Personal Branding for Real Estate Agents: Promote Your Marketplace More Than You

As a luxury real estate marketing professional it can be strategically advantageous to anchor your locale as a major component of your personal brand identity. Doing so can add significantly to the emotional appeal of your brand because it promotes the fact that you an ambassador of good will in your marketplace. Promoting your marketplace more than you demonstrates your marketing expertise and sells you in the process.

Donna Karan

Here is an example of a luxury fashion brand that incorporates geography in their marketing strategy and how it can be applied to personal branding for real estate agents:

Donna Karan New York (clothes for men and women targeting the urban chic crowd): In a recent article in Interview Magazine, Donna Karan explains:

“When Donna Karan started, I didn’t like the name Donna Karan. I had a real problem with it. I was so used to designing under somebody else’s name that I didn’t want to go out there with my own. I’m sitting in the kitchen, and I see the name “Maud Frizon/Paris, London” on a shoebox. I’m thinking, “That’s cool. What about Donna Karan New York?” Because it won’t be about me. It will be about New York City. Why New York City? Because New York City says the world. I wanted an international brand. Donna Karan’s just another boring name. I want everything to be about New York people living. I mean, everybody relates to New York as a bridge to the world. So that’s how New York came in.”

Our clients, Crown & Crown, AKA The Downtown Crowns (downtown San Diego mother-daughter luxury real estate team): Sharyn and Victoria Crown are experts in promoting their marketplace through their popular blog. And, they are very active participants in their community. Visit their website.

The United States is replete with geographical gems. Which one is yours and how can you demonstrate your marketing expertise by promoting your marketplace more than you?

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Personal Branding for Real Estate Agents: Why Study Big Brands—Part 2

 Wisdom is gained through the application of Knowlege--

The Goddess of Wisdom by R.L.Reid

 How to Apply What Big Brands Do

There is a lot to be gained by real estate professionals who study big brand marketing, especially if market leadership is your quest. Personal branding for real estate agents is not just getting a new outfit or a new look. Person branding is all about positioning yourself to win BIG!

First, it is important to think BIG because that is what market leaders do. They know what is at stake-the lion's share of business. You need to think big in order to out-think, not out-spend your competition. Secondly, you need to think globally not just locally if you want to compete in today's marketplace. Here are some examples of how you can apply big brand strategy to your personal marketing practice:

1. KFC-- they now give health-conscious customers the option of grilled chicken. Send your farm a 7 day healthier menu for a family of four, including recipes. You could list stores where those ingredients are located.

2. Toms Shoes-- they give shoes away to the needy. You could donate a part of your commission to a client's cause, or find someone in need at a private school and sponsor them.

3. Heineken-they help prevent DUI (driving under the influence). Encourage employment. Pick up donated clothes suitable for single moms returning to the work force who live in your farm.

4. Range Rover-they build long lasting luxury cars. Range Rover says, "A well made product is "luxury beyond luxury". How about having all your marketing and sales materials not only look sharp, but stand out because they are congruent and cohesive? How about designing your web site so it is truly user friendly? A refreshed look and website that is built to last is a luxury for you and your clients.

Study the big brands to help craft your personal real estate agent brand. Think big. Think Global. And, win BIG!

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Personal Branding for Real Estate Agents: Why Study the Big Brands

 

When it comes to personal branding for real estate agents, we are often asked this question: Why do we point out what the big brands are doing rather than focus on what real estate companies and agents are doing. In order to innovate, one has to look outside one’s own industry. Here are three reasons.

1. Big brands have large ad budgets. They hire the best talent for the job to craft their messages.

2. Big brands have brand managers. They are constantly looking for ways to maintain the brand identity, refresh it if needed, and make adjustments to stay current and relevant to the trends.

3. They think outside the box, they innovate, and they are a source of inspiration.

Here is how four brands are handling the concept of “Know Your Customer, their values, and show them you care”.

