REBCDC, or How I Conquered My Anthropohobia

Anthropophobia – Fear of people

OK, maybe I’m not as extreme as all that, but I do prefer one-on-one communication with people versus having to address and participate in crowds.  Kinda odd for theater major and Air Force brat, eh?

I haven’t been to an event where I technically didn’t know anyone in quite a while, but the enticing lure of meeting a whole bunch of geeks much like myself was more than enough to allay any fears I had.  What is this luscious lure you ask?  The super awesome Real Estate BarCamp DC [REBCDC] held in Herndon, VA.

Well, that’s almost a lie.

The night before this super awesome Real Estate BarCamp DC, I met up with several fellow real estate “Tweeters/Facebookers/bloggers” at Jackson’s in Reston for the aptly named Beer for Bloggers event. I first spotted fellow REBar participants by their unnatural usage of and reliance on smartphones and various recording devices. If you can picture an electronic version of “Marco Polo” then you’d be pretty close to that night’s reality. I was able to meet and socialize with fellow real estate agents from the area, as well as mortgage brokers and technology masterminds who have been successfully using social media to not only reach their clients, but to help those clients get up-to-date, reliable information quickly.

Anxious to see them again, I went home to rest up for an early morning.

My early morning camp setup – coffee was a MUST:

REBar Camp DC is an “unconference,” meaning everyone gets together and collectively decides not only what will be taught but who will teach it. Then, you can choose which session you want to go to, or drift between sessions if that’s what you desire.

(Aside: I think this is the wave of the future for how all conferences should be taught, including “traditional” real estate classes, and I think real estate brokerages & other business people should take notice.)

On to the sessions…

The first session I attended was called “Trust Agents”

and taught by The Real Estate Zebra, Daniel Rothamel.

Daniel was wearing his famous coat-of-many-colors (you have to see it to understand) but his content eclipsed his wardrobe. He gave us all some great ideas on how to improve our blogging experience, and make it more engaging for you, the reader. Probably the best thing about it was this equation

Credibility x Reliability x Intimacy/Self-Orientation = Trust

Basically: Your credibility, coupled with your reliability and your ability to have a connection people, divided by your own selfishness (so, the negative value) leads to your overall trust factor.

This may be easy math for a lot of people, but was a great reminder for me and anyone in our daily dealings with people, socially and professionally.

Second session was with Maya Paveza, aka MayaREGuru.  Maya is one of the founders of TwitterQueens, and spoke about “Finding Your Social Media Voice.”   Maya’s first advice is something I’m still mulling over: “Treat social media like a business – have a mission statement and a purpose so you always ’stay on target.’”  With so many avenues of social media opening up to us every second, it’s difficult to keep up and stay relevant without sacrificing time better spent on clients and family.    Another gem of hers that anyone who’s online should remember is, “If you dropped dead tomorrow, what would you like people to say about you.”  Today’s Tweets are indexed by Bing and Google.  Tagged pictures are everywhere.  Our blog posts & comments are searchable for years ~ I think I even have some old GeoCities stuff floating around somewhere!  Know what’s being said about you, but also pay attention to what you’re saying.  There were several other takeaways, but those stuck with me the most and beg to be shared. Maya’s session was the perfect segue to the next round.

The final session I was able to attend (I had to leave halfway through the day, but thankfully after lunch) was led by Sarah Stelmok. She addressed how to stay legal on social media sites. With my law background, this was especially appealing to me, as I know the morass of the Internet can sometimes obfuscate legal truths, leading to nasty ramifications. (Hey, I have to use law school words sometimes. So sue me. Actually, please don’t.) I realized I’m participating in some online no-nos, which I’m currently changing, and made me more conscious overall of my online presence. One of the best pieces of advice in the session came from Mr. Zebra himself:  If/when you screw up, Acknowledge Apologize Act.  Another important life lesson.

I wish I’d been able to stay for the rest of the sessions, as even via Twitter I could see that some great knowledge was being exchanged (and some great real estate horror stories were being told).

Overall, I met some great new friends and met some of the great brains of the “new” real estate movement.  I can’t wait to learn more from them all, and use it to become a better Realtor and a better person.

(A very special thank you to Ainsley McDougal of NVAR for organizing this event and successfully “herding all the wet cats” [managing Realtors].”)