ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: Be A Fountain, Not A Drain
- 09/16/24 07:54 PM
We saw the movie The Forge recently and a key takeaway was a scene where a mentor tells a young man "Be a fountain, not a drain".
You could probably interpret that statement multiple ways, but the core of it boils down to being a positive contributor to others.
Why do many members come back to ActiveRain day after day, year after year?
It's about the ratio of fountains to drains.
Flashing back to our beginning years in the Rain, an early realization was that Rainers were very helpful and sharing of information.
When you're used to other agents being guarded about how they market and … (12 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: Blogging Is A Waste Of Time
- 09/09/24 07:09 PM
When you look at activities you need to trim, blogging may be one of them.
Sacrilege to hear an Ambassador say that on a site centered around blogging and the interactions that come with it?
Nope, just pragmatic. Let's face it, blogging isn't the best choice for every real estate agent to make it rain leads.
If you have a large sphere of influence and know how to work for past referrals and it suits your personality, what's better than someone referred to you by someone they trusted? Not much, right? Today a past co-worker sent me what would be my 3rd referral from … (22 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: Blogging By-Products
- 09/02/24 08:13 PM
Whoever stated "ignorance is bliss" probably had some insight into what composes "by-products" on nutrition labels on canned meats :)
But we're not talking about Spam or Vienna sausages today, but the by-products of being a regular blogger!
We heard at a real estate convention almost 20 years ago that we should be blogging (along with 10,000 other things we SHOULD be doing!). It took some time, but somehow we stumbled across ActiveRain, signed up for an account...and promptly disappeared for 3 years before returning.
We didn't come out of the chute knowing how to blog for business, that was an evolution over time, … (14 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: You Don't Have To Reinvent The Wheel
- 08/26/24 07:21 PM
If you've been in real estate for more than a day, you'll find common elements with every other agent:
1. Time just might be your most valuable (and scarcest) commodity
2. There's always someone with a bright shiny promising to save you time and send avalanches of new clients your way
3. You'll need an entire closet full of hats for all the different roles you'll have
But you should also find that there a lot of fundamentals to this business, so you don't need to reinvent the wheel.
How to blog? There are many different ways to blog successfully and you have to identify what … (16 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: What's Your Style? Are You a Gashole?
- 08/13/24 11:02 AM
Earlier this week I was batting around blog post ideas and titles with a Rain friend, and for the same topic we would come up with entirely different post titles.
His titles tended to be the more eye catching, but his style of blogging is entirely different than mine. Most of my posts wouldn't be a natural fit for his blog, nor his for mine, and that's perfectly okay because as many members of ActiveRain as there are, there can be that many different approaches for how to best use your time in the Rain.
Blogging for business leads down one path, blogging … (20 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: Nope, Nope, Nope
- 08/06/24 08:52 AM
I made a commitment quite a few years ago to one of our ActiveRain friends to write an Ask An Ambassador post on Tuesdays. You may not see me blog about anything else, but every Tuesday I'll be here.
Each week I'm looking for a post topic.
Some weeks it's easy. There's an obvious issue in the Rain, or a how to post that could be written.
Other weeks, it's a Nope, Nope, Nope brain scramble process until I find a topic that fits my basic criteria:
1. Will it help others have a better experience in the Rain?
2. Can it help shorten the learning … (17 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: The Pragmatic Approach To Real Estate
- 07/27/24 03:40 PM
Saturday marked the 20th anniversary of obtaining my real estate license.
As an engineer, I tend to be very pragmatic. I weigh the pros and cons, and make a decision, and adjust later if the decision turns out not to have been the best choice.
Liz had been an agent for a couple of years on a team and the team lead was (well the old saying about if you can't say anything nice...) so it was time to do her own thing. She could hire help, or I could get my license. By that time I'd been at my engineering job for … (15 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: Standardize or Customize?
- 07/21/24 08:11 PM
Some industries seem to take a Baskin Robbins approach, the more variety the better!
How many variations of checkout machines do you encounter on a weekly basis with slightly different key positions for the red X and the green O?
In my house we have two washer/dryer set-ups (one for the humans, the other for the furries). The upstairs dryer has a 3 prong connector outlet, downstairs 4 prong connector. They both do the same task, but yet are different. And don't get me started on how each manufacturer of washers and dryers have their own brand specific pedestal if you want the … (13 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: Low Hanging Fruit
- 07/15/24 08:26 PM
Need blogging ideas?
There is plenty of low hanging fruit (topics) all around you, even when it may not be obvious. Just going about normal life and real estate activities are going to provide you ample blogging opportunities.
In the last couple of months we've had a tree fall on our house (okay, not so much fall as a mishap by a professional tree company).
That incident could be spun into the following topics if I chose:
Lessons learned from the insurance companies and the process Customer service of the tree company What is the state's law regarding matching shingles during a repair? Does … (17 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: Tick, Tick, Tick
- 07/09/24 02:54 PM
I haven't written a new patio home blog post in several years.
Why not?
It's not because I think blogging doesn't work.
Instead, I have total faith that blogging CAN work, and CAN continue to work long after I've written my last post about patio homes.
I did the work, and now I can sit back if I choose and wait for the next potential client.
Tick, tick, tick.
I know that if I wanted to create more contacts, I could write more niche content, but I'm more about balance in life right now than I am about writing a blog post a day. Finding clients that … (20 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: Venn Will You Learn?
- 07/02/24 11:32 AM
Back in the late 1800s John Venn created a way to show relationships between data sets, and while we might not remember his first name, the term Venn diagram lives on with anyone who likes to analyze.
