It's Broken. Let's Rework It. - Wendy Forsythe, session from Connect on the Road Miami - November 30, 2016

1. It’s Broken. Let’s REWORK It.
Lessons from the founders of 37Signals
Wendy Forsythe @brandwendy
Carrington Real Estate Services

2. Current State
 The industry is broken
 The business model doesn’t work
 The consumer is disappointed
 What value to agents bring?
 The 80/20 rule is really 90/10
 External competitors

3. How do we stay relevant?

9. Page 15

10.  “Other people’s failures are just that: other people’s failures.”
 “If other people can’t market their product, it has nothing to do
with you. If other people can’t build a team, it has nothing to do
with you. If other people can’t price their services properly, it
has nothing to do with you. If other people can’t earn more
money then they spend… well, you get it.”

11. Other people have tried and failed to build
great and profitable real estate
companies.
We will be successful!

12. Page 33

13.  “The easiest, most straightforward way to create a great
product of service is to make something you want to use.”

14. Would you work for you?
Would you join your office?

15. Page 66

16.  “Embrace constraints”
 “I don’t have enough time/money/people/experience. Stop whining.
Less is a good thing. Constraints are advantages in disguise. Limited
resources for you to make do with what you’ve got.There’s no room
for waste. And that forces you to be creative.”
 “So before you sing the “not enough” blues, see how far you can get
with what you have.”

17. We have everything we need!

18. Page 137

19.  “Decommoditize your product”
 “If you’re successful, people will try to copy what you do. It’s just a
fact of life. But there’s a great way to protect yourself from copycats:
Make you part of your product or service. Inject what’s unique about
the way you think into what you sell. Decommoditize your product.
Make it something no one else can offer.”

20. You do you!

21. Page 155

22.  “When you stick with your current customers come hell or high
water, you wind up cutting yourself off from new ones.Your
product or service becomes to tailored to your current
customers that it stops appealing to fresh blood.”

23. Customers = Agents

24. Page 172

25.  “Instead of trying to outspend, outsell, or out sponsor competitors, try
to out-teach them.Teaching probably isn’t something your
competitors are even thinking about. Most businesses focus on selling
or servicing, but teaching never occurs to them.
 Teach and you’ll form a bond you just don’t get from traditional
marketing tactics.”

26. Share you, your knowledge and your
passion with abundance!

27. KeyTakeaways
 Failure is not a rite of passage
 Scratch your own itch
 Less is a good thing
 Put yourself into your product
 Let your customers outgrow you
 Don’t outspend, out-teach