For months I have been saying stop focusing on the features and benefits in your marketing. Finally, someone else is preaching the same message only this time it is directed to the sales force. To read more visit, Builder Online, “Listen Up”. In my opinion, both sales and marketing need to go hand in hand. The marketing must drive the traffic and the sales people must then close the deal. However, if they are delivering two different messages your audience is not going to connect with either.

In a market where everyone is completing for a much smaller pool of buyers, we need to start focusing on what potential customers are actually looking for, connections. I’m talking about connections with the property/community, with the builder, with the environment, with their emotions, and finally with the sales people.

In our upcoming newsletter, From the ground up, we are focusing directly on this topic as it relates to marketing. Stay tuned for a more in depth look at emotional connections and how they can change the tone of your marketing for the better.

One other thing I wanted to mention about making a connection, sometimes we forget that we are all people and one of the basic needs in our lives is to connect with other people. With the world getting more and more digitally connected every day, we are tending to get further and further away from actual face to face connections. If you ever want to learn more about how to grow and connect as a person or a business, Keith Ferrazzi of Ferrazzi Greenlight, and the best selling book, “Never Eat Alone”, is one the best speakers/writers ever to broach the subject. To visit his blog, click here.

Now go out and make more connections. Your entire self and business will change as a result

The experts are weighing in, at this point if you ask me, it is anyone’s “guess” where are economy is heading. I think if we look back at history, like Bill Fleckenstein does in his article on MSN, “Why we can’t cruise past a recession”, we might find that he’s not all that off base. He takes a look at history, and some reason it does tend to have a funny way of repeating itself.

I’m not trying to be all doom and gloom. However, if perhaps we recognizing things for as they are, it might be easier to take steps to fix the problems and not just continuing creating new ones. Food for thought.

What a refreshing thought, looking to the future. It is nice to finally see someone looking forward instead of back. How refreshing to look at new ways of thinking instead of taking bits of history and re-purposing them for current use.

It is nice to see a new series of articles being published by Builder Magazine, with the first one appropriately titled “Vision Quest”.  They begin to examine what is to come, not what has already been done. This is truly a breath of fresh air for our industry. We are a market that constantly just tweaks what has currently always worked and hopes that it will continue to keep working.

However, times are changing and they are going to change even more, so we must learn to embrace them. People are becoming more technologically savvy, they want environmentally friendly homes, they are constantly looking for what is new. Values and ideas are ever changing, they evolve and so should our industry. It is not just the trends with design and creating communities that are changing. The way we do business must change too. We cannot keep doing the things we have always done and expect things to be different. Marketing is one area that must always grow with the times, and if you are the one on the cutting edge, you will reap the benefits all the way to the bank.

Do not be afraid to look to the future in all aspects of your business. It is truly the ones that risk the most and actually venture out to the ledge, that really stand the best chance for success.

Last night I was sitting watching some mind numbing television and a commercial came on that really stuck in my head. It was a commercial for some inventors and said something like “100 years ago the patent attorney said.  Everything that can be invented has been already. Since then millions of new patents have been created.” Please forgive my recollection of the exact facts but the meaning is what stood out in my head.

Are there really no more original ideas? Do we just borrow bits and pieces of things to create new ones?

My answer would be, no and yes. I think that ideas are just a collaboration of thoughts that are taken apart and then creatively constructed back into something new. As designers we are constantly borrowing from others, from nature, pre-existing structures, emotions, colors, and on and on. However, I think there are always opportunities to create something new. Something that no one has done before. It just takes that little spark in the imagination and the wheel starts to move. As it begins to roll there is no stopping what can be created, especially when collaboration begins to take place.

When you are stuck on something or need a spark of inspiration to think of something new. Find someone who you can sit and bounce around your thoughts. You will be shocked at how a little brainstorming with someone, who knows much or nothing, can get you unstuck and cause the ideas to just flow. Ideas are what make life interesting. How boring would life be if we all just did the same thing and nothing new was created.

In an age when “original and unique” seem to be the buzz word of the day, creative ideas are the only thing that call you out from the masses. Good luck and keep always dreaming.

I’m constantly preaching that if you continue executing the same actions, you are most likely going to get the same results. In a recent blog posted by Greg Wilson, Inc. Magazine, “Secret 4. Try Something New!“, I think he basically says it all. Happy reading.

Have you ever just thrown your hands up in the air and said toooo much? Be it work, home life, leisure, these days there just never seems enough time to get it all done. One of the areas in balance I have been struggling most is  procrastination and I decided enough is enough. With that I procrastinated a bit more and went to the book store in search for the answer, and guess what, I think I found it. I just finished a spectacular book by Brian Tracy, “Eat that Frog!“.

This book is great for anyone who puts off that big scary task of the day till the end. If you wait until the last minute to do the really bad tasks, and you are like me,  you never seem to get that last big, most important task ever done.

