From Farmer to $350M Producer: Mike Blake’s Unstoppable Real Estate Playbook

From apple orchards to award-winning broker, Mike Blake’s journey is anything but ordinary. 

In this powerhouse episode of Real Estate Agent Life, Shane and Duane sit down with their longtime friend and fraternity brother to uncover how Mike went from patenting products and selling his first $50k home… to running a 200+ transaction team pacing over 350 deals a year.

Mike drops game-changing insights on:

• Why business plans fail (and how his daily screenshot habit keeps him on track)
• The marketing moves that made clients call him first — years before it was cool
• How 50% reinvestment, time-blocking, and showing up every day built his empire
• The mindset shift that grew his revenue share group from 31 agents to 480 in just 20 months
• The biggest mistake that cost him more than money — and the lesson every agent needs to hear

It’s raw, it’s funny (wait ‘til you hear the Miami story), and it’s full of wisdom for agents, leaders, and entrepreneurs who want to scale without losing their edge.

🎙 Thank You for Tuning in to the R.E.A.L. Real Estate Agent Life Podcast!

We appreciate you joining us for another powerful episode where we dive deep into the world of real estate, mindset, and business growth. If you found value in this conversation, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your network!

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Transcript

Duane Murphy (00:30)

Welcome to another rocking episode of Real Estate Agent Life. I am Dwayne Murphy. That is Shane Kilby. We know where he's from because he always tells us, Shane, where are from?

Michael Blake (00:40)

Thank

Shane Kilby (00:40)

Sweet home Alabama.

Duane Murphy (00:42)

Boom. And

today, today we've got a special guest, somebody that we've known for a lot of years. We don't connect near as enough as we should, but Shane, who are we got today?

Shane Kilby (00:53)

Today we have a good old fraternity brother, Mike Blake. Mike is from the cold state of Michigan compared to Alabama, definitely a cold state. He is part of the leadership there at Epic Realty. He was also a 2024 Broker of the Year. He is the Michigan Managing Broker and founding board member and plays a key role in expansion and agent development.

Duane Murphy (01:01)

you

Shane Kilby (01:15)

He is a proven performer with multiple Icon and Centurion award winning designations. He's been recognized as a top tier production and consistency agent. He's also got a very strong team that is currently at over 200 plus transactions and pacing 350, I believe we discussed that earlier. Yeah, so he's not taking any days off. He's pretty much pushing the envelope. He's definitely a marketing innovator.

Duane Murphy (01:34)

Boom!

Shane Kilby (01:43)

Blake's always been known for creative creative legion strategy strong social media presence and and some strong local real estate websites and website presence Client culture folk focus is always he's he maintains a 4.9 star average across nearly 400 reviews He builds strong client trust and he always facilitates a collaborative team culture. What's going on Mike?

Michael Blake (02:08)

You know, just living the dream.

Shane Kilby (02:09)

Living a dream. When's the last time we got to hang out?

Michael Blake (02:11)

Yeah.

Oh, I think we discussed that prior. I think it was in Miami. It had to be, 10, 12 years ago?

Shane Kilby (02:19)

I guess close. I think it was 2018. Was it 2018?

Duane Murphy (02:24)

It had to be something like that. was, it was definitely, I mean, it two or three years before COVID. So, I mean, everybody bookmarks everything nowadays with COVID, right? But I think it was, it was at least two to three years. I know it was around a pool. There was sunshine. There was a few beverages involved and maybe some chicken wings and a pool. And a pool. It was some of the greatest.

Michael Blake (02:24)

28.

It was.

Yeah, it was a laugh. That's all I remember.

Shane Kilby (02:45)

definitely prove

Duane Murphy (02:48)

my gosh, you

talk about some great minds in spaces and where everybody in those groups are today and the organizations that they built much like yourself. Insane to think that all those connections that we had way back then, yours included for sure, have led us down all the different paths that we are. mean, who the heck would have guessed it?

Michael Blake (03:08)

Right, yeah, I think great minds come together and that's what happens.

Shane Kilby (03:12)

Yeah, you guys said Miami and I started having flashbacks. I'm trying to catch back up because we had that conversation a few minutes ago. Now I'm like, remember that one time? So I've got to refocus. I've got to refocus. yes.

Duane Murphy (03:18)

Hehehehehe

Yes, statue of limitations, statue of That's why you gotta remember,

statue of limitations. Some things just don't need to be shared.

