Newsletter Archives Join our Mailing List! 06/25/2015 Who's Got Your Back? Hollywood has created a fantasy that Dobermans are always aggressive and only want to attack your larynx, which is farthest from the truth. The dog was bred around 1890 by a tax collector in Germany looking for traits of watchfulness, determination, obedient temperament along with athletic endurance and agility. Problem is, some people train them to be Cujo. My family and I have owned numerous Dobermans and loved all of them. You could put a juicy ribeye on top of a baby and a typical dobie would gently take it, with a nod from you of course. Overall, I would have to say their best trait is loyalty. 06/24/2015 How about a Survival Guide? I had a great opportunity to address a group of multi-disciplined real estate professionals a couple of weeks ago and they asked that I speak about the role of social media and how to manage their social media presence. It was a tough subject for me to address in a very short luncheon keynote and I’m sure I left them with more questions than answers. It did however cause me to stop and think that it might be a good thing to talk about here with you. The benefits of social media for commercial real estate professionals are clearly there and in my humble opinion have been narrowed a little so they are almost, (note, I said almost), manageable. 06/11/2015 The Power of “Ish” My Latin friends sometimes say “más o menos,” which generally means more or less, about or roughly speaking. I’m not sure of the source of my innate get-r-done attitude that can lead to measure once, cut twice (sometimes a third time.) In commercial appraising, we spend enormous amounts of time striving to be precise, so at the end of the day I find myself floating to inexactness, the magical place of “sort of,” “kind of,” the marvelous land of “ish.” 06/10/2015 Plugged In I’m travelling for business this week. You know what that means. Planes filled with people, not an empty seat in sight. Over the years, I find I approach this in different ways. Sometimes I’m really frustrated and I yearn for the days when you could count on the middle seats sometimes being empty, so one could spread out a little. 06/03/2015 Do Just Once What Others Say You Can't Do! “Do just once what others say you can't do, and you will never pay attention to their limitations again.” -James R. Cook I love this saying, because it seems to describe my business life. I’m not so sure that just by doing something “once” that others say you can’t, will work. Frankly, I’m sure that most of the time that won’t, but the concept is the same. 05/28/2015 If You Were King There are lots of kings, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Stephen King, Billie Jean King, Larry King, Don King, Elvis (the King) and my favorite, B.B. King. The name has English, Scottish and French lineage, the former of which means tribal leader. The Scottish one was often given to Irish-American immigrants to Anglicized the surname Conroy. 05/27/2015 Looking for Pain You know this already. People resist most any new program, process and of course the big daddy of them all, new technology that they didn’t propose. And it makes so much sense. People are in the positions of authority and leadership that they are in because they think for themselves. If they don’t have any pain associated with what THEY are doing, it’s unlikely that even a highly productive associate can easily get their buy-in. 05/20/2015 Did Google Mess You Up? So the big news about Googles’ update a couple of weeks ago wasn’t BIG NEWS ... or was it? So by now you of course at least know what the update was - their search engine algorithm (the programming that tells Google where to rank certain sites) got a major overhaul with a big focus on mobile-optimized content. 05/14/2015 Vector and Thrust A good friend of mine, Lt. Col. Sam McCallie USAF AFRC/SEF, a pilot with the US Air Force sometimes likes to talk about things that fly in the air, you know, airplanes. As a safety instructor, he stresses that being focused, knowing where you’re going and having the training to deal with bad situations is critical to avoid “bending metal.” Smart pilots are all about safety and typically don’t skydive, “Why would you jump out of a perfectly good airplane?” 05/13/2015 Is It SO Yesterday? I’ve been traveling for business quite a bit over the last few months so maybe I’m a bit sensitive, but it seems that customer satisfaction might be an idea that is SO yesterday. I’m not talking about the everyday stuff where it seems everyone is either overworked, not interested in the job they’re doing or they work in the service sector (ok, I’m being snarky.) I’m talking about what seems to be going on inside of sizable professional organizations. 05/06/2015 Can Theory Explain It? Have you heard of the Diffusion of Innovations Theory? I ran across it while doing one of my favorite things…listening /watching TED Talks. I purposely combined listening and watching just now because that’s literally what I do. For me, TED is like the best talk radio ever. 04/30/2015 Are You Better Than Yesterday? I historically have never liked to measure. If I’m doing a long run, I get super irritated when someone next to me counts off how many miles yet to go, which makes me feel uber tired. I would rather not think of the number of miles in front of me and just be in the moment. However, throughout the years I’ve learned measuring is the only way to know how you’re doing. 04/29/2015 Willpower, Nah, Not Now When do you exert your willpower? Do we ever really exert willpower or do we just rely on habits? I got to thinking about this the other day, as I found myself really having to talk to myself to stay on task. Mentally I just wasn’t there. Willpower sounds hard. It is hard. I think it’s hard because it’s a seemingly conscious act. Doing things out of habit is much easier. 04/22/2015 Create a Relationship with Twitter I’m not suggesting that you get a Twitter account. I’m not suggesting that you create a relationship with Twitter, the corporation. And I’m certainly not suggesting that you attempt to create a new relationship using Twitter. I am however, trying to point out that creating a relationship through email is ridiculous. At least for the generation of workers that you and I belong to. I dare not predict the future of how we’ll communicate in the future, for I’m certain to be wrong. 04/16/2015 Head Slap In life there are tons of rules, but I think they generally fall into three buckets - social, legal and moral. Most people think they follow all the rules, while others show bravado in saying they’re rule breakers. I think the reality is somewhere in the middle. 04/15/2015 Sense of Urgency A woman in my exercise class had a seizure recently. She’s fine, but as we waited for the paramedics to arrive we all kept track of how long it was taking. Not that it was taking much longer than we thought it should, but it did. We all felt the strong sense that it was urgent and that someone get there quickly to make sure she was okay. That’s real. 04/08/2015 Where the Frisbee Is I was visiting friends a couple of weeks ago and went to the county fair. It wasn’t what I hoped. There were no farm animals - always a favorite of mine. There was very little in the way of interesting arts and crafts. There was no shortage of amusement rides that didn’t look to be well maintained or were certainly not for adults. 04/02/2015 Channel Your Inner Bubba Dude I have a peculiar confession to make. I was a cheerleader at Florida State University back in the day. It started off as a joke with two fraternity friends who walked by me on campus on their way to tryouts. Interestingly, I made the squad but my friends didn’t. 04/01/2015 But There’s Risk Risk? Of course. Most everything we do has some risk associated with it. I promise I won’t go into a diatribe of the seemingly weird world we find ourselves in where we try to insure ourselves from all risk, whether by insurances of all kinds, product disclosures or avoidances. 03/25/2015 Brain Gyms? Maybe. We are adults, right? No children read this, right? When we were children we spent time thinking about what things would be like when we grew up. We thought about what career path we would choose, if we would get married, places we would travel to, people we wanted to meet and the list goes on and on. 03/19/2015 Introducing Ourselves Most marketing folks use stock photos to communicate an idea or feeling. Unfinished Business is a movie with Vince Vaughn who got together with Getty Images to create social buzz with faux stock images. The parody is a group of fake business people pretending to stare, cross their arms, stand in a v-formation, point at a laptop or other ubiquitous and inane business poses. 03/18/2015 It’s Painful, But not that Bad I am constantly reminded of a truism I heard many years ago – the problem someone brings into their first session with a therapist is never the real issue. Oh, they fully believe it is. They aren’t lying. 03/11/2015 I Can See You I’ll bet you never give much thought to your body language when using email, texting or instant messaging. But maybe you should. It turns out that, just like nonverbal communication represents 65% of what we “say,” our written communication is more than the words we type. And it’s not just those emoticons that let people “see” us beyond what we type. 03/05/2015 Wake Up an Optimist I think I was born a pessimist, complete with asthma. Not sure if one caused the other, but I was a sickly kid. Pessimism is usually defined as a tendency to see the worst aspect of things or believe that the worst will happen; a lack of hope or confidence in the future. 03/04/2015 Go For It Go for It. Proceed with Caution. Trust, but Verify. Each of these words of advice or statements of action makes sense on their own, but they make great sense when considered together. People who know me, really know me, recognize that I’m fairly conservative in my actions even though I take risks – particularly in business. 02/25/2015 Does Willpower Matter? So let’s start with the basics. I’m sure there are a variety of definitions for willpower, but I’m sticking with a simple one – the power of choice. Another popular definition for willpower is self-control. To me, that definition isn’t as empowering as looking at willpower by simply observing the word itself – willpower, and seeing that it could be “willchoice.” Will power is all about having the will to choose. 02/19/2015 Crayons and Puppets There is a certain hairdresser in my city, we call him the Barber Nazi. He’s very eccentric, introducing himself as an artesian barber from Cuba with a long family history lineage of mad-coiffeuse skills. 02/18/2015 What a Visit by the Plumber Might Reveal The best people know something. They know that you will not reach your full potential in your career if there’s no true process for getting done what you want to do. If you and your systems aren’t set up properly, even if you're doing well, you could do much better. The good news is you don’t have to know how to do it; you just have to know it needs to be done. 02/11/2015 Oh, for Meeting Sake! We need meetings. Business meetings, family meetings, even friend meetings, but they aren’t good for decisions. At the very least one should never wait for a meeting for decisions to be made. From commercials to comics, meetings have always been ridiculed for a wide variety of reason’s and most of us hold the belief that we’d be a lot more productive if we could just be “working” instead. 02/05/2015 The Fire of Complacency Last Saturday, I went to a martial arts seminar in the humongous retirement community in central Florida known as the Villages. I wasn’t particularly excited about going due to a vague sense of what it might involve. My subconscious conjured up geriatric karate and an uneasy feeling that I was aging faster than I realized. 02/04/2015 Get a Job I have grown kids, as many of you do. Many of you are “grown kids” yourself, meaning you’re lucky enough to have an open-mindedness about you, you think about the possibility of changes in your career and expect to have a bright future. I’ll bet you, like me, profess the “never have a job, have a career” mantra, and for good reason. 01/28/2015 Maybe There is No Problem How do you define a problem? Of course there are a myriad of ways to do it, but I’m here to suggest if there’s no emotion behind what has been defined as a problem, it probably has no legs. You are probably someone who likes to constantly improve. 01/22/2015 Your Pursuit Your Happiness The strongest soft power that the US possesses are words, specifically, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” This declaration has tapped the core human desire for freedom and its expression. 01/21/2015 The Truth About Motivation - Pain or Gain? I always find it a little odd when companies use rewards for motivating their sales forces. People are rarely motivated by gaining something. We work hard not to do that – at least not in the traditional sense. 01/14/2015 You Can Achieve Workplace Happiness By now we are all back at work after what I sincerely hope was a holiday spent with friends and family, so I want to take a moment and thank all of you for being influencers and active participants in your respective industry. 01/08/2015 Buyer’s Remorse While getting a haircut, a woman walked in and asked the stylist if he could give her a haircut that would “rejuvenate her soul.” I thought that was asking a lot since it was only a haircut, or maybe even a color. How often do we have exaggerated and unrealistic expectations? 01/07/2015 The Truth About Habits in 2015 What’s better than a New Year’s resolution? How about real, lasting change in your daily habits? In case you haven't noticed, I’m a little obsessed with productivity. 12/18/2014 Swagger As we wind down 2014, it’s normal to have some floating thoughts about 2015. Some of us are busily wrapping up year-end appraisals while others have already left the office for December. But as we approach the holiday, I would like to give my commercial appraiser brethren a Christmas present. I didn’t go to Amazon or wander through the malls to find this present. It comes from within. The gift is confidence. 12/17/2014 Merry Christmas and a Big Thank You Christmas is just around the corner and I’m sending best wishes that you enjoy the holiday with dear friends and family while creating lasting memories! 12/10/2014 Sometimes You Just Have to Try It Last week, one of my coworkers was excited and ready to open up and enjoy her breakfast - an avocado and egg sandwich. She offered me a bite, but I didn’t want to eat any of her breakfast for a variety of reasons that included she was clearly looking forward to eating it, I wasn’t all that hungry anyway, and I was busy with a few other things, so I said “no thanks.” 12/04/2014 @#$%&! Sales A friend of mine, let’s call him Randy, went to his long-time physician and friend, let’s call him Dr. Montana, for an annual checkup. Randy eagerly awaited the news of his blood work and physical. 12/03/2014 The Sweet Spot As we head into the holiday season, words like overwhelmed, stressed, buried, overloaded will pepper our conversations more than ever. Those words describe feelings that make sense, as this time of year brings more things on our plates and the time constraints are real. 11/26/2014 I’m Thankful, How About You? Last evening as I sat in an unfamiliar church, at a service that brought together pastors, priests, and rabbis from more than 15 different religious institutions, it was easy to let my thoughts wander to why I’m thankful. 11/19/2014 What's a Little of Your Time Worth? When it comes to time management, experts will tell you that it’s not a good idea to always knock out those things that “just take a few minutes,” because before you know it, they take up time you need for more valuable things. For the most part, they are right. 11/13/2014 Confessions of a Cheapskate Appraiser Twenty some odd years ago, I went to Catholic marriage preparation class. The Monsignor sat in front of my future wife and I mulling over the paperwork. He seemed troubled and kept looking up at me. This ordained priest concluded that the results of our compatibility testing were excellent, but he had one concern. 11/12/2014 What If This Described You? I asked a professional friend the other day about why a specific group/profession/organization/company would be so frustrating to work with. The answer was a short, but poignant email containing this multiple choice answer selection: 11/05/2014 Tag, You’re It. I don’t usually get specific about tech topics since there are many people out there more qualified than me. But since photo taking and storage is ripe for having a “process,” my favorite topic and one you probably expect me to talk about, I thought it made sense to dive into things a little. 