Just this morning I was commenting to Paddy Pizzapi (in a blog post) that today was going to be an interesting day. Little did I know just how wildly interesting it would become. I took my minions to work today. They braved a brewing storm to do two open houses with their Mama. We got in a little late, played a few games, ran from the Minion Blur's love taps and engaged in Gigglefest. The boys had a big day and actually fell asleep early. Yay! So here I am chilling, sitting in my home office checking my in-box, e-mail and listening to my voice mail when a message from the lovely A. Jin pops up to inform me she is a Canadian relocating to New York City and could I please return her call.
Wow... Paddy wrote a very interesting post just this morning entitled "Take A Chance On This One? What The Heck, Go For It!" Paddy was in the process of acquiring an overseas prospect interested in moving to Orange County from Israel as a direct result of her blogging on Active Rain. Very cool. I was reading this post when my Canadian message played and I found myself laughing at the fact that God definitely has a sense of humor. The timing of this really knocked me for a loop and I found myself thinking, "Oooo, I get an international prospect too? What are the odds of that? Too funny!"
I love irony. I immediately became distracted with laughter, didn't submit my comment on Paddy's post and promptly replayed my messages thinking that I might be getting spoofed by Mandycap. She's good. I have to be very careful. She fooled Richard and he's a lot smarter than I am. Believe you me, that little understatement says a lot (LOL). On the second go around I paid really close attention to the caller's accent while checking the area code on-line and oh my word - a legitimate number. My brain stopped working for a whole minute.
Wow...
My mouth dropped open. It's a real number from Canada. Hmm... what a yummy thought...
The only Canadian I know is the gorgeous Liz Moras and she lives all the way over on the other side. This is not a Pacific Coast spoof! So of course I had to immediately call Melody Botting and my Canadian gal pal Liz, after all, it is an Active Rain Canadian relocation. How do I know? It's where the majority of my Google juice comes from. Gotta share the good news with my Club Chaos girlfriends and the rest of the CC family after I confirm where the prospect got my number from. I am soooo excited! I'm like a little kid when I start Skyping people. I can stay on that thing all day while I am blogging with my headset on. The ladies and I had mad fun doing a quickie catch up game of phone tag and then I returned my prospect's call ready to handle her business once I realized it was a serious call and no one was prankin' me.
What a sweet woman. I was very happy to enjoy our brief but most delightful conversation. What an interesting accent! I wonder what a native New Yorker sounds like to a Canadian... hmm... but I digress... :-) After conducting a brief preliminary interview to discover what the family required, being the Curious George Realtor that I am, of course I had to ask, "how on earth did you find me?" I don't know why I was surprised to hear it, I expected it, assumed it to be true, but knew there was always the possibility that it just might be a referral... Woo-hoo! Ding, ding, ding! I was very pleased to discover she found me right here on-line. I guess I just didn't realize the Canadians were paying me any attention (LOL). How cool is that? I think it is absolutely awesome!
I love Richard Weisser's post about blogging being his business plan. I am so down with the AR-Blog program, SEO and getting on board with great ideas from veterans like him. I am happy to report that I absolutely love sharing my thoughts with my friends and having AR adventures with my children. Blogging about life and real estate is very easy to do when you care about your subject matter and the people you choose to share yourself with.
I love Active Rain. For me, it is all about the relationships and sharing ideas. I brag that you guys are my "mastermind group" and Club Chaos is my personal think tank (LOL). I have always believed that networking follows eventually (when people get to know a little bit about you and become comfortable with what they experience and learn). I do not know how long this family has been planning to relocate. I do know that with over 4 million Realtors the Jin family selected me. What an honor. I am so looking forward to starting a new set of friendships with this family. They are driving down from Canada tonight and we will be spending a little time together tomorrow and Saturday.
I feel like giving my pal Richard a virtual high five and sticking my digital tongue out at that rude agent who belittled his wonderful posts, business model, SEO efforts and dedication to blogging. It's positive moments like this that make me wonder why so many professionals who don't understand the benefits of blogging and Search Engine Optimization feel the need to attack us. Blogging is a crucial business practice. Google popped me right to the top of the list because of my Club Chaos activities (not to mention following the Amanda Hall rules of serial commenting - LOL).
Thank you AR Dudes (and Claire).
(BTW, the little minions 8, market reports 2, just in case you are following along with Paddy P and keeping score of my 2008 AR client stats.) I can not imagine living without my Club Chaos family, my R.E. Coach and accountability partner, my AR Mentors, my Localism blog, my Outside Blog, Mixpo and Active Rain. They all link back to TannStarr.com and have helped me revise my business model as an independent contractor so I can rise to a higher level of inter-dependent networking.
I know what's driving my marketing plan. Hey Anti-Blogger, what's driving yours?
http://www.TannStarr.com
C Tann-Starr — Carolyn Tann-Starr, Realtor, REMAX People Realty
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That's saying it. Nice blog, nice photos. They look like great kids.