Flashback Friday Monday: Gratitude = GReatATtITUDE

Start your week off right with this little gem from 2010!

I believe that gratitude is the most powerful emotion we have.  I’m calling it an emotion, but it’s probably more a state of mind or a point of view.  I think it’s powerful not only for the way it makes us feel, but also for the affect it has on our environment.  Gratitude when practiced effectively, can actually change the world around us.

Since about 2000, there has been a fair amount of serious interest in the power of gratitude and a number of somewhat scientific studies have been done.  One found that when patrons of a jewelry store were called and thanked for their purchase, they bought on average 170% more in subsequent visits.  The control group – the one that was not called and thanked – showed no increase.  Another study looked at servers in a restaurant who consistently got higher tips when they simply hand-wrote the words, ‘Thank You!’ on the check.

Realtors:  think about that for a moment.  How often are you thanking your former customers and clients?  Do you think doing so might help you do more business?

Real estate is not easy . . . neither is life.  Being able to love your work — and your life — is an art.  It begins with gratitude, which leads to joy.

I’ve had a friend for many years. I almost gave him up as a friend  some years back because he became so negative.  There never seemed to be enough money and all he seemed to be able to focus on was what he didn’t have and what he lacked.  He was absolutely middle class, but was leading an emotionally impoverished life.  Then, shortly after he turned 50, he had a heart attack, a BIG one.  He probably should have died.  But he didn’t and after the bypass surgery was done and healed, he was good as  new . . . except for one thing.   He’d had time to think about what was important and to be grateful for what he had.  For the first time since I’d known him he was truly happy.  What’s really cool is that from that point on, money ceased to be a problem for him.  Oh, he didn’t strike it rich or win the lottery.  I think his income stayed relatively stable.  But his attitude changed and suddenly there was always enough.

See, money loves happy.  Think about it:  if you were money would you be rushing around trying to find your way into the hands of an uptight, unhappy person who would probably squeeze you to death?  I think not.  Money wants to have a good time.  It falls on happy people.  And the road to happy begins with gratitude.

I was at the dentist the other day replacing my temporary crown with the real one.  The temporary crown was the best I’d ever had:  it was comfortable and didn’t come off – not even through Thanksgiving weekend.  When I thanked the assistant who made and installed it, my dentist nearly exploded with praise.  He went on and on about what a great job she did and how happy he was with her work.  Now; my experience with dental assistants is that they come and go.  This one has been there for five years and now I know why.  I doubt she’ll be going away anytime soon.

Try it today:  just thank everyone.  Do it casually, in passing.  And spend a little park bench time thinking about some of the good things that have come your way.  I’ll betcha when you turn the light out tonight you’ll think, ‘Now that was a good day.’

Here are a couple of my favorite quotes about the big G:

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.  ~G.K. Chesterton

What a miserable thing life is:  you’re living in clover, only the clover isn’t good enough.  ~Bertolt Brecht

Pet Peeves

Real estate professionals who don’t know how to use their calculators and can’t figure (or at least look up) a mortgage payment on the fly.

Real estate professionals who don’t know how to measure for and calculate square footage (at least good enough to tell if the tax records are wrong).

Real estate professionals who can fill in the blanks of their State approved purchase agreement but can’t walk through it with a buyer or seller explaining each boilerplate paragraph.

Real estate professionals who stop at ‘No,’ when trying to get a deal closed or financed.  The answer to ‘No’  is always the same:  ‘What do we need to do/add/change/find to make it work?’ and ‘What can I do turn this around?’

Real estate professionals who can’t do basic pre-qualification of a buyer including an initial discussion of finance including an examination of income-to-debt ratios.  (Though important, this is not a substitute for an in-depth discussion with a lender).

Real estate professionals who can’t accurately (within a reasonable tolerance) calculate seller net proceeds and buyers’ funds needed to close quickly and on a legal pad if necessary.

Real estate professionals who are afraid of the Internet . . . or even uncomfortable with it.

Real estate professionals who ‘wing’ their listing presentations.  It’s a job interview, for goodness sake!  You at least need an outline of where you want to go with it!

Real estate professionals who don’t spend money on marketing.  Agents should be spending a minimum of 10% -15% of their anticipated 1099 on marketing.  Brokers should be spending more.

Real estate professionals who expect the MLS to sell all of their listings.

Real estate professionals who organize their companies to appeal to agents rather than to serve consumers.

Real estate professionals who celebrate mediocre production.

