There’s always something to howl about.

Author: Chris Johnson (page 3 of 6)

Instigator, anthill kicker.

The Real Problem with the Morons and Cowards at #RTB

Greg put me on this #RTB nonsense. I will say this: anyone who supports increased prelicensing requirements  is a lazy coward who is deluding himself into mediocrity by legislation.   They don’t want to compete with young whipper snappers, so they make it harder.  Even the most innocuous opinion by Real Life Sheri is dead wrong.  The responsibility for education lies with the practitioners, not with someone that’s disseminating information.  I didn’t learn anything from my prelicensing except this: that my Real Estate Career was going to be filled with egomanical blowhards that were going to do their best to maximize the drama in a transaction.  And that the state had the power to make me sit through 120 hours of nonsense before I could tell full grown adults that “this…is the living room.”

That’s the insanity of getting in bed with the government.  When you advocate increased rules, you’re carrying a scorpion across the river and expecting something good to happen.  The result will be destruction, always.

However, I’m certain that #RTB is to succeed.  It’s a perfect example of Johnson’s law: All randomly generated bad ideas that benefit the government will find a willing partner in the government for their execution.   See, the government doesn’t need to plot and scheme to get bigger.  Once she attains a critical mass, people will kowtow and bring her offerings in the form of enslaving ideas.  There is no conspiracy, there are no black helicopters.  There is nothing but a bunch of morons abdicating their use of a brain and ceding what is rightly theirs to a government or trade organization.  That’s enough to create massive growth in  the government.

Ken Brand puts it nicely:

I don’t want to raise the bar, I want to take the steel bar and beat the crap out of the leaders (Broker’s/Sales Managers/Team Leaders/etc. who hire, support, allow, retain and reward people who violate natural laws of human interaction, common sense and professional conduct (as defined by our association).

He also gives the just deserts to the consumers that accept morons.  When you advance the causes of government you are a friend to Read more

Vendorsluts, Foundations And Articles Of Faith

Why are we in business?  Why are we doing anything.  A company that is just in business to make a buck is as compelling as a man that’s just alive to eat his next meal.  I heard horror stories–from the guy that paid $20,000 for a web design only to find that the designer retained copyright–to a guy that was unable to cancel a monthly fee after months of trying.   When I started getting beyond “helping people sell stuff,” and getting to the big damn “why” question, I found myself carving a different spot from other folks.  I want to be better (not just different).

BloodHound s have a meme.  There are lots of parts to it, and I don’t know ’em all (and probably don’t agree with everything, either).

So, together with Ian, we came up with a meme.  My company is called Flat Rate Web Jobs, and we are Flatties.

What flatties believe:

We believe in accountability.  Everything we provide has a 100% money back, “no dirty looks” guarantee.

We believe you are in charge of everything.  You own the copyright on all of the work we do for you, and you can use our work however you see fit.

We believe you must measure ROI in social media.  Everything we offer helps you increase your return.

We believe in adding to everything we touch.
We believe you should understand exactly what you’re buying, what your benefits are, and when to next steps will take place.

We believe in small businesses, salespeople and professionals.  It is our honor to serve you.

We believe it’s our duty to put our customer’s interests first.

We don’t believe in fads.  We don’t try to make a quick buck on buzz.

We believe in including more than you thought you paid for, every time.

We believe independent thinkers create the best work.

So, that’s my company.  We currently have a decent array of products we sell.  The point is the “we’ve got your back,” ethos that I love.

The point is that we’re different.  All people are invited to come figure out why–I’m doing a free “hands on” webinar on how you can make boss google around and Read more

All of the Best Features of Top Producer…for $100

Digital Access Pass…is amazing.  What it’s doing and where it’s going requires a good bit of configuration. But, if you’re E-only, and do more email than other stuff, it’s the way to go. I’ve got no skin in that game, other than my desire to see Ravi get really good at this.

For a basic CRM and a way to have a “gated WordPress Comunity” dap does a lot. It’s not perfect, but it’s got (now) an aweber forms parser and other things that are allowing and extending its functionality.

Dap Ain’t user friendly, quite. It requires a brain to use. It requires a commitment to THINK in advance.

