Mobile Austin Notary

Why Your Business Needs to Become a Purple Cow To Survive

Everywhere you turn nowadays on the radio, TV, magazines, blogs, internet, newspapers and whenever you talk to colleagues, friends and neighbors you hear one common theme. The economy sucks, the real estate and lending industries are devasted and on life support, the economy really really sucks and everyone is hurting.

Right?

Wrong!

My friend is the time when the transfer of wealth happens once in a generation (for you people that went to public school a generation is considered 20 years! LOL!). Money is never lost that's an illusion; money is simply transferred from one person or entity to another always.

Warren Buffet on The Charlie Rose Show in late 2008 stated he "wished" he had more money to invest right now. Mr. Buffet is worth like $40 BILLION DOLLARS and he's saying he wished he had more money. WOW! What does he and most savvy investors and business owners worldwide now that 98% of the sheepeople (sheep + people) don't know, understand or utilize?

Simply this is the best time to buy a business, be an investor or start a new business in any industry!

Why?

Besides being able to buy quality real estate, land or other businesses for pennies on the dollars.

Because like Darwin said, "Only the strong survive" and most businesses and people aren't strong or smart enough to survive in this recession or the 21st centure arena of business.

Let's take the real estate industry for example, since two of my businesses are directly tied to that industry. Not to mention the shock and fear spun media loves the doom and gloom it spreads scaring poor little grandma's into freaking heart attacks every night after they watch the news about this industry.
Ask a realtor, mortgage broker, title officer, loan officer, or loan signing agent they'll all say that times are brutal.

That's of course if there still in that industry, since literally thousands of these real estate folks are quitting the industry every month because it's gotten too tough for them to make a living.
Bottom line being a good sales person, company, realtor, broker, lender or whatever is not good enough anymore. It was ten years ago, even five years maybe...but not anymore. Good will be the death of you and your business in the 21st century, especially in a recession like this. You, your company and your employees must not settle for anything less than being a Purple Cow.

Here's an excerpt from Seth Godin author of Purple Cow and what it means to be a Purple Cow in your niche, industry or your marketplace.


"You're either a Purple Cow or you're not. You're either remarkable or invisible. Make your choice.

What do Starbucks, JetBlue, Krispy Kreme, Apple, Dutch Boy and Hard Candy have that you don't? How do they continue to confound critics and achieve spectacular growth, leaving behind former tried-and true brands to gasp their last?

Face it, the checklist of tired 'P's marketers have used for decades to get their product noticed - Pricing, Promotion, Publicity, to name a few-aren't working anymore. There's an exceptionally important 'P' that has to be added to the list. It's Purple Cow.

Cows, after you've seen one, or two, or ten, are boring. A Purple Cow, though...now that would be something. Purple Cow describes something phenomenal, something counterintuitive and exciting and flat out unbelievable. Every day, consumers come face to face with a lot of boring stuff-a lot of brown cows-but you can bet they won't forget a Purple Cow. And it's not a marketing function that you can slap on to your product or service. Purple Cow is inherent. It's built right in, or it's not there. Period."

Again let's take a realtor; everyone knows one of them personally in the U.S. Let's also be honest there a dime a dozen, or a hundred even. Did you know that according in the National Realtors Association (NRA) that the average realtor earns around $32,000 per year?

Would you honestly trust someone that makes just $32,000 to sell your $250,000, $500,000 or a million dollar plus home or even your $100,000 home? That is the most important asset and business decision most people ever make in their lives.

People do every day and just don't know it.

Did you also know according to the NRA that over 50% of ALL MLS listings that realtors list NEVER get sold within 6 months? So the chance of YOUR realtor taking your property and selling it in a good, bad or ugly market like this is no better than a flip of a coin. Not a very good feeling is it.

Did you also know according to the NRA that the LISTING AGENT REALTOR only sells your home on average just 6% of the time or less. In English, 94% of the time the listing agent won't or can't sell your home, the MLS or a buyer's agent realtor does.

What does this all add up to, that just a small percentage of all realtors nationwide got the goods and know there stuff and make millions a year. They use Purple Cow tactics I imagine to some degree without even knowing it. The rest are simply boring cows out to pastor or like sheep, and sheep as we all know get slaughtered.

Now in the real estate industry the sky is in the limit now, because so many realtors are quitting and getting a J-O-B. This means, LESS competition for other realtors. It means if a realtor positions themselves properly right now as the Purple Cow to various construction companies, real estate investors, lenders, mortgage brokers, banks, developers and just the average home buyer/seller when the market turns positive (it always does and will) they will destroy their market place.

