When Realtors® and Lenders start asking me if I'm busy, I know what they really want to know. "Are you busy?" usually means "Am I the only one who is not busy? Please tell me so I know it's not just me."

Tammy Walker, our Sales V.P., is getting this question a lot lately. We talked about how we should respond. We want to be truthful. No blowing smoke. Be genuine, not phony. Most importantly in the current environment, we want to be as positive and upbeat as we can be. Here's how Tammy is answering this question.

Well, even though business is softening considerably over the last six weeks, we're busy. We're busy getting better prepared for when our customers get busy again.

Every winter we examine our entire work flow process; start to finish, looking for better ways to communicate with you and with each other; and, eliminate wasted activity.

We are planning our winter training activities so that next year our team will be even more prepared to deal with the unusual and unexpected.

We're upgrading our computer network, improving the tools we use to service you; looking at how to incorporate powerful new features into our process.

We're looking at our existing production software. They say you only use 10% of your brain. Most of us only use 10% of the features in our software. We're going to be busy improving that ratio.

We're busy with our clients, too. What are you planning for your business? What things about how we work together would you like to improve? Please give us some constructive criticism.

We're into social media; talking to our clients about it. What are their thoughts about web 2.0? How will they incorporate social media into their marketing strategies?

Hopefully soon, after the election maybe, people will stop watching CNSBN (Cable News Sound Bite Network), things will settle out and start returning to normal. It's not a question of ‘if'; it's a question of ‘when.'

In the meantime, yes we are busy. There's so much to do and so little time to get it done before you're busy again.