, like literally, ifyou just like the only thing I'm
going to do, I got an agentwho's brand new, for example
came to me and I was like,what's your one thing?
He's like I'm gonna do ahundred open houses in a hundred
days straight.
I won't miss a day, Love it.
He's already got two listingsin the first week, Right?

Speaker 1 (30:34):
He didn't put his focus on anything else.

Speaker 3 (30:35):
He's not focusing on Instagram, youtube.
He's like dude, go do it.
And he's already seen success.
Awesome, you know.
And that just goes to show thepower of like and again, what
works like.
Here's the thing If you'reuncomfortable on social media,
don't force yourself to do itunless you're committed to it,
because I see a lot of peopledip their toes in it.

(30:56):
Like.
I'll do a post, yeah, and thenthey get frustrated until you're
posting 15, 20 stories a day,like you have to again.
if it's your, your lever formarketing, whatever that is, you
better be all in and be one ofthe best at whatever that is
right, like, if it's cold calls,if it's pay-per-click campaigns
, if it's open houses, likewhatever it is, you will win if

(31:17):
you take everything else off thetable and put your energy on
that.
Yeah, and then master that andthen, when you master that, say
okay, now that I've got this upin cruise control and I've got a
great system in place.
Let me take on one other thingnow.
Mine started out.
Truth be told, I started out inFacebook groups way before
Instagram.
My bread and butter was postingon Facebook and sharing links
in Facebook groups and I canright now like clockwork,

(31:39):
doesn't matter what day of theweek it is, I can pull five to
ten leads a day for free.
It's always been my lever Untilmy social media.
My Instagram following grewenough over the years.
My jump, 10 years into postingevery day.
I've got over 3,000 posts, 10to 15 stories a day.
So it took time until thatfinally reached a day where I
was like, okay, I'm having five,10 conversations a day on this

(32:02):
thing, what can I let go of now?
And that's where people mess up.
They're just looking for theinstant I get into the business.
Give me that one thing thatworks today, right now, and make
me a hundred grand.
You're thinking so wrong.

Speaker 1 (32:11):
So, so running straight at Instagram, like you
did, how long would you say ittook for you to actually start
to experience the success at thelevel that you, that you have
now using, you knowtransitioning from Facebook?

Speaker 3 (32:24):
group posting to about four years four years yeah
when I felt comfortable enoughthat it could.
So I started off like doingopen houses and link sharing.
That was an open house twotimes a week, give or take, I'd
open house my brokers.

Speaker 1 (32:37):
So were you link sharing just other open houses?
Yeah, pretty much, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (32:41):
I'd sit any open I could.
I didn't have an office at thattime so I looked at open houses
as my office.
To get out of the house, I hadkids running around and stuff
and I'm like I got like ADHD andI had like these cool cars in
the garage.
I've always been a car guy, soI'm like man if I'm at home.
I just want to go in the garageand play with cars all day and
stuff.
I'm a big kid and so I was likeI have environment.

(33:01):
So my self-discipline was let'sjust get yourself out of the
house.
You're going to go do two,three open houses a week and
while you're in that open house,you'll do link sharing, you'll
make your calls, you'll do allof this stuff and that's what I
did.
And then you know,no-transcript year.

(33:33):
One year, two client was comingto me referring to me.
So I was picking up a deal amonth here and there.
Okay, great, I think what theyhave to do until what they want
to do takes off, they just dowhat they want to do, even if it
doesn't show them success.
Well, I'm only going to do whatI want to do.
Yeah, you got to do what youhave to do until you're good
enough and you've undeniablyyou're successful at it.

Speaker 1 (33:55):
And that's discipline .
Yeah, I mean, that's thediscipline I think that sales
people lack, right.
It's just a long game.

Speaker 3 (34:00):
We're in such an instant gratification.
I'm just such an old schoolthought process with that
because you know you look ateverything Like I was laughing.
The other day I caught myself Ihad bought like a car part and
it was coming from this guy thatwas like an eBay seller and he
ships it from himself.
It took five days to get to me.
I was like God, this is soannoying Five days Because.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
I buy on Amazon and I'm used to it.
Same yeah.

Speaker 3 (34:21):
And I caught myself.
I was like laughing.
I was like I remember like Iordered it Monday and it showed
up last Friday.
I was like that was reallyannoying.
That took five days.