Real estate professionals who don’t constantly question why things are the way they are and how they could be better for the buying and selling public.

These are just some of mine . . . what are yours?

The Stupidest, Dumbest, Lamest, WORST Ad in Real Estate History

I don’t want to offend anybody.  I know a lot of really good Century 21 agents and a bunch of good Century 21 brokers.  But, come on!  The ads over the past several years have been so bad that they are embarrassing!  I mean look at the stupid thing that graces the back cover of the latest California REALTOR Magazine:

Century 21 Ad

I guess this is an improvement over the ads in this series that ran over the past 3 or 4 years.  They featured beautiful actors and actresses smiling – or more often smirking – confidently at the camera, pretending to be Century 21 agents while glowing adjectives flowed below.  This ad makes no pretense at reality.  It’s a cartoon.  It’s a parody of the company’s own advertising.

If I were a Century 21 person (and I was for more than 20 years) I would be insulted, first by the color scheme.  There’s not one drop of gold in the damn thing.  Century 21 corporate declared war on gold sometime in the early ’90s (sad to say I was there and in on the discussions; I dissented).  But no matter what they’ve done, no matter how hard they’ve tried to eradicate it, to distance themselves from that color,  twenty years later THE PUBLIC still sees GOLD as Century 21’s color.

I watched an episode of ‘Breaking Bad’ last night – from the first season.  They wanted a real estate agent on screen to be easily identified as such.  What did they do?  Put her in a gold coat.  No question.  Instantly anybody watching knew that was a real estate agent.

That kind of brand equity is priceless.  And it’s very difficult to achieve.  Century 21 owned the color gold and blew it up . . . and replaced it with . . . Green?  No, Bilious Green?

But let’s take a wholistic view, too: let’s look beyond the bad color and the dumb message.  Where is this ad placed?  Back cover of REALTOR Magazine.  That’s a $50,000 – $75,000 pop, depending on how big the contract is.  The ad seems to be aimed at the buying and selling public . . . but it’s placed in a publication for REALTORS.  So it’s suppposed to be a recruiting ad?? Or are we just becoming a little unfocused in our old age?

Again, the first ads in this series really were recruiting ads.  The idea was by showing actors as bright, confident and beautiful Century 21 agents, failing agents at other companies would want to jump ship for a chance to be just like the ‘agents’ in the ad.  (With logic like that is there any wonder per person productivity at Century 21 is said to have been in decline for decades?).

So back to the placement of this ad:  I guess REALTORS seeing this ad are supposed to feel as if Century 21 agents have some kind of super-human advantage over them with buyers and sellers.  Really?  From this silly, embarrassing ad they are supposed to feel that?  If I were a competitor in the field, I’d put this ad in my listing presentation to illustrate to potential sellers how stupidly some real estate companies spend their money!

Listen:  I got a PhD in Branding and Marketing at Century 21 in the 80s and 90s.  I learned from legends like Bruce Oseland, Elaine Hamilton, Dick McKenna, Rick O’Neil, Don Martin, Marty Rueter and many others.  This was one of the things Century 21 did extremely well in the early days. They did it so well that, in the late 70s – early 80s, the effectiveness of their marketing was scary!  They pretty much owned the concept of ‘Real Estate’ in the consumer’s consciousness.

The monkeying with with brand that started in the mid-nineties and continues to this day has undone that once very special organization.  Today,  Century 21 stands for generic real estate at its most mediocre.  There is nothing special about the consumer offer (it’s just like everyone else’s), nothing special about the operating system (It’s an old -fashioned, percentage based, agent oriented model), and nothing special about the identity.  If the function of marketing is to express the culture of the organization . . . well, I guess this ad has succeeded because today, Century 21 stands for nothing.

And it breaks my heart.

Hey, all of you marketing scholars out there!  If you want a great case study on how to build a powerful brand and then systematically destroy it . . .well, here it is.

Footnote:  There is a Help-U-Sell logo on this blog.  It is a brand and operating system I happen to love.  I do not, however work for Help-U-Sell.  I did, but not now.  Please don’t assume that I speak for that organization or anyone in it.  This is my blog and my opinion; so if you are sharpening your arrows, aim them here. -JD

Flashback Friday: Next Time You Think You Can’t Do Something . . .

