Meet Jamie Eklund | Owner, CEO, Realtor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jamie Eklund and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jamie, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Starting and owning a business allows me to put my skill and creativity to task for the purpose of helping people solve a particular problem with my unique spin on the solutions we provide. My background is in engineering which I applied in the corporate world in the healthcare division before I entered the real estate industry. With that perspective, I am able to see the real estate industry from a unique light and seek to move the industry in its next stage of evolution through business.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I grew up on a farm in the south-east corner of Wyoming where I learned the value of hard work but my desire was always slanted towards business. My first business venture was at the age of 13 selling chicken to locals in the area. Over time, it became clear that the life of a farmer wasn’t for me so I pursued a computer science degree and headed into the corporate world. That leg of my journey started off well as I was able to make positive changes in my work place and supplement my business cravings with a few side startups along the way. Over time the corporate culture began to strangle any positive changes I was trying to make so the choice to leave and “recreate” myself became fairly clear. By this time, I had a wife and four kids and I was the sole breadwinner for the family, so to say this was a scary decision in an understatement. We sold our dream house to downsize our standard of living and made the jump. I didn’t go straight into business ownership at this time as I felt I needed to learn the industry better before starting a business in it. I worked under another brokerage for almost 6 years learning the skills of the trade and observing the way in which I felt the industry needed to change and could do things better. Ultimately, I felt there was lots of room to put the “service” back into the service industry.

In 2021, I decided to make the leap from being self employed as a Realtor to being a business owner and Realtor. The decision was between joining a franchise or creating something completely unique. For me, this was an easy decision. My goal was to be a leading company moving the industry into its next step in evolution and I felt that joining a franchise won’t allow to do make these changes at the extent I wanted to, so I went down the completely unique road.

The big question now was, “what makes me different?” This questions took some considerable amount of time to put legs to it but I wanted to create the business by reverse engineering the most enjoyable customer experience possible. Most brokerages today focus on serving Realtors, but I wanted this company to focus on the ultimate customers which is our clients who are buying and selling real estate. Those are the people we want to focus ourselves to serve. It’s about their needs, wants, and desires. That’s why we named the company “P23 Realty”. P23 stands for Philippians 2:3, “in humility count others more significant than yourselves”. This is the driving aim of the company and all our decisions circle around how we can serve as many people as we can to the best of our ability.

Now shortly after starting the company things got exciting. Like being in the “honeymoon” phase, we got quite a bit of attention. Admittedly, I let some of the attention change some of my recruiting plans which later turned into a failure on my part. Probably, one of the hardest lessons I have had to learn. This business is still very much in the beginning stages and without a doubt is the hardest thing I have every done, but the opportunity to build something from the ground up and be a small part of making the world a better place makes it all worth it.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Hanging out in northern Colorado is certainly an experience. I live and work primarily in and around the Greeley area, so I would focus the initial visit there. We would watch a moving at The Kress, maybe a show at the Moxi theater. We would check out the local food from tacos at Luna’s Tacos, to Mexican food at maybe El Pueblito (so many good choices to choose from). We might grab some sushi at Sushi 1 and maybe some Nepalese food from the Sherpa Grill. We would then try out some local favorites like 477 distillery, Weld Works, Rule 104, and the Crabtree Brewing Company. Depending on the time of year, we would probably spend some time enjoying the Greeley Stampede. Once we have enjoyed all the events in Greeley, we would certainly spend a day or two enjoying Estes Park and spending some time in the Rocky Mountain National Park. Spending time in the mountain is always good for the soul.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My wife, and business partner, Megan deserves so much credit. She is probably the only person alive that is willing to listen to my crazy antics, support my decision to leave a steady cooperate job in exchange for wildly crazy entrepreneurial exploits, agree to start a business in our basement raising sugar gliders to teach our kids about business, homeschool all 4 of our kids, and all the additional extracurricular activities that go along with life. Not to mention being unbelievably flexible and understanding when my Realtor duties call me away during many evenings and weekend. Being married to a Realtor isn’t easy. Yep, she is actually super women!

Website: P23realty.com

Instagram: p23.realty

Twitter: @p23realty

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/P23Realty

Youtube: P23Realty

Other: tiktok: jamie_eklund