Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Vendor Alley 2025 Holiday Gift Guide

It’s that time of year again, and normally I’d give you a whole list of gifts guaranteed to put a smile on anyone’s face.

But this year I have only one recommendation.

Time.

And the way you gift yourself time is simple, hire an assistant.

After selling W+R Studios and starting Giant Steps Advisors, I knew I still wanted to contribute to the industry by doing “meaningful work.” I’m still sorting out exactly what “meaningful” means, but I knew I had a lot I wanted to build and explore. What I didn’t have was the bandwidth to do it all alone.

I first heard about Athena on a podcast. They pitch themselves as a service where you can hire elite assistants.

Some of you already have executive assistants and know how truly impactful they are for your time and productivity. I’d never had one, and honestly, the idea of hiring one felt a little pretentious. That was something I had to get over…and I’m glad I did.

The magic with Athena is you can get an incredible executive assistant for $3,000 a month.

If you want a deeper look, check out a recent episode of the a16z Podcast where they interview Jonathan Swanson, Athena’s founder. The host, a16z General Partner Erik Torenberg, uses an Athena assistant himself. My thinking was pretty simple: if it’s good enough for a GP at one of the best VC firms on the planet, it’s probably good enough for me.

My assistant’s name is Tabby, and she’s had a huge impact on my life this past year. Now, like any new hire, you need to ramp them up. Tabby didn’t instantly know my business, my industry, or my preferences. And if you’ve never had an assistant, you’re also going to have to learn how to delegate effectively. I’m still learning, and Athena has tools to help both of us get better.

Here’s a link if you want to give them a try. I think you get a pretty good discount.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Pro Tip: Be ready for delays leaving Houston next week

Might be a good time to start following the IAH (Bush Airport) Twitter (X) account or on Instagram
This seems to be effecting more of the departures since a lot of TSA workers are not showing up for work due to the Government Shutdown. Going to be a crazy week.

Pro Tip: Must have dongle for your travel kit

Seems like we’re still living in a USB-A world. They’re everywhere! I keep a couple of USB-A to USB-C cables handy now. They’re great for planes, but my favorite use case is hotel nightstands.

I use my iPhone as an alarm clock, and it seems like there’s never an open outlet to plug a charger into. Of course, I only discover this late at night after being out (meaning I’m drunk), trying to move a heavy nightstand away from the wall. And to make matters worse, nine times out of ten, the outlets are so worn out they can’t even hold the weight of your charger. Or maybe I’m the only one this happens to?

But here’s where Uncle Greg drops a pro tip. A lot of those hotel alarm clocks — and even some lamp bases — have a couple of USB-A ports built in. That’s where this little dongle earns its keep. The 3-foot one lets you do a little doom-scrolling while charging when you finally hit the sack. You’re welcome.

Pro Tip #2: Buy several, because you will end up leaving them behind.

No Such Thing as Free Advertising? Maybe There Is

David Etheredge, CEO of SavvyCard, is running a new promotion for their RE-Target media network—you know, those banner ads you see on MLS dashboards and such.

SavvyCard now works with MLS organizations that represent over 450,000 agents. David sent me a document outlining the promotion. Here’s a clip:

They have MLS orgs representing over 450,000 agents. David sent me a document outlining the promotion, here a clip from the doc,

“On July 1st, 2025, SavvyCard will select one company and provide them 1,000,000 advertising impressions on the RE-Target network at no cost (a $30,000 retail value) as a no / low-risk way for that company to validate the effectiveness of RE-Target as a marketing channel. The selected company will have no requirement to purchase advertising after the initial 1,000,000 impression trial, and there are no hidden fees or expenses associated with this promotion.”

Read the full document for all the details. I can tell you from experience—I’ve used their service before, and it’s totally legit.

Many vendors already know that the pop-up screen you see before logging into the MLS is the gold standard for exposure. And being on top of the MLS dashboard? That’s prime real estate too.

