Real Estate Investor and CEO at MAK Capital | Luxury Storage Developer | 200+ CRE units | Financial Freedom Mentor

I’m Marc Kuhn and in 1994 I started my construction career with my Dad. I started at $1 per hour and got a $1 raise every year as I worked for my dads construction company. 

In 2010, I left my hourly job with $2,500 in my bank account. 

I started my entrepreneurial path and opened MAK Construction, my first business. I’ve grown the construction company to over $25 million a year. We develop commercial projects both 3rd party and investment projects for our investors. 

Since 2018, we have added over 200 units in the Midwest. The benefits of real estate have given me the freedom of time. My goal is to help investors reach financial freedom through real estate. 

Today I own and operate three successful companies that do eight figures a year. 

https://linktr.ee/marckuhn?fbclid=PAAabPuGTp9yBQf1LtvPMccAGv2W9DDPWjJCYvxn3mKnV12VKxsr7s0g8Lc18

2010: MAK Construction: Build and Manage Construction Projects. 
www.makconstructiongf.com

2020: MAK Capital: Let’s passive investors invest in real estate projects beside us! 
Unfollow the herd newsletter: 
www.makcapitalgf.com

2020: CK Agency: Manages Multifamily and Storage properties. 
www.ckagencyllc.com

Marc Kuhn

He built 480 hotels. One a month for 40 years.

He's North Dakota’s first billionaire: 

Meet Gary Tharaldson.

His wealth didn't come from chasing trends or hype. Just one simple "boring" business, repeated relentlessly.

In 1982, he bought a single Super 8 in Valley City

His business philosophy was a simple mix of grit, playing the long-term game, and perfecting his process for acquiring and operating profitable hotels.

Over four decades, he scaled small, no-frills hotels across the country.

In 2006, he sold 130 of them to Goldman Sachs for $1.2B.

Then he took that money and doubled down:

→ Land
→ Ethanol
→ Commercial development

Now he’s the richest man in North Dakota.

People ask why I don’t chase 20 deals a year. Because I’m not playing the volume game.

I want 4–5 real estate projects a year that:

→ Fit our model
→ Hit our returns
→ Scale with our playbook

That’s how we’ve built MAK Capital and Mega MAK Storage:

Boring, repeatable, high-demand luxury storage facilities where demand outpaces supply.

Tharaldson proved you don’t need to be exciting to build real wealth.

You just need a boring play you can run with discipline for the next 20 years.

What’s your "boring" game?

--

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I was "dumb" enough to drop out of college at 22.

12 credits short. No backup plan.

Dumb enough to start MAK Construction with $2,500, bidding on jobs I wasn't qualified for.

Everyone around me had an opinion about it.

"You need a degree."
"You need more money saved."
"You need a safer plan."

I ignored all of it.

Instead I built a concrete crew from scratch.
Invested every dollar I made back into the company.
Started multiple businesses along the way.
Started investing and developing real estate.
Asked people smarter than me for help.

And kept betting on myself when nobody else would.

That "dumb" kid built a $65M portfolio, an awesome portfolio of companies with amazing people, and a pretty damn good life.

Reminder for anyone betting on themself:

When people project their fears onto your decisions, don't confuse it for good advice.

Take risks.
Bet on yourself.
Unfollow the Herd.

That's my best advice after 15 years of doing this for myself.

What's a decision you made that people called "dumb" for that ended up paying off?

--

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Here's what you'll learn with me:

- How to invest in real estate
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I'm taking on 3 coaching clients in March.

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CEO @ MAK Capital | CRE Developer | Guiding You to Wealth with Passive Investments in Luxury Storage & Multifamily Real Estate

10 years ago, a $200K job felt massive. Today, we do $500K jobs just to stay busy for the month.

That shift didn't happen because I got better at concrete. It happened because I learned to let go.

At 27, I thought I had it figured out.

I was making over $250K a year, building my own house, and finally "successful."

I truly believed that was the peak.

But I was also stuck at $1M in revenue because I was the bottleneck in everything. I had to:

→ Approve every bid
→ Oversee every pour
→ Warm up the skid steer for 10 minutes every morning

Breaking through that $1M ceiling required me to do things that felt completely wrong:

→ Hire foremen, trust them to run jobs without me
→ Pay people who had more experience than I did
→ Let someone else drive the equipment
→ Take on projects I didn't have the track record for yet

At every level, I had to let go of something that got me there. 

That's how it should be.

The version of you that got you here won't get you to the next level.

You have to let that person go.

Have you gotten to this point in your business yet?

A contractor making $120K with 3 rentals is wealthier than a Doctor making $500K with no assets.