10/30/2014 Life Mulligan If you could have a redo of your life, would you make the same decisions? Personally and professionally, would the chapters of your life be similar or would you throw away the book and start over? Would you be a commercial real estate appraiser the second time around? Tough questions for some of us, easy for others. 10/29/2014 Tackle the Myths There’s a reason that myths, as widely held but false beliefs or ideas, exist. They exist because we have to find a way to explain something. So we create a story. Myths have been around for as long as human history and they’re always going to be with us. Most of the time they are either harmless or instructional, but when it comes to technology and its adoption level, myths have no real use. 10/22/2014 Sales - Self-service or Full-service Almost every time someone chooses to work with you they are essentially “buying” what you have and they do it because they get a feeling in their gut that you will satisfy what they want. The only way for people to get that good feeling is by asking questions. 10/16/2014 Competition Fetish Malcolm X once said, “Anytime you find someone more successful than you are, especially when you're both engaged in the same business - you know they're doing something that you aren't.” Some say if you can’t outcompete your competition just dress better. 10/15/2014 Outdone by a Mail Truck? I do think that those of us in commercial real estate have to have our eye on the ball all the time and should always try to do things in the most effective way possible, both for our own sanity and for the good of our clients and companies. But I have to tell you, sometimes it just doesn't seem that way. 10/08/2014 How Good is Your Business Case for Inactivity? According to Wikipedia, a business case captures the reasoning for initiating a project or task. The logic is that whenever resources such as money or effort are consumed, they should be in support of a specific business need. A simple example could be that a software upgrade might improve system performance, but the "business case" is that that better performance would improve customer satisfaction and require less task processing time. 10/02/2014 Musings of an Appraisal Reviewer I believe most appraisers see reviewers as a troublesome addition to their world, like tax returns and traffic cops. On the whole, appraisers tend to be fairly polite and professional, all raised to be law-abiding folks. And so they put up with review appraisers, like they put up with hailstorms and TSA scans. 09/24/2014 Do You Trust Yourself? It's all about trust. We upgraded our website for a reason. There’s so much information, so many options, it's really hard to know who to trust. But it’s not only about people trusting us, it's about having an organization of employees who trust themselves; trust themselves to make the right decisions. 09/18/2014 The Future of Work Many appraisers want to know what the future holds for our commercial appraisal industry. Where’s it going, what will happen next, what to expect. Predicting the future is like a discounted cash flow. 09/17/2014 What a Visit to the Workflow Doctor Might Reveal The best in the business know something. They know that you will not reach your full career potential if there’s no true process for getting done what you want to. If you and your systems aren’t set up properly, even if you're doing really well, you could do much better. 09/10/2014 Before Breakfast There really is a secret to success. It’s get stuff done before breakfast. Some of it seems to be explained by a fairly recent Florida State psychology professor’s finding, that willpower is like a muscle…it gets fatigued and we all need a lot of willpower to be our best throughout the day. 09/04/2014 Sensei I recently attended the Appraisal Institute’s Review Theory week-long course that was taught by Vincent Dowling, MAI, MRICS, SRPA, M.Ed. Some at the course were there to get AI’s new review designation, others were there for continuing education. 09/03/2014 Take a Walk You know how the Ice Bucket challenge has taken the world by storm with people connecting, having fun and raising over $100 million in donations. That dwarfs any fundraising effort that ALS Association (ALSA) has ever conducted. Donations for a given year have usually totaled $64 million, so raising $100 million from July 29th to August 29th is truly phenomenal. 08/27/2014 Strategically Lazy? I saw some research the other day about how visionaries and pioneers find the fastest ways to achieve their goals. This of course goes along with my firm belief that we can actually shortcut the process of getting commercial transactions done. 08/21/2014 Mise en place When’s the last time you’ve taken a vacation? Commercial appraisers often say, “I’m too busy getting reports out the door to take time off.” Our perception is that we Americans work the most of anyone on the planet. 08/20/2014 Data, Data Everywhere and It’s all a Bunch of .... Sometimes my office thinks I’ve gone off the deep end with the focus I have on the amount and integrity of the data we track...particularly that in our CRM – Customer Relationship Management system. But in many ways it is by far the best tool we have. 08/13/2014 The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread Did you know that when sliced bread was first introduced in the early 1900’s the idea didn’t sell for more than 15 years? It wasn’t until Wonder bread “bought” into the idea AND had the power to distribute that idea. Yep, it’s all about distribution. 08/07/2014 Pork Bellies I get nauseous when I hear “commodity” in the same breath as commercial real estate appraising. Commoditization is the vomit and Dodd-Frank is the Jägermeister. 08/06/2014 It Is What It Is It is what it is, but it's not. I woke up early the other morning thinking about this statement, “It is what it is.” I think it was partially on my mind because I was planning to check my eBay bid status on an item later that evening around 9pm. Just as I was crawling into bed, I realized that I had forgotten to check whether or not I had won the bid. 07/30/2014 "My True Story" I volunteer for an organization that helps people in commercial real estate who have either lost their jobs or are looking for something better. Yes, many in this group are simply under-employed, they have settled for something less than what they hoped for because they are the type of people who are willing to do whatever it takes. 07/24/2014 Affordable Dentures I was at a party recently with a friend who was talking to a few guys when one of them asked what he did for a living. My friend simply said “maintenance.” The two men immediately turned around and walked away once he disclosed his employment. 07/23/2014 You Joined... We are adults, right? No children read this, right? When we were children we spent time thinking about what things would be like when we grew up. We thought about what career path we would choose, if we would get married, places we would travel to, people we wanted to meet and the list goes on and on. 07/16/2014 If Truth is the New Currency… Some of you may have noticed our company stands strong on believing that truth is everything and in our newly designed home page we put it front and center. We believe people are looking hard for ways to know that they are working with people of high ethics – people they can trust. 07/10/2014 Purple is the New Green “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life,” the opening words for the headliner Prince last week at New Orleans’ Essence Festival. 07/09/2014 Now We Should Be Wildly Productive So now we should, in theory, be wildly productive. We have tools that can calculate anything, organize everything and communicate with everybody on the surface of the planet. 07/02/2014 It’s Not Your Fault It’s not your fault. We are resistant to change. Oh not just any change, but yes, studies show the oldest part of our brain is always working to protect us and that means taking the tried and true. 06/26/2014 It’s Been Nice After selling software solutions to commercial real estate appraisers throughout the US, you start to see general trends. One movement I didn’t see coming is the exodus of appraisers from their firms to go solo, while at the same time fostering collaboration. 06/25/2014 Can You Make a Business Case for Inactivity? Ok, first of all determining a definition of “business case” we can all agree on, at least for purposes of this discussion, is in order. So let’s use Wikipedia’s definition that a business case captures the reasoning for initiating a project or task. 06/18/2014 Help. I Need Out of This I had a chance to think about “rolls” and “ruts” recently. You “get on a roll” after experiencing a great success. We all can recognize that the absolute best time to do a difficult, boring or unpleasant task is immediately after you’ve had a win, you’ve done or accomplished something or in those rare instances, something good just fell your way…the “on a roll” refers to the natural high that follows! 06/12/2014 Back to the Future Back in 1990, I worked with a young appraiser that wrote “Warren T. Deed” as the buyer for all of his improved sales in a report. The neophyte appraiser indicated that, “I don’t know who this guy is but he’s buying up the city.” 06/11/2014 Why You Might Want to Become a Know It All I recently learned a lesson while shopping. My original goal was to purchase something in the $100 range. It doesn’t matter what I was purchasing; I’ve left that out to keep the story more appealing to more of you. 06/04/2014 The First Miracle of Life It’s been a long time since I’ve read it, but You Can Work Your Own Miracles by Napoleon Hill is fantastic. It’s relatively short and it’s the last book he wrote before passing away, so it’s packed full of old-age wisdom from someone I believe is one of the greatest success authors ever. Every chapter describes a great “miracle of life.” 05/29/2014 Your Alcatraz Do you remember where you were when you stopped taking risks? I do. I was at my desk about 10 years ago writing yet another appraisal and felt really comfortable. My office and home routine was on automatic pilot with a sense of safety, familiarity and the “same old same old.” 05/28/2014 The Halfway Point The end of one era always signals the beginning of another. The high times of the housing boom gave way to the struggle-to-survive of the Great Recession. Some days it seems as if 2008 is long behind us and some days it seems like it just won’t go away. 05/21/2014 Seamless Decisions Decisions. Decisions. We make thousands every day. Of course most of them are not noticeable to us because they aren’t all that consequential, but some of them can have a huge impact, right? 05/15/2014 Closer to Fine Are you happy? Stop! Don’t let your left brain departmentalize the question into neat and organized buckets like – “What’s this guy getting at?,” “that’s a stupid question,” or “let me scan this newsletter for real content.” It’s a fair question if you’re ready to be bold. 05/14/2014 Want to Know More? I’m Not Interested. Last week’s column had as much to do about the use of headlines and subject lines as it did the actual topic. Several of you sent me follow up notes from which I gleaned there are some definite, strongly held opinions out there about that topic. 05/07/2014 2 Things You Don’t Do Every Day that You Should I almost didn’t use this subject line, because it seemed to go against my deeply held belief that “trust is the new currency.” 05/01/2014 Timely Advice - Guest Writer My father was a smart man; not a genius, but very smart. He was a member of Mensa. He wrote poetry in iambic pentameter and read Canterbury Tales in old English. He spoke four languages besides English – Russian, German, Korean, and Japanese – all of which he learned during his stint in Army Intelligence. 04/30/2014 Are You Still Typing? How Quaint! I am of course not typing this column. I try my best not to type, ever. Certainly, when at my desk I try to use voice recognition. Plus, I love being able to talk through text messaging and emails on my phone. 04/23/2014 Forced to Eat More Than You Want? I was on the phone the other day with a great friend of mine, who is also a “sometimes” client, when I had an “ah ha” moment. In this particular case, we were talking about what some would say are radical changes that the commercial real estate appraisal world is going through. 04/17/2014 You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know A few days after September 11th, a local liberal talk show host and I got into a very heated argument. He said the 3,000+ Americans that died that day were payback pawns for US one-sided foreign policy. He insinuated that “we” had it coming. 04/16/2014 Are You Comfortable? Not Good! Hey, it’s the 2nd quarter! How are you feeling? Comfortable? I sort of hope not. The only time we should feel really comfortable is when we are sleeping. We need to be in constant motion and most of the time that means we are a bit uncomfortable. 04/09/2014 Are You at Risk for Being Out of Business? Every year organizations budget resources to improve their critical document and information processes; most will tell you mitigation of risk is the primary driver. 04/03/2014 Change the Conversation As I autopsy my business relationships with lenders, I am sad. Dodd-Frank makes me mental sometimes, specifically the “appraiser independence rules”, which has severed our vocal chords. This laryngitis has regulated us to the sidelines of the commercial real estate ball field. 04/02/2014 A Gnat on a Gnat on a Gnat The end of one era always signals the beginning of another. The high times of the real estate boom gave way to the struggle of the recession. Those of you who know me heard me say many times, you never want to let a good recession go to waste. 03/26/2014 Don’t Listen to your Parents Anymore – Talk to Strangers I belong to a volunteer real estate organization called Real Estate Lives that helps people in commercial real estate who have either lost their jobs or are looking for something better. Many of the folks settled for something less than what they hoped for because they are the type of people who are willing to do whatever it takes. You know, people like you. 03/20/2014 An Appraiser Turns 50 A 35-ish year old woman recently asked me at a party if I use the “internet”. She saw my shocked saucer eyes and quickly changed the question, “do you use Facebook?” I recall that question over and over in my mind today, my 50th birthday. 03/19/2014 Scientific Method Meets FOMO I once thought, and some people say, that you would be most successful if you were able to communicate to the widest possible audience. Now that we have more and more data, we know that the real answer is to communicate with the most appropriate people through the most effective channels. 03/12/2014 Brownies and a Handshake Yes, the technology devices we have today are amazing. Every day I find new things that help me to do what I do better or more easily. We are all better connected and in many ways we’ve only scratched the surface of how we will be able to take advantage of the tools, software and data to make our lives even better. 03/06/2014 There's Always the Finish Line I'm an average runner. I started running in earnest when I was about 35. I look back fondly at the various races with my running buddies, triathlons, marathons, half marathons, mud races, adventure runs, etc. Great social support group with the benefit of burning calories though offset by post-race beers. 03/05/2014 The One Thing You Must Do There are lots of things we can do, should do and must do. Remember the old line our parents used to say? That all you knew for sure was that you had to pay taxes and someday you would die. 02/26/2014 Finding Clarity Among Blurred Lines Like many of you who read this column, I deal with a lot of blurred lines in my company. Within the confines of our company we handle valuation services, brokerage services, software development, and we deliver these services over various platforms 02/20/2014 We Need to Talk Historically, owners of commercial real estate appraisal firms have assumed their staff appraisers are psychic with mind reading and clairvoyant abilities to perceive future events. Back in the day when I was a staff appraiser, I found it odd that the management style of a typical appraisal firm was almost an absentee owner. 