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I’m going to give everyone a little unsolicited information. It’s a free gift from me to you, partly paying you all back for all the great advice I receive on Bloodhound Blog.

Call it educational. Let’s just say I’m in a patriotic mood. Labor Day and all that. And when I get into a patriotic mood, I start thinking about all those rights that Americans have that they routinely throw away as if the Founders never existed.

If you are ever in a position where police officers are talking to you about your conduct, whether it be speeding, drunk driving, or something more serious, always be polite, but never speak to the police without an attorney present. You would be shocked at how, by showing restraint, you can dramatically improve your chances for a better outcome in your case.

You could be stopped on the side of a road and a police officer asks you if you know how fast you were driving. Instead of saying “I know I was speeding,” how about you just say, “Thank you, Officer, I appreciate your job.” And when the police officer asks, “How fast were you driving?” Maybe a good response might be: “I really appreciate the job you do, but I’d prefer not to answer any questions.”

Most police officers will respect you, and most police officers would do the same in your position. The ones who don’t respect you for asserting your rights weren’t going to let you off with a warning anyway.

I don’t handle traffic tickets, but I do handle everything from a DWI up to violent crimes. And – I know this is going to shock you – some defendants are innocent. Still more are innocent of the crime for which they’ve been charged. And still more would be found not guilty, but for statements they made to police.

It’s not your job as an individual to give to the government all the evidence it needs to convict you of a crime. And given that in the United States we’re all guilty of something, it makes sense to be a little guarded about what rights we do have not to incriminate ourselves.

Back in the day I was in a perpetual state of frustration when it came to pretty much anything hi-tech. Not only because I couldn’t use it, or that it almost always failed to deliver anything close to the multiple miracles promised, but because I simply couldn’t understand — at almost any level. Outside of the computer in general, obviously the all-time best hi-tech tool for real estate agents, most of the so-called technological breakthroughs have been anything but.

I first used a computer effectively on the job back in 1987 or so. Leased an IBM 286 with a proprietary program installed. It allowed me to download property files via DataQuik using a phone connection. The only other task for which it had any value whatsoever was writing, and printing for mass direct mailings. The printer was a tractor feed. More fun than a hayride.

Lookin’ back, that piece a crap ‘puter was the best bang for the buck with which technology ever blessed me ’till about a decade later. You know the chronology after that.

What’s really happened though in the last 15 years or so? Sure, a buncha software has made our jobs incrementally easier. Don’t mistake that last sentence to mean I’m downplaying the value of a lotta those ‘incremental’ timesavers — I’m not. But real bona fide breakthroughs? Show me.

Agreed, getting leads online at the astounding rate some do, is indeed magnificent.

I guess what I’m tryin’ to say, and poorly at that, is if we look back at technology’s so-called breakthroughs, they pretty much, with the obviously rare exceptions, mimic the invention of the backhoe. Shovels could be engineered to the nth degree. Digging techniques could be honed to efficient perfection. Backhoes did the work of many men, more quickly, and uniformly. Though the backhoe isn’t nearly as versatile as the computer, you get the idea.

Here’s a technological game changer for me. My first set of hearing aids, bought five or six years ago, were digital, and pretty much state of the art back then. They reopened a world I’d almost forgotten. It was magnificent, especially for business. Recently though, they were goin’ downhill, evidenced by my family’s insistence I’ve been sayin’ ‘what’ WAY too much lately.

So I made an appointment with my trusted audiologist. She said there was such a leap in technology, I’d be overwhelmed with what’s possible now. “Right” I said. “Just like all the web-geeks keep sayin’ about whatever new miracle they’ve created.” She just smirked, and told me to ‘put these on’.

Oh my freakin’ God in Heaven!!

Won’t bore ya here with all the specifics, but the dang things are intuitive — really. They figure out what I probably wanna hear, then aim most of their power that way. Crowded restaurant? If I’m talkin’ with you across the table, the crowd noise is buffered while your voice is amplified. How cool is that?

Wait! There’s more!

I’ve always used a low tech $15 earbud directly plugged into my cell phone, so as to increase the chances of hearing you better. What a gigantic pain in the ass that is, what with hearing aids already stuffed in my ear. They move around, or sometimes even fall out.