Speaker 2 (34:28):
And then I was like I just started like chuckling at
myself.

Speaker 1 (34:31):
I'm like this is so ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (34:33):
But it's such a reminder that we live in a
society that's so instantgratification that we oftentimes
overlook that the compoundingeffect of like, for example,
with Instagram, just post everyday.
I started off day one, zerofollowers and I didn't say, well
, I'm going to try this for amonth and if it doesn't work I
quit.
It was more of like I gotnothing better to do.
It's free.
I'm already paying a phone bill.

(34:53):
Why don't I just get my cameraout?
And but I might as well.
I mean, like, what's thedownside?
Nothing, it doesn't cost me anymoney, right, like that's where
too many people look at theworld.
The downside is it doesn't getme business.

(35:13):
Okay, so I just started doingthat and eventually you kind of
find what works.
It's just by putting in thereps, right, like there's no
blueprint on social media.
Like, post five times a day, dothis and you'll get a deal.
It's just do the reps, Like,try, just kind of experiment a
little bit.
You know, and that was theevolution of me, because what I
found was, you know, some days Iwould be a little agitated with
something in the industry, I'dsee something I didn't like, or

(35:35):
especially with like otheragents, and I'd get my phone out
while I'm driving and I'd justdo a quick rant.
You know, like hey're, like Iwas being in a transaction and
some agent pissed me off, right,and I'm like, if you're an
agent and you're doing this,don't do this.
I always my thought process,just so you guys know, if you
follow me, I always have asolution to follow up.
I'm not that guy that gets onFacebook and bitches, just rants

(35:59):
.
Yeah, you don't do that.
It's let me.
If I'm going to complain aboutit, let me.
Got my car.
And I'm like, if you're anagent doing this by the way,
you're new, I get it.
I was that way too.
Do this instead, I promiseyou'll see success.
And then it started getting alittle traction, like people
start DMing me like, oh, that'sawesome, yeah, that's cool, oh,
I love that.
And then I would do like moreof a therapy session for myself?

Speaker 2 (36:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (36:21):
I get up at 3.30.
I've been doing it since I was12.
Yeah, my first job I started.
I had to be there at 4.30.

Speaker 2 (36:25):
When do you go to sleep at night?

Speaker 3 (36:26):
Nine, nine, I go about six hours a night, yeah,
so I get up at 3.30, veryroutine.
Been doing this forever, right?
If you want consistent results,you have to do the same thing
every day.
So I get up at today hey, bythe way, just try to add some

(36:50):
value.
And I started doing that somuch that it would be it'd be
interesting because I would notpost for a couple of days.
I just didn't feel like it,I'll be honest.
Like I just woke up and I getDMs that morning, like you.
Okay, you didn't make a videotoday, okay, I guess people pay
attention, you know.
but that's just where it started.
It all just falls in line.

(37:10):
You just start to really seewhat works.
You see what people enjoy, youfill out what you enjoy and if
you do enough of it, you'llyou'll organically find a pocket
that works.
But you're only going to findthat through volume.

Speaker 1 (37:20):
Like.

Speaker 3 (37:21):
I could tell people today.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
So how do you measure it?

Speaker 3 (37:23):
How do you know?
I measure by conversation.

Speaker 1 (37:25):
Conversation.

Speaker 3 (37:25):
I don't even measure like here's the thing I don't
again real estate is such a longgame, and this is the thing, by
the way, I tell people I'm likeyou got to make 15, 20 stories,
oh no.

Speaker 1 (37:35):
So the engagement isn't the like.
It's the direct message or theconversation that is generated
through the post.

Speaker 3 (37:42):
Think about this this is where people people pay
attention to the wrong metricall day.
So how many real estate agentsare in the state of Arizona
right now?
Too many, I agree, like 60,000,60 plus how many?
Loan officers are in the stateof Arizona, 40 plus Okay.
So knowing that there's 60 to40, 60,000 agents, 40,000, what
are the odds that somebody thatis not in real estate knows a

(38:03):
real estate agent Really reallyhigh?
What are the odds that somebodythat is not in real estate
knows a real estate agent,Really really high.
What are the odds that thatperson knows maybe three or four
real estate agents?
Yeah, okay, pretty high.
So what happens is I make apost and I'm like, yeah, I just
sold this property, here's how Idid it.
You know drop.
You know drop in my commentsection if you want it to be you
, who's going to do that?
Because they're gonna be like,well, no, this, my, my cousin,