Anyway, here’s an idea I did. I made this for Ravi because he is worth helping, and promoting his stuff is important to me. I want him to win….so his software can help my business.

Some Ideas For Unchained…Or…I’ll kick Your Asymptote.

Perfect never happens, and it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pursue it.

I am better than I was six months ago by a wide margin.  I’ll be better in six months by a wider margin, I hope.  I’m hoping that I improve at an improving rate.  I work hard to do so.  The silly math is that if you improve your efficacy by 1% each day then you double every 68 days or whatever.  Every year then you’d through five cycles and then be 2*2*2*2*2 better.   Nice theory, but it doesn’t happen that way.   Google grains of rice and chessboard.

You CAN however improve a bunch, and have times where you are like Neo.

My focus is on lead generation.  I’m good at it, and getting better.  I’ve learned bigger gains are made in other areas, but lead generation is still what I like because we gravitate to what we’re good at.  But that’s not the only area where we can get good.  Lead gen rocks because I like getting leads that are above average.  Nobody has time to sift through morons, but anyone has time to deal with motivated and interested buyers.  That’s why Search.Twitter.com is such a beautiful breeding ground.

Anyway, here’s a fun idea.

What’s the best customer experience for a loan process?

What’s the best possible customer experience for a Real Estate Sale?

For a contract negotiation?

For a listing?

What wows?  Author # 8 touched on this a while ago.  You create the perfect experience from the buyer’s perspective.

How long they’ll take.

How much they’ll know.

You make it customer focused, high touch and high tech.   And you make it utterly destructive to all of your competition.  Make it so much better than it anything that exists from the knowledge the buyer gets to the resposnsiblity you take.  Widen the gap with things that make people feel better…even if most of the effort isn’t used.

Let’s design the best experience possible.

And then, let’s figure out how to deliver it with modern tools.

After we’ve done that, let’s figure out what the most critical and different elements are. And let’s focus on building an experience with today’s tools that delivers that…level Read more

Reach Out, Connect, Be Careful and Other Worthless Advice

There roughly 50 days left this year, depending on when I get this post done.  About 14% of the year left.  And, really, truly, a lot of people take it down a notch after Halloween.  Or three notches.  Because the presumption is that nobody buys in the winter.

Look at the NAR monthly numbers: every year, December and January are only 8% off from August and September in the housing industry.  2008 is an outlier. Probably still time to do one of 2 things: crank 2 transactions out of this year or have an amazing January, or both.  But “shutting it down,” and waiting, and coming into the office in the role of listless mope in adult failure spiral.  If you are going to fail, stay home and don’t infect the office.

But that’s not really the point of this post.  The point comes from a tawlk with Bawld Guy I had last night.  He pointed out that a blog was well intentioned but had vague unactionable advice.  I see it too.  Because being told to “work harder, and be careful” is the sole substance of most of the Social Media, or Investing advice you see these days.   “Connect more, be authentic and transparent, and use common frolicking sense.”  And then wait and you’ll get to join the Twitterati.  Buncha crap.

That’s the rub, nobody gets really specific about what “works” and what doesn’t work.   A lot of this you have to learn on your own.  What works for Brian Brady may not work for Greg Swann.  You have to create your own system.  Try things  and go to what you are good at. The key part of the equation.  From Always Be Testing (my new Scriptures):

  1. It’s OK To Not Know.
  2. It’s Not OK to Assume
  3. What Works For Them Doesn’t (necessarily) work for me.
  4. There’s always room to improve
  5. There are no sacred cows.

This Stuff Works For Me

OK, so we’ve got a little direction.  Try a bunch of stuff.  Real good.  Well, let’s get more specific:  have you tried one new, scary and risky idea this week? Write that down.  Make it a commandment.  I call Read more

Post-Opt Best Practices: Internet Marketing Meets

Really quickly. A lot of us have various opt in methods. Free books, blog comments, FB adds.

What are we doing with that noise? Hello.  Call them.

Objection #1 “But I Can’t Find A Numba”

OKAY, fine.  You can’t find a number.  Sergey and Eric made this little website, it’s a good starting point.  So is linkedIn.  So is Twitter.  Search your lists.  Search everything you do, and yeah, you can “find a numba.”

