Could Wrigley Field Be Rumi’s Field? Will We Meet You There?

A recent Wall Street Journal article inspired this post. It was titled: “The Chicago Cubs are the Official Team of Jews—Also Christians, Buddhists and Muslims!” At first, it made no sense to us.Was this some politically correct doublespeak?

The article went on to explain that pundits from all these religions mentioned have agreed that the Cubs will win the World Series. Each is using their interpretations of numbers that are a part of their religious writings, theories of meaningful numbers. Finally, something that they all can agree upon! To read more, click on the link.

Then, this evening, as we were sipping some Sagrantino wine from Umbria made from Sagrantino grapes, it came to me (A) that perhaps Wrigley Field could be the field about which the Suffi Moslem mystic, Rumi, referred. Here is the quote: 

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing

and right doing there is a field.

I’ll meet you there."

We could not help but reflect on the idea that all of us should try to find such a field, where it is safe to be friends, instead of enemies based on beliefs, dogmas and past wrongdoings. Will we meet you in Rumi’s field?

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

Brands Have A Personality: What Is In This Box?

What is in this box?  A ticket to London?  If you put the words, "fly London" in Google, you get British Airways in the first few lines.  

Here is another clue.  This is the inside of the box.  There are illustrations of London Landmarks.  No, this does not contain a First Class Ticket to London on Virgin Airlines!  There is a fun loving brand personality here!

Fly London is a United Kingdom based shoe company.  They manfacture shoes for both men and women. Here is their mission and personality statement from their web site, 

"A refreshingly balanced collection, different from the rest of the high street, having all and no trend at all, letting creativity do its work, following the motto again: always progressive, never conventional! We have created an upbeat joyous collection full of colour, innovation and humour”. 

And it is true, if you take time to check out their website.  They are proud to have given their designers this instruction, "Go where the inspiration takes you!  Don't Walk, Fly!"

They carved out a perfect niche and a great personality in the comfortable shoes arena without compromising style, fashion and fun.   We loved the branding, we loved the humour, and I (A) love the shoes!  I am looking forward to long walks or Flights in my new shoes!

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

Photos Increase Readership: Get the Picture?

One of the oldest forms of communication is sharing pictures. If you want your blog to actually be read by humans, not just crawling Internet robots, start your posts with great photos. Let your primary photo convey the overarching theme of your post.

It is a well known fact that communicating with photos increases readership. Posts with photos are read 94% more often than those without them. That is because images are more likely to be retained in our memory, rather than abstract verbal ideas. 60% of consumers are more likely to contact a business when an image shows up in a local search, according to our research.

The photos in this post are images from the Lascaux Caves in France. They are thought to be over 17,000 years old. What is interesting about them is that they depict animals that existed at the time of the painting based on fossils found of such animals. Our ancestors were communicating their lives with us.

Flash forward! Snapchat (recently renamed, Snap, Inc.) gets the picture. They are coming out with a new "toy" called Spectacles. These are sunglasses that let you capture and share 10 second videos hands-free from your personal point of views, videos that will instantly disappear after they are viewed. The popularity of Snapchat demonstrates that pictures are used more and more as a mode of communication.

Can you see why a blog post without a photo completely misses the picture? After all, most of us learned how to read with picture books.

Great photos conveying your key message not only catch people's attention, they hold attention as your audience is reading your blog post. Take the time to select interesting pictures and watch your readership Increase.

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace

Change Your Perspective: Say Yes To More Business!

People see and interpret things differently. Your ability to shift your point of view and see things their way may just be one of the most important skills to develop when dealing with affluent clients in real estate or any service business.

One of our most memorable travel experiences and life lessons occurred while visiting the Vasarely Museum in Aix-en-Provence, southern France. Victor Vasarely was known as the “grandfather of op art”, the art movement that incorporates optical illusions in abstract compositions. 

Vasarely’s works included huge carpets that were hung on walls, sculptures and many two-dimensional pieces that give the viewer a sense of movement, camouflaged images, vibrating patterns, or of three-dimensional warping or swelling.

