Agentjason 2.0

Sell without a cell?

 Maybe it has to do with her show ending soon, I don't know, but I've been addicted to the Oprah Show this season.  Usually on the weekend I'll fly through the episodes on my DVR and I probably average 1.5 shows per week after I delete the topics that don't interest me.  Her "No Phone Zone" campaign has caught my attention for sure.  I consider myself a very good driver (you probably do too) and I'd even argue that Realtors on average are better drivers than the general public, given that we do so much of it.  And today I wondered if it is possible for us to put the phone down in the car?  

When I first began my real estate career no one had phones in their cars, in fact, it was a big deal when the majority of my office got beepers!  Then, when we did get phones we used them sparingly and of course today we're at the other end of the curve.  Oprah wants to end all phone usage in automobiles and I think she's really picked a tough fight.  I've written before about how we are literally addicted to technology and that's the one part Oprah is missing.  She's taken a selling tactic similar to the defensive driving course I just took online that persuades against drunk driving - the horror stories, the interview with the mom who's daughter was killed, the crash scene pictures.  I certainly agree that using today's smartphones can be every bit as dangerous as drunk driving - it's the addiction to technology part that I think far outpaces alcohol addiction.  To be sure, I use my iPhone all day, everyday.  I have a glass of red wine every few days...maybe.  After the episode, I caught myself checking in on Facebook as I was driving, so I signed Oprah's pledge and committed to only use the phone for old skool voice calls and map features.  

So what do you think, can you do without your phone in the car?  It is possible to sell without a cell?  I've done it.  If you don't believe it's possible, just go ask someone who's been in the business since the very early 90s or before and they'll tell you.  Do you think our profession with an army of driving salespeople is positioned to join Oprah's campaign?  Would it be a good PR move for the industry?  Will NAR jump on the trend or will we just wait as states pass laws against it?

iPad: Excellent for Realtors (and traveling motivational speakers!)

via live.gdgt.com

My briefcase just got a lot lighter when I travel! The new iPad plugs into a projector and has all the presentation software I need and it will be great for my Realtor students as well!  Imagine walking into a listing presentation and using this instead of a laptop.  I can still remember walking into a CompUSA one evening to purchase my first laptop computer.  It was a dull grey, very heavy Toshiba with a tiny low resolution screen and it took forever to boot up.  Yet, I was totally stoked to plop that down on the table during my next listing presentation.  I'm sure I'll be doing tons of presentations on the new iPad.  What about you?  Will you be getting one?  In any case, just remember, you are the presentation.  Not the screen - pretty as it may be!  For a quick lesson on designing masterful presentation visuals, click the link above to see screen shots from Steve Job's presentation.

Update: Apple's official iPad demo video.

Measure Listings with iPhone

 When I took listings in Austin, our MLS didn't list room measurements that many others do.  But if your MLS requires that data, or if a buyer has ever asked you about room dimensions, you might love this app I found for the iPhone.  I takes measurements from photos of rooms and the reviews in the app store are pretty good.  I haven't tried it out yet but would love to hear from any of you that have.  What I know for sure is that it's a good thing when a Realtor has a chance to combine tools and carry one less thing in the field!  Link to app store.

UPDATE: Thanks to Alan May for investigating this app further. Turns out that this app only allows you to draw lines on a pic and record measurements for reference later. Bummer.

Ridiculous Facebook behavior

Off the top of my head, lately I've been invited to a movie screening, several open houses, a recruiting event, a CE class and a few networking group meetings - all on Facebook, all far away from Austin.  I declined all of them, removed them from my events list and considered myself spammed.  But Jason, don't you travel a bunch?  Well, yes I do.  But the Facebook invites I'm getting are from people who, even if I was going to be in their town, would not necessarily have knowledge of it.  

It's one thing to make a lot of connections on Facebook and another entirely to leverage those relationships correctly.  If someone connects with you online, they are signaling that they want to hear from you, but that does not mean they want to hear from you through a bullhorn.  Imagine walking into a room at the next real estate convention you go to and after meeting most of the people in the room, you pull out a bullhorn and invite everyone to your open house back home next weekend.  Sounds ridiculous doesn't it?!  Well more than a few of us in the real estate industry are doing this to one another online and we should stop.  We should stop because after a while, people will start to ignore you because you'll slowly (or maybe quickly) teach them that your messages are irrelevant to them.  "Attention" is the most valuable thing we can get from someone.  It may be a little harder and take a few more minutes but here are a few suggestions - feel free to add more in comments!

