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The Day I Followed and Disagreed with Brian Tracy

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About a year ago, I had the privilege of speaking at the national Sperry Van Ness convention in San Diego.  I’d never been to San Diego – that town rocks!  I was to speak on how to use LinkedIn to connect with prospects and aid in prospecting.  I have spoken at the Sperry Van Ness convention a couple of times before – always on some aspect of Social Media.

FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I was to speak after lunch.  Right before lunch, the best-selling author and prolific speaker Brian Tracy spoke.  He gave a fantastic keynote on goals.  It was the best I’d ever heard on that subject.  However, at some point in his speech, he basically said that social media had no place in sales.  You might get known, but you’d be known and broke.  I felt 200 pairs of eyes turn and look at me – at least it felt that way.

I disagree with Brian Tracy, but he is also exactly right.  I’ve never made a sale directly from a tweet.  That may never happen.  You make a mistake when you make the means the end.  Social Media is a means to connect, build relationships, and add value.  Social Media is about connecting as humans – having an impact on someone.  Chris Brogan has a new book coming out called The Impact Equation that makes this point.

Over the past month, I’ve connected with @theBrokerList.  TheBrokerList.com is the idea of Linda Day Harrison, and is the first online CRE broker directory – very cool.  (Go ahead and stop reading this post and check it out.)  We actually spoke on the phone yesterday.  It turns out that she married into a family that is from where I went to college.  My mom is from her hometown, and I have a brother living there now.

I now like Linda on a personal level.  See how that works?  On a professional level, I am going to do some guest blogging on www.theBrokerList.com.  This helps her by bringing attention and fresh content to her site.  It helps me by giving me exposure to her viewers.  Now that I know her a bit and like her, I want to help her.

This is the power of connecting with a person versus generating retweets.  I tell stories in my blog posts because I want readers to connect with me on a personal level.  All of life is about relationships – relationships with your spouse, your family, your boss, your employees.  Business is about building relationships with prospects, earning the right to call them clients, serving them until you become a trusted advisor, and on….

Social Media is simply a new and trendy vehicle to accomplish the same end:  connecting with people.  I now find it ironic that I follow Brian Tracy (@briantracy) on Twitter.  He sells too much there – hehe.

How do you use Social Media to connect with people?  To build relationships?  To add value to people’s lives?  When do you make the means the end?  When was the last time you checked your Klout score?
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How Physics is Similar to Your Business

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The Avengers came out yesterday.  Big moment for my family.  I would be Iron Man – coolest cat on the planet.  My wife is a big fan of Thor.  I’ve tried to pull of that accent but it doesn’t do it for her.  My 10-year-old would be Captain America, and he should.  He already has that True North sense of right and wrong.  My 6-year-old goes between the Hulk and Hawk-eye.  My daughter still doesn’t understand the rules and ran into the living room with a Spiderman costume on.  It is futility explaining to a 3-year-old that Spiderman wasn’t an Avenger – not to mention he didn’t have a pony-tail.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I bring up the Avengers for a different reason, though.  I feel like the Hulk is sitting on my face.  I have the distinct pleasure of having both nostrils out of commission.  So, I’m going to tell a quick story and then ask a few questions.  Then I’m going to bed.

 

The Story

This may be hard to believe, but my favorite subject in high school was physics.  I am a thinker.  I’m not sure why.  I’m not much of a feeler, a bit more of a doer, but definitely a thinker.  I want to know why stuff works the way it does.  Physics was full of ‘Aha’ moments for me.  I remember when Mr. Claypool showed me the formula behind why a curved road is banked at a certain degree.  This was super cool to me.

I remember toying with actually majoring in Physics in college.  Turns out that I majored in playing guitar into wee hours of the morning and dropping class….  My youngest brother is currently studying physics at my college right now.  In some ways I envy him.

But enough about physics.  Do you know how Physics is like Commercial Real Estate – or any other business?

If A=B and B=C then A=C

What do I mean, you say?  Consider this about your business.  What works?  What led up to that big sale – that big deal?  Did you know that if you repeat certain patterns you will get certain desired outcomes?  My business of CRE is just like yours in this regard.

The question is how do we do more of those patterns to get more of those desired outcomes?  You need a formula that works.