• Kentucky Fried Chicken has unveiled Kentucky Grilled Chicken as a new item on their menu.
• The alcohol industry has a tag line on all their ads, “Drink Responsibly”. Heineken’s new slogan is better, “Let a Stranger Drive You Home”.
• Tom’s Shoes will donate a pair of shoes to a needy person, every time you buy a pair.
• Range Rover tells us their vehicle is so well built that 75% of the Rovers that they have sold are still in use. As they express it, “This is a luxury that is more than a luxury!”

These messages are irresistible to their target markets. Yet all the messages have one thing in common expressed in four ways: We care about our customers, and this is how we do it.

How can these four brands inspire your message and express your brand of caring for your clients?

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Personal Branding for Real Estate Agents: Humorous Slogans

As a luxury real estate marketing professional do you have an engaging slogan? We have mentioned in a previous post, using slogans as a personal branding marketing strategy for real estate agents is an excellent way to differentiate you from the competition. The entire purpose of using a slogan is to engage your target market and get them talking about you. A humorous slogan is one way to accomplish this.

Here is a good definition of what a slogan is: In his book, Creative Advertising, Charles L. Whittier says a slogan:

“A slogan .should be a statement of such merit about a product or service that it is worthy of continuous repetition in advertising, is worthwhile for the public to remember, and is phrased in such a way that the public is likely to remember it."

For some agents a humorous slogan can be an excellent personal branding strategy. It is not for everyone. But, if you have a good sense of humor you can engage your target market in this manner and really stand out from the pack.

A very successful lender in Santa Rosa, California built a strong personal brand by placing a fresh ad in a popular local magazine each month, usually wearing a funny costume that evoked a movie star role or other pop culture icon. A humorous tagline that tied in the lending theme always was included. It seems like everyone you talked to in her marketplace knew her and looked forward to seeing the next installment.

One brand that exemplifies this approach is Altoids who has successfully sustained visibility over time by repeatedly coming up with new slogans and taglines. Their original slogan was "The Original Celebrated Curiously Strong Mints". To differentiate itself from its competitors in the breath mint category, Altoids has relied extensively on very funny puns. Here is an example:

The latest TV commercial from Altoids introduces their small mints. A nervous woman in an elevator talks about an upcoming “big day, a big opportunity.” To calm herself she stretches, takes deep breaths and consumes an Altoid. The slogan appears, “Are You in Mint Condition?"

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Luxury Real Estate Marketing Essentials: Outhink, not Out-Spend Your Competition

THE ZUNE

Perhaps one of the most important principles that luxury real estate marketing professionals need to understand about personal branding for real estate agents is this: Out-think, not out-spend your competition. If you want to out-smart your competition find something, some niche that you can do better than anyone else in your marketplace. Choose an arena in which you can become the break-away brand. Don’t waste your time or your money becoming a “me-too” in a niche that your competitor dominates.

Every year in the United States companies invest close to $300 billion in marketing products and services. A huge portion of this is spent on introducing new brands in the marketplace. The majority of these new product launches never get off the ground.

Microsoft is at it again! They are in discussions with Verizon Wireless to launch a touch-screen multimedia cell phone on the carrier's network  early next year, in a bid to compete with Apple’s iPhone, the break-away brand in the smart phone category.  Didn’t they learn from their mistakes with the Zune as a head- on competitor with Apple’s iPod?

As a luxury real estate marketing professional, the size of your advertising budget does not guarantee your success if you fail to form a strong emotional connection with your target market, whether it be consumers or referring real estate agents from outside of your marketplace. Win the hearts and minds of your target market in a niche you can own like Apple has done with iPod and iPhone.

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.

Personal Branding for Real Estate Agents: Are You a Secret Agent?

As a luxury real estate marketing professional, have you ever asked yourself any of these questions*?

1. Why am I cash rich some months and cash poor the next?
2. Why are some of my competitors, who have less talent, getting the lion’s share of the business?
3. I close at least 70% of the business I get. Why is it so hard to get more business?
4. Why am I the best kept secret in my marketplace?

