Caring and sharing…

“An individual has not started living until he/she can rise above the narrow confines of his/her individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” (MLK Jr) from the Jack’s Winning Words Blog. While I’m sure that Martin Luther King, Jr. had greater things in mind than this, I find that just sharing with other agents in our little Real Estate One Milford office brings me a greater sense of living. The real estate profession can be a rather lone-wolf environment, if you let it become that; since every agent is an independent contractor, who basically works for him/herself. That can be especially hard on new agents, struggling to get started in the business. There is just so much new to learn that it can be overwhelming for “newbies.”

Fortunately, we have an active mentoring program in our office, which I participate in, helping new agents get started in the business. That is very satisfying and would likely be enough; however, I also have taken the opportunity to help all of the agents in our office with various technical, computer-oriented things. I have a long background with computers and was in the computer industry when the PC was invented and introduced to the market. I feel very comfortable around PC’s and with using many of the applications that are critical to the success of a real estate agent. Thus it was kind of natural that I became the office “tech support” for many agents. I don’t mind all of the questions and help out whenever I’m asked.

Now I’ve got the chance to go a step farther. We have started a little club in the office to help agents with marketing mailings – newsletters and postcards – as well as other promotional and marketing materials. Since I have been doing a newsletter for about 7 years now and have done extensive postcard mailings, I volunteered to help out with that too. I’m really focused upon teaching the reps who want to learn how to use the tools that we have available to us – MS Publisher being the most used. To my way of thinking it’s like that old saying “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, but teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.” So, I’m trying to teach everyone who wants to learn how to use Publisher to create his or her own newsletters and postcards, as well as other marketing materials, such as personal brochures. It is great fun to see the light bulbs come on as people realize what they can do with their new knowledge and skills.

I also do a lot of Web development work and get to help agents with that tech realm, too. We are about to embark on a program to get every agent on Facebook and LinkedIn, two social networking sites. I have accounts on both, but in this case I’ll probably be as much a student as a teacher, since I need to better understand how to make use of social networking in both my personal and business lives. There always seems to be something new to learn and that’s a good thing. I hope I never stop learning and I hope that I always have the opportunity to share what I’ve learned with others; because sharing always seems to provide returns that are greater than what I’ve invested into it.

So, if you’re looking for a place to launch a new career in real estate, keep us in mind. You’d be hard pressed to find a company with more training programs and won’t find a local office with a more supportive environment in which to make that career change. We also have an upbeat and supportive manager and a great administrative support team. And look me up when you get here, if you need help with your computer stuff or Publisher or your Web site. I’m happy to help.