I’ll be a judge in the first-ever My Tech Opinion video contest. . .
August 6, 2008 | 1 Comment
The folks over at My Tech Opinion have cooked up quite an interesting contest. They are asking for video submissions from folks that answer the following simple question: What technology product or service has made the biggest impact on your business, and why?
All you have to do is make the most interesting and creative video you can that answers that question, and then send them the link by August 31, 2008. They’ll compile all the videos, and pick a winner.
How will they pick a winner? With judges, of course!
I get to be one of the judges, along with Lani Anglin-Rosales, Mike Price, and Jeff Turner
It should be a lot of fun, and the prizes are pretty darn cool, so check out My Tech Opinion for all the details, and get working on those videos!
RE Barcamp and Beer With Bloggers were a blast!
August 1, 2008 | 7 Comments
Wow.
I got home from Inman Connect SF 2008 on Saturday (finally), and between all the pictures I took, and getting caught up on work, I am just getting around to posting about my experience. It was awesome.
The whole thing began on Tuesday with RE Barcamp and Beer With Bloggers. RE Barcamp was a very interesting experience, since it was a completely ad-hoc gathering of industry folks to talk about everything from blogging to photography. The topcis were diverse, the discussion was lively, and a good time was had by all. Brad Coy, who was one of the chief organizers of the event, got my thoughts in an interview just after everything wrapped up for the day:
One of the things that I took particular joy in doing was sharing with everyone the RE Barcamp Surprise. I worked together with Grant and Gia from RealSeekr.com to put together super hero trading cards for folks who were able to get their information to us. It was short notice, but we had about 75 people participate. Here are the cards just before they were handed out:
Handing them out was a lot of fun, and people even traded them amongst each other. They were quite a hit, and Nick Bastian shared his collection with everyone:
Bill Wendel was there and caught some of my presentation on video:
The whole thing was a very memorable experience, and I can’t wait to see everyone again in NYC. In order to save all those memories, I took as many pictures as I could (I actually took a lot more, but user error resulted in some blurry photos). You can view the entire set on my Flickr page.
The experience also resulted in a lot of very interesting and enlightening conversations and ideas. You can bet that RE Barcamp and Beer With Bloggers is the inspiration for many posts to come. . .
The Zebra has landed
July 21, 2008 | 7 Comments
Today, I arrived in San Francisco for RE Barcamp and Inman Connect SF 2008. This is the first time I have ever been to San Francisco. The first thing that I discovered is that it is much colder than I expected, or dressed for. Oops.
I’ll be here all week. If you are going to be around for Connect SF ‘08, here are some tips to help make your experience a good one.
And here is a video I made while my flight was landing. Really, it was just a way for me to test out our new point & shoot digital camera: the Panasonic Lumix TZ5. It shoots HD video. I also took some still pics.
The video is 4 minutes, and it isn’t exactly riveting, but I think the commentary is pretty decent 
Wanna see what it’s like to live with the Zebra?
July 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Well, then check out this article in the local C-Ville weekly.
It was a lot of fun to be interviewed, but it couldn’t have happened without the help of our wonderful designer, Andrea Phillips. She receives well-deserved mention in the article, but what it doesn’t say is that she was able to pull together a design for our house in less than a week.
How it started
Phone rings. . . voice answers:
“Hello, this is Erika.”
“Hi Erika, this is Daniel Rothamel, you called me about featuring me in your “A Room of Their Own” series.”
“Oh, hi Daniel, thanks for getting back to me.”
“No problem. I listened to your voice mail, and the first thing I thought of was my car. I mean really, my car is the place I relate to the most. See, my wife and I recently moved into our house, and we really haven’t gotten around to decorating all that much. It’s kinda spartan.”
“Hmmm. . .that’s a little far afield for this type of story. I’m sure we can do something on your house. It doesn’t have to be extravagant.”
“Well, I guess I could figure something out, when do you want to do the interview?”
“How about next Wednesday?”
“WEDNESDAY! Today is Thursday.”
“I know, but we had someone else cancel.”
Moment of terror. Then an instinctual response.
“Sure, I guess that will work. Come on over.”
As soon as I hung up the phone, Kari and I looked at each other and said, “oh, crap. We are going to need some help.”
Luckily, Help Came Fast
Kari called Andrea next. Andrea lives in our neighborhood, and we had already talked with her about helping us out with our interior decorating. In fact, we had talked with her weeks before the interview, but we hadn’t really committed the way that we should have. We desperately wanted to have a home that reflected our style, but we just couldn’t find the time to make it happen. We work so much that we need our home to be a sanctuary, we just needed some help getting there. This interview provided the perfect occasion and motivation to get it done.