. . . Watch this video:

 

Mark Goffeney was born in 1969 with no arms.  His father brought home an old guitar he found in a garbage dump when Mark was nine . . . and you can see what he’s done with it.  Homer (my dog) and I came upon him playing for tips in Balboa Park today — and doing quite well, I might add.  Next time you think you’re not up to the challenge, that the cards are stacked against you, that you just can’t make it, think of Mark; and then get up and try again.

This was originally posted in 2010. I’ve seen Mark over and over since, wowing the people who pass by his spot in the park. He now rocks out in a band, ‘Big Foot,’ and has been the subject of several national media stories.

What’s App?

Text Messaging is a big part of our lives today.  This relatively new form of communication has become common as we scramble to keep up with family, friends and business contacts.  To begin a discussion of text messaging it’s important to understand how it fits into your phone carrier’s network.

Your cell phone carrier has two networks:  one for calls and one for data.  The networks are based on a system of towers dispersed around the globe that aggregate calls and data within a specific geography (a ‘cell’ as in ‘cell’ phone) and shoot them up to a satellite (calls) or on to the Internet (data).

Text messages – which you would think are data – actually travel over  your carrier’s phone network – not the data network.  This is why you can turn off your phone’s data connection, and still receive calls and text messages.

This is also why almost any phone, smart or dumb, can make calls and receive text messages and why I recommend that you not get a smart phone if this is all you’re doing.  If, on the other hand, you are accessing the internet, checking Facebook, going to the MLS on your phone, you must have data, which means you must have a smart phone.

Bear in mind, we are talking about text messages here, not Instant Messages, which are data and travel over the data network.

We are also talking about phone calls made directly through your carrier’s phone network, not those made via Skype, Google Voice or any other VOIP platform.  VOIP converts the call to data and it happens over the data network.

Before we get too complicated to be practical, let’s stop and talk about the implications of everything we’ve said so far.

Your carrier charges differently for usage of its two networks.  Calls are usually billed in terms of minutes; you may have a monthly allotment of 900 minutes  . . . or you may have an unlimited number of minutes, but the increment is minutes.  Text messages are billed in terms of number of messages sent and sometimes, received.  Again, you may have a fixed number in your allowance or it may be unlimited. The important thing is that the network is counting the number of messages your are sending and receiving.

Data is billed in terms of the amount of data consumed, measured in gigabytes (Gb).  You may have a monthly allowance of 2 Gb of data or you may have an unlimited data plan.  When you stream a movie from Netflix to your phone, you are using a lot of data.  When you send an email – which is data – you’re using just a little (assuming you’re not attaching something huge).

Some smart phone users are employing a strategy to take text messaging out of the carrier’s phone network.  The logic is that text messages are tiny in terms of data but are billed per message by the carrier’s phone network.  Switching them over to the data network will have little impact on data usage (because they are so small) and some savings may be achieved.

Consider my last trip to Mexico.  I made no phone calls on my carrier’s phone network because the International roaming fees were astronomical.  Instead, I waited until I had a wifi connection and made calls using Skype, outside my carriers network.  I did receive and respond to text messages made over my carrier’s phone network, however, and  I paid per message for the privelege:  50 cents to send, 5 cents to receive.

If I had used an app to conduct text messaging over a data network and saved my texting until I had wifi, I’d have avoided those charges.  App?  What App?

Whats App.  That’s the app: Whats App.  It’s one of several text messaging apps that occur over the data network. It seems to be the one that’s gaining ‘traction.’  I’ve had 3 invitations to connect via Whats App this week alone.  I’ve used the service and find it perfectly acceptable for general texting with some bells and whistles that are above and beyond what I have with my carrier’s regular program.  In What’s App, I can create a group and text them all at once.  I can also send a voice recording or video over the app.

Whats App works with Android phones, Blackberries, Windows phones, those weird Nokia phones and . . what else?  what else? . . . hmmmm . .  oh, yeah, it also works with those quaint Iphones so many of you still have.  You can get the app HERE or at your phone’s app store.

When you download and install Whats App, it will quickly rummage through your contacts and tell you which ones are already using it.  I was surprised at how many of mine are already on board!

**NOTE** I am not a mobile phone guru.  I’m not a network genius.  I’m not even particularly technical.  I just use this stuff and try to understand it.  I am sure I have committed  errors in my description of how your phone works with  its various networks. If you are a phone guru or similar I’m sure you will want to jump on this piece with both feet and do the hokey-pokey.  Before you do, try to remember that this post was not written for you.  It was written for me and for every other poor average slob out there, just like me, trying to make sense out or their digital lives.  Thank you.

 

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