So what are some things you can do right away to become more of a Purple Cow or become a Purple Cow to get enough business now to get thru the tough times till the market changes?

For example with a company called, Mobile Austin Notary that I own gives the only guarantee of its kind in Texas, and as far as I know the entire country in this industry. Our guaranteed states if anyone of our loan signing agents or mobile notaries is ever late to a signing the next one is absolutely FREE!

So say the traffic is bad, bad weather, another appointment goes long, they got lost, etc. No excuses by us...we take total ownership of our time and actions. Don't you wish all people and businesses were like that! It's an industry first, something that got us on the track to being a Purple Cow or so I thought.

But then after reading the book Purple Cow, I realized that is still just a boring cow type of tactic.

Why?

Because even though it might be totally unique and a first in my niche industry, you can't go 10 minutes listening to any radio station, reading a magazine or newspaper or watching TV where someone or some company is not offering a guarantee or offering something free.

When I realized this on the plane trip to the frozen hell to see my family (that would be Wisconsin) I thought of the "Chocolate Promise".

The "Chocolate Promise" is when any title or mortgage company, bank, tow yard, law firm, record services company or anyone else refers us a loan signing or notary client anywhere in the nation. What we do then is send them a box of chocolates with a custom made sticker on it with our contact information and a saying that says, "I hope you like our Chocolate Promise!".

We had two loan signings for example in Houston, TX a few weeks ago, so we sent the escrow agent in Dallas two boxes of chocolates and a thank you card.

We also send out handwritten thank you cards. I'm not talking those cheap ass cards that most people use when they send out thank you cards, if they ever do which most don't. I'm talking the $3-$5 Hallmark type cards. We send out a handwritten card to EVERY client and customer.

That's right now only do we send a handwritten thank you card out to every one of our great clients and a box of chocolates for there business, we send THERE customers a handwritten thank you card thanking them as well.

We also send each of our client's customers a hand written hallmark type birthday card, if we get there birth date and 90% of the time we do. We actually treat our client's customers better than they do most of the time.

For the simple reason how we treat their customers makes our clients look better to them, because were an extension of their business and brand when we work with their customers everyday.

That's being different...

That's being creative...

That's giving a crap and actually caring...

That's being great (or at least I hope so)...

That's being the proverbial Purple Cow in your market place.

I thought this is a great saying that I preach to my business consulting clients nationwide and my staff for all my different businesses I own.

"You think your good, but good is only a block from average and great is all the way uptown!"

Best Wishes,

CEO/Mobile Austin Notary
www.mobileaustinnotary.com
www.twitter.com/austinnotary
www.activerain.com/pecs29
"The Nicest Notaries & Process Servers in Texas, That Go To You 24/7!"
512-314-9164 (Call us 24/7 since we NEVER sleep)

Believe me people, I would rather be in the Texas real estate market then just about any other in the country right now. This article is just a little spark of positivity for us in central Texas, in a negative media driven bombardment we all get exposed to everyday about the economy and real estate markets.

Report brings new perspective to Austin housing market
By Austin Business Journal

While the last two years of declines in new housing activity have been difficult for Central Texas, some housing market indicators show Austin is relatively balanced, according to a report from the Austin Chamber of Commerce.

Residential permits for 2008 will be at their lowest level in decades, at approximately 14,000 units, a total similar to the activity of the late 1990's. But, according to research the Chamber cites from Residential Strategies Inc. Austin's "employment change to residential permit ratio"--measured over a nearly two-decade period--is at a healthy 1 single family permit to 2.15 net new jobs.

The employment change-to-permit ratio is one metric used to examine the balance between supply and demand in the market, based on the assumption that new jobs create demand for new homes. In other words, for every 2.15 new jobs created since 1990, one single-family residential building permit has been issued.

For 2008 through November, the employment change to permit ratio is 1 to 1.42 for Austin. In 2007 the ratio was 1 to 1.87 locally.

Nationally in 2008, 852,529 permits were issued, but the net change in jobs was negative 1.8 million for the first 11 months of the year.

*Please note this blog post was guest written by the CEO of Mobile Austin Notary.

Did I get your attention with that headline?

I hope I did, let's first define by Wikipedia what Ethics and Business ethics is.

Ethics is a major branch of philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life. It is significantly broader than the common conception of analyzing right and wrong. A central aspect of ethics is "the good life", the life worth living or life that is simply satisfying, which is held by many philosophers to be more important than moral conduct.

Business ethics is a form of applied ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment.

So what do ethics and business ethics have to do with the death of the real estate industry and the recession the U.S. is soundly in your wondering?

First let's me tell you a few short stories, one was from today that actually inspired me to write this blog post. It was told to me from one of my mobile Texas notaries named Jenette. I was very proud of her for what she said and did today.

