Stash that cod-piece: I’m not waxed fruit and you are not a rock star
By: Greg Swann,
Phoenix Real Estate,
Post Archive,
RSS FeedPosted: Wednesday, February 13th, 2008, 4:36 am MST
Category: Blogging, Group Therapy, Marketing, Real Estate
I should probably stop picking on this little nebbish, but he’s such a champion at leading with his chin that I find him hard to resist. His theme? “Rewriting the book on how to kick ass.” I wish I were joking. I’m gonna guess that he wasn’t among the first picked on the ass-kicking team in grammar school, and I’ll bet a large dollar he wasn’t even in huge demand for the coloring-outside-the-lines squad. I just love it, though, that he’s so completely dysclued that his ass-kicking theme song is entitled — wait for it — Unchained. And before you trouble yourselves trying to imagine Kevin Boer and Noah Rosenblatt in day-glo-hued spandex tights with huge cod-pieces — these two being Davison’s envisioned rock stars of real estate — stop for a moment to consider that we are talking about marketing in the world of Web 2.0. Rock stars are all about “Me, ME, MEEEE!!!!” This role belongs to the customer, not the vendor — this according to this same mental midget a few weeks ago. Brian Brady and I are rewriting the book on real estate marketing, an iterative endeavor that will see its next big advance at the real Unchained. But if you want to find a Web 2.0 star, it’s not me or Brian or Kevin or Noah. If I were to pick one person who best expresses what consumers are looking for in a Realtor or a lender, I would pick Dan Melson. There’s is nothing of a rock star in the man, but if “fiduciary” had a face, it would be his — and that comes through in everything he does.
I, very much on the other hand, command attention. The words I, me and mine are sweet on my tongue, and I have to admonish again and again that what I am teaching and what I am doing are two different things. One of the persistent delights of my life is how well Teri Lussier understands this, and how much she is able to pull out of the things I say. Dilberts like Davison live a parasitic life, devouring ideas they did not create and never fully — or even partially — digest. They extrude this waste to creatures even lower on the dumbass food chain — that is to say, your typically clueless real estate broker. Even so, for all of us, almost everything is borrowed. Almost nothing is new. But there is no substitute for real understanding. Everything you see is almost always monkey-see/monkey-do. But when someone approaches a new idea with her whole mind, what emerges is not just understanding but even newer, even better ideas. Concepts are ideas, the substance of thought. Words are concepts made flesh, ciphers for ideas in a transferrable form. When words are nothing but mimicked sounds, echoed as if by animals or recording devices, nothing results. But where active minds trade the products of their thinking — this is the highest attainable achievement of human social concourse. We think alone, but we can learn together. Slugs like Davison are legion, alas, one minute mindlessly mimicking, “I am not a lead!” and the next faux-vamping, “Look at me! I’m a rock star!” But one mind like Teri’s makes up for that entire miasma of mindlessness.
So, on that note, how do you rate BloodhoundBlog Unchained’s chances for winning this beauty contest? The fact is that, in three months’ time, we’re going to have 16 solid hours of very hard-headed, nuts-and-bolts content that America’s starving Realtor class surely needs. Not everything will be new to people reading here — though quite a bit will be — but 90% or more will be new to the NAR’s audience. Do you see them giving us 16 hours? Eight hours? Four? One? What we should do is schedule a one-day seminar for November 6th…
The last time I was on the Tee Vee News, I mentioned that I’m taking my blogger attitude with me everywhere I go. It’s not a pose; to the contrary, I was born to this world and I’ve been growing it to my scale for the past 30 years. But I’m being very careful not to be swayed into betraying it, not to bow and scrape to the media or to any sort of clubby corporate sensibility. The real Day the Music Died wasn’t the night of that terrible plane crash, it was the Sunday night when Bo Diddley went on the Ed Sullivan show looking like Malcolm X with a Gibson guitar. So be it. That world was his, and Sullivan was already a relic. This world is ours.
And all of that is by way of introduction to my thoughts on Ann Brenhoff’s article on real estate weblogging in the Los Angeles Times. Everyone else mentioned in the piece has written their reactions, all this while my Mac was making Sad-Mac faces at me. But my slice of this pie owes directly to the take-no-prisoners Bo Diddley attitude discussed above. Jeff Brown fingered me to Brenhoff, although I gather BloodhoundBlog had come up more than once in her research. I laughed at her from the first, telling her that, even though I knew she was going to write yet another just-what-are-those-crazy-kids-up-to-now? story, that we represent the future of print communication. She surprised me by agreeing, and she told me that she hoped I would look upon her favorably if she ever came looking for work. In fact, she’s a hard working dog — I have a Google-bot running on her name — and I don’t doubt that she has a game plan for the demise of the dead-tree media.
Anyway, my dream, when working with the old media, is that I’ll run up against someone like Dan Melson, someone who can’t leave one stone unturned, one lead unpursued. When I talk to a reporter, I say everything I know and then some, I finger everyone I can think of — and then I follow up with two or more emails full of links and references. Matt Carter chastises me every time I beat up on the press, but he is that kind of reporter, writing prose that is just drenched in detail. This is what I did with Brenhoff, in any case, with what seem to me to be good results. It’s all just waxed fruit, never forget that. But it was a fun kind of waxed-fruit experience.
We are each one of us stars, not always rock stars, in our own little introspective dramas. It’s nice to get paid, but the best gift we can have from these ambulating things that surround us — each one uniquely distinct and yet identical to us as entities — is the gift of their having paid attention to what we had to say. I am not waxed fruit, even though I might play waxed fruit on TV or in the newspaper. It was nice of Brenhoff to notice.