Shane Kilby (03:32)

I mean, there was an, I won't even make their, I won't even say their name, but there was one point in time that one of those evenings where one of our friends that has been on this podcast got in one side of the cab and got out the other as we all left. And you probably, that probably tells you who that individual was, but I won't disclose here for, you know, to protect the innocent until.

Duane Murphy (03:53)

What we will disclose,

it's nobody currently on the podcast just because like, no, everybody right away is like, it's Dwayne. No, no, this time it was not.

Shane Kilby (03:56)

Why is nobody currently on this project? ⁓

Michael Blake (03:59)

Yeah.

I

Shane Kilby (04:02)

I was not doing it.

Michael Blake (04:03)

was seriously trying to think, was that me?

Shane Kilby (04:06)

Now, it could have been you, but in this particular moment was not. I won't disclose that name. I don't know who all knows what happened that evening, but let's get back on track, shall we? ⁓ Mike, so give us a little bit of backstory about Mike. How did you get into real estate?

Duane Murphy (04:12)

Mm-mm.

That's

Michael Blake (04:22)

You know, so prior to real estate, I went to school for building construction management and I always loved real estate. So I went into building construction management. I worked as a backend superintendent for Pulte Homes for a year. And while I was there, I patented six different products. So I originally got licensed when I was 18 to sell real estate, because that's what I, I always wanted to do it. I wanted to do it from the time I was 10 years old. So when I patented these products, I kind of got sidetracked.

And it led me down a career path that was absolutely fantastic. So I started a manufacturing company. Then in 2010, I had the opportunity to sell that company. And then when I sold the company, I'm like, you know what? Now is the time to get back into real estate. Actually getting into it for the first time. So I sold my first house in May of 2010 with Century 21. So.

Shane Kilby (05:13)

Yeah, if my mind doesn't fail me, which is not always the case, you kind of married into it, right?

Michael Blake (05:20)

Yeah, my father-in-law owned about eight different Century 21 offices. So he was always pushing me hard. He's like, come on back, come on back, start selling. So I'm like, as soon as I sold the company, I'm like, I went all in. So, and when I say went all in, it was very, very tough to get started. So it wasn't like, all right, you jump into real estate and here come the sales.

So I started actually, I think I got licensed in October of 2009. And I didn't have my first sale until May of 2010. But then from May of 2010, I had a sale every two weeks for the rest of that year. So that first year I ended up selling, I think 27 houses. Then the second year I did, I think it was 74. And then the third year I did 126.

Duane Murphy (05:50)

Hmm.

Shane Kilby (06:09)

Yeah, I think, you know, as a real estate instructor myself and knowing that the statistic is 87%, 87 out of 100 agents that get licensed in 2025 will not be here in 2028. That's why it's not having a plan, not having a budget, not having spouse buy-in, not knowing what the expectations are.

yeah, so it's, it's not the first time like we hear this all the time. I mean, you know, it, takes a while before you find that traction. When you've, once you got started in the, in the, in the business in, in, in, you already had developed, you know, good foundation around construction. What would you say was the biggest success in, business once you, once you started selling homes?

Michael Blake (06:54)

You know, it was really looking at a business plan and not just like I see so many agents, they just come into the business without a plan. So like anything, if you want to be successful, you have to have a business plan and you can't write the business plan in December and then look at it in July. You have to look at it like weekly. Like what I do is on my phone, I screenshot my yearly goals and I try to look at that.

you know, on a daily basis. So I have big, lofty goals. So the only way for me to look at those on a daily basis is to have it right in front of me because we all get tied up with so many things. like, I have ADHD so bad. Like I'll be doing this and then I'm gonna do this and then I'm doing this and then I'm doing this. And I'm like, all right, let's try to get back to at least get one or two things on that list accomplished for the day.

Shane Kilby (07:43)

Yeah,

Duane Murphy (07:43)

We all

might be able to relate. Just a little bit.

Shane Kilby (07:47)

Yeah.

I think we all tend to have that gift of ADHD. ⁓ I claim it as a gift, sometimes a handicap, but most often as a gift.

Michael Blake (07:53)

Yeah.

Duane Murphy (08:00)

Yeah. So now I was going to say, while he's collecting his thought on that, you scaled relatively quick, know, you doubled and then almost doubled again to that third year. So, um, give a little bit of your backstory, give us a little bit of the front story, like, cause like team, uh, so is it just yourself and an admin, just you and the wife, like what's your structure look at like?

Michael Blake (08:05)

Yeah.

Yeah.

sleep.

