Book Report - Reality Check by Guy Kawasaki

Reality Check.

An Irreverent Guide To Outsmarting, Out managing and Out marketing Your Competition.

~Guy Kawasaki

No B.S.
Guy and I have a few things in common, not the least of which is irreverence. I like how Guy says what's on his mind and isn't afraid to call "Bull Shiitake*" on anything or anyone if they have it coming to em. With that said, you should know I wrote this Book report fully prepared to call it "Bull Shiitake" if that's what I deemed it to be. It's anything but BS. I called my twin brother immediately after finishing it. I interrupted his round of golf to tell him to buy a copy on the way home along with two highlighters of different color. I told him to read it once and highlight it as he goes. Then to let it sink in for a month or so and read it again with another highlighter. The next step is to pass the book on to someone in his sphere of influence in the hopes they will be able to take actions that strengthen his relationships and solidify his support base. Twins rock because they love each other more than the other kids love their brothers. Just ask us.

*This is a Guyism and he says in the acknowledgements that his editor busted his chops for using it too many times. I think it's funny how the "itake" part isn't used when he does some keynotes and podcasts. :)

A Great Reason To Kill Trees
Reality Check is arguably one of the best collection of dead tree pages ever printed on the subject of entrepreneurship and contemporary business. My brother is a VP and national sales manager for a Canadian furniture importer and manufacturer. His job is to get their product represented by and sold to furniture stores across the U.S. Can you think of tougher business to be in right now? There aren't many. I devoured Reality Check from as many perspectives as I could. Primarily as it applies to real estate, as it applies to my start up efforts and as it applies to my family and friends in businesses of all stripes. There is something in each chapter that has meaningful, actionable and entertaining content. For my brother, it represents a way for him to divert his attention from all the uncontrollable elements his business is faced with and approach strategies and tactics from an entirely new, passion powered perspective. I honestly believe if he applies what he learns from the lessons in Reality Check, he's going to change the dynamic of his industry and be one of the first to emerge from the flames of circumstance.

I think you'd be hard pressed to find a vertical that couldn't do the same.

Weapons of Mass Construction
I love how Guy uses the metaphor of weapons applied to the tools and methods he uses with great success. Weapons have power. Weapons gain respect and get results and sometimes in away they weren't originally intended for. Reality Check is a weapon of mass construction for me. I've gained valuable new perspectives on the way I am approaching solutions, innovating and understanding the dynamics of my prospects and the market I serve. It's also been a deciding factor in picking up the pen and finishing the book I started a while back. The working title is the new tag line I just applied to this blog. (It's at the top of this blog and I came up with long before GK announced Reality Check :)

Foreword Thinking
You really need to read Foreword 2.0 in Reality Check to see why Guy calls it the best foreword written in the history of business books. It was the last thing written by Fake Steve Jobs before retiring the persona he represented in the Secret Diary of Steve Jobs. I laughed my ass off. If you've ever followed either of the Jobs', real or fake, you will too. If Guy declines to write the foreword for my book, that means it sucks. I will have two choices. A rewrite, or I can pray that a generous "fake" Guy Kawasaki emerges before it's published. One way or the other, I'm getting him in there somehow.

If Blogging is an Art, Guy is a Picasso of Explaining It
In almost 3 years I have seen or presented dozens of different explanations on what blogging is and why someone should undertake the effort. I've lamented over my presentations on the issue, shook my head at the explanations that others have given and more. Just when I thought I had it down, Guy writes the equivalent of two pages that sum it up pretty well. Here are a few thoughts from Guy on blogging.

~ "On a business level, blogs are a marketing and communications weapon."
~ "Truly, if no one but your dog reads your blog, it's still worth doing"
~ "Think Book. Not Diary"

If you need a quick way to present blogging to a group of real estate professionals, this chapter makes a great guide post.


The Zen Art of Exposing Lies and How To See Reality
Guy's writing style is so fluid and easy to digest, it's no wonder all of his books are such big hits. Chapter titles grab your attention and the paragraph headings allow you to easily consume the content. It's the answer to a bad attention span. The book includes a great deal of the best content from his previous tomes and his blog, but it is in no way just a "best of" book. He actually has taken a great deal of blog and book content and connected it to new content, interviews and more. The Chapters start with the following and more:

• The Art Of...
• The Zen Of....
• How To......
• How Not To....
• The Reality Of...
• The 11 Lies Of...
  and so on and so forth.
  

Seriously, how could you not find interest in Chapters entitled How To Suck Up? Or its counterpart Chapter entitled How To Suck Down? He certainly has the market cornered on the Art of Making Mike Laugh His Fat Ass Off while reading a business book.

