September 2006

BREAKING: BACH JOINS KELLER WILLIAMS REALTY

I’m proud to announce that as of this past week I’ve joined the Keller Williams Family. The decision was a no-brainer: Keller Williams offers a completely different business model than a traditional brokerage house, and it is one that is focused on helping Realtors provide world class service to their clients, rather than the broker-centric ’sales’ mentality found at the older brokerages.

WI4C2TS
Our Belief System In Action…

Win-Win. . . Or no deal
Integrity. . . Do the right thing
Commitment. . . In all things
Communication. . . Seek first to understand
Creativity. . . Ideas before results
Customers. . . Always come first
Teamwork. . . Together Everyone Achieves More
Trust. . . Starts with honesty
Success. . . Results through people

Keller Williams Golden Triangle Realty Inc., the market centre in Kitchener Waterloo currently has 78 agents (with more added every day), which makes us the second largest independent brokerage in the area; not bad for 10 months in business, eh?

Since Keller Williams is a profit sharing company, everyone in the company has a financial interest in your success. As you would expect, education, mentoring, and coaching are all big parts of the office. It’s an exciting place to build a business.

CORPORATE SNAPSHOT

Year Franchised: 1991

Open Offices: 591

Active Agents: 70444

Profit Share to date: $148,714,708.07

Profit Share previous month: $5,611,136.69

Avg. Annual Agent Growth: 49% gain

 

Here is the email that was sent out to the firm when I joined:

Subject: Benjamin Bach

I am pleased to announce that Benjamin Bach has joined the Keller Williams Team. Benjamin was most recently associated with RL Wolle. Benjamin [studied] Political Science and History [at U of T]. During his academic career he co-oped with Meryl Lynch where he wrote and developed a data base/lead generation system which enhanced productivity with users dramatically. Benjamin has a script partner with Karen Cayer of our Ottawa Keller Williams and her input as to our resources, systems and business plans was a major factor in Benjamin coming in to talk to us. Benjamin is learning based and focused on pre-determined goals which he feels confident will be met utilizing the Keller Williams approach. Benjamin is a multi talented individual and will bring a lot to our collective table. Please join me in welcoming Benjamin at benjamin@benjaminbach.com

It took a few days for RECO to sort out my licence, but now I’m up and running, and after the Yom Kippur holiday (tomorrow night and Monday), I’ll be hitting the ground leading .

Benjamin Bach is a Real Estate Investment Consultant with Keller Williams Golden Triangle Realty in Kitchener Waterloo dedicated to building wealth for his clients through smart Real Estate investments, and helping people achieve success. If you are interested in how you can start your Real Estate portfolio, or have any questions and buying or selling a home, you can email Benjamin or reach him through his office at 519 570 4447.

The Card Effect

I send out thank you notes. I have ever since my mother sat me down after my bar mitzvah and explained what a kerfufle it would be if I didn’t send cards to all of our family and friends who gave me presents.

This habit has served me well in business, and I’ve come to discover what I call the Card Effect. The card I send out now has been adapted from Bob Burg’s (www.burg.com) classic card template found in Endless Referrals, and features a picture of me, my company’s logo, and my Enduring Purpose (found on the left sidebar of this site). I write in the right hand half with a fountain pen, and send it off in a plain white envelope, hand addressed of course.

I can attribute several business relationships, and one or two referrals, directly to the cards I send out. After I meet someone for the first time, I’ll send them a note explaining how nice it was to meet them, and letting them know that they can always look to me for help and whatnot. I then try to send a card every few months, and after each time I see them. Including a relevant article or something useful is an added bonus.

This afternoon was a prime example of the card effect in action. I had the pleasure of hearing Angela Mondou speak (more on her in a later post tonight) at the Launchpad 50K Kick Off party. I ran into several people I knew, including one venture capitalist who I had met a few months back at a chamber of commerce event. We met again last week at a breakfast talk, and later that morning I sent him a card saying I wish we could have spoken more. Well, what do you know, he came up to me this afternoon, apologized for not spending more time with me last week, and said ‘it would seem unlikely that we won’t be doing business in the future.’ He thanked me for the nice note I sent him. Boom.

The reason the Card Effect works so well is because no one takes the time to write a note anymore. We get so many emails and text messages (which by the way is my most common form of communication), that when someone takes the time to hand write a note, we really appreciate it.

Last week I ran into someone I met six months ago at a Chamber event (my new member orientation actually), and haven’t seen since. I went to shake my hand, and introduced myself again since I wasn’t sure if he’d remember my name. Of course, he did “Ben, of course I remember you. Your card is sitting on my desk!”