The lesson to learn early:

Income stops when you stop working.
Assets don't.

I learned this the hard way.

For the first 5-6 years of building MAK Construction I earned good money and kept almost none of it.

Every dollar went back into equipment, payroll, and materials.

I was funding a business that needed me to show up every day to survive.

The shift happened when I started buying real estate with construction revenue.

Then storage development with real estate cash flow.
Then a drilling company with storage cash flow.

Each asset funded the next.
Each level required me less.

Today MAK Capital manages a $70M portfolio, builds and operates 100k sq ft luxury storage properties, and earns without linearly trading time for dollars.

That progression took 16 years.

But it started with the decision to stop spending what's left and start buying assets first.

How long did it take you to understand the difference between earning money and building wealth?

--

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99.9% of millionaires I meet don't have a podcast.

They own "boring" assets.

A plumbing company in Fargo. An HVAC business that's been running for 20 years. A handful of rental properties they bought when nobody else was buying. A gas station off the interstate that prints money while they sleep.

I cross paths with wealthy people as a construction CEO and developer in the Midwest.

They're not on LinkedIn talking about their morning routine.

They got their hands dirty, built something real, and quietly stacked assets that cash flow, appreciate, and run without them.

That's the blueprint nobody talks about because it's not glamorous enough to go viral.

Build a business that solves a real problem in your market. Use the cash flow to buy assets. Use depreciation on those assets to lower your taxes. Build systems until the assets make money without you.

Then you're not trading time for money anymore.

A 9-5 gives you a paycheck until it doesn't.

Boring cashflow businesses and a real estate portfolio gives you your life back.

The wealthiest people I know in the Midwest didn't follow the herd.

They just never stopped building.

What's the most quietly wealthy blue-collar business you've come across?

--

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I write weekly guides on building wealth with real estate, blue-collar businesses, and high net worth strategies.

Join 5,800 readers: marckuhn.substack.com

A doctor making $500,000 a year can still be broke.

I don't mean cash poor. 
I mean wealth poor.

Here's the difference:

Income is what hits your bank account when you work. Wealth is what hits your bank account when you don't.

The doctor earns $500K.

But if he stops working tomorrow:

- Income stops
- The mortgage still runs
- The car payments still run
- The lifestyle still runs

He's not wealthy. He's leveraged to his own labor.

I grew up without money.

So when I started making real income in construction, the first thing I did was study the people who had actual wealth.

Not high earners. Owners.

What I found:

→ Wealthy people own assets that produce income
→ High earners trade time for money

The gap between the two isn't income level — it's ownership.

You can earn $500K a year and build zero wealth.
You can earn $80K a year and build a $10M portfolio.

The variable isn't the paycheck.
It's what you do with it.

- Are you buying assets or liabilities?
- Are you building equity?
- Does 100% of your income require your time?

Those questions will tell you exactly which path you're on.

I didn't figure this out until my late 20s.

When did it click for you that income and wealth are two completely different games?

--

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At 30, I said Yes to every real estate deal I could.

At 36, I say No to 15-20+ deals a month.

Grew MAK Construction to $30M revenue saying Yes.
Grew MAK Capital to a $60M portfolio saying Yes.

Yes to building houses.
Yes to the random real estate deal.
Yes to anything that would pay the bills.

That’s how most people start: Hustle Mode

But what gets you from $0 to $10M won’t get you to $100M.

At some point, saying yes becomes a liability.

You say yes to too many things, and suddenly:

You’re busy, but not growing.
You’re working harder, but not wealthier.
You’re stuck in the weeds, missing the bigger picture.

In 2026, I’m saying No more than ever.

• No to building 10 homes (eats time, doesn’t scale)
• No to chasing small deals and shiny objects
• No to being everywhere, for everyone

Instead, I’m doubling down on:

→ Luxury storage developments in markets we love
→ Large multifamily projects, strategic acquisitions
→ Scaling what’s working—without spreading thin

Saying No to 10 small projects so I can say Yes to the 1- 2 large opportunities that move the needle.

Great things are built by doing less, better.

Are you in the Yes phase of your career? 
Or are you in the "less is more" season?

--
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I ran a $20/mo experiment on one land parcel.

It leased our storage units 40% faster:

50% of self storage units = no heat.
Other half the units = climate-controlled.

Same location, development, and marketing.

The climate-controlled units leased up 40% faster and commanded a rent premium that held every single month.

For the extra operating cost of about $20/month per unit in utilities.

That was it.

That one test became the proof of concept for what is now a 500,000 sq ft self storage portfolio.