That is where Andrea came it. Kari and I are very good at helping people buy and sell homes, not so good at decorating them. For Andrea, however, It is something that she loves doing, and had done before for friends and family. We love her and her sister Laura, who is our fabulous real estate assistant). We also know a dynamic duo when we see one ;-). Andrea told us that she and Laura could get it done, so we told her to go for it, and that she had less than a week.
“No problem.” she said.
Boy, was she ever right. She met with us and asked us what type of style we were looking for, things that we liked, things that we already owned that we wanted to use, all of those types of questions. We told her. She asked how much we wanted to spend. We told her. She did the rest.
What she was able to pull together over the next few days was nothing short of a miracle. She decorated our entire main living area. The only pieces we provided were the couch, chair, tv, entertainment stand, dining room table, some shells, pictures and shell postcards we had bought in Florida. She did all the rest. She did it on time, and under budget (and that budget was not large by any means).
The result was magnificent.
She took us from having a house, to having a place where we feel at home. As I said in the article, every day we say, “man, I love this house.” It is all beautiful, and we couldn’t have gotten there without Andrea.
Help us thank Andrea
We can’t thank Andrea enough. What we can do, hopefully, is help her do what she loves, designing rooms and decorating them for people like us. So, if you are in the Charlottesville area, and you need help with your interior decorating (admit it, most of us do), then call me or send me an email. I’ll get you in touch with Andrea. You’ll be glad you did it. I know we are.
The Zebra is Going to Camp. . .
June 19, 2008 | 2 Comments
. . .officiating camp, that is.
This evening is the beginning of the D-3 Supercamp I attend annually. It is always a good time, and filled with tons of learning and officiating. This year, I think I might take the camera with me and see if I can get some video that will give you all a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes world of basketball officiating.
There is always something that makes me think of business and real estate, so this year, I’ll try to share the lessons when I am back in the office on Monday.
Wish me luck!
Remember to Spread The Love Tomorrow!
June 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment
In case it might have slipped your mind, this is just a gentle reminder that tomorrow is the day to Spread the Love!
The more who participate, the more who benefit. It should be lots of fun. I can’t wait to hear your stories.
Spread the Love Day– June 18th, 2008!
June 13, 2008 | 7 Comments
What is Spread the Love Day?
We could all use a little more love, couldn’t we? My idea for Spread the Love Day was inspired by Gary Vaynerchuk, Chris Brogan, and Benn Rosales (among others).
The concept is simple– I want you do something for someone else that you wish could be done for you. It could be anything, business related or not.
Wanna learn something? Then teach someone something first.
Wanna learn the secrets to success? Share your secrets with others first.
Want more comments on your blog? You better get out there and start commenting.
In short, I want you to spread the love. You can’t reasonably expect to get everything you want without being willing to share with others, can you? Of course not. Call this addition by subtraction, call it pay it forward, call it helping others to help yourself– whatever. Just make sure you SPREAD THE LOVE!
When Should I Spread the Love?
Well, you should be doing it every day, but since the longest journeys begin with just a single step, I’m suggest that you make a concentrated effort to Spread the Love on Wednesday, June 18th. That gives you some time to think about what you are going to do. Once you’ve done it, I want you to share your experience with others. For bloggers, you can write a blog post about it. For those of you who don’t blog, just tell a family member, friend, business associate, whoever. It doesn’t matter who it is, but make sure you share with them your Spread the Love experience. That way, you can hopefully inspire others to do something similar.
I’ll Go First to Get things Started
I wanted to give an example and spread some love first, so I did it in the video above. In the future, I want to launch a RealEstateZebra.com store, with various items that people could buy and wear, use, you know– schwag. Well, if I want people to do that for me, I am going to have to be willing to do the same for others.
In the video, I am wearing a sweatshirt given to me by fellow Virginia real estate blogger, Jeremy Hart. It is a very comfortable sweatshirt, and its got his logo on it. Very cool. I am also wearing a sticker given to me by the fine folks at RealSeekr.com. I like stickers, and they have a very cool website.
I wanted to spread the love to Jeremy and ReelSeekr. Hopefully, when the time comes, they’ll do the same for me. In the meantime, I want them to embrace the message and spread the love to whoever they can think of.
So, what are you waiting for? Come up with those ideas for how you will celebrate Spread the Love Day. I can’t wait to hear your stories, so remember to share them.
I Got Memed HARD
June 5, 2008 | 5 Comments
Okay, so there has been this meme going around the RE.net. A bunch of people memed me, but Faina Sechzer was the first, and the most persistent, about getting me to finally participate, so here goes. . .