If you have been pondering these questions you most likely are a secret agent. But, there is help, if you want to become the standout in your marketplace: Real Estate Agent Personal Branding. The biggest struggle most luxury real estate agents have is not standing out in the minds of their target market.

To stand out you must stand for something that is remarkable. This gives people the opportunity to remark about you to others. The missing ingredient that personal branding offers is making it easy for other to tell others about YOU! If you are blending in you are missing out on the leverage of word-of-mouth marketing which personal branding accomplishes when it is well executed. The lack of a personal brand is what is making your job more difficult than it has to be.

If you no longer want to blend in and be a secret agent, you must become remarkable. Start by asking yourself these new questions: How am I extraordinary, amazing, notable, outstanding, noteworthy, significant, incredible and astonishing?

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Personal Branding for Real Estate Agents: Stretching Your Marketing Dollar with Buzz!

Got Milk?

The aim of personal branding for real estate agents is to communicate, in a instant, the essence of your personality, your personal values and why someone should do business with you instead of your competition. Successful communication occurs not only when your ideal clients recognize that you are someone they can trust, but also when they can easily convey to others why they chose you for the job in a few words. If you get the message right you can spark word-of-mouth advertising or buzz marketing which is the best way to stretch your marketing dollar.

The right message triggers an emotional response by quickly establishing your professionalism and your likability. It also compels people to do business with you because it transmits your unique selling proposition, your promise of value to them, in a nutshell. The ultimate message, conveyed by a symbol, a slogan or an image creates buzz. It gets people talking about you.

Did you ever see the commercials for Charmin toilet paper with the fictional grocer, Mr. Whipple? George Whipple told customers, "Please don't squeeze the Charmin!" in more than 500 commercials between 1964 and 1985. The promise of value of this product, softness, was conveyed in just five words, in seconds. But, it compelled customers to do just the opposite: to squeeze the product and buy it. Was this product actually softer than the competitor’s product? Most likely it was not. But, it got people talking about Charmin not the competition.

Perhaps the most famous and most imitated product slogan is “Got Milk?” which positioned milk as the drink of choice with cookies, cakes, peanut butter, etc. This campaign was credited for reversing a 20 year slump in milk sales. It has been running since 1993 with no signs of the buzz ending. With this slogan, they summarily dismissed all other potables and captured an indelible place in consumers’ minds. According to the Got Milk? website, the campaign has over 90% awareness in the U.S. In 2002, the ad was named one of the ten best commercials of all time by a USA Today poll.

The power of a great slogan leverages viral marketing and can save you a bundle in marketing costs. How can you stretch your marketing dollars with a great slogan?

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Personal Branding for Real Estate Agents: Using the Right Slogan to Distinguish You from the Competition

Fauchon fashion eclairs,note Mona Lisa eclair above!

As a luxury real estate marketing professional one very important way to distinguish you from the competition is with a great slogan. Here is an example of a luxury food brand that gave itself a facelift and a terrific slogan that turned the company around.

Fauchon is a luxury food shop whose flagship store in Paris was founded in 1886 by Auguste Fauchon. In 2003, faced with severe competition and debt from rapid expansion, Fauchon hired a new CEO, Isabelle Capron, who had an extensive background in public relations and marketing. Ms. Capron embarked on a two-prong strategy: focus on the traditional strengths of the brand, and innovate by finding a new way to position the brand in the minds of luxury consumers.

Capron’s Strategy:

1.  Maintain tradition by continuing their famous annual éclair exhibit that honors the celebrated fashion shows in Paris

2.  Redesign the stores to look like an haute couture boutique, rather than a food emporium. Go international-export the essence of Paris (high fashion and culinary extravagance). Create an avant garde slogan: “Paris On Your Lips!” reverberates the affluent French lifestyle to its core.

Fauchon now places ads in fashion magazines and on billboards above their stores that are eye catching, ads that are very edgy. For example, one ad shows a table setting with a silver face, hot pink lips with a fork and knife on each side of the lips. The Fauchon website features the Eiffel Tower with lips for the base of the tower. The subtle reference to haute couture as the undisputed arbiter of taste and relevance distinguishes Fauchon as the experts in the luxury food arena throughout the world.

