Skip to Navigation | Skip to Page Content

Visit our Social Space

Blog

Tag >> tim vasko

Are You Ready New York? See CMAEON’s CEO Tim Vasko at the NYC Real Estate Expo

Posted by: cmaeon in tim vasko, real estate, new york on Nov 4, 2010

The NYC Real Estate Expo is back on Friday, November 5, and CMAEON’s CEO Tim Vasko will be there, showing realtors, investors and anyone involved in the real estate industry how to use real technology solutions for their real business problems. Hosted at the New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square, the expo is the premiere venue for real estate experts in New York. Over 160 vendors will be exhibiting and dozens of industry leaders will be giving talks and seminars.

Tim will be speaking on how emerging technologies are affecting the real estate industry in a talk titled: The Rest of your REAL Estate Career:  How the REAL impacts of the economy, social networks and technology will affect you and real estate in the next 20 Years. Tim’s presentation begins at 2:00 pm in the Carnegie Room. Seating is limited, so be sure to come early.

"The NYC Real Estate Expo is a great opportunity to learn from the stories and tested methods of our hugely successful speakers as they cover the most relevant topics affecting the real estate market today," said Executive Director of the Expo, Anthony Kazazis.  "Though many debate about the current state and future of our real estate market, one thing remains clear, it is imperative for industry professionals to keep abreast of the latest trends and changes, and stay on top of the best products and services that our area businesses have to offer."

Pre-registration for the event is only $30 online ($50 at the door.)  For more information on registration, exhibiting or for our seminar schedule, please visit www.nycrealestateexpo.com.

(0)

1to1Real: 50 years in the Making

Posted by: tim in tim vasko, reflection, connected market space on Sep 15, 2010

I just received this email. Names withheld to protect the innocent…


-----Original Message-----
From: [redacted]
Sent: Monday, September 13, 2010 11:25 AM
To: Tim Vasko
Subject: Get Your Free Sales Assessment Today!
We’re revolutionizing how busy sales professionals find
and buy software with our FREE online assessment for sales team managers!
By completing the free, online Sales Software Needs Assessment we can connect you with prescreened, sales software companies that offer products matched to your needs!
The name of the game?
Spend more hours selling and less time doing every-thing else.
• Could your reps be squeezing more sales out of their territories?
• Are they scheduling as many calls as they could?
• Do they up-sell and cross-sell when they should?
• Do they call the right people at the right time?
• Do you sometimes think, “We could do better!”?
Get a 5-10 page customized report – free of charge!
We can match you with our Pre-Screened vendors no matter what you need:
-----

Looking at the content of this email - the list of questions being asked and the choice of solutions being offered… it suddenly becomes easy to answer the question of what the Connected Market Space is, and what 1to1Real is.

All of the questions in that email are just about sales. It conveniently forgets that running a business is about sales, managing people, creating a good marketing message to get the leads and buyers for your sales staff (if you have a sales staff - many of us wear that hat too) and keeping track of the bottom line.

In the world of this email, once you've answered the question of the day you get to sort through a host of solutions that promise to solve your problem of the day.  But who has the time to evaluate dozens of software solutions and try to figure out what solution(s) might work for them?   It's a never ending circle - what problem, what solution, how much should you spend - will it work? Getting tangled up using a different technology solution for every one of your business “problems” is no solution at all.

I was caught in the technology tangle years ago with my businesses. I thought to myself, "isn't technology supposed to help me?  Why do I find myself doing more work at night trying to keep up with data entry, than I did before when all I had was paper?" I had found plenty of “tools” that needed me to do more data entry just to keep up.  They didn't help me answer the questions (like those in the email) for my market, my prospects, or even my staff when I was busy wearing one of my many hats. They solved one problem and created others in their wake.  Once I used a solution to improve my email marketing, I was left with too many contacts that I wasn’t responding to well enough to...  So, I need another "tool" to fix that problem… I was caught in a trap – a never ending spiral – the technology tangle.

However, when I realized I was caught, I noticed that everyone else was too. So, I set out to do something about it.  I imagined software – an actual solution - that would do some of the work for my business, instead of making more work for me.  I wanted something that once I set it up and said "go" - it would take the load off of me and my business and my staff, something that would connect me to my market and my customers. I’ve worked with hundreds of companies and thousands of staff over the last 10 years, and they’ve all had the same problems:

1) Wearing multiple hats
2) Getting your story to the market in a crowded marketplace
3) Keeping the message going out
4) Keeping the leads and business coming in
5) Using technology to manage the process

1to1Real is the solution to all of these problems. It’s the Connected Market Technology I imagined. 1to1Real is a process engine; it’s a robot - a sales, management, and messaging engine – it’s an automated marketing machine. It’s THE solution that actually connects you to your market and your customers, actually saves you time and actually does the work for you.