It’s not hard.

Some hints:  a lot of people are in the 90 and 9 in your fb list.

A lot of people are in linkedin.

A lot of people are attached to someone else.

Objection 2: But, Daddy, They’ll HAAAAAAAAAATE me.

Twice, maybe.  Twice I’ve called people and gotten some sort of jerk face.  Offense that I’d dare call them.  I call  about 15 people a day.  75 a week.  I have had a bunch of people I got no interest in, that’s for sure.   I have a bunch of people that I can’t stand…another given.   And a bunch of people that want the free stuff.  No sweat.

More often, I call people, decide that they are morons and don’t pursue anything.  With them.  I call, they’re not interesting….to me.  See, calling about 75 people a week gives me options.  I don’t need to chase every imbecile or get anxious about stuff.

…I don’t have any Boiler Room Jedi Mind Tricks.  I don’t even currently have a script.  I’m not that good…I step up to the plate and take my hacks.   And that’s enough to make me a living that has been six figures 9 out of 10 years 2006, friends was the bad, bad year  I know you all were laughing, but I was rocked hard by the IRS, my own ego, and a bunch of rental properties that were imbecilic.

Objection 3:  I shouldn’t have to sell.  I’m such a great blogger that they should come to me.

Okay fine.   Look, they did. They came, saw and commented.  They gave you love, they gave you some confidence.  Now pick up the phone, and close the deal.  They are BEGGING to give you their money.   Read more

A/B Testing Unleashes Creativity

One of the things that I truly dig about Ryan is his utter willingness to try anything.  Goofy?  Serious?  Whatever?  It’s all in play for him.  What keeps people on pages longer he’ll do.

I’m now free to do that.  I was constrained by subordinating everything to someone else’s “best practices.”  The Caples stuff, other people’s methods, best practices, and the Fortin stuff that you see working.  I am Japan.  Like Bawld Guy. Take ideas, appropriate…make ’em mine, lather rinse repeat, and knock out another 5 of my 10,000 hours.

No more need simply copy.  Enter A/B Testing.  You can create a loop that corrects itself.  By not having your ego involved, by subordinating EVERYTHING to effectiveness, you can try ANYTHING and see what’s what. Wanna see if pink hippos sell?  Go.

Blog Consultant Michael Martine pointed this killer video out, and for those of us using WordPress and a Theme of some type that allows page level layout changes (for color scheme and suchlike) this is the cool.

Now, I can do 2 things: see if pink hippos sell , and see what sells better than what else.

Questions I am going to address:

  • Does a highly produced video sell better or worse than a “Garage bandy” deal?
  • Does 16×9 kill 4×3 like I think it does?
  • Does asking for a sale work better than asking for an opt in?
  • Does asking for a sale AND an opt in lower the chances of either one happening?
  • Does leading or closing with testimonials work better?
  • Do testimonials work at all?
  • Should I have dense or sparse sidebars for the purpose of getting opts?

Heady stuff, and stuff that can let us run experiments to test it, and guard our marketing dollars.  This is an utter blast, if testing is part of what you do on a regular basis, you can constantly improve your marketing.

When you learn what people respond to in marketing…

…you can improve your salesmanship.

That’s why we do what we do.

How to do A/B Testing with WordPress from Carsonified on Vimeo.

Transactions Vs. Having a Business

Getting obsessed with delivering good customer service has become more and more a focus of what I’m doing.   I’d rate myself a 3 on a scale of one to ten, but before June,  I was a -2.   So there’s that, at least.  My goal is to get to a “5” by the end of the year.

Customer service is the difference between “doing transactions” and “having a business.”  Creating a process that honors the customer’s intent is our job, and figuring out a way to do it within the human constraints of bandwidth and knowledge is not easy. But doing it is rewarding, both in the “artistic” sense and in the monetary sense.

Getting honest feedback is hard, too.  People don’t want to identify what you can do better, and our own egos create a situation where we justify our failures.  Perception of the customer is reality, and when we wanna break the stereotype of the entitled and mediocre Realtor (in my case, consultant), we have to fix what’s broken.  We have to be committed to the outcome of good service, and good perceived service.