By 2007, Fauchon opened the largest retail store in Beijing. Voila! The public perception of Fauchon took an about face; the turn-around was complete! And, people, like us, are buzzing about “Paris on Your Lips”, one of the best slogans we have ever heard. Why? Because, with this slogan they have staked claim to Paris itself—Faucon “owns” Paris, its place of origin.

How can you stake claim of your marketplace and distinguish yourself from your competition with the right slogan?

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Personal Branding for Real Estate Agents: Maintaining Your Consistency & Traditions

One of the keys for success in personal branding for real estate agents is keeping your brand consistent. This is especially true for luxury real estate marketing professionals who have been in the business for some time. You can update your technology and even refresh your look, but there is much to be said about tradition and the brand equity it can build.

Take See’s Candies, founded in 1921 and purchased in 1972 by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway. The company's distinctive white stores are ubiquitous in nearly every U.S. state west of the Mississippi River. See's also offers its product in select markets in kiosks at malls, airports and other shopping centers.

See’s optimizes consistency and tradition. And, you always get a free sample of their candy when you buy something. Mary See’s picture is still in every store.

If you have been in business for some time, don’t change the fundamentals of your brand. Instead, capitalize on them and stay consistent. Tradition is a strong competitive advantage.

How can you maintain your traditions stay consistent and build personal brand equity?

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Luxury Real Estate Marketing Essentials: Internationalize Your Practice “Overnight”

One of the most frequently asked questions by luxury real estate marketing professionals today is: “how can I gain more exposure of my listings to buyers outside of my immediate marketplace?” Agents who work in second home markets, especially vacation destinations, are asking the additional question: “how can I reach more international buyers?” We discovered a very exciting answer that not only can help you attract more qualified buyers, but also can help you stretch your marketing dollars: Proxio, the international MLS and global referral network.

Proxio has a singularly focused mission: to make it easier for you generate more referral income. Proxio empowers you to simultaneously promote yourself and your listings to referring agents in neighboring towns or across the globe. You can enter a listing in one of seven languages and it can be searched or sent to clients in any other language. Proxio can also provide a search engine on your personal or company website so your entire local IDX/MLS feed can be displayed in multiple languages for consumers. In short, Proxio makes it possible for you to expand your market reach and internationalize your practice overnight!

One of the reasons that Proxio is growing so fast is that entire MLSs, associations and prominent real estate groups are enrolling all their members at once. For example, Proxio recently added the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing and the Realtor Association of Miami Dade County as new Proxio groups. This alone added more than 10,000 new agents to those who were already participating in 50 states and over 60 countries.

Plus, Proxio is getting the attention of the media and industry pundits. Stefan Swanepoel has cited Proxio as a key player in internationalizing the real estate industry in his 2009 Trends Report. Bernice Ross, real estate coach, speaker and columnist at Inman News, featured Janet Case, Proxio’s CEO, at her recent AFIRE (Awesome Females in Real Estate) conference in Savannah, Georgia and in her most recent column.

Basic Membership is free on Proxio. Standard Membership, which allows you to share your listings in multiple languages and build your personal global referral network, is only $79 dollars per year (that is about $6.50 per month). You can also gain more visibility by upgrading your account so that your listings and your personal profile are displayed on top of property and agent search results. The cost for upgrading is very reasonable and well worth it.

To learn more about Proxio visit www.proxio.com. And join our new Language of Luxury Group on Proxio!

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Luxury Real Estate Marketing Essentials: Exemplary Client Service

As a luxury real estate marketing professional, developing ways to provide exemplary client/customer service should be a continuing pursuit. Providing great service in ways that differentiate you from your competition is the best of both worlds.