So, here it is - the week I turned 50.  I didn't think it would take a decade of my life to create!  It’s been a huge investment to create 1to1Real and deliver the Connected Market Space to people.  I can't say I've always loved the journey.  However, I can say I've always been fascinated about the possibility of a solution.

Creating 1to1Real took the CMAEON team tens of thousands of hours of work, all while working with real companies who had tenacity and faith along the way to share the dream having of solutions that actually worked for them.  These loyal customers helped us forge and invent and pushed us to think out of the box.  They helped us create 1to1Real - the next generation’s model for creating market connections, managing business processes, messaging, marketing and measuring how current and potential customers work with organizations.  I am grateful for every hour, all the input and even the toughest of challenges - I look forward to all the ways 1to1Real will help with the entrepreneurial success and struggle.

I had a great birthday party this weekend, with many generous and wonderful friends.  Coming toward this day, my insightful wife asked me, "what are the top quotes that have shaped your life?"   I thought about that question for just a moment.  It was easy to answer because, every decade I had inspiration from a discovered and cherished statement that struck me and carried me along - like a blast of wind filling my sails to catch a flowing tide, a philosophy always seemed to arise at the perfect time in life to send me onward.

Therefore, this is a wonderful week for me to finally deliver a version of 1to1Real that has an automated sign up. Now any business owner, manager, entrepreneur, sole proprietor – anyone, can use 1to1Real connect their inspiration, their dreams, their vision, their products and their services to their market. No matter what is on your list of your questions for your company, I believe 1to1Real can help. I've seen it help so many, for so long so I couldn't be more excited to share this next journey with you, with 1to1Real and our related product categories for specific industries.

Enjoy, and try 1to1Real - tell us what you think!  We are relying on you to tell us how you use it. Help us invent the next decade for small to medium sized businesses and entrepreneurs.

I think we can all agree the future is in the hands of those of us who venture to run our companies with our teams. The recent failures of big enterprise has shown us that the road ahead lies in the connections we forge at the real level of entrepreneurship - the businesses that employ, deliver and drive the Connected Market Place and the economics the big guys just can't seem to understand.

Thank you to all for all your lessons and support - I look forward to what the next decade will bring as I sail from 50 to new challenges on new, changing seas.

"Life is short,
decades come and go,
But lessons and love last for all eternity."

Tim

PS - If you care to have a copy, here are my Top 5 Lessons. You're free to enjoy.

(0)

Reconnected - Back on Blogging

Posted by: tim in tim vasko, technology, reflection, connected market space on Aug 24, 2010

connectionsIt’s great to get back to blogging after being “disconnected” for 10 days.  I want to thank Kathleen for keeping information flowing on the blog and the 1to1REAL and PedBot Team for their work at staying connected while I was unwinding.

There are times to be connected and times to be disconnected. We should all know this (a great thing to teach our kids too. I am teaching my daughters moderation in technology).  I thought a lot about that as I had turned off my email, iPhone, iPad & laptop – I was “off the grid”.  I played checkers with the kids and was amazed as my 9 year old started challenging me in chess – the real kind on a board with wooden pieces (not the iPad version)!

But what happens with your company when you’re turned off ?

That’s the challenge of staying connected…  Just because you’re off (which I highly recommend to rejuvenate and stay creative and energized – BTW), does not mean the rest of the world is – in fact they most likely aren’t.  Who is minding your store when you’re away?  How do you deal with a global economy or time zone economics?  I’m an early riser: 5am most days.  But, even at that I like to have time away from the phone and email, but by 6 the East Coast is buzzing and fully perked up on Starbucks.  The REAL world always connected, and you can’t be connected all the time … or can you be?

This has been a dilemma I have faced throughout my career.  I’m the key spokesperson, entrepreneur and visionary; I’m the guy that drives our Connected Market Space and 1to1REAL, who connected to industries and customer and sells products at CMAEON.  This is why I decided to build 1to1REAL in the first place.

I realized a decade ago that the world was going to be more informed and more on than ever before.  In order to speak to my customers and our market, I would need a system to keep up.  Unfortunately, in order to assemble those systems:  email marketing and responses, CRM, web sites, social networking, AdWord advertising, data and list building, new lead acquisition… and then filter through all of that information to our customers, I became overwhelmed.  I was already working 15 hour plus days – how could I keep up?

That was when I first started thinking about this Technology Tangle we weave for ourselves.  Where does productivity start and where does it fail?  That was the beginning of 1to1REAL. New staff was not the answer.  Then, not only did I have a training issue, I had added overhead, which can kill any business.  Spending money to chase new revenues with additional staff, while taking the hit on time for training and money – that is every small business’ dilemma.