Duane Murphy (08:26)

Like right now, and then when did you launch that structure? And has it been the same or have you changed it? Like typically, right? We all evolve a few times.

Michael Blake (08:32)

I, you know, I...

I feel like I've recreated the wheel like 19 times. But so when I started, I literally treated it like a business. So I'm like, I was never wanting to go out and sit on the phones and make calls. I was always looking at it with the aspect of what do I need to do to market to make the people call me. So it did take me a little while to build out all of these marketing systems and tools and lead generation. So once I had that in place, the lead started to funnel in.

And I was getting so many, like I was one of the first Zillow premier agents back in, I signed up for them in 2009. So back then I was buying entire zip codes and I thought it was expensive. was $353. I remember it like it was yesterday. I'm like, oh, should I put it on my credit card? Should I really do it? I'm like, yeah, I did it. So back then I was buying like entire zip codes for $353. Like in.

Duane Murphy (09:18)

Mm-hmm.

Michael Blake (09:26)

All the old school brokers back then, they're like, what do mean you're buying leads? Like you're paying for leads? Just get on the, open up the Bresser's phone book and start making dials. I'm like, that's not my, I want to make people call me. So the leads started flowing in so fast and furious that I couldn't even handle it. I immediate, within six months, I hired a full-time admin. And then,

Before the year was even over, I hired my first buyer's agent because I was so busy. Unfortunately, one of my first transactions was a floor call for a $50,000 house. If you think about the time, it was 2010. Back in 2010, all there was is short sales and foreclosures. I drive 45 minutes to the suburb of Detroit.

Duane Murphy (10:07)

Yes.

Michael Blake (10:12)

And I'm showing houses and there's literally people all over these neighborhoods that want to see these houses because no agents would call them back. So I'm literally showing like five houses and by the time the day was over, I think I showed like 50 because all of these people, they were just driving by. They're like, oh, do you mind if, can you show it to me? Can you show it to me? Can you show it to me? So without trying, I became the East Point King. I did not want to be the East Point King because

I think out of those 27 transactions, think probably 15 of them were under $100,000 to get started.

Duane Murphy (10:50)

Hehehehehe

Shane Kilby (10:52)

Cuttin' your teeth, cuttin' your teeth.

Michael Blake (10:54)

But it gave me the experience. I showed more houses than any agent in our office my first year in real estate.

Duane Murphy (10:55)

if

Shane Kilby (11:02)

Yeah, to go from 2010 to where you are today, that's a short period of time when you look at it. mean, you're 15 years. And we know that, you know, we know that five of those were just, we just tossed those into, I mean, who knows what, you know, has happened in those five years. What would you say?

What would you say has been the biggest contributing factor? Or let's put it in three, because you've done a lot of things in that time frame. What would you say the three key contributing factors have taken you from there with the $50,000 opportunities in 2010 to where you are today with being a part of such a huge organization and opportunity?

Michael Blake (11:45)

Well, I think, like I said from the beginning, it was coming up with a business plan. And then when you get so busy, like you really have to time block. So my, my calendar right now is kind of scheduled out by the 15 minute intervals. So if I don't have my calendar time blocked, I won't get anything done. Like literally I will do this and then I'll get sidetracked to this. But if I schedule it and time block it.

You know, I think the business planning, time blocking discipline and just rolling up your sleeves and doing the hard work that most people, most agents just don't want to do it. Showing up, showing up, going to the office every day. You know, I'm sitting for my home office today because I'm a little under the weather, but generally I go to the office every day. I still go to the office every day. How many...

Shane Kilby (12:21)

Yeah. Yeah.

Duane Murphy (12:22)

Yeah, that's it.

That's it.

Michael Blake (12:35)

You know, on my team I have, I call it 17 agents on my local team, which they're all local. I will see two or three agents in that office on a daily basis. So they're just, they're not willing to put in the work like I was willing to.

Shane Kilby (12:49)

Yeah, you have to make a decision. And I know you both see this today. You've got agents that they have to pick a path. They have to become a marketer, which is like you said, I want people to contact me, which means you're going to have to commit to the grind. You're going to have to come into the office. You're going to have to do the work because you're going to have to throw the money at it to make the opportunities come your way.

Michael Blake (13:11)

Yep.

Shane Kilby (13:14)

or you're going to have to become a relentless fearless prospector. Right? Anywhere else, just standing in the middle, just hoping and praying for an opportunity.

Michael Blake (13:19)

Yeah, and getting,

I literally, my first three years, I took 50 % of every dollar that came in and spent it in advertising.