I asked Jenette to write out exactly the dialogue that transpired with a caller today. I will then translate afterwards.

M = Jenette The Mobile Notary
C = Potential Customer

M: Hello... How can I help you?
C: Are you available tonight? My regular notary canceled because of the weather.
M: Yes sir, most of this evening I am how can I help you?
C: I need to get a neighborhood petition signed and notarized by
several people tonight. Can you walk the neighborhood and do these
with me?
M: Well I can walk the neighborhood fine, but that's a lot of
paperwork to carry around in this weather. How many people need to
sign?
C: What is this going to cost me?
M: Well our charges are $1 per mile and $6 per my stamp and signature.
C: Well you are only going to stamp and sign once, we can walk and see
all of them sign and you can notarize the last page.
M: Is this a numbered document? Are all the pages attached somehow?
C: Well no but you will see them all sign.
M: Sir if you are going to do something like this every signature
needs to be notarized or the set needs to be attached to show there
has been nothing added while the notary was not there.
C: Well that is not how the last notary and I did things!
M: Well sir it is the legal way to do it.
C: Well if I pay you like you stamped and signed each page can you do
it my way?
M: No sir I would need to actually do it for your documents to be legal.
C: Well you are being ridiculous.
M: Well sir I'm sorry I can't help you.
C: Hangs up

In layman's terms the customer wanted Jenette and Mobile Austin Notary to break the law by notarizing documents that she wouldn't of saw signed in person. To add insult to injury this man wanted us to do it knowingly and I guess this other unethical notary had done this before with him.

Bottom line no one in the world would've been any wiser if we actually took the job. Jenette and all our Austin notaries works off commission, so she didn't make any money and my company didn't make a dime either. Would my company and Jenette's pockets be fuller if we took the job, most certainly yes.

So why didn't we take the job and the money like many others in a depressed economy would've in a New York Minute? Let's turn the shoe around, if it would've been YOU in similar type of situation in your specific real estate industry niche what would YOU do?

One word - Ethics

Money alone CAN'T buy you a clean conscious in life nor can it help you when you look yourself in the mirror and allow you to see a proud and integrity filled person in the reflection. Strong business ethics has built the greatest companies in the world, and when those ethics were lost or misplaced those same companies were destroyed for their lack of business ethics.

How many legendary insurance, mortgage, banks and investment companies with 100+ year track records have filed bankruptcy, need billions of dollars in bail outs and lost shareholders billions of dollars in the last few months? We haven't seen this since the Great Depression some 75 years ago.

This happened in my opinion for one reason....lack of ethics in the real estate industries part mostly, and a lot of poor judgment and greed on people's parts.

Say you're about to make a big commission selling a house or maybe you're the broker setting up the deal.

The customer likes this $400,000 house, but this other $500,000 home there in love with big time.

They technically "qualify" for the $500K house, but only if they extend themselves to 40%+ of their total household income that will go toward mortgage, taxes and insurance and they take out a 5 year adjustable mortgage.

How many of these have you or did you see the last five years? Maybe it was $100K-$150K or $1M - $2M dollar homes. I bet it was ALOT!

Did you the experienced realtor and broker try to educate, teach or talk the customer out of a very bad potentially horrific financial meltdown for being so overleveraged?

Or did you do like the vast majority of brokers and realtors did that has been proven without question now, you said, "Hell yes buy that more expensive house you only live once". Then you cashed the fat extra $3K-$6K commission check and went on to the next deal without batting an eyelash.

Now I'm sure there will be many comments arguing why this is ok, I'm also aware that you can't talk some people out of anything. When their mind is set, there is no changing them. I understand and realize that. But did you really care about your customer to be honest and tell them the good, the bad and the ugly? Did you give them all the "what ifs" scenarios.

•1. What if that low ARM interest rate of 4% doubles in 3-5 years can you afford that?

•2. What happens if you get laid off or fired you from your job?

•3. What happens if your company you own goes out of business or business slows down?

•4. What happens if you have an unexpected financial crisis come up?

•5. What happens if the exploding home appreciation rates slow down or goes down, what then?

My assumption is most real estate professionals and companies DIDN'T ask these questions or bring these valid points up to customers before or during the closing process. If this was done across the board nationally, this market and real estate meltdown would have never happened. Most experts agree with this analysis.

From the CEO down in all these companies at the local, state and national branches should have been preaching strong business ethics.

But we all know that didn't happen now don't we. The chasing of the almighty dollar won out sadly didn't it, how many lives and companies were destroyed because we simply lacked the strong ethics to say and do something that would certainly lower our personal incomes, but completely raise our personal and business integrity net worth.