The theory behind “Eat that Frog!” is do you worst more horrible, dreaded task first. In essence, eat the big ugly frog before you do anything else and then the little tiny frogs are not so hard to swallow as the day goes on. I have to admit, I’ve tried his theory and it actually works. If you get into work and just do the task that is the hardest, and often the most important to your success, you are most likely to have accomplished more than you would that day than you would have the entire week.

It is often that unsurmountable, painful, hard, difficult task that we save for last, if we just would take a bite, we would see it really is not that difficult, to just eat the frog. Even if you have to do it one bite at a time. Good luck and may you procrastinate no longer.

The mood still seems to be a bit somber amongst the vast International Builder Show attendees. People are still waiting to hear when is this all going to end. There were a few reports on are we heading into a recession and the economic outlook for the next year did not seem as bleek as expected. To read more about their predictions click here.

After attending may of the sales and marketing seminars, the overall tone was to dig in and weather out the storm. There was great focus on how sales people really needed to get back to the basics and start actually selling for the first time in a long time, the homes are not going to just sell themselves these days. Marketing also seems to be a higher priority as well this year. With more focus on branding and website presence. Thank goodness!!! Here is an article that speaks directly to what some builders are doing  “Builders Priority’s Change as Market Conditions Slip

One final note, Green building is still a very hot topic this year and I predict for years to come as well. It seems that if you are not heading towards at least learning more about building green, you truly might just miss the boat. There were many different tracks that focused solely on this very important topic. Here are a few articles recaps that will help fill you in on what is going on with Green.  Green by Design, Not just Gadgets, by Jenny Sullivan. Survey Reveals Home Buyers Wish for Energy Efficient and Beyond, by Jean Dimeo. NAHB Lays Out Details for Green Building Program, by John Caulfield. Web Tools Support Green Projects, by Jenny Sullivan.

Overall I think the conference was a good chance to get people back on track and reinvigorated about what they love to do, sell more homes. If you are not already planning on attending next year, I would highly suggest you try and fit it in your budget. IBS is going to be held January 20-23, this year in Las Vegas. You always learn something new at this great event.

Lately doesn’t everyone seem to be sending out doom and gloom messages? The government, the media, our entire industry, it doesn’t matter who you are talking to, they are depressed, worried, stressed and down right negative. I look around and life definitely is not perfect right now for most people in our industry, but there are still people who are doing well and I mean really well. They have not let the predictions of a recession or a bad housing market make them even miss a beat. They are revising their plans, making adjustments, and moving forward with full steam and more importantly they are doing it with a positive attitude. I know, you are thinking positive attitude, yeah, yeah, yeah, but maybe there is a little shred of truth to that line of thinking.

If you are feeling like you are suffering from a turn in your mental outlook, here are a few books that might help you through this blip on the radar; “Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude” by Napolean Hill and W. Clement Stone; and “Get Out of Your Own Way” by Mark Goulston, M.D., and Philip Goldberg. These books might not solve all your personal or business problems, but hey, what could they hurt.

I know, I know, everyone and their dog are setting new goals to start the new year off right. However, I would like to put a little different spin on the process of goal setting and how it just might pay off to sit down and focus on what you really want to accomplish in 2008. New Year’s resolutions and goals for the year are perfectly good places to start, but I’m suggesting you go much further than just long range goal setting. It is kind of like a business plan, it is not something you do once and then set it on the shelf and forget about. Goals need to be reviewed, focused on and updated constantly. It does not do you any good to set long term goals with no specific date or plan in mind on how you are going to achieve them.

My suggestion is start big and work backwards. Set the big crazy goal, but set a time frame in which you want to accomplish it. Then set 30, 60 and 90 day progress goals based on your final goal. By setting the small goals as well, this gives you more attainable targets that ultimately are reinforcing your big goal in the end.

I also want to stress that goal setting should not just be just a personal thing. Your businesses, families, employees and loved ones should also try and start looking at the power of setting a goal and working toward it every day. Also, if you get others involved in your quest, it makes it even harder to sabetoge yourself and go in a different direction that does not support of your original mission. The more you focus on what you want, the more often you are going to actually receive it. Some of the most successful people in business today, had a dream, set a goal and then worked their tails off to try and obtain it.

2008 is going to be a great year, I hope you all set some crazy big goals for your businesses, your projects and yourself. Goals bring us closer to our vision. Good luck and can’t wait to hear all about your fabulous success this time next year.

I just completed the two very timely books to bring in the new year: “Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies” by Jim Colins (Author) and Jerry I. Porras (Author), and “Success Built to Last” by Jerry Porras (Author), Stewart Emery (Author) and Mark Thompson (Author). Both books focus on what it takes to be a success not only in business but in life.

I thought what a perfect way to start to the new year, with a renewed focus on how to create a life that matters and a business that will truly stand the test of time.  Each book strives to call out the unique qualities that successful individuals and businesses possess, and condense them down into easy to apply steps that will not only transform your business but enhance your life.

I truly recommend both books for the holidays. It never hurts to emulate those around you that are doing something right. Happy Holidays and enjoy.