A Post of Appeasement

September 11th, 2008 Categories: Random, fannie mae, freddie mac, ratespeed

I’ve been about as busy as a human being can handle over the past month or so, logging more airline miles than I care to count for business, multiple weddings as well as visiting family I haven’t seen in 8 months (my mom was pretty pissed). As is the case with being busy doing ‘real work’ my blogging here on ye ole XBroker has been more infrequent than usual.

So what have I been up to, where have I been, where am I going?

I’ve been working with our tech team to push out RateSpeed beta applications to our initial users. As with any type of tech-development, delays and wrinkles are to be expected. I’m happy to say that yesterday the first group of applications actually went out. I’ll be announcing over on RateSpeed.com next week who the initial users are, updating the interactive map so everyone may find them as well. Over the next few days i’ll be helping them configure and integrating the apps into their sites. Exciting times.

I’m in three Fantasy Football leagues, so that takes up like 50 hours a week. j/k

I’ve been doing more ‘mainstream media’: radio, TV and traditional print. Case in point, tomorrow I’m doing an interview with Money Magazine senior editor Marlys Harris. Apparently some people consider me an authority on mortgage issues and related topics. Really, I just make a bunch of crap up and throw in some 3 syllable words to sound smart…again, j/k. (I’m actually pritty brillyant)

I did pen an article about ‘What the hell does all this Fannie Mae Freddie Mac government takeover stuff really mean?‘ As I hovered my mouse over the Publish button, I remembered that I’m also a contributing author for Agent Genius and had only written one snarky introductory post since agreeing to ‘come on board’. So I did the right thing and contributed the post to AG (Lani has since ceased her threats of castration and other unpleasantness to fall upon me). As an aside, how long do you think before the witch hunt begins and executives at the two companies are burned at the stake? Tick-tock tick-tock…

September 19th-21st I will be at REBlogWorld in Las Vegas with a cast of characters. I’m on a panel called The Pitch, doing my best to convince a separate panel of pundits and the audience why RateSpeed will be the best mortgage application since Loan Origination Software. Buy your tickets here come heckle me and experience all the cool stuff in the world of New Media (aka social media, Web 2.0, etc etc.) The conference is about more than just real estate and mortgage, its about meeting the thought leaders of the online world and learningfrom them. I would be there even if I wasn’t presenting (a legit reason to go to Vegas!)

Finally, I’d like to point out that ‘blogging’ is a potent medium to advance yourself as a person and your career in general. Almost every opportunity I have today stems from starting this blog a little over two years ago (well I did own 4 businesses too, my experiences there helped a wee bit).

Although my writing style and opinions don’t sit well with everyone (they’re not meant to), it allows people to identify with my brand: The XBroker…which is something too many people miss when venturing into the world of business and marketing. **It helps to be slightly educated about the topics you write about too.**

BUILD A BRAND, NOT A WEBSITE, NOT A ‘BUSINESS’…A BRAND

I’d fare to guess that not nearly as many people know who Jeff Corbett is as compared to The XBroker, JeffX, X-Man, X-Dude, or just plain X… Now that’s branding

So, I plugged my business, myself and a kick-ass conference…talked like an industry pundit, offered marketing advice, added a personal note or two and plugged myself again…..Done.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 11th, 2008 at 4:09 pm and is filed under Random, fannie mae, freddie mac, ratespeed. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.