Duane Murphy (13:32)

Yeah. Yeah. When you had hit on the, the time block and the time management and the, and the dedication to doing what you need to do, it's probably the most important thing is brokers that, you know, brokers, managers, owners that you can instill and teach your agents to make them successful is, is that

You know, that dedication to your calendar, that time blocking, that nothing comes in the way of my prospecting. And like you said, even, even coming into the office, I've had this conversation so many times with, with my agents lately. And I look at my roster as well in my brokerage, my top agents are here. That's not, that's not a coincidence. Like we were even talking in our company meeting that we had a couple of days ago, a company meeting training.

Shane Kilby (14:08)

Mm-hmm.

Michael Blake (14:12)

Yeah.

Duane Murphy (14:16)

I had my, my very top agent who outsells everybody almost three to one, you know, coming into the office today. And she's like, I was at the meeting on, Tuesday. She was all of your top producers are probably the ones that don't need to be there, but yet they are. And, know, and she was commenting on, you know, why are, why are some of the newer agents in the business or the ones that are struggling? She's like, I, I can tell you why.

Michael Blake (14:32)

Yes.

Duane Murphy (14:41)

And it's not just the not calling your leads or whatever, but you gotta show up and roll up your sleeves and do the work every day and the success almost will find you.

Michael Blake (14:48)

Yeah.

And success breeds success. So the busier you are, like for me anyways, the busier I am, the more I can do. Because the more disciplined I have to be.

Duane Murphy (14:58)

Hmm.

Shane Kilby (14:59)

yeah.

Well, what did Elon Musk is like short in the distance, know, tighten the space and time, you know, we don't need to do it in 18 months. Let's do it in six. We can't do it six. Sure we can. If we focus all of our energy, if the deadline is six months, we're always going to meet that deadline. Are we going to be a little slightly over that deadline? So if it's six months, we're going to be six months in a week. If it's 18 months, we're going be 18 months in a week. Same thing goes for we leave for vacation.

Duane Murphy (15:07)

Right now.

Michael Blake (15:13)

Yes.

yeah.

Shane Kilby (15:28)

We get it all done because the plane is going to Well, I have been left, but I've learned that lesson the hard way. I think it's, it's, it's, it's definitely created it's these calls like this and these podcasts are good because there a lot of leaders on here and top producers, right? But it's good because, you know, leadership has changed in the past five years. Leadership has changed because we were used to walking into offices full of people.

Duane Murphy (15:32)

Yeah.

Shane Kilby (15:53)

Yeah, the energy's there. Like you said, I was listening closely because you were like, I'm still going to the office every day and I'm seeing two to three of my 17. That's what I keyed in on. Like, okay, so he's still doing it even though it's half 60 % drop in, in who's coming into office every day. So that's been a different, it's a different mindset shift for leadership. Would you agree or disagree?

Michael Blake (16:17)

100 % agree. But I still believe that all the people who do show up, they don't necessarily have to go into our physical office, but I can tell just in the dials, we all have CRMs. You can see who's showing up and actually doing the work.

Duane Murphy (16:36)

Yeah, I've been, I've

been watching. That's a great point. I've been watching on the backside of our CRM, right? Cause you have that, the, transparency of it. And so if I also don't see any of that, they haven't logged into their CRM in two, three days. It's like, I'm sending them a little note and just, or just reaching out to them being like, Hey, is, everything okay? I guess there's something going on like that. I need to know, but like, should I be dialing 911 sending amulets? Like, is there.

Michael Blake (16:54)

Are you a lion?

Duane Murphy (17:00)

Like, do you need help? Like what's going on? Because you haven't touched your CRM in three days. And it's not, you know, it's not trying to be big brother, but it's like, it's the stuff you need to do in order to, to pay your bills, feed your family. Like what's, if you're not doing that, what are you doing?

Michael Blake (17:15)

Like your CRM, you have to treat it like it's your organs. Like it's your lifeblood of your business. If your CRM is not healthy, your business is not healthy.

Duane Murphy (17:25)

Naw, here's a nugget.

Shane Kilby (17:25)

Yeah, it's just, mean,

it is like your physical health. I mean, it is the lifeblood of what you do. You got to start there, you got to finish there. And so, you know, one thing that we've done that has helped a lot with that, about probably the last year, close to years, is we do, you know, we've always done role play, but in times past, we did it in the office, right? We did it with, you know, those that were there present.