Not a spreadsheet model. Not a mentor's advice.

A real experiment, with real numbers, on real dirt.

Most people chase asset classes based on what's trending on YouTube.

We built our Mega MAK Luxury Storage product around what I could physically test in my own backyard of Grand Forks, North Dakota.

→ Climate-controlled leased faster than standard
→ Better tenant profile came with the better product
→ Higher rents with almost no incremental expense

That's still how I operate today.

Build. Test. Look at the numbers. Scale what works.

What small tests have led to massive results in your career or business?

--

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DM me "storage" to learn more about investing in the luxury storage asset class.

Buy cool sh*t with cash flow. Not your paycheck.

"If you can't buy it twice, don't buy it once"

Here’s the old American Dream:

→ Go to college
→ Work 40 years
→ Max out your 401(k)
→ Retire when your knees hurt

Then maybe…enjoy life.

I chose a different path:

• Dropped out with 12 credits left
• Started pouring concrete
• Built a construction company
• Used the profits to buy real estate

Now I’m 36.

After 15 years of building on the "uncommon path", I run a $30M+ business portfolio and own $60M+ in real estate.

Flexing on social media is not my thing. 

My hope is that people see a North Dakota guy who built freedom to inspire others so they do the same.

Here’s what I’ve learned:

1) Job security is a myth.

One boss, bad quarter, or VC can remove your income overnight.

2) Trading time for money is a trap. 

Value your time + ownership > salary.

If your plan is to get 3% inflation raises, buy liabilities, stuff 10% in a 401(k) and that's it...you won't hit freedom until you're 70.

3) Climbing the ladder is a treadmill.

High income ≠ freedom. Especially if you inflate your lifestyle, costs, and buy liabilities like the majority of high-earners who never reach freedom.

If you want REAL freedom, start here:

→ Learn a skill that pays well
→ Live lean and don't buy on credit
→ Buy 1 cash-flowing property
→ Reinvest into another
→ Repeat for 10 years

It’s not sexy.
It’s not fast.
But it works.

In Unfollow the Herd newsletter, I broke down "The Dangers of a 9-5 Career Path" for 5,200 people.

Read it free here:
https://lnkd.in/gXdu2FKZ

I didn't fear losing my paycheck in my 20s.

I feared keeping it for too long.

By the time I was 20, I knew I didn't want to take the “safe path” that I saw ahead of me in life:

• Work 60 hours a week
• Stack liabilities with no assets
• Take a 2% annual raise, maybe a bonus
• Retire when I'm too old to enjoy it

So I made a choice, and it led to starting multiple companies and becoming a commercial developer.

"Do I keep playing the game I was handed? Or learn the game wealthy people actually play?"

Along the way, I figured out that anyone can learn how to build wealth if you knew where to look...

• I found operators. People who owned real businesses. They showed me how to build companies that could run without me grinding 24/7.

• I studied the wealthy. Real estate. Ownership. The tax code. Entity structures. Leverage. The things no one teaches in school, but wealthy families teach at the dinner table.

• I learned by doing. Made mistakes. Lost money. Said yes before I was ready. Every deal, every hire, every tough call made me sharper.

You don’t need to quit tomorrow.
You don’t need the perfect plan.

You just need to start studying the right game.

• Follow the people who own assets
• Learn how they operate, invest in relationships.
• Build or invest for equity—not just a paycheck.

Figuring this out unlocked a whole different part of my brain. When I was a kid, growing up some of the time in a trailer park, you don't think "I can build wealth"

But turns out, it's possible if you reprogram your mind to believe it and put reps over many decades.

What forced you to get serious about building your own path as an entrepreneur or investor?

Fear of being broke is a common one.

Marc Kuhn

Everyone's chasing Austin. Phoenix. Charlotte.

Why are we investing in rural North Dakota?

The numbers make more sense than anything I've seen in a sunbelt market.

Land in the Midwest runs 60-70% cheaper than coastal metros.

Permitting is faster. Local politics are predictable.

And the premium tenant we need for luxury storage are everywhere.

- HVAC contractors who need climate-controlled space
- Electricians and plumbers storing equipment
- Small business owners who can't afford industrial leases
- RV owners who want real security — not a padlock

They're not just in big cities. They're in every mid-sized market in America.

That's where we build.

Not because it's flashy.
Because the math works.

→ Lower land cost means better YOC from day one
→ Less competition means faster lease-up
→ Business-friendly states = fewer regulatory surprises

Everyone piling into the same sunbelt corridors is competing for the same land, the same permits, the same tenants.

We're in markets where we're often the only luxury operator in town.