Benjamin Bach is an Investment Real Estate Consultant with Keller Williams Golden Triangle Realty in Kitchener Waterloo dedicated to building wealth for his clients through smart Real Estate investments, and helping people achieve success. If you are interested in how you can start your Real Estate portfolio, or have any questions and buying or selling a home, you can email Benjamin or reach him through his office at 519 570 4447. 

Invest and Grow Rich

This post has been ‘bumped’ to stay at the top of the page, please scroll down for updates.
**UPDATE** The Educational Evening will be taking place in room 2A502 at Conestoga College. For detailed directions and parking information, email me at benjamin AT benjaminbach DOT com
If you live in the Greater Kitchener Waterloo Area, I invite you to come out to the first of my many educational extravaganzas, Invest and Grow Rich, Wednesday September 27th, 2006 7:00-9:00PM. I’m putting the event on (with much help) at the Kitchener campus of Conestoga College (299 Doon Valley Rd).

I’m really excited for this event. This will be my first opportunity to educate a large crowd on how they can build their wealth through real estate investments, and the group of professionals I’ve brought together to educate the crowd is top notch as well. I’ll be posting detailed bio’s of all of them in the coming days.

This week, you can also expect to see a series of articles on how to build your wealth in real estate. Please be liberal with your comments – I love input from my readers.

Check out my other blog, Attracting Success

For those who don’t know, KWMarketWatch isn’t the only blog I maintain.  Take a look at Attracting Success, which isn’t updated as often as this blog, which tracks my path of personal development.

Benjamin Bach is a Real Estate Consultant with Keller Williams Golden Triangle Realty in Kitchener Waterloo dedicated to building wealth for his clients through smart Real Estate investments, and helping people achieve success. If you are interested in how you can start your Real Estate portfolio, or have any questions and buying or selling a home, you can email Benjamin (benjamin AT benjaminbach.com) or reach him at 519 772 4376.

Subscribe to Benjamin Bach’s KW Market Watch by Email

That Name Tag Guy Big up’s Young Wealth Weekly

Scott Ginsberg, that name tag guy and blogger extraordinaire, took some time to big up Young Wealth Weekly, an online publication I write for.

I was recently interviewed by a very cool new website, Youth Wealth Weekly [sic].

[It] offers young entrepreneurs free newsletters filled with fascinating stories, helpful tips, private interviews, inspirational quotes, book reviews, and more.

If you’ve never checked out Young Wealth Weekly, go there now and sign up for the free newsletter. It’s filled with tons of great content every week.

Thanks Scott!

**

Let me ask you this? Who have you big up’d today?

What’s Your Type?

It’s important to understand how you think and operate.  In this spirit, I just took Bill Wagner’s Entrepreneur Personality Test (found here), and I learnt that I’m a Motivator.  What does this mean?

You’re a Motivator: You have a high level of sociability, an above-average level of dominance, and are both driven and independent. This gives you the ability to work well under pressure and in autonomous situations. It also means that you will be a great consensus builder, a good collaborator and a driver of change. Just like the name suggests, you are the consummate motivator who does well working by, with and through others.

The Motivator’s Business Strengths: Retail can be your game–or any environment where people are a large part of the equation. You do well in almost any business that involves people, as long as it’s a somewhat non-confrontational environment. You can be convincing and avoid most confrontation by creating a strong emotional argument. Motivators do well in the toughest of customer service roles, as you are able to see both sides of the argument. You tend to deal with even the most negative arguments by using the three F’s–feel, felt and found–saying, “I understand how you are feeling. In fact, I have felt the same way, but when I learned (insert your point), what I found was (again, insert your point).”

Motivators excel at leadership or sales. You do well in business with partners, or in a business that involves others. Motivators are good at nurturing relationships and often do best in a business that involves keeping clients for the long term. You thrive in a team environment.

Sounds about right.

(hat tip: Success Begins Today, who is also a Motivator)

Lo Fi PDA

Chris Brogan, over at Lifehack, is asking whether people are making the move from hi-tech organizational devices (blackberry’s, PDAs, tablets) to lo-tech (paper, pen, clip/elastic band).

A few months ago I retired my Dell Axim X3 from its position as my primary schedule/dayplanner. I never remembered to recharge it, it was one more thing I had to carry around in addition to a wallet, keys and phone, if I remembered to bring it.

I decided to give the DIY Planner a try, and I’ve been very pleased with it. I now organize my life on a series of 3×5″ index cards, held together with a binder clip. Ingenious!

Lois Raats, a local business owner and Leadership Coach, just blog’d about my system:

I’m sitting in the Northfield Williams Coffee Pub in Waterloo with Benjamin Bach the other day, and he pulls out this little stack of recipe cards held together with a binder clip. Now, you need to know that Ben is an extremely bright and tech-savvy guy – so I’m instantly intrigued by what is obviously some kind of very low-tech self-management system.

