Can you have the greatest week of your life?

My name is Kurt Francis. I am the Branch Leader of Century 21 Award San Diego office. I am privileged to be part of the greatest real estate company in USA with the most incredible 1,200 sales associates in Southern California. 11 years ago I had the opportunity to move to the USA and in 2006 became a citizen of the most wonderful nation on this planet. What I feel about this nation is what I feel about the company I am part of. I will say, it may be Century 21 but it is not just Century 21 but Century 21 Award....Yes Award. What is the difference? At Award we believe that every experience needs to be an Award wining experience at every level allways!!! We strive for excellency and an experience that you will not easily get any where else. Besides my passion for what I do professionally, I am active and participate in triathlons and Ironman competitions and am involved in other community activities and organizations.

Social Media Marketing:Kurt Francis on LinkedIn

For more videos, please simply hit the SUBSCRIBE button above.

Kurt Francis: Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

Can you do me a favor? Can you have the greatest phenomenal week of your life?

Am I Relevant : 21 Ways of Using Google+ Hangout for Real Estate Clients

      Some might not be familiar with Google+ Hangout but it is the latest updated tool in Google+ that gives you the easy way to connect with people inside and outside of your company without spending time and money on travel. Meet face-to-face with up to 15 colleagues or clients from anywhere on your laptop, mobile phone or tablet. 

      And, you can share your screen or collaborate a file in Google Drive. Whether you’re talking to a new customer, working with a partner, interviewing a  candidate, or just hanging out  online, Google Hangouts are the next best thing to sitting in the same room.

      So what exactly can you do with Hangouts? 

      Here are 21 suggestions!!!

      1. Team Meetings/ Press     Conference

         With so many teams having members spread out in different locations or working from home, just scheduling an in-person team meeting can be a challenge. Traveling to attend meetings can be costly and more importantly, time consuming. Right?

     I can relate to this because as busy as I am, I’m meeting a lot people everyday and Google Hang Outs allow me to connect effectively without meeting others personally.

      Conference calls are the typical way of handling meetings when everyone cannot be present.  But phone communication leaves a lot to be desired. When you can’t see facial expressions, miscommunication can arise. In today’s world, We all multitask, so often telephonic conference calls allow team members on the call to succumb to distraction and start focusing on other activities instead of the team participants. When you can see one another, those issues are minimized. People tend to stay alert and engaged.

2. Share Your Screen 

Need to share a Web URL to the team, or share your screen to illustrate a spreadsheet, a picture or a document? With Hangouts you just push a button and you can do that.  

With Hangouts, the person who happens to “hold the floor” and is speaking at the moment, has his or her    video screen showing in the large view. Other participants’ screens are minimized until they speak.

While sharing your screen with a group of others, you will be able to collaborate on a file in Google Drive and have open discussions with other members.

3. While on the Hangout, you may all at the same time watch YouTube Video clip together.

     How amazing is that right?

4. You can restrict Hangouts to make them private.

5. You can mute yourself and so can others mute themselves

6. As a real estate professional, you can reach out to your network or Sphere  of Influence and share some expertise and make it available online.

7. You can establish yourself as an expert in your local market through Google Hangouts.

8. You could  hold a webinar series as part of your real estate marketing strategy?.

9. You could hold other webinars on subjects that your clients may want to discuss such as Interest rates, The Escrow Process,  Foreclsoure steps, Buyer Costs, Seller costs, Costs...

10 You could provide a question and answer session for customers or prospects, about the specific listings or properties.

11. You can use Google  Hangout in your farming areas to discuss issues.

12. Using Hang outs to go through disclosures and contracts  with your Clients

13. You can involve your clients in Crowd sourcing and finding out what their views are and have discussing and invite them as a meeting or social hang out.

14. You may want to have an Initial Buyer Consultation on a Hang Out

15. Your Seller may be living in another state and you could do a listing presentation on Hang Out.

16. You could introduce Your Escrow Officer to your clients on the HangOut.

17. You could introduce a Lender to your client

18. You could handle a difficult situation or issue with another broker over a Hang Out.

19. You could call in experts such as Inspectors with your clients while all being in different parts of the city

20.  You can meet a new client from out of town and see how they look before they arrive

21.    You can have Google Hangout On Air where you can record the entire discussion and Hangout and publicly broadcast it on YouTube so that others may re-visit your Hangout. You can edit that recording, Tag it, Use annotations and use that for others in future.

How amazing is Google+ Hangout right?

Am I Relevant: “Digital/Social Media Marketing”

The world we live in has changed and is changing dramatically even as we read this article. The way we communicate and market ourselves is radically changing. We have to change with the culture we live in or we will not be effective. If I use words that we used 50 years ago i would not be relevant. For example, if I said to you, you are the most awful person I have ever had.  