02/19/2014 The Power of a Positive Frame So the cat is out of the bag. You know that I was out last week in the beautiful, warm Virgin Islands. (Sorry, my snowbound friends). What you may not know is that I was there with an amazing group of really bright, hardworking, executive and entrepreneurial women. 02/12/2014 Yes, OK I have a confession... I’m not working away in the office this week. I’m actually on my way back from a relaxing retreat to the island of St. Thomas along with a number of my friends who also have thrown in the towel, or should I say “thrown down the towel” on the beach that is, for the last week. 02/06/2014 People Who Need People Networking can be a challenge for commercial real estate appraisers, myself included. We tend to like "doing the work", but not necessarily "getting the work”. 02/05/2014 Why Salespeople Are Great Leaders If you’ve been reading this column since the beginning of the year, you know that I did something a little different. I put forth a 4 Step program to jump start your 2014. 01/29/2014 Coaching? Micro-managing and Chunking? Wow! It seems like many of you are focused on starting 2014 off right. 01/23/2014 Hack School Logan Laplante has an untraditional education when his parents took him out of the established education system to be home schooled. 01/22/2014 Micromanaging - a Tactic, Not a Characteristic. For the last couple of weeks I gave you some ideas with accompanying homework to start your year off on solid footing. 01/15/2014 OK. How’s it coming? Last week I challenged you, myself and my team to take two steps towards a great 2014. Step 1: Assess yourself and/or your business as a whole. 01/09/2014 Class of 2014 Reading a college commencement speech by Mary Barra, the new CEO of General Motors, got me to thinking. 01/08/2014 Happy New Year! Now Let’s Get Going If you haven’t found time yet to assess where you want to go professionally this year let’s get hopping. 12/18/2013 Merry Christmas and a Big Thank You Christmas is just around the corner and I’m sending best wishes that you enjoy the holiday with dear friends and family creating lasting memories! 12/12/2013 Sweat is Fat Crying “The secret of getting ahead is getting started” Mark Twain. The only place success comes before sweat is in the dictionary. 12/11/2013 Perspective – The Year is Almost Over Oh my! Year end is fast approaching. Most everyone I speak with feels a little rushed this holiday season, more so than last year. Maybe it’s the improving economy. 12/04/2013 My Pleasure I have a boat at a small marina at a national hotel; I’m making you aware of this so you can put in context what I’m about to share with you. 11/27/2013 Are You Hungry? I hope you find yourself with the time to spend this holiday with family and friends. 11/27/2013 Gratitude. Thanks. I am grateful this Thanksgiving to have had the opportunity to arrive in your email box each week. 11/20/2013 A Constant Reminder There seems to be a coach for just about everything. 11/14/2013 Unintentionally Done Intentionally I was recently listening to Duke & the Doctor (http://dukeandthedoctor.com/) on the radio enjoying the various health tips and insightful stories when… 11/13/2013 You can Successfully Execute a Workflow Strategy Workflow, it’s a simple thing. Or at least it’s a simple thing to define. Or is it? 11/6/2013 Who's Better? We often feel that young people are the most tech savvy among us and for many things that is true. 10/31/2013 Be Spontaneous...Tomorrow "At its root, perfectionism isn't really about a deep love of being meticulous. It's about fear. Fear of making a mistake. 10/30/2013 I Hope You're Going to Want This Recently, my office bought me something that I'd been wondering about for quite a while. A FitBit. So what's a FitBit? It's a wearable technology that helps you track your activities. 10/23/2013 Wedding Bells and Lessons Learned Our daughter was married Saturday and it was magnificent. Not only was it well executed and beautiful, it was really, really fun! She is a bright young real estate broker and we just love our new son. I share this with you because the wedding offered so many lessons! 10/17/2013 2 Always Be Selling There's a homeless guy I see every day on an interstate on-ramp after work. Until last week I'd never spoken to him, though he looked like a friendly guy, always smiling. One day sitting at a red light, windows down, my car idling right next to him; he started a quick friendly conversation about sports. 10/16/2013 Reluctant? It's a bit hard to notice here in Florida, but if we pay attention we can tell that fall is upon us. Just as the beginning of fall signals the start of cooler weather, football season, back to school and upcoming fall holidays, it brings incredible color as the leaves begin to change. Fall, with lots of changing colors,... 10/9/2013 It's Who We Are - Part 2 Last week I mused about the importance of "who we are" and the age old truism that there are really only two reasons that people do business with you; 1. because they like you and 2. because they trust you. 10/3/2013 Appraisal Suite Newsletter Two Ph.D.'s, Thomas Stanley and William Danko, wrote The Millionaire Next Door, a book investigating the question of who they are and how did they get there. The book provides some general demographics; generally males in their mid-to-late 50's with three children. 10/2/2013 It's Who We Are Today in a meeting of some really smart business owners, I was reminded again that there are really only two reasons that people do business with you; because they like you and trust you. 9/25/2013 How to Get Off the Fence I see it every day. I do it myself. We all do. We get stuck sitting on the fence. It's comfortable for a while, but then... 9/19/2013 Appraisal Suite Newsletter Be the Labor 9/18/2013 The Optimal Line & Diminishing Returns A number of weeks ago I spoke about ROI - return on investment. I'm still somewhat focused on it, so I thought I'd share with you something about the law of diminishing returns. 9/11/2013 A Little of This and a Little of That I realized the other day that I take more information in small doses than I once did. 9/5/2013 Appraisal Suite Newsletter How to Get and Keep Talent 9/4/2013 Scarcity of Time Versus Money There's always been a concept of two important things that drive most of what we do in business - time and money. 8/28/2013 On Time is Late. Early is On Time. Ever have trouble getting what you need done because someone else doesn't get you what you need to get started? 8/22/2013 Appraisal Suite Newsletter Time is Of the Essence 8/21/2013 Are We in a Bubble? I'm back from a fairly extended (intended), and "off the grid" (unintended), vacation (very intended). 8/14/2013 In Theory, Wildly Productive We should, in theory, be wildly productive with all the gadgets and technology at our disposal; smart phones and tablets, totally mobile tools that can organize everything and communicate with everybody. 8/8/2013 Appraisal Suite Newsletter Where Are You Going 8/7/2013 Brick Walls Are There for a Reason Did you ever hear the story about the police officer that was chasing a young man who had committed a serious crime? RealWired Bootcamp 8/1/13 Service Pack Downloads 7/31/2013 The Right Tool. Or Not. I ran across something today that made me think. And of course it had to do with being more productive. It also, of course, had a technology bent. 7/25/2013 Appraisal Suite Newsletter Three Jennifer's 7/24/2013 Technology On-Ramp Learning and using technology. We've been doing this a long time, so it's easy sometimes for us to forget that newcomers also need an technology on-ramp to help get them up to speed. RealWired Bootcamp 7/18/13 Adjustment Grids 7/17/2013 Smart Yes, Simple Maybe There's a quote I keep taped to my desk by C.W. Ceran; "Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple." 7/11/2013 Appraisal Suite Newsletter Our Highest & Best Use 7/10/2013 Functional Stupidity I'm not buying it. I was reading the other day about a study earlier this year at the Lund University School of Economics and Management in Sweden that produced a new theory literally titled, "A Stupidity - Based Theory of Organizations" which was published in the Journal of Management Studies. 7/3/2013 Are You Willing to Be Transparent? How does your office work its calendar? Does everyone have access to each other's calendars? 6/27/2013 Appraisal Suite Newsletter Reunion 6/26/2013 Are You a Thief? It's tough to run a service business. You know, the kind of businesses most of us are in or the kind of jobs, for those of you who aren't self-employed, have. 6/19/2013 So It's Still All About SEO A friend and I were talking the other day about websites, blogs, and you know, "web stuff" and I was surprised to hear her say that SEO - Search Engine Optimization doesn't really matter anymore. AI Connect 6/14/13 Receive $100 off your AI Connect registration 6/12/2013 Working Your Muscles the Wrong Way I'm a lucky girl. I married a man who lives to stay healthy and work out. From the moment we met almost 25 years ago, he's been instrumental in keeping me on the right track a true accountability buddy. 6/5/2013 A Unique Return on Investment Sometimes the returns on our money come from funny places. For some reason, during the past few days ROI - return on investment has popped onto my radar from a variety of places. 5/30/2013 Appraisal Suite Newsletter Nemesis 5/29/2013 Who Are We? I was walking into work the other day early in the morning, as a matter of fact the sun was just starting to peak over many of the buildings downtown. 5/22/2013 They Know When We're Pregnant Target knows when we'll get pregnant. HP knows when we're about to quit our job. Pandora knows what new music we'd like to hear. 5/16/2013 Appraisal Suite Newsletter George Costanza 5/15/2013 Don't Be An Idiot I'm not suggesting that you're an idiot...and no, this isn't a play on "_________ (fill in the blank) for Dummies, A Reference Guide for the Rest of Us!," books we've all seen and read. 5/8/2013 Socks (SOCS) and Root Canals You probably opened this just to make sure I wasn't drinking this week while speaking with you through this article. Socks and root canals, really? 5/2/2013 Appraisal Suite Newsletter Hobby or Business 5/1/2013 Turn Up the Radio I was in a meeting the other day and we were talking about a tech issue. A problem. One of our systems was running slow. 4/24/2013 Trip Tiks and GPS When you were a kid, did you take driving vacations? I did. We would pick a new place or sometimes go to a tried and true one, but part of the preparation for the trip always included going by the local AAA office and picking up a Trip Tik Travel Planner. 4/19/2013 Appraisal Suite Newsletter Take Off Your Seatbelt 4/17/2013 Maybe We Need to Hang Out with Younger People On Christmas Eve, 1924, a group of industrialists held a secret meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. 4/10/2013 Don't Over Think It When I first thought about writing this article, I really did mean don't over think it. But as I saw it in print, I realized I also really meant - don't over think IT. 4/4/2013 Appraisal Suite Newsletter Elixir of Youth 4/3/2013 And...It's Gone! It's gone. The first quarter. It's gone. So, how'd you do? Business on track? 3/27/2013 Tag You're It! Photo tagging has been around for a long, long time. But even those of us who take and store digital photos for work every day still have questions. 3/21/2013 RealWired Newsletter for Appraisers Regarding Your Submitted Bid 3/20/2013 Blocks of Profit Let's face it, we're all in the service business. Why do we have to "face it"? Because it's tough to run a service business. 3/13/2013 Saving Daylight Hooray for Daylight Saving Time! I know there are some people who don't like it, but frankly I wish that we would move the clocks by two hours...and I live in Florida. 3/7/2013 DataComp Newsletter Setbacks into Comebacks 3/6/2013 Goal or Quota? An interesting thing happened in our office the other day. We had a significant communication breakdown. It happened in a very vital area - our sales team. 2/27/2013 Perception and Reality I have a white board in my office - actually two of them and they are filled with "stuff". 2/21/2013 DataComp Newsletter Saab Story 2/20/2013 Browser, Smowser- Who Cares Most of us don't realize how much an old and out-of-date web browser can negatively impact our online lives, particularly online safety. 2/13/2013 Can This Relationship Be Fixed? For my women readers you know you couldn't resist this week's article. Women LOVE working on relationships. For my male readers, you know you're interested in what I'm going to say about relationships as well because you need to be. 2/7/2013 DataComp Newsletter Brand You 2/6/2013 The Evolution of SPIOT You know the adage just as well as I do; "what gets rewarded gets repeated." 1/30/2013 A Latte Experience? Years ago, when technology was just being introduced to the commercial real estate market, much of the heavy lifting was being done by a few top people. 1/24/2013 DataComp Newsletter I'm a Florida State University fan, my alma mater. 1/23/2013 It's January and I'm Thinking of Vacations We are only three weeks into January and I'm reminded of the quote by Mark Twain - "The secret of success is making your vocation your vacation." 1/16/2013 The Clock Broke I've had a clock hanging on my kitchen wall for the last 12+ years. Not the same clock, but a clock in the same spot. 1/10/2013 DataComp Newsletter I received my MAI designation today. It was a great feeling. 1/9/2013 Hire or Be a Generalist? I read an article the other day about how Google only hires generalists. 1/2/2013 Happy New Year! So, the Big Questions Are? I hope the holiday season was terrific and that the New Year brings you great prosperity, no matter what the general media is professing. 12/19/2012 Top Tech Picks for Christmas and Wishes for a Great Holiday to You! Christmas is just around the corner and I'm sending wishes that you enjoy the holiday with dear friends and family creating lasting memories! 12/13/2012 DataComp Newsletter Shark Tank is a show on ABC that my wife and I watch because of the real world lessons it provides. 12/12/2012 Smarter Next Year I love the idea of being smarter. Not smarter than...just smarter. To me, and probably to most of you it has nothing to do with standard benchmarks and test scores. 12/5/2012 The Secret to Success I don't know about you but I either immediately dismiss or am totally drawn in when I see something about the secrets on how to do anything. 11/29/2012 DataComp Newsletter Last week I got the opportunity to have drinks and nosh on "The World", the largest privately owned yacht on the planet. 11/28/2012 Waiting for the Right Window? Clearly, Microsoft is going all out for consumer attention because unless you live in a cave, you've noticed the aggressive advertising campaign for Windows 8, Microsoft Surface RT tablets. 11/21/2012 Out of Sight, Out of Mind Out of sight, out of mind is both good and bad. Somewhere around 65-70% of the population best learns visually. 11/14/2012 Blowing Through Email Backlog I'm back from a trip to India where keeping up with email just wasn't practical. 11/8/2012 DataComp Newsletter 10 Observations from My Trip to India 11/07/2012 Learn, Earn, Return Some people say you should break down your life into three parts. 10/31/2012 Time Really is Money I'm writing to you this week from India. My first trip to this large, diverse country. 10/24/2012 Waiting for the Election? Are you really waiting to make decisions until the election is over? I hear that a lot. 10/10/2012 Why We Work This Way I'm having one of those days where everything is a reaction to something. 10/4/2012 DataComp Newsletter Your Life 10/3/2012 Tell My Cell The other day some friends were chatting and the need to send texts to multiple recipients came up. 9/26/2012 Work Your Core For the past couple years, we have had an opportunity to work with not only some really fun people but with trainers that really know what they're doing. 9/19/2012 What Happened to "Don't Do it Just Because Everyone Else is?" I grew up, probably like many of you, being taught by my parents not to simply follow the crowd. 9/13/2012 DataComp Newsletter Manny's Business Cards 9/12/2012 A Secret for Better Relationships Most people shouldn't make a name for themselves or try to stand out in the business world by dressing uniquely. 9/5/2012 Summer's Over With the RNC in full swing out my back door (literally) all of last week, I nearly forgot to wish you a Happy Labor Day! 8/29/2012 A Simple Secret to Connecting Every time I sit down to write this column, I'm thrilled that you are out there willing to take time to read it. 8/23/2012 DataComp Newsletter David vs. Goliath 8/22/2012 Sales or Business Development? Since we mostly serve and work with professional service companies, the question of what to call sales people comes up often. 