NY Times #fail
The NY Times does not know how to get out of it’s own way.
They are doing some deal with the iPad, which I think is not going to be the end-all-be-all that some people think it will be, but now they are putting blogs behind the paywall. Let me get this straight, you are going to put what I can get for free about anywhere else behind the counter. Oh, and I am pretty sure they are still going to put ads in the window as well.
Newspapers are going through some dramatic change right now and they are scrambling to find change under the cushions of the sofa in the smoking lounge. They are charging you more as the reader, the advertiser for the privilege of less readers and the news is as stale as the donuts in the case at a gas station. 
Now, I really don’t have a plan for the NY Times, but they really need to get over themselves. Devorak from the Leo Laporte show gave me a clue just how senseless they are. They are a news service that sell their stories much like the AP. So, if you see a story you want to read from them; just copy and paste the headline and you find it in about 2 dozen other online sites for free. So, that is a great way around the “paywal”.
But, it really goes to show the shortsightedness of the Times, and I really think just how out of touch they are with middle America.
NY Times #fail
Dave
Give em something…
to Talk about…
to Learn…
to Think about…
to Want more…
to Want to use you…
Your blog in this day, where everyone is online, is an extension of you. It is your personal brand, whether it be Dave Woodson, Social Media Consultant or Dave Woodson, The Mad Mortgage Machine. It can be a blog about Diabetes, or a Pro-biotic, or even an affiliate site about Data Encryption. The information that you give reflects back on you. So, if you presenting yourself as the local expert, you darn well better know the area that you are talking about.
So, often I read blogs from around the country looking for a good idea, to learn more about real estate or mortgages, and I see how many are doing it wrong. You do little to make yourself the expert, or even less to drive traffic to your site or sites. I can only imagine that the old adage applies, “even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while”.
So, my challenge to you for the rest of 2010 and beyond in your career. Is when you write a blog or when you express yourself on any Socail Media platform…
Give them something to talk about…
Dave Woodson, Social Media Marketing Consultant
Message to Market…Message to Market
Who are you are marketing to? Do you know where to look for your market?
Do you know what your message is? Do you know how to craft your message?
Know your scripts, always know who are talking and make sure the message is as close to the target as possible.
D
to beat your competition
You ever think what it takes to beat your competition, it really may take more than you got. I guess the real question is are you willing to do what you need to do to take the business.
Simply, doing something better is just not enough. People will stick with the devil they know just so they don’t need to learn a new system or a new person.
So, stop and think, take some time over the next couple of weeks to decide what you need to do to be 3 to 10 times better than the next guy.
D
Be that Guy
Be that guy or girl that everyone seeks out, and with the many tools that we have available it is easier than ever to do that.Be the expert, the go to guy, build your brand that when people think Real Estate or Mortgage, MLM, construction or whatever you are into always be the one they think of first and second.
D
Why the Yellow Pages are Yellow
They are yellow cause they are dying.
I love the calls that I still get every years from the couple different “yellow” page sales people in my area. I tell them “no thank you, not interested” and they always seem to come back with some search engine attack that I already have them beat on. Do the Yellow Pages still have a place a place in your home. I doubt it, but if you have one comment below.
And, if you are using the Yellow Pages with out a blog that has at least some SEO, then you are dying too.
1 Up
1 Up
If you are sitting in a bar with a couple of buddies telling old college or “war” stories and each one keeps getting wilder and harrier than the next one then you are “1 upping” each other. Perhaps, that is the one place that is allowed and even forgivable.
Not sitting in a networking meeting such as a BNI or a Chamber event. I have noticed more over in those events that are open to those that open to more than one person in a profession. I tend to prefer those “open” networking groups as opposed to the closed of BNI. I like having a choice of who to use and I am so confident in my abilities that once you use me you will keep using me.
Well, I made a quick video to show you what I am talking about.
1 Up from Dave Woodson on Vimeo.
1 UP – Professionalism in Networking
Remember with Social Media and Web 2.0 you need to be social and you need to get out of the Bunker.
Dave Woodson
The Indiana FHA Expert
A book by its cover
I know we all have done it. I have done and the times that I have not done it have worked out great for me. When I first got out of collge (go boilers). I went to work for a 55 and over retirement community in Grayslake, IL. called Saddlebrook Farms. I loved it there and learned a lot of good and bad habits there. I remember the first day I was there. I had never met the owner. I was being interviewed by the president of the company and this homely looking gentlemen walked in and started talking to me while the president was taking a phone call. I thought he was yard mower. He had grass stained shoes on, a tear in hes jeans and a sweater shirt that looked like it was from the 70’s. He was the owner. But, you know what I treated him like he was. Not judging the book by the cover worked that day.
A week or so ago, as I was preparing to go for my morning walk/bike ride. I was tooling around the yard a little. I hate doing yard work. Well. I did a quick video for it.
My yard has never looked better and all I have to do is water it and mow it, and lately God has been watering for me
Dave
An American Business Owner
My diet consisted of Ramen Pride (They were only 11 cents when I bought them) noodles because every dollar I spent went back into this company. I drove a rusty Toyota Corolla with a defective transmission. I didn’t have time to date. Often times, I stayed home on weekends, while my friends went out drinking and partying. In fact, I was married to my business — hard work, discipline, and sacrifice.
