In today’s diverse workplace, your actions and motives are constantly under scrutiny.  If you aren’t managing your own professional image, others are.

“People are constantly observing your behavior and forming theories about your competence, character, and commitment, which are rapidly disseminated throughout your workplace,” says Harvard Business School Professor Laura Morgan Roberts. “It is only wise to add your voice in framing others’ theories about who you are and what you can accomplish.”

There are plenty of books telling you how to “dress for success” and control your body language. But keeping on top of your personal traits is only part of the story of managing your professional image, says Roberts. You also belong to a social identity group—African American male, working mother—that brings its own stereotyping from the people you work with, especially in today’s diverse workplaces. You can put on a suit and cut your hair to improve your appearance, but how do you manage something like skin color?

Get answers to these questions and more:  How do stereotypes affect perceived professional image? How do authenticity and credibility influence the positive outcomes of impression management attempts? What are the steps individuals should take to manage their professional image?

Read an insightful interview with Professor Morgan Roberts by clicking here >> READ INTERVIEW

A few agents have asked me for an easy way to resize their digital photographs after taking pictures of a listing. Most of the time you would use software to do this… but what if you don’t have any photo editing software? No problem. This is your solution.

Resize.it is an online resize website utility developed for digital camera owners, webmasters, people travelling, or anybody who quickly wants to resize a digital image for email or publishing on a web site. No need to open a photo editor to do this!

If you want to see what I’m talking about, click >> here!

There are two types of Internet users, those that use RSS and those that don’t. This video is for the people who could save time using RSS, but don’t know where to start.

Have you heard the terms “RSS,” “Feed” or even “Reader” but you’re confused about what it means? In simple terms, you can use a free place on the internet called a “reader” to automically gather news and information from websites you like to visit on a regular basis. It saves you the hassle of typing in the web addresses each time and hitting ‘enter.’

I found a pretty easy-to-understand video explanation of what you need to get up and running with a reader. To watch the short explanation video, click here >> http://www.blip.tv/file/205570/

This is so cool awesome! I stumbled across a web site hosted by the world-renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology that allows you to take their courses - for FREE! That’s right, their actual college courses that don’t cost a cent. It’s called OpenCourseWare and it’s a large-scale, Web-based electronic publishing initiative. Here’s the goal of the website:

• Provide free, searchable access to over 1,550 courses published MIT’s course materials for educators, students, and self-learners around the world.

There’s video and audio lectures, course notes and slides and multi-media presentations on dozens of subjects including Economics, History, Political Science, Aeronautics, Literature, Womens Studies and a whole lot more. They are continually publishing new materials from virtually all of MIT’s undergraduate and graduate courses. So if you’re a self-starter and want to learn on your own, this is a great resource for you.

Check it out >> click here.

SuTree allows you to find video lessons from all over the web in one spot. You can search through the various categories to find the lesson you’re interested in. Lessons include anything from how to draw Lisa Simpson to tips on how to find an book a hotel in Chinese. Instead of going to one of the other video lesson kinds of sites to find what you’re looking to learn, try SuTree, because there’s a much greater chance they’ll have what you’re looking for, since they aggregate videos from multiple sites, giving you more options and variety. While you’re perusing the site, check out the random lessons that appear on the right side of each page for a lesson on something you’d never think to check out… www.SUTree.com

There aren’t many things more irritating to me than getting charged a dollar to find a number via directory assistance from my cell phone. It’s seems like such a high cost for such a simple service. But cell phone providers have us over a barrel when it comes to charging for this convenience (not to mention other cell phone plan features).

Well now you can beat the cellphone companies and get free local-business search on your cell phone. Just add 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) to your contacts on your phone and enjoy free voice guided directory assistance ala Google. They’ll even connect you for free and also send you a text message of the number!

Using this service, you can:

• Search for a local business by name or category.
  You can say “Mountain Mike’s Pizza” or just “pizza”.
• Get connected to the business, free of charge.
• Get the details by SMS if you’re using a mobile phone.
  Just say “text message”.

And it’s free. Google doesn’t charge you a thing for the call or for connecting you to the business. Regular phone charges may apply, based on your telephone service provider. Click Read More
Read the rest of this entry »

It’s a question this new Real Estate information website is posing to consumers all across the United States and here in the Central Valley and Mother Lode of northern California. HomeThinking.com is a website where consumers can write reviews, rate, and view an agents sales performance.

