Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Our Dog "Sir"

A tribute to Sir, from Unchained

I wanted to let you know that our adopted dog, Sir, passed away while Beth and I were in Phoenix. He ingested some rocks, got bloat, and then passed away in Beth’s care after four long and arduish days.Because I was at the Bloodhound Unchained conference in Phoenix the whole time, Beth had to care for Sir, cry daily for him, and then ultimately watch him pass….all while I was away. It was, and continues to be, so very hard for her. And for me, being unable to do anything was absolute torture.

But, during my time at the conference, I was befriended by Greg Swann, Cathleen Collins, and Geno Petro, all wonderful people, and truly all I had to keep my sanity and spirit during one very hard week. Greg posted this in his Bloodhound Blog last week, and it means a lot to me. And just a little more.

So read, and see how splendid friendships develop from difficult situations.

It’s that time of the year again when another way to honor the Marines we love is about to happen. If you haven’t heard about Golf with a Hero please take a few minutes to read and sign up. It’s a really fun day, and it will take your golf game to a completely different stage.

The article below is reprinted from 2007 when I was lucky enough to work with a young Marine and his wife to help them buy a home here in Oceanside. Meeting them changed me. Hopefully reading about them will change you as well.

Saturday, December 8, 2007
It’s Hardly An EOD

I took a young couple out looking for homes today. First time we had met, and our initial introduction had been through my web site and a couple of emails.In the course of our meeting I engaged in my usual convivial chatter, finding out in small snippets where they were from, what they were dreaming, and of course, what they “did for a living.” Now an old philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard, once wrote “if you label me, you negate me”, and being not quite that old, but old enough to remember and revere the 60′s, I always ask “what do you do” hoping it creates something that really takes me to the core of that person, not just to the superficial meaning of his or her life as labeled by a job.

So today I asked “what do you both do?” She said, “I’m ex-military, and he’s still on active duty.”

“What branch?”, I asked.

“I was in the Air Force”, she said, “and he’s in the Marines.”

We’re here in Oceanside, California, home of Camp Pendleton, and some of the finest young men and women in the whole world. I myself served as a Marine many years ago, but continue to find that meeting and interacting with young service people always makes me glad I live in the San Diego area where so many opportunities arise to do so.

“What do you do in the Marines?”, I asked.

“EOD’s,”, he said.

I’m looking at him, and he’s a young guy who clearly loves his gal, his country, and is not a big talker like me. So I ask him, “EOD’s….what are they?”

“Explosive Ordinance Devices,” he says. “You know, when they set the roadside bombs, me and my unit find them and neutralize them. We make it safe for the rest of the guys.”

“Been to Iraq yet?”, I asked. “Three tours,” he says, and again he’s taking his girl’s hand and
concentrating on her.

He’s not even looking straight at me, and I think I sense he’s reluctant to make it sound like anything he does is important. After all, I have my Realtor’s badge on, my head filled with facts about the market and all the homes I’m going to show them. It’s clear he’s looking at me as though I am important.

Well, for today, and to once again remind all of us, Real Estate, is NOT AN EOD!! It’s a job, and it’s a job some of us do well, love, and that can make a difference, but one that nonetheless “labels” us. I want to say that the next time someone meets me and engages in small talk, including asking “what do you do”, I’ll say something really honest, really revealing, and perhaps really dangerous. I’ll say, “I met a Marine who did EOD removal…..do you know what that is?”…..and then talk about this young man and young woman until the subject changes to why what THEY do make what WE do possible.

The Art of the Bloodhound

What follows is a reprint of a post I made as part of the contributors to the Bloodhoundblog in Phoenix.  I was honored to ask to write among this diverse and talented group of writers, and what follows is a comment I had on the topic of transparency. It seems that transparency has become quite the word to bandy around these days, and as someone who wants you to appreciate how important it is for your real estate professional to really “get it”, I thought you might enjoy experiencing how I think about communicating to my friends, family, and to my clients. 

 This is actually a post about transparency, but as you’ll see, I am not a big fan of the ‘word’ itself. The idea of belaboring a word all of you seem to take for granted came about as I was talking with Scott Schang a few days ago. We were just enjoying each other’s company, doing real work, a lender and real estate guy talking about the industry, our own ideas, sharing and laughing, scribbling notes and taking stock of the ideas that just never seemed to quit coming.

For me transparency is about saying what you want to say, showing what you want to show, sharing what you want to share, and doing it in a manner and method that is most likely to allow the reader or listener to understand. In order for that to happen the writer or creater of thoughts and ideas, facts or fictions, must decide up front HOW they will present the information.

Let me give you some examples.

