OT08 - Forks, Frenchtown & Levittown

OT08 continued this week with office visits to Forks, Frenchtown and Levittown. I have really enjoyed meeting with the managers and agents in each office over the past few weeks and these offices were GREAT!!! In Forks, I met with Brenda Godown, she is the manager of the Forks Office. Her Admin, Verna was fantastic lady with all the answers (pictured below with Elizabeth Miksits).

The Forks Office is a sleek place, yes - some of the walls are black! The agents I met here were all very welcoming and made me feel right at home. The office is located next to a restaurant called, "Chubby's" - which I did not venture into on this trip, maybe next time. More Forks pics below ...


The drive from Forks to Frenchtown was absolutely beautiful. The Frenchtown Office is a small office located in the heart of Frenchtown. I can't wait to see this area around the holidays - I predict a shopping trip (or two) after a future Frenchtown visit. Barbara Groogan is the manager of the Frenchtown Office and has a tough job as she is the only Hearthside Office located in New Jersey. Barbara and her agents were not down with my photo frenzy ... so I just posted the outside pic.


On Wednesday, I met with Darcy Terman, manager of the Levittown Office. Since this office is moving to Langhorne in a few weeks, I did not snap any pics. Darcy and the agents that I met here were very welcoming. It sounds like everyone is super excited about the upcoming move.

So it was fantastic week :) Up next week: Buckingham, Willow Grove, Southampton & New Hope! See y'all soon.

New Week - New Offices

Today I was in two offices - Ottsville and Hellertown. First thing in morning I met with John Suchy, the new manager of the Ottsville Office (pictured below). John's Admin is Diane Bondura - she has a office just upstairs from John with a sort-of secret staircase.

John is also a Lindal Cedar Homes dealer - he has spent much of his real estate career helping people buy land and then selling them a Lindal home. The building that houses the Ottsville Office was impressive - a neat old building with great light and winding staircases.




Later today, I headed up to Hellertown and hung out with Linda Emerson, pictured below with her Admin Nan DiPasquale (on the phone). Linda used to manage both Ottsville and Hellertown. She is super-organized and brings a ton of experience to the table. Linda tells me that Hellertown has one of the longest Main Streets of any town in the US!


While snapping some pics outside, I found that the building is actually a historical site. Not sure if you will be able to read the inscription.


So, lots going on in Hellertown and Ottsville! Thanks for having me. Tomorrow I am heading to Forks and then Frenchtown, NJ ... on the road again.

a little behind ... Philadelphia and Dublin

Okay, so I am a little behind with the OT08 posts and pics. Last Thursday, I was in our Philadelphia Office for Office Tour 2008. New office - same agents. The new office looks GREAT! But it was really great to see some of my favorite agents ... even the ones that slipped out when I said I was taking pictures :)

The Philadelphia Office is managed by Jack Weiss, the office Admin is Lynn Laukaitis (1st pic), next up is Curt Gasper, Lisa Gasper and Diane Ferrero (middle pic) and last but not least, Kathy McHugh - agent on Mike Cirillo's team (last pic).

The Philadelphia Office was super busy last Thursday ... lots of activity in and around the office.

On Friday, I went to the Dublin Office. Marge Wingate manages this office and Carol Wireman is the Admin. No one except Russ (Palmer Plus Team) wants to pose for me. That's Marge in the back there (below). The second pic is the view from the back of the Dublin office ... I swear there are some houses just beyond that large tree in the middle. The day I was in Dublin, they were having a Relocation Lunch and Learn. The group discussed different ways to obtain more outbound referrals - they had already achieved two for the month! I was a fly on the wall and soaked up every bit of it ... plus, whoa - super yummy lunch.


Thanks for having me! -SH

I'm a day behind! Tuesday & Wednesday ...

Hi All:
Happy Wednesday! Halfway through the week and I can barely remember Monday. What cool experience - see all of our offices in such a short period of time! Tuesday I was in Pottstown ... it just so happens that they were having a bbq lunch and round table discussion that very day!

