Every so often I come across a life changing tool, technology or application. Mint.com has had the most profound effect on me so far. It’s mind boggling to me that everyone in the world doesn’t use it.

Mint.com does several things:

1. Saves you time
2. Helps you track your spending
3. Budget and plan your monthly expenses
4. Encourages you to save or pay off debts

Understanding how and where you spend your money is the first step to financial freedom; it’s not making the money- that’s the easy part. You can make $100,000 a year and chances are your lifestyle would reflect it. But does your bank account? If you’re like the average American you spend most of what you earn, in fact to see America’s debt statistics check out the following site-it says that the average household with a credit card has over $15,000 in debt. http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/credit-card-industry-facts-personal-debt-statistics-1276.php#Total-debt

Mint.com has changed my relationship with money and my husband! I no longer get anxious when bills come in, or when I’m trying to decide how much I should spend on my new website or marketing materials to generate new business. With one quick glance at my smart phone I can see on my mint.com app where I am with that month’s budget. I can see all my back accounts in one glance. And I can see charts and graphs that show me what my income vs my spending has been month to date. All of this helps my husband and I make smarter decisions on how we spend our money.

What’s great about Mint.com you can truly change your spending habits. It tracks month after month and will tell you what your average spending was for any length of time you request. When you know exactly how you spend your money you can begin to make changes.

It’s one thing to know you go to Starbucks several times a week. And when you get your credit card statement you see it listed 15 times. But when you actually have a coffee budget in front of you and you see in real time (it posts your transactions within minutes of a purchase) can tell that you’ve spent $75 already this month in coffee you might start thinking of other ways to spend your money.

I could go on and on about Mint.com – but I urge you to watch this Video explaining everything you need to know about it. All you need to know is it will take you about an hour to set it up. I recommend having two logins. One for your family expenses and one for your business expenses (this way at the end of the year it’s already broken out for you come tax time)! From there, mint.com will send you bill reminders, notify you when you’re over budget in an area, and will send you weekly recaps of how and where you spent your money. You don’t even have to log on to see these things- they e-mail all of that to you!

It’s just a fabulous tool- if you’re going to be serious about running a business, you should be serious about how you spend your money. This is by far the easiest way I’ve found to do just that!

I read an article in INC Magazine about this company whose mission statement went viral. They created this statement before they really had a business. All they knew was these are the words they want to live their life by.

This inspired me to create my own personal manifesto. Mind you I only spent 10 minutes on this, so it needs refining, but it was a great exercise to start the day.

“Life is precious. Live an inspired life. Dare to be creative in all you do. Find the good in all people. Everyone is in your life for a reason, discover and embrace what that reason is. Love more than you are loved. Share your talents with the world. Give. Learn from your experiences. View life like a child, full of opportunity. Live your passion. Explore the world. Hear the music. Seek change. Dare to take risks. Be thankful for life’s gifts. Learn from your mistakes. Live. Learn. Give. Love.”

I dare you to write your own personal manifesto! Dare to be inspired!

Looking for a way to track your goals and your “to-dos” on a daily basis?  Checkout the Wunderlist App.  Every New Year people make “resolutions” or set goals on what they want to accomplish for the year.  But if you’re like me – I stash the goals away only to revisit next year.  Experts say if you really want to accomplish what’s on your list you need a regular reminder and set accomplishment dates.   That’s the beauty of Wunderlist.

Wunderlist, being held in the cloud, is accessible from your Smartphone, your tablet or your computer.  It’s basically an electronic list. With some really cool features:

1.  You can create separate lists of goals and tasks.  For me I have a few set lists.  2012 Goals, Daily To-do’s, Weekly Tasks, Grocery List.
2. You can set task or goal deadlines – with reminders to be e-mailed to you in you need them.
3. You can share lists with others.  For example, my grocery list my husband has access to.  If he needs something from the store, it’s his responsibility to add it to the list.  It also helps with me “misplacing” my lists.  I now only have to keep track of my Smartphone!
4. You get the satisfaction of “marking” your done items off the list.  It’s great to look over a list and see progress.

