Jason Crouch, Broker - Austin Texas Real Estate (512-796-7653)

I felt the need to help spread the word about Texas Diabetes & Endocrinology, since I was shocked at their truly bad customer service with regard to a penalty that they charged which was related to my late mother-in-law's illness. My wife dealt with them again today, which resulted in the following that she wrote. I think it's more powerful and compelling in her words:

"These guys took $50 from us for a "missed appointment." It was unfair, and they boldly refused to return it, clearly indicating they didn't care about losing our future business or the business of anyone who happens to read this, even after I explained that this would likely appear in many places online. After looking at the current reviews, I guess I can understand that they don't really mind one more bad one floating around out there.

Here's the story: My mother injured herself severely in March of 2007. She stayed in bed quite a bit, barely able to get to dialysis to keep herself alive. Because of a household mishap, she injured herself even worse in August of '07. That's when I took her to the hospital for surgery. She was on a lot of painkillers for her constant, excruciating pain, which made her delirious. By October of '07, she was so delirious, she needed to be hospitalized, because everyone thought she had had a stroke!

Unfortunately, during this time, she missed an appointment at Texas Diabetes & Endocrinology. Nobody knew where her calendar was, or that she had an appointment, so we had no chance of making it to the appointment. They charged us a $50 no-show fee, which my grandmother paid, because she didn't want to fight them. I held on to their letter, however, because I didn't think it was just.

I realize that waiting a long time to ask for a refund is inconvenient for businesses. However, this is a special case, in my opinion. My mother was delirious; she did get better later, but the painkillers had a terrible effect on her. Also, during the time between now and then, I have been occupied taking care of my mom, my three kids, my own illness, and my then-unborn child. Another reason I'm trying to collect this right now is that I'm now the executor of my mom's estate.

My mother was victimized by many people during her final days, and I thought that Texas Diabetes & Endocrinology would see that they had not treated us rightly, and try to rectify the situation. They did not. Their statement was that "It's only fifty dollars," but if it's such a small amount, then why not return it? When doing business with them, please ensure that you do not overpay, and that you watch how much you really need to pay them, or the same thing may happen to you.

They were willing to make life-long enemies of our family over fifty dollars, which is a small sum to them, by their statement. They hung up on me today, (twice). That is how much they value their customers. Do they not understand that, in today's economy, $50 is a significant sum to some families?"

As you can clearly see, this clinic showed no mercy with regard to this situation, which strikes me as particularly ironic considering their line of work. The sites I looked at today are filled with bad reviews for them (particularly the Yellow Pages online), so I guess we'll throw another one on the fire, so to speak.

I don't often use this platform for truly negative content, but if I can prevent them from harming others, it is well worth it. Clearly, we won't extrapolate any further than necessary, as I want to stick to the truth of our own experience.

Over the past few days, I have been reading tons of updates from my friends who are attending the NAR conference in San Diego. Of course, I expected this, since I probably know several hundred of the attendees by now. I came within a hair of attending myself, then I decided that I didn't want to leave my wife alone with four kids for a week.

However, I do want to attend some conferences and events in 2010, in order to bring my social media efforts to "real life" meetings. During my time blogging and interacting online via the mainstays of new media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), it seems like I get invited to an event every few weeks.

Here's what I have in mind for 2010 at this point:

I will be attending the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in mid-March - it's local, so that seems easy enough. I'll probably go ahead and splurge and attend some of the Film part, too, since it just seems just plain cool to me. I would do the music part, but as I am approaching 40, I have come to realize that live music isn't really my thing anymore, unless it's a big-name band that I have loved for years (think U2) or something more mellow (think acoustic).

Many of my friends will be attending the RE TechSouth event in the Atlanta area in late March, including Ken Cook (my radio co-host) and Jeremy Blanton. Since they have both become good friends, I would like to meet them in person and I have heard great things about this conference from several sources. I plan to be there.

I am strongly considering going to the NAR mid-year conference in May in Washington, DC. Even if I don't attend the event, I think we will make a trip to that area as a family. I have never been, nor have my kids. There are a number of things I would like to see, most notably the Smithsonian, so we are likely going. My wife is already excited about this one.

Lastly, since next year's big NAR conference is in New Orleans, this is a no-brainer for me. I have been to New Orleans several times, though it's been about 20 years since my last visit, if memory serves. That is an easy drive - I will be there, too.

I have a feeling that someone will be organizing at least one RE Barcamp in Texas in 2010 - if so, count me in. I don't know that I have time to be the primary organizer, but I would love to attend, and I would be happy to help promote it, too. :-)

I hope to have the chance to meet many of you in the upcoming year. One of my friends told me awhile back that I am a "super-networker". If this is indeed true, the time has come for me to put those skills to use!