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25 Comments so far
I had the same reaction when I was browsing around and found the “rock star” piece.
Thanks.
We already have a rock star. His name is Russell Shaw.
[...] Swann over at Bloodhound looses both barrels on him: I should probably stop picking on this little nebbish, but he’s such a champion at leading with [...]
Greg,
I agree, at least to the degree I understand everything you are saying (and you are laying a lot out there).
If it will help the cause I am happy to bang on a blazing gong at Unchained in May; or I can dance around in a cod piece… but you may want to use that as the CLOSER (i.e. “In case you weren’t sure the seminar was over, here’s Sean in a cod piece!)
Thanks for keeping an eye on who is real and who is wax.
Greg, Marc Davison is a good person & one of the smartest guys I know. I wish that I did not feel like I had to come here to defend him personally because there is no reason to attack him personally.
There is already enough groupthink & herd mentality in this very small community of real estate industry bloggers. Why try to squelch a voice that is different and looks at the same old issues with a fresh angle? Isn’t that what this “community” is supposed to be all about?
I do not think any of have the right to make pesonal judgments on each other based on the positions & ideas that we share with our small community. Let’s keep it about the issues and use your sharp wit to attack the idea instead of the man behind the idea.
By the way… if you met Marc, you would like him. If you spent some time talking to Marc, you would respect him.
Brian Wilson
Quoted from here:
Greg, you may have a different communication style but you shouldn’t discount the message just because you don’t agree with the choice of words.
In my opinion, the message of his post is exactly what you are doing with BHB –
“True rock stars bring something different to the table… They have a their own look. Their own special feel.”
If anyone could appreciate the message, I thought it would be you?
> In my opinion, the message of his post is exactly what you are doing with BHB
That’s not true, though. He doesn’t understand the ideas he’s trying to steal, and he’s so clueless that he swiped the defining metaphor without even realizing it. Even so, the post is not about Davison.
> If anyone could appreciate the message, I thought it would be you?
And, as discussed, the message is wrong.
I have seen the future. Later today, Brian Brady will illuminate the true path.
I never know how to take Greg in these type of posts. Is he dead on accurate? or is he a jerk? Does he only care about the truth? or creating controversy? (http://www.rsspieces.com/how-to-plan-for-increased-traffic)
As someone who has been on the periphery of the RE.net for years now, I have never really “gotten Greg”. I love what he has done with BHB and he was helpful in showing me some tips to do a similar sight for just my local brokerage. It was here at BHB that found the idea of using WP to drive my entire brokerage website.
But then I read posts like these and wonder (just wonder).
“If I were to pick one person who best expresses what consumers are looking for in a Realtor or a lender, I would pick Dan Melson. ”
I could be SO much more complimentary of him if he would just move to, say… Nevada. Ahh, SD county’s big; the hell with my policy.
OK, this is thrice this year. Dan Melson is, without doubt, the best consumer-focused mortgage blogger out there.
FYI Greg, the Southpark clip is “no longer available”.
Brad, I liken the experience of Greg and the BHB to that of a peeling your way through a fine Florida orange with papercut fingertips. It can sting but you learn to tolerate it, knowing full well that beyond the thick stubborn skin lies a core of cerebral pleasure you just can’t wait to sink your teeth into. You might occassionally come across a sour offering, but arguably not a good reason to set fire to the grove.
> FYI Greg, the Southpark clip is “no longer available”.
“Dood! They killed Kenny!” “You bastards!”
I clipped the embed out of the comment.
Carl:
Great analogy on Greg & the BHB. I do love Florida oranges and I hate papercuts.
Then Greg delivers a classic South Park quote that bends me over laughing. Timing and delivery are everything.
[...] February 16, 2008 by Dustin unsubscribed. [...]
Marc is a good guy- he’s been supportive of new business models and helps agents learn about technology.
Expressing your opinion makes for good conversation (I do it regularly). Having said that- I liked the “rock star” post.
[...] had gone well out of his way to get you into the L.A. Times article that is the actual subject of BloodhoundBlog post number 2592 – why didn’t you email or pick up the phone before attacking BloodhoundBlog in a huge public [...]
[...] Brian Brady, who forwarded it to me. I think they both might be wondering if Duct Tape Marketing is pulling a Davison on both BloodhoundBlog Unchained and the Daniel Rothamel [...]
“You’re nothing but a pack of cards!”
Gee, I’m getting moderated!!
> Gee, I’m getting moderated!!
Every first-time commenter is moderated. I don’t leave my house unlocked, either.
In any case: Hi, Alice. There’s a lot here that consumers can profit from: We tell the bald truth about everything, so if you want to know what’s really going on behind the curtain, you’ll probably find it here.
I went with Brinks myself.
> I went with Brinks myself.
Gotta run. Saturday is Realtor day.
[...] if you’re still with me, what part of this is not completely obvious? As Alice the consumer discovered earlier today, I auto-moderate the first posted comment from anyone. This is to frustrate sock-puppets and trolls [...]
[...] the independent route in lieu of going with a corporate sponsorship. Will Zillow take any heat for Gregs public undressings of other influencer’s in the space? In any case, BHBU should be worth the price of admission, if only for pure entertainment value. [...]
[...] you submit to their idea of how the customer/practitioner relationship should be. Now, the slight was meant for Greg as retribution for exposing their unoriginal thought but if you examine the content judiciously, you’ll discover that they perceive themselves to [...]