Blogging, cont... Catskills Real Estate

For many years when I was just starting out in this upstate design and construction - before facebook, and then after facebook but before I adopted it as a viable marketing tool - I kept a blog.  http://blog.thecatskillfarms.com/.  It served multiple purposes - tracking our progress, from a business growth perspective, and tracking the ups and downs of that progress.  It was written from me - a journalism major from the University of Pittsburgh, class of '93 or so.  It was written well, but it's goals were less than textbook, and probably lost me as much business as it garnered, with an unvarnished look at our challenges, our successes and our failures.  It was a tool of victory, of defeat, of payback, of venting, of observation. It was interesting because it was interesting, unique, honest, and unfiltered and diluted - the exact opposite of Marketing and PR 101, but seemingly attractive to a wide niche of our potential clients - a breath of realness surrounded by fake posturing and false flash.

But it worked, because that always been our business.  We are unfiltered, contrarian, talented, and don't suffer fools, even if they happen to be clients.  The idea that I've never believed that horseshit about the client always being right is probably one of the reasons we remain a vibrant business - too much codling of people who aren't going to be happy whatever you do is a soul extinguishing, cash flow negative, business priority distraction.

But the lessons still come fast and furious, even after 20 years.  I think it's time to start tracking them again, and creating a dialogue - even if it's one hand clapping - about the tough choices the owner of business has to make, specifically an owner of a business in the Catskills of New York, building 20 homes a year, and dealing with a wide range of personalities in a very high speed environment.

I'm done for the most part with facebook, and look forward to the old-fashioned blog to communicate once again.

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