Posted on October 10, 2008 by Russell Shaw
I don’t know how many posts there will be in this series but I will continue to post them until I find out. I want NAR to completely reclaim Realtor.com. I want them to take it away from MOVE (formerly Homestore). I want everything about Realtor.com to be a member service included with our dues – just like realtor.ca is for Canadian Realtors. My Realtor.com pencil sharpener graphic above is pretty much how most Realtors who are involved with selling real estate tend to see Realtor.com. Is there anything about Zillow you don’t like? How about Trulia? Anything you
Posted on October 1, 2008 by Russell Shaw
The emotion of fear is a gradient scale that starts at simple, garden variety “worry”, at the lowest level and goes up to a high level of terror. At the highest levels of fear the body will literally shut down. The emotion of fear is built-in to the body from a long time back as a survival mechanism (the fight-or-flight response). If you have a mental fear the body will respond. Any real or imagined threat to survival can produce this response. However, possibly having less money (which is a survival point in the current society) is not likely to
Posted on September 23, 2008 by Russell Shaw
From the Department of Homeland Stupidity comes the newly formed Department of Bailouts. Is there now a sufficient level of converting the United States into a socialist economy for the New Regime President (aka, Treasury Secretary Paulson) to feel that his work is done? But the above isn’t my special area of expertise. Showing fellow agents how to have a truly successful business is what I am known for. And I find it funny (odd?) when I read something that directly contradicts what I know to be true on that particular subject. It certainly isn’t the first time I’ve seen,
Posted on September 3, 2008 by Russell Shaw
photo credit: www.rishimodi.com Management is telling people what to do. Leadership is teaching them how to think. Opinion leaders tell people what to think. Despite various surveys indicating how low the general public ranks real estate agents, some agents are highly respected by their clients and peers. How does that happen? To understand how that is accomplished, first let’s look at the concept of influencing the opinions of others. Various studies have shown that media communication intended to change someone’s buying or voting behavior seldom works directly. The communication may be directly received by the person it is intended
Posted on August 31, 2008 by Russell Shaw
Actual link to Google Maps What you are looking at is an actual image from Google maps. If you want to see what others are saying about it, you can find it on various sites. Is it innovative? A little bit, maybe. But in the end, probably not. Does a Realtor really need to "be innovative" to succeed? I don’t think so. There are more and more "out of the box" ideas that are presented to the real estate industry almost every day. Loads and loads of "new" stuff that is really just more old stuff. Most of the agents
Posted on August 19, 2008 by Russell Shaw
He made history. In the 112 years the Olympics have taken place, Michael Phelps was the first person to ever win 8 gold medals in a single Olympics. The crowd went wild when he won the 8th but nothing was more remarkable than his 7th win. He won that one by one one-hundredth of a second. To me, it looked like the other guy (he has a name but isn’t it interesting from a marketing perspective how it doesn’t just roll off the tongue?), Milorad Cavic actually won. 1/100th of a second difference took 1st place. That was the difference
Posted on August 13, 2008 by Russell Shaw
This was for new John Hall agents and the room was very hot, so I had two big fans going at the same time. Unfortunately, you can hear the fan noise. The talk is a bit over 90 minutes total and it has been split into nine parts. It is in mp3 format and clicking on each of the links will open the file in your computer. People who have heard me speak many times before said it it was very very good. Other than the fan noise, I agree with them. Talk from Russell on July 16th, 2008 part
Posted on August 12, 2008 by Russell Shaw
The Homeowner Rescue Bill Rescues Fannie and Freddie Investors. I don’t see any other groups being rescued. Normally I don’t find it difficult to disagree with President George W. Bush about pretty much everything (save the curvature of the earth and that humans should breathe oxygen). This time it is different. Bush had to have been ashamed to have signed it. Just look at how it is buried on this page. Arizona Senator John Kyl was one of the 13 dissenting votes. Kyl even called a close Realtor friend of mine here in Arizona to explain why he could
Posted on July 29, 2008 by Russell Shaw
Okay, this is really, Enemy Line, part 2. Part 1 was here. The reason for the delay: I was in Orlando for Starpower and this is the first chance I’ve had since I got back to town. This post was prompted by the various questions I received in the comments section of that first post. Please forgive me for this: most of those questions (I received some in person as well) were prompted by people reading the first post and then NOT actually doing what that post said to do. This would be sort of like reading about an exercise
Posted on July 20, 2008 by Russell Shaw
Achieving success is primarily a mental thing. One can observe the physical actions and results but sitting behind those actions and results are thoughts. "Correct" thoughts. The right kind of thinking leads to the right kind of actions. In any meaningful and desirable activity there is an infinity of incorrect ways to attempt to accomplish the intended result. There are but a few "correct" methods. Correct is being defined in this context to mean it works. That kind of thinking will produce the intended result. Usually, even in what could be classified as a purely "physical activity" the difference between