The new aids have bluetooth!! Phone rings, I push a button on the small device hangin’ from its cloth ‘chain’ under my shirt, and voila! I’m hearin’ ya in perfectly clear stereo. The phone stays in my pants pocket, on my desk, or wherever else I have it. That, my friends, is what I call a game changer — at least from where I sit. But it gets better.

It’s now connected to the TV too. The sound comes through like it’s from God’s lips to my ears. The Boss is thrilled, to say the least. They’ll pretty much connect to any device equipped with bluetooth capability — which includes my computer. Haven’t figured that one out yet, but I will, and soon. Remember, I’m a TechTard.

For the record, this massive improvement in hearing aid technology costs about 12% less than I paid for the aids I first had. Their cost/benefit ratio seems to have improved much like most hi-tech stuff has.

What real life game changers has technology brought to your life/job?

A year ago last week I had just passed the bar. Today: some 90 clients later with some excellent results for those clients, and some excellent results for me not only in building a law practice, but in learning what I need to represent my clients effectively.

I started last year with a WordPress, a domain, and a dream. My wife was freaking out: you need to go “network”, by which she meant go to mixer-type bar events to meet other lawyers. I’m not the “networking” type.

I spent later September and all of October and much of November building out my website, and figuring out how to get it to the top of Google. I took to heart some of the concepts here – you should get people to your website, and get them to stick on your website by writing decent content.

That website, as I’ve written elsewhere, has produced more than 90 percent of my businesses. In a way, that worries me to be so heavily dependent on the web. In another way, it doesn’t given that the web isn’t going anywhere and other lawyers aren’t really cognizant of how important it is from a retail law perspective.

So atop (or close to atop) Google I sit, dominating keywords like criminal lawyer raleigh and raleigh criminal lawyer and on and on.

I’ve done it by brute force. Creating content and creating links to that content. I’m limited in what I can do in terms of soliciting – meaning, I’m not allowed to “solicit” – but I’m not limited in what I can do to try to build up my reputation online.

But now I want to make it better. I want the right people – people in need of a lawyer – to be compelled to call me. I also want the website to be able to sort the wheat from the chaff, so that people who have questions, but don’t want to hire a lawyer, can find their answers without picking up the phone.

I need new ideas on what to try.

Let’s stay away from the #RTB(tab) crowd as industry lifeguard comparison, shall we?

Have a safe and relaxing weekend.

h/t Phil Martin

iOS 4 can go there, no doubt. And the lame-ass “web-enabled” HD-TVs shipping now are no competition for what Apple can do. The iPad may be the actual future of video content, but there will be room in the home for big screens for a long time. An Apple TV becomes the ideal blackboard, too, and the ideal game machine. Integrated with nearby iPhones and iPads, it can become everything we ever hoped to find in a package marked “entertainment center.” Really, truly, the television — the lowly, despised television — is the computer for the rest of us. This is a reinvention that Apple could do better than anyone…

To some in real estate brokerage, hearing the ‘R’ word — that would be results, causes them the same stress as my son’s mom felt the first time she read his lips on the mound, and didn’t like it one little bit. She didn’t buy my explanation that he was talkin’ about the umpire’s new truck. Go figure.

When agents are talkin’ about what they’re doin’ to generate business, helpin’ more clients to achieve their goals, things get quiet when some jackass wants to know how it’s workin’ out for them. In other words, has any of their prospecting or marketing, you know, produced empirical results? Are they helping more people?

I’ve been writin’ a lot lately on the changes in marketing, and strategy I’ve been implementing this year. It generally breaks down into two broad brush categories — my local market — the rest of the country.

I’ve now been back in my local market for three weeks. Cat skins are now adorning my special wall. It’s a new wall, specifically set aside exclusively for local cats. In the few weeks in which talkin’ has turned into walkin’, my firm has put $500K into escrow. Considering I’m not even outa second gear yet, $15,000 ain’t bad for the first month.

I’ve had to adapt to what I’ve described as the new normal, (don’t like sayin’ paradigm shift) in the real estate investment world. It’s gained traction big time with thinking investors who realize, in fact, we’re not in Kansas any more, and unlike Dorothy, it’s pretty unlikely we’ll return any time soon. Some of what I’ve been sayin’ the last year or so about the general real estate investment arena might be considered tough love. Still, the folks with whom I love doing business, believe what I’ve been saying is universally true.

The takeaway here is that I’ve had to adapt — many times, on many fronts in the last seven years. Not all of my changes have been successful, but the ones that failed pretty much showed me where the right path was.

