Um, what was I going to talk about? Oh, yeah.

I started this post on the 19th. Yeah. We can see how I followed up on my sworn promise to update more often. It was a busy week.

I swear, I'm going to try to update This Old Blog more often going forward. (HAHAHAHAHA!) I think about updating it often, and somehow never quite get my ass in the chair and hands on the keyboard while I'm thinking about it. But I just came from started this after a really fun happy hour and feeling quite...happy...and I'm ready to talk about something from a comment on a post or two ago. About being in real estate and being "outgoing."

I am not outgoing. I am not shy either. I'm just naturally a semi-introvert. I don't mind socializing but I don't mind my own company either, and in a large group I'll be the quiet, happy person who drops a comment now and then. I'm better in small groups, and face to face conversation. Too much socializing wears me out.

I particularly loathe the "Hi, My Name Is..." business social stuff. I also can't stand using any canned sales crap that I would find tiresome and see through if used on me. I can't push a business card into the hands of everyone I meet. I can't "live up to" the sales techniques pushed in our office training. And the fact that I can't/won't do it may slow my launch in this business, but I still believe it will benefit me in the long run.

Take this story as an example - recently I was in a training class about prospecting. (Prospecting is, if you are unfamiliar with the term, just what it sounds like - hunting for customers.) We talked about how we prospected, and I said I was a low key, gentle prospector. I meet people and as part of the general getting to know you stuff, tell them what I do after asking them what they do, and this generally leads to them wanting to talk about real estate. I'd met a dozen new people the night before and talked real estate with them (because they brought it up).

I was immediately asked how many cards I'd handed out! Um, that would be ZERO, because this wasn't a freaking Chamber of Commerce After Hours pathetic speed dating thing where business people swarm desperately, "making contacts" (mostly with other desperate people like themselves). I do not pass out cards the minute I meet someone. I only talk about real estate when the subject comes up, and if it does, I'm not gonna try to hold the floor with my expertise and end it with a sales pitch for my services. I am not playing a role in my job, I am me. I will make sure they know how to get in touch with me, and these folks do know how to find me, but I would never, ever, do a "Hi, I'm in real estate, here's my card, do you know anybody interested in buying, selling or investing?" at a social event. I don't want people to get that deer in the headlights look and suddenly find an urgent need to be elsewhere when I approach them.

I chatted with a woman at another happy hour event who was in the middle of a FUBAR transaction. I couldn't help her of course, and she's a sophisticated buyer who didn't want to name names either, so she delicately vented and I delicately murmured my sympathy - we did not name names, but I got the issues and her frustration, and could only sympathize from afar. I couldn't help her, but I like her and we see each other at various social events, and when someone she knows needs an agent who isn't a flake I think I may have a pretty good chance of being the name that will pop into her mind. I will not do this by emailing her a canned marketing piece spit out by a computer because I cleverly got her email address while we chatted. I didn't ask, or give her my card - I'll see her in the future and know how to find her, and she knows where to find me, and we did hit it off - two corporate escapees in AVL, finding our way. I genuinely want to get to know her, not because I was there to get business, but because she's nice and we found we had many life experiences in common. I am not stalking her as a potential source of referrals, but I do hope to be the smart, funny woman she knows who sells houses here.

I know I'm on the right track here because while we were chatting I realized that I often hear about deals in progress because people are pissed off, but they got into their situations before I met them, and I cannot and will not poke my nose in. I said that I probably should get the word out in a bigger way to the groups in which we circulate that I sell houses. I said something like that, and she immediately said (in a nice way, because she is very nice) "But if you showed up to market yourself, that would be obnoxious!" "I know, that's why I don't DO it - I am new here myself, and I get out to meet new people and get to know them!"

And that's the pure truth. I am NOT an extroverted "Whee, look at me, I'm in real estate, here's my card!" person, and that may be my downfall, we shall see, but there you have it - I will not do unto others that which would piss me off if done unto me. If I went to a social event and some pushy bitch was there pushing her card into my hand, I'd drop it in the nearest trash can. And if I have to be that pushy bitch to earn a living here, well, I'll just have to find something else to do.

And I am NOT ALONE in this - there is an entire world of real estate people who are LIKE ME, all around the country. Even in my own office, in a company known for Sales Training!!!! the bulk of the agents are just regular folks. Maybe regular folks who have lived here for at least 15 years and have a referral base I want to have someday, but regular folks who do not stalk and spam potential customers. I will never stalk and spam - not ever, but especially not in this market, in this town. I am a face-to-face, relationship building type. I'm busy learning the details of the market and befriending lenders and such, AND meeting and talking to new people every week. I am building my business from the ground up in every sense, and it will take time, but people will not put my email address in their spam folder, or not pick up the phone when they see my name on caller ID, because damn, it's her again - another marketing piece/call disguised as "being friendly."

So that's my somewhat introverted and easily irritated take on the need to be "outgoing" in this business. Maybe I WILL be too non-outgoing to make it, but if I am, so be it. I'm not going to turn myself into someone I'm not. I'm too old for that shit.

So, on to yarny topics - I revisited the log-cabin-like afghan I'd started for my granddaughter, and realized that it had been sitting for a long time because I never really bought in to the project. It was nice enough, yeah, but.... Today I pulled it out and then ripped it. The various bits and pieces are being reworked into a granny square afghan - so far, so good, crocheting with this nice forgiving wool (Cascade 220 Superwash) is not bothering my wrist. I'm using one of those padded crochet hooks, and so far, so good. I like it much better as a granny - the colors are girly pastels, and instead of edging it with the usual white or black, I'm edging each square in chocolate brown. It's going to be a sophisticated granny. I also discovered today that Netflix has all of the Star Trek Next Generation episodes in streaming video, so I had a happy little geekfest of Captain Picard and granny squares this afternoon. I was really tired after a busy working week and the aforementioned socializing, and needed my down time to recharge and be a geek. I am going to bed early.

I am not going to lie and make promises about the next time I will update. You'll just have to be surprised.