Thanks for reading, as always.

Photo credit: Jeff Turner (I'm in the picture - can you find me?)

Recently, I bought a handful of social media books via Amazon. Since I have been doing some consulting and teaching on the side, I thought this would be a worthy investment. I intend to review each of them here on my blog. First up is "Crush It!" by Gary Vaynerchuk. If you're not familiar with Gary, he started WineLibrary.tv, which is his video blog wherein he gives his (very) honest opinion about various wines. This may sound boring to you, but I would urge you to check it out. You can feel Gary's enthusiasm coming off of the screen.

Using this tool, Gary took his family-owned liquor store from $4 million to over $60 million per year in sales. Yes, you read that last sentence correctly. He is @garyvee on Twitter, where he has amassed a simply huge entourage, with over 850,000 followers as of this writing.

Why? Well, there are a number of reasons:

• Frankly, people want to know how to make a lot of money like he did
• He has an engaging personality
• He actually makes an attempt to respond to others on Twitter, unlike most "celebrities"

His passion for wine has taken him to a number of appearances on national television, including one very notable segment with Conan O'Brien where he managed to get Conan to eat a cigar and dirt while explaining wine flavors.

When I received "Crush It!" via UPS on my front porch, I was a little dismayed that it wasn't thicker (i.e. more pages). My concern was soon allayed as I waded in and started reading.

Much like watching Gary speak, this book has an energetic tone that you don't find in most business-related books. In fact, I'm not sure if I would categorize this strictly as business. It's a morale builder.

In essence, the thesis of Gary's book is this: It takes a LOT of hard work to make a LOT of money. With that in mind, why not work doing something you really are passionate about?

Gary also emphasizes the importance of loving your family above the work, which I certainly appreciate as a father of four and husband of nearly 17 years.

Upon finishing, I was happy to conclude/realize that in many ways I have already been on the right track with my social media efforts over the past couple of years, although reading this book and a few others has led me to start working on a couple of outside projects/sites, too. My guess is that this book will have a tremendous impact on people who are languishing in jobs they hate.

The book is a relatively quick read, and you will find the story to be a compelling one. Raised in New York in a Russian immigrant family, Gary's tale is a modern, web-based version of the American Dream.

Thanks for channeling your passion into this book, Gary. I hope to crush it myself starting....now.

Last year, I wrote about our outing to see "Carmen" at the Long Center for the Performing Arts, which is located on the southern edge of downtown Austin. As a result, we ended up getting season tickets for this year. Last night, I took my son to see "La Boheme". My wife would have gone, but it's a little trickier when you have a seven-month old baby who doesn't yet take a bottle.

We had a great time, and I have to re-state that I think the Austin Lyric Opera puts on an absolutely top-notch show. The Long Center itself is a beautiful facility with a dramatic view of the downtown skyline. Outside, they have a large, open, rounded patio with a smaller underlit section that's fun for photos and just for playing. It reminds me a little bit of the disco floor from "Saturday Night Fever".

I hadn't seen this show before, so I had to read up on it ahead of time in the program to make sure I knew the basic story line. That being said, one of my favorite things about seeing a foreign-language opera at the Long Center is.........the subtitles. It sure makes it a lot easier to track what's happening when you can read the English version. :) You can probably see the small screen above the stage here:

I dressed up for the first time in a long while (see photo). I made my wife take a quick picture to prove that I still knew how to wear a tie. After seeing this picture, I am halfway motivated to wear a jacket more often.

Overall, it was a really fun time with my kid, and I look forward to the next one, which is in early January.

I hope you enjoy the pics! I didn't have a camera, so these were taken with my iPhone.

Last Sunday, my good friend Ben Finklea was here enjoying an afternoon of NFL football, when he suddenly asked me if I had heard about "Movember".

Nope. Not until that moment.

It turns out that Movember is an initiative to raise money for prostate and testicular cancer research. It involves not shaving for an entire month in an effort to grow a mustache/goatee/chin beard, etc. I have seen a lot of people talking about it this week.

I am not participating myself as a "grower", for a couple of reasons:

1. I am not very good at growing facial hair, and I don't want to scare anyone. My talent is growing a nice thick neck beard. Gross.
2. My wife hates me with facial hair. Enough said.

However, I did take some time to donate $20 to each of the two friends who asked, since it's a good cause and they are embarrassing themselves publicly, and who doesn't enjoy that?

Incidentally, I am either too old (or young) to have ever heard a mustache referred to as a "mo" before now. But I digress...

If you would like to donate, check out Ben's page right here:

http://us.movember.com/mospace/214457

I promised Ben that I would help to spread the word, so stop by at the link above and donate ANY amount to the cause. Even a single dollar will help.

Thanks for reading!