1) Who is your favorite musical artist? Simple– The Chairman of the Board himself. . .
2) Who is your favorite artist? This one is a bit tougher. If I had to pick just ONE, I am going to go with Salvador Dali. His stuff is really weird, but always interesting.
3) Who is your favorite blogger? Another easy one. Chris Brogan. Emphatically.
4) If you could meet anyone, alive or dead who would it be? I would like to meet my grandfathers. Both my maternal and paternal grandfathers died before I was born. On my Mom’s side, my grandfather was Filipino, so I think that would be interesting. On my Dad’s side, my grandfather was quite a baseball player when he was younger, and I think I would ask him about that.
5) What did you want to be when you grew up? Funny story. I actually used to tell people that I wanted to be a fire truck. Not a fire fighter, but the actual truck. Once I figured out that wasn’t going to happen, I decided that it would be awesome to be the garbage man who gets to hang onto the back of the truck and ride around. Some would call that lack of ambition, I tend to think of it as unbridled creativity. Either way, I turned out alright.
6) What is the most interesting piece of trivia you know? An aircraft carrier gets about 6 inches for every gallon of fuel used. Now, I think most of them are nuclear, but that used to be the stat. Puts your gas bill in perspective, huh?
7) If you could live at any point in history, what would it be? Since I guess the future is out of play for this one, I would have to say the roaring 20’s. Things seemed fun then. Plus, men still wore hats, and women still wore gloves. I like that.
What is the most interesting job you have ever held? For one summer during college, I was a professional poop-scooper. I worked for a company that cleaned yards and apartment complexes for pet and goose waste. No, I never stepped in poop, but that was because I was LOOKING for it. Funny thing is, that job is the reason that I got my next job, which was as a legal assistant at a corporate bankruptcy firm, but that is another story. . .
I’m not going to meme anyone else, since I think that just about every blogger I know in the RE.net has seemingly participated in this thing, but I had fun. Thanks, Faina!
Twitter Is Like Cheers!
May 12, 2008 | 15 Comments
My wife, Kari, and I were on one of our usual long drives. We like our long drives. It gives us a chance to talk about stuff, and being that we are both REALTORS, you can imagine what some of our favorite subjects are. During the course of this conversation, we were discussing Twitter.
Those of you who know me know that I am a big Twitter fan. I was commenting to Kari that I have a hard time trying to explain Twitter to people. The folks at CommonCraft did a good job, but I can’t always show that video to everyone. There has to be some way to easily explain it.
That is when she said it.
She very simply turned to me and said, “Twitter is like Cheers.”
Twitter IS Like Cheers
You remember Cheers, don’t you? The place “where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came.” The place “where people know people are all the same.” For everyone who watched the show, Cheers represented a place where you knew you could go and be accepted for who you are; the place were you could always find good times, great conversation, and make even better friends.
For those of you who know Twitter, this should sound pretty familiar.
So no matter whether you are Sam or Diane, Norm or Cliff, Woody or Carla, it really doesn’t matter. Everyone has a place, and everyone can enjoy each other’s company.
“Twitter is Like Cheers” Illustrated
Kari’s Twitter metaphor is easy to share and even easier to understand. After our conversation, I couldn’t get it out of my head, and I just had to do something about it. So I wrote this post to share it with you, and then I made this little video I hope you will enjoy:
(And for those of you who are wondering, the ever-popular Cheers theme song was written by Gary Portnoy.)
Latest ZebraTalk Updates REBarCamp ‘08
May 9, 2008 | 2 Comments
Yesterday’s episode of ZebraTalk was a lot of fun (click the link to listen). The show provides a lot of great information for anyone interested in what is going on with REBarCamp ‘08.
Joining me on the show were Andy Kaufman, Brad Coy, Todd Carpenter, and Ricardo Bueno. The fellas gave everyone an update on all of the planning for the event (Brad and Andy were successful in reserving an awesome space). Everyone also shared their expectations for the event, and some ideas about the content and participation.
If you have any interest in what is happening on the leading edge of the real estate profession, you are going to want to listen the show and then keep tabs on REBarCamp ‘08. Hopefully, I’ll get to say hello to you in San Francisco!
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Disclaimer
My name is Daniel Rothamel. I am a licensed real estate agent in the Commonwealth of Virginia and a member of the National Association of REALTORS. As such, I adhere to a strict code of ethics and all laws with regard to equal housing, which is reflected in the content of this blog. My broker is Strong Team REALTORS, 86 Joshua Lane, Palmyra, VA 22963; (434) 589-5800. My VA Real Estate License number is 0225 077325. All of the opinions in this blog are mine, unless otherwise noted.
