Penny Robinson, Apprentice     Darleen McCullen, Mentor

Penny and Darleen had an exciting week working on the Week 2 Challenge - the Pre-listing package.

We are associated with a large, national firm - and have many training materials available, of course - but we wanted to do something a little outside of what we'd normally do for a pre-listing presentation. We took some of the materials Penny would ordinarily use - and rewrote them all to provide fresh content - while keeping with the same consistent format. Participating in this contest has been great for us this way - to help us think outside the box and look at a new way of doing "old" things.

Penny and I decided to venture out to learn not one - not two - but three - new software packages. Yes, the KW Dynamic Divas are BOLD!

For our prelisting presentation, we decided to use a 3 prong approach:

1. Video email.
2. A "talking" PowerPoint.
3. PDF files.

We realize that we all have different learning styles or preferences in how we all like to learn and have information presented to us.

Video Email: We created the video email with free software available from www.EyeJot.com. It's cool software - but we had a few glitches that we never did figure out. For example, the videos had quite a bit of static in them. (I'm thinking that the microphone and/or volume needed to be tweaked - but we never could quite resolve the issue.)

Also, Penny and I recorded the video message - and we thought it had been emailed to each of us.  WRONG! We didn't figure it out until later (before the deadline, thank goodness!) that our video email was gone forever. So, the next best thing we could do was to rush into the office on Sunday afternoon before the deadline and record another video.

Penny and her husband had been working in the yard all day - and a few hours before the deadline - with Penny's hair wet - we recorded another video. Poor Penny! She's such a trooper. (She's funny, too, because she is one of those people who doesn't take herself too seriously. It's a great quality to have!!)

 Penny created a blog outlining our experience.

"Talking" PowerPoint: We used a trial version of a software package called Camtasia for the "talking" PowerPoint portion of our presentation. We knew sort of what we wanted to do for the presentation - but didn't quite know how to do it. For me (Darleen) it's quite easy to put words on a page - but we wanted to do something a little outside of our comfort zone - since after all, that's what this contest is supposed to be about right? Stretching ourselves to the max!

In real estate, and in life, it's my feeling that we should always strive to push our boundaries - and take a chance to learn something new - and look at fresh ways of presenting old ideas. It's what's going to give us the competitive advantage.

There's so much more that we'd like to learn about Camtasia to make even fancier presentations - and more than likely, we'll purchase the full version and incorporate into our new listing presentations and in other areas of our business - such as jazzing up our Websites and blogs, where appropriate.

Here's the link to the Camtasia presentation we created.

Penny worked on the PowerPoint presentation and had never even opened the software before. (Hats off to Penny!) PowerPoint can be intimidating - but she once again was a champ and learned the software. We'll work on the different transitions between slides and some of the additional cool features that are available.

We're happy that Week 2 is behind us - and are busy working on the Week 3 Challenge. We're having fun - and can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with for the challenge.

Submitted by: Darleen McCullen, Mentor