(38:30):
who's a realtor I really don'twant to use.
They follow you and if Icomment, they're gonna see that.
But if I'm in my stories andI'm like, hey, if you got any
questions like you guys don'tnotice on my videos, I'm like
just drop me a dm.
I don't ever say drop a commentbelow, like because nobody's
gonna do that, like I wouldn'teven do that if I have like one
of my family members is a doctorand I I'm like hey, I need to
go get a service done like adoctor, right.
And my sister, whatever, is adoctor, I'm like I don't want to
use her because she's kind oflike part-time.
This guy's like a full-time.
I'm not going to be in thisguy's stuff.

(38:57):
My sister's going to be likewhat are you doing?
You know, I'm a.
That I track is how manyconversations a day, how many
DMs am I getting and how manypeople am I engaging with.
It could be it doesn't evenhave to be real estate related,
Just are they reaching out?
Are they asking for advice?
Do they like one of my cars?
Am I, you know, hey, offeringtips and business like, whatever
it is?
How many DMs a day do I getthat I can respond to and just

(39:18):
have a going to lead to?
But where does trust start in aconversation?
But people post and payattention to a like metric or a
comment metric, like oh, I gotone comment.
I've got stuff all the timethat gets like two, three
comments.
But I get like I'll share thatinto and I'll say drop me a DM
If you're interested.
I'll get like eight messages onthat.
Who's more successful?
The guy that got two commentson this post, or the guy that

(39:39):
got eight conversations started.
Nobody pays attention to that Ido, and so yeah, it works.
So, I spend a lot of time onstories because that's naturally
.
If you were to look at thesocial media and, by the way, if
you look at Instagram, what dothey do?
They push your stories to thetop.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
Right when you get to the top.

Speaker 3 (39:55):
You're in the top.
So if you're posting 15 times aday.
See, if you post a story or apost one time a day and you do
it in the morning, you're buried.
Now, right, If that person'sfollowing 3,000 to 5,000 people
and they're all posting onetimes a day, mathematically it's
impossible for your post to beseen by all of your followers.
But if you're hitting 10 to 15posts a day, like me, from 4 am

(40:15):
all the way to like 8 or 9o'clock at night, I'm going to
hit my audience across all hoursof the day.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
One way or the other you're doing 10 to 15 a day,
yeah, sometimes 20.

Speaker 1 (40:24):
And how many of those are stories.

Speaker 3 (40:27):
No, that's not posts.
I do like one to two posts aday.
That's 10 to 15 stories a day.

Speaker 2 (40:31):
10 to 15 stories a day.

Speaker 3 (40:33):
I did one the other day.
I had like 53 stories in oneday.

Speaker 2 (40:38):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (40:38):
So long Committed.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
So back to business owner, entrepreneur.
So one of the reasons I wasasking about YouTube earlier is
you did a video where it washere are five things to do if
you want to fail.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (40:50):
And so.

Speaker 2 (40:52):
I mean, from the perspective of a successful real
estate business owner, what aretwo or three things that you
can think of?
That would be good advice forpeople who are thinking of maybe
moving on, moving up from beinga team leader to a business
owner in real estate.
Like what are the?
What are the top two or threethings they could do to fail?

Speaker 3 (41:13):
I think the yeah number one have the wrong
intention.
This is my biggest qualm inreal estate and, I'll be honest,
this is one of the things Ibite my lip on the most is I
look at an industry that hassuch a low barrier to entry,
that has people, that has suchhigh hopes to succeed Everybody
gets nobody gets into thisbusiness and is like I hope I
fail.
They all want to win.

(41:35):
I want everybody to win, butthe problem is is that you have
too many unqualified team leadsbeing a team lead for the sake
of their own benefit instead ofdoing it to help people.
So what I mean by that is is,like you know, I lead from the
front.
I am the highest producer at mybrokers, not to say like I

(41:56):
don't want my agents to beat mebecause I do.
I've got some heavy hittersthat work alongside me, that
trust me.
Every day I wake up and I'mlike whew, got to get my ass in
gear because this guy is goingto whoop me.
He's one of my and I've got somegood people with me, right, and
I love that because it keeps mehungry.
But what I teach and what Ishow is all from practicality.
I'm doing the volume.
I'm doing the five, sixtransactions a month.