On our drive back to our headquarters in Santa Barbara, California from Los Angeles International Airport last week we stopped in Century City for dinner at Gulfstream, in the Westfield Mall. From our perspective as commercial real estate brokers (we were broker/owners of a commercial real estate firm in Beverly Hills), this is, by far, the most exciting upscale shopping mall in California. They really set the tone for exemplary client/customer service.

The Westfield Group is an Australian company and the largest property group in the world by equity market capitalization. This multinational company owns and operates shopping centers in Australia, United States, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Century City is a highly trafficked, densely populated area, adjacent to Beverly Hills. Parking places here are at a premium and parking can be extremely expensive especially in the office buildings. The Westfield shopping center has emerged as a hub and meeting place for LA’s Westside population for movies, dining and shopping. Ease of finding parking here is mission critical. With retail tenants paying very high rental rates, Westfield must deliver extensive foot traffic, both at night and during the day.

Prior to Westfield’s ownership of the center parking was particularly difficult. Frustrated shoppers would often leave the center without being able to find a parking place. This could easily deter them from returning at peak hours of the day. Valet parking is an option, but an expensive one.

Westfield minimized the stress of finding a parking space with a very simple, yet extremely effective use of technology. When you enter the parking garage, you can easily scan the spaces that all have light sensors indicating if a given space is occupied. A red light indicates an occupied space, a green light indicates a vacant space and a blue light indicates a vacant handicapped space. Now, that convenience not only represents exemplary, distinguishable customer service, but assures more walking traffic for tenants (Westfield’s’ ultimate customer)!

How can you demonstrate exemplary client/customer service in your luxury real estate marketing practice?

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Real Estate Agent Personal Brand: Learning from American Idol Part 14

This is part fourteen of our blog series entitled: Real Estate Agent Personal Branding: Learning form American Idol. It is a fun and easy way to learn the principles of personal branding. You do not have to be an Idol fan to enjoy!

Reclaiming Your Brand Signal

As a luxury real estate marketing professional have you ever experienced the feeling when you are right on your personal brand signal? Have you ever experienced the discord of being “off-key”?

Lil Rounds has been struggling for the past three weeks on American Idol. She has a major talent and a unique style. But, she has lost tract of her distinctive sound. you”. Last week, she sang/imitated Tina Turner's signature song, "What's Love Got to Do With It?" Here's what the judges had to say: Simon told Lil "It's literally like we have lost you". The new judge, Kara said, “We still haven't seen you leap from a singer to an artist”.

Now, this is not a bad thing! Sometimes you need to experience the discomfort of being off signal to more clearly define who you are and what you stand for. As long as Lil doesn’t implode and uses this to hone her brand signal instead, she will re-emerge and have a personal triumph.

Obviously, her fans are rooting for her to reclaim her brand signal. She was in the bottom three last week which meant she is in danger, but she survived. Judge Randy says, “You are a mad talent”.

Personal branding for real estate agents is not just about getting a new look or a new website. It is all about finding your authentic brand signal and projecting, broadcasting your singular signal to your ideal clients. It is about accelerating the speed of trust in new business relationships. It is also about articulating your distinct brand signal in such a way that you make it easy for another to talk about you to others. Facilitating word-of-mouth advertising is essential!

If you find yourself, lost and “singing off-key” and not being “on-signal” realize that at the root of this is trying too hard to please other people, the judges in your life. Define who your ideal client is. Realize that your ideal clients, just like Lil’s fans, are rooting for you to be your authentic self, at ease with yourself. Hone your signal by sensing the difference in how you feel when you are on or off-signal then leap from agent to super-star agent!

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Personal Branding for Real Estate Agents: Differentiate Yourself in a Nanosecond

As a luxury real estate marketing professional it is absolutely essential to sharply differentiate your brand of doing business from that of your closest competitors. When you are in a listing presentation, you must let your prospective client know, in a nano-second, how you are distinct from the other agents they may be interviewing.

A new airline, Virgin American, which launched in December 2007, demonstrates the power of brand differentiation in the fiercely competitive regional California market.