8/15/2012 Manage the Mess When I was traveling recently and managing three devices for email with three different email addresses it reminded me that it probably makes sense to speak about email once again. 8/8/2012 Frustrating Social Media:3 Important Tips Hey, Rome wasn't built in a day and neither can you expect to build your social media presence "in a day." 8/1/2012 The Right Perspective I was reminded the other day while working with a particularly ego driven individual, who spent a lot of time professing their importance on every level, how important it is to keep things in perspective. 7/26/2012 DataComp Newsletter Zombies 7/25/2012 On the Surface, It Looks Good, Ok Maybe Great Ok, I'm really happy. Microsoft took the wraps off its brand new tablet called Surface and it's cool. 7/18/2012 Jing, Jing Will Save or Make You Cha Ching What language am I speaking? Jing - A easy, useful tool. Cha Ching - Money. 7/11/2012 We Just Celebrated Independence Day. So, Are We? The nature of most of our jobs/careers is that there's never a time where all the work is done and where you can take a vacation without some accommodations being made, no matter how well you plan for it in advance. 7/3/2012 If Only I Was a Singer/ Songwriter Last week I spoke with you about how vitally important each of us is to helping the economy improve. And I didn't just talk about going out for some "retail therapy," although in my mind that's always a good answer to a multitude of ills. 6/27/2012 You Are So Important Most of you are in the majority. Most of you work in what is considered small business. 6/14/2012 DataComp Newsletter What's In Your Wallet? 5/30/2012 Don't Be A Passenger Google's approval to have driverless cars got me thinking this week. 5/24/2012 DataComp Newsletter Let Me Think That Over In an age of instant access to unlimited sources of information, I find myself being more discerning over what is a true fact. 5/23/2012 Are You Productive as a Geek Is it really more efficient to think we can and should handle our own IT? Maybe. 5/16/2012 Ctl-Alt-Del -- Time to Reboot? Do you ever feel as if things are spinning out of control? Do you sometimes feel that things aren't going smoothly? 5/9/2012 What Would We Tattoo? For some reason I've been in places over the last couple of weeks where there have been a lot of people with tattoos. 5/3/2012 DataComp Newsletter Seven Deadly Sins The Appraisal Institute's education course binders have a really attractive AI logo with the tagline: Knowledge. 5/2/2012 Zillions of Conversations That's the way I describe social media. 4/25/2012 It's Coming at You I was in the beautiful city of Charlotte, North Carolina late last week. Dohring Group Perspectives and Opportunities European Countryside Drive Test Having focused Dohring Group's Real Estate and Development business on Tampa's Urban Environment for a number of years, I often find myself in conversations with people who question the importance of a Downtown Revitalization. 4/18/2012 Let's Revisit this Topic I wrote about the issue of converting PDFs a while back but was recently reminded of it during a planning meeting. 4/11/2012 Use the Laughter Okay, this is a first. I'm sharing a link with you that is just plain funny. 4/6/2012 DataComp Newsletter Time for a Haircut Are you familiar with the term Androgenic alopecia? 4/4/2012 So Why Don't We Do It? Most of you that read this column have been in this business for a long time. 3/28/2012 Are We Searching for Something or Just Being Social? Many times people ask me where I get the ideas for writing this column every week. 3/21/2012 Is There a Reason for a 365 Degree View? I want to write to you this week about Microsoft's 365 and also their office Web Apps. 3/15/2012 DataComp Newsletter Don't Play Possum I love Dobermans. My wife and I have one older male Dobie now; he's black and tan. 3/14/2012 I am a Walking Hotspot One of my favorite gadgets is my Verizon MiFi. As a matter fact, I like it so much I don't even call it a gadget, I refer to it as a necessary piece of equipment. 3/7/2012 Are We Slowing Down or Drinking From the Fountain of Youth? Did you know that much less than one percent of the global populations have the wealth, health, political and cultural freedoms, family support and free time that makes up our lifestyle? 2/29/2012 Your Mother Knew Best You're hearing a lot in the news these days about privacy. And that's not a bad thing. 2/22/2012 Don't Throw Away Your Rolodex A couple of things happened to me this week that spurred this week's newsletter topic. 2/15/2012 What do I do for a Living? It's a good question to ask ourselves every so often. First of all, it changes no matter who you are. 2/14/2012 DataComp Newsletter What's Your Priority? "You can't make two things your number one priority." An interesting concept stated by Carol Roth, the author of Entrepreneur Equation. 02/08/2012 Remotely Connected or Not Mark Twain said, "The secret of success is making your vocation your vacation." I say this since I just returned from a vacation and so while I agree that it's a great quote and certainly applicable, it's not to be taken literally. 02/01/2012 Oh No! Googling My "Brand" Exposes a Mess We all know we should be "googling" ourselves and our company on a fairly regular basis, even though most of us probably don't. 01/25/2012 It's Gasparilla-Go Hire a Pirate! This is the "season" of Gasparilla here in Tampa. There are parties, an art show, a half-marathon, the mayor surrenders the key to the city and it all centers around a number of parades. 01/18/2012 The Pen is a Mighty Tool The pen remains one of the best tech tools I have at my disposal. While I take my tablet to most meetings, I can still more fluidly draw pictures and take notes with a pen. 1/12/2012 DataComp Newsletter Eat Your Own Dog Food In the past, I have mentioned our new commercial appraisal report writing software called Edge. I am very excited about this product because I see it as a game changer for our industry. 01/11/2012 First, What You Told Me Last Week, then onto Ultrabooks! Last week we talked about New Year's resolutions, which led to a discussion about doing things differently, which led into a question about whether we should try to connect on a more personal level in our day-to-day e-mails by adding a headshot to our signature line. Dohring Group Newsletter--JANUARY 2012 The Year 2012 Happy New Year! As we Josh Dohringbegin 2012, we reflect on how grateful we are for the blessings of our friends, family, successes, and lessons. We've found a new and unique way to express our gratitude to our friends and clients. 01/04/2012 Its January...There Must be a Resolution Somewhere Some of you are not part of the forty to forty-five percent of folks who make one or more resolutions each year. 12/21/2011 Happy Holidays, See You in 2012! As I write my final message to you for 2011, I reflect fondly on the many conversations I've had with you throughout the year and I'm thankful. DataComp News 12/15/2011 Important 2011 tax information 12/14/2011 Maybe a Mindmap is the Answer This time of year we are all full of extras. Extra company and client parties, extra tasks to make the holiday's special, and of course extra workload to meet year-end goals. 12/8/2011 DataComp Newsletter Rules of Thumb For a typical office building, I often estimate insurance expense at $.65 per square foot. It's a rule of thumb (ROT) in my market. Rules of thumb are very handy, easy to access, familiar, often used and rarely contested. 12/7/2011 Every Company has This Problem Every company has this problem ... "black holes of information"! Yes, even small companies have at least one black hole of information. The most common black holes have names like Shirley, Tom and Margie. Yes, the office manager and his or her cohorts tend to cause more information damage than any physical network or poorly designed file sharing system. 11/30/2011 Cling at Your Own Risk It's pretty cool being an adult isn't it? We get to make our own decisions but we waited, for what seemed, our whole lives for it. No more being told what to do and especially no more being told we weren't old enough to do it. 11/23/2011 Happy Thanksgiving 2011 While we should do it year round, November is "officially" the month we count our blessings and give thanks. This year, the poor economy stays at the forefront and yet we have so much to be thankful for. It all started back in 1621. 11/17/2011 DataComp Newsletter Start the Conversation Many commercial appraisers use the word "appraisal shop". I wish they wouldn't. It makes it sound like you're part-time, when in fact many of you've been in your career for a long time. When I hear the word "shop", I visualize a place where you would have your transmission repaired, not a progressive and professional appraisal company. 11/16/2011 It's On All of Our Minds For the past several days the Occupy Tampa folks have been outside my window in our city park. They are out there in the morning, they are there all day, they are there when I leave for my commute home and they are there if I'm back in town late for a social event. 11/9/2011 We Can't Resist Free Why can't we resist getting something for free? It doesn't matter that the phrases, "there is no free lunch", or "you only get what you pay for", are irrational because we put that aside when we hear these four letters together: F-R-E-E. 11/2/2011 Maybe We Need To Hang Out With Younger People On Christmas Eve, 1924, a group of industrialists held a secret meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. There was no official agenda and not a single man present would confirm the meeting ever took place. Yet, what transpired at that gathering would come to define the future of consumerism. 10/26/2011 More Than One Identity I have multiple identities and I'll bet you do too. Not the crazy, schizophrenic identities that movies are made about, but email identities. Many of you have never worked with me, other than through RealWired!, so you're not accustomed to seeing mail from my Brenda@DohringGroup.com address. 10/20/2011 DataComp Newsletter It's Go Time Have you felt your commercial appraisal profession and possibly the overall country's change in mood lately? I think people in general are much more anxious and at times aggressive in this sour economic climate. I often like to compare physical challenges to my work. 10/19/2011 Does It Really Need to Be So Difficult? As far as I'm concerned upgrading service plans and adding devices to your business or personal phone and data service is worse than going to a bad dentist. It is more painful than it should be. It could just be me, but it seems I never manage to get something done with a carrier in short order. 10/12/2011 Do You Use an Electric Toothbrush? Are you a manual or electric brusher? Seems like a funny question for someone like me whose work centers on technology and improving processes doesn't it? It really is not, once I explain. I use an electric toothbrush. 10/5/2011 Can a Hosted (In the Cloud) CRM Be Your Secret to Success? I've said it before and you know it to be true that keeping track of clients and prospective clients is vital. But here's the issue. It's tedious and sometimes the responsibility falls towards the lowest end of the to-do list. 9/28/2011 Have You Noticed Anything Different? I hope you make it a regular practice to check in on your "brand". Since Google remains the top search engine just checking there is probably good enough for most of us. If you do check it regularly, you might have noticed something different in the appearance of the search engine results page. 9/21/2011 A Formidable Workforce I did it again. I attended CREW (Commercial Real Estate Women) Network's annual convention this past week in our nation's capital. There's always a theme for the convention and this year in a city that many believe remains one of the most powerful in the world, the theme was Power. Washington, DC is a fascinating place and I could talk with you for hours about it ... 9/15/2011 DataComp Newsletter Call to Action Do you know where you were when your commercial appraisal career turned commodity? It was July 21, 2010. The day the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was signed. 9/14/2011 Trust and Gut and the Internet Almost every time people choose to work with you, essentially "buying" what you have, they do it because they get a feeling in their gut that you will satisfy what they want. The only way for people to get there is by asking questions. And sometimes the people who have the responsibility to make decisions don't know what questions to ask. 9/7/2011 It's a Jungle in There-Part 2 Last week I highlighted a couple of ways to make your daily trip through your email jungle a bit easier and promised to add a couple more things. I could write for a year on this topic and never run out of things to say. 9/1/2011 DataComp Newsletter Do You Have "It"? That quality, often elusive, that sets a person apart from everyone else. In sports it's easy to tell if a person has "it" because they are "hitting on all cylinders", "in the zone" or "can do no wrong". 8/31/2011 IT's a Jungle in There I've said it before and I'll say it again, we pretty much love and hate email at the same time. Most of us who use email do the following fairly regularly: 8/24//2011 Global Competitiveness Less than one-percent of the global populations have the wealth, health, political and cultural freedoms, family support and free time that makes up our lifestyle in the United States. We are a very highly productive nation. High rates of labor productivity in China, India, and other emerging economies have many concerned that our U.S. workers are losing ground to their competitors in world markets. 8/17//2011 Is Your Business Turned "On"? Okay, it's been a few tough years. And if you don't want to follow my line of thinking that the best opportunities and ideas come out of the toughest of times then maybe you'll be willing to at least give thought to another one of my observations. 8/11/2011 DataComp Newsletter Where's the Love I recently posted the following simple question to the RMA (Risk Management Association) blog, "Are commercial appraisals truly meaningful to the process for banks beyond regulatory compliance"? I received a few responses but the one that got my attention was from a chief credit officer/senior lender of a bank in Florida. 8/3//2011 Invasion of the Tablet Snatchers In the classic movie, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, a group of people discover the human race has been replaced one by one, with clones grown in pods, devoid of emotion. There are several archetypal terms and analogies to the impending tablet invasion. 7/27/2011 Emily Post Alive and Well I had some interesting reactions to last week's column about email etiquette. Email clearly is a blessing and a curse (as you shared with me) but it is here to stay and the social rules will continue to develop. The rule I proposed last week... 7/21/2011 DataComp Newsletter Mass Confusion So what is the regulation regarding loan officers talking to commercial appraisers? The short answer: it depends on who you talk to. The correct answer: a loan officer can talk to an appraiser after the assignment has been awarded. You would never know that talking to many banks... 7/20/2011 Emily Post, Where are You? It's kind of ironic that the reigning queen of etiquette remains Emily Post. Post. Posting. Email. Ironic indeed. In this age of social media and instant non-verbal communication, I'm thinking we could all use a little "Emily". 7/13/2011 Browser, Smowser - Who Cares Most of us don't realize how much an old and out-of-date web browser can negatively impact our online lives, particularly online safety. You wouldn't drive an old car with bald tires, bad brakes, an unreliable engine and ugly old features for years and years. 7/6/2011 Pareto's Principle and Mom's Singing A couple of weeks ago when I wrote about the Five Minute Rule, I also brought up the concept of the last 20 Percent. While cleaning up around the house the other day and right before the temptation to succumb to laziness towards the end of my spree, I was reminded that I had not finished telling you about this concept. I know for sure that I first learned the concept of the last 20 percent as a child. My mother still sings a little song - "Be the labor great or small do it well or don't do it at all." And you've heard it said many different ways. "The icing on the cake" is just one of them, referring to adding the best little bit or, "It's all in the details". 