As with most of my favorite Apps, Wunderlist is Free!  It’s one that all of can use to help organize our lives and year ahead. I guess that means it’s Cheers to a New Year!

I enjoyed meeting so many of you and engaging with you after my presentations hearing about what you do in your own businesses. The best tip was from a gal who does Home Buying Seminars. She contacts  local large businesses and government agencies to conduct “Brown Bag Home Buying Seminars.” It’s a great way to have a captive audience. The employer does the marketing for you, all you have to do is show up and present! Thank you to whom ever shared that tip with us.

As promised I wanted to share my presentations with you, so you can go back to your offices and share with your colleagues.

Oh, and by the way… NJ’s hospitality was also a highlight of my trip!   It cracks me up that there is really a “law” not allowing you to pump your own gas?! Which I found out the hard way! It was a memorable trip for sure.  From the sessions, to dinners with new and old friends. Thank you for having me!

Till’ Next Time, May the Road To Success Be Yours!
Shannon W. King

Looking for affordable, unique gifts for your loved ones or yourself? Here are 5 Must Have Tech Gadgets all Road Warriors need, and a few more gift ideas I thought sounded cool! What’s on your list this year?

1) Kindle Fire – At $199 who can’t resist finding out what all the fuss is about.  I love Amazon, so I think I’ll like it. They say it’s the iPad2′s closest competition… I want to find out! Is this on your list?

2) Mophie Juice Pack – True Road Warriors are always on the phone.  Don’t find yourself without battery power for the ever so important phone call.  These small cases double your phones’ battery life.  Only $79 online!

3) Motorola t505 – A must have if your car doesn’t come equipped with built in Bluetooth.  You will love the way this little device integrates with your car’s radio.  Buy it online at Amazon for the best deals about $60.

4) Drivesafe.ly App – You can now text and drive safely!  This is the perfect FREE gift to “give” your friends, clients and kids.  Who knows you might even save a life.

5) Wide Angle Lens Kit -for your iPhone or Video Camera – For all of us who shoot photos with our Smartphones you can now use this wide angle attachment to get the best photos possible.  $50 on HDhat.com

And now for some other fun ideas!!!

6) Square up – Think PayPal for you Smartphone.  It’s perfect if you sell products, have a fundraiser, or a garage sale.  Or someone just owes you money.  You can now accept credit cards for ANYTHING with just your phone!  And it’s FREE… what a great gift for those you know who are in any service industry.

7) The Flip – Ok, so they are going out of business-  but I just LOVE this camera.  So while supplies last you can still manage to get a 1 hr one for $80!

8) Roku - Looking for a way to save $$$ on your cable bill?  Check out this little black box that streams Hulu, On Demand Movies, Netflix and so much more.  They start at $50.

9) 3m Pocket Projector – Ok, so I have to admit, I have no idea who would want to spend $250-$400 on one of these, but I just think they are really cool.  And who knows you might now that person looking for one!

10) Video Light Kit – Perfect for those budding video freaks out there.  This is a way cool add on, and makes a huge difference in your production quality. It’s only $70.  Gotta love HDHat.com

Bonus 11) Anything Apple —-  You really can’t go wrong here.  But the point of this post was affordable. While I believe Apple is well worth the investment, it’s not exactly the cheapest on the block.

Here are a few other lists to check out as well!

Cnet 20 Tech Gifts under $100

Mashable 16 Quirky Gifts

PCWorld Top Tech Gifts

Happy Shopping!!!  Keep us posted on what you decide is the best tech gift out there!

Video is becoming even more relevant in our technology dependant culture.  This translates directly to how we do our business as REALTORS.

We’ve all seen videos on You Tube or Facebook. Statistics released from You Tube in June say that three billion videos are watched on You Tube alone each day. Overall, nearly 85 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience watches videos online, according to a May 2010 report from comScore Inc., which tracks video viewership.

It’s no wonder video has hit real estate in a big way — the audience online for videos is too big to ignore. Search for real estate videos on YouTube and you’ll find almost 300,000 videos available. And there’s no shortage of other video distribution companies out there helping you to cast an even wider net with your videos online.

