For over 30 years, Tom Crumpton built his commercial real estate brokerage the same way most people in the industry do — through relationships, referrals, and phone calls.
It worked. Until it didn’t.
Tom started his career in corporate America after graduating from Indiana University with a finance degree. After a few rounds of promotions and relocations, he was ready for something different. He found his way into commercial real estate brokerage and never looked back.
Growing the Traditional Way — Then Hitting a Wall
In the early years, Tom grew the way most brokers do. He hired agents, expanded into a larger office, and pushed volume.
On paper, it looked like growth. In reality, the math didn’t add up.
“We closed a lot more deals,” he says. “But after the splits and the rent and administrative salaries, I wasn’t making that much more.”
So Tom made a smart pivot. Instead of chasing more deals, he chased bigger ones. He set a minimum threshold and stopped taking anything below it. Margins went up. Headaches went down.
That approach carried him for years. But eventually, he hit a ceiling.
“There’s only so many hours a day I can call people. I needed some way to have people find me.”
There’s a saying Tom likes to reference: “It’s not so much who you know — it’s who knows you.”
And not enough people knew him.
The Moment That Changed His Mind
Tom is the first to admit he resisted social media. For about a decade.
“I went, ‘I don’t need this. I can do this without it.'”
Then he attended a major commercial real estate conference. One of the keynote speakers was a legend in the industry — someone close to Tom’s age and at the top of his field. His entire presentation was about social media.
Tom grabbed him afterward and pushed back. The response was blunt: “It’s a necessity. If you’re going to matter, if you’re going to be a leader, people got to find you.”
That landed differently than anything Tom had heard before.
“40-year-old people could have talked all day long and it would go in one ear and out the other. But when you talk to somebody your age that’s a leader, and they’re pushing this, you just got to go, ‘OK.'”
Tom decided to give it a shot. That decision led him to eLuminate Marketing.
From Skeptic to Believer to Advocate
The shift happened faster than Tom expected.
“I went from an old curmudgeon against social media to a believer to now a proactive advocate,” he says.
Early on, Tom wanted control over what went out. That changed as trust built.
“At first, I had a lot of input. Now I just shut up and let you guys roll with it.”
What surprised him most was the quality. Tom would see a notification — someone commenting on a post — and go look at the content for the first time.
“I’m amazed by the quality and what it is. I’m thinking, ‘This is perfect. I didn’t give them this.’ You guys take a little from here and a little from there and you make us all better.”
He’d call his operations manager, Mandy, and ask if she’d provided the material. The answer was usually the same: “No, that was them.”
The eLuminate team even pushed Tom into areas he wasn’t sure about — like Facebook. He’s still not a fan personally. But he trusts the process.
Tom also invested in his own content creation. After seeing someone at a conference using a handheld DJI camera, he bought one. Now he doesn’t go anywhere without it.
“I’ve gone from ‘I ain’t making no damn videos’ to — I bought an extra tool for it. I love it.”
A Pipeline That Fills Itself
Tom gets emails, texts, and calls from people he’s never contacted. People approach him at industry events. Old relationships get rekindled over a LinkedIn post and turn into deals.
“Sometimes it’s, ‘Hey, I saw your LinkedIn. That was great.’ Or, ‘Hey, hadn’t talked to you in a while. Let’s go get a beer.’ And from that, relationships are rekindled and deals are done.”
People at chamber functions comment on how active he is online. “You must be doing really, really well to be on the internet that much,” they tell him. His response: “We are — because we’re on there.”
His pipeline is fuller. His conversations are more frequent. He now mentors brokers in other states and directs them to his content to share with their own clients.
“It’s just a whole lot more exponentially increased communication without much input from me.”
And that last part matters. Tom’s day-to-day workload barely changed.
“Without much effort from me — because you guys find content, you take some of that stuff — it’s incredible. We’re just more well-known. We have more deals going.”
What a 30-Year Veteran Wants You to Know
Tom doesn’t sugarcoat it. He avoided this for a long time. He wishes he hadn’t.
But he also knows that the right push at the right time can change everything. For his brokerage, it was a marketing team that earned his trust by consistently delivering work he didn’t even have to ask for.
“I can’t quit it. I won’t stop it. It’s positive.”
