The National Association of Realtors changed home buying rules and they’ve been in effect about a month. Home buyers will now have a new conversation with their realtor when they go to buy a home. The realtor will need to negotiate a fee with the buyer. Previously it was in the background as the deal went forward with a typical 6% commission split between buyer’s agent and seller’s agent. Now, that’s all changed and is highly negotiable. Angelo DePaola has seen this coming. It’s no surprise. He thinks it will make the best realtors stand out even more and the… Read More
Categories: LibsynTelling people things allows them to disagree with you. Asking them questions allows you to understand their perspective and allows you to align with their ideas before directing them. Bob Tiede is an author of the book Leading with Questions. He and I discuss the power of questions as a leadership tool. Show Sponsors: E3 Termite & Pest Control Roy Lewis Construction Allison Horner – State Farm Agent Angelo DePaola – The Coastal Connection Realty Persons Services Corp Seth Cherniak – Jeffrey Matthews Financial Bill-E’s Bacon Roosters Restaurant in Downtown Mobile, Alabama Bay Business News CR Mitigation Find Cam Marston’s… Read More
Categories: LibsynThe business of moving and movers. Pretty tried and true. Very little room for disruption, right? Wrong. Ron Holt has upended tradtional businesses before and is doing it again. His first was Two Maids where he based the payment of the service providers on the evaluations of the customers. The result? Huge efforts from the cleaners to please the customer and treat them well. He’s taking this same non-tradtional thinking to Pink Zebra moving. The movers play music. They buy the homeowner dinner. They have a great time. It’s about reimagining the stale and throwing some energy and ideas into… Read More
Categories: LibsynWith all the free weather apps avaialble, why pay for a forecast? Because Crown Weather offers something a bit more, a bit personal. Rob Lightbrown offers a subscription only weather forecast that gets into the weeds of the weather. I was referred to him by a retired banker who used Rob’s service to help his agricultural clients try to prepare for the storms that may destroy their crops. I spoke to Rob a few weeks ago where he predicted that by late July and early August there would likely be some tropical storm activity forming. And, as I write this… Read More
Categories: LibsynWho is the hero of your business? Too often, it’s you. It SHOULD be the customer. Stephanie Greenwood is a StoryBrand consultant and explains it all so simply to me. She’s with IMMIX Strategic and walks me through the process. The customer is the hero. You – the business – are a guide that helps the hero overcome their problem. You bring them to solutions and help them avoid disaster. It’s so simple. And yet we botch it again and again. Show Sponsors: E3 Termite & Pest Control Roy Lewis Construction Allison Horner – State Farm Agent Angelo DePaola –… Read More
Categories: LibsynLeadership consultant and author Brandon Smith has written a book that I’ve had referenced to me too many times in the past weeks to simply ignore. Called Author vs Editor Dilemma, the book is a management and leadership guide with simple plans for turning your employees into a more highly productive team. It’s a simple concept – as the leader, too often you’re an author, telling people what to do. You need to edit – guide their behavior and leave them to take initiative. On with Brandon and me is Wills Moore. Wills is an executive coach and uses the… Read More
Categories: LibsynCline Jones spent time as a boy watching the locks and dams near his home take and receive tow-boats on the river. The attraction of the work was deep and he signed up to be a part of that industry. Today he’s the Executive Director of the Tennessee River Valley Association and the Tennessee-Cumberland Waterways Council. He knows the numbers: the 12,000 miles of waterways transport 1/3 of the nation’s GDP; 541,000 jobs come from the inland waterways; 15 barges equals 1000+ 18 wheelers or 216 train cars. There are 219 locks operating today. And it’s the locks and dams… Read More
Categories: LibsynEconomist Connor Lokar says it’s goign to get worse before it gets better. Then it’s going to get much worse. Connor is with ITR Economics. He and his firm work with businesses to help them prepare for economic change. Avowedly apolitical, Connor and his team only say the November election is unlikely to change our economy in any meaningful way, regardless of who wins the presidential election. To get a good read on the economy you need to know government spending, demographics, imports and exports, and a dozen other numbers. Connor knows his stuff, and you’ll want to hear what… Read More
Categories: LibsynLots of changes coming to workplace rules ranging from the legality of non-compete agreements to changes to the salary of exempt employees. Windy Bitzer of the Hand Arendall law firm explains the changes and what they mean for you and me. Show Sponsors: E3 Termite & Pest Control Roy Lewis Construction Allison Horner – State Farm Agent Angelo DePaola – The Coastal Connection Realty Persons Services Corp Seth Cherniak – Jeffrey Matthews Financial Bill-E’s Bacon Roosters Restaurant in Downtown Mobile, Alabama Bay Business News Find Cam Marston’s book – What Works: The Ten Best Ideas from the First Two-Hundred Episodes… Read More
Categories: LibsynLots of chatter out there about AI. Lots. Every day some some sort of news about how it will make our world unbelievably better and another about how it will be the end of humanity. I reached out to Kai Gray to ask him to answer some questions – what can AI really do? Aside from being the best source tech help I’ve ever found, what can it do for me? Today? Right now? It wrote me a sonnet to read to my wife on Valetines Day (which my wife thought was the most romantic thing I’ve ever done until… Read More
Categories: Libsyn