Joanne Wendling, the manager of Pottstown, is known around the office for her cooking skills and she did not disappoint. Michelle DeLong, her Admin and all of the agents also all pitched in to make the day fun and informative.


Pictured above: Michelle Pyle (faking a bun bite), Joanne Wendling & Rick Finaldi grilling the burgers and dogs.

Today I was in Washington's Crossing and Yardley. I apologize that I have absolutely no pics from today! I will see if the managers can send me some shots to post.

I met with Chris Harding and Bob Williams today. They team manage the Washington's Crossing, Yardley, Newtown and Lahaska offices with another manager and ownership partner, Maryanne Gallagher. The admins, staff and agents were all great - very friendly and super nice. Heather (Admin in Yardley) even said she read my blog! Woohoo - my readership is up to 5! Thanks Heather :)

More later ... also, we need to talk about Outlook, look for a post on that soon.

Have a great Thursday all.

Office Tour 08 Collegeville ...

OT08 continued today with the Collegeville Office! The Collegeville Office is located just up the road from Ursinus College. Chuck Yeager, creator of our Trademarks program, is the manager and Emily (both pictured below) is his Admin. Chuck recently started blogging on his new Hearthside Collegeville Communicator blog, click here to see his work.


The latest news in Cville ... other than the fax machine bursting into flames last week and some great new listings, there is not much to report ;)

Today was a GREAT day to be in the Cville Office b/c it was "bring your pet to work day"! What a difference a dog makes ...

How can you not smile in the presence of Emily's little woofer, "Cookie"??? So cute and BONUS - she doesn't shed - really - Chuck demonstrated for me.



Who needs a fake Rusty when we have the real Cole??? This is Heidi Casey's dog, "Cole" - he was a sweetheart.

Lots more offices next week! Due up ... Pottstown, Washington's Crossing, Yardley, Philadelphia. Have a great weekend!!!

Office Tour 08 Begins Today!

Today I started my Office Tour 08 -> 20 + offices in 4 weeks! I am visiting each office to go over my Education plan with the manager, see the offices and hang out with the agents. At Diamond, my monthly office visits were a great opportunity for me to learn from the agents, hear their feedback first-hand and handle any technology questions/issues. The Office Tour 08 is not the standard way I will conduct my office visits in the future, I just want to meet with each manager prior to launching our new Education program in September.

So ... today was MALVERN! As this is a former Diamond office, I have some buddies here. Nancy, the manager is a killer recruiter and is very organized. The office is located at 105 Phoenixville Pike in Malvern. Linda, the AA, tells me that they have a ghost in the basement. The same basement the stick me in when they want me to teach a Tech Daze class.

Linda (AA) & Nancy (Manager)

The property where the office is located has a Chester County historical landmark that Linda informs me, "the arch way was used to lead the horses thru to the gate house". She could be making that up ... I didn't have time to check her facts. The agents humored me as I dragged them outside in 95 degree heat to snap a few pics. What a great group - thanks all!!!

Tomorrow I am off to Collegeville! -SH

Social Proof

Great post on Mark Eckenrode's "HomeStomper" site - click here to read. I love reading Mark's blog ... he is truly on the cutting edge of Real Estate Marketing. Pop onto his site at www.homestomper.com for the latest and greatest. The idea of a social proof is so basic and something that you can easily do in your own marketing.

Have a GREAT Tuesday!

Using Microsoft Outlook for ALL of your Emails

Many of us have 2 or more email accounts these days and keeping track of them can be a bit of headache. I used to use Yahoo business email (at the low low price of $20/year) to handle all of my email (3 accounts worth). I chose Yahoo because it was convenient, cheap and web-based. I still think Yahoo business mail is a great option - it's sort of a bare-bones Outlook.

