"Wings" by Hugh MacLeod

Love.

It’s why we do everything we do.

Sure, you think you do things for other reasons; for money, for food, for attention, whatever. You’d be wrong. If you’re really honest with yourself, you’ll realize that you do everything for love. It might be love for your children, love for your friends, love for yourself, it’s all the same.

Everything that the human race has ever accomplished has been done out of love.

Love is what makes us human. Love is the only way that we can ever reach the peak of our human potential. Love is the secret ingredient in every successful endeavor that people previously thought impossible. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about business or relationships, love is what makes everything go, it is the engine that drives the human spirit.

When love is missing, we know it. We can feel it. When something is absent love, we tend to look at it suspiciously, even negatively.

Our industry is missing love, and it suffers accordingly.

You want more competence? Add love.
You want more respect? Add love.
You want more closings? Add love.

Love is a subject that I will be spending a lot more time on going forward. I firmly believe that love has the power to dramatically transform your business, my business, and our entire industry. Not just a little bit, either. I’m talking about total transformation.

Don’t believe me? Think I’m crazy?

That’s fine. I thought I was a bit crazy, too. At first. Then I started to look really hard at what we do, what I do, what the people whom I respect and admire do, and it became incredibly clear– all you need is love.

One of the things that I have always liked about going to Inman Real Estate Connect San Francisco is meeting Australians.  That’s right– Australians.

I am a big fan of Australia, even though I have never actually visited it, yet.  I’ve met people from all over the world, but I firmly believe that Americans are more like Australians than any other people.  In fact, I often think that Australians are just Americans, turned up to 11.

Every year that I’ve gone to Connect SF, I’ve met some Australians.  I’ve always had great discussions with them about everything in life, not just real estate.  This year  was no different.

This year, I got to catch up with one of my favorite friends from down under, Peter Brewer (@prospeter).  I first met Peter at the NAR Convention in San Diego last year.  Like all the Australians I’ve met, Peter is a very outgoing, smart, and down-to-earth dude.  That’s my kind of people.

I was very happy to get to run into Peter again at Connect SF.  I had no idea he would be there, so it was a pleasant surprise to see him again.  Peter asked me if he could interview me for his blog and offer whatever words of wisdom I had for real estate professionals in Australia when it comes to using social media for their business.  Of course, I was happy to oblige.  Here is the result:

I had a lot of fun seeing Peter again and talking life and real estate with him and his fellow Australians. Clearly, that is a country in which the future of real estate is in good hands.

Me and Nicole on stage at Agent Reboot San Francisco

Last week I was in San Francisco at Inman Real Estate Connect.  I had a fabulous time, as usual.

My week began with something a bit different than previous years.  See, in previous years, there was Real Estate Barcamp, and then Bloggers Connect.  Sure, there was still an RE Barcamp to go to, but I spent last Monday launching a new venture for me– Agent Reboot.

Agent Reboot is a one-day show produced by Inman News.  It is a one-day show packed with panels and presentations designed to help agents and brokers get a handle on their digital marketing and new media so that they can reboot their businesses for success in the future.

The cool thing is that Agent Reboot is actually going to be a series of one-day shows traveling all around the country.  So, there won’t just be one Agent Reboot– there are 12 Agent Reboots!

San Francisco was the first show.  From there, Agent Reboot will take place in Los Angeles, Seattle, San Diego, Denver, Las Vegas, Portland, Houston, Chicago, Boston, Ft. Lauderdale, and Washington DC.

What’s my role at Agent Reboot?  I get to be a host for the show!  In fact, I’ll be the host for the shows in Denver, Houston, Chicago, Boston, Ft. Lauderdale, and Washington DC.

I’m splitting the hosting responsibilities with the lovely and talented Nicole Nicolay.  You might know her as @Nik_Nik.

Since the San Francisco show was the kickoff for the entire Agent Reboot series, we wanted to get things started right.  So, Nicole and I teamed up to host more than 500 excited agents and brokers as they learned all about digital marketing and new media.  It was a ton of fun.

Nicole and I got the whole thing started with an introduction that was designed to show the audience how the evolution of business communication was a lot like the evolution of one of Nicole’s favorite pastimes– dance.

We had a lot of fun putting together the intro and performing it, so I hope you’ll find the video both entertaining and informative. . .

I’ll be writing a lot more about Agent Reboot over the next few weeks, as the shows really get rolling. In the meantime, you can find out more about the events by visiting AgentReboot.com, checking out the Agent Reboot Facebook Page, or following the #agentrb hashtag on twitter.

Agent Reboot in San Francisco rocked, and you can bet your bottom dollar that we’ll be brining the same energy and fabulous content all over the country, and probably a city near you, over the next few months. I hope I’ll see you there!

That’s a picture of the plane I’m supposed to be on right now, heading to Dulles and eventually to San Francisco. The plane is here, the crew is not.