They are both important.  When my wife was at Dominion homes, the customers there were all given a survey.  The managers would do whatever possible to let the customers know that “yes” was the only real answer.  Dominion was deprived of feedback because of the perverse incentives of the bonus program they created.  People were flat out told that they’d get $100 cash if they brought the survey back for the manager to fill out.  Attaboys were really what they were after.

Not “how can we–as a company–get way better.”

They assumed that they had achieved operational perfection.  They had not.   I have not achieved operational perfection yet (though I’m far closer now).   I want to know where I’m weak, and where I’m perceived to be weak.   Where the communication is chunky and commitments are unmet.

This is the core difference between doing deals and having a business.  Finding a way to get actionable information.  Hearing feedback.

My customer service survey that goes out says this:

I want to be the best ever.  I Read more

Howard Brinton : A Chance To Do Something Really, Really Cool.

I remember a long time ago, getting Star Power manuals in the mail.  Big, 3 ring binders full of worksheets that I’d work out with fear and trembling.  I remember getting star of the month stuff.

I remember hearing stars, ordinary schmoes like Phil Herman–a former postman talk about what made him separate from the pack.  I was hooked.  There was a formula to this success stuff, and this guy went out and gathered it up.

A collection of excellence was what Star Power was about, formed in the pre-Internet days, largely, maybe a precursor to the Bloodhound Blog of sorts.  In any case, Howard Brinton has been given a most unfavorable prognosis by his doctors.

So, a tribute site popped up, and it’s a place to go and reconnect with the stars, and to leave thoughts and tributes.   There, not here.   Thanks much.

Digital Access Pass: A Membership Site/CRM

I have–as a lot of people know–been searching high and low for a workable CRM for my business. I miss desperately the easy fun that was ACT 6.0, and hated every version after that.

I tried Highrise, but it lacked “activity serieses” at the time, schedule once, do often.   I tried HEAP, and while it has suitable features, a great developer and a good ethos, the interface was not one I could think of.

Infusionsoft was an utter rip-off.  Staffed by the same types that brought Option Arms to all of the west with nonchalance, Infusionsoft was expensive, it has a bad interface, and worst of all, you have to adopt to it.  In 20 months of being self employed, Infusionsoft was the only thing that made me feel like somebody’s bitch.  The sales staff lied about its capacity “out of the box,” and the employees that ran it wanted to teach me something about being an entreprenuer, condescendingly selling me coaching.

Still, I think that the $700 I spent was worth it just to learn some slight of hand.  The marketing was so good, so emotionally connecting that I believed, despite evidence to the contrary that they cared.   So, the lesson learned was hire a copywriter so good that you feel happy to have been ripped off, and hopeful despite evidence to the contrary.

I’ve been playing with a lot of membership site software.  And, on Twitter, a tweet about WP-Wishlist got a clever guy following me, the developer of a piece of software called Digital Access Pass. DAP is not without its flaws.  It’s not yet perfect.   But, the structure and the thought behind it is, and it’s going to power a large bit of my customer service for the foreseeable future.

Dap sees things as “product” oriented.  Each product has a group of files and emails that are sequentially released to the customer at an arbitrary interval.  Day 1, email one, file one.  Day 2, email 2, file two.  Etc.

I emailed Ravi, and suggested one feature: that the “emails” that go out can be sent to an arbitrary address, defined on each Read more

How To Be More Honest: Accounting For Morons.

The worst thing that ever  happened to me was November of 2003.  I made, as a Realtor $57,000 in closings (without a team) in one month.  In early December, I added another $19,000 to that pile of money.  Because of my phone banging good times, I didn’t have expenses or marketing that created it, my willingness to endure rejection, and a booming economy created that opportunity.

I remember that number, those numbers because I added them and re added them.  It made me a big dude.  I was happy and proud about a $76,000 run in about 20 days.  Proved that banging the phones works, validated me as a person.   I was king of the world, at 27.  Hot wife, money in the bank, Acura RL in the driveway.  What’s not to dig?  (Heh).