(42:18):
You know, I'm at personal, mypersonal personal production.
Right now I think I'm at 23, 20, no, almost 30 transactions.
I got to go back and double.
Last time I checked I was at 34million myself in sales.
My average sales price rightnow is $1.5 million at volume
this year.
Okay, and I share everythingabout it Right.
So, undeniably, if an agentcame to me and said, blake, I

(42:41):
want to learn how to do what youdo, I can show you.
You literally just have to.
You just be my shadow, getbehind me in the morning,
replicate my day, do what I doand at some level you're going
to see success, because it's Ican undeniably show you the
results.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:55):
Even if they put their own seasoning on it.

Speaker 3 (42:57):
Yeah, which they should, because you can't take
my recipe and be me.
But we see that too.
I see shit all the time.

Speaker 1 (43:03):
Yeah, you see that when it's like it's a carbon
copy of the team lead andthey're going to do it and be
the exact same person.
It's not realistic.

Speaker 3 (43:10):
The framework is there right, the framework is
always there at some level.
The framework is there, but youput your own spin on it.
That's where you're going tosee the magic right.
But the problem is is like Icannot tell you guys how many
people failed at being an agentor were subpar and mediocre.
And you have these brokeragesthat their business model is
headcount.
We're going to go down a tiradebecause this really pisses me

(43:32):
off.
But these business models have atheir metric.
That they pay attention to is ahead count.
How many heads do we have?
300, 400.
We got a thousand people here,yeah, but what's your average
agent to deal ratio?

Speaker 1 (43:44):
That's the real true level of success.
Quarter yeah, are your peoplewinning?

Speaker 3 (43:48):
Are they all there winning?
Is your average agent producingmore than any other brokerage?
Because it's really easy to sayI've got half a million sales
with 300 agents.
Guess what I'll do half amillion with 50 agents.
Who's more successful?
Who's the guy that's got athousand agents that does a
billion in sales successful?
Or is it the guy that's got ahundred agents that?

Speaker 2 (44:09):
does half a million successful yeah, whose customers
are getting betterrepresentation, yeah but we
never pay attention to thatmetric.

Speaker 3 (44:13):
We never pay attention to it's always the
total volume, and I got thismany agents right.
And then the way that thesebrokerages are I'm not going to
name names, but they're big onesright now.
Their model is okay, you'reokay, you're mediocre at being
an agent, but here's what we'regoing to do we want you to be a
team lead and then we're goingto slam every new person
underneath you, and then we'regoing to slam every new person

(44:35):
underneath you and then we'regoing to give them a discount on
their cap, because that way weas a brokerage don't have to
deal with the training and thecoaching.
We're going to let you trainthat person and we're going to
incentivize them to learn fromyou by a cheaper split.
And that's the evolution ofreal estate.
And then we wonder why we havesuch a high failure rate.
Because we have people leadingthese people that can't even

(44:55):
produce success.
If a meteor came down andlanded on top of their house,
they'd still not.
You know like, and that's myqualm with this business, and so
I believe that you know, ifyou're here's the thing, like
again, my, my path is it's allthrough necessity.
I saw a hole in the businessand I saw that like this just

(45:15):
isn't for me, and the way thatthese guys are doing it whether
that's from a team lead, whetherthat's from my previous broker
the way you're doing it, it'snot right.
Like you're not successful, I'mgoing to go do this my way,
because my way is successful.

Speaker 1 (45:26):
And some teams would actually criticize you for
continuing to wanting to lead inproduction.
Like lead the team inproduction.

Speaker 3 (45:39):
Yeah, in production and like lead the team in
production.
Yeah, why are you still?
Why?
Why are you doing production?
Why you do it?
Why I do it, is because I setthe bar If I take myself out of
production and you take amultimillion dollar and, by the
way, I don't take any of myleads, my business is a hundred
I do pay traffic.
We supply eight to 900 leads amonth.
I literally go you can go on myFacebook right now and verify
and I'll say for more details,click on this property, You'll
see the link.
And that link goes into mybrokerages pond account that all

(45:59):
my agents get access to.
Like it's not, it doesn't evengo into my name.
I don't generate a single leadfor myself.

