I am not a terribly prolific blogger or commenter, so this climb toward my first 100k has been a slow journey.
My oldest son who appeared here first as a sweet young teen is going off to college in a few months. My dogs are no longer puppies, and I am a few wrinkles richer, if not wiser.
Things change with time, and one learns the ropes, and makes the necessary changes to achieve the latest sets of goals. Those who plan and stick to that plan diligently are statistically much more likely to succeed, at least financially. I am not one of those. I've jumped into the rain a few years ago without a plan, and floated on its gentle waves, and waded into the muckiest of mucks, galoshe-less. Somehow, in this rather directionless journey, I have encountered some truly fantastic human beings. I have made a few genuine virtual friends. I have suffered the most pleasant of unintended consequences, and to my ever growing surprise - I've gotten some business for my itty bitty firm. I also learned something about human nature, and competitive spirit in us all.
A sweet natured Canadian blogger, on whose post I left a few comments she thought of as witty ages ago, hired my company to design and print some postcards recently. We did our best, and the client was all sorts of happy, so, naturally (given that she is a sweet person), she wanted to share with the AR universe that she thought my hubby and I are pretty darn cool, show off her new cards a wee bit, and offer up a few nifty discounts on printing that we gave her. Sounds harmless enough. The AR gods featured it. We were glowy-happy that she was thrilled enough to do something like that.
Then came the rebuttals and a whole new blog on the subject of more or less how what we designed isn't going to work.
Had it all been done in an attempt to have an intelligent discussion on the subject of print advertising, I'd be all for it, but to this here little blogger in this giant AR universe, it seemed strangely like a turf war...
I have been here long enough to have witnessed all sorts of displays of our best and basest impulses, and maybe only because it concerned my client - I took the whole thing to heart. But it still begs the question: if this is indeed a professional network, and all the real estate practitioners here consider themselves professionals in their field (helping a client buy or sell real estate), then why would a vendor or service provider not be granted some benefit of the doubt? I am not one for ass kissing of any kind, and was certainly not hoping for any of that. See, I am fine with criticism, even if misguided, but the thing that struck me in those discussions was a thought, stated as fact, that what we designed was simply wrong and would not work. I find it hard to believe that every real estate or mortgage professional on here blogs, markets and sells according to the one exactly right way of doing business, one magic formula. To expect that in advertising and marketing especially there is such a thing as one right way to achieve results strikes me as strangely counter-intuitive.
But back to professionals walking both sides of the expertise fence: if you sell real estate for a living and believe that your experience and expertise in that field makes you worth the commission check at the end of the transaction, and that you do provide a valuable service - than why would the same rationale not apply to the other professionals on here? It's ok to do your own design, in much the same way it's perfectly ok to sell your own house for so many FSBOs, and god knows there are plenty of tools available for anyone to choose from, with the never ending supply of clipart, photos, nifty effects and even apps that will write or "enhance" copy, but does that really compare to years of design, advertising and marketing education and experience? Does it compare to the intuition, if you will, acquired through many years of doing this day in and day out?
Let's put it in terms of investment: we own roughly 5,600 of the best fonts available on the market, all the latest Adobe Pro software, have memberships in all relevant industry organizations, so we can keep up with tech and design stuff before it hits the market. The design part of the team got his pencil sharpened, if you will, at AGT, the PrePress and design arm of Conde Nast - working out the kinks in those glossies you probably subscribe to. The other half, me, before the ad agency, spent years as the editor and writer for a pretty cool publication with readership of over 120K, the good majority of whom read it cover to cover, every month. So how does one compete with clipart and clichés collaged into a sales piece in Publisher?
Today, I've decided that one doesn't. Just like the card that spawned those discussions was NOT meant for everybody, but the few who happen to be in the right place and time emotionally and otherwise, - so is what we do not going to be suitable for everybody. There will be those who are, indeed, better off designing all their own stuff, or going with a standard and palatable template. There are plenty of service providers for that, even on AR.
I will stick to what we know best, and working with people who want different and have the moxie to dare break some rules once in a while; who can see the value in thinking outside the box; who don't tend to rely on the latest prophesies of a marketing guru.
I am eternally grateful to AR for one very simple thing - for making it easy for me to choose my battles, and making it easier still for those few who get me, and who understand what we do and why, to have found me in the rain. I am thrilled that the scarce and rather unintentional marketing of our services here has resulted in the kinds of clients that we genuinely enjoy working with. I am happy to call most of them my friends.
So, thank you to my few fabulous clients for being you. For everything else, there are bits of new rules, do's and don'ts being typed onto a blank page somewhere as we speak, that I am sure will be available on Amazon.com soon enough, and will, I am certain, empower a whole new generation of DIY'ers.
I am truly ok with that.
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