Greg Swann – “I write well. I’m a tough read here, but I can be much, much more difficult to read. I understand grammar the way other people understand cars or football or cooking, and I can build perfectly valid sentences in English that almost no one can understand, much less diagram. The English language is like Jazz to me, and it ripples and rolls through my head all the time, making connections like lightning strikes that take many paragraphs to explain to other people.

Brian Brady – “I posed this question at Unchained Phoenix ‘09 and you would have thought I asked the REALTORs to walk on coals…at first. A few bright agents listened to my reasoning:”

Geno Petro – “When I awoke from my dehydrated coma and rack focused my blurry vision toward the general direction of the deactivated alarm clock on my night stand, the numbers 7:07 burned my retinas digital red. I jumped up in a virtual panic, threw on a suit and Hermes noose, splashed on a handful of Bulgari, gargled a Red Bull and Diet Coke highball and flew out the door in search of my car. Alas, God was looking out. I located the salt and cinder mottled vehicle less than a half block away, albeit double parked beside an alley dumpster with two City of Chicago orange tickets taped to my windshield and emergency flashers just barely groaning. By yet another whit of Divine intervention, the engine turned over on the first twist of the key. I tossed the tickets into the glove box with all the others and tore westward toward the highway from my lakeside apartment.

Jeff Brown – There’s a better chance of a million monkeys in a room full of computers writing Romeo and Juliet than you finding the perfect property with all the perfect circumstances attached to it, and owner financing.

Decide what you’re Point B is, and what kind of property will best get you there. Buy the best properties you can locate in a reasonable time. They’ll close escrow. Then….

Live your life.

Repeat until you see the sign for your Point B turnoff.

Retire.

Send me a card from (insert your favorite ‘paradise’ here) saying “wish you were here.”

Ryan Hartman – Just watch him speak to you with his own medium.

Oh, I could go on and on, but if (as Greg says once in a while) you’ve read this far, then you can’t help but see that each of these guys is telling you exactly what they want to tell you, in exactly the way they process information, and with such clarity and focus that all it takes at the receiving end is a string and a can attached to your ear to understand.

What about me?

I really want to write with Civility.  I know its value, but sometimes I’m just pissed off.

I really want to write with Clarity.  The reader is deserving of that, but sometimes my mind just wants to wander around spinning tales.

I really want to write with Brevity.  I value your time as well as my own, but sometimes I want to go on and on, not making sure so much that I’m understood, but making sure I can purify my thoughts and get them on the record just in case there’s not another chance.

I really want to write with Passion.  No “buts” needed with this one.  

How you say_What you say_Is really important. Pay attention to the How you say part. It will make you “transparent”, and you’ll never have to say the word. It will define who you are so that you can give and get the most from those you touch. It will shape your message, and the answers you get back.

Finally, if I’m poetic, do not distain me should you be analytical. If I am analytical, do not dismiss me because I lack sensitivity. If I am philosophical, do not judge me because you lack the purity of thought, sensibility of argument, or historical perspective from which to understand. Let me be. I am who I am, nothing more.  Ergo sum Bloodhound.

I know we all have moments in our lives when significance is more than a 12-letter word. One of those moments occurred last May while I was in Phoenix participating in a real estate event that changed a lot of perspectives and a lot of lives. Here again, my simple tribute to Greg Swann and Brian Brady.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Bloodhound Unchained

I spent this past week in Phoenix, Arizona, just a 6 hour drive from my home in San Diego. The reason for my visit was Greg Swann’s and Brian Brady’s first ever Bloodhound Unchained conference for Social Networking.They, along with the participants and attendees, succeeded in a way well beyond my expectations, and I’d like to spend just a few minutes telling you why.

First, these guys know what they’re doing! Sure, you can write, blog, pontificate all day long, but once you’ve committed to hanging it all out in front of lots of smart, passionate, opinionated real estate folks, well you’ve shown your mettle.

Second, the content was fast moving, completely relevant and on topic, and presented in such a way as to be inclusive of everyone’s input. We got to interact, disagree, laugh, and muse, all the while we were taking in the rain that poured out onto every table in the room. By the way, the rain was really soup, but you’ll have to go to the Bloodhound blog to read about how raining soup impacts your business.

Lastly, for this small note, the embodiment of this conference was the totality of the people I met. I will post about every one of them in the upcoming weeks, sharing with you how they do business, how they live their lives, how they make a difference in their communities, and perhaps why they might be people you will want to meet either online or in person quite soon. Suffice it to say, you must stop what you’re doing now and head to Bloodhound Blog, the nation’s finest example of real estate information and real estate experts. Once you’re there, read until your eyeballs grow weary, and your head is filled with soup.

Thanks to all of you I met there.