Speaker 1 (46:05):
All of my business, so yours is all referral
referral based all social mediaon my own thing.

Speaker 3 (46:10):
Yeah, I don't even actively compete with my agents
there has.
I don't even actively competewith my agents.
I can't even tell you, guys, Itake that back.
Twice in my career have I goneto a listing appointment where
maybe one of my agents got this.
Once happened when I was a team.
One of my team members gotcalled in and then they called
me and I gave it to my team bydefault.
I said you take this becauseI'm not going to cry over one
deal, it's not going to break my.
That one deal would mean moreto that person that's just

(46:32):
starting out to feed theirfamily than it will to me.
And then once, as a brokerageowner, same thing.
They call this in and I waslike no, I'm good, you're going
to get the same level of servicebecause this person works
directly with me and mybrokerage and I handed it off.
You'll never to this day find asingle agent that's ever been
coached or trained by me raisetheir hand and say he took a
deal from me and that just goesto show like you don't have to

(46:54):
run a business that way.
So to bring it full circle back, number one I stay active
production because I have to beable to teach my people what
works.
If I'm that guy, that's likeokay, I'm out of production and
I haven't sold.
I haven't really been producingfor four.
The market changes so much.
Like you think about, whatwe're doing today wouldn't have
worked three years ago and whatwas going three years ago
wouldn't have worked.
It's constantly evolving.

(47:15):
We went from multiple offers tohaving to get creative with
some of the deals to now like,ok, how do we do something off
market?
Now we're doing seller financeon some of these transactions
because it's like all right,we've got to push this
multimillion dollar deal acrossthe line when rates are 7.2% or
7.5% on a jumbo and we'retalking a $3 million loan and
that's an $8,000 to $10,000swing on a mortgage.

(47:36):
For some of these people thatcould mean taking a half a
million dollar hit on thepurchase price from my buyer.
But what if they did a subjectto creative finance deal?
That didn't matter two, threeyears ago, but it does now.
So me being in active production, I can say hey, guys, this is

(47:59):
what is working.
We have a big group chat in mybrokerage where I take every
transaction I do and I'll sayhere's how I got the deal,
here's where it came from,here's what I did with it and I
share right, and I set the bar.
So if you take me out ofproduction, who's the next bar?
And I got some good agents inthere and stuff like that.
But why would I not set the bar?
Why would I not say, hey, ifI'm doing this, you guys can do
this.
Differentiator, I'm in theoffice, 730 am.
You'll see my car in thatparking lot.
It's either me or my officemanager.
Generally, at the end of theday, it's me and maybe one other

(48:19):
agent.
But I just outwork you byvolume of hours.
It's not some secret thing.

Speaker 2 (48:24):
You know and so do you foster a totally in-person
collaboration, then Absolutelyso, like you got to come in, if
you're going to be on this team.
Absolutely, we want you here?

Speaker 3 (48:33):
yeah, I mean, it's not.
Of course they're 10.99.
I can't require them sure butmy philosophy is it's a people
business.
Yeah, somehow in covid in 2022,we got this philosophy that we
do everything virtually allthese virtual brokerages popping
up and stuff like that and theagent's been sold the dream that
, hey, you can sit on your couchand just kind of do whatever
and work your own hours andyou'll be super successful.
No, you won't, because I don'tsee any of them doing it right.

(48:56):
If you statistically look atthe numbers of the top producers
in the state of Arizona, mostof them have an office they go
into, they collaborate and theyhave a set daily routine where
they take themselves out oftheir house.
And this isn't for everybody.
There's always gonna be thatexception but statistically on
average, if you were to, rightnow, we're going to take the top
100 agents in the state ofArizona and you divide them up

(49:18):
and say who has a team and likegoes into the office and has a
team office and training, andwho's a solo agent that just
sits at home all day?
It's like very.
It's very evident of like wheresuccess lies in that and it's
been done that way.
We're always trying to reinventthe wheel when the wheel's not
broken, like it's the craziestthing to me People do well
together they do well,collaborating face to face and

(49:38):
working together.

Speaker 1 (49:39):
We believe that too.