6/29/2011 The Back Door is for Friends Every time I sit down to write this column, I am thrilled that you are out there willing to take time to read it. I haven't worked with that many of you and you probably don't see me as your tech or process coach, efficiency advisor or paid consultant, but I hope you see me as a real person. I hope you see me as someone who really cares that you are successful in whatever you do. And I really appreciate that you take time to read this because it brings you some value. 6/23/2011 DataComp Newsletter A local broker sent a broadcast e-mail to the majority of commercial appraisers in my market area, indicating that their appraisals are too high due to reliance on dated comps. That is something I haven't seen before. 6/22/2011 You Only Need to Do Five Minutes I learned two things yesterday. Hundreds of important concepts, ideas, suggestions and near directives entered my realm yesterday, yet, for whatever reason, only two of them seemed really important and applicable to me. It happens to us all, doesn't it? We're exposed to a lot in our business life every day that we have the opportunity to learn from. Some of it sticks and some of it doesn't. I sometimes wonder why. 6/15/2011 Congratulations on the New Arrival There has been a birth of sorts. Everyone is proud to show off their new member of the family. It's the iPad. I have not seen such a surge in population for a long, long time. Commercial real estate professionals have "adopted" the iPad in a big way. 6/9/2011 DataComp Newsletter What's your fee for a typical summary format appraisal? Is it on the lean side of $1,200 or healthier $3,900? While these fees are anecdotal, based on my numerous conversations with DataComp customers across the US; it's a huge dollar and percentage spread, especially when you calculate your net profit. 6/08/2011 Do I Really Need to Talk About This? Yes. Apparently I do. Do you still have a Gmail, Hotmail, AOL, Yahoo or Go Daddy e-mail address that you use in your professional life? If so, it's time to upgrade to a professional e-mail address. Please get over the, "Gmail is the standard of the industry and it's free!" mentality. If you want to be taken seriously, you must set up your business e-mail address on a website domain that you own. And guess what, it's ok to have more than one. If you have a specialty it's something you might want to look into to. You can have various domain names point to specific pages on your primary web site which can help maximize your site traffic and enhance your ranking on the various search engines. 6/1/2011 Too Many Choices of Orange Juice I had a long conversation the other day with one of our clients. She was lamenting about the fact that software for business has become overcomplicated. She felt that there are just too many options within the various programs that are fairly irrelevant, or at least appear that way to an individual user. And let's not get into the whole "there's an app for that" discussion. I understand that Apple has applied for trademark protection of the phrase, so there may be reason to have some fun with the phrase. If I say it quick enough, "there's an app for that," it sounds like the AFLAC commercial 5/25/2011 Stretched Like Gumby It seems that while Gumby is a classic show and toy character once popular in years past, it started to become popular again after the death of its creator on January 11, 2010. Although I am making a reference to something from my childhood, it seems that those of you that are much younger than me will know what I'm talking about. Although Gumby stretched and stretched 100's of times, there was a breaking point. 5/24/2011 DataComp Newsletter "Pessimism" and "success" both have three s's. Are you a pessimist, optimist or just pragmatic? If it's the latter then you are a pessimist. Pragmatic is a code word for somewhat disengaged from the process, much less being passionate. 5/18/2011 Mazes in the Workplace Mazes. We've all done them sitting in a waiting area of some kind, haven't we? They help pass the time when we're otherwise feeling anxious about wasting our time "waiting". Generally there's no real reward to completing them. There's no cheese at the finish. There's little, if any sense of accomplishment. As a matter of fact, some of them are so easy you don't have to use a writing instrument to complete them, you can simply see the way out. Nonetheless, even those take and waste time. 5/11/2011 What if You Could "Get" It? There is a smart way to do things. OK, there are lots of smart ways to do things. So how do you choose? You read - a lot and everywhere. You research - the Internet is your best source. You attend industry meetings and seminars. You talk to your respective peers, your superiors, your mentors and even your competition. So you do a lot to "get it". But still you have to figure out how to do "it" more efficiently and yet be comfortable that you got the best possible information before you did "it". 5/4/2011 You Need to be "Respondable" It's not a typo. The word I'm using and intended to use is "respondable". I'm using it as an adjective and I suggest you adopt it that way too. Here's what I'm suggesting. If you are communicating, particularly in the world of social media, you have a responsibility to make what you put out there respondable. 5/3/2011 DataComp Newsletter What cap rate would you apply to your spouse? A hotel property owner asked me this question. As a commercial appraiser, I was confused. His question came up after I asked him why in the world would he buy a hotel in the middle of nowhere. The only nearby economic driver was a nuclear power plant. I told him I thought it was risky. He told me that getting married was a bigger risk and a leap of faith, much more than real estate. 4/27/2011 Pay = Performance? A couple of weeks ago my column was weighted on customer service. Because of the number of responses I received, I know it struck a nerve. Some of those responses spoke about how the folks who deliver customer service are paid which got me thinking. It got me thinking about the slow job recovery we're having and how much the low rate of job creation has been affected by the efficiencies many companies, large and small put in place to survive the recession. 4/20/2011 It's Not Perfect, But It's Close I've had my iPad for a couple of months now and because I'm over 50, I am still in the learning phase, although everyone tells me that even if I was 20 years younger I'd probably still be in the learning curve. If you recall, when I first purchased it I told you that I bought it for a specific reason...a client relationship. It really is an incredible device and I find I'm using it every day for business and pleasure. 4/14/2011 DataComp Newsletter "Drinkers with a running problem" is the tag line of a local running group I belong to. We run every Tuesday and meet after at an Irish pub. Good times. One thing I've noticed though...what started out as a fun run has turned into a competitive environment between folks of different ages and gender. So while we enjoy the Irish Smithwick beer after the run, our collective performances have improved significantly over the past few months. We keep "one up-ing" each other for different race distances and challenges, but in a supportive environment. 4/13/2011 Simply Thanks You know how you don't know what you don't know? It was with that in mind, together with my thoughts on prioritization and its importance, which made me write what I did last week. And believe me, from your responses I learned a little bit more about what I don't know. 4/6/2011 A Couple of Direct Questions I've got a couple of questions for you that I hope you'll answer. I love to measure stuff because it's efficient. It's the best way to figure out what to do at any given time, why others do what they do and most importantly and most frequently overlooked, measuring helps you decide when to stop doing stuff. There's a saying that you must prioritize yourself, otherwise other people will do it for you DataComp Newsletter - April 2011 I visited the new Dali museum in St. Petersburg the other day. I couldn't tell if the man was brilliant, insane or some combination. Dali's early work was fairly traditional keeping within the lines of the artistic community at the time. Later on, he cut loose on all inhibitions and let his imagination go free. The museum guide provided numerous levels of interpretation of his art. My inability to discern some of his artwork and its confusing effect on my brain suggests I need to expand my perception skills. 3/30/2011 The Urgency of Now "Someday I'll be able to implement a new and better way to do...whatever." No one really says this out loud, but most of us say it internally a lot. Someday is a really dangerous term in the business world. It is great for laying on the beach, drinking something mildly mind altering and refreshing and dreaming. We all need dreams. They help propel us into action or they simply make us feel better. They are vital. 3/23/2011 A Rare Opportunity Last week, I had a rare opportunity to hear two mayors from two different cities on two separate occasions tell how they created significant change. Those of you who read me regularly know that I tend to be a realist about how quickly the commercial real estate industry reacts to change. At least the kind of change that comes along with doing things differently as a result of technology and processes 3/16/2011 A Lesson from Japan A while back, I wrote about a reliable survey which indicated that 80% of companies surveyed said they offered great customer service, yet customers said they only get great customer service 8% of the time. Hmm, seems to me a zero is missing. That's a big, big disconnect. So it got me thinking that maybe I'm just getting old and cranky and no one really cares about customer service these days 3/9/2011 Put Your Big Picture Hat On It's time to take the next step. I think it's time for all of us in commercial real estate to think bigger...about how to give our customers, as well as our employees, what they want and need, even if they haven't told us what that is yet. Here's an interesting statistic. It seems that because of the two-year average annual turnover in mobile phone contracts, smart phones now account for nearly a third of the mobile devices that we use. DataComp Newsletter - March 2011 "I would rather have you hate me for who I am than love me for someone I'm not." Wise words from a blues song I heard the other day. What does that have to do with commercial appraising you may ask? Probably not much. But stay with me for a second. 3/2/2011 Maximally Productive = Most Profitable Today I was reading something written by David Allen, one of my favorite productivity gurus and he used the phrase "Maximally Productive". I started to gasp for breath, thinking I was getting comments from an appraisal continuing education forum that I wasn't even aware I was supposed to be a part of 2/23/2011 Can't Live With It...Can't Live Without It Knowing when to implement some type of collaboration software is really, really tough. That's unfortunate. I sure wish it wasn't true. For most, it's a fine line between collaboration and aggravation. I can't say that I'm surprised. DataComp Newsletter - February 2011 "A journey of a 1,000 miles begins with a single step". I don't think Lao-tzu's statement is entirely accurate. I think the very first step is to prepare your mind. If you're not mentally prepared for a 1,000 mile journey, taking the first step will likely end with serious leg cramps shortly thereafter. 2/16/2011 The Most Important Tech Tool, Now and Forever It's not a trick. There really is only one tech tool you can't do without. It's your brain. Why is your brain the most important tool? Because it's the only tool that can make sense of pertinent incoming data about how you do your best work to serve your clients and then enable you to use that data to create and automate meaningful processes. Nothing works like the brain when it comes to specifically handling your world. Nothing. 2/9/2011 At the Core of It All I had an opportunity to do some traveling last week. Not for business this time, but for pure pleasure. Those of you that are long time readers of this column know that one of my favorite places to be is on a sailboat somewhere in the Caribbean. I didn't have an opportunity to spend much time on a sailboat for this trip, but it was, after all, the Caribbean and one of my favorite spots, the Virgin Islands. 2/2/2011 Social Media Commercial Real Estate 2011 If I listen, I hear it almost daily...someone is objecting to using social media in business settings. It gets tiring hearing people say social media isn't worthy of their attention and that real businesses simply don't market that way. The fact is, nothing could be further from the truth. But in our business world, doing it right can seem like an additional burden 1/26/2011 It's the End of January Here we are at the end of January. So how are those resolutions holding out for you? Hopefully, you're still doing pretty well. I'm sorry to admit that a few I made have fallen by the wayside already. I guess if they didn't have enough staying power to make it through the first month, they weren't that good to begin with. I'm okay with that. Sometimes it's knowing when to stop doing something that really matters. 1/19/2011 Cup of Joe The other day I learned that a Harvard University professor has invented a product that allows users to enjoy a cup of coffee without having to drink it. The product, called Le Whif, is an inhaler containing coffee which has been distilled into a breathable powder and gives the same dose of caffeine as a double shot of espresso. Taken to market last year, flavors include chocolate, raspberry, mint and coffee 1/12/2011 The iPad Might Get You I know you might be surprised to hear this from me, but I just got my first iPad. Well, guess what? This admission of purchase this late in the game surprises me too because, as you know, I love technology and I love gadgets. But I also value return on investment and the value is having "gadgets" in my personal life, but only "tools" in my professional world. That is why I have only had the iPad for about a week. And I can tell you, it has been a good week. 1/5/2011 Truth is the New Currency At the beginning of the year, I decided my signature tag line was going to be "Truth is the New Currency." There are a lot of reasons why I have been feeling this way. It is not so much that there are a lot of non-truths, it is just that there is so much information it is hard to know what is true and what is not. There is so much sorting that needs to be done. No time before in history have we had this much information coming at us so rapidly. And we have so few ways and limited time to verify it. 12/29/2010 The Day After and Beyond As 2010 comes to a close and we have memories of the lovely Christmas and holiday time we have had, our thoughts begin to turn to 2011. For myself and many of you, that means looking back at what you did right in 2010, what you did wrong and now what you want to do differently to make 2011 a year to be proud of. 12/22/2010 Merry Christmas...A Time of Sharing At a breakfast meeting the other day, I enjoyed a brief discussion with a colleague who, after running several successful businesses, is embarking on a new one. That is not at all unusual for anyone in this group, but what is different is that he is starting a company focused on helping companies understand and take advantage of EQ - Emotional Intelligence Quotient 12/15/2010 The Year is Almost Over I love the word perspective. I'm not so sure about the word perception. To me perspective describes a future indication, something upcoming that others might not see. Perception on the other hand seems to generally reflect how someone sees or considers something, and it may have little basis. Perspective seems wise. To me, perception is about the process of how sensory information is received and interpreted by the brain. It is often used to explain how two people see the same events differently. DataComp Newsletter - December, 2010 Your goals are worthless, your aspirations are fleeting and your ultimate success is of no value unless followed up by action. In the commercial appraisal profession, you are not provided a road map of how to navigate your career successfully, whether you are a fee appraiser or the owner of the firm. 12/8/2010 Pushing Water Upstream It is that time of year. That time when many of us try to, as my granny would say, "Put 10 pounds of potatoes in a 5 pound bag". Over the years I added, "Hey, what's wrong with that, if you don't mind mashed potatoes!" I fool myself a bit...you probably do as well. 12/1/2010 If You Could... If you could change one thing, what would the future look like? This isn't some big philosophical question. It's a question that we ought to ask ourselves or those we interact with over and over and over again. It's a great way to make some sort of incremental change for the better. 