You stop following the crowd to where the hype is.
And you start going where the numbers are.

What's a market everyone else is ignoring that you think is underrated right now?

--

DM me "storage" to learn more about the Midwest luxury storage opportunity.

A friend called me and asked if I could install a ceiling fan for $300. Saying Yes changed my life.

That night I told my wife: "I think I could actually make some money doing this."

I was 21. Recently fired from my W2.
We'd just sold her car to cover bills.

The next move: ask my future mother-in-law to co-sign a skid steer loan.

She handed me the paperwork and said: "This is the last time you ever ask me."

That was the last time I asked anyone for a handout.

Here's what happened after that $300 fan installation:

- First winter: grinding snow removal
- Chelsie suggested a home show (almost skipped it)
- Walked out with 70+ leads
- Booked out for a full year
- Hit $1M in revenue

Then I started a concrete division.
Then upsells and better clients.
Then real estate investing.
Then luxury storage development.

16 years later, multiple companies, a team of 50+, growing real estate portfolio, and growth ahead for MAK Companies.

→ It all started with a $300 job I wasn't qualified to do
→ The first step was embarrassingly small
→ The compounding took 16 years to show up

You can't build anything great (company, real estate portfolio, wealth) from a standing start.

You build it from wherever you are right now with whatever you have right now.

Even if that's a borrowed truck and a ceiling fan you Googled how to install.

What was your version of the $300 fan installation — the embarrassingly small first step that led to where you are now?

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My first luxury storage build proved the model.

63 units. 56K sq ft. Grand Forks, ND.

• $45,000 gross income every month.
• $13,500 cash flow after debt service.
• 28% expense ratio.
• 90-100% occupancy.

That one facility gave me the confidence to build our next six Mega MAK Luxury Storage properties.

Most people think luxury storage means Porsches and exotic cars.

Our tenants are HVAC contractors, Shopify operators, and small business owners storing $50,000-$75,000 in equipment.

They don't negotiate rent.
They don't default.
They don't leave.

When your equipment is your livelihood, you pay on time every month without being asked.

That insight changed everything.

The right tenant doesn't just improve your collections.

It changes how the asset performs through every part of the cycle — good markets and bad.

We took that same playbook and built it into a $70M portfolio across North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and more U.S. locations to come.

It started with one experiment on one parcel in Grand Forks.

Have you ever had one experiment that lead to one of your biggest long-term wins?

--

DM me "storage" to learn our process for building, operating, and investing in this asset class.

The hard truth about financial freedom:

The world wasn't designed for it.

If you want to pay your bills, build wealth, and step off the 9-5 hamster wheel to buy your time back...

You'll first have to understand it the system you were raised by wasn't designed to make you financially free.

Not grade school.
Not high school or college.
Not most well-meaning life advice.

None of them are focused on teaching you how to become free.

It was designed to get you to:

- Trade your time for income
- Spend that income on a lifestyle
- Save whatever's left (if anything)
- Give your best years to a company
- Retire when you're too tired to enjoy it

It's designed so you help build toward's someone else's goals.

Your labor builds someone else's equity.
Your spending builds someone else's revenue.
Your savings sit in instruments someone else manages for a fee.

I grew up in a house that never talked about assets, equity, or leverage.

But I watched people around me spend 40 years doing everything right by conventional standards...and end up with almost nothing they actually owned.

That was enough.

The one thing that changes the math:

Ownership.

Ownership of something that produces value whether you show up or not.

→ A business with systems that run without you
→ Real estate that generates rent while you sleep
→ Equity in assets that appreciate while you work on the next thing

I'm not special.

I didn't have connections, capital, or a college degree.

I just decided that ownership was my goal and said I'd learn whatever skills I needed to in order to achieve it.

Ownership of my time.
Ownership of my future.
Ownership of my work.

Yes, ownernship in assets that paid me and grew in value. But even moreso the ownership of my life and where I wanted it to go.

Was there a moment you decided you were going to own your future — and changed your actions to get there?

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What's the difference between making $10,000 in your 9-5 job and $10,000 from real estate?

$10K paycheck:

• Taxed at 40–50%
• Trades hours for dollars
• Stops when you stop working

$10K from a real estate deal:

• Taxed close to zero with depreciation
• Keeps paying you while you sleep
• Grows equity in a real asset

Most people spend 40 years chasing the paycheck.

But freedom is on the otherside of ownership.

I learned this in my early 20s. Started trading my time pouring concrete, building a construction company.

But the smartest thing I ever did was buy my first office building and lease out the unused space.

"Holy sh*t I didn't know you could do this."