Speaker 3 (49:40):
I've got an agent really really good guy matter.
Funny story this guy got meinto real estate.
He's been doing it longer thanme.
Uh, I was thinking aboutgetting into it and I talked to
my one of my good friends.
We had a mutual friend I wentto high school with and he's
like oh, my, my buddy over here.
He's like, oh, my buddy overhere, he's in real estate.
Give him a call.
I call this guy up, I said, hey, um, you don't know me, but I'm
friends with so and so, um, Ithink about getting into real

(50:00):
estate and you're an agent.
He's like yeah, dude, I totallygo for it.
It's a good career, you know,and he's doing.
He was doing okay at that time.
He I got into real estate andjust blew up and stuff.
And one day we're at the gymworking out and he sees me and
he's like all right, dude, Idon't think I can do it anymore,
I think I'm going to come over.
He like fought coming over andhe's like I'm going to be very
honest.

Speaker 1 (50:18):
And he's a good, good guy.

Speaker 3 (50:19):
He had to succumb to you, basically, yeah, well, he
basically was like I kind of waslike kind of like was hating on
you a little bit because youstarted after me and you're just
doing really good and ithappens he's so competitive Like
dude.
Set the ego down and just belike I need help and let me go
find the dude.
Like that has been the biggesthack in my career, is like ever
since I talked to you guys aboutearlier, like how I said, hey,

(50:41):
I found that one guy and hehelped me start a team.
It's like, oh crap, like mybusiness changed.
I learned my lesson.
Like when I went to start abrokerage, I went to a really
good friend of mine.
I me Like, if I went when Iwanted to learn creative finance
and stuff, I went to anotherreally good friend who's just a
master at it.

Speaker 1 (50:57):
So counsel, like the wise counsel, like lean on it,
it's 100% what it is Like.

Speaker 3 (51:00):
We have to have counsel in our corner, right,
and when people think of counselor coach, they think they have
to have one person.
No, like, we all know thatperson.
That's like an amazing familyguy, great with his kids, that
we all aspire to be, right, I'mnot the best at that because I'm
a frigging workhorse, so I'mgoing to, I'm going to be the
first to throw myself on thetrain here and say, hey, I'm bad
about always having a work-lifebalance, right, but I have
friends that are amazing at it.

(51:21):
So guess what I do?
It's like, dude, I got tobalance myself out a little more
.
Let me go to this guy that'sjust so damn good at this and
learn from him.
If I want to sharpen thosetools, who do I go to?
I go to that guy.
And if I go to this guy who'sdone so much deep work and
development and been through thetrenches and he's like five
years down the road for me andI'm trying, he's the guy that's

(51:42):
already around the bend in thecorner.
I could just be like hey,instead of running myself off
the cliff, can you tell mewhat's coming?
The craziest thing.
But so, yeah, that's like forme, that's really where it came
down to, so so.

Speaker 2 (51:59):
So let's, let's land the plane.
Um, as a business owner, howhave you?
Um, you've obviously achieved ahigh level of success as a as a
real estate business owner.
Where do you go from here?
Um, what, what and I kind ofasked this earlier, I guess but
what are the primary lessonsthat you would impart to
somebody who's now startingtheir own real estate business?

Speaker 3 (52:23):
Oh man, so many lessons.

Speaker 1 (52:27):
I mean, we could probably finish the failure list
.

Speaker 3 (52:29):
I'm going to be so transparent with you guys on
this.
I was just having a call.
I've got a business coach.
I've got a guy who I was goingto ask you on this.
I was just having a call.
I've got a business coach.
I've got a guy who I was goingto ask you that question.
I always have coaches Okay,always have coaches, life
coaches.
The coach being coached AlwaysLove it.
Here's the thing, man yourceiling is as high as you're
ever going to go and if you'vegot nobody above you pulling you
up, you're.
We're continuing to grow inlife and just get better,

(52:53):
because I don't ever like if Ithink of the iteration of me
that doesn't grow anymore, Ithink of just being dead.
Like.
You know what I mean and I lovegrowth.
I love changing.
I love looking Like.
It's so fun to look back Like.
I even put our stats and ournumbers up every Monday on my
social media.
Here's where we're at.
Here's what we did the previousweek.
Don't like you'll get thesepeople online like top producer.