I'm certainly not one to condemn or judge anyone person or company for their business decisions, this is and wasn't my intent please note.

One last story that I've never told to anyone till know. I wasn't ever going to share this story to be quite honest, but I think it has merit with the topic of ethics.

A few weeks ago I was in the parking lot of a 7-11 on Guadalupe Street in the heart of the UT campus. I am an infamous bachelor that doesn't cook since he works 100+ hours a week in multiple businesses. So 7-11 is my quick fix for food on a lot of days. Now that you know how sad and pathetic my daily menu is I will continue to the point. You can send me desserts and or any homemade food ladies to my corporate address; I promise I will eat anything you send me! LOL! ; )

While I was walking into the store I saw a Velcro wallet (they still make those I said out loud to myself) sitting on the ground by the curb. I saw a few college kids about 20ft away on the opposite side and figured one of them would pick it up before I walked back out.

Few minutes passed and I watched the students, none of them seemed to be missing a wallet.

I walked back out and I picked up the wallet. I asked the students if it was there's they all said no.

I took the wallet back to my place and looked at the insides of it. About $50 cash, FL driver's license (I figured a college student) and Bank of America check card. I thought I will take it into Bank of America and maybe they can track down the owner by using his check card. Then I thought they have strict policies about lost cards, they would cancel his card and probably never send him his wallet anyways.

Then I didn't want to send this kids wallet back to FL, since what good is that going to do him while his in college in Texas. But as the luck Gods would have I kept digging in his wallet and found a paycheck stub from the legendary restaurant in Austin called, Gueros Taco Bar. More luck would have it, his Austin address was on the pay stub. So I decided buy a big envelope and mail it to him.

But before I did I took a post it note and put it on the inside of his wallet. It said, "Good people still exist in the world, your generation needs to help us all remember that". I didn't put my first name or phone number. I didn't tell anyone in my life the good deed I did.

Because like ethics regardless if no one would ever know what you did or say or didn't say or do. YOU will be your judge and jury in this life, what YOU do and say always without question effect YOU positively or negatively.

My wish is for you is to be the most ethical business person and individual you can be, it's definitely not the easiest or most profitable to be this way I can attest to that. But the non-monetary rewards are truly endless within yourself I promise.

CEO/Mobile Austin Notary
www.mobileaustinnotary.com
www.twitter.com/austinnotary
www.activerain.com/pecs29
"The Nicest Notaries & Process Servers in Texas, That Go To You 24/7!"

What is a brand?

Brand is the proprietary visual, emotional, rational, and cultural image that you associate with a company or a product. When you think Volvo, you might think safety. When you think Nike, you might think of Michael Jordan or "Just Do It." When you think IBM, you might think "Big Blue." The fact that you remember the brand name and have positive associations with that brand makes your product selection easier and enhances the value and satisfaction you get from the product.

While Brand X cola or even Pepsi-Cola may win blind taste tests over Coca Cola, the fact is that more people buy Coke than any other cola and, most importantly, they enjoy the experience of buying and drinking Coca Cola. The fond memories of childhood and refreshment that people have when they drink Coke is often more important than a little bit better cola taste. It is this emotional relationship with brands that make them so powerful.

What makes up a brand identity?

A typical brand identity includes a brand name, positioning statement, category descriptor, organizational values, brand archetype, and the brand's key purchase factors with their tangible and emotional benefits (brand associations).

A good brand name gives a good first impression, is easy to remember, and evokes positive associations with the brand. The positioning statement tells, in one sentence, what business the company is in, what benefits it provides and why it is better than the competition. Imagine you're in an elevator and you have 30 seconds to answer the question, "What business are you in?" The category descriptor lets your customers know what "hook" to put your branding on in their mind.

Linking your internal organizational values with your brand builds trust with your customers. Brand archetype and personality adds emotion, culture and myth to the brand identity by the use of a famous spokesperson (Bill Cosby - Jello), a character (the Pink Panther), an animal (the Merrill Lynch bull) or an image (You're in good hands with Allstate).

Brand associations are the attributes that customers think of when they hear or see the brand name. Ideally, you want customers to think of what they want from the brand (e.g., reliability and the benefits of reliability) and then associate that attribute with your brand name.

In closing what is YOUR brand?

What do you want YOUR brand to mean and say to people?

Posted by Mobile Austin Notary
"The Nicest Notaries in Texas, That Go To You 24/7!"

Mobile Austin Notary, a state wide Texas loan signing agent and Texas mobile notary firm unvailed it's new corporate logo (see picture above) after working closing with a Norwegian based logo design company.