Life Is Like a Box Of Chocolates...

I've been working on quite a few upgrades to our technology and systems over the summer. One of those upgrades is switching to a print-on-demand fulfillment house which will offer me the opportunity to upgrade my products more quickly, offer more niched products and the larger sets of products, as well as ensuring that we are never out of stock when you order something.

Closing The Old Fulfillment Center
As a result of this upgrade though, I'm having to close out my account with the existing fulfillment center. I need to sell out of the products that are in the old center before I make the change to the new one.

What's That Mean to You?

Deep Discounts
It means that you're going to get the opportunity to save BIG on almost all of my titles. I'm offering steeply discounted rates - some as much as 65% off the regular price to encourage you to buy them now.

Only While Supplies Last
This sale will only last as long as my stock of products lasts. I've been planning this move for months, so I've been letting inventory dwindle. For some of the products, I have less than 15 in stock, others as many as 45, but that's still not many. So I can't guarantee that everyone will get this deal.

Cool New Stuff Is Coming
As a result of this change, I'll be rolling out a bunch of new products for agents and brokers alike. Things that I've always wanted to offer but didn't want to commit hundreds of dollars in costs up front because of their highly targeted nature (you only need them when you need them) or their large size (yes, I'll soon be offering my famously successful - 70% success rate - new agent training program on CD for the first time EVER).

I'll let you guys know when the new stuff comes out.  I hope you'll be as excited about it as I am.  It's going to be so cool!!!

If you're interested in the sale, you can find out more about it here.

Have you ever cosidered using Twitter as an information feed? 
That's right, you can tweet links to the latest listings, information about the real estate industry and changes, special events, planned developments in your local area.  In 140 characters, you can educate your community.  And the best part is:  this idea integrates with any blog you may have too.  Which means, you can double your Google Juice with the same information.

Blog/Tweet Combo - The One-Two Punch of the Google Juice
So here's what I mean.  Enter your blog post, then Tweet it to the world.  You can do this manually if you have an Active Rain blog or other non-integrated service.  Or you can set it up to be automatic if you have a WordPress blog by adding the Twitter Tools plugin to your blog.  It will automatically tweet your stuff.  So now you have the Google Juice from the blog and you have the extra traffic from the Tweets.  How great is that?

Joining the Conversation
The best part is, that while you are putting out all of this great content, you're also in a position to get into conversation with people who are asking you questions about it. After all, you're the expert right?

That's your quick tip for the day!

Every new agent has a unique experience of starting in real estate.  A few do well right out of the gate, most of the rest have challenges along the way.  I remember walking in a little late to one of my new agent training sessions when I was a newbie and finding everyone in the room having a meltdown thinking that there was no way they could do this.  I was the odd man out in the room – I KNEW I could do it and I did – I sold 25 houses in my first year. 

The Success Factor
There is no way I can tell you that without meeting you and talking with you how successful you'll be.  In fact, out of anyone on the planet, you are the person most qualified to tell you how well you’ll do.  It's all in the attitude and the actions. 

Qualities of Successful New Real Estate Agents
Here are the things I’ve seen as factors for why some people succeed and others don’t.  If you have these qualities, then you’re likely to survive:

1. You love people – you talk to people everywhere you go and you are intensely curious about them
2. You’re a problem-solver.  If there’s a problem, you’re the person most people turn to to make it right.
3. You’re flexible and resilient – if you get knocked down, you get right back up and try again.  You don’t focus on the fall, but on the goal in front of you.
4. You love to learn.
5. You’re not easily discouraged – you believe there is always a way to make something work – it’s just a matter of finding it.
6. You’re good at making connections with people.  People like you and are comfortable with you – even if they can’t quite put their finger on why that is.
7. You don’t mind flying by the seat of your pants, so long as you know there is a backup system in place if you should falter.
8. You have a sense of adventure and excitement about learning new things and meeting new people.
9. You’re good at not taking rejection personally. 
10. You have the discipline to stick with your project and not mess around playing solitaire all day.

Don't Just Survive - Thrive
If you want to do well, then you have to add one more criteria to the list – you follow-up and follow-through.  Your word is your bond.  This is the factor that sets the so-so agents apart from the super agents, so learn this one well. 

My Best Advice
Don't just get your license.  Become a training junkie.  Training does three things for you:

1. It educates you and makes you feel more confident.  When you feel confident, then you're more open to telling people what you do and asking them to work with you.
2. It motivates you and keeps you focused.  When you're learning, you're engaged.  This keeps you moving forward.
3. It challenges you to improve.  When you are constantly making improvements, you're constantly excited by your work.  This shows in how you interact with people and it makes them want to work with you.

Every Rookie of the Year I've ever talked to has been a training junkie.  There's got to be something to that.  Good luck and happy hunting!

Start off right - get your free copy of my 10-part audio training program on Selling According to the Stages of Life.

Hey guys!

