Today we’d like to introduce you to Bobby Kerr.
Bobby, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
From Rock Star to Real Estate Authority
As the world’s best 1980’s Bon Jovi tribute artist/band “Bob Jovi,” Bobby has played to packed crowds across the globe — commanding stages, reading rooms, and building rapport with thousands. That performer’s instinct for connection never left him.
But while the stage taught him presence, the back office taught him something more valuable: visibility isn’t luck. It’s architecture. The same discipline that fills arenas — deliberate positioning, relentless preparation, knowing exactly where your audience is — also fills pipelines. Bobby understood that before most marketers ever did.
Before launching LOC8, Bobby spent a decade-plus proving it in real estate. As former COO of a top-producing REMAX team in Missouri (#4 in the state, #1 in Kansas City), Vice President of Business Development for Summit Lending — named 2025’s AIME National Mortgage Broker of the Year — Co-founder of Kansas City’s largest and most recognized home inspection firm, Diamond Heritage Inspections, and co-founder of Goosehead Insurance in Lee’s Summit, MO, he learned one thing over and over:
Most real estate pros are invisible online — and they don’t even know it.
While coaching agents and loan officers on marketing best practices, Bobby kept seeing the same problem — brilliant professionals with zero digital presence. Top producers who couldn’t be found when someone typed “best agent near me” into their phone.
Great at their craft. Completely invisible when clients searched. Worse — the agents ranking at the top of Google weren’t necessarily the best agents. They were just the ones who understood how Google Business Profiles work.
That gap — between being the best and being found — became Bobby’s obsession. And in 2024, that obsession became a company.
That company is LOC8.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I don’t think any entrepreneurial journey is ever truly a smooth road, and LOC8 My Business has certainly been no exception.
One of the biggest challenges has been building a business around something that most people don’t even realize they need. Almost every real estate agent has a Google Business Profile, but very few understand how powerful it can be when properly optimized. So, in many ways, I’ve had to build a company while simultaneously educating an entire industry about a problem they didn’t know they had.
Another challenge has been earning credibility in a space where everyone seems to be an expert in digital marketing. I’ve had to work hard to differentiate LOC8 from the countless companies promising better rankings, more leads, and overnight success. I’ve never wanted LOC8 to be another marketing company selling empty promises. I wanted to build something that genuinely helps real estate professionals become more visible, more trusted, and ultimately more successful.
Then there’s the personal side of entrepreneurship that people don’t talk about enough. The financial risks, the long hours, the constant pressure to make the right decisions, and even the occasional imposter syndrome. It’s interesting how you can be experiencing some of the biggest successes of your professional life while simultaneously questioning whether you’re doing enough or whether you truly belong in the rooms you’re suddenly being invited into.
As LOC8 has grown, I’ve also had to learn how to transition from being the guy who does everything to building a business that can grow beyond me. That’s an entirely different skill set, and I’m still learning.
But perhaps the biggest lesson has been understanding that **recognition and momentum don’t automatically translate into overnight financial success.** Speaking on stages, appearing on podcasts, building relationships with industry leaders, and sponsoring major conferences are incredible opportunities, but they also require significant investments of time, money, and faith in what you’re building.
I’ve learned that you have to play the long game, even when the short-term pressure is very real.
Through all of it, I’ve tried to remind myself why I started LOC8 in the first place. I saw an opportunity to help hardworking real estate professionals get discovered by people who genuinely need their services.
The challenges haven’t made me question that mission. They’ve made me more committed to it.
**I think the road gets a little easier when you stop measuring success solely by how fast you’re growing and start measuring it by the impact you’re making along the way.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’ve always believed there’s an art to taking something complicated and making it simple enough that people not only understand it, but get excited about it. That’s really where my creativity comes into play.
I’m the founder of LOC8 My Business, a company that helps real estate professionals become more visible on Google and AI-powered search platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini. On the surface, that probably doesn’t sound like the most artistic profession in the world! But what I’ve discovered is that building a brand, telling a story, creating an experience, and finding unique ways to connect with people requires an enormous amount of creativity.
I’ve become known throughout the real estate industry as “The Google Guy,” and a big part of that identity comes from how I communicate. I don’t want to stand in front of an audience and bore them with technical jargon, algorithms, or marketing statistics. I want to entertain them, challenge what they think they know, make them laugh, and hopefully give them one of those lightbulb moments where everything suddenly clicks.