Vasarely’s compositions often shift perspective completely as you gaze upon them. One moment they are concave and then convex the next moment.  When we left the museum we literally had to sit down and get acclimated again to our normal surroundings.

The take-away that left an indelible impression for us was the idea that we actually craft our own realities in our minds as we view the objects “out there”. The same set of “facts” can take on completely different meanings given the context or worldview that each of us holds.

That is why it is essential that we have agreed upon ground rules to facilitate our interactions with each other. Yet, it is so important that we also understand that people see and interpret things differently.

In tennis for example, with multiple cameras triangulate impressions digitally, a ball is objectively either on the line or out (within a minute agreed upon margin for error). All umpires, players and fans agree upon this objective rule, which eliminates subjective disputes.

Apart from these rules, we need to champion diversity and creativity in perception.  That is the source of innovation and of invention. Practice shifting your point of view and appreciating other’s perspectives more often. You will find that you will attract more affluent clients when you do

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

Going For Gold & Fun: The Competitive Advantage of Precision Teamwork

As a luxury real estate marketing professional you have a distinct competitive advantage if you operate as a team. However, the secret to winning the game is to develop PRECISION teamwork and that requires the total alignment of purpose among all team members. Those teams who win medals in the Olympics are shining examples of precision teamwork.

Whether you are a solopreneur with a support staff, a partnership, or a group of professionals each individual member of the team has his or her own purpose. It is essential that you discover the chief aim of each person, then, communicate that explicitly and openly. Only then can you clearly see how your purposes actually can align.

In selecting a partner it is wise to find someone who has the same level of ambition as you. As a husband and wife team who has worked together in several businesses, we have truly experienced the power of precision teamwork

We have a rule that everything we pursue together must be what we call a “hell yes!” If one of us disagrees we usually drop the idea, and take no action. But, this does not represent a subordination of individuality. We are both strong individuals on our own and very effective persuaders. We often laugh at each other’s clever persuasion techniques. It is fun because we trust that our overarching purposes are identical and totally aligned.

Our mutual purpose is to individually experience the certainty of our ability to make our dreams come true. This transcends the importance of any particular goal and makes our mutual endeavors more like a game that we help each to win.

Nothing is more important than maintaining our relationship of trust as a team. With that in mind, together, we are always bigger than any obstacle that can arise.

If one of us feels particularly strong about some pursuit, we support each other by encouraging the other to trust their intuition and see how it plays out in the realm of action. We trust that the stronger willed partner will either expand our horizons or jettison the idea entirely.

In a group, however, not everyone has the same level of ambition. This does not diminish the power of each individual’s contribution to the overall aim of the team. Role players can make or break a team.

When we owned a commercial real estate firm we were a small but mighty group of five. By creating a small, high-powered team we were able to more quickly dominate our niche in high-end retail development and leasing, and also corporate relocation for the entertainment industry, in Beverly Hills and the adjacent areas.

Like a gold metal winning Olympic team, when your purposes are aligned, precision teamwork flourishes. More, importantly, from our personal perspective, you simply have more fun!

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

A Better You: Not Just Me, Myself And "I"!

In a previous post about our Mid-Year Business Check Up, we mentioned a very important paradigm shift that is now required if you are interested in achieving market leadership in your marketplace. There seemed to be a bit of confusion about this topic, so this post is intended to make this crucial point even clearer.

The paradigm shift that we are referring to is this:  The business of residential real estate is no longer a game of marketing real estate; it is a game of marketing YOU! 

Due to public access of real estate listing information via the Internet, everyone has the exact same inventory, with the exception of pocket listings.  That makes both the information and YOU a commodity.

Here is where the clarity is needed. By YOU we mean your unique brand of doing business. We have to assume that most competent agents have knowledge of their marketplace, good negotiation skills and have integrity. Can you see that even these fine qualities become commodities? In this context what makes YOU stand out?