For some consumers, choosing the right Real Estate Agent can be like grabbing blindly into a wagon full of apples and hoping you pick the best one. With HomeThinking.com, you can search by address or city and find a list of real estate agents near you. Also, only people involved in transactions with the agent are allowed to write a review, so you are getting real information, from real customers (so it appears). See it for yourself.

What are your thoughts on this?

I just know the guys in our IT Department are going to beat me silly for this posting, but in the interest of “full disclosure,” there is an alternative to the PC you’re probably using to do your work - it’s called a Mac. For example, my home is become a dual platform place. I’ve worked on PC’s using Windows for years… and recently I’ve added a few new Macintosh computers with Intel processors.  They’re the new line of Mac’s that are speedy and more like the PC.  Specifically, I’m using a MacPro to run video editing software and sometimes play on a MacBook (laptop) when I want to sit on the couch (like right now).

My Mac-converted buddy forwarded me a link to a story that he thought our PMZ agents might find interesting. It’s a feature on Apple’s Small Business site about how one agent in the bay area uses a Macintosh for many aspects of his business. Broker Michael Dreyfus of Dreyfus Properties in Palo Alto switched from PC to Mac.

“I just wanted to get away from the whole Windows platform of pain,” he says. “The Mac is easier to network, it doesn’t have viruses and it’s easy to use.” The broker also knew that his firm would have easy access to cutting-edge imaging and video techniques that would impress potential homebuyers. Using his Macs, Dreyfus can give his clients a chance to tour homes on the Internet before they even set foot in the foyer. “We can use iMovie and QuickTime to create virtual tours ourselves,” he says. “In the past all of that was done by a third party. Now time is money and getting things done quickly is very important. With the Macs, we can do it ourselves.”

Now I’m not encouraging you to switch to Mac. But you should probably be aware of the differences between Mac and PC so you can choose a platform that will give you the tools to be the most successful agent possible. PC’s have many more software choices, but are prone to deadly viruses and more glitches. Macs are more graphically oriented and, usually, easier to use but they are more expensive. They both have their positives and negatives - so get on Google.com and do some research!

To read the story on Apple’s Small Business website, click here.

A few people have asked me how I was able to get such good pictures with rich colors and sharp images when I headed up into the foothills last weekend. They assumed that I used a professional camera with expensive lenses. Nope! It was a simple point and shoot camera. So, I’ve been asked, what would I recommend for those looking to get a good digital camera at a reasonable price. And no, I don’t get some sort of kickback from Canon for this recommendation!

If you’re looking for a camera that you can tuck away in your pocket, take on vacation or use to shoot pictures of your new listings, then the Canon PowerShot A550 might be just what you’re looking for. It’s easy-to-use and easy-to-hold, gives you 7.1 Megapixels, a reasonable 4x Optical Zoom Lens. The nice part is you don’t have to get special batteries and charge it - because the A550 uses standard “AA” batteries. Best thing is that it’s very low price - around $200 bucks.

Don’t let people talk you into getting more “megapixels” unless you plan on displaying your images in 20 inch poster size in a gallery. In fact, I also have a Canon EOS-1D (the same camera used by Associated Press photographers around the world), and it’s only 8 megapixels - and costs $3500 (yep, three thousand five hundred) and that doesn’t include the lenses. Comparing $200 bucks to $3500 isn’t even close!

Being the deal finder that I am, here’s probably the best deal right now. Costco is selling the Canon PowerShot A550 and bundling a 2 gig memory card with it for just $199. That includes shipping (assuming you’re a Costco member). That’s a heck of a deal in my opinion. In fact, I have a Canon SD500 that I paid about $300 bucks for a year or two ago - and it doesn’t have all the features of this camera AND I have to use special rechargable batteries.

According to Digital Photography Review, Canon is the most popular camera brand followed by Nikon. If you’re interested in reading all about digital photography and reviews of cameras, tips, etc. then you might want to visit this popular site. I use it as a resource a lot >> Digital Photography Review. Happy picture snapping!

For those of you who are tech savvy … or just extremely curious people, there’s a who new set of cool things to add to your computer to make your online experience more fun and productive. When you look at a web page, you’re likely using a program called Internet Explorer. It’s probably what you’re using to see this page. Well, there’s another option for you - it’s called Firefox. In simple terms, it’s just another type of “Internet Explorer,” but it allows you to do a lot of cool stuff.

I use Firefox for all of my web surfing (click here to find out more about Firefox). If you already have it - as many do - there’s a top 10 list of add-ons, or plugins, that make it even better. I have the list here. Click here to go to the Top 10 list.