I’m already thinkin’ my new office is too small, and will expand when/if any adjacent space becomes available. I think it will, probably by the first of the year, which will be just in time.

Also, though I won’t expand upon it here with any specifics, I’m doin’ some other things that should allow me to expand even more. There is a God, and He loves me.

My prediction is that by no later than Halloween I’ll be forced to bring on a full time assistant — ah, the good ol’ days. Though 80% of their work will be generated by what we do locally, the conservative projections show two assistants by spring if not sooner. The ‘Assistant’ business model is still my favorite, as it allows me to do the $1,000+/hour work as many hours as is reasonably possible. You can check it out in this post, written several weeks ago.

The ability to adapt to changes, especially the extreme changes of recent years, is critical to our success. Regardless of how hard we work, if we’re playin’ by the rules no longer applicable, we’re doomed to fail miserably. I know, cuz I’ve seen me do it.

What’s always helped me be able to adapt more quickly to relatively extreme changes has been my ability to assess my results with a brutal lack of mercy. We’re either producing results or we ain’t. If it’s the latter, adapt quickly or die. If we’re not armed with the right tools, applying the right concepts in the context of the current reality, those cats will eat us alive.

What have you done to adapt to all that’s happened in the last several years?

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.

I’m an addict.   I’m addicted to drama. To feeling necessary, to the hustle, and to the grind.  I have heard 3 bloodhounds separately say “putting out fires,” recently.

And to that I say: why?  And to myself I say, why.

Here’s the thing: even though we’re living through a paperwork-fight-to the death with the Government, we still have quite predictable businesses that lend themselves to systemization.  I broke out of the pack as a mortgage lender when I tried to get every single file “clear to close” on the first pass.  It was more work up front, but in 2007 (after the ‘crisis’s’  first act) I had a great year.  Doubled my 06 volume.

Why?  Because if an underwriter ever “stipped” me, I’d add meeting that stip to my checklist and solve the problem.  I required title companies to send a HUD-1 on DAY-1, and if they were picked a fight, it was easy to get them to take the 10 minutes to estimate taxes, etc.

This process was the only way I survived, and the only way the carnage from my tax stuff wasn’t worse than it was.

Which is to say this: we can become anticipatory in our businesses.  We can learn how to figure out what customers need, and how to serve them.

But, we have to give up our “superman” ethos.  Most house problems were caused by the Realtor/Lender/Whomever having a terrible process.  Most of them were caused by someone acting clueless.  ”We need a termite inspection?  Really, man, the underwriter pulled THAT out of nowhere.”

We have more power than we realize.  We can systematize a transaction so it goes like clockwork.  So it’s “artisan” quality, in lieu of “call center” quality.   When we pursue operational excellence, then what happens?

Our clients notice a difference.

We notice a difference and are more proud of our work.

There are no “fires” to put out.

So, in lieu of going after the drama we manufacture, we can make more drama by throwing ourselves at Jeff Brown Challenges, or Greg Seinfeld Chains.

“What do you learn” with every file.

“What caused a delay” with every file.

“What gave the customer pause” with every file.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

HUD announces it’s “First Look” program today:

The National First Look Program is a first-ever public-private partnership agreement between HUD and the National Community Stabilization Trust (Stabilization Trust). In collaboration with national servicers, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac, the First Look program is intended to give communities participating in HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) a brief exclusive opportunity to purchase bank-owned properties in certain neighborhoods so these homes can either be rehabilitated, rented, resold or demolished.

On the surface, it sounds idealistic.  Who would be against local stakeholders being afforded the opportunity to improve their communities?  Don’t private investors do that, though? Maybe this program is targeted at those properties which even the scavengers avoid.

HUD’s NSP grantees, which include state and local governments and non-profit organizations, often find themselves competing with private investors for real estate-owned (REO) properties, which can hinder their efforts to stabilize neighborhoods with high foreclosure activity. With today’s announcement, HUD and the Stabilization Trust, working with national servicers, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac, will standardize the acquisition process for NSP grantees, giving them an exclusive option to purchase foreclosed upon homes in certain targeted neighborhoods.

Huh?  Competition is the engine which drives a functioning market.  This means that a government agency will specifically eliminate competition and deliberately sock banks with a loss.  How is THAT good?

HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program was created to address the housing crisis, create jobs, and grow local economies by providing communities with the resources to purchase and rehabilitate vacant homes. NSP grants are helping state and local governments, as well as non-profit developers, acquire land and property; demolish or rehabilitate abandoned properties; and/or offer downpayment and closing cost assistance to low- to middle-income homebuyers. Grantees can also stabilize neighborhoods by creating “land banks” to assemble, temporarily manage, and dispose of foreclosed homes. To date, HUD has allocated nearly $6 billion in funding to state and local governments and non-profit housing developments. In the coming weeks, HUD will allocate an additional $1 billion in NSP funding, which was provided through the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.  Here we go again.

From the New York Times, economist Karl Case of Case-Shiller fame says: Buy!

This financial crisis has made us all too aware that we live in a Catch-22 world: the performance of the housing market drives the economy, and the performance of the economy drives the housing market. But housing has perhaps never been a better bargain, and sooner or later buyers will regain faith, inventories will shrink to reasonable levels, prices will rise and we’ll even start building again. The American dream is not dead — it’s just taking a well-deserved rest.

It’s hard not to love Jeff Brown’s prospecting challenge. But it’s kind of easy to note that most of us have not raised our hands to submit ourselves to its arduous benefits. It goes for me, too: If I have six hours to spare on any given day, I’m going to throw it at marketing — specifically software — not prospecting. Mainly, though, because our marketing is producing healthy results, I don’t have a lot of time to spare in any case.

Take note: I am not absolving you of anything. If you don’t have enough money work, and if you don’t have any money, prospecting will solve those two problems in very short order.

But whether or not you are running Jeff’s gauntlet, the kind of goal-achieving behavior we have been talking about is hugely beneficial — to your health, to your wealth and to your happiness.

So: Let’s set ourselves a challenge. Declare a worthwhile goal — prospecting, exercise, learning a new skill, etc. — and then jump in and actually do it for every day in September. You can use the don’t break the chain strategy I talked about yesterday. Here is a printer-ready September calendar.

Goal-setting is easy. It’s actually accomplishing your goals that is so hard. Between public declarations here, in the comments below, and that growing chain of red X’s, the month of September 2010 could mark a turning point in all of our lives.

I had a short sale get to approval this morning, which puts us one tiny deal away from a million-dollar September. We haven’t seen many million-dollar months since 2005, and it’s a harder target to hit than it was in those days. I’m loving where our business is going, and I feel like we might be just that close to the glide path. It’s been a hard road since the market turned, but it has been the dedicated — driven — dogged — pursuit of sales fundamentals that has put us back on the road to financial recovery.

Meanwhile, I’m loving the hardy souls who have taken up Jeff Brown’s prospecting challenge. Quoted below is a snip from a Lifehacker post we have talked about privately for a couple of years. The topic? If you want to master something, do it every day and don’t break the chain:

Years ago when Seinfeld was a new television show, Jerry Seinfeld was still a touring comic. At the time, I was hanging around clubs doing open mic nights and trying to learn the ropes. One night I was in the club where Seinfeld was working, and before he went on stage, I saw my chance. I had to ask Seinfeld if he had any tips for a young comic. What he told me was something that would benefit me a lifetime…

He said the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day. But his advice was better than that. He had a gem of a leverage technique he used on himself and you can use it to motivate yourself—even when you don’t feel like it.

He revealed a unique calendar system he uses to pressure himself to write. Here’s how it works.

He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker.

He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. “After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain.”

“Don’t break the chain,” he said again for emphasis.

Over the years I’ve used his technique in many different areas. I’ve used it for exercise, to learn programming, to learn network administration, to build successful websites and build successful businesses.

It works because it isn’t the one-shot pushes that get us where we want to go, it is the consistent daily action that builds extraordinary outcomes. You may have heard “inch by inch anything’s a cinch.” Inch by inch does work if you can move an inch every day.

Daily action builds habits. It gives you practice and will make you an expert in a short time. If you don’t break the chain, you’ll start to spot opportunities you otherwise wouldn’t. Small improvements accumulate into large improvements rapidly because daily action provides “compounding interest.”

Before Teri Lussier became a recovering Twitaholic, she reTweeted a remark to the effect that, once you’ve made a habit of exercise, it’s hard to quit. To this I say: Bullshit. Exercising is the second easiest activity in the world to quit. What’s first? My guess would be prospecting — and getting yelled at and hung up on — every day.

