So…What’s it All About and Why the Dog?
well since you asked… in early 2006 this guy (let’s call him Jacob Clayton) was working at UMass and sitting fairly high on the hog after well over a decade in the information technology field. he was pretty burnt out but loved talking business, tech, music, and real estate with the UMass kids. this jacob clayton always dreamed of running his own business and he saw those students as the spending power of the future, his R&D. the business of real estate interested him the most and he knew a lot about the greater boston massachusetts area from over 30 years of living there. so as a “hobby”, in 2006 he got his real estate license and set out to teach himself WordPress, experiment with Facebook, research the multiple listing services, oh and he even helped some people buy property here and there to learn the ropes. (disclaimer: NONE of this was done on state time, of course.)
and then ruby got sick. and everything changed.
in 2008 my precious boy dog named ruby (short for ruben) was near death with a very serious complication of diabetes called ketoacidosis. looking back, there had been symptoms, but in the moment it came out of nowhere. he was in the hospital for 7 days and when he came home he needed significant care, blood testing, a new diet, and two shots of insulin a day for the rest of his life. my wife and i made a decision…and i never went back to the 9 to 5 again.
i hit the ground running from a home office and launched the website myrealtorjake.com in September of 2008. my motto was real honest, real simple, real estate. my theory was i would leverage WordPress and SEO to develop a brand and garner internet real estate leads. i was working with a national real estate branch and almost all of my fellow agents thought i was crazy. at the time, most of the real estate industry gave the cold shoulder to the mention of blogging as a viable marketing tool. but i didn’t care. my R&D told me where things were going, not where they were at.
in september 2009 my site won the Massachusetts Association of Realtors website contest. one month later i was named a finalist for the National Association of Realtors technology spotlight award. then i decided i couldn’t stomach how traditional real estate companies operated and i wanted the chance to sink my teeth into a business i could really believe in. so i got my real estate broker license, and Clayton Realty Group, Inc. was born. by June 2010 things were starting to come together for clayton realty, ruby was happy and healthier than ever and i was settling into my life as a broker and business owner. and then i met laurie cadigan.
in september 2010 i sat before the president of Barrett & Company Real Estate, and at that time, the mere president-elect of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors. turns out she had been keeping an eye on me and my little company, and she liked what she saw. we spent the next couple of months getting to know each other and each others’ companies. my wife and i made a decision…and in december of 2010 Clayton Realty Group was acquired and i was named Executive Director of Business Development for Barrett & Company.
in early 2011 this site was relaunched again (and for the LAST time!) as myuntangledlife.com. it serves as my personal blog, a place to showcase the people and places i’ve met along the way, a place to rant and rave about life, yummy food, the real estate industry, being an entrepreneur, technology…and most importantly, a place to honor this man’s best friend…my dog ruby.