To my inquiring glance Ben announces, “I need systems I can’t screw up”.

I thought that was a pretty profound statement, and in fact would be a helpful mantra for the business world in general.

Ben goes on to describe how he’s used Blackberries, notebooks, etc., and found there was always something that made the arrangement break down. Owning an HP IPAQ that sits in my purse much of the time, and which hasn’t yet leaped out to update/recharge itself while I slept, I could really relate.

So here’s what he’s got on the individual cards: his goals for the week, his immediate to-do list, his want-to-read list, and so on. He’s chosen to include everything that’s necessary for strategic decision-making throughout the day – and nothing else. Nothing to distract him from fulfilling his life purpose each and every moment of the day.

I thought that was pretty cool.

You can check out Lois’s brand new blog here.

How to Super Charge your Relationship Building in Business

Everyone knows that building relationships (or ‘networking’) is the key a successful life. Even outside of the business world, who you know is usually more important than what you know.

If you want to kick your relationship building skills into the next level, you must master one skill: effective follow up.

Josiah Mackenzie, over at the YoungEntrepreneur.com blog, has some great thoughts about that here:

Perhaps the most neglected component of business networking is followup. It’s literally the only way to develop long-term relationships through networking — you must follow up with new people you meet.

Immediate Followup
Soon after meeting someone, send them a short email, or better yet, a handwritten note. Express your appreciation for meeting them, and refer back to a topic you discussed during your conversation. Double the communication method — and effectiveness — by calling them the next morning. Your goal is to cement yourself in their memory. You’ve only met them once, remember.

Continual Pinging
“Pinging” is a blogging term that means to notify a script every time you update your blog. When transferred to the world of business networking, it means to stay in touch with your contacts consistently: month after month, year after year.

This is your opportunity to add value to your contact. Send him information beneficial to his business. Send her contact information for people you know she would enjoy meeting. Make yourself so valuable to people that they can’t afford to forget you.

By not keeping yourself before people, you risk the chance of them forgetting about you. Make sure to followup, both immediately and continually, to build lasting relationships.

Do People Still Read Books?

In the past two days, I’ve had lunch with two very smart businesswomen. One is a leadership coach with her own business, and the other is a 24 year old entrepreneur and business owner who is definitely going places. Smart people; sharp business minds.

Over the course of two lunches, I asked both of them what they were reading. To my surprise, they both told me that they didn’t read, at least not books.

By the end of our lunch, I had given them the names of at least two books they needed to read this month, and I showed both of them the list of books I want to read (which includes The 360 Leader, Getting Things Done, The little black book of connections, How to be That Guy, Love is the Killer App, Re-Imagine, Speak and Grow Rich, Better than Good, 10 Ways to Make It Great, Essential Drucker, Good to Great, Magic of Thinking Big, How to read a book).

If nothing else, I hope they understand how much reading will impact their financial bottom line, let alone the improvement to their quality of life.

Be Excellent has an excellent post (ironic, eh?) up on this topic:

A recent book seller survey of American business people indicates that the average respondant reads .7 business books every three years! In sharp contrast, respondants that are executives at Fortune 1000 companies read 6.7 books per year.

Readers are leaders. Why?

Because most business books reflect current business trends and the everchanging leadership landscape. If you keep reading, long after you finish college, you remain a student.

As I always say, if you want what the successful people have, do what the successful people do. It’s that easy.

If you’re looking for a great book to read, check out Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi, or Endless Referrals by Bob Burg. They’re both terrific business books which will help you make the last third of 2006 your best yet!

HELLO my name is INTERVIEW

Today I am joined by Scott Ginsberg, better known as “The Nametag Guy.” Scott is an author of three books, professional speaker, and the only person in the world who wears a nametag 24-7. His blog is a daily read of mine. Check it out at www.hellomynameisscott.com.

Benjamin: How did you make the transition from ‘a dude who wears a name tag’ to a successful speaking and writing business?

Scott: When I started wearing a nametag 24-7 in college, I kept a journal of observations, stories and responses; It seemed like it would make a cool book. Since I always wanted to be an author, I decided to write it. I asked some other authors how to self-publish, did some research and put the book out when I graduated. When my website and book got picked up by the media, people started asking me to give speeches. Since I’d always excelled at speaking, it felt like a good fit. I did more research on the speaking industry, hooked up with some amazing mentors, did a LOT of research and speaking for free, and eventually was able to sustain myself on authorship/speaking. Hey, it only took 3 years to make money!

B: How did you become unforgettable?

S: Well, there’s this pill I take called…just kidding! I’d say by learning how to be UNIQUE, not DIFFERENT. In other words, how not to just stand out, but to be the ONLY ONE.