But: Whether it’s exercise or prospecting or some other burdensome chore, if you fall in love with the idea of an unbroken chain of red X’s, you’ll find the time and the determination to get the job done. When you hear that first compliment or cash that first pay-check, things will get easier. But you know you want this job done, and the only obstacle between you and having done it is digging in and doing it.

Good hunting!

Since my last post and a couple of comments happened, I’ll scribble my basic lead gen/followup methodology down.  This changes all the time, and it’s the part of what I do that’s grinding/belly to belly/phone banging based.  That part gets me 35-45% of my business.  Another 35-45% comes from referrals/social media.  Roughly 10% is “pure” PPC/internet marketing stuff.

There are fuzzy lines everywhere–how do you categorize someone that was referred in by Greg Swann?  What of the person that opted in 16 months ago to a different product?  Anyway.

The excuse to call: I am resuming my webinars that teach my bareknuckle brand of internet marketing/salesmanship.   I invite people to these, for free. They are low key, soft selling events that have what I know.  At the end, I simply offer to “do it for your business for X.” These have done well for me in the past, and will do well for me again.  Twice a month is about as much as I can handle, and still be “on.”  I generally invite people here, or offer up one of my other contacts as a way to connect. “I have 1500 people on my fb….feel free to ask for an introduction to anyone.”

GenuineChris Axiom:  My efficiency at cold calling literally doubled when I stopped allowing anyone to try and buy on the first call. “Oh, you’re a lead? Great, gotta go, call ya later.”  ”Almost leads” talk your ear off on the initial call, but they never buy.    People that buy do so quickly.

The Next Part of The Equation- Your Goal: Your goal is not to convince a singular person to do ANYTHING on the first call.  I don’t set appointments.  I don’t troubleshoot.  I only wish to identify need.  If they have a need for us, THEY WILL SAY SO.  ”Do you have anything broken about your $thing_you_sell?”   You’re working the list. “Hey, we’ll see if I can help–mind if I call you back this afternoon?”  Why are you doing this?

Because you want to work your list. Getting through your list is where the value is.  You have a lead.   Act like you’ve been in the endzone before. You’ve got someone to call back. (There are scripts for this).  Your goal is to get through your list.   Contact 20 people, 3 need something.  Call the 3 back later and put them in a different (e.g. no longer cold calling) category.

Another thing: When you don’t oversell on the first call, you keep control of the relationship and they don’t treat you as a beggar.  You’re asking for zilch.  You’re not one of those Google Bot Monkeys that calls from the 425 area codes 3x daily, you’re the real deal.

More methods:

My Facebook is 1500 people.  Try to hit 2x yearly.  750/half = 375/quarter. 60 working days in an average quarter. 6.25 contacts/day. That’s enough for any friggin’ agent to sell 30 homes.  And you don’t have to harass, you’re just lookin’ for info.  No biggie, just info.  You’re cool and calm and it’s not a big deal, and you’re patently NOT selling.

I call people in about the following order:

1. People that Express an immediate need: Search.Twitter.Com “Know anyone + keywords,” “Need+ keywords, Recommend + keywords, help me +keywords” produces 4-5 good leads daily.
2. Friends/business contacts: I call people who know me.  Like in the above paragraph.  
3. Targeted Likely: For PC, political consultants are golden.  For FRB, it’s social media coaches.  Looking for killer “one-to-many” relationships.  These folks can send 2-3 sites/quarterly and I have several performing like clockwork.   Those are my “best customers,” generally.

Now, I do this in excel, and an assistant dumps everything into HEAP, firing the appropriate activity series.   I don’t do this because it distracts me.  I am only to be using the spreadsheet with callto links& skpye.

More methodology:  I have my FB contacts in an excel spreadsheet.  Of my 1506 contacts, 1191 have phone #’s listed, and we have phone #’s on another 100+.  This brings the calls/month down.  I separate the FB tabs, and I got it started over a month by adding  a letter of the alphabet each day.  Icky work, to be sure, but it was done once.  I average 50 randoms/monthly, so they get CRM’d a little more aggressively (those that  I add, I don’t send an autoresponder to).

That’s the system. More complex than necessary.  I have more complexity than this, but I’m draining my systems of complexity.  I want to be selling 3 hours a day.  We will get there.