Recently our office experienced a transaction where an agent on the other side had no concept of whether he was relevant to the industry today.

He said to our agent, I have an email address and I can give it to you but I have never used it.  I am not going to focus on this level of relevance in this series.  Lets focus on Am I Relevant in terms of  “Digital Marketing” as a Real Estate Practitioner Agent.

No matter what industry you are in,  the need to market ourselves Digitally has become vital for our success. The majority of  Real Estate agents and practitioners do not use Social Media as source of lead generation or an effective way to network.  Most agents and Real Estate practitioners do not have a Digital Marketing Philosophy nor a Digital Marketing Strategy and this why they are not effective using digital formats to market themselves.

Remember the Yellow pages..  . When last have you used a yellow pages book to search for a company?..... What was Yellow pages’s biggest competitor challenge?.... Google? Asked a young person what is the yellow pages?... they said it is a website.... lol.... What is one  of Google’s biggest challenge? The social media. In SD, there was a couple who were expecting their kids to visit and they were bringing their first grandchild to visit. They needed to get a child seat for their vehicle.  What did they do? did they Google? no.   

They went on Facebook and asked the question, what child seat should we buy for our grandchild visiting?... Within an hour they had 26 comments.

The social media has become a search engine by referral. that is why facebook has even changed their

“Whats on your mind” bar and now is more of a Search bar.. it now says “search for people , places and things”, pics, restaurants etc. 

Google has another challenge, their own little baby they bought for $1,65 billion...Youtube. We all multi task so much that we hardly have time to read...so when searching a receipe, many go on Youtube.. for example, I wanted to make Banana bread, I can search on YouTube and search it there.   

Most Realtors do have a facebook account, twitter account, a You tube channels or even Yelp accounts.  The question is not if they have one, but what do they do with it. Any agent who does not have a Digital strategy and philosophy will unfortunately just be squandering time on Social Media platforms.  So lets look at Digital Marketing Philosophy.

#1. Do you even believe that digital Social platforms are effective in a marketing?

If you don’t even believe it then there is no use of even having a strategy. No matter if you believe it, or do not believe it, you are right. If you do believe it, you will be successful. 

#2. Our culture in 2013 expects that  customers and consumers want greater participation in the way business’s run their Operation. Do you believe that?  Let me give you an example.  The company GAP decided to change their Logo. GAP spent hundreds and thousands of dollars in changing this logo.      

GAP changed it.  Within days of doing this, there was an outcry from thousands of people on Facebook disliking the new logo. 

What Can you Say about the New Facebook Interface?

Facebook has changed its interface every now and then. I could not really remember when was the first one but the latest and the newest changes were observed yesterday. I don't know if that changes applies to every users of Facebook. The left hand portion is replaced by a small inverted Facebook logo, it's a blue "f" with white background. This is in contrast with the white "f" and blue background. The right hand portion is where the Friend's Request is found, the Inbox, the "Notifications", the direct name of your profile, the "Home" the "Privacy Shortcut" and the "Settings". I am not shock about the changes because I know everyday technology is changing and so with social media sites just to update their tools and navigation that includes interface and applications.

You might be confused at first but soon you'll get used to it. It happened to me. How do you deal with these changes? Does it matter? Yes, it does! 

Welcome to my YouTube Channel

My name is Kurt Francis. I am the Branch Leader of Century 21 Award San Diego office. I am privileged to be part of the greatest real estate company in USA with the most incredible 1,200 sales associates in Southern California. 11 years ago I had the opportunity to move to the USA and in 2006 became a citizen of the most wonderful nation on this planet. What I feel about this nation is what I feel about the company I am part of. I will say, it may be Century 21 but it is not just Century 21 but Century 21 Award....Yes Award. What is the difference? At Award we believe that every experience needs to be an Award wining experience at every level allways!!! We strive for excellency and an experience that you will not easily get any where else. Besides my passion for what I do professionally, I am active and participate in triathlons and Ironman competitions and am involved in other community activities and organizations.

Before Success Comes...

Before success comes in any man's life, he's sure to meet with much temporary defeat and, perhaps some failures. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and the most logical thing to do is to quit. That's exactly what the majority of men do. -Napoleon Hill-

How Success People Talk

How successful people talk (via Pando Daily)

By Francisco Dao On June 27, 2013I imagine it’s a byproduct of the confidence that often comes with success, but I’ve noticed a difference in the way successful people carry on conversations as opposed to those who are less accomplished. In a nutshell…

---