In this market the choice is between:

1. Alaskan, 2. United, 3. Jet Blue, 4. Southwest,5. Virgin America

Last week we visited a client in San Francisco for a half-day meeting which required that we fly up and return on the same day. Since there are no direct flights from our headquarters in Santa Barbara we drove to Los Angeles to catch a 6:30 am flight to SFO (returning at 3:30 in the afternoon). For this trip we chose Virgin America airlines over our favorite, Southwest. The price was virtually the same but the in-flight experience was completely different.

From the moment we walked into the plane we experienced Virgin’s unique selling proposition:

1. the cabin featured mood lighting and mood music

2. an in-flight entertainment console with a touch screen, located above the seat-back table

3. multiple emails before and after the flight to establish a loyal relationship

The novelty was striking but was it enough to get us to come back? No! Flight time between L.A. and S.F. is only about 45 in-air minutes. Entertainment and mood enhancement is not our thing. Our inbox does not need more mail from vendors.

But, Virgin America did an outstanding job differentiating itself in an overcrowded market. Those who resonate with their differentiators will definitely gravitate to them and will most likely stay loyal if they keep up their good service.

Southwest will win our business back next time. We prefer what makes them different:

1. no penalties for changing reservations

2. a much easier online reservation and check-in system

Think of your closest competitor! How can you differentiate yourself in a nano-second as a luxury real estate marketing professional?

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Luxury Real Estate Marketing Essentials: Happy Easter -Twice

As a luxury real estate marketing professional it is helpful to understand multiple cultures and ethnic holidays. Your friends and clients will appreciate you for it. For, example, did you know there are two Easters?

Many people will be celebrating Easter this Sunday (April 12^th), in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. The Gregorian calendar is the internationally accepted calendar. The computation for the Easter date is based on the cycle of the moon. It can fall on 35 possible dates between late March and late April.

The revised Julian calendar is used for holiday celebrations by Eastern/Oriental Orthodox Christians. In accordance to this calendar, Easter must fall after Passover. Christ celebrated Passover prior to his crucifixion. So Easter must fall after Passover (April 9). The Eastern Orthodox Easter this year is on April 19^th.

Faberge Egg, Easter Surpise for Tsarina Maria FyodoroEaster is one of the most important religious and secular holidays for this sect of Christianity. Children are given large chocolate eggs or bunnies filled with toys and candies. Special breads are baked with colored eggs. In Greece Leg of lamb is roasted slowly over a spit basted with lemon, garlic and oregano.

The Russians make a special sweet bread (kulich) baked in coffee cans, and a pyramid shaped cheesecake (Cheese Paska) embossed with the letters XB, the Russian abbreviation for “Christ has risen“. Some families bring kulich to church for the midnight service to have it blessed, and to share after the service. The service includes a procession circling the church three times. Then the priest declares, “Christ has risen”, and the congregation responds, “Indeed he has!” Then everyone disperses home or to friends' homes to feast till the wee hours of the morning. The next day, people start all over again visiting friends and comparing the buffet and delicious offerings.

We celebrate it all! There are wonderful traditions in all religious feasts! These rituals get us to slow down and contemplate the wisdom and truths that are common to all of us. It is the celebration of the human spirit, and springtime when everything is born anew, nature’s resurrection. Happy Easter (twice), Happy Passover and Happy Spring!

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Luxury Real Estate Agent Personal Branding: Know What is At Stake

 Photo by UCLA 90024

As a luxury real estate marketing professional it is crucial to understand what is at stake by seizing the market leadership role and being the first to come to mind when potential clients (or referral sources) think of the best agent for the job. The difference between the “top of mind” agent and the next few is significant.

You want to be the Google of your marketplace. Google comes to mind first as the search brand of choice three times more often than its closest competitor, Yahoo. That’s how much business is at stake for the market leader.

This Saturday we spoke to an MBA class at UCLA (Anderson School of Management) about creating a personal brand in the workplace and just what is at stake in this context. These are dedicated students who are also juggling full time management jobs, and families. A number of them drive several hours from different areas of the Los Angeles Basin. Others drive in from the San Diego area, and several fly in from San Francisco, just to attend classes.