Meanwhile, my friends got jobs. They worked 40 hours a week and made a modest $50K a year and spent every dime they earned. They drove flashy cars and lived in expensive
homes and wore fancy designer clothes. Instead of hitting the Nordstrom’s for the latest hot fashion item, I was trolling through the discount store extracting any clothing item that didn’t look like it was birthed in the 70’s. My friends refinanced their mortgages and lived a life of luxury. I, however, did not. I put my time, my money, and my life into a business with a vision that eventually, some day, I too, will be able to afford these luxuries
my friends supposedly had.
So, while you physically arrive at the office at 9am, mentally check in at about noon, and then leave at 5pm, I don’t. There is no “off” button for me. When you leave the office, you are done and you have a weekend all to yourself. I unfortunately do not have the freedom. I eat, and breathe this company every minute of the day. There is no rest. There is no weekend. There is no happy hour.
Every day this business is attached to my hip like a one-year old special-needs child. You, of course, only see the fruits of that garden — the nice house, the Mercedes, the vacations… you never realize the back story and the
sacrifices I’ve made.
Now, the economy is falling apart and I, the guy that made all the right decisions and saved his money, have to bail-out all the people who didn’t. The people that overspent their paychecks suddenly feel entitled to the same luxuries that I earned and sacrificed a decade of my life for.
Yes, business ownership has is benefits, but the price I’ve paid is steep and not without wounds. Unfortunately, the cost of running this business, and employing you, is starting to eclipse the threshold of marginal benefit and let me tell you why:
I am being taxed to death and the government thinks I don’t pay enough. I have state taxes. Federal taxes. Property taxes. Sales and use taxes. Payroll taxes. Workers compensation taxes. Unemployment taxes. Taxes on taxes. I have to hire a tax man to manage all these taxes and then guess what? I have to pay taxes for employing him. Government mandates and regulations and all the accounting that goes with it, now occupy most of my time. On Oct 15th, I wrote a check to the US Treasury for $288,000 for quarterly taxes.
You know what my “stimulus” check was? Zero. Nothing!
The question I have is this: Who is stimulating the economy? Me, the guy who has provided 14 people good paying jobs and serves over 2,200,000 people per year with a flourishing business? Or, the single mother sitting at home pregnant with her fourth child waiting for her next welfare check? Obviously, government feels the latter is the economic stimulus of this country.
The fact is, if I deducted (or stole) 50% of your paycheck you would quit and you would not work here. I mean, why should you? That’s nuts. Who wants to get rewarded only
50% of their hard work? Well, I agree which is why your job is in jeopardy. Here is what many of you don’t understand … to stimulate the economy you need to stim-
ulate what runs the economy. Had suddenly government mandated to me that I didn’t need to pay taxes, guess what? Instead of depositing that $288,000 into the Washington blackhole, I would have spent it, hired more employees, and generated substantial economic growth. My employees would have enjoyed the wealth of that tax cut in the form of promotions and better salaries.
When you have a comatose man on the verge of death, you don’t defibrillate and shock his thumb thinking that will bring him back to life, do you? Or, do you defibrillate his heart?
Business is at the heart of America and always has been. To restart it, you must stimulate it, not kill it. Suddenly, the power brokers in Washington believe the poor of America are the essential drivers of the American economic engine. Nothing could be further from the truth
and this is the type of change you can keep.
So where am I going with all this? It’s quite simple. If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, my reaction will be swift and simple. I fire you. I fire your Co-workers. You can then plead with the government to pay for your mortgage, your SUV, and your child’s future.
Frankly, it isn’t my problem any more. Then, I will close this company down, move to another country, and retire. You see, I’m done. I’m done with a country that penalizes the productive and gives to the unproductive. My motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed,
and with it, will be my citizenship.
So, if you lose your job, it won’t be at the hands of the economy; it will be at the hands of a political hurricane that swept through this country, steamrolled the constitution, and will have changed its landscape forever.
If that happens, you can find me sitting on a beach, retired, and with no employees to worry about.
Signed,
Your Boss
Hurry up and wait
I will admit that I am a chronic procrastinator, but I thrive under a deadline. If I have weeks to do something. I will wait to the last possible moment to get it done. However, under a deadline. I kill it. I come in under most times or nail just as the clock strikes the deadline.
I am, also, a very impatient person. I know exactly where I get that from, Mom and Dad. I make the joke that my brother got the best of my parents and I got the worst. What I hate with working with the public is that they are impatient and must have it now. So, when I accommodate and hurry right over they are lounging back as if nothing is going on and nothing needs to be done.
This is the same guy who will call my office line at 930 in the evening. I have learned to ignore my phone over the years and I can go to be not worrying about it. Really, at 930 at night, there is not a lot that I can do about it anyway. My wed guys are all doing something else, my underwriters are asleep and I know my processor will kill me if I call that late.
Learning to squelch the “hurry up and wait” monster is hard. It is not an easy monster to defeat. I battle it every day. I learned to make a list, use my calender function on my blackberry and just have that “I don’t care” look on my face. I know that last one really gets people, but it is fun to watch the look on their face when you roll up with a completed project done right and done way before time is up.
Making it all happen in the required time frame and then some
Dave Woodson
Thanks for finding me from Dave Woodson on Vimeo.
It is no accident that you are here
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