Or in this case, ON the bag. Literally.
That's our cat Swayze being held by a little girl from a photo shoot taken a couple of years ago. Liz has some connections with some people in Cincinnati that specialize in pet photography for marketing purposes. They need a certain kind of cat or dog with a certain look, they'll send out a request for matches and sample pictures to determine which pets are invited to a downtown studio for a few hours. Swayze is our second cat selected, with Bindi appearing on the packaging for some Iams dental treats some years back. Both are rescue cats, and Swayze was a certified therapy cat for some time.
We just recently found out that Swayze's picture was being used on some cat food in Canada. Our contact didn't know the exact product, just that it was a Cargill company. One of the perks of being a real estate agent is you learn to be proficient in finding information, and in this case it didn't take a lot of Googling to find out the specifics of which brand of cat food Swayze was pictured.
We wanted to get a couple of bags of the food (actually, just the bags, not the food itself) so that we could frame one for ourselves and another for Swayze's vet.
The challenge? This was a Canadian only product. There was nowhere online that we could place an order to ship to our home. Not even Canadian Amazon or any pet food stores had an online order capability. What we could find was a list of possible stores that carried the brand.
As usual, online information isn't always totally accurate, and as we started calling stores, some carried it, but most had it as special order and couldn't readily acquire it for us. And these calls? Right smack in the middle of the ruckus about tariff increases and if you believed the media, the Canadians were hatin' on Americans. The reality? Everyone we talked to (and there were quite a few) were very friendly and trying to be helpful.
Ultimately, one of the store associates said she'd reach out to the brand's sales rep. And sure enough, within a few hours the sales rep called us back. Obviously, there wasn't really anything in it for him. We weren't going to be long term clients (although we were willing to buy a few bags to get what we wanted), but he proposed a different solution and put us in touch with a coworker at the distribution and packaging warehouse. She was happy to send us some brand new, never used bags, free of charge. A few weeks later, we received a few each large and small bags with Swayze on the front. We've framed a bag and given to our vet, and framed one that we'll hang in our new home once we move.
What does any of this have to do with real estate?
1. Your sphere is one of your most important assets. No connections, we never had a chance for Swayze to be featured on a bag of Canadian cat food. Past clients can refer you business or write you some great online reviews.
2. Know how to use your tools. In this case, we had just enough information to figure our where Swayze was pictured. Last night, we knew how to read a topography map and help a buyer client understand why a 5 acre lot might be a challenge to build on.
3. People like to help people. No one had anything to gain by trying to help us get a few empty bags of cat food, but when they understood that it was our cat on the bag, they were happy to try their best. The same thing happens in real estate. Maintain good relationships with other professionals, you just never know when they may be able to lend you a hand when you most need it.
4. Don't believe everything you read online. Too much of it is designed for clicks, or to divide us. Be skeptical when you need to be, and be kind and you'll usually get the same in return.
Until next Tuesday, just Ask An Ambassador if you need help,
Bill & Liz aka BLiz
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