But for the past year, we've started doing that three days a week, 8 830. And it's more of a community call disguised as role play. So we get a couple good role play calls in there. But it's also a check in, check up on everybody, see how everybody's doing, right, make those connections.

Duane Murphy (18:09)

Yeah, it helps him get him focused early in the morning. So Mike, you've racked up some mega success over your years starting right after the great recession and the great market reset to where we are today with an up and coming, fast growing national brand. So lots of success. What would you say so far has been your biggest failure in business?

Michael Blake (18:33)

man, so many.

Shane Kilby (18:34)

This is the question it always turns.

Duane Murphy (18:34)

That's just, you wanna borrow a few of mine?

Alright, we'll give you a few more.

Michael Blake (18:38)

So everyone always says that you should get into investment properties. I don't know. Every time, and I don't learn, I never seem to learn this lesson, and I keep just going back and buying these stupid investment properties. And every time I go and buy one of these damn things, my business drops dramatically.

because I changed my focus from my sales and my team to rehabbing an apartment building. That'll take me a year to a year and a half to do it. And the amount that I make on it is half the amount I would have made if I just stayed focused in selling real estate like I should have been doing. So I've learned, like over the years, now I love investments and I love different revenue streams.

but I no longer want ones that I have to deal with myself. So I like the more hands-off investments. And that's one of the reasons why I made the switch to a revenue share brokerage, because I've done the grind and I really wanted a taste of actual residual. I tried it at a previous brokerage and it was my own fault why I didn't be ultra successful at my last brokerage.

because I was still focused on just running my team. I wasn't focused on agent attraction. And so when I had the opportunity to be the state managing broker for Epic Realty, I'm like, all right, this is a time where I can actually start over from ground zero with having and doing the right things from day one. Because when I came over to Epic, I was agent number 225. We're now at 5,000 agents.

And I've been here for 20 months and I have 480 in my revenue share group.

Shane Kilby (20:23)

Nice.

Michael Blake (20:24)

And like that is like I could retire tomorrow off my rev share income now. So if I would have thought 20 months ago that that was ever possible, I knew it was possible because I have friends that are doing it and did it. But when I look, when I look back, it seemed, it seems so impossible, but now just 20 months later, like it's, it's mind blowing.

Duane Murphy (20:46)

Yeah. What's that saying that they, you over estimate what you can do in a day and underestimate what you can do in a year. And, you know, and that's almost the same thing, right? It's like building any organization, whether that's your rev share group or it's building an organization such, you know, an independent brokerage such as ours or your teams, right? It doesn't matter what it is. It seems so insurmountable.

Like impossible. then, you know, and then you just getting there, getting there, right. Taking a couple steps back, getting there, getting there, taking a few more steps back, getting there, getting there. And before you know it, all of a you look at it going, wow, I was, I was over there thinking where I am today was almost unachievable.

Michael Blake (21:11)

Yes.

What's

crazy is, so each one of us, we've all ran large teams or brokerages. And so it's so hard to get out of your own way and just continue to build it. So you hit a threshold and then you're stuck at that threshold. So with the revenue share model that I'm in now, so I personally brought in 31 people.

and the 31 people turned into 480. So in my mindset, it was like, I got to start thinking smarter. Look at the people who I do bring in. So I don't just bring in any agent in my group now. I bring in team leaders, brokers, and influencers. So if I think they're like-minded and want to grow, because I have so little time, but the time I spend 50 % of my time.

completely focusing on the people that are underneath me and fully supporting them. So those 31 people, you know, are each responsible for 17 or 18 people each, which is like when I, when I finally got that aha moment, I'm like, all right, I could, I could be recruiting these individual people to my team. And it's like a revolving door always one in one out, one in one out, maybe two in one out.

Shane Kilby (22:38)

We've talked about

that too.

Michael Blake (22:40)

Yeah, so I

felt like I'd been on a hamster wheel for the past 10 years. And now I finally feel like I'm at a place where I I finally got it figured out.

Duane Murphy (22:48)

Good. Congrats.

Shane Kilby (22:50)

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Because it does, mean, it takes trial by error and it takes, you know, it takes a relentless, you know, relentless drive to keep pushing to get it right in what right is, how right is defined by you, right? I mean, we know this, every time we get in a room with other leaders, like, you know, raise your hand if you've thought about burning it to the ground.

in the past seven days. It's like, okay, this is a safe place. We're all in the right place together now. But all jokes aside, Mike, what would you, looking at, kind of touched on your father-in-law a second there. So I can tell that he means a lot to you, you know, but looking back at life and business, what would you, it could be a person, place, book, you know, speaker, like,

What's been the greatest influence to to Mike Blake in life and business to now?