Recently, as in just a few weeks ago, I converted to Microsoft Outlook. My main reason for doing so? I was getting so many questions on how to use Outlook! Not one to be left out, I decided to try it again. I say again because we have all used Outlook at one point or another - it's been around forever.

If you are interested in filtering all of your emails into one place, while still being able to send from each individual account right from Outlook - give it a whirl ...

To set up a new account in Outlook 2007:

1. Open Microsoft Outlook
2. Click on "Tools"
3. Click on "Account Settings"
4. On the "Email" tab, click "New"
5. Click the radio button that says, "MS Exchange, POP, IMAP or HTTP"

The window below will open - fill in the blanks.


HINT: The password is whatever you use to log in to access that specific email account.

6. Click "Manually configure server settings ..."
7. Click "Next"

The window below will open ...


8. Fill in your name and email address for the account you want to pull into Outlook
9. Under "Server Info" type in the incoming and outgoing servers - email me if you need these
10. At "Login Information" fill in your login and password for the account you are setting up.
11. Click "Next"

The system will check your settings and let you know if you are set up correctly. If you have any trouble, please email me for more information. I can also email you instructions for previous versions of Outlook.

You can pull your Hearthside email, personal email (even Diamond email) into Outlook using the instructions above.

Have a good one :)

Two More - StumbleUpon & MyLiveSignature

Bad Blogger - skipped a day in my week of favorites! I will make up for it today by posting two of my favs - StumbleUpon and MyLiveSignature. StumbleUpon is in my top 5 best sites of all time, so you are really getting an SAH gem here :)

Feel like you've seen it all? StumbleUpon is a great way to find new and interesting sites on the web. Sign up, check off your "interests" and start stumbling through websites. I have found some of the best websites this way. Rate the sites with a thumbs up or thumbs down and even review the sites you love. Connect with other people that share the same interests as you and add them as friends, or add your existing friends via email/contact lists/etc. Some fun examples of what I have found through StumbleUpon ...

Our Story - http://www.ourstory.com/register/stumbleupon.html

Cheesecake - http://www.slashfood.com/2006/03/13/tie-dyed-red-velvet-cheesecake-recipe

Flash Earth - http://www.flashearth.com/

Useful Prints - http://www.friedbeef.com/2007/08/04/useful-items-you-never-knew-you-could-print-out-the-ultimate-guide/

And the real estate sites! Tons of them - see for yourself at www.StumbleUpon.com.

My second fav for today is ... wait for it ... MyLiveSignature! This is a fun little site where you can create your online signature. Creation can be done in three ways - by scanning your original signature, by drawing your signature on your screen, or by building your signature. Skip option #2 unless you have laptop with a writable screen. Creating your signature only takes a few moments - once you are done, click to "download" your signature and then at the next screen, right-click and save it! Once the sig is saved, you can insert it anywhere. SO FUN.

Have a great day!

a week of favs ... LinkedIn.com

Let's make this a week of sharing our favorites ...

Tuesday's favorite is - www.LinkedIn.com - my fav social networking site for business. LinkedIn grew something like 300% last year - INSANE. LinkedIn allows you to upload basic info about yourself, your current and past positions, school information, clubs, activities and more and displays this information in a sort of a resume format that becomes your profile.

Once you establish your profile, you can start connecting to people you know - co-workers, classmates, friends, family, etc. Making the connections is easy, you can simply enter a persons email address and ask them to connect or connect by company, school or even your web mail accounts or by uploading an Outlook file.

When you are connected with someone, their connections become your secondary connections and your network spiders out from there.

My cousin was the first person to really introduce me to LinkedIn, probably 2 years ago or so ... at first, nothing happened, I made a few connections and then my profile just sat there. In the last 6 months or so, my connections have increased dramatically. With virtually a few minutes of work, I have connected with 75 people - these are past and current colleagues, schoolmates, friends and family. Can you say referral?!