The tax benefits in the first year alone were enough to get me hooked and eventually start MAK Capital in 2020, going all in on multifamily and luxury storage.

Since then, we’ve built and acquired $60M in commercial real estate across the Midwest.

And every time we pay out investors from a property we own...

I’m reminded: 
That $10K from a real estate deal is more than money.

It’s time back with my wife and kids.
It’s leverage for creating generational wealth.
It’s doable to go from $0 to millionaire with time.

Don't get caught in the earn a lot, spend a lot game.

Use a paycheck to buy assets and become an owner. 

That's the game.

What was your first “aha” moment that made you realize real estate was the path to real wealth?

--

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Public Storage doesn’t own 100% of its facilities.

Marriott owns less than 6% of its hotels.

These $50b+ companies see the biggest opportunity in:

• Owning the brand.
• Controlling the operations.
• Licensing and franchising.

This is where we’re taking MAK luxury storage inside our development company.

For years, self-storage was a commodity business.

• Cheap facilities
• Little to no branding
• Premium options were hard to find.

But we saw something different in 2019 when we broke ground on our first luxury storage development.

• Business owners needed contractor shops.
• E-commerce sellers needed fulfillment space.
• People need secure, climate-controlled storage for their boats, RV, and assets.

But the crappy tin can storage units didn't serve their needs.

So we built the Mega MAK Storage brand and started talking about it on podcasts, LinkedIn, and with our investors.

We're not just building a business, we're leveraging a brand and blueprint that lasts for generations.

Our goal is to build 5-10 million square feet of luxury storage by 2035.

My biggest lesson so far?

Don't wait for opportunities to come to you.
You're better off creating them for yourself.

What opportunities are you creating for yourself in 2026?

--

Want to learn how we're expanding the luxury storage space in 2026?

Read today's update in Unfollow the Herd: https://lnkd.in/gwSmVgcm

What percentage of 401k accounts have at least $1,000,000? (I'll tell you): 
 
1.6%. 
 
I recently ran across this number in an article that analyzed 401(k)s at Fidelity 
 
I knew the number of "401(k) millionaires" in the U.S. was low — but I didn't realize it was that low. 
 
And the crazy thing? 
 
The article talks about how that number was "surging"...all the way up to 1.6%. 
 
And then the kicker: 
 
Another Fidelity study showed that workers estimate they'll need ~$1.8M to retire comfortably. 
 
So by those numbers, about 98.4% of Americans won't be able to retire comfortably with their 401(k)s. 
 
𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴: 
 
The number of 401(k) millionaires is so low because wealthy people build it through businesses and real estate. 
 
→ 401(k)s won't give you cash flow 
→ 401(k)s won't give you depreciation 
→ 401(k)s won't give you 1031 exchanges 
 
If you're relying on your 401(k) alone... 
let this be a wake-up call. 
 
It's a tool, not the complete plan. 
 
This is why I diversify with real estate 
(using a self-directed IRA). 
 
So should you. 
 
-- 
 
P.S. Are you an accredited investor? 
 
DM me "storage" and I'll share how our LPs diversify with commercial real estate

He turned $400,000 into a $1 trillion empire.

Stephen Schwarzman didn’t wait for perfect timing.

In 1985, he walked away from his Wall Street job with a mentor, a whiteboard, and $400,000 in seed capital from his own pocket.

No AUM.
No name recognition.
Just conviction.

But two years later, his dream of building the best investment firm in the world was almost destroyed.

Black Monday hit on October 19, 1987.

The Dow Jones fell by 22.6% in a single day—the largest one-day percentage drop in its history.

Markets crashed.
Wall Street panicked.

But Schwarzman raised Blackstone’s first $800 million fund during the chaos.

In 2025, Blackstone is now the largest alternative investment firm in the world—owning real estate, private equity and credit across the globe.

If Schwarzman was like the average investor, turning a market crash into an excuse to stay on the sidelines, Blackstone wouldn't exist today.

→ $1 trillion in assets
→ Dozens of billion-dollar deals
→ A personal net worth of around $43 billion

He didn’t build in the boom. He built through the biggest crash in history at the time.

The lessons for all entrepreneurs:

You don’t need perfect timing. You need a playbook and skills that work in any market conditions.

What skills are you building that can outlast any market downturn?

--

♻️ Repost to inspire an entrepreneur in your network
📌 Reach out if I can be a resource Marc Kuhn

I took on debt to grow my company and real estate portfolio in my 20s with a wife and baby.

Some LinkedIn guru would call that reckless.

I call it the best financial decision I ever made.

We've been trained to believe stability comes from employment.

But true stability comes from ownership.