I’m heading to Inman Real Estate Connect (RealEstateConnect.com), and to co-host the first Agent Reboot (AgentReboot.com).

It’s going to be a ton of fun, and there will be plenty of learning going on, if I ever get there. . .

"Google" by Hugh MacLeod

This cartoon arrived in my inbox this morning courtesy of Hugh MacLeod. I thought it was quite appropriate.

If you’re spending your life trying to create the next Google, or the next Twitter, or the next Keller Williams– STOP.

Google didn’t get to where it is by trying to be the next Microsoft.
Twitter didn’t get where it is by trying to be the next AOL IM.
Keller Williams didn’t get where it is by trying to be the next RE/Max.

They all paved their own path. They all achieved success not by being the next big thing, but by being themselves, first and foremost.

There is a lesson in that for all of us. Don’t chase success by trying to be like something or someone else, make your own path. Be yourself.

Achieving success by being yourself is much more rewarding, and a heck of a lot more fun, too.

I’m writing this post from the WordPress iPhone app. I wanted to give it a shot, and I thought this might be a good way to do it. I figure that having an iPhone app for posting stuff here let’s me wrote about things briefly, as I’m thinking about them. So, on with my post. . .

I was reading some things on various blogs talking about web 2.0, and it’s impact (or not) on the real estate industry. This seems to be a perpetual debate on the web, which in and of itself, seems ironic, since many folks make arguments against web 2.0 using the very tools they claim don’t work; but I digress. . .

My issue here is that I can’t understand why there is this conflict between 2.0 and 1.0, “old school” and “new school.” There are those from each camp who point to the other and profess their imminent demise. It’s dumb, really.

Technological innovation doesn’t work that way, usually. When the television appeared, the radio didn’t cease to exist. When the typewriter appeared, we didn’t throw all our pens into the fire.

Let me make this as clear as I possibly can: 2.0 tools will NEVER replace the face-to-face human interaction, relationship creation, and fundamental interpersonal skills required to be successful in real estate. Ever.

But they were never meant to do that, either. The tools that we have today are just that, tools. They are here for us to use to make our lives and businesses better, if we want to use them. They are here for us to integrate into our business practices when we can, not as a means of replacing what is making us successful.

I can’t figure out people insist that it must be one or the other.

What the heck are we so afraid of? Why is this so hard to understand?

Joe Ferrara and his family need our help

One of the most wonderful things about my odyssey through the blogosphere has been the friendships I have created along the way. One of the first friendships I formed was with Joe Ferrara. Right now, Joe and his family desperately need our help.

Joe was recently diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. He is currently in intensive care. Obviously, his family can use whatever support we can give. Jay Thompson has a post with all the details on Joe’s condition.

Joe is truly one of the good guys. I have always known him as a kind and generous person, aside from his brilliance as a businessman and a lawyer. It made me very sad to learn of Joe’s situation and I am going to try and help him and his family however I can. I am doing it because I know that Joe would do the exact same thing for me, if things were reversed. I know he would do the same thing for you, too.

Please, consider donating whatever you can to Joe and his family. Every little bit will help. Please.

Again, for more information, please visit Jay Thompson’s post.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of giving a presentation as part of Virtual RE Barcamp. I talked about social media, and specifically, how some of the lessons I’ve learned from raising Ava make good lessons for using social media, too.

Some people who weren’t able to attend the live presentation asked me if I was going to have a recording of it. Luckily, I was smart enough to think of recording it as I was doing it.

So, if you want to watch the presentation in its entirety, just click the play button below. The whole thing is about 45 minutes long. Let me know what you think!

Sorry there is no embed link. If you want the embed code, let me know, and I’ll send it to you.

You might have noticed a new look here at RealEstateZebra.com.

I’ve been wanting to do something new with the logo for a while, and my good buddy, Mike Price (@mlbroadcast), was the perfect guy to do it. Mike is brilliant when it comes to graphic design for logos. He’s designed just about all of the REBarcamp logos.

I asked if I could hire him do something for me with Real Estate Zebra, and he agreed.

I think that it came out beautifully. It is exactly the type of thing I was looking for. I love black and white (obviously), but I wanted to add just a bit of color, and Mike came up with the perfect solution. He was also patient enough to put up with me as I agonized over different color options.

Let me know what you think of the new logo, and let Mike know, too!

I made this video today in order to thank Wayne Holt for a very thoughtful gift that he gave me. Wayne ROCKS!

I wish that YouTube wouldn’t have cut me off at 1:30, but alas. After that, Ava went down for a nap. As much as I love Wayne, I wasn’t about to film a video with a cranky LilZebra.

My point remains the same though- social media was, is, and always will be about the relationships. What you do once those relationships are established is up to you. Wayne did something extremely thoughtful that I will always remember.

What will you do?