Michael Blake (23:43)

100 % my actual, my dad, you know, he was the hardest worker that I have ever met. Um, and he taught me my work ethic. Like from the time I was eight years old, he would drag me out of bed. Like all of my friends would be home for the summer. They'd sleep in until 11. My dad would drag me out of bed at 5 45 in the morning. And I'd go on the corn picker. I grew up on a farm, so I'm, I'm also known as farmer Mike.

Shane Kilby (23:45)

Okay.

Michael Blake (24:10)

So I currently, yeah, so I have a house, have 46 acres here and so I still, my roots are the farm. So he would literally drag me out of bed at 5.45 in the morning and I would work until six, seven o'clock at night with him side by side. he did that in the summer. Like we literally were running one of the largest.

Duane Murphy (24:10)

you

Shane Kilby (24:11)

I did not know that, now I know.

Michael Blake (24:37)

pick your own apple orchards in the country. And when you talk about hard work, that is hard work. My dad passed away when I was 22. And he had a buy-sell agreement with his younger brothers who he brought into the business. So myself, we kind of got kicked to the curb, unfortunately, because I still feel like I'm a farmer. I'm a farmer that sells real estate.

Shane Kilby (24:59)

Yeah.

Well, but, but, you know, there's correlation there, right? I mean, we're, we, we all have built and grown databases, CRMs. We are always cultivating, you know, reaching into those databases, looking to assist and help, you know, buyers and sellers, past clients, current clients, future clients, right? And that's, and, know, it might not appear to be.

farming as we know it, but in reality, it's it we're doing the same thing, right?

Michael Blake (25:32)

yeah, you gotta go.

Duane Murphy (25:33)

other great

thing that farming brings you as well is there's that mentality of, you know, there might be someone smarter, but no one's going to outwork me. Cause there's not a farmer out there. I come from a long, you know, line of dairy farmers and you know, my family's still running a large farm, you know, so 3000 acres. I mean, it's a big 3000 acres and thousands have had.

Shane Kilby (25:41)

There you go.

Michael Blake (25:48)

yeah.

Duane Murphy (25:58)

24, 7, 365 and I tell you what, there's, I mean that one mentality that you grew up with on any type of farm, whether that's crop farming, right, orchards, any of that, there's nobody that's gonna outwork you. Like, you know, they might have a bigger tractor and have more acreage and more this and that, but there's, it was always that mentality that no one's gonna outwork me. You know, I've never, you know, and that was, and that translates really, that translate really well into any business, especially,

Michael Blake (26:09)

No, absolutely.

⁓ yeah.

Duane Murphy (26:24)

especially real estate like in your situation. I ⁓ have a quick question or can we see your shirt?

Michael Blake (26:26)

And in my, my, my, my, yes.

yeah. It says I'm only here for the free car washes.

Duane Murphy (26:36)

I love the fact that you can take and poke fun at that and just take that on the chin. I think that's amazing.

Michael Blake (26:43)

gosh, we absolutely

love it. I will tell you, I will drive, my free car wash is 12 miles away. I will drive there at least once a week because it's right across from a Meyer gas station that has the cheapest gas. So I go and fill up with gas and I get my free car wash. I use, you know, we were just at, unfortunately I couldn't go, but we just had our PowerCon event.

and we just added 20 new benefits. I can't even keep track of the benefits. We have 92 benefits now.

Duane Murphy (27:11)

You're gonna have to get like a different shirt for every week.

Michael Blake (27:15)

Yeah, I think

this is the one that I love the most. It's just awesome.

Duane Murphy (27:19)

Yeah, yeah, no,

I wanted to bring that up because I saw the shirt and I'm like, right? you get a free car wash or whatever it might be, right? It's like, hey, with us, get a you get a can koozie. So I mean, you get that, but I don't have a shirt that says I'm here for the can koozies. I like it.

Michael Blake (27:24)

The way.

Yeah.

So

there's a backstory to it. So our founder, who is also a real estate agent, he was doing an open house one day and he came out, his car was parked under a tree and it just got bombed by birds. And he's like, one day I would love to offer free car washes if I owned a brokerage. And that was like one of the first things that they implemented was free car washes.