That is why it is so important to identify what you can do better than anyone else, express your unique promise of value is just a few words, and then BRING A BETTER YOU TO THE GAME by doing the following:

1.     GET OUT THERE AND MEET MORE PEOPLE FACE-TO-FACE THAN YOUR CLOSEST COMPETITION. BE INTERESTED, NOT INTERESTING.
2.     COMMUNICATE YOUR UNIQUE PROMISE OF VALUE TO MORE PEOPLE THAN YOUR COMPETITION
3.     BE MORE VISIBLE IN YOUR COMMUNITY THAN YOUR COMPETITION
4.     CONSISTENTLY STAY IN TOUCH WITH YOUR EVER-EXPANDING REFERRAL BASE, AND DO SO BETTER THAN YOUR COMPETITION
5.     ASK MORE PEOPLE TO INTRODUCE YOU TO MORE PEOPLE

That is what we mean by marketing YOU, a BETTER YOU, not just me, myself and I.

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

Sharply Focused Niche Marketing: A $1 Billion Idea!

The power of focus cannot be emphasized enough if you want to dominate a luxury real estate market niche in your area.  A single strategy that is sharply focused can make you rich while all others are faced with cutthroat competition!

Five years ago Mike Dubin launched an online business through which he sells razors as a subscription service, shipped by mail. His company, Dollar Shave Club in Venice, California, has been sold to Unilever for a cool $1Billion. 

His strategy is simple:  A great shave for a few bucks a month.  His slogan is precise, stating the unique promise of value in just 4 words:  “Shave Money. Shave Time!”

Knowing his target market’s psychographics inside and out, he got away with a big fat claim, using taboo marketing: “OUR BLADES ARE F**KING GREAT!

The Dollar Shave Club rapidly gained popularity with a You Tube video that went viral. It was viewed almost 23 million times. Check it out below!

A single strategy can make you rich if you have the right niche! Hopefully, this will help to dispel your fears of choosing a niche that is too narrow, providing there is a large enough target market that can potentially satisfy your financial goals.

To learn more about niche marketing click here: Which Niche Can Make You Rich? 

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

The Decision: Who Is Going To Sell My Home?

When making a choice as to what agent or agency to hire to sell their homes, the majority of luxury real estate sellers ask for a recommendation from trusted friends. If their friends don’t have one, then they will look for a brand they recognize and trust.

This applies to choices we all make in general, whether it is a professional service or a product we are looking for. Here is an example:

We had heard that Chilean wines were making a name for themselves in Europe and in the United States for their excellent wines. We went to our local wine store to educate ourselves on the latest and greatest Chilean wines.

As we were looking over the Cabernet Sauvignon shelves, we noticed a stack of cases made of wood nearby. Within these wooden cases, bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon were displayed on their sides instead of upright.

Usually only the most expensive wines are packed that way. The wine label identified it as a Chilean wine from Chateau Lafite Rothschild. is a storied wine brand known for its excellence and quality wines. When we saw the care in packing and the brand name, it was a no brainer to try this wine. The price was very reasonable at $13.95. We knew we could count on the brand, the wine was outstanding, and we promptly bought more.

The moral of this story is that a brand is a trust mark more so than a trademark. Build a reputation of trust, and let your packaging tell the story of the quality your potential clients can expect when they work with YOU!

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

Are You Marketing You With A Cookie Cutter Approach?

In marketing luxury real estate, a cookie cutter approach, in describing your extraordinary promise of value, will not cut it!  An emphasis on the emotional reasons to engage your services vs. logical ones will make the difference.

Luxury consumers use logical reasons to justify their emotional reasons and not the other way around.  Therefore, it is best to engage luxury consumers with an emotional/experiential story about YOU and/or your company. 

Take a lesson from luxury car ad companies.  When they are selling a Porsche, they talk about the “driving pleasure--experiencing the thrills of the road.”  Mercedes’ recent tag line is “the best or nothing!” 

The same type thinking has to be part of your messaging when promoting your services.  Your audience thinks in terms of the unique value experience and appreciates the inherent value of service. 

One of the top producers we have worked with tells her story simply.  She was a single mother working at a wig factory gluing hair at $8.00 an hour.  Within three years in real estate, she earned a high six-figure income and her son was going to private school.  Would you not want to work with someone of this caliber?

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Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

If I Only Had A Brain!

Say good-bye to mindless luxury real estate blog posts! Google has a brain! Now it can differentiate between worthwhile content and self-congratulating posts or mind numbing real estate information.

