I have started “The Secret” Experiment. Try it: Watch this beautifully done visualization from The Secret every morning for the next twenty-one days and see what happens.
The good news, friends, is it’s coming soon. All letters are done, and so is the X-tracker projection and tracking. Right now I’m converting all the marketing materials (resume, postcards, and market updates) into Microsoft Publisher so it will be easy to customize and edit them. Both manuals are done, I received the final revision from the editor and it will be ready for print next week.
I found a good printer and I’m hoping for quick turnaround (10 to 14 days). I will be doing a final re-write of the Quick Guide. Then it all should be ready for shipping by the end of March. We’ll see. I will not release it until it’s complete, and perfect. Not a day sooner.
SlowLeadership.com posted a great list of nine rules on how to bring fun back into your work. I could not say it better myself 
1. Stop hiding who you really are.
2. Start being intensely selfish.
3. Stop following the rules.
4. Start scaring yourself.
5. Stop taking it all so damn seriously.
6. Start getting rid of the crap.
7. Stop being busy.
8. Start something.
9. Don’t worry what others will think about you.
Ten Reasons to List With Me!
Today I received a great letter from a very ambitious, hard working agent. Nice headline, well-thought out points why this particular agent is a head of the completion. It’s a very good letter. Strong impressive selling points, and all the facts that are important. There is, however, one fundamental problem with it. It’s not a good first contact letter. Here is why…
When a listing expires, sellers are bombarded by agents with letters and calls. And the message is always (or most of the time) the same:
1. “I know why your house didn’t sell. You had the wrong agent and wrong price.”
2. “List with me, I’m different/better/expert/specialist/top producer, etc.”
3. “I sold many homes”
Now, those are all relevant messages, but why don’t they work on the first approach? I’ll give you an example…
Let’s say you want to buy a car. You walk into a dealership, look around, and a salesman approaches you: “Hello, my name is Joe Carguy, I’ve been in business ten years and I’m the top producer of this dealership, I won three awards this year, and I sell to 93% of all customers that walk in.”
What’s wrong with the picture? The first contact is all about Joe. I don’t care about Joe. I care about a car. Do they have what I want? Is it a good choice? Is it priced well? Can I test drive it? How much can I get for my trade in?
So back to expireds… the first contact (actually several early contacts) need to be all about them. On the phone, in letters, postcards, in any contact, make it about the seller, because that’s what they care about, and that’s all they want to hear. The rest is simply an advertising noise that ends up in the trash.
It’s that old saying slightly modified: Show us how much you care first, then we’ll care who you are and what you can do for us.
