October Newbie Challenge: The Results Are In!
My 2 cents was:
- DO NOT BUY LEADS! They are "magic beans" and a huge waste of money, so are any magazine or bus bench ads, etc. Build a Database of relationships and work by referral.
- Get your online presence going: website, facebook page, linkedIn Active Rain, YouTube, etc.
- You need an accountability partner or coach. (Ask for help, none of us do this alone).
- You need a business plan.
- Written goals. A schedule to keep you on track to achieve your goals.
- A geographic area to specialize in and focus your marketing & efforts on. (When you are new, you'll go anywhere there's work, but reign it it as quick as you can, niches create riches).
First, I have to say something. I've never taken part in a challenge where there was so much fantastic material submitted.
I asked each judge to send me their top ten picks and to rank them with favorites on top.
The first trick was to pick the posts that had the most overlap, and in most of these challenges there is quite a bit. But not this one! No post made all of our lists. Four posts made three out of four. Only 9 made two out of four!
The second is to weigh the scoring a bit, with posts at the top of lists getting a little extra credit. There was only one post that made the top of two lists!
So, now that we have our winners, the drum roll please!
First Place: 5000 points
Roger Mucci: My best advice to a newbie in any sales related business. Roger shared words of wisdom he learned at his mother's knee! And it was just four little, actually not so little, words. And we can tell from his posts that these are words that Roger lives by.
Second Place: 4000 points
Karen Fiddler: Best Advice I Got As A Newbie In Karen's case, Father knew best! And he had only three words, all put together to make a profound statement! Karen made them her mantra and was clearly influenced as she built her career and her business.
Third Place Tie: 3000 points each
Ron & Alexandra Seigle: Newbies & All: Are You Letting Ants Get In The Way of The Elephant! Not sure where this advice came from - sounds like it originated someplace in Asia. Reading this one was like getting one of those bonks on the head! I mean, I do that!
Mike Cooper: My best advice for newbie Realtors This is one of great posts where Mike is playing the wise broker we could all have been lucky to have at our elbows as rookies. And it was one of many posts with an easy to read road map for anyone new to this business.
But this won't be the end of it for so many of the posts that made it so hard to just choose a few! First, I encourage you to go to the original October Challenge post and read as many of the entries as you can. I'm actually about to re-read some right now!
And many thanks to those of you who sent us your best stuff, and to my esteemed fellow judges:
Charles Buell:
Home Inspector from Seattle, WA
Kathy Streib:
Home Stager from Delray Beach, FL
Becca Rasmussen:
Newbie Blogger who inspired this contest, and
Newbie Realtor from Highlands Ranch, CO
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