I wrote this in a comment a couple of weeks ago:
Everything we’re doing on-line emerges from the points of this star:
* engenu — rapid web site development
* encartus — elaborate custom Google maps
* Scenius — dynamic blogs-within-blogs
* ScentTrail — CRMishness with transaction management
* FlexMLS and the FlexMLS API — very robust MLS search
There is now a sixth point in our star: Praxis. I had an appointment cancel today, and I wrote the whole thing in just under five hours — while juggling all my usual eggs.
Although there is less editorial control than with engenu, now anyone we might add to our staff can create very professional looking web pages on the fly, with essentially no knowledge of how a web page goes together. Supplemented with other software (e.g., ScentTrail), I have the ability to create whatever I want with virtually no effort.
We hosted BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Phoenix twice, two years in a row. For both years, my local competitors made a big point of insisting that I have nothing to teach them. Perhaps they’re right. The only regular user of engenu I know of is Teri Lussier. Scenius has one fan, Cheryl Johnson. And only Cathleen and I are using encartus.
This seems a shame to me, but I’m the real estate business, not the software business. My belief is that the software I have written makes us much, much stronger as Realtors. We have tremendous marketing leverage for just two people.
But Praxis compounds that leverage a thousand-fold. I can do anything I want. I think I can take on anyone, including the Realty.bots. I’m convinced I can take whatever turf I want in Metropolitan Phoenix.
I don’t know when or where we’re going to do Unchained the next time. But I won’t be teaching Praxis, in any case. Even so, I have an idea that my local competitors may come to regret not having studied what I have to teach when they had the chance.
Rob Thiessen says:
>I don’t know when or where we’re going to do Unchained the next time. But I won’t be teaching Praxis, in any case.
Why the heck not? Is this a teaser or something?
September 3, 2010 — 6:53 am
Greg Swann says:
> Why the heck not?
Working for free is bad enough. Working for free and getting no results is worse. Working for free and taking shit from morons — nobody here — is insane. I think I’m happy enough, by now, to give Realtors the opportunity to discover that I know what I’m talking about by leaving them in the dust. When I’ve hammered that point home, I may consider selling the technology. If I’m right about what Praxis can do — very little of the theory has been tested so far — it won’t be cheap.
September 3, 2010 — 7:57 am
Brian Miller says:
Maybe a dumb question – what is Praxis
September 3, 2010 — 9:37 am
Greg Swann says:
> what is Praxis
It’s web page creation software. It’s like engenu.us, but much simpler for the end-user and much more complicated for the admin — that would be me. I’m trading front-end complexity for a massive increase in productivity on the back-end.
September 3, 2010 — 9:42 am
Teri Lussier says:
Thanks for this nutshell. Revisiting all these things that I’ve been waiting to utilize is inspirational and motivational and a very nice kick in the pants.
>I’m happy enough, by now, to give Realtors the opportunity to discover that I know what I’m talking about by leaving them in the dust.
“All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.” -Sun Tzu
September 3, 2010 — 9:44 am
Greg Swann says:
> “All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.” -Sun Tzu
😉
September 3, 2010 — 10:20 am
Al Lorenz says:
Greg, I use engenu regularly. I thank you too silently each time!
Al
September 3, 2010 — 3:32 pm
Greg Swann says:
> I use engenu regularly.
Bless you, sir. Thank you. I wasn’t fishing for compliments. I do marvel, though, about how much of the larger discussion of on-line real estate marketing has so little to do with, you know, selling real estate. 😉
September 3, 2010 — 5:35 pm
Greg Swann says:
And: While I’m thinking of it: Here’s to a multi-million-dollar Labor Day Weekend in Lake Chelan. This has got to be a big time for you, yes? Here’s hoping for a best-ever refutation of the Labor Day argument: Work hard and make money. The rest of the world might profit nothing from the good example you will set, but you will profit in every way. And who is more deserving of the fruits of your hard work than you?
(Glad I came back to this. There’s an essay in there.)
September 3, 2010 — 6:44 pm