How does this affect you and our industry? Consumers are becoming more accustomed to watching videos. I would venture a guess that they may even prefer them to still photos.  If you’re utilizing this technology in your marketing strategy you’re most likely going to attract a wider range of clientele.

But before you decide to jump on the video bandwagon, you should determine how you’re going to use video in your marketing.  There are a variety of ways to connect with your current, past and potential clients through video.  To help spark your creative juices, here are 10 common types of videos real estate professionals are producing.

VIDEO TOPICS

1. Property tours: Feature the home you’re trying to sell in a video. This can be a great way to show off a home’s uniqueness, and may be the reason sellers choose you over your competition to list their home.

2. How-to videos: Walk clients through the home buying or selling process with video tutorials, such as an overview of the contract, what to expect at closing or market trends and updates.

3. Neighborhood tours: Share with potential clients the ins and outs of a particular neighborhood.  Focus on highlighting the local home styles, near by schools, and parks.  The idea is to give the prospective buyer an idea of the conveniences they will find in that particular area.

4. Community highlights: Show off your entire community with a video featuring the fun things to do, the unique landmarks or historical sites. You may want to highlight your favorite restaurants, races or community events.

5.  Client testimonials: After the transaction you can ask your clients what they liked best about the process and working with you or your team.  This allows your former clients to share indirectly with your future clients all the great services you provided.

6. Presentations: Capture footage of any presentations or talks you give in the community or at conferences to demonstrate your knowledge and the crowds you attract. If you do home buying seminars or property tax reduction seminars you can grab footage to highlight on your site.

7. Blog posts: Video your blog post instead of writing it to make it even more personal and compelling. Talk about an aspect of homeownership or use a video to reinforce an already written blog post.

8. Introduce yourself: Share with potential clients who you are by producing a welcome video that highlights who you are and the services you provide. Have it under your “About” or “Contact” page on your website or send it as a welcome e-mail to new clients.

9. Home owner pitch: Have the home owners of the house you’re trying to sell to talk about why they love the house, the neighborhood, and all of their wonderful memories from living there.

10. Problem solver: Take all of those frequently asked questions you get from clients and respond to them on video.

While these are just a few ideas, the sky’s the limit on what you can produce.  It’s your chance to be creative and set yourself apart from your competition.  Once you have a pretty good idea of what videos to produce, you’ll need to decide if you want to shoot the videos yourself or if you want to hire someone to help. Either way it’s fun and pretty easy to do.

PROFESSIONAL HELP

If your time is limited or you want a professionally shot video I recommend hiring a local filmmaker to help.  You can find them at a site like www.Turnhere.com.  The filmmaker will meet you anywhere for the video shoot. They will interview you and any clients you’d like to appear in your video. Afterwards, the filmmaker compiles the footage to create a story about your business. Once completed, they will distribute your video across multiple platforms, making it available on popular search engines and YouTube. You’ll also receive an easy-to-install video player to add to your website or blog. Or if you’re tight on money, you can find a college film student for the job on Craigslist.

SHOOT IT YOURSELF

If you want to participate more directly in the creative development, or have a tight budget, shooting and editing the video yourself is a good option.  First you’ll need a video camera.  I recommend using something simple like the $150 Kodak Playtouch (www.kodak.com/go/redeal for a real estate discount) because it gives you an option to use an external microphone.  Or go with the Flip www.theflip.com where you can find great deals because they are no longer manufactured.

Both of these options are ultra-thin cameras that slide in your pocket, and are easy to take out point and shoot (you can even capture footage in high-definition!), and then just use its built-in USB arm to connect to your computer and start downloading. Or, save money if you have a smartphone and use the built-in video camera.

If you want to get fancy with your equipment you may want to consider wide-angle lenses, camera stabilizers or extra lighting.  There’s a great site to research these extras www.HDHat.com.

