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It’s time for a pivot here at Pencil Pusher.

I’m a real estate marketing professional by day. I’m making a pivot with this site to focus on the themes, tactics, and trends in the field of real estate marketing.

To break the fourth wall for a moment – how did I end up here?

I got my start in real estate marketing nearly 20 years ago because I have a passion for photography and I was in the right place at the right time. An Indianapolis real estate team needed a part-time photographer to take pictures of homes to be listed for sale. I learned quickly that photographs are only one component of marketing and selling homes. I left my job at a software company to join the team full-time to pursue marketing. And over the course of several years, I mastered the art of writing concise, compelling property descriptions, creating flyers, and all of the components of a strong listing marketing program. From there, I expanded my repertoire to begin marketing the business and the services of buying and selling homes. I sharpened my messaging through print campaigns, website content, and email marketing. Since going full-time in real estate marketing in 2012, I’ve worked with and for several real estate teams across the country. I’ve utilized a myriad of platforms, tactics, and methods to grow real estate teams of different sizes, in different markets, and with different goals.

After 12 years of full-time industry experience (with a one-year break to get an MBA), I started Bright Rocket, a marketing agency to assist growing real estate teams.

That’s the short version of how I got here. But what happens next?

Right now, I believe that an ambitious and innovative team needs to orient its marketing program around three core ideas:

1. Strategy first. There is a lot of competition for real estate services in every market. Understanding your business, the strengths of your team, and the competitive landscape gives you the confidence to position your team strategically. Doing the deep strategy work sets you up for long-term growth and success.
2. Your website is the home of your business online. It should reflect your expertise, your team, and it should showcase your listings and content that you are sharing on all platforms. You work in real estate and (in most cases) advocate for your clients to own their home instead of rent it. You should build your business on land you own (your website) and not rented land.
3. Consistency brings success. To grow, your business needs an audience. The best way to keep your audience engaged and growing is to be producing content (video, email, podcast, etc) on a regular basis. The consistency of publishing to your audience means you will stay top of mind for your leads, prospects, and past clients.

These are my current thoughts, briefly explained. They are strong opinions, lightly held. My attitude is one of curiosity, humility, and optimism. I am sure my opinions will continue to evolve as I learn more.

++ Brett ++

Next week: musings on building an audience to grow your real estate business.

It’s the last day of July. I carved out a few minutes this morning to put the finishing touches on my July playlist. My favorite new song on the playlist is “I Used To Live In England” by Supermodel* (Spotify | YouTube). It’s a catchy summer bop and the current front runner for my song of the summer.

I, too, used to live in England.

Specifically, London. I completed a mid-career MBA at Bayes Business School. It was just two years ago that I was commuting to Finsbury Square on the Victoria Line (or the Overground) for lectures and meetings with professors and classmates. I was wrapping up my coursework at the end of my program. And I was deep in the weeds of my MBA capstone project, writing a 14,000 word, rigorously researched paper about opportunities for small marketing agencies.

There were two significant reasons why I chose Bayes, with its location in the heart of London for my MBA:

1. Cities are where great things are happening in business. The sheer number of people, ideas, and opportunities in a world-class city like London are unparalleled.
2. I wanted a different perspective. There is a quote attributed to George Bernard Shaw: “the US and the UK are two nations separated by a common language.” There are many cultural, academic, and professional differences between my American background and what I experienced in London. I wanted that friction. I saw it as healthy. I used it to open up my aperture of the world.

It was that project about marketing agencies, and my MBA experience on the whole, that gave me the push to start my own marketing agency.

I’m off for the weekend. Enjoy the tunes. See you next week.

++ Brett ++

I picked up a box of Mitsubishi 9852EW (HB) pencils at Penny Post in Alexandria a few months back. They’re a solid, dependable work horse that I’ve found myself coming back to again and again.

This morning I reached for one to start my Morning Pages ritual and noticed for the first time that it says “Master Writing” on one side of the pencil body.

The first time I read these two words, it sounded like a command:
(You will) Master Writing with this pencil.

The second time, I heard a note of encouragement:
(You can) Master Writing with this pencil.

And the third time, I read it as a marketing slogan:
(You can) Master Writing with this pencil.