Anyway, if you’re interested, David says you should contact him directly at David [at] SavvyCard.com.

For $30,000 in free advertising, it’s definitely worth a shot.

Pro Tip: Custom Business Cards

Well, the 1000watt’s Brand & Marketing Summit isn’t finished but I’m already ready to share a great tip I came across today. Former W+R Studios Director of Marketing Frances Wiseman (and Giant Steps collaborator) came up with a great way of promoting herself at the event with these custom event business cards. Check out the upper left of the first photo, “Remember? We met at…”

So smart! She got 50, for less than $30 bucks. You could go cheaper but she chose a thicker card stock. Love it.

Pro Tip: Order that ribeye steak

Your mileage may vary.

T3 Sixty’s Annual MLS Study

I have to say that the Real Estate Almanac is one of the most used tools I have. I was asked to pass along this announcement and hope everyone will consider supporting T3 Sixty’s efforts.

“Each year since 2018, T3 Sixty in collaboration with RESO have produced the Organized Real Estate rankings section on RealEstateAlmanac.com. The ranking include the MLS subscriber counts and organizational types for each of the 521 MLSs across the United States along with REALTOR® association membership counts. To ensure they have the most accurate information possible, T3 is again asking MLS Executives to share their current MLS subscriber counts for publication of the 2024 version of the list which will be published electronically and shared with the industry in February of 2024.

Building on their success with last year’s intial research, MLS executives will also be given the option to take part in T3’s confidential MLS Executive compensation and benefits study. This year, based on feedback, the independent research firm has added the option to complete an MLS COO and CTO study. It is important to note that the individual results of these studies will not be made public, but each MLS survey participant will be provided with a complimentary synopsis report of the research results. 

T3 Sixty 2024 MLS Count and C-Level Compensation Study

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to Clint Skutchan, T3 Sixty’s SVP of Organized Real Estate directly at clint@t360.com.”

Clint Skutchan, T3 Sixty

Genius

Pro tip: Adding your title to your profile image in Zoom meetings.

This tip works for vendors or clients. The situation is that you don’t know what that person does for the company. They may be new or recently promoted, or you just forgot. It happens.

I find it helpful to know the roles of the people I’m speaking with. Are they in charge of membership? A new director? Is that a developer? The finance guy?

So adding a title to your profile is super helpful. That way anyone who mouses over your image on a Zoom meeting can see your name and your role in the company.

In Zoom you can add a title to your name in two different ways.

  1. Just add your title for one meeting only.
  2. Add your title to your profile so it always shows up.

I’m going to focus on #2. Otherwise, you’ll have to reenter your title every time. If you want to permanently add your title follow this instruction.

Click on the gear icon on your Zoom start screen

Click on the “Profile” link on the left-hand column, then click on “Edit My Profile”.

On the next page click on the “Edit” link.

Next, add your title in the Last Name field after your last name. Then click the “Save Changes” button.

This is one of those things that vendors hope clients implement and clients hope vendors implement.

You’re both welcome.

“Prepare for the death of social”

I’m attending the Content Marketing World Conference in Cleveland. I’m told it’s the biggest conference on content marketing in the country. It’s my first year here and its been great. Highly recommend it to any inbound marketers out there.

One of the speakers, and the founder of CMI, Joe Pulizzi, gave a great presentation about the future of marketing. One of his slides struck me. It said simply…

“Prepare for the death of social”

The premise is that social media is reaching a tipping point. Fake news, lack of privacy, hackers and the fact that sooooo many people/companies are pushing ads on social media that it’s becoming somewhat of a cesspool. A platform people will not trust any longer.

I know many agents who leverage social media in their business. Also, many vendors rely on selling ads as a business model. And a lot of those ads (most) are on social media platforms (Facebook).

Joe doesn’t know if this will be one year from now, 3 years, or 5 years. But it’s still good advice.

Be prepared.

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