Cliff Notes version, you can label data sets by a category or characteristic, and organize the data sets using circles. If you have an overlap between circles, that overlap area is common ground to both (or more) categories.
For instance, you COULD use a Venn Diagram (or similar) to select a niche for real estate.
Data is available for sales prices.
Data is available for how many homes … (18 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: Feeding The Neighbor's Cat
- 06/25/24 08:52 AM
Our home is a magnet for stray cats. We live on a dead end country road just off an interstate exit (can you say PERFECT for anyone wanting to dump unwanted cats??).
We suspect there's a cat language road map that points them to our house as a great place to gain food, water and shelter. We maxed out the inside of our home long ago, and the two outside cat enclosures are full occupancy, so any other furries that show up can duck into one of the houses on our front porch or in the back yard, and we'll feed them … (22 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: ActiveRain's Cheap Seats
- 06/18/24 07:46 AM
Years back I used to do quite a bit of business travel, and one of the perks was getting to enjoy each locality's offerings: great seafood in New England, a beef on weck in Buffalo, fantastic views from Point Loma in San Diego, and the occasional ballgame.
The games weren't business expenses, so I wasn't averse to sitting in the cheap seats (literally) to enjoy a game. There are pros and cons to the cheap seat experience.
Obviously, minimal dollars for the chance to see a MLB game is a pretty sweet deal. $6 to sit in the right field upper deck seats, … (23 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: Taking Your Blog To Critical Mass
- 06/10/24 03:33 PM
If you watched the movie Oppenheimer, the term critical mass won't be a stranger to you.
critical mass: the minimum amount of fissible material needed to maintain a nuclear chain reaction
Oversimplification of the process:
1. Develop a design
2. Manufacture adequate material of the RIGHT type
3. Construct the design
4. Set off the chain reaction
Now you might think there's no comparison between building Little Boy & Fat Man and blogging for business, but both projects share some common elements.
You don't have to read about the Manhattan Project to recognize the same formula that built atomic bombs can be put to work in your blog.
Develop a … (9 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: Persistence Is Key
- 06/03/24 09:06 PM
It's peak lavender bloom season in our front flower bed and the pollinators are enjoying the feast! Our honeybees and bumblebees and other native bees are flitting from one blossom to another.
I enjoy TRYING to take pictures of them with my cell phone. I say TRYING because with lavender blooms there's not much of a snack in any individual bloom, so the bees sample and move, sample and move. I have to decide whether to try with several different bees, or stick to one individual bee. In general I've found that sticking with one bee gives me a better chance of … (20 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: Even Pros Make Big Mistakes
- 05/27/24 08:43 PM
Our home is surrounded by woods, and with woods comes the need for periodic tree maintenance. Emerald ash borers have been lethal to area ash trees over the last couple of decades, and our woods are no exception. We had three trees that needed dropped, one was a threat to our bee yard, another to our parking area, and the 3rd was close to the garage side of our home, and clean-up was needed for a 4th tree that had fallen in the side yard a couple of weeks ago after a storm.
There's a well-known local tree service we've used over … (14 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes
- 05/20/24 03:33 PM
TL/DR version: be careful with your blog post topics and comments.
Strap yourself in, the development for this one takes a bit.
Sometimes I push my luck a little further than I should.
This year has been a strange one for weather in our corner of Ohio, cold, warm, cold, rain, more rain, more rain, a roller coaster of weather and scheduling issues that kept us from getting into our beehives for our Spring cleanup and rotation of frames in our hives. And while our schedule might have been whacked, our honeybees kept on doing what honeybees do in Spring, grow the hive population, … (27 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: Are They Looking For What You're Writing?
- 05/12/24 08:14 PM
Blogging for business isn't about the number of words in a post, or even the number of posts written each week. It's not about the pictures included with the post (but they DO matter!).
It's not even necessarily about your skill as a writer. You could challenge Tolstoy and Hemingway and still be unsuccessful as a blogger.
You can format your post perfectly, no wall of words, easy to visually read. Not a typo to be found, and you could still fall flat on your face for business purposes.
What is critical to blogging for business is understanding what the potential clients NEED from … (17 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: There is Only ONE Right Way To Use ActiveRain
- 05/07/24 08:05 AM
As the Mandalorians say "This is the Way".
Or is it?
There is only ONE right way to use ActiveRain.
Not a true statement, is it?
And while I have some pretty strong parameters developed for how I CHOOSE to use ActiveRain, it's a personal choice. I don't do rants (any more). I prefer to focus more on real estate posts that attract consumers closer to making a decision with a scattering of posts that give a glimpse into who we are personally.
But as long as we operate within the terms of the Community Guidelines, all should be good, right?
But to every rule there are … (26 comments)
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ask an ambassador: Ask An Ambassador: Absent, But Not Forgotten
- 04/30/24 01:18 PM
In real estate one of the phrases you'll hear is "staying top of mind". You want people to remember you, remember where you work, remember to call you when they know someone can use your services.
We've been part of this community for almost 18 years.
We've seen some of your young ones go from pre-school to college, watched you change brokerages, go through some of the biggest events in life both positive and negative. We've vicariously traveled all over the world. We know about differences in real estate practices, techniques we can borrow for our local market, and seen a long, long … (13 comments)
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We saw the movie The Forge recently and a key takeaway was a scene where a mentor tells a young man "Be a fountain, not a drain".
;)
;)
;)