• Make sure to put your Facebook friends into groups like:  Clients (past, current), Affiliate, Realtor-Local, Realtor-Out of Area, Personal, Family, etc.
• Put some thought into where the people you're sending invites to live and whether they're likely to be interested or not.
• Think about what you can do when groups are set up!  Local news to clients?  Commission bonus to local Realtors?  Referral messages to out-of-area Realtors?

Does this make you have any other thoughts or questions?  Let me know in the comments!  

Solve your own computer problem in 3 steps

The internal webcam on my MacBook stopped working today.  Crap!  That was my first thought.  Then I did a series of things that came very naturally (I don't have any computer or programming degrees) and when I was done, and it worked, I had another thought.  This stuff does not come naturally to everyone.  I can't even count the number of times I've been working with an agent long-distance and ended up playing tech support just to get their computer working so we could do our thing.  Nor can I count the number of times Jon has said to me, "Honey, come fix my computer please!".  So I thought I'd list out the steps I took because it's the same pattern I follow before considering taking my computer to the Apple Genius Bar when anything goes wrong.  Most of the time, I'm running smoothly again in just a few clicks.  NOTE:  I'm a Mac guy but these steps would be similar for PC and the more you do this the more you will learn.

1. Google search the problem.  In this case I typed "macbook webcam not working".
2. Click around on the results.   Pay attention to forums where people discuss the issue and official support sites.  I found a forum where the discussion led me to an article on Apple's support site.
3. Adjust and repeat until you find your answer.  This time I got the answer I needed the very first time but you should be willing to run into a few dead ends and try again with an adjusted Google search to find other options until your issue is fixed -  or until you pull your last hair out!

That's it!  Three easy steps plus a little patience and you can probably fix most computer issues yourself.  Webcam problems or not, if you work on Mac and want to try what I did to reset some memory and maybe enjoy a speed increase, follow the simple step on this support page.  After doing this particular operation on the MacBook, my Safari browser is blazing fast and my webcam works again, so a bunch of stuff must have been cleared up!  Yay!

Twitter and Google Me biz cards explained

A few posts ago, I showed you the two cards I carry in addition to my regular business card.  Some people got it right away but some did not so I thought I'd explain a little more.  In that post I was suggesting that because the GoogleMe/Twitter cards are different, they are way more likely to catch a persons attention than a standard card that everyone is expecting you to pull out.  In addition, they both offer very simple ways to reach you.  

The GoogleMe card says: You don't really need my regular card.  Just Google me and you can then choose whatever way you want to communicate.  The Twitter card says:  Let's communicate via Twitter (and email if you must). Making your email address much smaller than your twitter name non-verbally communicates your preference but has your email in case the other person isn't on Twitter.

I had a little bit to try them out now and my GoogleMe card has been the default.  It's the Moo.com mini-card product so it's even more different because it's way smaller than a normal card.  In the case where I know someone is on Twitter, I'll just hand them the Twitter card.  I can tell how tech savy someone is by their reaction when they take them.  They either stare down at them in confusion (in which case I hand them the regular card) or they say "hey cool!" and my card just became a piece of unique marketing followed by "Where did you get these?"

Traditional cards are still great, but with social networking becoming more popular than email, (see this article, and this one) it's time to start expanding beyond the traditional.

Free Webinar: Recruiting Rescue with Floyd Wickman and Julie Escobar of ProspectsPLUS!

via prospectsplus1.wordpress.com

If you look at your business card and it says broker/owner, office manager or team leader; or if you are an agent with one of the several companies for whom recruiting people into your downline is another way to earn, check this out. Floyd is doing an interview with industry friends ProspectsPLUS and he'll specifically be talking about recruiting. As always with Floyd's events, expect to learn a ton! Click through to the event and register yourself today! The event is October 6th at 12:30pm.

Cool Biz Card Marketing: And I'll help you do it

The last time you went to a convention or a networking group meeting, what did you do with all those cards you collected?  You put them all in your database right?  Yeah right; maybe if you have a database called trash can!  Actually, it's my opinion (because I have no hard facts to point too) that most people pick and choose the few they will type into their phone or computer and the rest of the cards probably sit on a desk until the next cleaning and then are swept into the trash bin.  So if you believe that too, then what can be done to make sure you're the one who stands out when the event is over?  Here are two options for you.

I now carry three cards:  my standard card and a Google Me and Twitter card.

Google Me:

If you type "Agentjason" in Google you get myriad of ways to connect with me, and in case someone is clueless about the internets, the back of the Google card has my celly (although purists would have a blank back side).  Do you "own a term" on Google like that?  What happens if you type in your name on Google?  If you come up in the first few results you can get one like this too.  They are very easy to create.  Click here for the template! 

 

Twitter Cards:

A few days ago I ordered my Twitter cards that mimic typing in a tweet to answer the question "What are you doing?"  I had both of these printed at a cool little company called Moo.com.  There is no template for the Twitter cards so if you've read this far here's your reward:  Email me a pic of yourself and your twitter name and I'll send you back a file you can upload to Moo.com with a code for free shipping!  And in case you know how to edit yourself (or just want the free shipping code) it's: N6HG9M 

Happy networking!

Private voicemail you leave could soon be all over the web

Remember when Alec Bladwin's unfortunate voice mail to his daughter made it to prime time?  What a mess right?  Can you imagine waking up one morning knowing your private voice mail message is all over the internet?  My friend and fellow trainer Gary leaves me crazy messages all the time and I leave him crazy ones back.  Nothing shameful, just goofy, yet probably embarrassing if they got out into the open.  In fact, I've joked one day that I was saving them all in case I ever needed to blackmail him.

Getting a message off of a voice mail system has been just cumbersome enough that unless it's an A-Lister that someone could make money off of, no one has really ever bothered going to the trouble.  But I predict that's all about to change thanks to Google.  Google turned on my GoogleVoice account the other week and I've been playing with it a little.  So far I haven't switched over to it fully and am just experimenting, but see that "Tip" at the top of this post - it was on my Voice dashboard today.  So if someone calls and leaves me a voice mail and I'm using the Google system, I can now post that very easily wherever I wanted (just like I did below)!

Have you ever heard an agent in your office get a little emotional and leave a heated message?  It usually happens when a person gets really frustrated with a co-op agent on a transaction.  Uh oh.  We've all hopefully learned that the web has a very long memory and that whatever is in an email or text message will eventually get out, apparently now the same could be true for your voice message.  Who will be the first Realtor embarrassed by this?  Time will tell I guess but it hopefully won't be any of my readers!

How to get more online referrals

I looked back and so far this year I'm averaging 5 referral requests per month.  By referral request I mean one of my graduates or industry contacts asking me "Who do you know in (fill in the city) that is a Wickman grad I can trust to send a referral to?"  When I was an active Realtor, I'd ask that question all the time but in the last five years the way I'd find that person has changed dramatically.

Go back five years and ask me for a referral to an agent in Las Vegas and I'd most likely connect you with a Realtor named Debbie.  I met her once at a convention and every month since that I'd received her monthly newsletter which was basically just a local market update.  She occupied that spot in my mind, the spot of "agent in Vegas" and so she got the referrals.  I'm sure each month she sent out thousands of those newsletters in her local market and probably up to a thousand across the country to other Realtors.  And when I say every month, I mean every month - without exception.  Getting her newsletter so consistently basically forced me to get my own referral marketing out the door with matching regularity.  

If you've been doing something like this, keep it up for sure.  But if you can't afford to start a large mailing campaign right now, don't sweat it.  I don't think you really have too these days to get the same result.  Ask me now for an agent referral and I'm first going to try to find my own graduate and if I don't have any, I'll see if others in my company do.  But what if you were to ask me for a referral to an agent in Texas or Oklahoma?  That's no small request given the hundreds upon hundreds of Realtors I've personally trained just in those two states.  In fact, even if I've done just one class in a city, that's still a lot of great people from which to choose.  How in the world can I pick when I so deeply care about every single one of those grads?!  A couple of weeks ago the "how" became very clear to me because I actually did have to pick someone.