In my business and with my coaching clients, we call these systems.  I understand that if I send out this many letters and follow-up with this many cold calls, then I will get this many meetings.  If I get this many meetings, I will win this many assignments.  This is prospecting, and it needs to be a system.

Repeat certain behaviors to achieve desired results.

A Few Questions

Why don’t you systematize your business?  One of my hero’s in the business spends 2 hours a day cold-calling.  He’s the boss of is office.  He is working a system.  And he’s killing it.

Have you ever sat down with your team to brainstorm what works – and what doesn’t?  You’d be shocked at what you find out.  That is, if you’ve created a team that trusts enough to tell you truth.  Break things down to their smallest parts.  Delegate.  Maximize efficiencies.  Spend more time with clients and prospects.  Let your staff do anything that they can do so that you can do the tasks that only you can do!  Systematize!

What’s keeping you from taking that time needed to work ON your business instead of IN your business?  Something to think about:  top performers have accountability and coaches.

Let me hear your thoughts.

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My Tools to Manage Twitter in 15 Minutes a Day

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One of the most frequent questions that I get as I speak to groups is how I manage twitter.  No one believes that it only takes 15 minutes or less a day.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Let me clarify.  In one of my previous posts – The Rule of Thirds – I shared the 3 types of tweets that you should be using:  curating original or other great content, engaging with others, and getting a little personal.  The key to the first category of curating original or other great content is getting the tweets done and scheduled at one time.

So without further ado, here is my list of time-saving tools.

Chrome – Chrome is Google’s web browser.  It is fast and has a simplistic elegance.  I also want Google to like me.  My favorite thing about Chrome is that it has a ton of add-on apps.  Two of them I will describe below – huge time-savers.  I also use the Chrome App on my shiny new iPhone 5.  All my bookmarks transfer – it is beautiful.  If you haven’t tried Chrome – download it now.  It is free.

Hootsuite – Hootsuite is a fantastic social media manager.  There are a number of others like it – tweetdeck, seesmic (just acquired by Hootsuite), and some others.  It allows you to do a number of things.  First, it allows you to automatically organize all the tweets out there.  You should set up permanent searches for mentions of your handle (ex. @bobarronccim), your industry, your city, etc.  Here is a screenshot of mine.  Note:  there are other set searches spanning to the right.

Hootsuite also allows you to post to LinkedIn, Facebook, and can manage multiple accounts of each.  It also allows me to schedule tweets.  This is key.  After I finish writing a post, I can schedule when it will be tweeted in the future – and on LinkedIn and Facebook as well.  Huge time saver!

Hootlet – Hootlet is a wonderful thing.  Find the Tools menu in Hootsuite and drag and drop the hootlet icon into your browser menu bar.  It allows you to easily tweet from any webpage.  If I am on GlobeSt.com, and I want to tweet out a great article, all I have to do is click the hootlet.  It generates the title of the tweet and the link.  Genius!

Google Reader – This is where the real-time saving happens.  Instead of bookmarking the websites that you regularly go to find great content, use Google Reader.  All those websites then send their new content straight to you.  Using RSS (really simple syndication) from your favorite sites, the new content gets sent straight to you.  Go to Google Reader and sign up.  It is free!  Here is how it works:

BufferApp – Buffer is my all-time favorite app.  It is essentially a queue that holds your tweets and releases them per a pre-set schedule.  This means that you can scan through Google Reader, pick out the 10 or so best articles, and simple click the buffer button.  It creates the content of the tweet just like the Hootlet, and puts it in the buffer queue.  This allows you to be tweeting all day long even though you simply spent 5-10 minutes filling the queue.  And it’s free!

Note that Buffer allows you to tweet it now or throw it in the queue.  So super easy!

Paper.li – Paper.li is a really cool app that aggregates the stories tweeted out by those your follow into an online newspaper.  Once a day, it sends a tweet for you and names some of the authors of those tweets.  They really appreciate “you” mentioning them, and Paper.li is completely automated.  And it’s free!

What do you use to increase your efficiency and save time?  What did I miss?  I can’t wait to learn something from your comments that will save me some more minutes!
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Light Bulb!: The 5 Benefits of a Virtual Office

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This is the 3rd post stemming from The Difference Between a CRE Broker and a Drug Dealer.

I started working with my dad in Commercial Real Estate the day after I was discharged (honorably!) from the Marine Corps.  He is a CCIM designee and understands the value of that education.  He had me in the CCIM intro class the following week.  I didn’t have my license.  I was as green as they come.

