A tuxedoed Russell Shaw holds forth at the newcomer’s reception at tonight’s opening session of the StarPower Conference. An important principle of the StarPower method is the idea that success is contagious, that highly-motivated Realtors can hoist themselves to the next level not just by learning new skills and techniques, but also by learning from and modeling the behavior of mega-producers like Russ.
I’m skeptical of anything that sounds like mumbo-jumbo, but I do love the idea of learning new skills and techniques, and I deeply admire many of the people StarPower has brought to Phoenix.
As an example, we got to meet Joe and JoAnn Calloway tonight. In Phoenix, they’re famous as Those Calloways, another team, like Russell’s, that does hundreds of millions of dollars in business every year. As much as Russ is big, blustering and brash, the Calloways are small, gentle and very quiet. You would never, ever peg them as Realtors, yet they completely dominate some of the richest zip codes in Scottsdale.
Immediately to Russell’s left in the photo is Richard Pomisel, with whom I took pre-licensing more than six years ago. Do the math: A class of around 30 students. Many didn’t pass the school test. More didn’t pass the state test. Still more didn’t get licensed. The failure rate for new licensees is 85% in the first year, very high thereafter. And yet two people out of one pre-licensing class are still working.
I don’t want to oversell StarPower. This is very much old-school real estate. Even where they think they’re being hi-tech, they talk about things like “stealth” web sites, marketing-by-trickery. But the bulk of the curriculum is a devout belief in the power of business-like systems for organizing and growing a real estate practice. Cathy and I have taken a divide-and-conquer approach to the classes to bring home the most new information.
I don’t know if success is contagious, and I don’t have much truck for mumbo-jumbo. But I will tell you one “law of attraction” that never fails: Nothing brings out immediate real estate needs like a real estate class. StarPower runs all day Thursday, Friday Read more
Verizon and YouTube, sitting in a tree… K-I-S… well, you get it. After endless rumors, it’s official- starting next month, Verizon users (with compatible phones) can upload video from their phones directly onto You Tube. Simply 
So, some of you camped out for your new toy, others ordered it online. Many of you devoted much time covering the gadget until you were blue in the face. Look- the iPhone is undoubtedly cool… I’m all for shiny toys that make noise. But for all of you Mac Hipsters who have made fun of my loyalty to the PC (you know who you are), guess what- your iPhone is has been caught with its pants down…
My life is a series of Post It notes. They are stuck to my computer screen, they clutter my desk, and they litter my backyard when a light wind kicks up in the vicinity of my patio table. They can be found in the floor of my car, at the bottom of my purse and, more than occasionally, on the foreheads of my children.
and the (so far, at least) almost total unwillingness of Top Buyer Agents to even listen to this vital message, there may not be much reason to keep saying it. These Top Buyer Agents don’t seem to understand that they are not like most buyer agents. They are quite different. These Top Buyer Agents take their duties to their clients so seriously that they actually DO put the client’s interests above their own. Every time, in every way. These Top Buyer Agents have figured out that the current system of the listing agent paying them, with the seller’s money (of all possible pay plans in the universe) isn’t the most optimum pay plan possible.