Duane Murphy (28:00)

Boom. See that's, that's a power of right thoughts and putting it there and, sticking in front of you and saying, here's what I want to do. You talked about your goals and resetting them and taking screenshots and putting them on your phone, which is what's right in front of you. Another, another great example of that. So, uh, another quick question. It's kind of a little bit off, off subject and off topic a little bit. think we have enough time. So in your free time, so.

Shane Kilby (28:00)

Ha

Duane Murphy (28:25)

I know you like a little bit of tree therapy.

Do you prefer a bow or a gun?

Michael Blake (28:29)

I prefer Bo.

I don't know, it's just more peaceful. Here in Michigan, October 15th is bow hunting season. So you can get out there before all the yahoos start running around with guns and shooting everything up. So it's more just time to get all your thoughts out. Sitting in a tree stand for two hours. I used to go use a climber and all that stuff, but now I'm in a nice, heated blind.

Duane Murphy (28:33)

Yeah.

Michael Blake (28:56)

In October, we don't really need heat, but as you get to December, you need some heat.

Duane Murphy (29:00)

Hmm.

Shane Kilby (29:00)

Yeah,

it's, you know, our both season starts the same time, October 15th, but it's so brutally hot. It's so brutally hot and humid here. Mosquitoes are terrible. Snakes are still out. So it's, you know, we do it and we do it because it's, you know, it's been forever since we got to go into the woods and have that treetop therapy.

Duane Murphy (29:05)

Yep, same here.

Michael Blake (29:11)

Yeah.

Duane Murphy (29:20)

Yeah.

Shane Kilby (29:21)

It doesn't take but a few times, trips to the woods. Like, okay, it's got to come down under 70 degrees. It's got to come under 70 degrees.

Duane Murphy (29:27)

Yeah.

Michael Blake (29:28)

Well,

it's the most there.

Duane Murphy (29:29)

There's no, there's no, well, I was going

say there's no better way to reset your mind. you, you need a different perspective on life or just need to get some stuff straight in your head, there's not a, there's not a tree that can't make that happen when you're sitting up in it with by yourself or for me as well. I, I over the years and I've more and more, uh, I call it swamp therapy. I tell you what, sitting in a, in a swamp, you know, just

Michael Blake (29:52)

Yeah.

Duane Murphy (29:56)

Watching the Sun come up or just sitting in a tree and watching the Sun come up on you know Maybe not everybody doesn't hunt who listens this don't care But I tell you what you don't know what you're missing until you are one with nature and just sitting there and watching all God's beauty and and Having all happen around you

Michael Blake (30:10)

And

it doesn't have to be hunting. can be going to your closest park and just going for an hour walk. Yeah, solitude.

Shane Kilby (30:17)

Solitude, solitude. The solitude

is powerful. I think, what is it? it Jim Rohn that said go spend 30 minutes in silence and watch what happens?

Michael Blake (30:28)

I'm dying, I'm dying to go on alone. Do know what alone is? Oh yeah, I would love to do alone.

Duane Murphy (30:31)

Right.

Shane Kilby (30:32)

Mm-hmm.

Yep. Yep.

Duane Murphy (30:36)

Yeah, maybe.

Shane Kilby (30:37)

Dwayne somebody has to talk back to Dwayne He can talk but he's got it's got to be an echo or something's got to come back to Dwayne

Michael Blake (30:37)

Thank

Duane Murphy (30:46)

I don't know. My,

my ADD probably would keep me rather entertained for a while though. You know, it was like earlier today, I spent 30, I had the timer set. was 42, was like 42 minutes in, in my sauna. So I have an infrared sauna, by the way, shameless plug. Those things are amazing. If you don't have one, get one. It's legit. So I have an infrared sauna and just helps take away all the soreness and it kind of comes to working out, I think. But so.

Shane Kilby (30:53)

Didn't have any marbles.

Michael Blake (31:07)

knives.

Duane Murphy (31:13)

I usually have music playing or I'm listening to audible or whatever may be and today I made the decision I'm like, nope, I'm gonna go in there for the entire session. I'm just nothing. I'm gonna have no music, no distractions, whatever. It's just gonna be me and my thoughts. That was one full sauna. you would think there was 10 people in there with me, you know, but yeah.

Shane Kilby (31:32)

I bet 42

minutes of you without any type of sound or any device is probably like hours of endearment.

Duane Murphy (31:37)

Ugh.

Yeah, yeah, that's like concentration camp stuff right there, I tell ya. It's crazy, but back to... ⁓

Shane Kilby (31:45)

The big question is did you go get in the

coal plunge afterwards?