Light bulb

The instructor had us introduce ourselves and share with the class how long we had been in CRE.  27 years.  15 years.  35 years. 8 years.  Me:  “4 days and I don’t have my license yet.”

That was the first day I’d ever heard of a Capitalization Rate.  It was a completely meaningless and nebulous term.  The percentage linking Value to Net Operating Income?  What is NOI?  You’ve heard the term ‘dear in the headlights.’  That was me.  This was the end of 2004.

Fast forward to yesterday.  My 10-year-old had an assignment requiring him to interview someone who uses math at work.  He chose to interview me.  I taught him that the only equation in CRE that matters is V = NOI / Cap.  Value equals Net Operating Income divided by the Cap Rate.  At some point in the last 8 years, I had a ‘Light Bulb’ moment when these concepts clicked.

I’ve known for a while that the mobile/virtual office was the way of the future.  I’ve inherently understood that this model increases efficiencies.  It makes me more effective – from anywhere.  However, I couldn’t quite articulate the why.

I had another Light Bulb moment yesterday during a fantastic webinar by ClientLook‘s founder Michael Griffin.  He was able to clarify for me the value of being mobile.

Why You Should Consider a Virtual Office

  1. Your Office Moves With You – Do you remember the line in Spiderman 2 when Doc Oc says, “The power of the sun in the palm of my hand!”    This is the totality of your office in the palm of your hand.  To accomplish this you need to have a paperless office.  I explain the steps to making that happen in my post – The 5 Steps to a Paperless Office.
  2. Beyond paperless, you must commit to moving your office online.  This means using websites instead of software.  You need a web-based email solution like Gmail.  You need a web-based CRM like ClientLook (be looking for a review of ClientLook coming soon).  You need to choose web-based solutions that work across all platforms.  Mac or pc.  iOS or Android or (what’s the name of the other one?).
  3. Drop the Legacy Technology Anchors – Michael Griffin calls desktop software Legacy Technology Anchors.  What a great description for all the programs on your desktop that keep you anchored there.  Cut those puppies loose and claim your freedom!  And consider, you will have to upgrade every one of those programs.  You will have to update the servers that run your office.  You will have to update your desktop.  I pay monthly licensing fees that are known costs.  Do you know how much life your servers have left?  Do you know how much their replacements will be?  No, you don’t.
  4. You Need Less Space – This point will vary greatly depending on what kind of office you have.  It will vary by the size of your office.  How much rent have you paid in your life for square footage to store files?  What about for servers and IT equipment?
  5. You will do it now or later – You may never do away with having an actual physical office.  I do believe that you will have true mobile and virtual capabilities.  I encourage you to be on the front end of that wave.  Use it to your advantage.  Make it a point of differentiation between you and your competition.  The technology to pull this off has never been easier or safer.  Your excuses are gone.
Raise your hand if the idea of having all your data stored online makes you queasy.  Why is that?  This topic leads to a discussion of data security.  What concerns do you have? Or are you comfortable with it?  Let us hear your thoughts.
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The 5 Steps to a Paperless Office

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In Monday’s post – The Difference Between a Commercial Real Estate Broker and a Drug Dealer – I shared the story of how I was able to drive by a Dollar General Store in the middle of Kentucky and get the owner on the phone before leaving town.

The key to pulling that off was having a paperless office.  All my data is in the cloud.  All my data is accessible to me anywhere my iPhone has a signal.  I can access it on the fly.  It means I can jump on opportunities with lightning speed.  And speed kills.

In today’s post, I am going to share with you what you need to achieve the paperless office, and the steps to take to get there.

What You Need

The first thing you need is at least two monitors.  Think this through with me.  When you are using paper, you lay the paper on your desk, refer to it, and use your computer.  To go paperless, all the paper is in digital form.  Therefore, one monitor is to “lay the paper on your desk” and the other is for working.  I personally use 3 monitors.  I had 4 for a while, and it was overkill.

The second thing you need is a scanner.  The one that I have is a Fujitsu Scansnap S1510 (affiliate link).  I highly recommend it.  It is ridiculously easy to use – one big shiny blue button.  I scans directly into the file you choose.  No emailing to yourself, downloading, and saving to a file.  It also scans super fast and gets the front and backs of pages at once.  It scans in color and b/w, and is durable.  It is also very small so it doesn’t clutter your fabulously clean and paperless desk!