Yesterday’s Awards Don’t Pay Tomorrow’s Bills

Well, the fact that you read your own press.  See, I took most of December off.  “I earned this break.”  I said as we went to Oregon.   Bought a new house on a stated deal, pissing $40k on a down payment (Because you know, I now make $60,000 a month, you know?).   Didn’t work in January because I had myself convinced that I was earning $60,000 a month.  I was that good, I could turn it on.  Get it?  I rounded up to a number I only did once, and didn’t worry because that’s who I was. (In my head).

Payments came due, and my money was gone, mostly on BS and needless luxuries, and maintenance for the rentals we’d bought.   But I didn’t worry, because … wait for it… I made $60,000 a month.

It was true.  I made nearly $60,000 a month…ONCE.  The rest of the year was just over 5 figures per month, with two months that were less than $3,000.  But my ego declared that I was a heavy hitter, banging the phones and making $60,000 a month.  It wasn’t till late February, only 1 closing on the year that I began to worry.   I had 3 crap listings, no buyers, and my customer service had become rake like.

But, a little Read more

The Self Correcting Loop: Another Loop Brought To You By GenuineChris

When I was a mortgage guy, when I doubled my volume and income in 2007, I did it because I created systems and loops.

Systems: do the same thing every time.

Loops: have an end point that, on every job, fixes the system.

At the end of every transaction, no matter how routine, I would write down the points of friction, error and mistake. I’d write down EVERYTHING, try to get the # of phone calls down, focusing on delays and customer impacting changes.

I learned to have “Accurate Hud-1, Day 1” as a standard that I forced title companies to adhere to.
I sent DAILY updates to every party to the transaction: buyer, seller, listing agent, selling agent, title company. I stopped doing business with buyers that didn’t like this. That practice preserved good will on one transaction that had been put in a flood zone that requires flood insurance, to the benefit of all parties.
This was stuff that I learned because of operational flexibility. I had a survey for my customers, and myself. The one for myself I was more concerned with. “How many touches/phonecalls/passes…did this need,” and most importantly, “what can I do better next time.”

I Ignored My Own Advice When I Learned a New Business.

What Can I do better? That question, on every deal, no matter how routine, makes us better practitioners. When I went into the Web marketing thing, I avoided it for a while as I learned the topography and what I was good at. I was too focused on making ends meet. The teeth of the hydra–the nonsense that is the IRS–was upon me, so I was focused on right now selling.
When you’re burdened by time debt, you don’t have the operational flexibility to be proactive. When scarcity creeps in, you can’t be as proactive as you want. You feel scared. And your flailing and not doing the work that makes the most difference.
I had a mediocre business, that is now enjoying rapid improvement by having a self correcting loop.

What Is A Self Correcting Read more

Screenflow Rocks: 30 Minutes End to End.

Brian, Sean, into the breech I go.  I had wanted to stay out of Politics since the heartbreak of the campaign last year (organizational dysfunction at the highest level).  I wanted to steer clear, but I got sucked in.

It’s a bad idea to think about politics because then instead of pounding the damn phones, you get sucked into this stuff.

This took a half hour for me, end to end.  Screen flow rocks.  Call me sometime if you want one that tells Your story.  Given more time, they turn out better, but speed is what kills.  The fast DO eat the slow.

This video was made with 3 things:

Screenflow.

Garage Band (for the U2 Loop).

8.5 x 11″ sheet of paper to tell the story.

This was more of a proof of concept–telling a story in 30 minutes or so.  I downloaded and quickly edited youtube video supporting what story I was going to tell (namely that Sarah Palin could be president, and that Sarah Palin needn’t be in my crotch).

This was done rapidly–I’m aware that there are transition goofs and I don’t plan to fix them.  They are my fault, not Screenflow’s.  I was trying to do something in a timed fashion,

But, I used to have to splice Screenflow in with keynote, and I will still likely use keynote, but not as much with the new version of Screenflow.

Screenflow + live type does everything that you’d want from a NLE with the exception of chroma key.  I do wish that Keynote had some sort of output-to-alpha type function, or transparent backgrounds.