I wanted to talk to you about something. I'm in the process of creating a new sound for my company.  A sort of "audio brand" that represents me. I was looking for something exciting and animated and motivating and rich feeling.  I wanted it to make me feel something.

I've had an intern working for days listening to audio clips on Opuzz royalty free music and we've got it narrowed down to two choices.  Can you please tell me which you prefer?  (Or tell me if you hate them both, I'm open to all types of feedback.)  I'm in the process of rebranding all of my podcasts, so if you're one of my podcast listeners, I'd vote if I were you because you'll hear it at the beginning and end of each one, and it would suck for you if you hate it.

I really appreciate the help.

Audio Brand Option 1

Audio Brand Option 2

Thanks!

Back in 2006, after spending many years dating and many years working with coaching clients in real estate, I clearly saw the places where the two overlapped. It didn't take me long to get Realtor Magazine to agree that it was a fun topic that agents would enjoy.

So I wrote an article for Realtor Magazine called "10 Dating Rules That Can Help Your Career".  It was a smash hit with the readers.  And evidently hit home so hard with one Realtor, Ryan Shaughnessy, that he clipped it out and kept it in his file for reference.  Well, back in April, he wrote his own version of it, but from the Buyer's perspective rather than the agent's.  It's called "Understanding Your Relationship With Your Real Estate Agent - Simply Apply Dating Rules"I liked it so much that I didn't want you to miss out on it.  SO go to his blog and check it out for yourself.  It's really creative.  I'm sure you'll enjoy it.  (And don't forget to read my original version first, so that you can compare the two.)

I'd be interested to hear what you think after you have a chance to read them both.  I'd be even more interested to see if someone could come up with a version for sellers as well.  Anyone up for the challenge?

This is my fourth year attending Podcamp Boston (#pcb4)(which, for those of you counting means that I've been to all of them).  It is always fun, enlightening and a LOT geeky.  This year, I had the added benefit of also getting a bonus where one of the attendees actually got the virus off my computer that had been sitting there for months while I tried to figure out how I could do without it for a week while Staples worked on it.  A wonderful good samaritan (who will remain anonymous by request) did it while we sat in sessions and chatted at breaks.  It was painless and done gratis because he likes me and it was easy for him.

It's funny.  I usually come back from Podcamp with a TON of new tech toys to talk about.  I have a few this year (which I will share over the next few days), but not as many as in years past.  I think this is partly because of the format of the breakout sessions as "discussions" rather than "presentations", so there wasn't as much touting of "cool new stuff".  Part of it was because of the economy - there just isn't as much new stuff.  And part of it is that I've been coming for four years, so I know all of the basics and I have heard about a lot of the new stuff from my friends that I met at previous Podcamps or discovered it on my own by searching for tools I needed.  It seems that this year I graduated. 

This year, the newbies were coming to me for advice.  This year that experienced people and I were talking on a peer level.  This year, I knew more.  I didn't feel so clueless.  There weren't any discussions that I just couldn't follow.  I'm telling you - it was wierd.  I'm used to being out of my depth.  There's a TON of stuff to learn in the internet sphere.  And it seems, that as much as I'm constantly learning something from someone, I've finally gotten to the point where I'm not running to keep up.  Whew!

I felt so comfortable, in fact, that when one of the discussion leaders didn't show up, I offered to facilitate the conversation for the room.  The conversation was lively and a lot of people learned a lot of things - including me.  The great news was that I got to facilitate and I didn't even have to sign up or schedule the room or pick a topic or anything.  Many thanks go out to the person who failed to show. 

Michelle Wolverton, @Chelpixie to her Twitter fans worked her butt off making the event a success.  I wanted to publicly say "Thank You" to her, Chris Penn, Chris Brogan, and Whitney (sorry I don't know your last name) as well as the other organizers.  You guys rock.  And they do it all for free - in fact - they pay to attend the event.  How's that for passion?

All I can say is that if you have the opportunity to attend a Podcamp (and they happen all over the world now), do it.  You'll never have a better time with a more kind, caring, giving group of geeks.

I had a friend of mine recently ask what RSS was.  (You know - those little orange radio wave looking things that are on every blog and podcast.)  Seems she had gone onto Wikipedia and other sites to figure it out and nothing made sense.  I remember doing this too when I first learned about RSS.  Nothing made sense.  I thought that some of you might also share this confusion.  So I'm going to share with you what I used to explain it to her.

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” which is like setting up TiVo. You use a reader (like Google Reader, My MSN, or My Yahoo) and you tell it what you want to read by subscribing to the RSS feed for different sites. For instance, I might like to read The New York Times, the Speaking of Real Estate Blog put out by NAR, The Onion blog, and see what the White House is saying today. So I would go and subscribe through the RSS reader for each of those sites. Then I would open my reader program each morning and read what those sites had to say that day, rather than having to go to each site individually to get the information.

I hope this helps!