(53:13):
It's like dude, you sold 10houses last year just because
you put in your instagram biodoesn't mean it's true I can
show the stats.
I have every address, every sale, everything verified.
I put it up for our brokerage,I put our numbers out there.
And then it's really cool to goback like three years ago and
look at the spreadsheets andlook at the trackers and be like
, oh damn, I remember that timewhen we thought like 90 million
was like we were just partying.

(53:33):
We like remember we ended theyear, we got everybody, we had
this big celebration, we hit 90million, you know, and so so
questions and this I'm sorrybecause I'm a systems guy I'm
like I can't help myself here.

Speaker 1 (53:44):
So from a business owner's perspective, from a real
estate broker owner'sperspective, would you have
built your company by buildingthe systems first and then start
filling, or would you havebuilt using people first and
then adapt the systems as youneed it?

Speaker 3 (54:06):
That is such a hard question to answer, but I'll
tell you which side I lean moreon.
The people first, systems.
I outgrow the CRM I had when Ifirst started that I thought I
was going to have.
Like we outgrew that andeverything systems and processes
and everything.
I think there's a.
I will say this If there'sanything you're going to do,
have a great framework in place.
One thing I was really badabout getting stuff in writing.

(54:26):
I've had team agreements whereI got burned.
You know what I mean.
I've had people, even being abrand new agent, sucking at
writing an offer.
I've had to buy peoplerefrigerators because I didn't
pay attention.
There's one lesson I've learnedIf I had to say the one thing,
I would have done as far as likejust have great things in
writing Also.
On the other side of that,though, I lean into if you have

(54:48):
the right people around you, youhave a great community.
You can build some systems andprocesses around that, because
the problem is what I used tothink was true was I knew
everything, and what I found isis I only need to really be good
in my company at one thing andthat's motivating and that's
sales and like helping peopledevelop and see more in
themselves.
I've got a associate broker whois like she's been a broker.

(55:11):
She was a broker for K-dub for20 something years and I hired
her and she's way better at filereview and paperwork than I am.
That's why I won't be a broker.
I don't want to be a broker.
I have a broker's license.
I don't want to be a broker.
I don't want to sit by.
I suck at that.
I'm definitely a very gray areakind of guy, so I'm not good
for that seat and so if you haveto have the right intention

(55:45):
Again, this goes back to theteam lead thing Don't do it
because you want to make money,because you won't, I don't.
My brokerage doesn't.
A lot of people I think they'relike oh, I do all this volume
and sales, it doesn't make methat much money.
My personal production makes memoney.
My brokerage pays for itselfand lets me be left alone and I
don't have to answer to anybody,which is what I love.

Speaker 1 (56:05):
But I think we could relate as we grow and we scale.
It's not like.

Speaker 3 (56:09):
I you know we make these sales and I just pocket
all the money right.
I pay for my agents' signs, Ipay for their CRMs.
We spend close to $10,000 amonth in lead gen as we grow and
hire more people.
I hire staff to help so that myagents have enough people right
.
So it's not matter of fact likewe ended up letting go.
We had some agents leavebecause we put some standards in

(56:30):
place.
We let go of some agents thatweren't producing, so we shaved
about like 20 agents that justweren't really getting it done
or it wasn't a good fit for them.
And we're more profitablebecause we were able to shave
system.

Speaker 1 (56:40):
So what's?

Speaker 3 (56:41):
more important again, is it the head count or is it
the profitability?
You know what I mean, so, andyou just have to have a mission,
man Like.
If you're like I want to own abrokerage for the sake of owning
a brokerage, don't do it Likethere's so many great options
out there.
People would ask you why.

Speaker 1 (56:54):
They've asked us the same thing.
Why would you want to be onyour own?

Speaker 3 (56:57):
Yeah, man, there's teams out there that are bigger
than I am right now.
I can name teams that have like100 people right now bigger
than I am.
From a brokerage perspective.
My mission was I wanted tocreate a place that could
replicate success, without adoubt, because I was like I know
what.
I do works Okay great.
I was like I know what I doworks Okay great.
And then I had a team and I waslike, okay, and time after time
and time, every person that'scame to me that's listened to

(57:18):
what I said and with their owntwist on it, has been successful
.
That's awesome.
And then I've seen those samepeople leave and they're not
successful anymore either.
Interesting, by the way.
I'm just going to throw thisout there.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
I haven't know if that's good or bad by the way.

Speaker 1 (57:34):
I think that's a testament to what you're doing.