I'm a Realtor®, Why Should I Bother Reading This Book?
If you really did ask yourself that question you need Reality Check more than the next guy or gal. Luckily there is some really good content specific to how some are building new real estate business concepts by the CEO of the company that owns the registered trademark, Real Estate 2.0® , Glen Kelman of Redfin. (guess I better ask if I can keep using it in my writings :)

If you didn't see the original blog post back in 2007 that Guy published with the help of Glen it's in the book. There is also a guest chapter written by Glen that is tremendous reading. The title of the original blog post is "Financial Models for Underachievers: Two Years of the Real Numbers of a Startup" It chronicles the breakdown of the Redfin financial projection models as compared to their actual results. I remember thinking how outside of the box Glen was in exposing his company's numbers and analyzing the thinking behind the whole process with the whole world watching. It's eye opening stuff for any entrepreneur, especially one who is considering a kick ass new real estate business model.

The short chapter Glen provides is entitled "The Inside Story to Entrepreneurship". It's not so much about the real estate business, but more of a guidepost on the trials, tests and successes of a team deep into the process of passionately building a model for a new way of doing business. With paragraph headings such as "Startups are freak-catchers" and "Fearless leaders are often terrified", you can see how Glen has taken his transparent efforts of the 2007 blog post to a new level. I've always admired Glen and followed his efforts on and off with great interest. The inclusion of his writings in Reality Check will have me following more on than off.

I could use this book almost exclusively to work with someone in the real estate industry to help increase their productivity and profit. From creating effective presentations using the 10/20/30 rule to improving the way the presentations are delivered to applying a new understanding of innovation, to understanding the art of branding and so much more. So. If you're a Realtor® that asked that question. Get the book.

The Most Quotable Book In The History of Business Books
Here are just a few of the quotes I found noteworthy.

• "...innovation is not an event. It's a process"
• "...successful innovators may think they are right. They're not right; they're just successful on the previous curve"
• "Cash is not only King. It's Queen and Prince"
• "Don't let the bozos grind you down"
• "Think digital, act analog"

I hope you've enjoyed the best review in the history of business books. If you decide to buy a copy or two, use the link below and a commission for each sale will come to me. I will donate the money to a needy family for the Holidays. Namely mine. I plan to do all of my shopping at the .99 cent store and think It will allow me to buy that coffee mug and ramen noodle soup my wife's had her eye on.



Previous Book Reports From Mike's Corner:
Truth - New Rules for Marketing in a Skeptical World
Movies in The Mind

Be Unreasonable
Citizen Marketers
The Power of Place
The Long Tail
An Army of Davids
Mavericks At Work
Waiting For Your Cat to Bark?
Real You Incorporated

Podcast Interview: Guy Kawasaki

So how do you score an interview with a business Icon like Guy Kawasaki? It's simple - just ask. I ran into Guy at the BlogWorld expo recently. I was impressed that his persona online and in his writings is exactly who he is in person. He gives meaning to the term nice "Guy". He's just plain funny as hell too.

Most know Guy as an early Apple team member evangelizing software, as a founder of Garage Technology Ventures, a best selling author and recently as a co-founder of Truemors and AllTop.Com. What you may not know is that Guy's father spent some time as a real estate broker in Hawaii. What was more interesting was the claim that Guy made in the interview to be the first person ever to buy a House using the Internet. While there's no way to stake claim for sure, the fact he found a home on the web over 13 years ago is definitely noteworthy! Real Estate is a growing category on Alltop. I recently submitted this blog and it was accepted into the "rack". I encourage anyone with a good real estate blog to submit it today.

Guy and I also talked briefly about his new book being released on Oct. 30, Reality Check. Sounds like the perfect gift for the entrepreneur in your life!


Guy also stakes claim to the fact that he gets more out of Twitter than anyone else in the world. After hearing how he uses it as a "weapon", I think he may be right! The interview is 35 minutes of some of the most fun I've had all year. Thanks Guy!

Listen On The Web:


Listen and Subscribe in iTunes

Updates: Hurricanes, BlogWorld & Real Estate Barcamp Houston

Ike Update: Oak Ridge North Gets Smacked Around
The past 12 days or so have been about as action packed as they can get. Hurricane Ike decided to treat my little town of Oak Ridge North and southern Montgomery county Texas harder than any area not directly on the coast. We are still without power and I am crafting these 0's and 1's to you via a generator generously loaned to us by future in-laws. Our home suffered no major damage at all and as luck would have it, I had business trip to Las Vegas scheduled right in the middle of these days of recovery. If you're an MLBroadcast client, please accept our thanks for your patience in the delays that have resulted in production. We are working hard to get back on track and should be caught up soon. Call me directly if you have a concern or issue 832-331-4846.

REBlogWorld
Last Thursday through Sunday was spent at the Real Estate Blog World and Blog World conference. Todd and Jason should take great pride in successful first time event with REBlogworld. The sessions were great, the preparation and execution stellar and the overall experience definitely a worthwhile one. I highly recommend this event to any real estate professional or company interested in blogging and new media as a part of their strategy. We are proud to be a sponsor of the event and look forward to getting involved with the event in a big way again next year. Stay tuned for information regarding videos that were captured for each session at the event.


