Heather Soldonia
By Heather Soldonia, 2009 NAR Conference Blogger
Friday at the 2009 NAR Expo was fantastic!! I decided to attend 4 sessions:
• Marketing in 2010 and Beyond
• Treating Your Business Like a Business
• How to Avoid, Survive and End a Sales Slump
• Road Warrior
Max Pigman was a great speaker, for the benefit of the non-YP (aka the more ‘seasoned’ professionals) he focused heavily upon Facebook and other social media. My favorite thing about Max is that he has a personal campaign to end the in-your-face marketing from “friends” …you know who they are. These are your peers, colleagues, and friends on FB who inundate your wall with listings, open house shout-outs and cheesy industry sayings. Max emphasized that your current and potential clients are “friending” you on FB so that they can see who you are…they already know what you are: An awesome REALTOR®! Thanks, Max, for pointing this out to people!!
Richard Flint seems to have his own following of positive thinkers. He’s a great speaker and keeps it real. He has a great way of playing with words, has lots of sayings and exudes enthusiasm. He encouraged REALTORS® to stay focused on the positives and that transitional markets expose the strengths and weaknesses of leadership. He advised to ask yourself “Is this going to feed my confusion or strengthen my clarity?” before making decisions with your business. Thanks for getting us in the right mindset, Mr. Flint!
Despite being in a large room, Joe Meyer is very personable. Not once did he mention Nike, but the whole time I listened to him this one phrase kept popping into my head: Just Do It! He’s a no-nonsense-guy and he emphasized that “there is no such thing as a good market or a bad market. There are only good agents and bad agents…and good agents will adapt to any market.” Joe was pretty serious about being “bold,” and upon realizing that I was the newbie in the room he had me repeat my name as loudly as possible to make his point. Thanks for the recognition, Joe!
And last (but far from least) was the Road Warrior session. Thank you, Shannon Williams King, for sharing your wealth of knowledge and resources about how to operate as remotely and efficiently as possible. This was truly a session that met the YP interests! There are so many great resources, I couldn’t possibly list them all but check them out yourself her site: http://shannonwking.com/ilove/
Rob, Erica, and everyone else involved in the YPN mixer at Lounge Six, I applaud you! It was a great venue and an enjoyable time. You did a great job, thanks so much!!
Heather Soldonia is a Broker/REALTOR® in the San Francisco Bay area with Windermere Welcome Home. She can be found at www.heathersoldonia.mywindermere.com.