Speaker 3 (57:36):
But, it just goes to show it's not always the systems
the processes, it's the dailymotivation, it's the being
around the people that want toget it done.
It's the collaboration.
It's the day that you'resitting at home where you're
just like I'm not feeling ittoday.

Speaker 1 (57:50):
All right, I'm going to flip the.

Speaker 3 (57:51):
TV on or there's people get around them.
So bringing back full story tothat guy, that was like hating
on me for a little bit.
As a friend he told me.
He's like dude, I was hating onyou, man, because you were
doing good.
He goes, but I want to dobetter.
He's like I'm going to comeover and work with you.
Dude is killing it now.

Speaker 1 (58:04):
That's awesome.

Speaker 3 (58:04):
He's like I've been doing this business for 10 years
.
Having people that believe inyou.
It's the having the people thatpush you.
It's the days where you're likeI'm not feeling it.
And then you got your brokerowner lead like 4 am Get your
ass up out of bed, guys, let'sgo.

Speaker 1 (58:21):
Let's go, all right.

Speaker 3 (58:24):
And then you take that one day where maybe you
didn't get out of bed or maybeyou weren't feeling it, and then
you see the numbers gettingposted and you're like all right
.
And then compound that over awhole year.
Yeah, People talk about likewhy do you get up at three, 34
o'clock in the morning?
I get a two hour head startover most people, Most people
start their day at 6am.
I get up at four.
32 hours a day times, 30 daysin a month gets me an entire

(58:45):
month more work done thananybody else over a whole year.
Just two hours a day, right,it's not.
It's not that day that I gottwo hours that made me
successful.
It's the fact that I replicatedthat two hours 365 days that
bought me a whole month over anyof my competition.

Speaker 1 (59:00):
It's the discipline.

Speaker 3 (59:01):
It's the day by day, right, so you take an agent who,
yeah, they're pretty good fourdays out of the week, three days
, but then the other four tothree they kind of, you know,
mess off a little bit or they'renot that motivated, or they're
just not feeling it.
And then you throw them in anecosystem of mine that's very
competitive, like let's go getup, like hey, don't be hard on
yourself, let's go Right, andthen maybe out of that they won

(59:22):
two or three more days.
Two or three more dayscompounded over a year it could
be the difference between fiveto 10 additional transactions.
Not by one big thing.
It's just because they hadsomebody like me in their corner
, like pushing them right,Running full speed ahead.
People underestimate that somuch and this is why I'm such an
advocate.
Like you get these bigbrokerages like oh, just stay at
home, we do virtual Okay.
Nobody's motivated, seven daysa week, nobody.

Speaker 1 (59:44):
We all need even me, especially from the house Right,
especially from the house it'snot you know what.

Speaker 3 (59:50):
I mean and so sounds.
And no matter how many agentssay, oh, I just love to work
from home, you take thisindustry, you plug their butt in
and, I hate to say it,corporatize it.
I'm not a fan of corporateAmerica at all.
Guarantee you, if there wasever some way to take all 66,000
agents, put them in an office,put a microscope over them for
eight hours a day.
Tell me they're not going to bemiles ahead of where they're at

(01:00:11):
.
We are our own worst enemy whenwe say we want freedom and then
we get the freedom and then wedon't hold ourselves accountable
.

Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
That's it, let's.
That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:00:19):
Let's, let's like this is very amazing Totally
awesome, it's been great.

Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
Really appreciate you taking the time busy, busy
schedule.
Successful real estate businessowner Guys, we have to leave it
here, unfortunately.
We'd love to keep talking toBlake, but we really want to
thank our listeners for stickingwith us and sticking throughout
the whole episode here.
If you have any questions, DMus.

Speaker 1 (01:00:40):
Yes, don't comment.

Speaker 2 (01:00:42):
We're going to have all of Blake's contact
information for Limitless RealEstate and Blake in the
description, so if you have anyquestions for him, DM Blake and
we'll catch everybody on thenext episode.

Speaker 3 (01:00:52):
Thanks so much, man.
Thanks again, I appreciate youguys having me.
Thank you so much, guys.

Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
Thanks again, Blake.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}From Homelessness to Luxury Realtor: Blake Clark's Inspirational Journey of Grit and Real Estate Innovation | #gritandgrowpodcast