BlogWord Expo
The BlogWorld Expo was amazing. I've either been involved in the planning of or in attendance at more expos and conferences than I can remember and I believe this event was as well done both in execution and content as any I have attended before. It's only the second year for this event, but I can already see it becoming one of the larger and more well attended "digerati" events in the future. It covered much, much more than blogging, in fact, if it had to do with new media of any kind, it was addressed in some way. I enjoyed speaking with my old pal Paul Cheney who is now the president of the International Blogging and New Media Association, we became members because Paul is at the helm and I had a chance to find out more about their charter and see how I can become involved. Look for a podcast interview with Paul in the coming days. The highlight for me personally was being able to network with folks in the speaker ready room. I had a chance to talk to the social and new media folks with Wal-mart and get a preview of their cool new iPhone app being released this week. It's pretty cool to hang out with people like Guy Kawasaki. Most of the people in this industry, not matter what their celebrity status, are very approachable and that carried through to the sessions and the expo floor. Keep in mind for next year that by attending REBlogworld you are also able to attend the entire BlogWorld event. As Jeff Turner put it during a conversation we had, BlogWorld has been very "mind expanding". After all, isn't that why we go to these things? Oh wait, it was in Vegas, let me rephrase that, "Isn't that one of the reasons we go to these things?"

REBarcamp Houston Is Still On
I had a few conversations with some of my REBCH cohorts prior to my departure about whether we should postpone Real Estate Bar Camp Houston. The overwhelming consensus was to stick with the original date and plan. With all that will be taking place afterward like NAR's expo etc., it just makes sense to push forward. We will need as much help as possible from volunteers. Rich Jacobson of Active Rain being the awesome human being he is, has offered to come in a day early and help set up. We need sponsors! It's only $250 to be a sponsor of the event, so if you know of a person or company that wants the extra exposure and overall warm fuzzy that comes from being a part of a cool grass roots effort like a barcamp, have them get in touch with me.

Mmmmm.....Secret Sauce

I think the secret sauce of any successful business is strategy. I've tried the "fly by the seat of your pants version". I don't recommend it. These days it seems that everyone wants to pin the future success of the real estate industry on technology strategies. To be sure the industry is finally starting to experience the impact but it's only one small part of the equation. The real sea change is being driven by an entirely new kind of consumer and a constantly shifting business landscape. If the future success of real estate professionals was dependent upon technology alone, they wouldn't have that much to worry about. When it comes to technology, the barriers to entry have never been lower and for that matter, most of the tools we're seeing today are not that new or unique.

Brokers and agents need more than access to technology. Perhaps what is needed is a deeper understanding of basic business acumen and execution. Understanding branding, marketing, advertising, business planning etc. Creating and implementing top notch marketing strategies at a broker, agent and listing level are just as crucial as understanding the mediums that people are using to consume the messages. I noticed Real Living just hired a new executive in charge of professional and organizational development (PDF). Brilliant. After all, what good is all that technology and strategy if put in the hands of people that lack the proper skills to execute them?

Those that master the ability to apply technology to the tenets of professional business and superior customer service are going to win. It's not rocket science. It's all in the execution.

Why Do You Need A Strategic Plan?
Goals are great and setting a realistic target and staying focused on your progress is important. Without a clearly defined strategy for getting there it's just a number.

"Being a business entrepreneur today takes constant vigilance in order to be able to take advantage of new opportunities and the availability of new information and technology as they come into being." The first step in doing this is to have a plan.~US Small Business Administration

A strategic plan doesn't have to be that formal, and it should be something that has built in flexibility to change with the market conditions and services you provide. Business coaches seem to be very popular with agents these days. From what I've seen most of these coaches are old school agents with tremendous track records. Unfortunately what many of them teach seems to center around traditional methods, many of which are in decline. I'm not saying to ignore any of it, however, a fresh look at ideas outside of the industry could help you zero in on new methods, methods that could give you a substantial competitive edge. Web 2.0 isn't going away, so you're coach should know as much about the future of real estate as they do the past.

Resources For Developing Your Plan
There are people a heck of lot smarter and more successful than myself that have written on this subject. My favorite is Guy Kawasaki. His two best books are Rules For Revolutionaries and The Art of The Start. They are quick, entertaining reads. Guy has an awesome ability to dispense with a lot of the worthless noise that seems to surround the issues of contemporary business.

The second document you should read is a free publication you can download from the SBA website, Strategic Planning for The Growing Business (.DOC). This document outlines in great detail why you need to develop a business plan and the key steps to execution. By understanding how to assess the market you're in and establish goals, you can begin to piece together the strategy for getting there.

I believe if you take the time to implement an overall strategic plan, you've put in place the skills necessary to succeed on daily basis. I often watch in amazement at some of the real estate shows on cable that trot agent after agent through properties. They give it a once over and say with confidence what they would price it at. Great. Why not ask each one of them to outline every point of their strategy for actually selling it at that price and see what you get? I'll bet dollars to doughnuts there wouldn't be very much variation in the responses. I've seen plenty of agents repeat the same line that 80% of marketing a property is in the pricing. I disagree, but let's assume it's true. In today's market there's a heck of lot of competition for listings that are 80% marketed. If you're not doing something dynamic and results oriented with the other 20%, you're just going to end up treading water with the rest of the crowd.