11/24/2010 A Simple, Heartfelt Concept of Gratitude Gratitude. It's not a word we hear that often these days. A simple definition is "The quality or feeling of being grateful or thankful". It's on our minds this week. For most of us, the Thanksgiving holiday reminds us that despite the ups and downs of daily life, even with the economic problems over the last year, we all have a lot to be grateful for. DataComp Newsletter - November 18, 2010 I have a favorite pizza place nearby my house that I love to go to. Two old Italian, somewhat cranky but funny, guys run the business. They take orders the "old-school" way...scribble on a piece of paper then yell the order out to their sons. 11/17/2010 You've Heard it Once. You've Heard it Twice. You've Heard it a Lot. I overheard it at breakfast this morning. We, as service companies, need to communicate and communicate often. It was interesting because the conversation was coming from an attorney who was speaking about national service firms, so certainly, that's about you and me. What he was talking about was that he was going take the four days over the Thanksgiving holiday to revamp his website. 11/10/2010 You Don't Know What You're Doing As long ago as 1931, the distinguished American economist, William Edwards Deming said, "If you can't describe what you are doing as a process, you don't know what you're doing!" We know this to be true, but dang it's hard. I eat, sleep and breathe process and yet most days, I kick and scream along the way, knowing it's the only way I can run a successful company and have a life. 11/3/2010 Format and Sharing...It's Not for the Seriously Paranoid Let's be a little technical this week. How many years have we used PDF documents because we didn't want them to be editable? Well conspiracy theorists, the seriously paranoid, and those with dark secrets already know that they, PDFs, have always been editable documents. The rest of you normal types might not be so sure. The right answer is that anything electronic can generally be manipulated, but then again so can printed documents with a little Whiteout and a copy machine. The key comes down to what's easy and practical as much as anything else. Of course password protected documents of all kinds help with the non-edit ability and security issues, but let's not go there today. DataComp Newsletter - October 28, 2010 Contrary to what many commercial appraisers think, appraising is a business. "Just hang out your shingle" is what appraisers used to say when starting their firms. No mention of business development, cold calls and the pressure to make it successful. 10/27/2010 It's All Personal How many times do we hear it? "Don't take it personally." "It's business, not personal." "Leave your personal life at home." Truth is each of those lines is impossible to do, and none would be a smart to thing to do if we could. It's our personal self that helps us achieve things in our careers because, well, it's personal. If something doesn't matter to us personally, we just don't have the same enthusiasm and without enthusiasm, work is just that...work. DataComp Newsletter - September 2, 2010 Two months ago, a prominent MAI passed away suddenly. His name was George Cuddeback. He was a very sharp and knowledgeable appraiser that loved to share his knowledge with others. 9/1/2010 If it Takes That Much Time... For years I've heard that 60% of what we do in commercial real estate is managing paper. OK, to be fair, we probably spend 60% of our time managing data. That's a lot. I was reminded of this the other day when I was chatting with a couple of attorneys during a deposition. Chatting really isn't the right word. I was sharing with them that I detest how much paper it takes to work one's way through a lawsuit and they remarked that only commercial real estate was more paper/data intensive. I'm not sure I agree with them, but I do know managing a transaction's "paperwork" takes up a huge part of our working hours. I wonder why we can't seem to get out from under it all. 8/25/2010 Where's the Payoff? It's what we want to know every time we think of buying new software, computers and printers. It's also the hardest thing to calculate. And it's 'not just hard to do it when you're a large company; it's really tough to do in a small company or individual department. So I say, why do it at all? What I mean is, why do it with a calculator alone. You can't really "calculate" very easily anyway, but you can use your gut and know that you're making an improvement over how you were doing things. And by using your gut, please, please just accept that you don't have to find the "perfect solution", you just have to make things much better. That's a big piece of the payoff. Make incremental improvements. 8/19/2010 Outlets and Eye-Fi's? Traveling this week, I was both pleasantly surprised to get free wifi in a couple of the airports, and highly disappointed that the hotel I stayed in charged for internet access, something less expensive hotels generally don't which, trust me, I really don't understand. So, while I was pleased that my smart phone kept me connected, it got a bigger workout than normal. What I noticed and what really let me down, was the lack of available electrical outlets. Let's face it; all of our devices have batteries that need charging and sometimes finding a simple outlet is like being on a scavenger hunt with big prize money. I ask, is it that hard to add a few extra outlets? Seems so. So here's my tip of the day; find a small multi plug, tuck it in your bag and when in a public spot, plug it in an outlet and invite those people you see searching for a place to plug in as though they were in last place in a scavenger hunt, to use it. You'll make friends, but more than that maybe airports and public spaces will start to notice and improve our experience! 8/11/2010 The Art of Choosing Since last week's article on CRM brought up some questions and some good comments from readers, it makes sense to address them in a short follow up. And, while I must admit I wish the discussion would/could take place in the blog so that more people could weigh in and help each other, it seems that you, my wonderful, loyal readers generally prefer to send comments directly to me and that's just fine! DataComp Newsletter - August 4, 2010 As my high school coach used to say, "Give me 110% or don't show up". Oftentimes, this sage advice came with 90-decibel drill sergeant screaming (and spitting)...an effective training technique for skinny teenagers. 8/4/2010 How Well Do You "CRM"? Few business tools are still as unwieldy as CRM - Customer Relationship Management. I'm not sure why, either. Boiled down, CRM systems are fairly simple things. They are Rolodexes on steroids. The best way to describe them is to know that every customer or important name and phone number you add can offer up an entire customized history of your relationship with that person, or it can give you just the kind of basic contact information you very well may have kept in your Rolodex. It goes without saying that you can, and will access your CRM from anywhere you can get to the internet and that you can slice and dice the information to create reports and bulk correspondence easily. Calendar events and "to do's", sometimes described as tasks, round out the basics. Take all of this a step or two further into automating some of the parts of a process you repeat often, and making sure the CRM interacts in some way with the email program you use most often, and you're in business. 7/28/2010 Listen Well & Use Pen and Paper Full disclosure: I have a hard time remembering things I don't make notes about. I've been known to hide in a corner or go to the restroom to scribble notes on the back of a business card or whatever sliver of "something" I can find to write on. I really, really care to make good connections and be diligent in my follow-ups and I think I've used just about every trick in the book to figure out how to discreetly take the notes that I need to do the job I believe I need to do. Yes, I'll admit I've even written on my hand or my wrist. Nowhere else, though. 7/21/2010 Is it Just Me? The other day I had the opportunity to sit for a couple of hours and do some exploration into the business brains of a group of CEOs and Presidents of companies. It seems to me we're all working on pretty much the same things as 12 months ago but some of the desperation and, therefore, the intensity is less. No one disagrees that 2009 was one of the worst years that many have experienced, but now that it's behind us, it's just that...behind us. Everyone started 2010 with almost a euphoric feeling that seemed to hold until summer hit. I don't think it's just the heat...although it's been really, really hot! I think it's more like finding out after it's too late that you stood in the wrong line, or went the wrong way and the 15k race you and everyone else signed up for and started, is a half marathon. Not a full 26.2 marathon, but clearly more than you had planned for physically and mentally. That's a problem. DataComp Newsletter - July 15, 2010 While reading Og Mandino's best seller, The Greatest Salesman in the World, I was struck by this strong passage. "Experience teaches thoroughly yet devours men's years so the value of the lessons diminishes with time necessary to acquire special wisdom. The end finds it wasted on dead men." 7/14/2010 What a Tweet Does Twitter have a place in getting things done? Can tweets influence City Hall? Are professionals really paying attention? It seems so. More and more I'm hearing that Twitter has value in creating awareness and even getting people to respond to calls to action. I can't tell you I've personally had success, but I can point you in the direction of a couple of stories. And I'm not here to tell you that I think the way Twitter might be used is right or wrong. I just want to let you know, it's something we should all keep an eye on. 7/7/2010 Compound It! Dag nab it. Gosh darn it. Confound it. Or better yet, Compound It! The first three slang terms remind me of being a kid and watching old cartoons where the character would like to swear, but of course it wouldn't be appropriate. The last term is usually associated with complex financial calculations, but is certainly applicable in a variety of situations and has a good lesson for us all in this time when frugality seems to be more popular than in years past. DataComp Newsletter - July 1, 2010 Independence Day, more commonly known as 4th of July, is a federal holiday commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. 6/30/2010 Profits are Patriotic The 4th is upon us! It's one of my favorite holidays and not just because I love fireworks and parades, but because it's so "American". I have not traveled as much as I would like, but I have traveled enough to know I love to explore and appreciate other countries, but I am one lucky person to have been born in the United States. There are plenty of things that I wish were different about our country, but that doesn't mean that I'd want to live anywhere else, and I certainly wouldn't want to try and have the business I have here anywhere else. 6/23/2010 Off by a Little? Ok, I'm not talking about the fact that some people are a little off like that crazy aunt you have to visit once a year. I'm talking about why it's important to be "on track" with your processes. I'm a sailor. I've done a lot of it. Or I've done enough to call myself a sailor, but not enough to say I'm great. That part doesn't matter because I like it so much and I do it for fun. 6/16/2010 E-Books and Things Are you using an e-book yet? A local school near here just announced that they plan to buy Amazon's Kindle for all 2,100 students next year. From a technology standpoint, I couldn't be more excited. I really do think that it makes good sense and that we will see more of this to come. Don't get me wrong, there are certainly issues at stake including the fact that most colleges and universities make a decent profit from textbook sales. And if they don't make those profits, it could cause class hours to cost more. But stepping away from the issues of which device is going to be the most adopted one for education and what the cost will be, let's take a minute to think about how people learn. There's so much more to learning than the type of device the information is presented on. 6/9/2010 You've Got Two Ears Are you able to listen or are you too busy waiting to talk? Answer this question...most people are good at listening. Yes or no? You already know the answer. The problem is what to do about it. We are all starving to be heard. In this world of constant distractions and interruptions, people who truly listen stand out. They make others feel valued, important, and heard! Try listening with all of your senses, and watch for the meaning or intent behind the speaker's words. Listening includes being accessible, encouraging people to express themselves, listening with mindfulness, not speaking too much, and using verbal and non verbal language to convey genuine interest in the other person. That said, where does taking notes and particularly electronic notes in meetings fit in? Is there a protocol? DataComp Newsletter - June 8, 2010 In talking to numerous appraisal firms (I refuse to say the word "appraisal shop" - you don't sell flowers), I hear tales of woe. Here are some popular laments and grumblings: 6/2/2010 Abracadabra and Hallmark Memories Ahhhhhhhh, the three-day Memorial weekend is now behind us. I hope you had as much fun as I did remembering why we celebrate this great holiday and making certain that you spent some time with family and friends. 5/26/2010 Test Your Volume I don't watch much television for a variety of reasons. It's not that I don't like a lot of what it has to offer... there are a lot of shows that could keep me occupied. There is just so much more I want to do with my time, so watching television falls pretty low on my priority list. To manage, I only select and watch things that I have recorded...it makes my world a lot more enjoyable. I get to pick and choose on my own timetable. If you think about it, it's the way we like everything in our lives. We want to do what we want, when we want to do it and how we want to do it. And then we change our minds and do it completely different, should we choose to. 5/19/2010 Follow Where Others Have Gone There are lots of ways to find most anything these days, but one of the things I find a bit frustrating is the small print on my smart phone and having to search and then select from the results. So I look for ways to work within the search field. Here are some examples: DataComp Newsletter - May 18, 2010 In marathons the 18th mile is known as "the wall". Those of you that have challenged yourself to this ancient Greek tradition know what I'm talking about. It's when your body breaks down...extensive cramping and omnipresent spike in pain. This mile marker certainly is an obstacle both psychologically and physically. 5/12/2010 The Wrong Sandbox Someone suggested to me the other day that Craigslist shouldn't be overlooked as a place to market commercial real estate. This person was someone that a lot of people look up to for their expertise, and so I was a bit surprised. Probably most of you already know, but just in case you don't, I thought it might be of interest to remind everybody that craigslist doesn't really welcome the kind of marketing that I think most of you do for your commercial real estate services and/or properties. The short of it is from what I can tell, craigslist users don't want to have anything to do with commercialization. Its founder, Craig Newmark, continues to support this philosophy. The whole idea behind craigslist is one of community and dealing locally. It was really built for, and the community wants to keep it for, the John Doe's of the world. In my opinion, it's more of an online reliable flea market. Believe me, I like flea markets. I just don't think they are the best way to market commercial real estate. 