A 1000WATT Holiday Story

1000WATT office

Dear readers:

Today at five o’clock, the 1000WATT office will dim its lights, begin to settle into the warm glow of our Hanukkah candles, yule logs and Christmas tree lights, and surround ourselves with our beautiful wives and amazing children. Ahhh!

The holiday is nigh.

2011 was a great year for us all. You have risen to face your challenges and you are the better for it. As a result, so is the real estate industry.

Personally, I’ve seen a lot since I started in this business. In 1997, I started a small content syndicate to curate a real estate column and distribute it to the Web and newspapers.

In 1998, I received a phone call from Brad Inman. He introduced himself as the publisher of an online news service, Inman News. I had never heard of him. Or the company. Little did I know how massively influential he was. Or how much that call would change my life when he introduced me to his right-hand man at Inman, Brian Boero.

I accepted Brian’s invitation to fly up to Oakland. We talked about working together. I was intrigued but he and I were worlds apart. I was an impractical, wishful, brash New Yorker, with a hippie vibe and willing to risk everything to bring a cool idea to life. He was the logical, sagacious, cultured Northern Californian, replete with class, etiquette and a fastidious dedication to Swiss-like precision.

However, what we discovered in that meeting was a thread of commonality between us that would begin to bind us together in a cosmic way.  We both believed the real estate industry was great. And we both desired to make it greater.

I left Inman in 2001 to help build a software company. Brian joined me in 2004 to run it. Then, in 2007, we started 1000watt. It was a hair-brained idea built on a tiny investment in a WordPress blog. It gave us a platform to engage with anyone willing to take on two guys with a pint of talent and twenty pounds of heart between them.

In 2009, Joel Burslem joined us. It was a celebratory day. We had been big fans of his Future of Real Estate Marketing Blog. He’s yet another type. Canadian. Temperate. Laid back like a Hawaiian sunset. He’s wicked smart. Meticulous. And can make anything from Apple sound like it came directly from God.

Like us, he came from Inman News which had cultured his big heart and nurtured his own desire to make the real estate industry better.

Fast forward

Over the last 4 years, I am proud of the small part the three of us have played in making this dream possible – along with all our readers and the bloggers, agents, brokers, news makers and vendors who have gone on to amplify this rally cry.

More importantly, over the last four years, we’ve been lucky to work with many great companies. We’ve helped them build and strengthen their brands and better communicate who they are, what they do and why they do it. We’ve helped them crush their competitors by shooting beautiful videos, executing amazing marketing and advertising campaigns and designing and building kick-ass apps and websites.

These people are our clients, but more importantly they are our friends, and fill our lives with passion and joy daily. They’ve given us purpose. They are, in a very big way, making our dream come to life.

2012

We have big plans. We are going to launch a new website and a revamp to the 1000WATT blog. We’re going to continue to zig while others zag.

We are also going to release our first web app – long awaited, I know – called Report It. It’s taken more time than we planned, but we made the decision not release to it until we are thrilled with how it works. We’d rather nail it on our dime than on yours.

We are going to continue blogging about the industry. Challenging the status quo and reporting on the events that matter.

We are also going to continue to speak publicly at events and conferences around the world. And share the future we envision, the one that isn’t here yet but could be soon.

Most importantly, we are going to continue to be your cheerleaders. And root for your success in every way we can.

So, from the three of us, along with Soo, Chris, Jon, Mario, Eddie, Marco, Jessica, Stefanie, Brett, Ryan and Michael (and everyone else who works behind the scenes at 1000WATT) we thank you for your readership, your attention and your business. We wish you the very best holiday season.

– Davison