Let’s be honest – if converting your paper files is not quick and easy, you won’t do it.  Having the right scanner makes the tedious conversion process so much easier.

The third thing you need is a Dropbox account.  See my review of Dropbox for more information.

Steps to the Paperless Office

Now that you know what you need, here are the simple steps to achieving the bliss of the paperless office:

Step 1:  Set Up Dropbox – If you don’t have a Dropbox account yet – click here and sign up.  It is simple and free.  There are other apps like Box.net, and others as well.  Dropbox is the category leader and what I use.  Download Dropbox on all your computers.  Then download the Dropbox App on your phone, iPad, and everything else.  Your data will sync seamlessly between them all, and you can access from anywhere on the fly.  Genius!

Step 2:  Design Your Cloud-Based Filing System – This step is hugely important.  Before you start scanning in all your old files, map out your digital file system.  Mine looks like this:

Note a couple of things.  Put these main category files in order of how often they will be used.  Then number them.  This makes the filing and finding process so much easier.  The next level of the SVN folder looks like this:

Same deal here.  Put them in order of most used and number them.  You are essentially making an organizational file tree.  This exercise alone will give you great clarity regarding your business.  When you open the ‘1 – Listings’ file, you see this:

Open the ‘Current Listings’ file and you get all my current listings:

Your tour behind the curtain ends here.  The key to converting your listing files from paper to digital is simple.  Duplicate the sections in the paper file into the digital file.

Step 3:  Scan In All Your Paper/Files – This is tedious and takes some weeks.  I could take longer depending on how far back you decide to go.  Pick a date.  I chose the beginning of my career – Nov. 2, 2004.  Before that, I have stored paper files.  After that, it is scanned.

This is a job for an assistant or a temp.  Do Not Do This Yourself.  You will get lost in nostalgia, and it will take forever.

Step 4:  Commit – Once you get everything scanned in, commit to yourself and to your office to remain paperless.  It is efficient.  It is green. I only print files when I have a client requiring a copy.  When you execute a new listing agreement, scan it in and give the original to your new client.  Receive an offer via email?  Save it directly to the appropriate file.  Commit!  You don’t need to print anything.  It is all on your phone!

Step 5 – Back everything up, and then do it again!  I back my top 5 main category files up daily.  Everything gets backed up weekly in 3 place:  my machine, an external hard-drive, and an off-site data center.  And they back it up again daily.  If you aren’t willing to be religious about backing up your data, then don’t go this route.

So what is preventing you from going paperless?  This is a big transition to consider.  What are the pros and cons as you see it?  Let me hear your thoughts.
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The Difference Between a CRE Broker and a Drug Dealer

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If you have read some of my other posts, you may know that I was an Arabic Linguist in the Marine Corps.  One of the huge differences between English and the Arabic language is that Arabic is completely contextual.  Words don’t have meaning outside of context.  Said another way, the context gives meaning to the words.

Here’s what I mean.  To say that I am a Commercial Real Estate Broker I would literally say:  “I am a broker in the buying and selling of real estate.”  The problem is that the word for real estate is also the word for illegal drugs.  So, if you don’t know me or have any context to give you a clue, you would not know if I’m saying that I’m a CRE broker or a drug dealer.  Context is everything.

So here is a story for you to give context.  This post will spawn others as I unpack this story.  My purpose in this post is to show how systems, the proper team, and technology work together.  I want to demonstrate what is possible.

The Story

A few months ago, I was riding with my dad heading to a meeting in central Kentucky.  We drove through a small town called Perryville where I saw a Dollar General Store.

Dollar stores are a core part of our business.  Seeing this store gave me the idea to cold-call the owner.  I opened the Dropbox app on my iPhone 4S and accessed my Kentucky Dollar Store database.  Finding the owner, I looked him up in my mobile cloud-based CRM solution, ClientLook.

I recognized the name for the Perryville store as a man who was a former college coach in my town.  That gave me the common ground I needed to connect with him.

I was fortunate to get him on the phone.  By the time we had driven through that small town, I knew that he owned three Dollar General Stores – not just one.  I also knew that he was in a partnership, that he would like to simplify his life, and that he was likely a seller.

He agreed to send me the leases so that I could do proposals on his properties for his partnership.  He had one of his staff email me the leases.  I forwarded them to my assistant.  This all happened in 30 minutes, from a car in the middle of Central Kentucky, using just my iPhone.

The next day, my assistant used the leases to build proposals through BuildOut.  She is able to quickly take raw materials and take a proposal to 80% completion.  I then did the financial analysis, approved the comps, set a value, and pressed ‘print.’  Though I have a paperless office, I do print and bind property proposals.  The quality is so high on these packages that I know property owners will not throw them away.

The next week, I was in the man’s office – one hour from my office – presenting proposals on his properties.  Because we’d done our homework building a database of properties, had systems in place to be lightning fast, and used technology that made us mobile, we were able to instantly take advantage of an opportunity.

Over the coming weeks, I will take you behind the curtain of our business and unpack how we build databases, what systems we have in place, and what technologies we use.  This post, however, was all about context.  Never confuse the broker for the drug dealer!

UPDATE:  Post 2 in this series can be found here:  The 5 Steps to a Paperless Office
UPDATE:  Post 3 in this series can be found here:  The Benefits of a Virtual Office
Parting thoughts:  do you use a database in your business?  What systems do you have in place?  What technologies do you use?  Share a story from your business that will provide context for this conversation.  Engage!
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The Rule of Thirds: How to Build Your Tribe and Engage On Twitter

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One of the questions that I get asked over and over as I speak to audiences of Commercial Real Estate brokers is this:  how on earth do you use Twitter?

Here is some context.  The Commercial Real Estate Industry is notorious for being in the technological Stone Age.  I personally think this is for a couple of reasons.  First, the industry is dominated by really successful brokers that are my dad’s age.  These brokers are the ones asking me this question.  They became successful before the internet played a role in their business.  Why do they need it now?  I have a great answer for that…for another post.

Second, many of our clients are baby boomers who have been slow adopters of technologies as well.  Or at least slower than the Gen X, Y, and Millennial generations.

So for those in the industry just realizing the power of Twitter, here is how you build a following, engage, and benefit from the power of Twitter.

The Rule of Thirds

The basic premise of the Rule of Thirds is your tweets should fall fairly evenly into the following 3 categories:

First Third – Add Value By Tweeting Great Content.  You’ve heard over and over that ‘Content is King.’  This is true on Twitter as well.  People will follow you because you add value to their lives.  Think like a curator and a creator.  Example:  as most of my followers (currently 2,478) are in the CRE industry, I try to find great articles on Commercial Real Estate to tweet to my followers.  I also tweet out the content that I create myself.  Here is an example:

The 4 Blessings of a Down Market « theBarronBlog http://bo-b.co/QKfmV6 #cre

Notice the key parts of the tweet – the title of my blog post, the title of my blog, the link to the site, and then the hashtag identifying this is about CRE (or Commercial Real Estate).

Think add value to others!  And always include links.  Apps like Buffer and Hootsuite make this infinitely easy and efficient.  I will be reviewing both these apps in the coming weeks…so stay tuned!

Second Third – Engage.  Internet 1.0 was about static websites – think megaphone.  Internet 2.0 is all about engaging and sharing ideas – think telephone.  A third of your tweets should be connecting with others.  How?  Start with having manners.  Say ‘thank you’ when you get retweeted!  Comment on an article of value that was tweeted out.  Connect with people as if you are at a cocktail party.  I literally have real friends because I engaged on Twitter (@Michael_MBA, @BarbiReuter, @commsource, and many others).  This is the third where you will pick up loyal followers – where those connected with you will start retweeting you.

Third Third – Get Personal.  Be real.  Nobody wants to follow a robot.  You are a complete human.  Act like it.  Don’t just tweet out industry specific tweets all the time.  Allow people to know that you do other things.  I like to tweet out pics of me with my kids.  I want my followers to know that I’m a dad – and that I LOVE being a dad.  This engenders like-ability, and people help and do business with people they like.  Click here for an example.

A word of caution.  When using this Third, be smart.  Don’t tweet:  ‘Going to Italy for 3 weeks.  Please rob my house.’  Use common sense.

So how do you connect?  What are some of the guidelines you use that I failed to mention?  Let’s connect on Twitter.  You can follow me by clicking the Twitter button at the top right.  I will follow those that leave their Twitter handle in the comments.  I’m looking forward to learning from you!
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The 3 Questions to Unlock the Power of Focus

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My recruiter duped me into being a linguist.  He told me I wasn’t smart enough for that job, and I had to show him.  I hate languages, by the way.