I love the creative process of developing presentations, designing marketing materials, crafting messaging, and finding new ways to tell the LOC8 story. Sometimes that means taking a complicated concept and turning it into a five-word headline. Other times, it’s building an entire presentation around a real person’s journey so the audience connects emotionally with the message rather than just hearing a sales pitch.
To me, great marketing is really great storytelling.
What sets me apart is that I don’t approach LOC8 strictly as a technology or marketing company. I approach it as a brand with a personality. I want everything we create, from our visual identity to our presentations and educational content, to be recognizable, memorable, and a little different from what people expect.
I’m also not afraid to experiment. Some ideas work beautifully, and others send me right back to the drawing board. But that’s part of what I enjoy about being an entrepreneur. I get to be the strategist, the storyteller, the creative director, and occasionally the guy wondering why the idea that looked so brilliant in my head isn’t quite working on the screen!
What I’m most proud of is creating something from absolutely nothing and watching it develop its own identity. LOC8 started as an idea, and today it’s a brand that’s being recognized and discussed in rooms I could have only dreamed about being in not long ago.
And while I’m proud of the business growth, I’m equally proud of the creative work that’s helped make that growth possible.
I think my greatest creative strength is seeing an opportunity where other people see something ordinary, and then finding a way to make people care about it.
After all, if I can make a room full of real estate professionals genuinely excited about their Google Business Profile, I must be doing something right!
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I think there’s a pretty big difference between being reckless and being willing to take risks. I’ve never considered myself someone who enjoys gambling with my future, but I’ve learned that some of the greatest opportunities in life require you to get comfortable being uncomfortable.
Starting LOC8 My Business was certainly a risk. I was building a business around a very specific niche, Google Business Profile optimization for real estate professionals, and betting that I could turn something most people barely understood into a company with national reach. There wasn’t a guaranteed roadmap, and there certainly wasn’t a line of customers waiting at the door.
One of the bigger risks was deciding to invest heavily in building the brand before the business had fully caught up financially. Podcasts, speaking engagements, conferences, sponsorships, travel, marketing materials, and countless hours developing content all require resources. Recently, I committed approximately $40,000 to participating in two major real estate industry events. That’s a significant investment for a growing small business, especially when there’s no guarantee of an immediate return.
And believe me, when you’re writing those checks, the little voice in your head asking, “Are you absolutely sure about this?” gets pretty loud!
But I also knew that if I wanted LOC8 to become a nationally recognized authority, I couldn’t build it entirely from behind my computer. I needed to get in the rooms, shake hands, tell our story, and build relationships with people who could help us reach a much larger audience.
I’ve also taken creative risks. I’ve chosen to build a brand with a distinct personality, put myself front and center as “The Google Guy,” and challenge conventional thinking about how real estate professionals market themselves. That means putting my ideas, my personality, and sometimes my failures out there for everyone to see.
The biggest thing I’ve learned about risk is that you can’t always measure the return immediately. Some investments pay off in dollars. Others pay off in relationships, credibility, experience, or opportunities you couldn’t have predicted.
That doesn’t mean every risk is worth taking. I try to ask myself three questions: What’s the worst realistic outcome? Can I survive it? And if this works, could it fundamentally change the trajectory of what I’m building?
If the downside is manageable and the upside is meaningful, I’m usually willing to take the leap.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve also realized that there’s risk in doing nothing. Playing it safe might protect you from failure, but it can also keep you from discovering what you’re actually capable of accomplishing.
I’m still learning to balance ambition with patience, and confidence with humility. There are definitely moments when I question my decisions, particularly when the financial pressure is real.
But I would much rather look back knowing I gave something meaningful a legitimate shot than spend years wondering what might have happened if I’d been a little braver.
To me, risk isn’t about being fearless. It’s about believing in what you’re building enough to move forward even when you’re afraid.
Pricing:
- Google Business Profile Optimization – One time cost $1250
- Monthly Google Business Profile Management w/ 32 pieces of custom content – $397
- DIY Google Business Profile Optimization (copy and paste for client) – $499
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.loc8mybusiness.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebobbykerr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/loc8mybiz/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/75410693/
- Twitter: https://x.com/loc8mybiz
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebobbykerr
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/loc8-my-business-cape-coral-2
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebobbykerr
