Better Seattle

I went to Inman Connect NY this year determined to go to as many sessions as possible, gain new insights, and bring them back to the AR community. This strategy contrasted to my usual Inman experience of back-to-back deal making meetings with little time for sessions. I am sad to report that my hope of attending many of the sessions lost out to the best Inman networking experience to date! However, the good news is that all of that networking and deal making will result in some great new tools and features coming to our ActiveRain members in the future months! In fact it's Friday morning, and it's already been one week since the conference has ended and this is my first real opportunity to take a breather and write a real blog post about the experience.

I've come to savor the relationships rekindled at Brad Inman's Real Estate Connect conferences, held in San Fransisco in the summer and Manhattan in the winter. My first Inman conference was not as successful, despite my hopes; I aspired to meet with the "higher ups" to pitch the idea for ActiveRain and raise financial support. In reality, that first conference was quite the growth opportunity. I drove to San Francisco alone, and when I got there knew absolutely no one. I approached people who's name I recognized, introduced myself, and attempted to secure meetings. Needless to say, I ate every meal by myself during my three days in San Francisco and drove home just a little poorer than when I had arrived.

The first conference is the hardest to "crash", so to speak, but by the second, and certainly by the third, I found myself knowing more and more people. Now after my fourth conference I would guess that I know 1/3 of the attendants on a first name basis! 

I managed to sneak into parts of a several sessions, and here were some of my takeaways:

Charlie Young, COO of Coldwell Banker, banished the old "listings as commodity" argument with his emphasis on putting listings everywhere.

Marc Davison of 1000Watt Consulting stressed taking the temperature of the market and giving more transparency.

Sherry Chris, CEO of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate twirled people on their heads, stating, "Consider non-business application as business applications". Twitter, YouTube, etc.

Kevin Boer discussed using outside companies for your web components, opensource software, etc, as a way to make real estate blogging and technology affordable. Why reinvent the wheel? 

Trulia announced their new motto of "when your product becomes a commodity, commoditize your business" and the launch of their new white label listing product. (I personally believe that this is perhaps one of the most important milestones in the real estate industry in the last 10 years. I will try to post more on that thought soon.)

FrontDoor made their big appearance.  They are definitely a player, and should be watched!

Pretty much every expert said that the real estate market is doing very badly, and it most likely won't recover for another couple of years (except for a few locations, such as New York city, which are booming). 

The general theme left little doubt of the impact of conventional marketing as a has-been in our current marketplace. Exemplified by Pamela Liebman, President and CEO of the Corcoran Group, her company has done away with all print advertising, except to promote open houses. If agents are hesitant, she shared, track and share where closed sales originate. The numbers will speak for themselves, and agents will switch right away!

Ever wonder how to make worthwhile resolutions that you can actually attain and feel good about in the process?? Here's my homemade strategy for making the next 365 something to rave about:

1)  Ask yourself, "What do I care about, have convictions towards, or have daydreamed about for my life?"

The key here is to identify desires, hopes, goals, or beliefs that you hold that you want to move towards. Remember, if you say something matters to you but you do nothing, the reward (positive or negative) that you get from inactivity is greater than the perceived reward you'll receive through activity. Ex: If you have a fear of change, your desire for comfort may outweigh the perceived benefit of moving towards your goal. This may play out in the case of an employee or agent who wants to work for an office with good morale and camaraderie but they're scared of leaving the familiar.

2)   What's the next step that you could comfortably move towards and be able to implement naturally into your life?

This step is about getting your feet in the water. Don't make it harder than it is. If your goal is to get back to your college weight, resolve to take 10 minute walks every evening. The resolution would be the 10 minute daily walk (the behavior change), not the end result (back to your college weight). 

3)   Build in a reward for following through with your resolution.

For many, this may be simply feeling good about doing something that matters to you. Think of it as good "self-care". You matter and have worth, and you're worth making goals and working hard for. Allow yourself to feel good about what you accomplish!

4)   Ditch the guilt!!!

If you steer from your resolution, forget about the "yesterdays" and focus on the present. If you set a goal for regular daily walks, but you miss a whole week, the week doesn't mean it's undo-able. Simply recommit to your goal and feel good about being able to chart through new territory (staying true to what you'd like to implement into your life).

5)   Remember, resolutions are about adding value to your life.

If you do the things that are inherent to your goal, you will eventually get there. For example, to get to a certain weight, you'd implement regular exercise with eating more whole fruits, vegetables, and made from scratch foods. Find out what you have to do to reach your goal, and make those particulars your resolutions.Don't make the end goal your resolution, or you may be taking on more than you can chew. Plus, each step along the way is a resolution in itself that should be celebrated!

So, what would you do for yourself if you got serious about yourself? It's never to late to "seize the day"! If you can tell I've been thinking about exercise, that's because I'm training to run the Austin Half Marathon the second week of February. For those of you who can't imagine yourself running any length of race (trust me, I didn't either, and neither did my husband, who ran his first marathon last summer) check out ActiveRunners, a group for runners and those wanting to get into the running (or just plain healthy) lifestyle.

Have a Happy 2008!