So after boot camp, I arrive at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA.  My commanding officer sits me down and tells me that I have a say in what language I get.  My options are Korean, Russian, Arabic, and Spanish.  He asks me to rate them 1 – 4.  Spanish, Russian, please God not Korean or Arabic.  This was the year 2000.

Next thing I know I’m taking a battery of crazy tests.  These tests evaluated how someone learns – how quickly they pick up on information.  How well they retain it, etc.  This test said that I was best suited for the Arabic and Korean languages.  Figures!

The final factor in what language I received was the “Needs of the Marine Corps.”  Turns out that this was the only one that mattered.  I became an Arabic Linguist.

I have a coaching client in Florida that had a focus problem.  He is very high-profile and as a result, he has many opportunities walk through his office door. BIG deals.  little deals.  Land.  Retail.  Office.  Hotels.  He was running around with no focus having the impact of a shotgun at 300 yards (very little, if you’re wondering).  What follows are the 3 questions I asked him and you should ask yourself.

  1. What do you like?  (Please rank your language choice…) Those of you that don’t have a specialty and a focus will work on anything.  This is where you need to start.  Take out a piece of paper and list the types of deals that you like.  Don’t stop until you have at least three.
  2. What are you good at?  (Please take this battery of tests…)  This is not the same question as #1.  Single Tenant Net Lease deals are hugely different from Multifamily deals.  A Convenient Store deal is way different from selling an Office building.  You need different skill sets.  Which asset verticals fit your skills?
  3. Where is the deal velocity?  (Needs of the Marine Corps)  Here is where you insert reality.  You won’t make your mortgage payments by specializing in marinas in Kansas.  I don’t care if you love marinas and are the world’s most gifted underwriter of marinas.  Where are the deals happening?  This analysis is what shifted my focus to Dollar Stores.  You must find the overlap between what you like, what you are good at, and where is the deal velocity.

My client now has focus.  Instead of being a generalist in his office, he is the now THE guy for his asset vertical.  Not only is this specialty branding him and raising his presence, but he now gets to cast-off onto the other advisors in his office.  Here is his decision grid.  First, he has a minimum commission amount.  If the opportunity does not meet this threshold, he immediately refers the deal to someone else in his office.  He is loved, and he gets paid for saying no.  Second:  is the deal in his primary or secondary specialty?  If no, he refers.  But if yes, he unleashes the power of his new focus on the opportunity.  He is hitting it out of the park!

So what about you?  Do you have a laser beam focus on a specialty?  Top producers do.  “Go and do likewise…”

P.S.  There is a free book (not yours Rod!) I will send to the person who correctly identifies the movie reference of “Go and do likewise…”  Answer in the comments below!

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Commercial Real Estate Technology and App Review: Dropbox

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I have achieved mobile status and have a paperless, virtual Commercial Real Estate office.  I will be reviewing and sharing with you the technologies and apps that make this possible.

Dropbox

Dropbox is my first review for one reason only:  I love it!

I was in an airport a couple of months ago.  I received a call from a client that needed a copy of their lease ASAP.  I was able to access their lease from our files through Dropbox on my phone.  I emailed it to my client from my phone walking from the gate to the plane.  It took less than 30 seconds, and I was a hero to my client.  That is the power of Dropbox.  It makes you more efficient and more valuable.  To start using Dropbox – click here.

4 Uses of Dropbox

1.  Dropbox acts like the “my documents” on a PC or ‘finder’ on a Mac.  The files are actually on your computer.  This is key so that when you are on your laptop or desktop, you don’t need an internet connection to access or work on your files.

2.  Dropbox syncs up with other computers, smartphones, tablets, etc.  I have Dropbox on my PC, my Macbook Air, my iPhone 4S, and my iPad2.  When a document is created, edited, or changed in any way on one of these machines, it is synced with all the others.  That is the magic of the cloud.  When I have my virtual assistant draft a lease, she saves it to Dropbox for my review.  Any changes that I make are synced, and she has instant access.  This makes Dropbox great for collaborations.  It is also a great way to never have to go back to the office (if you have one!) for a file again.

