The best blogs or vlogs or art of any kind are an act of generosity. They offer a point of view, insight, encouragement, something interesting or even something beautiful. The worst try to sell you something: "And that's how the Dalai Lama approaches conflict. And speaking of conflict, how often have you seen people conflicted [...]
For those of you not familiar with Wordpress, there are these things called Plugins. Plugins are little programs that do specific tasks, like creating a contact form or preventing spam comments. I once used a Plugin that "helped" me write blogs. There were all sorts of rules: at least 300 words, the text of the [...]
My goal of The Property Prophet blog is threefold. I wish to: Edify. To instruct, uplift. Encourage. To inspire, promote, foster. Entertain. To hold attention agreeably, divert, amuse. I have not and will not "sell" anything. The Property Prophet is my gift to anyone who wishes to accept it. I have no idea where this [...]
In his book, Willpower Doesn't Work, Benjamin Hardy argues that creating environment, not the will to succeed, is the way to create new and positive habits. Let's say that you want to write every day, which is, not coincidentally, a goal of mine. In the past I tried to force myself to write. I left [...]
As an English major in college I did a lot of writing, but I found it difficult to sit in a room, alone, and write. The blank page was just too much. I found that the ideas flowed better when I found a comfortable seat in a busy public place. I needed the stimulation. If [...]
I created an email inbox in Outlook to park Blog ideas called Idea Bank. [I know, I am some creative guy]. The concept is simple: when I am in a conference or a meeting or driving and I get an idea, I send myself an email, and later drag and drop. It works well sometimes. Other [...]
Journaling, and its outgoing cousin, blogging, is one of the most helpful therapeutic devices available to the average person. I am a big fan. I use an online journal called Penzu because it works on all of my devices and I can even dictate on it when I am in the car. Plus it has [...]
When I regularly post blogs, the traffic on my website goes up. Dramatically. Calls for proposals also go up. Dramatically. The complexity and challenge of the work also goes up. Dramatically. Did the calls come from the same people that came to my website? I don't think so. A desire to encourage, inform or entertain [...]
There are some fine blogs out there, well written, thoughtful and authoritative. Too bad nobody reads them. They are just too long. I realize that Twitter's 140 characters may be too few to make a fine point, but holy smoke, 500 words? Every day? Here's a hint: if you write something so long that the reader has [...]
Apropos of my post on modern marketing, I saw the strangest thing yesterday. A billboard on U.S. Route 1 in Lawrence Township. Advertising an Advertising and Marketing company. A billboard is relatively expensive and it is designed to market to a large audience, so it is most helpful if your customers are well, everybody. Big [...]
...that the Universe tries to thwart your efforts. It is not only your personal Lizard Brain that can work against you, the entirety of the Universe seems to want to put you in your place for daring to create something. Want to write every day, smart guy? Ha! Crashed your computer! The Universe knows that [...]
My mom never let us watch television in the morning when we were growing up. At the time it probably had to do more with getting us out the door on time than anything else, but as always, there was wisdom behind my mother's many rules. In the past few months, sucked into politics like [...]
I have not been blogging lately. Instinctively I know this is wrong. I am resting on my laurels, as it were - today's business is due to yesterday's marketing. Which begs the question, what about tomorrow's business? And you know what else? I missed the creative side of it. But life is funny. As I [...]
Never before in human history has such creative energy been unleashed. There are billions of people creating every day in tweets, blog posts, photographs, videos, music. There is no questions that a lot of it is drivel. Some of it self-aggrandizing nonsense, mean, base and even cruel. But some of it is terrific. True expression, [...]
Writing is hard. It requires work. And discipline. And a freakin’ idea. But writing it is the best thing I can do with my time. Here’s why: “Thinking is the hardest and most exhausting of all labor; and hence many people shrink from it….Thinking is growth; you cannot think without growing. Every thought engenders another [...]
I have received a lot of great feedback about the Property Prophet blog. Thanks to all of you for your support and kind words. And thanks to those who have disagreed with me. At least I know you are reading! And with adequate therapy, my doctor says that the facial tick will stop. Or be [...]
Working from home can be great. I roll out of bed, grab a cup of coffee and get to work. Two or three hours later I have the equivalent of a day’s worth of work done, and the rest of the day available to talk to clients and prospects. Years ago I discovered GoToMyPC and found that [...]
The great Molly Shannon used to do a character on Saturday Night Live, the sassy Sally O'Malley. Sally was usually auditioning for a dance gig of some sort. She would hike up her bright red stretch pants and declare, "I like to kick, stretch, annnnnnnd kick. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII’m 50! Fifty years old." Like Sally O'Malley, I'm [...]