Speed is what matters.  If I was (and thank God I had the sense to quit) still a loan officer, you damn well better believe I’d do a screenflow talking head each and every day with rates and other stuff.  You could be end-to-end in 10 minutes, and your arrows would quickly block out the sun.

I’ll indulge myself over the weekend with another video, and demonstration of A/B testing with Google Website Optimizer at a new little thing Bawld Guy and I are doing.

The Reading List: 8 “No BS” Books to Make You Better

Get tactical.  Everyone wants some “grand strategy” or “new initiative.  But mastering tactics at the battlefield level is how 90% of us can earn money faster than the government steal it.  It’s all about Tactics, not Strategy.  Mastering tactics means that you are doing something towards a goal.  Something, anything that’s reasonable is better than fine tuning a meticulous plan.  I fell into the planning trap.   Loads of people have.  Doing something right now, fast, and done is the way to win.

Since making the switch from Stephen Covey to David Allen, I’ve paid off most of my IRS debt, I’ve built a business that works, and I’ve become better at living life on earth.   Stephen Covey principles work, no doubt, but rejiggering some life plan isn’t meaningful until you can make the pile of paperwork on your desk your bitch. That is practical, real and doable.

When Phil said “I hate coaching,” what I really hate is some notion of a program that isn’t held accountable to specific results.  Buying a marketing widget that “costs less than a closing?” Everything you do has to be held accountable to a result.  When Greg talked about A/B Testing, that was the expression of an idea: observe stuff with your own eyes.  Create an OODA loop.

Getting on the path to be an automatically improving being required that I go grab some knowledge.

1.) Getting Things Done, David Allen: The most important book on this list, by far.  Read, pracitce, understand fully GTD principles.  Make the papers and endles op

2.) On War: Von Clausewitz: Great book about going all in when you find yourself in conflict.  There are no half measures, if you don’t have passion behind the stuff you’re doing, simply don’t do it.

3.) Tested advertising methods: John Caples/etc.  This is about writing copy that works, that isn’t necessarily “clever” and that performs.  The book is solid and you can see that people don’t follow it much.  Copy that tells you what to expect and produces no “WTF” type responses is the goal.  And it’s easier to write than the nuanced cleverness that people go Read more

Social Media’s Dirty Secret: It’s Not About You, It’s Not About Marketing

The Realtor® Fantasy that is part of social media fascinates me.

Social Media “experts” have attitude that if you’re cool enough, transparent enough, and seem to care enough, a brinks truck full of money will be backed up to your door, you’ll get on the cover of a National Real Estate Magazine, and you’ll be given the recognition that you’ve always wanted.

Your “personal bland” will dominate the landscape and you will become the recipient of tickertape parades all across the country.

As if.

We are…salespeople.  We have intimate relationships with people’s finances.  We must sell people on our own competence.  Not coolness.  We must sell people on the idea that we care.  And, buddy, that doesn’t happen when we ‘drip’ on them.   We must truly be caring and competent, or else we’re screwed.  And we’ve gotta convey it.  (Dan Melson again comes to mind).

There is no Search Engine technique that will cause the web to organize itself to have presold buyers slobbering to pay us 6 percent on something.  There ‘s no blogging technique that will eliminate the need for someone to answer questions and be a fiduciary

We…are salespeople.  Social media is just a way of meeting, reaching, helping and working with fun people.  It’s nothing more than that.  Your marketing is probably generating leads.  Your leads can’t be sent to AMEX to pay the bill.

But are you closing them?  Are you reaching out to demonstrate-definitively–that you are their best and most caring option?  That you have sharpened your skills to navigate this market.   Probably not.  And that’s where the problem lies.   You are not selling.  You are not reaching out, risking rejection and trying to help.  And despite the cries that people have that they “don’t wanna be sold to.”   They “don’t wanna be sold to” by a moron.  Don’t be a moron.  People need someone to take charge.  They need some expert in Real Estate, Mortgage or wherever to just get the damn thing moving forward.

When you’re building a “you-centric” personal brand, website that is bereft of information that your friends might want…you’re not selling.  Your social media is not selling.  Read more