Duane Murphy (31:49)

sure though, but Wisconsin's practically a cold, cold plunge like nine months of the year. So I don't have to do it on the off months. I mean, it's sort of like up where Mike's at. mean, everyone's like, Oh yeah, cold plunge. Our state's a cold plunge for nine months of the year. So y'all down south don't get that. So, uh, Mike, uh,

So somebody who's coming up, maybe even yourself, you're looking way back when, when you were younger and you were coming up in the business and on the journey, was it something that you wish somebody would have told you and, and, you know, maybe whispered in your ear and gave you some advice that you didn't get that you would now maybe give someone else.

Michael Blake (32:29)

One, surround yourself with people who are smarter than you. And two, hire an excellent accountant.

Shane Kilby (32:36)

Very both of those are very good pieces of Great No, I'm two different ends of the spectrum but very very very valuable you're very valuable Yeah, those are those are things you don't think about when you first start out in business. It's like

Duane Murphy (32:37)

I like them both.

Michael Blake (32:39)

Yes.

Duane Murphy (32:49)

Morning.

Michael Blake (32:52)

No,

I think like a lot of people that are probably listening and going to be watching this and tuning in, you know, they're going to be at the stage where they're going to hire that first hire. And that first hire is so important because it can literally make or break your business. So that first hire, you know, in my mind is the most important person that you'll ever hire in your entire career.

Shane Kilby (33:18)

Hire slow, fire fast. Hire slow, fire fast. But don't be afraid to hire. It is a very critical position, but it's just as bad as if you get cold feet and don't hire that position.

Michael Blake (33:20)

Yes.

Duane Murphy (33:21)

Love that.

Michael Blake (33:29)

Yeah. And then, and then like some of biggest mistakes that I've made is keeping people around that are taxic that, you know, they might've been good for me, but they weren't good for my whole team. And one taxic person can bring down your whole company.

Shane Kilby (33:37)

Mm-hmm.

Absolutely, absolutely. So Mike, if anybody, and there will be lots of folks that want to connect with you, follow you and build a strong connection with you, how can they reach out to you? How can they connect with you, Mike?

Michael Blake (33:56)

You know, they can always find me on Facebook. Facebook's probably the number one tool that I use. ⁓ Yep, or you can always call 877-CallMike. That's my phone number too. Or my email, mike at 877-CallMike. Mark.

Duane Murphy (34:02)

FarmerMike.com

Shane Kilby (34:12)

⁓

877-Call-Mike or Mike at 877-Call-Mike. That is epic. No pun intended.

Michael Blake (34:16)

Yep, you got it.

Duane Murphy (34:21)

and

it knew he was gonna get one in there somewhere We were having a discussion on is it epic or is it a peak?

Michael Blake (34:24)

Ha ha ha.

Shane Kilby (34:25)

Epic!

Michael Blake (34:28)

It is epic, but a lot of people like to call it a peak. if you look at it from a French standpoint, it would be a peak.

Duane Murphy (34:38)

A peak. Yes. I like that. Upper scale. I like it. ⁓

Michael Blake (34:42)

Yeah.

Shane Kilby (34:43)

Well, Dwayne, Mike's got

fish to fry and he's got agents to attract and he's got agents to train and coach and lead you in to knock out of the park. So take us out of here so Mike doesn't get late for his next appointment.

Duane Murphy (34:58)

All right. Well, I tell you what, we appreciate you listening to another episode of real estate agent life. I'm Duane that's Shane. And we just got done talking with Mike. And now you know what to do at the end of this. If you liked what you heard today or on any of our episodes, don't be afraid. Hit that's what do we say? Smash that subscribe button, smash the button, right? And then there's another little cool feature. You can hit that review button. Leave us five stars. Cause we're like five star reviews.

Shane Kilby (35:15)

Smash Smash

Duane Murphy (35:25)

It gives us Google juice. And then we just start climbing and then everybody sees us and then we can help more great people just like yourself. So if you know somebody who'd like to be on our show or if you'd like to be on our show, give us a hit. You can find us anywhere on Facebook, Instagram, and all that other fun stuff. think we're even on that, ⁓ what's that? Spotify, Apple Tunes. I think we even got some tweets or something. So find us on social media. We'd love to hear from you. And until next time.

Shane Kilby (35:28)

Google JIT

Spotify, Apple, YouTube.

Duane Murphy (35:53)

Thanks for tuning in and peace out.

Shane Kilby (35:55)

Thanks,

see you.