A job is a single point of failure with someone else's finger on the trigger.

Think about what you actually own at a W2:

- Your employer can eliminate your role tomorrow
- Your income stops if your body stops
- Your raises are decided by someone else's budget meeting
- Your retirement depends on a market you don't control

That's not stability. That's outsourced financial control dressed up as a benefits package.

I'm not saying quit your job tomorrow.
I'm saying understand what you're actually trading.

You're trading ownership, upside, and control for the feeling of security.

Meanwhile the people signing the front of your check are compounding equity you'll never see.

→ The risk of building something is real but finite
→ The risk of building nothing compounds forever
→ Playing it safe is the longest path to being broke

I started with $2,500 and a mother-in-law who co-signed one loan and told me never to ask again.

Today MAK Companies and our real estate assets are worth close to 9 figures 16 years later.

The riskiest thing I never did was keep that W2.

At what point did you stop seeing a job as security and start seeing it as a ceiling?

--

♻️ Repost to spread the wealth with your network

Follow Marc Kuhn for daily posts on ownership, real estate, and building real wealth.

When you start buying RE: "How can I afford this?"

When you scale (100+ units): "How can I structure this?"

After my first few rental properties, I realized another duplex wasn't the move. 

I wanted more scale, large multifamily and commercial properties. Ground up developments leveraging our construction company.

But first, I had to make a mindset switch that every new real estate investors goes through (if they want to scale their portfolio).

I stopped asking if I could afford a 20% down payment.

I started asking how I could structure it with seller-financing and other strategies the top 1% of investors were using.

Early in my career I looked at deals the way most people do.

• Do I have the down payment?
• Can I qualify for the loan?
• Is this the right time?

That thinking kept me smaller than I needed to be.

Then I started studying how deals actually get done.

Not how banks want you to do them.
How operators actually do them.

Seller financing, creative loan structures, joint ventures, capital from people sitting on cash earning 3% in a money market.

In 2025, I bought $4,700,000 in real estate for $17,957 out of pocket.

Not because I was lucky.

Because I stopped asking "can I afford this?" and started asking "how do I structure this so I can?"

→ Conventional thinking produces conventional results
→ The right deal structure creates value
→ Creative financing is a skill

The people I know who built real portfolios that pay their bills every month weren't smarter than everyone else in the room.

They just asked different questions.

What's the deal you almost didn't do — and what changed when you looked at it differently?

--

♻️ Repost to spread the wealth

Follow me Marc Kuhn for daily posts on ownership, real estate, and "boring" businesses.

Getting financial advisors millions of dollars & impressions | $20+ million in capital & AUM raised from LinkedIn | 100+ million client impressions | 400+ meetings booked | $1+ million in client courses sold

If you work in finance or real estate and want to add clients or capital through LinkedIn, send me a DM.

If you want to write a memoir or lead-gen book, send me a DM.

Adam Knorr

I used to dread Monday mornings. Now I go to bed early so they get here faster. I don't think I'll ever get used to loving work.

I get out of bed between 3-4 AM most days. Within 15 minutes, my laptop is open.

I used to think I did this because I was anxious — about work, about clients, about hitting 10,000 steps before 8:00.

But over the past few weeks, I've come to realize I start work so early because... I want to? Because it's fun? Because I love it?

Now, yeah, it's stressful. More stressful than any W-2 job I ever had.

But even on the (many) days where I have to remind myself that my lungs can take breaths deeper than the kiddie pool, it's invigorating.

I get to solve problems for myself. If I solve them properly, I reap the rewards. I am not accomplishing something so someone above me on the ladder gets a better bonus, and I am certainly not relying on someone else on the corporate food chain to make sure a project gets done right.

I just get to do it all. My brain vs. my brain.

Every week is this chaotic collage of testing new offers, figuring out the right pricing, threatening Claude, designing marketing materials, sending DMs, getting on sales calls, building new products, apologizing to Claude, managing clients, and — yeah — shipping over 50 pieces of content. Every week. 

It is playing Shell Game against yourself.

You know the prize is under there, somewhere, but can you really trust yourself not to sabotage it? 

It is constant uncertainty.

I sometimes hate it.

But man, do I love it.

I was walking through the Grand Rapids airport at 4:31 AM today when I stumbled across The Holy Grail. 

A 304-page book about "unleashing the power of LinkedIn." 

My favorite part is the "praise" from the Definitely-Read-This-Whole-Thing beta readers on the back cover:

"This book empowers you to create opportunities, build trust, and grow your business in tactical, practical, and methodical ways."

"Finally, a book that solves the real problem every salesperson faces."