5/5/2010 Profiling is Really Important Forget what you've heard or read before, and certainly don't think I'm talking about immigration. Profiling is everything, and it's good practice. It's where social media starts. It's the essence of the minimum you do. You need to give it some attention. The most important part of your profile for those you want to see it, is the photo. If you want people to connect to you, you have to look like someone that others want to connect to. Take time to think about who you want to connect with and make sure that your photo conveys you as they expect to see you. Yep, the way they expect to see you. 4/28/2010 The Perfect Mix I love to research. It's because I'm curious. I've always been curious. As a kid, I loved libraries. The problem was there were so many books, it was difficult to choose. I would get my limit each week - only 5 could be checked out at a time, and at the time, I didn't realize the time I spent looking for and then consuming the books would bring me so much value. I just loved stories. I admit I didn't especially like the people who worked in libraries. Maybe it was just because I was fairly young and grownups of any type intimidated me. Or it just seemed easier if I just searched until I found what I wanted, enjoying the freedom of the "self serve" approach. Since I was generally there finding things indiscriminately, I didn't often need help. 4/21/2010 Great Idea, A Single View of "Something" Information about a client, prospect, employee, tenant, property owner, anything or any one is always hard to keep current. It's the holy grail of good records for communication and just plain good business. But boy, it sure is hard. Oh, and by the way, no one that is assigned to do it will see any value in the job. That's because it's tedious and monotonous. So what to do? Do it anyway. 4/14/2010 Give Me Money or Give Me Time It's a tough choice....money or time? You have to spend one or the other and there never seems to be enough of either one. But it sure seems people spend their time a lot more wastefully than they spend their money. In today's economy, which is actually really good for us, it seems we continue to waste time. Somehow it seems "free", when nothing is farther from the truth. 4/7/2010 If It's Broken, Fix It As a small company, we look at every opportunity to keep expenses down and quality up. So one of our mottos is ..."If it's Broken, Fix it." That goes for processes that no longer work, equipment that isn't working the way it should, people that don't fit our company culture, (really), clients that don't make us money, et al. Along with that mentality is the philosophy that we give things time to be sure they are really "broke" and cannot benefit from a "fix", and then quickly find the right replacement. Sounds just how you do things too, right? Of course it is, but here's where you and I probably fall short...the "quickly find a repacement" part. 3/31/2010 We Hear It, But Don't Believe It We hear it several times a day..."Your call is very important to me", or some other rendition of a voice mail greeting, but of course no one believes it. I know it's impossible to expect to get to talk to the person or company you're calling...or is it? The "Your call is very important to us/me", is easy to pick on. Frankly, the message could just as easily be "Your call is blah, blah, blah, blah", and no one would notice. While we can push it off by saying it's just like asking someone "How's your day", knowing you don't really want the truth, it's not good practice if you are really being everything you want to be. 3/24/2010 Everything Google with Better Results I am always thrilled and privileged to be asked to give presentations about commercial real estate on a fairly frequent basis. Whether it's a significantly large audience or a small group, I remain honored that people invite me to speak about how to improve the business of commercial real estate. Being paid to do this is like having my favorite desert without the calories... it seems too good to be true. Yet, it is not. Unlike the indulgence and calorie example! 3/17/2010 Don't Hate Me Because I'm Enthusiastic Don't hate me because I'm busy and certainly don't hate me because I'm not distraught about the economy...I'm actually enthusiastic. Of course I wish things were better for everyone. I wish that our industry didn't have so many that are out of work. I helped create an organization that I've talked to you about before called Real Estate Lives. This volunteer based start up organization helped put almost 200 people back to work over the past 12 to 18 months. 3/10/2010 Success Equals Communicating to Largest Audience I used to think that communicating to the largest audience possible ensured success. Now I know better...so do you. Communicating to the largest targeted audience that cares about what we are communicating is key and is now also very much within our reach. That makes everyone a lot happier. Believe it or not, as all the "over-communicating" which occurs as we muddle through social networking matures, we are all going to speak to and learn about things that matter without incurring all the clutter. DataComp Newsletter - March 8, 2010 That's something that Master Po might tell his "grasshopper" kung fu student. If Master Po was talking to a commercial real estate appraiser, he might be referring to your goals. 3/3/2010 A Few Days with Smart "Visionaries" and "Cost Containers" Yep, I was fortunate to be invited to participate in a meeting over the past couple of days with a group of brokerage principals that are really smart. As you might expect, they were both Visionaries and Cost Containers - profiles of successful business people. Each of you has these two traits, but you have a dominant one and as a result, you process information very differently. They gave us all a tip, "Now is the time to focus on the visionary side because we need to see what's going to happen next". Most of the important work of cost containment is behind us. So if "cost containment" is dominate for you, push that trait to the back a bit and give your visionary trait a big push to the front. If your visionary trait is more dominate ,you've got a little less work to do, but work nevertheless. 2/24/2010 Ideas are a Dime a Dozen Now don't get mad, but I see it every day...someone has a great idea, (heck, I get 100's daily), and nothing comes of it. Hence the saying, "Ideas are a dime a dozen, but the people who act on them are priceless!" 2/17/2009 Competition, Change, Self Focus and Guilt Do you have what it takes right now to feel good about what you're doing to earn your living in commercial real estate? I'm betting you do. Those of us in commercial real estate are comfortable in a really competitive arena. Thank goodness, because today it's vital given the changing landscape and a myriad of predictions of where we'll be over the next few months and into the next couple of years. DataComp Newsletter - February 15, 2010 I love this quote since it applies to running and to appraising. I find in sports, particularly as some of us mosey into our "golden" years, that few people are willing to maintain a workout regimen. We do not get too old to play, we get old because we stop playing. 2/10/2010 Take This Test...Are You on the Path to Being Great at What You Do? I talk to a lot of people who use technology to be the best they can be. So, I got to thinking...I should showcase some of them and what they do that makes them great. So I need your help. To get it, I'm going to hold an Awards Event. Nominate yourself or someone you know. I'll post the winners here for a month, in our sister newsletters for The Dohring Group and DataComp, I'll Twitter the award list and put it onto our web sites. 2/3/2010 Traveling at the Speed of Words Sometimes, I don't think we stop and think how fast information moves, but yesterday I was quickly reminded as I saw it in action. I was moderator for a discussion in front of a hundred plus commercial real estate professionals. My two guests were esteemed leaders in the southeast commercial real estate arena. Their candid and timely discussion was very well received by the audience, who actively participated in the discussion. 1/6/2010 What's Gone Away? What's Coming? As we start Twenty Ten and might be feeling a little nostalgic, I thought it might be fun to look at some of the things that have became obsolete over the past decade. Things that we probably thought we couldn't live without: DataComp Newsletter - July 2009 You would think "all or nothing" would be limited to Las Vegas. Too often I find commercial appraisers approach their business in this fashion. When it comes to increasing office efficiencies, many believe the following: 7/29/2009 In the Clouds We have a funny saying in our office..."it goes through the air". And air is pronounced drawing out the letters so it sounds like aaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Whenever we don't want to explain how technology works and how we email, upload documents, communicate with others over the net or even from office to office, we say "It went through the air". There is always lots of laughter accompanying the exchange, but truth is, "in the air" isn't such a bad analogy. Now some folks like to call it cloud computing. Not sure why, but it's a more acceptable term if you are looking to impress folks. For us, we like "in the air", but you might want to refer to "cloud computing" which really just refers to the fact that with virtual computing, everything from forms, voice messages and documents is available "on-line" at all times. For some it will mean the elimination of a company intranet with remote desktops. Most companies will continue to have a combination of both, which is what we've done for years. 7/22/2009 Incrementally Speaking I had an opportunity to speak last week as part of a panel on sustainable development sponsored by the US Green Building Council in Central Florida. I'm not telling you this to let you know that I think it's important that our industry take a leadership role in sustainable development. I tell you this because it drives home something I recently learned from a good friend the week before which has the applicability to the sustainable/green movement and to all of us. Like many of you, throughout my career I've been in a constant state of curiosity. Sometimes it gets me in trouble, because I'm seen as always questioning things and sometimes I may come across as "difficult". But I wouldn't give up my curiosity for anything. So it was with great sincerity combined with this curiosity, that I asked a friend of mine how they got to be so smart. How did they manage the accomplishments they had in a seemingly short period of time. To set the stage for you, my question, "How did you get so smart?", was a reaction to something I heard from the lunch speaker and was written on a note pad. My curious nature had my brain wandering beyond what the speaker was trying to enlighten us about. This is no commentary on the speaker or the content, it's just more insight into the fact that my curious mind seems to always be seeking something. Without giving it a moment of thought, my friend quickly wrote this on yellow pad...INCREMENTALLY. It hit my brain like an explosion. It was concise. It was accurate and it was absolutely honest. But more than those things, and I'm sure she had no idea when she wrote it, it had impact that was going to carry forward. And it's a rare occasion when we hear or see something that carries enough punch that it becomes repeatable. 7/15/2009 Back Up to the Summit Let's take a minute at this mid point in 2009 and reflect. As we look back 2009 it will no doubt be seen as one of the toughest economic years many of us has every experienced. But many of you will take pride in knowing that you used this year to not only help sharpen your skills, but you've helped your clients and your community sharpen theirs, so everyone is best positioned as we climb up the "recovery hill" which most predict is the long haul of 2010. You'll take pride in knowing you helped form the base to be even better when we reach the top, so the next era of prosperity will be even longer than the last. You'll take pride knowing that you've shown that 2009 is the Year of the Collaboration; a year of working together. 7/8/2009 Have You Cleaned Your Litter Box Lately? Yesterday was a great day. I had an opportunity to attend a meeting sponsored by CREW Tampa Bay with collaborative support from a number of other commercial real estate associations. With over 250 people in the room, my new friend, Dr. Mark Dotzour, PHD, Chief Economist and Director of Research for the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University gave a poignant, yet at times, very humorous presentation and used one of the best analogies I've heard when describing the current financial situation in the banking industry. 7/1/2009 Are You Happy Yet? Far less than 1% of the global population has the wealth, health, political and cultural freedoms, family support and free time that makes up our lifestyle. Simply put, happiness lies in ones ability to recognize it. I hear a lot of talk lately, and so do you, that no one is happy. This economy has everyone feeling rather grumpy. So I thought with the celebration of the 4th of July this week, you'd indulge me a bit. I don't say this to be funny or sarcastic...though I sometimes am known to be "snarky", but I am happy. Really. And deep down, I'll bet you are too, only you might not want to say it out loud because it doesn't fit well with popular water cooler talk these days. DataComp Newsletter - June 2009 Is it possible to be so analytical that obvious appraisal issues get missed in your reports? I thought I would share some "real life" stories from appraisers as to avoid the embarrassing "duh" feeling. For example, an appraiser on the second page of his report just after the cover page, presented a picture of the subject property with a big banner saying "for sale". However there is no mention of the subject being for sale in the report..."duh". 6/24/2009 Communication = Trust; Trust = Efficiencies The world of commercial real estate lending is really weird these days. No one is happy and no one is talking. Oh, there's lots of words flying around, but it seems everyone is so uncertain of where the financial markets are or where commercial real estate investments are heading, there's very little useful dialog. Borrowers are screaming about lenders and lenders are screaming about borrowers. When trust goes down, people stop talking...and it's why things go sour. So be careful of only "talking" via text, i.e. emails or other electronic methods. Trust is really important - really, really important. Why? Remember Dr. Mehrabian's research which provided the basis for the widely quoted statistic for the effectiveness of spoken communications. 6/17/2009 Workflow or BPM - Super Freak, Super Freak Say Workflow or BPM - Business Process Management, or anything else that has to do with process and most people are going to run in another direction. Unfortunately, not me. To be truthful, I dig it, but I don't typically find its good cocktail talk. What I really dig about workflow stuff is the people part. I love figuring out why people do things the way they do and I even enjoy the challenge and frustration of trying to get people to do something different. Truth is most people hate to do anything differently. And implementing workflow by its very nature means, as my country friends say "Change is a cumin...". 6/10/2009 It Had to be Outlook Outlook is a great tool, but if I ever thought that it wasn't or that it didn't have us all completely under its spell, I was certainly reminded of its power by attending an incredible seminar last week. I was fortunate to be sitting in the audience when a bright woman named Carson Tate, CPO and President of Working Simply Inc., took control. She was to present an afternoon program on working smarter, not harder. I have to tell you, I didn't really intend to stay for this presentation, because, while I love, design and help people implement time management, workflow management, process management, communication workflow systems, personal process systems, business process systems, etc. etc., I was visiting a city I was dying to get out and explore more of, but I couldn't leave the room. I wasn't alone. Carson held us tight. With great finesse and clear intent, she launched into one of the best programs I've experienced in a long time. She really knew how to hit us hard, making us start with an assessment exposing our organizational skills and implementation. Ouch! Once she had us all sucked in and oh yes, some people looked like they were about to cry, she started to put us all back together. 