3.  Dropbox allows you to share folders with anyone you would like to invite.  Simply send them an email invite, and that person has access to the folder.  It is that simple.  My entire paperless office is on Dropbox.  My assistant has access to pretty much everything.  Any advisors working with me have access to just what they need.  It is a beautiful thing.  This is how I collaborate with all of my coaching clients.  Drafts of their prospecting letters and marketing materials are all in their shared dropbox folders.

4.  Dropbox is accessible from anywhere with an internet connection.  I shared with you that a file syncs up with any machine/smart-phone/tablet.  If you happen to not have one of these devices on you, then you can get to all your files by logging on to www.dropbox.com.  My wife likes to joke that if I have forgotten my phone then I’ve forgotten my pants as well, but it can happen!  (The phone – not the pants).

A Word of Caution

Dropbox has some limitations.  I had a conversation with a friend recently who is in the Information Security business.  His comment on Dropbox was that it was not the most secure platform in the world.  I asked him if I should be worried, and he said no.  There is a trade-off between security and usability.

Another limitation is the user has little functionality when sharing folders.  Maybe I want to invite someone to a folder, but I don’t want them to be able to edit, change, or delete.  The ability to limit users is not there.  If you invite someone to a folder, be aware that they have free reigns on those documents.

Conclusion

Despite the caution, Dropbox is an invaluable part of my business.  It allows me to be mobile and efficient.  It makes me more valuable to my clients.  It allows me to easily collaborate with my virtual team.  It is easy.  And it is free (to a point)!  It can be all these things to you as well!

I know many of you are already using Dropbox.  What ways do you use it?  How has it simplified your life?  What are some of the benefits that I failed to mention?  Join the conversation!

 

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The 4 Blessings of a Down Market

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Being ready is not what matters. What matters is winning after you get there.

LtGen Victor H. Krulak, USMC
April 1965

Much of what I know about discipline, excellence, and leadership comes from my 5 years in the Marine Corps.  Marines exist for one reason – to win battles.  At a foundational level, Marines only do two things – win battles and train to win battles.  My little brother is a Marine pilot.  He deployed to the Horn of Africa earlier this year and will be deploying again soon.  He will tell you that his days are spent training for the potential missions that he could have while deployed.

I firmly believe that Commercial Real Estate advisors have the ability to succeed in any market.  The keys are systematizing your business (prospecting, creating presence, etc.), specialization, building a cohesive team, and loads of tenacity.  But let’s be honest.  The last 4 years have been tough.  There is a silver lining to a down market – you get to train.

I was honorably discharged from the Corps on Nov. 1, 2004.  I moved home and started working with my dad in the Commercial Real Estate industry on Nov. 2.  The next week I was in my first CCIM class.  I didn’t even have my license yet.  As a CCIM designee, he understood the value of the CCIM education to my career.  He also knew that it would be harder for me to have time to pursue the designation when I had a full pipeline.  So it can be with a down market where you find yourself with more time.  Here are 4 blessings of that silver lining.

1.  Master Your Craft – when you have 50 listings and 20 deals under contract (may it be so!), you don’t have time to sharpen your ax.  You just keep swinging.  In a down market, however, it is imperative that you continue to master your craft.  Take a course on financial underwriting.  Read a book on cold calling.  Train!

2.  Attrition – In this sense, Darwin was right.  Since the height in 2008, around 40% of CRE practitioners have left the industry.  This is good for a couple of reasons.  The best brokers and advisors are the ones still standing.  This raises the bar of excellence, and the reputation, of the entire industry.  This also leads to blessing #3…

3.  Increased Market Share – By default, with 40% less brokers and advisors in the business, a huge amount of market share is up for grabs.  Frankly, I don’t want to settle for some default increase.  As we see the market picking up, now is the time to claim that market share.  This leads to blessing #4…

4.  Rewards for those that Invest in Themselves – Blessing #4 is the natural conclusion of the first three.  Be the one that invests in yourself – train hard!  Take advantage of the attrition our industry has seen.  Don’t simply rely on a law of averages that you will pick up more market share just because you have less competition.  Hire a coach.  Study and emulate top performers who did not use an excuse of a down market.  Take advantage of the time to train.

So how have you used the last 4 years to master your craft?  How are you gaining market share left behind by those that bailed?  I invite you to share you stories and successes.  Let’s learn from each other!

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