Social Networking through LinkedIn allows you to stay in front of people that you are connected with - a constant reminder that you are working in Real Estate and that you are always just a click away. Be sure to add links to your website whenever and wherever you are social networking. Google my name and my LinkedIn profile will pop up just under my personal website.

Get yourself out there - LinkedIn is a great way to take the plunge into social networking!!! Go to www.LinkedIn.com and click SIGN UP today!

Killer Start-Ups

What a day! Moved into Willow Grove today ... it took longer than I planned as I had to take apart and reassemble some desks. To be truthful, I called my Dad, who lives nearby and he did most of the parts that required tools and much of the heavy lifting. Still, it was close to 7 hours before I was somewhat organized in my own little anal world over there. But now I am moved in! I have a phone - it's not the correct extension and I cannot pick up incoming calls from the line, but I have a phone! Life is good.

Today I thought I would talk about one of my fav websites - KillerStartUps.com. This is my go-to site for all things NEW and FUN in my Internet/work/personal world. I usually check Killer every other day or so, to see what's new and notable. I have found some of my favorite and most frequently used sites there. Today, they are featuring ... just to name a few:

DivVoted.com - an app that allows you to tag your favorite sites within your Twitter account
MissedConnected.com - a site devoted to those missed connections
EMWomen.com - empowering women to change the world in small groups

This is a great site to use to keep up with the latest and greatest start-up ideas. Check out the Killer Categories on the right side menu if you are looking for a something specific.

Have a great night! - SH

Publisher - Friend or Foe?

As someone who likes to go around Microsoft as often as possible, today I find myself once again fighting with Microsoft Publisher. Often I feel limited by my choices within Publisher - the templates, the layouts, etc. I usually end up trolling the net for hours looking for layout ideas, or even better - free templates. Microsoft Office online has free templates that you can download, as does HP, but the best are usually found on some obscure site that I found through Google. I also use Animation Factory - more for their templates and jpgs than the actual animation.

I find the easiest way to create anything in Publisher is to start with a blank page and build out from there. If you are not familiar with Publisher, use the templates to start, you will see what I mean in 6 months or so when you are trolling Google for layout ideas ... If you are not comfortable starting on a blank page, you can always use a template and delete out any layered in objects before creating your project.

One very cool thing about HP - they have loads of FREE online courses. Even courses on Real Estate - of course, they are trying to sell you software, but hey - FREE STUFF. Click here to check out some of what they offer ...

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!!!

Important News - Are You Aware?

I want to direct everyone to Chris's post on The Hearthside Herald blog today ... http://hearthsideherald.blogspot.com/2008/07/coldwell-banker-to-start-sharing.html

I'm not sure how he managed to explain this so well at 6:15am this morning, but he really was able to break the information down in a meaningful way.

Please stay informed - this is important news for us and a GREAT reason to be "happily Hearthside".

-SH

Add a Photo to Your Hearthside Email Signature

Good Morning! You can now add HTML and pictures to your Hearthside email signature ...

> Login to your email
> Click on Settings
> Click on Composing Email
> Click on Signatures

> Name your signature

> Enter your new signature information

> To add a hyperlink, click on the hyperlink icon (world w/chain)

> To add a photo, click on the photo icon (mountain w/sun)

> Click okay

Any signatures you have created will appear in the box above ...

> Click "set as default" to select your default sig

> Select when you would like to use ... composing, replying and forwarding

> Select the placement - above or below the message body

> Click SAVE!!!

Have a GREAT day!

IBC

Consider attending the 2009 Coldwell Banker International Business Conference in San Antonio, Texas! The conference always includes tons of great education programs - come early for continuing education and/or designation classes. This is an excellent opportunity to network with other sales associates, managers and Coldwell Banker corporate folks. CB always provides night activities and events - an opening night celebration, awards banquets for each region and a final night party. So fill your days with education and your nights with fun networking events!

Want more info - cbworks.coldwellbanker.com and click on the IBC 2009 link on the homepage!