EDITING

Once you shoot the video, you’ll need to spend a little time editing it. You can use the software inside the Flip camera — yes, you can edit with just the Flip camera! Or for more advanced editing, try what comes installed on your computer — newer PCs have Microsoft Movie Maker or Mac’s have iMovie.  They are both pretty easy to use. You can even download the iMovie app and edit your videos directly on your iPhone.

If you’re not into self-editing your videos, but you have the video footage or still photos you’d like to use, check out a service like Animoto.com.  First, you upload the videos and photos to the site. Animoto will do the rest by turning them into a professional video. You’ll be able to choose a soundtrack for your video using Animoto’s large royalty-free collection. You can add text to your video too, and a custom call-to-action button at the end. Once your video is complete, you can add it to your website, social networking pages, YouTube, or even create high quality DVDs of it. The best part is Animoto is free for videos under 30-seconds.

DISTRIBUTION PLATFORMS

Once your movie is edited, you’ll need to a place to host your video in order to share it.  You’ll find there’s a whole distribution world out there ready to spread your videos across the Internet and help you maximize your viewership. There are many platforms to choose from. I recommend spending time researching these sites to determine which one best fits your needs.

WellcomeMat.com is a distribution platform specifically designed for the real estate industry. Known for their customer service, you can actually pick up the phone and speak to someone.  WellcomeMat.com allows you to brand your videos and share them on your website, MLS, and social networking sites.  They have widgets to display all or some of your videos on your website. You can also create your own Internet video channel with an individualized URL. Being real estate centric, they allow you to create an MLS-compliant video for easy sharing. Oh, and you can use WellcomeMat.com to find a filmmaker to help you shoot and edit your videos.

YouTube is the most popular sharing platform for distributing and viewing videos online. Create an account and upload your video in just a few clicks. By creating your own branded video channel, you’ll be able to choose a URL to distribute all of your videos in one easy to find spot. YouTube allows viewers to leave comments, giving you the opportunity to have conversations about your videos or answer any questions. You can build a bigger audience by following their Creator Playbook www.youtube.com/creators/playbook it’s a free step-by-step guide to creating and distributing videos.

A FEW MORE TIPS

Shooting video is fun! The key to a successful video is doing something you’re comfortable with.  Be yourself on camera, and don’t take yourself too seriously.  It doesn’t have to be perfect.  You’ll get better the more often you do it.  A great site to check out for daily video tips is www.ReelSEO.com.  Happy Shooting!

VIDEO REVOLUTION (As seen in MIRealtor Online Magazine!)

An easy way to attract new clients

By Shannon W. King, GRI, ABR, Schoolhouse Realty San Diego, CA

A past 30-under-30 award winner, Shannon is known as the Real Estate Road Warrior because her career-military husband’s job forces frequent moves. To start fresh each time she embraces technology and social media to expand her reach.  She speaks internationally, has been featured on House Hunters and has a book Real Estate Road Warrior: 101 Technology Tools for Business On the Go.

Collect More Fans using Facebook’s 32665 text to follow. When you’re out networking and someone says I’ll look you up on Facebook- all you have to say is – actually text the “name of your page” to 62665 (FBOOK). They will receive an e-mail confirmation right away saying they are following you! It’s a cool way to collect fans.

1) Decide to make a difference.

2) Choose your cause.  You can make it up. Maybe it’s for your neighbor who’s house was lost in a fire. Or maybe it’s for the needy kids at your nearby school. Maybe you want to start a new charity. You decide how to leave your mark.

3) Visit Causes.com

4) Start your Cause by filling out an easy form.  It will ask your Cause Name, Mission, Category, Description, and how much you want to raise.

5) Promote your Cause.  It will ask you to connect with your Facebook account. It will track what causes you’re apart of and who your sphere of influence is donating to.  It’s a great way to get your message out there quickly!

Come back and visit this page to see my Speaking for a Cause Link – I’m in the process of uploading the info now! But I didn’t want to wait to post this, as I know many of you want to do this yourself for the holiday, your birthday, wedding gifts, or a community effort!

Let’s get busy we have a world to change! Let me know what causes you’re apart of and what you start!