Using the Web and social media to sell real estate

It’s time to look at things from the opposite angle as we have always done since the usual “solutions” work less and less and people are longing for someone or something that will carry them into a future that so far has been evading them, and the same people are getting definitely tired of old clichés.

This is the concept that comes to our minds as me and my friend and partner Daniele meet with our families for a farewell dinner before they leave back for Italy. It’s been ten weeks since they first arrived in Florida for a long vacation that opened up many unexpected business opportunities, but that most of all this time frame has consolidated and expanded a friendship that had begun “by chance” in Florence during an event on Internet Marketing in 2007 and that now is the backbone on which we are planning major changes that will affect both the personal lives of our families and the future of our businesses.

Meeting in a foreign land strengthens the ties amongst people and also gives them the opportunity to look at things from a different perspective, by comparing different cultures and approaches to life. It is the second time we meet for dining together with our families. The first was when they first arrived two and half months ago.

I remember we were in my house and we welcomed them to the USA, exchanging our past histories and getting to know each other. Daniele and I had developed our friendship and relationship at a distance, using the Web, but now it was becoming a real “family business”.

Now it’s our turn to go to their house on Ana Maria island some 50 miles South of Clearwater, where we live in Florida. During the trip we are, as usual, surprised by the variety and the greatness of America’s landscape. This is definitely a place where you can open your mind and your heart to new challenges. There is so much future and so little past in this land that it is the exact opposite of Italy, where we come from. Yet we feel blessed by being Italians and we realize how deep and rich is our original culture, a culture that we can bring everywhere and that is by nature capable of embracing also other cultures.

My kids Alex and Stefano running toward my wife Maria as soon as the police road block is cleared and we are ready to move.

When we arrive to Ana Maria we are stopped on our way by the police. There is an helicopter and an ambulance half a mile ahead of us and the road in between is totally clear of vehicles. Everybody is waiting patiently in line for the block to be removed, no complaints, no fretting about the time lost, no honking: yes, we are definitely not in Italy! We have the chance of steeping out of the car and admiring the beautiful landscape. The block is soon removed and we finally arrive to Daniele’s house. Our kids immediately go to play with their kids: the first important sign of a good integration amongst the families and then we need to face the first important decision of the evening: is it going to be Domino’s pizza or should we go to a restaurant? We choose Domino’s, we want it to be an American style evening.

Daniele and Maria discuss while Beatrice and Leonardo pose for the picture and Alex and Stefano mind their business.

So while Maria and Jenny go to the computer and compose the order of three tailor made pizzas, I an Daniele sit in the living room discussing what we have learned in these amazing 10 weeks. We both have the same answer: we have learned to trust each other at a level we didn’t imagine possible and we have found that we work in perfect synch as if we had known each other for many lives (and we might as well have).
It is amazing because we don’t spend a single word celebrating or reviewing what we have accomplished. There no time for dwelling on the past, we are totally projected and engrossed by our future and the future of the people that are around us (close and far).

Maria speaks with Daniele, me and Jenny don't miss a single word Kids are alla round.

We realize that by coming together we have created a true “family corporation” that can leverage the unique abilities of each member and build a successful family business that is scaling to the size of a international corporation spanning several companies and two continents and embraces many other families who also want to be part of this bigger family and be successful in their own family business. It’s a totally new model that brings to people not only new business opportunities and a new life style, but gives them first and foremost the certainty that they are not alone and that whatever turn their specific market can take, the family will always be there to bail them out and get them started in a new niche by leveraging the connections they already have.

Raffello, the youngest of the "crowd", is with mom Jenny. He has it all figured out in terms of image building.

The pizzas are gone at alarming speed and now it’s time to tackle the lime cake and the cheese cake. Yes, it has to be an all “American evening”. The sudden shot of new calories brings heats up the conversation. They kids have gone to play on the second floor and for the first time me, Daniele, Maria and Jenny are able to talk together with no other distraction. It is as if we had been waiting for this for weeks, and indeed we have. The ideas start to unfold and we realize the very special mix of the four people that are sitting in that room. We all come individually from a very successful background in very different sectors of business and life.

I am an accomplished international entrepreneur that has moved from being a successful computer journalist and editor, to financial intelligence and real estate in the US. Maria has been the queen of network marketing with a down-line of over 10,000 people built in less than 8 months and spanning six different countries in two separate continents. Daniele is a master trainer and web promoter throughout Europe who has also built together with Jenny the most successful presence on eBay for his family and for many other families and their businesses.

The knowledge, insight and capability of execution that each one brings to the table is impressive. And we all were individually successful by doing things differently than the norm and by upholding a very stringent ethics standard. As Daniele writes in his book: we are people of the past (we have been around for a while) that use the future (the Web and its power) to shape our present and, I now add, the future of many others.
So we are ending this very special time together by remembering who we were originally and noticing how much we have changed after we have met, we are ending by beginning a new project that has a totally different scale and we are are aware that if we will end our new course by not forgetting our initial goals, we will never get lost.

Roberto Mazzoni

P.S. I have just completed writing this post and I pick up my own personal copy of Daniele’s book, titled: “The Italian Success on the Web – How to Get the Max from the Net and eBay”.

I open the front cover and there is a dedication to me. I read it once more, it was written on April 1st this year when me and Daniele met in Monte Carlo for our first joint business event that we had organized completely on the Web. It reads: “The synchrony and the “magic” of life has allowed me to meet a partner and a friend with whom to build a great dream! With all my respect and affection! Daniele”

When it was written just five months ago it was a feeling and a postulate for the future. Now it is a full blown reality that goes both ways: the most solid foundation on which to build anything.