by Michele Gillis
Staff Writer
For Paul Gruenther and Andrew Bell, what began as a fun impersonation of Jake and Elwood Blues – the Blues Brothers – has evolved into something more meaningful. The two Realtors, both of Watson Realty, now use the personas to support a cause and brand their team “The Moves Brothers.”
You’ve seen them at events in their matching pink suits and hats — they are hard to miss, that’s for sure.
Gruenther met Bell through doing business when Bell was with RELS Title and Gruenther was a Realtor with GMAC/Vanguard Realty. From their dealings, a great friendship and partnership emerged.
“We started off doing the Blues Brothers for the Jacksonville Women’s Council of Realtors fashion show in 2009,” said Bell.
During the show, they dressed in black suits and lip-synched “Soul Man.”
“Someone took a video of it and put it on YouTube,” said Gruenther.
Following the fashion show, they were asked to come to other events as the musical duo but decided to change it up a bit.
“We were both involved in the Realtors Political Action Committee and their theme for the auction was Las Vegas Pink Flamingo,” said Bell. “‘The Blues Brothers’ already had its footing so I suggested we do ‘The Blues Brothers’, but do it in pink suits.”
Gruenther was a little hesitant, but decided to go with it. At that time, Bell found out that RELS Title was closing its doors, so he decided to get his real estate license and team up with Gruenther at Watson.
“It was Paul’s idea to go from ‘The Blues Brothers’ to ‘The Moves Brothers,’” said Bell. “We decided to take it away from the Blues Brothers and started batting around ideas of what to do next. What an awesome idea and a great name. We are in real estate and it really fit.”
Gruenther said they decided to go in pink to the RPAC auction and the Moves Brothers was born.
“We did the pink suits for the auction,” said Gruenther. “We invested a good bit of money having someone custom make suits for us. We decided we needed to go beyond this. We started brainstorming and we were aware of the breast cancer fundraising and causes that were going on. So, we offered to help them and add a little color to things.”
Gruenther said that breast cancer awareness is not usually “a guy thing” and he wanted to help change the notion.
“We can go out there and try to get guys to see how important it is and how it impacts families, communities and people,” said Gruenther.
Now when they show up at a real estate or breast cancer awareness event, they are there to raise awareness for breast cancer and to further their brand.
“It’s a great opportunity to serve the community,” said Bell. “And, on the backside of it, the business will come.”
The two wanted to affiliate themselves with a specific group and finally found In the Pink, a boutique for women living with cancer, in Jacksonville Beach.
“In the Pink helps people in our community every day,” said Gruenther. “Any time they have an event going on, we try to make ourselves available to be there to help promote that event.”
Just showing up in the pink suits seems to cause enough of an interest to deem it success.
“People will come up to us and ask what we are doing and we tell them we are professional partiers,” said Gruenther. “So, what we do is we just go to a party, have fun and liven it up. There is not a better ice breaker in the world.”
Bell said with two guys dressed in pink suits, they don’t have to do much except just be there. People often want their photo taken with them as well.
“Part of it is just being able to humble ourselves,” said Bell. “It’s important and it’s not below us to wear a pink suit to help support the cause.”
The two will also do a float with In the Pink for the upcoming Opening of the Beaches Parade on April 17.
“We have a car, we have trailers and we want to do a float with cancer survivors and get some recognition for In the Pink to let people know it’s there,” said Bell. “All the money they raise is to help women here in our local community. We want to help raise awareness and money for In the Pink, so they can continue to help women in our community who have been diagnosed with cancer.”
Currently, they are trying to discern where and when to show up as the Moves Brothers.
“It really depends on what it is and in some ways, we are really careful not to steal other peoples thunder,” said Gruenther.
Gruenther has been a Realtor since 2003. He started with Watson Realty and then moved on to GMAC/Vanguard Realty. He then joined Florida Home Realty until he came full circle and rejoined Watson in 2010.
Bell started in the real estate industry as a mortgage professional in 2003 and then joined RELS Title in 2005. He started his real estate career with Watson Realty in 2010.
“The thing I wanted to be careful of is that we set our goodwill and karma with this thing so people will not just look at us as businessmen, but that we are supporting a cause,” said Gruenther. “So, to us it’s paying it forward. A by product of that is that it is branding and it enhances our business and exposure.”