These committed students want to be the leaders in their corporate communities. They want to be first to come to mind for a promotion, a new job, or a new project. To accomplish this they have to clearly define who they are and what they stand for so that, in a nanosecond, the decision makers do not hesitate to choose them over their competition.

What is often at stake is a 20-25% increase in salary, opportunities for more satisfaction on the job, as well as experience which can be valuable when they decide to change jobs or companies. Like luxury real estate marketing professionals, they have to Stand Out from the other candidates who are competing for the same position. They have begun to Stand Out by enrolling in a 2-3 year MBA program, giving up some of their leisure time.

As a luxury real estate marketing professional, you must know what is at stake if you want to Stand Out. The competition is always ready to take up the slack you are leaving behind. If you want to be the market leader in your community and get the lion’s share of the business, you have to keep up with the latest developments in real estate. The common excuse, “I do not have time” just does not hold up. Take a page from these MBA students: Stay focused on what is at stake and catch your competition off-guard!

Do you know what is at stake?

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Real Estate Agent Personal Brand: Learning from American Idol Part 13 (B)

DIAL IN TO YOUR UNIQUE BRAND SIGNAL

This is part thirteen (B) of our blog series entitled: Real Estate Agent Personal Branding: Learning form American Idol. It is a fun and easy way to learn the principles of personal branding. You do not have to be an Idol fan to enjoy!

Perhaps the biggest challenge for luxury real estate marketing professionals, when it comes to personal branding, is consistently maintaining your true brand signal. It requires factoring out what other people think about you. Marketing is matching the needs and expectations of your target market. But, dialing into your own original signal and staying true to it without imitating others can be a daunting task. You must strike a balance between giving people what they want and expect and delivering that in your own inimitable way. Playing it safe by conforming to what has been tried and already accepted can become a trap if approval of others is what you are seeking. Pleasing yourself is all important. Imitation is a copout.

For the past two weeks, Lil Rounds has not been on her brand signal. You can almost hear the static in her voice. Simon said, “This was, to me, you singing to stay in the competition with a safe song”. In earlier weeks, Lil was an original. Once you have heard her clear, pure signal it is not difficult to sense when she is off signal. Sometimes, though you just have to get off signal to clearly know how to dial back in. It is a matter of fine tuning. This applies in all forms of branding. In the case of American Idol, the contestants get instant feedback from the judges.

But, you can be master the personal branding “dial-in” process yourself without outside judges. Just become sensitive to the way you feel when you are on your true signal and recognize how you feel when you are off signal. Being spot on signal feels great. Everything else does not feel as good.

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Real Estate Agent Personal Brand: Learning from American Idol Part 13 (A)

This is part thirteen of our blog series entitled: Real Estate Agent Personal Branding: Learning form American Idol. It is a fun and easy way to learn the principles of personal branding. You do not have to be an Idol fan to enjoy!

How to Discover Your Unique Signal, Imitation vs Artistic Interpretation

Artistic Interpretattion of floral arrangement

In luxury real estate marketing the tried and true fundamentals still work. For example , rapidly returning phone calls and emails, staying in touch with your data base, remembering birthdays, giving great closing gifts will always help to build a successful practice. But, what is your personal interpretation of these fundamentals, your personal brand, your own brand signal, (your own artistic flair) for executing the basics?

The performances on last night’s American Idol show revealed that some of the contestants were in search of their authentic signal. One of the ways you can hone in on your signal is trying out someone else’s. This is what Anoup did by imitating Usher’s performance. Because it was an imitation, it came across to the judges as a “wannabee” performance, rather than an interpretation of the same song. Imitation is known as the sincerest form of flattery. Interpretation is taking the established form and pushing it in new dimensions that are uniquely your own. This was evident in Kris’ performance of “Ain’t No Sunshine, When She Is Gone!” A 30 year old song became new again.

How can you interpret the fundamentals in a new way that makes you stand out?

