West Seattle Jonathan » Blogging

Lost in the world of arcade fantasy

jonathan — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 22:06:08 +0000

I was bitten by the blogging bug about 4 months ago and started off with a roar. I have a Real Estate blog and this, more personal, blog. My focus has been pulled in too many directions lately and this has led to my “need” for mindless distraction.

We don’t have a TV, but watch a little streaming video from abc, nbc,and fox. Ok so what we really have is a laptop that plays like a TV with less commercials. I have been lost lately in the Kongregate; mindless games that absorb my life without giving much back. I want to have my time filled with activities that give back. So here I am confessing and doing it publicly, kind of, not many readers here. I will devote more time to blogging, less time on Kongregate.

Before I spent most of my writing energy on G2SRE and less here. I would like to divide my time up more evenly. With only 5 months left till we bring our first child into the world I want to have the habits of personal blogging ingrained. I am so envious of the posts with beautiful pictures I see of my friends children, their lives filled with joy.

Jenn and I are so happy to have had God open our eyes to him and led us to each other. We just got back from Ocean Shores for our 2nd anniversary. We had a blast. We played Safari in the sand dunes. Here is Jenn, laughing harder than ever, pretending to be a lion crawling through the grass.

I spent a little time reflecting on our last two years of marriage and what my life was like before. I had always known that I would marry, someday. But at the pace that I was going it would have been two weeks after never. I was absorbed in filling my life with selfish joys. Hiking, Climbing, Cycling, Ambition, Drive, Perfectionism, Self Esteem, these can all be great things, but it was all I pursued. Without family what lasting value can those pursuits have.

Meeting Jesus has changed me and how I look at life in so many ways. I still do all of the things I used to, moderately, but with “right motives.” My ultimate focus is more towards God, Family, and Community instead of Me, Me, and some Community. Every time I take a non-Christian to Mars Hill and Mark preaches Jesus, Marriage, and Babies, I smile deep inside. Praying for their blinders to be lifted and the light to shine in.

RSS Feed Reader

jonathan — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 22:20:12 +0000

So how many blogs do you read? I currently read about 25+ regularly. Most are real estate oriented others are Seattle specific and a few just for fun. But using the Internet Explorer RSS reader was driving me crazy. It just took too long to go through all of the posts and decide which conversations to join. I did a little research and exploring the notion of using a RSS Feed Reader. I decided on Google Reader. Mainly because of its ease of use and my ability to read through the daily’s quickly. Do you use an RSS Feed Reader, if so which one?

STRATEGIC VISION: How and Why!

jonathan — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 02:11:22 +0000

Last night I attended a small presentation by Paul Brainerd at the University of Washington, Bothell Campus. I was very impressed. Paul talked about his foundation, The Brainerd Foundation, and most importantly how they go about allocating the 2-3 million in grants they give out each year. The Brainerd Foundation specializes in place based conservation. Place based means they find a place, geographic, that is environmentally important and viable for change and try to develop the “sustainability” of the community in that place.Sustainability, what is it? Well it is really a pretty broad term encompassing socio-economic-politico-cultural community. Everything is so connected. No community is an island. Paul spent considerable time describing the research they do to find an area that is both important and viable. Once they find this place they invest money in other non-profit organizations that work to institute change in the community. They aren’t throwing money at communities that aren’t willing to change. Rather, they are finding communities that are on the brink of change and helping to move them in the right direction. You can learn more about Paul and what they do on his website. What I really got out of it was the concept of a Strategic Communication Plan; the outcome of the research and how they go about implementing their vision. I am going to walk through this process and then insert examples of how, in my own business as a Seattle real estate agent, this applies. First they created their vision of helping to create sustainable communities through grants to non-profits. My vision is to create a sustainable business in Real Estate that is education based and helps first time buyers into a home. By building my business on education and being 100% client centered, it will be based on positive relationships and eventually self supporting through referrals from satisfied clients. They researched the possible geographic areas for environmental, social, economic, political, and even media presence and form. I have researched the Seattle real estate market for education, marketing, client, market share, and interest. Finding a definite need for a client centered specialist that works with first time buyers and second time move ups. Understanding that they only have 2-3 million dollars to allocate to specific non-profits they search for the greatest impact from their investment. What a business would think of as Return on Investment or ROI. Understanding that the scarcest resource that I have at my disposal is time; have to find where to most effectively spend my efforts toward building relationship and providing education and consultation. My business is built on First Time Home Buying Seminars and other Financial Planning Seminars in addition to many other educational programs I am involved in, like my blog www.GuideToSeattleRealEstate.com. Once they have found a target for their place based conservation, they spend their resources on non-profits that can affect change. I asked him how they best affected change in a community and shockingly enough is was by building relationship. If the right 5-6% of the population is influenced, then the rest will generally follow. People that seek out education before making important decisions are also typically the same people that others turn to for advice and direction. So by spending my efforts building relationship with the right 5-6%, others will follow and create a business that is itself sustainable. Of course once they have spent their money they check back and attempt to measure the results. Typically 2-3 years later. They maintain a 15-20% failure rate, if they are not pushing the envelope enough then they are not effectively leveraging their funds. Just like playing the stock market. The larger the risk the greater the possible return. As I have been developing my business model and forming my strategic vision I have accepted a much higher risk level. I think that as an entrepreneur the risk level must be more along the lines of 60-80%. If I am not totally pushing the limits, I am not learning and I will not have the chance for the return that I am looking for. By risk I mean the ROI on the time I spend on specific task, not how I work with clients once I establish that relationship. I have many books that have vocabulary sections that have phrases in them like “Strategic Communication Plan” and many others, but when I hear about the correct implementation and how these terms are used I really begin to understand what they mean and how to effectively use them in my business. Without great examples like these, they are just vocabulary words and have little impact on my business.The Guide to Seattle Real Estate