There’s a lot corny about Tom Cruise’s “you complete me” dialog at the end of Jerry Maguire but the part that always sticks with me is where he says something like “we live in a cynical world of tough competitors.” Implicit is that there’s something more to life and I’ve been fortunate to witness that this week.
It’s been a long week around here working on the ARMLS conversion. Not much sleep and lots of work. Fortunately, that hard work is paying off. We certainly have tuning yet to do on the system but we’ve gotten over the core networking issues that were plaguing us early in the week. Jaison Freed and Cal Heldenbrand pulled an amazing all-nighter on Wednesday to re-build our firewall configurations from scratch and split our web farms, which were the key networking issues. Jaison’s effort was especially amazing given that he had pulled an all-nighter Monday night as well. Another stellar performer, working through illness and little sleep, James Ridley, summed up on Twitter how I feel exactly:
A really tough week, but I saw some great reactions to some really adverse situations. It’s awesome to work with people like that.
I’ve named a few co-workers but the reality is that literally everyone in the company has been nose to grindstone, doing great work. What an amazing group of people. Sometimes I found myself wondering if the stress is worth “it” but what I’m realizing is that “it” isn’t a monetary reward or other “win” but the relationships we build through life. So, yes, it’s worth it.
The reactions of our employees have been matched equally by the reaction of our long-time customers. These are people who’ve been there with us through thick and thin, and continued to show their humanity this week. These are people who are watching our company grow and celebrating with us even though that growth has impacted them negatively this week. In our cynical world, there aren’t many people who can reach those heights and so we’re very fortunate to have so many of them as clients. I’ve received many e-mails of support from clients and friends in the industry this week, and to all who’ve written, I want you to know it means so much.
At the same time, the newarmls.com blog is blazing away with rants and insults from a few drowning out meaningful discussion by others. I begrudge no one their anger but find it unproductive as well. Richard Park’s comment (#247) rebuffing the ranters hit home with me: “Do you think that those in charge of the system are sitting in their chairs gloating over your difficulties? Don’t you think they are feeling enough pressure and motivation to get things going without your trying to kick them in the gut while they do it?” No one here at FBS has shrunk from or denied the problems we had this week, but the cynical nature of some people does amaze me.
But what it really does is highlight by contrast how amazing the people are who rise above their frustrations and anger and seek out solutions and dialog. Those are the people I want to do business with. For them, we’ll walk through crushed glass with bare feet (or at least stay up all night) to help them. Why? Because we’re helping another human being. A person. That the “it’ in all of this.
Though all the people I’ve worked with and spoken to this week are the inspiration for this post and my work, the fire that lit my energy again enough to write the post was from an e-mail sent to me by David Newcombe at Russ Lyon | Sotheby’s International Realty. David was caring enough to solicit positive feedback from some of the others in his office and sent it along to me and the great team at ARMLS with the following note (which I hope he doesn’t mind me sharing because I’m not going to e-mail him to ask at this time of the morning):
” So, for anyone feeling down or pissed off – here are the GOOD NEWS emails. Please pass on as you wish to the incredible teams at ARMLS and Flex, with love from Russ Lyon Sotheby’s International Realty……..”
In this cynical world, this kind of support builds relationships that make the effort worth “it”. We move beyond objects to people. Humans. Amazing and beautiful. Now, back to work.
P.S. I’m having to moderate comments because, I believe, some of our firewall changes are preventing Akismet from handling the comment spam.
With ARMLS going live today, we’re experiencing a heavy load and reconfiguring the web farm a bit to adjust to it. Sorry for the sporadic experience. We expect to have it smoothed out in the next few hours.
Unofficially (the official word belongs to ARMLS), Russell Shaw had the first new listing entered into the flexmls Web system that went live for ARMLS today. I was checking out Russell’s listing when I came across this picture and thought it was perfect for so many reasons.
Russell made his mark with the first listing (actually, he had the first six!) and it’s a huge relief to me and everyone here at FBS to finally be going live. We’ve been working on this for months and, as with any big project, there comes a point where it just has to be finished. I’m certain we’ll have a flurry of activity on the support lines over the next several weeks as the ARMLS membership becomes accustomed to the new system, but it will be so much better to work with customers on a live system instead of beta.
Arizona Regional MLS has set up a new blog called NewARMLS.com. Though one of the key topics on the blog is the conversion to the flexmls Web system, Bob Bemis, ARMLS’s CEO, appears to be looking to use this platform for a long time to come to engage members on a wide variety of issues as evidenced by recent posts on short sales and inappropriate words in remarks or directions.
I think this use of a blog by an MLS is a great way to engage members and provide news updates both by e-mail and feed readers. Of course, blogging also offers a way for members to provide feedback to the MLS. For anyone reading this who has influence over the agenda at CMLS or the Clareity MLS Workshop, you might want to consider putting together a “how to” session for MLSs to get started with blogging, because I think this is going to prove to be a great resource for MLSs who embrace it.
P.S. I think this also is likely to make the agenda for our FBS Summit, at least in one of the tracks for those MLSs interested in learning about blogging to improve their membership communications.
Blogging is a powerful way to connect with others. I understood that before but now it’s burned into my consciousness. First, the response from Phoenix area real estate bloggers to our announcement that Arizona Regional MLS has selected us to be their next MLS vendor was immediate. Greg Swann, Jay Thompson, Jonathan Dalton, Steven Groves, and Steve Belt all posted on the news within a few hours.
Second, and most importantly, the reaction was overwhelmingly positive, primarily because these guys have grown to trust us through the FBS Blog. Why is there this trust? Have these bloggers investigated every inner-working of flexmls Web, like the ARMLS selection committee did? No, they haven’t even seen it. So why the respectful response? Because we’ve established a relationship by engaging with our ideas on and around the FBS Blog. Greg Swann put it well:
What it means is that we are about to get an MLS vendor who is willing to listen to us, and who very earnestly wants to do his very best — not just because it will mean more business for his company but simply because he is internally committed to doing his very best.
Shortly after posting, Greg took this even further and suggested that he and other bloggers could help with the transition by creating a “users for users” group blog. In a few hours, Greg had a blog — The Phoenix Real Estate Technology Exchange — up and running and had assembled a team of contributors.
Make no mistake, these folks are not promoting FBS or flexmls Web. Rather, they are seeking to help their fellow members of ARMLS by creating a space where questions can get asked and answered objectively. If, as the conversion moves forward, there are things this group doesn’t like, they’ll call us out on it. Hard. And yet they know we’ll be there to respond, promptly, directly and honestly, which is why the trust exists in the first instance.
Without a doubt, there will be challenges as we move forward. There will be features that can be improved. There will be needs and wants to be fulfilled. As good as we think flexmls Web is, the system isn’t perfect (yet) but we’re always moving in that direction and getting there faster can only be helped through this level of engagement with our users. Such an open exchange is exactly what blogging is about and why it is so powerful. That vendors and users can engage at such a level without fear or loathing represents a new day dawning in many ways and I’m very excited to be a part of it.
