I had the pleasure of speaking with Guy Kawasaki, former Chief (Software) Evangelist at Apple Computer in the early days of Macintosh – who has become a prolific author in addition to being a technology entrepreneur.  While I claim to avoid the self-help book genre, I realize I’ve read nearly all of his books.  Guy released his 10th book today: Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions.  Here are some reviews.

His first book, The Macintosh Way, is now a free download and was always one of my faves – because it came out as we were building our company, Miller Samuel, entirely by using Macs.  He later ran ACIUS, developer of 4th Dimension, the database application we ran for about 15 years to manage our data.

This was a pure treat for me as I got to talk about the early days of Apple, reminisced about Guy’s one word email technique (I shared my 15 second voicemail rule), his other ventures such as Alltop.com and Garage.com, the state of marketing today and how to make yourself enchanting.

Fun!

Via Skype, I have a great conversation with Alan Mark, founder and president of The Mark Company.  Based in San Francisco, his firm is well-known for its work with new development, conversion and project turnarounds throughout the Western US.  His firm specializes in design consulting, market research, sales and marketing.

Originally from the New York region, he has made a name for his firm in new development marketing arena and explains how he adapted his firm to the post-credit crunch world.

I have a great discussion with Jon Gollinger, Founder and CEO, Accelerated Marketing Partners who sets me straight on the concept of accelerated marketing as a process (hint: it’s not all about auctions).

In early 2009, he and I were part of a New York Times page one story on his marketing prowess.

Jon pulls no punches when it comes to understanding the consumer – they are the ones who set market price.  I have long admired his skill in creating a market environment that attracts real participation, best exemplified in his company slogan:

“You bid it, you win it.”

I “peel the apple” with Ana Maria Sencovici of The Apple, Peeled and end up having a great conversation about helping the real estate broker move from salesperson to trusted advisor.  She and her business partner Marie Espinal launched their blog and newsletter at the beginning of the year.  Their focus is to provide content that their clients, who are real estate agents, can use to help them stay connected with the issues of today to be more effective.

Ana Maria is passionate about their mission (and I am paraphrasing) to elevate the level of discourse in the world of Manhattan real estate covering markets trends, real estate topics and developments with a transparent and objective lens.

I concur to the “core”.

I get to catch up with a long time colleague and real estate veteran John Heithaus, Senior Vice President of Sales, Marketing and REALTOR® Alliances at SentriLock.

He has twenty-nine years of experience in corporate relocation management and residential real estate. His career includes executive positions with Merrill Lynch Realty, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage and Relocation, Monster.com and Prudential Real Estate & Relocation.

John’s entrepreneurial ventures include co-founding very successful startups and emerging businesses: Virtual Relocation.com (acquired by Monster.com); Certified Closing Network (acquired by First American Corporation), TAOW Productions, and Superstar Factory Productions.

John is one of the most forward thinking, creative and energetic people in real estate, and he plays a pretty mean guitar.

In this podcast, I have a conversation with my good friend Joseph Ferrara, an attorney with over 25 years experience in real estate, intellectual property and entertainment law. He is consultant to the real estate industry on marketing, social media and branding.  Joe is an endless source of new ideas and likes to shake the tree. He runs the Sellsius Real Estate Marketing Blog, which focuses on real estate marketing, social media, new technology, trends, tips and how-tos. He runs The Clozing, a real estate news aggregator and is starting up New York Real Estate Advocates, a real estate brokerage concept for attorneys.

It is always great to speak with Joe.

I have a great conversation with Kelly Roark, Vice President of Interactive Sales & Development at Scripps Network Digital.  We touched on the following chart which trends ratings against new home sales.

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Kelly was a great sport to come back for a second interview after one of the audio tracks in the first podcast didn’t cooperate.

I had a fascinating conversation with Dustin Luther, founder of 4realz Speaking and Consulting and Rain City Guide Blog.

Dustin is one of the first people I “met” outside of New York as a result of my own blogging efforts that I began in 2005. He has a wealth of knowledge and insights on social media strategies that he applies to a medium that continues to change and evolve.

I sat down with Rob Hahn, managing principal of 7DS Associates, the strategy, marketing, and technology consulting firm.  I first knew Rob as many people do, as Notorious Rob, the blogger who writes about marketing, technology, and real estate.

Using his extensive background in law, social media, brokerage, data, technology (and gaming), he’s got an interesting take on everything, including the real estate brokerage model.  Smart, inventive and funny work notoriously well together helping firms gain insight to see their way out of the economic paper bag of the next several years.

Update: Here’s an article Rob just wrote for Inman News: A real estate client in name only which covers some of the issues we discussed.