Google does its best to match the best answers to its users search queries, and then displays its most relevant ads.  Last October Google added RankBrain, an artificial intelligence system that helps it evaluate search results. Offline, the system teaches itself the best answers to historical search queries. Then, it compares new articles and blog posts to its own answers. This form of artificial intelligence is Google’s answer to real estate agents’ artificial intelligence.

According to Google’s senior artificial intelligence scientist, Greg Corrado,  “In the few months it has been deployed, RankBrain has become the third-most important signal contributing to the result of a search query.” That is number 3 out of 10,000 signals and sub signals used to make sure the results match the question.

How does this change affect you and your online activities?  The answers are still the same.  Fresh Original content still ranks high preferably with photos, videos and maps if appropriate.  Here is an example:

This morning as we were researching the Wizard of Oz to find Scarecrow’s picture, Google displayed a blog post we had written in  December of 2009, titled, Luxury Real Estate Branding: Branding Is Like The Wizard Of Oz.

Say hello to brain food for thought in your blog posts.  Google’s AI (artificial intelligence) is on to real estate artificial intelligence.

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

Forget Broccoli: Eat Your Daily Requirement Of Chocolate, Or Else!

If you need to boost your morale, stay fresh for the whole day, woo your clients to buy a luxury property or be a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize for mediating a real estate dispute, forget eating broccoli. Binge on chocolate!

Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish botanist, concluded that eating chocolate is a religious experience. He named the cocoa tree, Theobroma, an ancient Greek word for "food of the gods".

Chocolate is said to have many benefits:  

Hernán Cortes, one of the Spanish Conquistadors found it suitable for the military  "a beaker of chocolate keeps a solidier fresh for the whole day."  

In 1755, during the French and Indian War, Benjamin Franklin procured 6 pounds of chocolate for each officer.

During the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress enacted price controls on chocolate, because they knew it maintained the fighters' morale.  Each soldier received his minimum daily requirement of chocolate.

Even Giacomo Casanova found chocolate to be the best gift to seduce women.  Legend has it that no one could resist a cup of hot cocoa when served by the world's greatest lover.

In a 2012, The New England Journal of Medicine released a study called. "Chocolate Consumption, Cognitive Function and Nobel Laureates" authored by Franz H. Messerli, M.D.  The study concluded:

"Chocolate consumption could improve cognitive function not only in individuals but in whole populations. He found that there is a correlation between a country's level of chocolate consumption and its total number of Nobel laureates per capita. Dr. Messerli based this study on regular daily chocolate consumption, mostly but not exclusively in the form of dark varieties."

Now you know that there is no excuse for slacking in your luxury real estate marketing practice, when you can fuel it with dark chocolate. If you do not pick up the slack your competition will!

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel- 

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

Which Comes First? The Logo Or The Brand, The Horse In The Cart?

If you are looking to developing a personal or company brand as a luxury marketing professional you need to know which comes first, the logo or the brand.   Some designers, advertising agencies, web developers, marketing firms, and public relations firms claim to do branding, when they are actually referring to logo design.

How can you create a graphic representation of a brand when you don’t know what the brand stands for, i.e., its brand position? A logo is not a brand.  It is like putting the cart before the horse.  You may wind up with a cute design or even an image you like.  But, the logo will not do its job as a definitive statement of your brand.

The brand statement is a distillation of an extensive discovery process to determine the extraordinary promise (EVP) of the company, or person. The process is a review of a company’s or an individual’s visions, core values, preferences, goals, and experiences. It also includes a thorough analysis of the market place as well as the competitive landscape.

Determining the nuances of a brand’s personality is another part of the discovery process.  This is one of the criteria used in choosing fonts and colors, which also have to be in harmony with the target market.  All these actions create a precise expression and impression designed to attract your ideal clients.   

When this process is finished and agreed upon this information is then relayed to the graphic designer with specific art direction.  The designer can then expand upon the concept that eventually becomes the logo that communicates what the brand stands for in the mind of the target market.

Which comes first?  The Brand And Then the Logo, The Cart And Then The Horse!!

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel- 

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.