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Real Estate Agent Personal Branding: Learning from American Idol Part 12

This is part twelve of our blog series entitled: Real Estate Agent Personal Branding: Learning form American Idol. It is a fun and easy way to learn the principles of personal branding. You do not have to be an Idol fan to enjoy!

Tapping Into Your Inner Voice

This week, Allison Iraheta sang “Papa Was A Rolling Stone” which brought rave reviews from the judges. She found her voice, found her brand signal and connected to the core of her being. What is particularly remarkable about Alison is that she is only 16 years old. In this performance, according to one of the judges, Alison tapped so deeply into her inner voice, her unique brand signal, it was, “from God, you cannot teach that!”

Once you find your unique wavelength, once you tap into your inner voice, you cannot go back to the same old way of doing things without a feeling of angst. Your talent grows; your performance gets better and better. You cannot accept anything less.

This also applies to those in luxury real estate marketing who seek to gain or sustain market leadership. The pursuit of market leadership may seem on the outside like acquiring the lion’s share of market share. But, it is actually the quest for tapping into your inner voice. True market leaders compete only with themselves. They constantly keep reaching for their best and look to improve no matter what the circumstances are. They like the leading edge, they constantly explore it. They don’t let themselves be swayed by events of the day. They mind their own business. They consistently stay on their brand signal.

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Real Estate Agent Personal Branding: Learning from American Idol Part 11

This is part eleven of our blog series entitled: Real Estate Agent Personal Branding: Learning form American Idol. It is a fun and easy way to learn the principles of personal branding. You do not have to be an Idol fan to enjoy!

A Moment of Transformation

Last night’s American Idol featured some stellar performances. Several of the contestants found their brand signal. Their voices and their performances were authentic –matching their talent and their innate artistic style. When you hear it you know it. The judges referred to it as having a “moment”.

In sports, the term most often associated with this is “being in the zone”. It is a time when what seemed unattainable manifests. It is a time when everything clicks. It is when a real estate deal falls into place and all parties are aligned. It is when you are in the flow of life.

On Adam Lambert’s performance, Simon remarked,” tonight you have become a star”. His performance moved Smokey Robinson, this week’s mentor and songwriter (“Tracks of My Tears”) to give him a standing ovation. This was Adam’s transformational moment.

As a luxury real estate marketing professional, have you had your transformational moment?

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Luxury Real Estate Marketing Essentials: Stretching Your Marketing $$$, Part 2

This is a series in response to one of the most asked question in real estate at the moment, “How do I stretch my marketing dollars?”

Be Prepared For Business: Don’t Invite People if Your Shop is a Mess

Is your website like the "Little Shop of Horrors"? Many luxury real estate professionals are spending money on pay-per-click advertising and Search Engine Optimization to help drive traffic to their sites. However, their web sites are not customer/user friendly. It’s like shopkeepers advertising to invite people into an uninviting messy store.

Instead of being focused on the clients’ primary need, which is usually to search for homes, many web sites confuse the visitor by running news feeds, weather reports, etc. With the popularity of videos, they often clutter their home pages with distractiing features of local attractions.

Many of these “bells and whistles” are a turn-off. Have you ever visited a site where someone walks across the home page and starts talking at you? This may have been novel the first time you saw it, but once the novelty wears off it is downright annoying and often horribly done. In fact, it can be a deterrent for repeat visits which is the whole purpose of having a website that is a resource, not a special effect show. Instead of a 'sticky' site that encourages visitors to hang out, it becomes a slippery site, where customers want to slip out the back.

Furthermore, if the type is so tiny that you need a magnifying glass to read it, even if you are blessed with 20/20 vision, you can expect a no-show if you invite someone to return to your site. Like walking out of a store in a shopping mall, we can immediately click away, and look at the more user-friendly competitor site. Your marketing dollars may have brought business to the door. But, will the customer walk in and stay? Or, have you just wasted your money? If you are going to pay for your web site to be optimized, make sure you reap the benefits of a clean, tasteful site!

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