And my favorite:

"This isn't just another LinkedIn book."

Phew.  I just finished  "Wuthering Hooks," "Love in the Time of Connection Requests," and "The Sales Navigator," and I simply cannot handle another epilogue about the most effective DM campaigns.

I see the irony here. I know I teach this stuff for a living.

But I can't stop picturing somebody waiting to board their red-eye to Topeka, taking diligent notes on "How to give genuine compliments via inMail."

It may be the funniest thing I have ever seen. I am buying 10 copies.

Almost no one knows this, but you can sort your LinkedIn posts to find ideal clients to reach out to.

Step 1. Go to your post.

Step 2: Click "View Analytics"

Step 3: Scroll to "Social Engagement"

Step 4: Sort by Reactions or Comments

Step 5: Sort by Industry or Job Title (or both)

Step 6: See all ICPs who engaged with your post.

Step 7: Send them a DM and start a conversation.

Happy hunting.

I downloaded one of those lead magnets that promises to "replace your $3,000/month LinkedIn ghostwriter" last week. 

The "ghostwriter" was a 192-word Claude prompt built on such gems as:

"Short paragraphs."
"End with a clear takeaway"

And my favorite:

"Hook must stop the scroll in the first 2 lines."

If your ghostwriter's strategy is, "Write short paragraphs, give readers a takeaway, and write good hooks lol" — you deserve to lose the $3,000 you're paying them and I do not feel bad for you.

My Hook Generator Skill alone is 7,100 characters.

Just an example of one facet of it: 

While that lead magnet prompts an LLM for "attention-grabbing hooks," my system runs a mandatory Source Verification Gate. It categorizes every single syllable into three buckets:

[SOURCE]: Real data, real client stories, and real Roth conversion trauma.

[CONCEPTUAL]:  Metaphors and hot takes based on established patterns.

[FABRICATED]: Anything the AI tried to "hallucinate" to make the hook sound sexier.

If a hook contains a single [FABRICATED] element, my system triggers an Automatic Rejection that forces the AI to start over until the hook is grounded in reality.

If your hook prompt is: 

"Hook must stop the scroll in the first 2 lines."

You're going to end up lying to people with hallucinated hooks quite often. And even the hooks that are true are going to make you blend into the crowd because you are literally prompting them to match generic LinkedIn hooks. 

That Hook Skill is the 3rd step in a 9-step Claude Skill workflow I've been tweaking and improving every day since Skills dropped in October 2025. 

It's built on real results from big data sets of content written for real financial advisors.

So, yeah.

You get what you pay for.

And if you don't pay anything — in money, time, or skill development — you're going to end up with nothing.

And btw: I charge quite a bit more than $3,000/month.

My AI tool will hurt your feelings. 

"This is generic advisor slop," it often points out. 

Here are 7 notes from our beta testers who have been using InfluenceLab.io for a couple of months now:

1. "It gives brutal feedback sometimes, which is what you need to hear, not what you want to hear."

2. "I love the harshness. I'm a former athlete — I need to be yelled at sometimes."

3. "I also enjoy the shots it takes at my writing."

4. "My favorite thing about the tool is the blunt feedback" 

5. "It can be a bit harsh at times."

6. "Sometimes it makes me feel like a really bad writer."

7. "Your tool has given me major insecurities but has totally helped my writing become so much better."

This wasn't intentional. It's not like we were like, "Take on the personality of literary Gordon Ramsay."

It was just trained directly on tens of thousands of words of writing feedback I've given clients, and I am... not one to beat around the bush. 

InfluenceLab is already yelling at 42 users.

See how harsh it can be with a 7-day free trial here:

influencelab.io

--

(Some user feedback in the screenshot below.)

If you're a financial advisor who wants to get more reach on LinkedIn, the algorithm is showing you this post for a reason.

And I built something that will do that for you. 

In February 2025, I started editing posts for financial advisor clients. I charged $900/mo to edit 3 posts a week.

After I edited each post, I would leave 200-400 words of feedback on why I made the edits I did.

• Here's why we changed the hook
• Here's how we rewrote the body
• Here's where we added specificity
• Here's how we write a better CTA 
• Here's how we made this good 

I did this a lot. Hundreds of posts.

Then, one day, I got on a call with Ben A. Wise.

And Ben — who has been ghostwriting longer than I've been on LinkedIn — said:

"You should turn that feedback into an AI coaching tool."

"I don't know how to do that," I said. 

"I do," he said.

So he did.

And now, it exists.

An AI coaching tool specifically designed for financial advisors who want to get more reach and sign more clients on LinkedIn.

