It isn’t rocket science. Be the area expert, and know the area roads. You have one chance to impress a client with your expertise, why lose it over something so simple? Get to know your market, drive your area, ask other agents to help you, and if all else fails admit if you are not familiar with a place but offer to get more information and get back to the people. Honesty will always win over false bravado and poorly deserved “expert” titles.
You failed often before, at a variety of entrepreneurial endeavors, but are too lazy to hold a full-time job, so you call yourself a consultant, and use the rule of perception to build a false career and establish “credibility.” You begin to succeed, but you also forget to stay humble. You begin to step on what others say, you can’t participate in a panel because it has to be all about “you, you, you” – you promote yourself, your services, your business. People believe what you say. You stop listening and begin broadcasting.
As I sit there and listen I know better. As you think I might not be “active” because of my change in pattern, I still watch and observe. That is what do, which is why I know what you are about, you are about a lie. I am a strategist, I am a futurist – I watch the streams, I watch the networks, I watch the channels, and I can see the new directions well ahead of many, including you.
Proclaim it the social network, the social community, the rules of engagement. We support our community, we go to our members to promote their business. You get pizza from the local pizza person on Twitter, you buy your magazines at the local book and tobacco store, all the people you have in your social network circle are the ones you promote, except for one. The one lonely person you don’t turn to when you should, leaving yourself with something far inferior to the best.
Why is it when it comes to real estate you won’t promote within your own community? Excuses, I hear them all. You want the rest of the “experts” to promote you, to endorse you, to help you, to teach you, then when it comes time for you to pay your dues, you don’t call upon myself or my sister and brother real estate professionals to represent your best interests.
The Top Excuses:
“It wasn’t my choice” – yes it was, you own the house as much as your spouse, you chose not to ask or even give that real estate agent a shot.
“We had to use my Uncles Wife’s Daughters College Roomates brother because of the close connection and ties” – You mean you don’t have the guts to say “I don’t understand how it works and I didn’t even think as my selfish needs were met, but please keep telling people how awesome I am because you’re the best!!” sure, see you next Tuesday…
“Oh, I thought I had to use the listing agent” and you consult in social media for businesses? That would imply you had a brain, oh yes – an attempt at a lame b.s. excuse.
Originally published on September 4, 2010 – this post deserves a reissue. I think the question of perspective vs perception is getting more important than ever. The line is blurred more so than ever. I will write more on that in the next few weeks, but as a refresher I thought this was worth repeating.
They say attitude is everything. I disagree, I think perspective is everything. Perspective determines attitude. How
We age with grace, and age with death,
He hath done both and we are blessed,
To have had his genius upon this earth,
To shake the foundations of theatrical mirth.
Happy Birthday Shakespeare! Thanks for all the fun memories, my favorite is Midsummer Nights Dream.
The week of June 19, 2011 my Sprint HTC Evo Shift started acting odd. Although in retrospect I think it might have been earlier than that. I moved to the Android platform after spending literally 6 or more months in a committed relationship with Sprint’s TRV Escalations group. My Blackberry Curve kept getting “Net Rim Messaging” errors, through my own experience as a tester I was able to determine the conflict seemed to exist with the Facebook application for Blackberry, so I removed it, ran without it, put it back on, and so on. Typically test protocol really, and with the assistance of the most awesome guy ever at TRV Escalations we figured it out. When he was promoted, I gave up. I couldn’t be without Facebook, and I didn’t see how this would be resolved. I loved my Blackberry, the sound quality, the single handed typing ability, the speed. I hate slide out keyboards, and I really am NOT a fan of touch screen typing, I like touch typing. So I settled for an Evo. I considered the Epic, I liked the new Windows phone (that keyboard slides out and raises up, sweet).
In that 6 month Blackberry process I had followed all the Sprint recommendations. I had mostly kept the whole process to myself, not tweeting about it. As a staunch defender of Sprint I didn’t want to fan the fire of hatred so many had, so I kept my mouth mostly shut. No reason to admit I was defending the dark horse. But to me, Customer service is SO valuable I will sacrifice service for it.
Someone pass the scotch… Happy Holidays from Katarina and Lindsay (mini-me). And who doesn’t recognize the “Do the opposite of what I say” tone Katarina uses when talking to Lindsay. Happy Holidays! My girls really are wonderful. I love them tons!
I was reading your new advertising plan on promoted tweets, trends and accounts, interesting read in general, a little confusing and totally WTF!
So let me start with the big question, what are you thinking???
The whole twitter community is REALLY about engagement, interaction, and brands come to the space to humanize their corporate machines. What does that tell you about this space you have created (yes I worship at the shrine of Twitter I will admit), we have adopted it.
My daughter Katarina fights sleep as hard as she can, part of it is her ADHD medication, or not, part of it is probably that little voice in every kids head that wonders “what fun am I missing when I go to sleep?” So we continue the battle of bedtime in my house.
We learned that hamsters sometimes eat their young. I allude to that occasionally in tweets when I am feeling most frustrated with trying to get my kids to listen or behave in some manner I think they should. When I start thinking like this I feel defective.
Costco needs a new marketing director. Incentive failure big time!