6/3/2009 Task Masters at Work Why does assigning tasks work? Asking someone to do something even if it's yourself is, of course, useful. We operate by "doing" things all the time. I find that while everyone tasks, it's the assigning of tasks and the follow up to tasks that is a huge problem. Having a "system" or software that automates can really help. I know lots of folks in our industry that use highly customized tracking solutions, but it seems that even those tend to be for specific processes. Outlook becomes the defacto and it's just not collaborative. For tasking to work at its most basic and be the most useful, it needs to be interactive. Rarely is a task assigned or started and finished with only one party. Tasks worth tracking tend to have a series of handoffs that occur at different times along the way. It's very useful keep track of where the task is...you know, that whole..."is it really being done?" thing. DataComp Newsletter - May 2009 What? I bet you've never seen those two words together. But think about it, who comes to mind as the most knowledgeable commercial real estate professionals? You probably think of top-tier brokers, mortgage bankers, REIT managers, lenders, etc. 5/27/2009 The World Has Changed...and How! (Part Two) Last week I told you about the NAIOP seminar I participated in using Skype. I gave you some reasons why I love Skype and why you should too. So as promised, this week is a bit about the other two leading roles from that session...Go to Webinar and Go to Meeting. Oh, and if you remember, last week I told you about my amazing, talented, smart, assistant Barbara who before the session had no idea how to use the tools needed. Well, she had a few choice words for me after that and I'll bet you can tell that I'm a quick study by the adjectives used to describe her this week. She's all that, and by the way I forgot to mention she's clever, diligent, hard working, lovely and very "techie". 5/20/2009 The World Has Changed...and How! This past week, I was a participant in a ½ day educational program called "The World has Changed..and How!" put together by the New Mexico Chapter of NAIOP in Albuquerque. I was part of a panel brought "virtually" to the 140+ audience using some inexpensive communication tools that all of you should know about and find ways to incorporate in your businesses. For many of the people working to coordinate and make it possible for me and my dear friend Jim Young of Realcomm to participate, it was the first time they'd used these "tools" and they did a great job. Although there was a learning curve, it was short and there were no "wipeouts" along the way. So how'd we do it? We used Skype in the lead role, followed by Go to Webinar and Go to Meeting. A big part of the credit, but also to illustrate why you should explore this tool, was that my assistant Barbara, who had no idea how to use these tools and is certainly no "techie", served as the primary coordinator, so let's call her The Director. You can do this. You should do this! 5/13/2009 Stress Test Results Generally, we get Stress Test Results after a grueling run on a treadmill. There's a nurse standing beside you insisting you go faster and longer while you try to make sure you don't fall off or hook one of the monitoring wires on the machine and rip the patches off, adding to your pain and possibly requiring a "do over". But in today's world, we anxiously awaited the outcome of the top 19 banks in this country receiving the results of their stress tests - SCAP, Supervisory Capital Assessment Program. Heavens! Doesn't anyone think what the acronym will be before they name these things? Whether you pronounce SCAP with a short or a long "A", it's just bad. Like TARP, Troubled Asset Recovery Plan. How many times did you hear, "put a TARP on it?". Anyway, I digress, but the link above really is worth scanning, (there are great charts) even if you're not into reading. 5/6/2009 Watch Your Mouth Did your mother teach you to always watch what you say? Then why do business people refer almost total strangers? Let's say I've met a commercial real estate attorney at a random Chamber of Commerce event. The assumption is we met, we talked for perhaps two minutes, and as such, provided the basis of a sound referral. DataComp Newsletter - April 2009 There's an old saying, "you don't have 20 years experience, you have one year of experience and you repeated it 19 times". This somewhat cynical statement is aimed to highlight the issue that doing the same thing over and over might not be the best way to run your business. 4/29/2009 The Swim is Cancelled The swim is cancelled. As we awoke to that statement booming loudly from the speakers set up for the St. Anthony's triathlon, there was a moment of confusion, followed by a moment of relief, followed by either disappointment or elation. So let me back up. The St. Anthony's triathlon this past weekend attracted the 4,500 participants or so from around the US and farther as usual, and the tension of that many folks preparing to race is always thick. This year for us was a bit different. I couldn't race due to injuries, my husband was racing but hadn't trained with his usual gusto and my son was doing this race as his first Olympic distance. That wasn't, however, what was different. This year we had out of town guests and so we sailed over to the race and spent the night in the marina on the boat, so it'd be a quick step off the dock and onto the track. 4/22/2009 I'm Considering Ear Plugs I don't want to be the "girl in the bubble", but I'm considering wearing ear plugs when I'm around anyone in the commercial real estate industry. It's getting harder and harder to smile and nod, or worse yet join in the gloom and doom talk without having it seep into my Chi. I heard the other day that there is genetic evidence that we are born with "positive" or "negative" genes. The study was done on worms, so I'm not sure how much value I want to place on it, but heck who am I to fight good science. It seems that in these economic times, some think it makes sense to turn to the observation of worms to see whether we can learn anything in terms of being optimistic or pessimistic. A common thread of the study's impact is the message that when you are faced with scarcity, you should still be optimistic. Works for me. It makes us ready to respond quickly. It keeps us sharp, engaged, ready to go, and ready to send out the message when the food (better times) come. We know this for sure... societies thrive when they are optimistic. So here's what I know with the economy in a bit of a mess and commercial real estate a big piece of the mess. There's never been a more important time than now to have fun. Besides, you owe it to your customers and you won't have any opportunities with those you want to be your customers if you don't figure this out! 4/15/2009 Calculate Everything I thought I'd share one of the reasons I love being connected to the internet all the time - On-line Calculators. I am very curious and, therefore, I love to analyze. So the fact that you can find and use a calculator for most any problem you want to solve on-line is really useful; particularly in light of the belt tightening many of us are looking at in our business and personal lives. 4/8/2009 Stop SaaSing Me Ok, first things first. SaaS stands for Software-as-a-Service. Sure, most of you know that already but I learned a long time ago, even if I don't always manage to remember it, that using acronyms can be downright rude. So in honor of my mother's 80th birthday this past week, I'm minding my P's and Q's, which I only recently learned means, mind your "pints" and "quarts". (It seems barkeeps in England said this to patrons when they were getting a bit "rowdy"). So mind your P's and Q's is a nice way of saying, watch your manners. 4/1/2009 Did You Get My Fax? We have a guest writer this week. Thanks, Jeff! How many times do we hear about or read ideas that we know could be useful, tell ourselves we'll implement something and then blow it off. The problem is many tips are tiny and incremental. Nonetheless, collectively they ultimately add up to some serious production increases and hopefully $$$. DataComp Newsletter - March 2009 "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work" - Thomas Edison. I really love this quote. It's comparable to, "Do or do not...there is no try" - Yoda from the original Star Wars. 3/25/2009 Stop Networking! - Socially, That Is. This past week I crossed the line. I lost it. I wasn't just asking myself, "now, where did I put my whatever it was I tend to lose", I lost my social network. I lost it sort of on purpose. It happened right in the middle of the same week I read that researchers have found that social "networks" have a self imposed limit to how many people we can "connect" to. I think it's 150. Whew! That's when I think I mentally lost it...my social network that is. Now you know I love to network; I love to create connections, but I also know that a bunch of loose connections will cause things to "short out". The electrical analogy is a bit geeky, but it's true. 3/18/2009 Outlook Avalanche I think I jinxed things with my column last week...talking about old coats and it being it cold. What was I thinking? Local news said it might snow here. Really? Snow in Tampa, Florida? It happened before in the late 1970s. As I recall, there was just enough snow to make a height-impaired snowman (snow-dwarf). It wasn't an avalanche for sure, but my daily email sure is. 3/11/2009 Is it Natural Selection? I live in Florida. It doesn't get really cold here. When I first moved here 30 years ago from Michigan, I found it really odd that it didn't get cold at night in the summers. I now think summer nights are cold. I threw away all my winter things when I came here from the cold, cold north. But now I have a couple of really warm coats, some gloves, and scarves and hats. I feel I need these things. I look forward to using them. I really get cold. But no, this isn't a column about global warming or climate shifting; it is about how we shift our thinking and how long it takes. 3/4/2009 Funny and Sad at the Same Time-One Size Fits All We can't go anywhere these days without hearing that retail is having significant issues globally, as well as locally in the United States. Over the last 20 years, big-box retail has become the most popular form of merchandising and, in many ways, it's easy enough to see that its popularity is directly related to the systems and economies of scale that they have been able to provide. Marks & Spencer is one of the United Kingdom's largest retailers with 600 stores. They must be doing a lot of things right, and so with that in mind, I found the following article (read the headline a time or two if you need to) really entertaining and sad at the same time. Could they be dropping the ball with their customer data? Laughing out loud with visions in my head of the two profiled shoppers that I best not share with you, leads me to believe that someone ...Marks & Spencer...isn't keeping track of the mounds and mounds of available data within the organization. 02/25/2009 The Switch is On - Old & Gray is Important If you don't want to hear a couple of "mature" folks this week, stop reading now. But for those of us who have passed over into the land of gray, listen up. Gray matters. And I guess you could include the gray matter we call brains. Gray matter is the cortex of the brain which contains nerve cell bodies. This is the real working part of the brain - the nerve bodies. I don't have to tell you our brains are a bit cautious these days. You can read the traditional press for that. I'm here to tell you that it's cool to be gray. Brains are muscle. They need regular exercise and training over long periods for endurance. If you happen to have gray hair and you're in any part of this real estate business, then you have experience and you are best prepared for the business coming your way. 2/18/2009 Confessions of an Appraiser If the title of this article doesn't catch you, I don't know what will. I was recently sent a story from an appraiser that has been using our collaboration software and it speaks volumes to resistance to change. Here it is verbatim. 2/11/2009 Categorize Contacts into Priorities Last week I spoke with you about connecting and it centered a lot on having a great contact database. Those of you who read this column know that I'm a huge proponent of CRM, Customer Relationship Management, and you also know that it's a significant component of the software that my company builds and sells. You also know that when you ask me about what contact tracking tool you should use, I don't simply refer you to our suite of products. Why? Well first of all, it's not the reason I do this column each week. If this column had been built around self promotion, you would have stopped subscribing years ago. To those of you who haven't ever asked my advice personally, let me assure you I give it freely and without strings or expectations attached. I enjoyed helping many of you last week and it's those connections that keep me coming back to this keyboard week after week. I continue to be honored that you notice this newsletter in your sea of emails and humbled that you rely on me to help you in some way. 2/4/2009 The Secret of Real Estate Connections As we enter the second month in 2009 we can't turn anywhere without being reminded that this is not going to be one of our best years...or is it? As many of you know, I belong to CREW - Commercial Real Estate Women. I not only belong, I actively belong. Once again, as I attended one of their national leadership meetings this past week and a local meeting just yesterday, I was not just impressed but blown away by how they connect to do business. The local meeting had a panel talking about bad commercial real estate loans, workout deals, valuation issues and the down market. There were more than 120 attendees who all reached in their wallets to attend and the mood was upbeat because everyone was centered on the opportunity this market presents. 1/28/2009 Broker Incentives are Back or Are They? Real estate professionals love incentives and bonuses. They will help you move your property in this downturn. Really think so? Or are they just short-term, expensive solutions that typically provide only tepid results? The experts I talk to often compare broker bonuses to liposuction - a quick, painful solution to what could have been accomplished through basic changes in everyday habits. Oh my! 1/21/2009 More Than One Identity I have multiple identities and I'll bet you do to. Not the crazy, schizophrenic identities that movies are made about, (although I do have those, just ask my friends and family), but email identities. Many of you have never worked with me other than through RealWired!, so you're not accustomed to seeing mail from my Brenda@DohringGroup.com address. I also receive email, or at least copies of email, that goes to addresses such as admin@....., support@.... and others. Most of us do. On top of that, many of you have a "personal" email from one of the generic carriers such as gmail, MSN, AOL or a local cable company. Those of you with multiple emails tend to fall in two categories. You either do this because your company frowns on business email mixing with personal email, or you don't want your business email address (most important) to get picked up and added to more spam lists than it already does. Oh sure, there's that other group of you who lead secret lives and need a multitude of emails, but there's not enough space in this column to discuss that. 1/14/2009 2009 Will be a Year of Connections Last week's column struck a chord and I received several responses. Thanks to all. Mary Alice Van Sickle, of Carol R. Johnson Associates, a landscape architectural design and environmental planning firm headquartered in Boston, MA, was almost poetic with her response saying RealWired! News columns "...continue to provide us with meaningful food for thought. We are confident we will remain "well fed" in these lean times." Now that's good writing. No wonder she's Director of Marketing. You might take a peek at their site. It's full of great photos and interesting projects. 1/7/2009 We Choose Not to Participate I and a group of my trusted business peers and advisors decided several months ago not to participate in the recession. It's not that we don't recognize the recession's existence. It's not that we don't see its relevance. It's that we choose to run our businesses in the most effective manner possible and "stay the course". Sure, we definitely made some changes where it seemed important, but we always do that. We recognize that we never know what is around the corner (think back to 911) and while it's not only nice to relax a bit and, for its overall health, not keep the business engine running at top speed, it's time to tune things up. Think of it as preparing your car for a long, cross country trip, or your bike for a 100+ mile trek or you for a longer run than usual. Edit this block to add links to your archived emails.