On January 28, 2005 I turned lenderama into a blog. To my knowledge it was the first B2B blog in the mortgage, or even the real estate industry. My original goal was to talk to the 54 mortgage broker clients that I had cultivated over my years as a wholesale account executive. What actually happened changed my life.
Looking back, what has four years of involvement in social media done for me?
I was standing on the trade show floor of Inman Connect NYC earlier this month when a real estate agent walked up to me and exclaimed, “YOU’RE THE GUY!”. I told her I get that a lot. It’s funny, but also true. I’m going to brag a bit in this post. I hope you’ll see that I’m doing it to show you what’s possible by participating in social media. Here are some highlights
I was interviewed for Mortgage Technology Magazine. Then by RIS Media, and Inman News. Lenderama was featured in a story about real estate blogging in Investors Business Daily.
I was interviewed for the McGraw Hill published book, Realty Blogging. I was asked by the writers of that book to start blogging for them. I started teaching people how to blog all the way back in 2006.
Inman News asked me to start contributing to their blog. As did countless other sites.
I started meeting people from around the country. First online with bloggers like Dustin Luther, Dan Green, and Jim Duncan.
By 2007, I was meeting them in person. People like Teresa Boardman, Kristal Kraft and Jeff Turner. Awesome people. People that I call friends.
Because of Lenderama, Dave Savage and I talk on the phone.
I also met Jason Berman through Lenderama. He was the past president of CAMB and teamed up with me to create REBlogWorld.
Because of blogging, I met Andy Kaufman, who got me involved with helping him on RE BarCamp.
All of this has created momentum. In the last month, I’ve connected in person with Sherry Chris, CEO of Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate, and Dale Stinton, CEO of NAR. This weekend, Dave Jenks started following me on Twitter.
Virtually every close friendship I’ve developed in the last four years is related to social media, including my best friend, all of my business partners, and even the great lady I took to lunch for the first time today.
I started a new business with three awesome people. Ginger Wilcox, Kelley Koehler, and Mariana Wagner. All of us are examples of how using social media can expand your SOI, help you find new clients, or to forge great friendships.
Social Media had changed my life.
Last night, I struggled with the fact that I have more opportunities facing me than I have time for. I have to figure out how to pick and choose. Considering the economy as a whole, that’s a pretty damn cool problem to have.
Okay, yes. I’m bragging. I’m dropping names. It feels good. Four years ago, I was an average sales guy with 54 clients he wanted to reach. Today, I’m sort of a big deal. I’m meeting people at the top of the industry. But all of this came from social media tools that most of you can use to accomplish everything I have. If you haven’t adopted social media as a marketing platform yet, why the hell not?