B: How have you incorporated ‘Web 2.0′ applications into your self promotion?

S: Gosh, what haven’t I used! I have two blogs I update regularly. I also podcast, use online social networking like MySpace, Flickr and Squidoo, and also use widgets on my website to talk to people live. Basically, everything Web 2.0 offers, I use. And it’s great. It builds community, enables me to live and breathe the brand, stay in front of fans, market myself daily and drive traffic. 100% of my business is WOM (word of mouth), I’ve never made a cold call in my life and I don’t (nor will ever) spend a dime on advertising. KEY LESSON: If you are remarkable, they’ll find YOU.

B: What obstacles or advantages does your young age present when becoming established as a speaker and writer?

S: My GOSH it sucked. Still does. Who the heck is going to listen to a 26 year old kid give a speech, right? But I have learned something called “Disarming Audience Preoccupation,” in which you address the obvious barrier first and explain why it’s not an issue. For example, I open my speeches with a quote from Indiana Jones by saying, “It’s not the years, it’s the mileage.” Also, I just go out there and be myself and try to give value, and usually people forget how young I am. After all, few 26 year olds have written three books and speak internationally. That’s gotta count for something! If all else fails, I just show people the picture of me in Ripley’s Believe it or Not. That always helps However, being young is also a great advantage insofar as offering a new, fresh, untainted-by-corporate-world perspective. Which people LOVE.

B: Is it tough to be a professional speaker when most of your peers are 40 years older than you?

S: Yes. It’s tough because people won’t take you seriously, but it’s glorious at the same time because it enables you to be a sleeper. They don’t see ya coming!

B: How should I go about writing a book?

S: Very carefully. No, just kidding. I’d go buy Dan Poynter’s book “The Self Publishing Manual.” He’s the best in the biz, and he can help you more than I could. It’s my bible, other than The Bible.

B: How did you start receiving media coverage?

S: Dude, I have no idea. I met the right person at the right time who passed my info to a reporter which started a colossal snowball effect which got me on every radio, TV and print outlet in the country. I wouldn’t call it luck, because if my idea wasn’t remarkable they wouldn’t have interviewed me. I’ve never “pitched” a media outlet before. I think the key is: get them to call you. Be amazing and unforgettable and remarkable and unique and cool and they will find you. Oh, and it helps to be funny. And if possible, smart. I’m still working on that last one

B: How can our readers achieve success as a young entrepreneur?

Huge question. I actually have a book called “Make a Name for Yourself” coming out next year about that exact idea. So let me give you some ideas from the closing chapter that will help. They’re alphabetical. This is good stuff here. Enjoy…

Action develops courage.
Ask, “What’s next?”
Ask, “Why me?”
Assault the minute.
Attract through attitude.
Authenticity, not charisma.
Avoid the always.
Be a sleeper.
Be completely original.
Be one eyed.
Be regularly silly.
Become your beliefs.
Cherish uncertain ground.
Confidence is king.
Consider nothing useless.
Create the fist.
Don’t overeducate audiences.
Do something cool.
Earn inner applause.
Fans, not customers.
Feed your brain.
Friendly always wins.
Get a glory.
Give value first.
Give yourself away.
Go somewhere alone.
Have big ears.
Imagination is everything.
Interaction, not interruption.
Just do something.
Let it go.
Life leaves clues.
Market yourself daily.
Medium is message.
Mundane into memorable.
Never be bored.
Nurture your nature.
Opportunity knocks constantly.
Own a word.
Plant impossible gardens.
Prepare for serendipity.
Respect people’s nos.
Respect your hunches.
Say affirmations daily.
Schmoozing is stupid.
Self talk works.
Small victories first.
Success isn’t perfection.
Take massive action.
Take more pictures.
Think grandiose thoughts.
Travel without plans.
Unique, not different.
Verbs, not nouns.
We’re all marketers.
We’re all salesmen.
Write everything down.
You’re always marketing.

B: What advice would you like to leave with our readers?

S: Start reading three books a week for the next five years. That’s what I do. Reading makes you smart.

Scott Ginsberg is an author of three books, professional speaker, and the only person in the world who wears a nametag 24-7 to make people friendlier!
He speaks to businesses and organizations around the world about being approachable, becoming unforgettable and making a name for yourself.
Scott has also been…

1. Featured in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and COSMOPOLITAN as “The Authority on Approachability…”

2. AND…has recently been inducted into Ripley’s Believe it Or Not!

Scott lives in St. Louis where he often talks to strangers.

Check out www.hellomynameisscott.com for books, videos and newsletters on how to maximize approachability, become unforgettable and make a name for yourself!

 

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