I’ve been in a groove of late, writing out my first drafts by hand with pencil. I find that I edit myself less and am more willing to take risks on paper. The ritual of finding a quiet place to sit, cracking open a notebook, and grabbing a pencil to write out my thoughts by hand has been productive.

I look forward to refining and sharing some of my recent writing. More soon.

Have a terrific weekend.

++ Brett ++

Happy International Clash Day!

One of the first cassettes I owned was London Calling by The Clash. I don’t remember exactly how I ended up purchasing that white tape. Still, I like to think that a snobby record store employee like Barry in High Fidelity turned to me with a shocked look on his face and intoned harshly “You don’t own London Calling?!?!? It’s going to be ok.” while I blushed, grabbed the cassette from his hand, and rushed to the cash register.

When I first acquired the album I was obsessed and listened to it constantly. London Calling was a key that unlocked so many doors for me. Not just musically, but creatively. I was 12 or 13 years old and for the first time, I realized that an artist was both influenced by the things that came before them *and* capable of influencing the things that came after them. I came to London Calling over a decade after the album was first released. I saw that The Clash had been heavily influenced by musicians who came before them, while simultaneously having an enormous impact on the 90’s punk and post-punk music I was hearing on the radio.

A few years ago I was researching London Calling and discovered that it wasn’t just the album’s music that was influenced by earlier artists. The album art for London Calling – the black and white photograph of bassist Paul Simonon smashing his bass on stage with the pink and green lettering – is borrowed from Elvis Presley’s 1956 self-titled debut record.

There’s a Jim Jarmusch quote about creativity, influence, and inspiration that I return to every so often:

“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent.”

– Jim Jarmusch

Whether being influenced, borrowing, or stealing, the artists who create the art we love all rely upon and build upon those who came before them. Creativity is culmination.

What piece of art first inspired you at a young age?

++ Brett ++

Further Reading:

The Story Behind The ‘London Calling’ Cover in Retroavangarda

KEXP’s International Clash Day

25 Quotes To Help You Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon on his blog

This week’s inputs:

• London Calling by The Clash
• Moonstruck, the 1987 film

OpenAI and Anthropic just saw their competitive advantage in generative AI change drastically in the last few days. Their billions of dollars in spending (and funding) aren’t turning out to be quite the protective moat around their business like they thought.

The TL;DR of the DeekSeek news is this: DeepSeek developed a significantly cheaper method to do generative AI. DeepSeek’s new models have come out of left field to shock and disrupt the Silicon Valley status quo, catching the entire generative AI industry in the US flat-footed. Kylie Robison and Elizabeth Lopatto at The Verge summed up this development succinctly: “DeepSeek’s successes call into question whether billions of dollars in compute are actually required to win the AI race.”

This news has me thinking a lot this week about competitive advantage. The visual of a moat – a body of water surrounding and protecting a castle from would-be invaders* – is a powerful one. As business owners, we should all aspire to build and maintain moats around our brand and service offerings. A durable and sustainable competitive advantage is a powerful tool for growth and we should focus on regularly and consistently updating our systems and businesses to reflect this.

How does a small business sustain its competitive advantages?

Two small recommendations.

1 – Your company’s brand is amplified by you and your employees. Leverage your people and their passion for your business. Give your people the time and tools to create something, improve a process, or interview customers. Guide them on their journey, but allow them to take ownership and share their findings with the company (and if appropriate) with your customers.

2 – At the end of every sales cycle (successful or not) you should be asking your customer for constructive criticism and feedback. Not because you want reviews, though social proof is very powerful, but because you want to learn and get better. Was something confusing for the client? Will they recommend you to colleagues, friends, or family? If they chose to go with a competitor, why? You need to be asking these kinds of questions in order to continue to iterate and improve your services in alignment with your customer needs.

See you next week.

++ Brett ++

* “If you will not show us the grail, we shall take your castle by force.”

Further Reading:

Deep Impact by Ed Zitron in his newsletter Where’s Your Ed At?

5 Sources of Competitive Advantage to Drive Growth by Catherine Cote in Harvard Business School Online Business Insights

How An Economic Moat Provides a Competitive Advantage by Peter Gratton in Investopedia

What Is Social Proof by Shubham Gupta in Gartner Digital Markets