Jessica Cox took the stage for an interview with KW’s Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board, Gary Keller, to talk about mindset and beating the odds.

Born without arms, Cox has taken the approach to life that she can do whatever sets her mind to. And, she has! Cox is a surfer, has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and even has her license to fly planes.

When asked by Keller how she was able to overcome the challenge of being born without arms, Cox said that when she realized she was different and not like her other siblings, she just figured out a new way of doing things. It was that simple—she knew it could be done and that she wasn’t a victim of her condition.

“I don’t even think twice,” Cox said when making the decision to learn how to fly. “It is not what I can’t do—there are just things I haven’t figured out how to do.”

When asked what her greatest challenge is, Cox said that yes, she is different, but we all are. And that it is “our choice on how we respond that sets us apart. I am not going to let this stop me from being confident and proud of who I am.”

Keller ended the session saying how amazing it is that she has built a career around her story. That she could have seen the fact that she was born without arms as an obstacle—but that she knows who she is and what she wants to do…inspiring people along the way.

Attendees at Mega Camp may have noticed two additions to the KW family: SHIFT Commercial: How Top Commercial Brokers Tackle Tough Times and Green Your Home.

SHIFT Commercial is a companion to the best-selling SHIFT: How Top Real Estate Agents Tackle Tough Times, offering proven models, tactics and insight from top brokers thriving in today’s commercial real estate market.

“Gary Keller says there is only one certainty in the real estate business—that it is cyclical, and what goes up must come down. When the residential real estate market shifted, we knew that it wouldn’t be long until the commercial market followed suit,” says SHIFT Commercial author and President of KW Commercial, Buddy Norman. “The tactics we spell out in SHIFT Commercial are unique to commercial real estate and provide crucial insight that brokers can immediately incorporate in their business.”

SHIFT Commercial focuses on 12 proven tactics, including:

• Find the Motivated – Lead Generation
• Get to the Table – Lead Capture and Conversion
• Catch People in Your Web – Internet Lead Conversion
• Expand the Options – Creative Financing
• Master the Market of the Moment – Identify and Establish Needed Expertise

Green Your Home is drawn from the collective experience of green-conscious home buyers and homeowners, sustainability experts across North America and thousands of top real estate professionals.

“There is an abundance of books about green houses. But few provide practical advice on how to make your home healthier, more efficient and more sustainable in the short and long term. Green Your Home is just that: a step-by-step guide that empowers consumers to make home improvement choices that suit their needs, priorities and budgets,” said Kristen Short, managing director of NAR’s Green Designation. “Specific strategies and easy-to-implement action items make this an important resource for today’s homeowners as well as for future generations.”

Green Your Home helps you start planning the seeds today for a more sustainable future tomorrow by helping to:

• Lay the groundwork for your green adventure
• Determine your green priorities
• Recharge your air quality and interior living space
• Increase your home’s power and performance
• Create a sustainable, high-functioning yard

MAPS Tech Coaches Liz Landry (@Liz_Landry) and Chris McNamera took a minute to give us there take on yesterday’s Mega Technology session.

If you want to continue the geeky conversation and find out how to technology  can drive your business not drive you crazy, sign up for the FREE Introductory Tech Coaching Webinar led by Liz Landry! During the call you’ll learn about the four new MAPS Coaching Tech Programs. Monday, Sept. 26 at 4 p.m. (EST)

By Laura Price, Marketing and Communications Specialist, Keller Williams Realty International

The essence of a purple cow is that it must be remarkable. Something remarkable is worth talking about. Worth noticing. Exceptional. New. Interesting. It’s a Purple Cow. Boring stuff is invisible. It’s a brown cow.

Purple Cow courtesy moq88 on flickr

To recap everything learned at Mega Technology yesterday would take many more posts and a whole lot of lattes. Something that stood out to me, however, was that every person who took the stage has done two things which, over time, have directly impacted the trajectory of their real estate careers (some of which have boomed in just five years!).

1. They have found their “Purple Cow” and are constantly coming up with new ones to innovate and adapt their traditional marketing tactics to the ever-changing global marketplace.

2. They execute. To quote Art Williams and Nike … they just “do it.”

Many of you may have read Purple Cow by marketing genius Seth Godin, but for those of you who haven’t, the book teaches us that in today’s business world (and real estate is a business) safe is risky, very good is bad and you are either remarkable or invisible.

For the vast majority of real estate professionals, the Web strategies implemented by the panelists on stage seem counterintuitive, exciting and in some cases a little unbelievable (You mean I should ask another real estate professional to borrow their listings and market them for them? Yes, yes you should. And then you should go ask a builder if you can market their homes too!)

To quote Godin, “Cows, after you’ve seen one or two or ten, are boring. Every day, consumers come face-to-face with a lot of boring stuff – a lot of brown cows-but you can bet they won’t forget a Purple Cow.”

The Amazing Home Race put on by mega producer, Ben Kinney last week, which will happen in  Matt Fettick’s,another mega mega producer, community in October is such a purple cow. They figured out how to take a “brown cow” – open houses – and make it spectacular using technology.

Continue reading ‘How to Make Technology Your Purple Cow’