How it works:

• Paste your draft
• Get detailed coaching in seconds
• How to fix your hook
• How to fix your story
• How to fix your CTA

And a clear pass/fail so you know when it's ready to publish.

This works. Idk what else to tell you. It works.

Here's what our beta testers said:

Chris Brindle: "My business has genuinely grown on LinkedIn and that's at least partially due to my posts getting better with this tool."

Luke McElhenie, CFP®: "The workflow from taking the coaching feedback and putting it back into Claude has been awesome. Posts have been crushing it — 261,335 impressions in past 14 days."

Evan Wohl, CFP®, CLU®, ChFC®, RICP®: "It understands the overall message I'm trying to get across and drops the unnecessary parts or common LinkedIn AI 'fortune cookie' BS."

Anthony Degli Obizzi Jr.:  "My impressions have been through the roof on weekend posts with the tool."

Elijah Duduit, CFP®, CRPS®: "It's as if there's an actual human on the other side completely uninterested in flattering me with fruitcake feedback and is instead completely interested in fixing the mess I give to him."

Justin Pandy: "I love that it doesn't just say, this hook sucks, it goes into why it sucks, then offers ways to improve it."

Ryan Furlong, CFP®: "It's particularly helpful in cases where I feel like "something is off here" with the initial draft but I can't pinpoint it with the amateur eye. The tool lays all that out perfectly... Impressions have been through the roof at least by my standard this week. (154,421)"

Start getting more reach with a 7-day free trial here:

influencelab.io

P.S. My favorite testimonial:

Adrienne G.: "Your tool has given me major insecurities but has totally helped my writing become so much better." 

Adrienne is saying this because the tool can be quite mean. I don't believe in beating around the bush with my coaching, and it's built on my feedback.

So yes, this tool is mean and it will make you feel bad.

That'll be $49!

I'm giving away the 12-page report behind $53MM in qualified AUM pipeline — built by two financial advisors posting on LinkedIn for 12 months.

I broke down the data behind 460 posts that have helped my clients:

• Book 77 meetings across 25 states
• Attract 80%+ of those meetings as inbound leads
• Hire 5 people — including 3 CFPs — for $252 in ad spend

If you're a financial advisor who's posting on LinkedIn and wondering why it's not converting...

Read this report to learn everything that actually moved the needle:

• The exact character range where impressions peak — and where they fall off a cliff

• Which photo format outperform edevery other format by 1.6x 

• The hook type that averaged 10,884 median impressions — more than double everything else

• The two-track system that separates audience-building posts from meeting-booking posts

• The "character count curve" — a full breakdown of 460 posts plotted against reach

• Real LinkedIn analytics from two CFPs who started from ground zero

The report is backed by 460 tracked posts across two accounts, 10.2MM combined impressions, and 77 booked meetings that turned into $53MM+ in AUM and $150K+ in planning fee pipeline.

Want it?

Comment "REPORT" and I'll send you the full thing free (must be connected). 

--

P.S. This is for financial advisors only. Please do not ask for this if you are not a financial advisor.

I mean, you can ask. I'll take the engagement. But I'm not going to send it to you.

Yesterday, a financial services president signed up for my LinkedIn post editing tool at 12:25 PM. At 4:33 PM, he bought another subscription for his team. 

At 6:38 PM, he (Daniel Keever) sent me a DM:

"Hey Adam, a client of mine sent me your InfluenceLab as a research question. I told them I’ll check it out. Ended up signing up for myself and one of our team members. Surprisingly useful feedback. Appreciate appreciate the tool."

He was one (two) of 13 new subscribers yesterday, which brings us to 26 people using InfluenceLab.io. (Beta testers, plus a stealth rollout in the DMs the week leading up to yesterday's launch.)

Here's how advisors who are getting the best results are using it:

• Write your first draft.
• Pop it into the tool.
• READ the feedback
• Copy the feedback 
• Paste the feedback into Claude
• (Or ChatGPT, but you should be using Claude) 
• Have Claude punch up your draft based on the feedback
• Make your manual edits
• See your impressions jump

You can try it with zero risk for 7 days.

Worst-case scenario, you get a ton of free coaching about how to write effective LinkedIn posts.

Claim your free trial here:

influencelab.io

--

P.S. The screenshot below is from another user, not Daniel.

When I work with a client who uses semicolons.

taplio

The Battle

Marc Kuhn

Adam Knorr

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Performance ScoreMarc Kuhn's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreAdam Knorr's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Marc Kuhn

Adam Knorr

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Marc Kuhn's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreAdam Knorr's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreMarc Kuhn's LinkedIn Performance