I am honored to have been interviewed by the Westfield News last week for feature story on the state of real estate in Western Massachusetts. I really appreciate the opportunity to share my opinion on Western MA real estate, especially first time home sales.
Here is the article:
I finally found the time to stop by Miss Sweets on Franklin Street in Westfield, MA and boy am I glad I did!
This shop is first of all, absolutely beautiful. The decor, lighting, style and ambiance are classy and comfortable making this a wonderful place to sit and enjoy a cup of coffee or hot chocolate. They even have free wi-fi!
I sampled four chocolate truffles and they were all amazing, but I must say my favorite was the Violetta truffle.
The shop has ice cream during the warm months, too! There were gift items available and I plan to purchase some truffles to give as hostess gifts for upcoming parties. Forget your diet and go try some! Be sure to visit Miss Sweets Facebook page AND the actually shop as soon as you can!
This week I received my first really nasty comment on my blog.
My first instinct was to delete and ignore. My mother always warned me that engaging with angry people is fruitless and much like poking a tiger.
My second thought was, wait, there is a blog post here. It might be a sort of blogger’s illness that I want to turn everything into a blog post, but I really want to explore the question that this nasty comment brought up and I want your input, too.
Do me a favor, though? Make the comments a bit less nasty. On second thought, maybe I find nasty comments inspiring.
Without further ado, here is the aforementioned comment:
The fact that you have facebook, twitter and a blog doesn’t make you tech saavy it makes you like everyone else in the world including my 10 year old nephew. Do you know XML? PHP? C+? Ruby on Rails? CSS? I didn’t think so. You real estate agents are pathetic.
I used that quote directly via cut and paste and left the bad spelling in place but I do know how to spell SAVVY.
Now, I CAN actually do some amateur coding, but I really don’t see how that is relevant to being a tech savvy real estate agent. Is Ruby on Rails going to assist me when negotiating a contract? Do I need to know CSS to assist a buyer client in finding their perfect home?
I use technology to be a more efficient and effective real estate agent in Western Massachusetts.
I define tech savvy as the ability to use technology to perform my job in a better way than I could without the technology. I think my effective use of iPhone, iPad, a blog, cloud applications and social media does make me tech savvy.
How do you define Tech Savvy?
Since I knew what the word inertia meant, I have known that I have a problem with inertia.
Bodies in motion stay in motion. Bodies in rest stay in rest.
So here is my problem. I go and go and get it all done done done. I do that and then I sit down. I sit and I rest and I am tired and don’t want to get up, maybe ever.
Of course, I do get up.
I am running my family, my business and my business is linked to people’s family and I must.
I must, but I want to, too. I want to work hard and I want to help my clients, but I also need to rest sometimes.
I am working on this and this weekend I took a picture that will remind me of this struggle for balance…
I sit on my couch, virtually incapacitated from my workout and I am brought to thoughts of pushing my limits.
It seems to be the theme for my week in so many ways.
The workout was a boot camp at Expert Fitness in Westfield. I have been working out there for a few months now and have done several boot camps, but this one pushed me to the brink of giving up….but, I didn’t.
Yesterday I met with my manager at Park Square Realty. I requested the meeting with him because I know I can work smarter and harder and I wanted his input. His suggestions were very good and they all require me to push my limits, or as he put it : “Go outside the Lesley box”.
I have been burning the candle at all four ends (what? your candle only has two?). Today I allowed myself to take it easy. I was productive and did all the work I needed to do, but I wasn’t rushing about making myself busy. My boyfriend,Morriss,made my meals and I was offered the royal treatment. Until aforementioned boot camp, of course. I pushed my limit by relaxing on a work day…I never do that.
I thought I was done after the workout, but I needed groceries so off to the store I went. I didn’t want to cook, but the seasonal ingredients were speaking to me. I bought butternut squash, bartlett pears, chicken, goat cheese and farro and made a yummy dinner. I wanted to eat popcorn, but I pushed my limit and made the healthy and wonderful dinner.
I went online to do some work, but first checked Facebook and came face to face with some realities that I didn’t want to recognize. I am pushing my limits in almost every way today….and I feel good.