I reviewed CRM and contact management software. They were a piece of the puzzle, but unfortunately beyond the big learning curve of all of the features, they just didn’t do any real work for me.  I still had to have fingers on the keyboards constantly to make these tools work (a fact that most sales people, CEOs and Entrepreneurs despise).  I found once I learned a system, I had to keep it up to date for it to be useful – taking up even more time.

The promise of technology was not a promise at all. It had become a difficult path.  And so, 1to1REAL was born with a “robot” to take some of the tasks off of my hands and stay connected while I was either completely disconnected, or focused on exactly what I do best to make my business successful.  That is why, after nearly eleven years in business I still don’t have, or need, a huge sales force to run a substantial company and business.  1to1REAL, through all of its versions, was really about how to extend the vision and talent I had personally and help leverage those into my business so it could sell itself.
Today every company of any size is trying to do more with less.   With small companies that has always been the case – it’s just tougher in a tight market.  I felt that if technology were a solution, it had to be affordable, effective and actually DO work automatically once I set it up.  Today we talk to over a million people regularly.  We serve thousands of users.  We bring new installs and users in daily.  Yet, I’ve been able to keep the staff count and overhead low – and still answer my own phone and do the work I love to do – working with entrepreneurs and businesses to improve their connections and build their connected markets.  It works for me every day – and I’ve seen it grow every other business that has adopted this use of technology and market connections.

I had to create an automated marketing, sales and customer relationship team – so 1to1REAL was designed to do just that.  Because today, whether I’m on holiday, or on the phone, with an important key customer, or thinking about how to build a better business – the world is always on – with 1to1REAL we are always open for business.  Answering what our PedBot Auto Drive can answer – and jumping in when it is the perfect time for a personal conversation to sell and close a new account.

Great to be connected agian – thanks to everyone for staying connected and for the comments and questions ….

Tim

(0)

The Missing Connection: Comparing CRM to CRM? Why Feature Comparison Doesn’t Work

Posted by: tim in tim vasko, technology, strategy, CRM, connected market space, CMAEON, business, brand on May 7, 2010

It makes no sense, for any business, to invest in technology based on a comparison of features.  Today, the basic features of CRM are well-defined - any CRM will provide the basics of contact relationship management.

CRM has been around for more than a decade. It was originally designed as a tool to enable businesses to share information between sales and other various departments that dealt with customers. Those features are clear.

The next iterations of CRM were designed to better track, manage and empower the sales force - hence the brand of a CRM by that name. Again, no real "dream" here.

(0) Read More...

Leaving the Ferrari in the Driveway

Posted by: tim in tim vasko, technology, strategy, connected market space on Nov 11, 2009

I've seen it happen time and again.  Beautiful, well designed web pages, with flash and media, that cost the equivalent of a Ferrari are delivered, deployed, the companies and executives are excited.  It rolls out, like a brand new red Ferrari slowly backing out of the garage.  Then - nothing!  It sits there.

Where are all the visitors?  The neighbors come by and ohh and ahh.  The proud owners stand by the car, jump inside, show off the bells and whistles - this video does this, and look at our virtual tour.  Cool huh?  But, very soon, the customers leave, the neighbors (clients) are bored.  The proud owners don't really ever start the engine.  Then something gets them going about their regular day, and way of doing things.  They shut the car door and walk away - expecting it to drive itself.  There it sits.

The difficulty of marketing today, and using the web is that it is a business within a business - it requires expertise (a lot of expertise), discipline and an entirely new level of thinking.  Marketing has never been easy.  But with all of the Conversation Marketing [you can view my video here #2 in the series - for a more in-depth understanding of Conversation Marketing]- actively engaging your prospects and turning them into customers - keeping them as loyal clients, is more difficult than ever.  We deliver a ton of tools to clients.

(1) Read More...

Getting Connected 4 “REAL” Part 1

Posted by: 0 in tim vasko, connected market space, CMAEON, brand on Oct 20, 2009

Through travel, I’ve had the rare opportunity to view businesses, entrepreneurs and work forces from many different industries to watch how things are shaping up and changing. From E-Health in Pharmacies, to RealEstate, Mortgage Banking and Wealth Management -every industry is shifting to become more closely connected. As our world continues to connect, pushing the envelope for change and challenges; there is little question that we continue to push the boundaries of how we become connected. Each of us is driving this change every day when we set up or manage our Linked-In or Facebook pages. Or when we create a membership on the Realestock.com portal or run searches for the tools for the businesses we run, represent, or are thinking of starting.

This begs the questions, How connected are you really? How do you get and stay connected 4 real?

(0) Read More...

Tim Vasko to be Keynote Speaker at UVic Business Banquet

Posted by: 0 in tim vasko, CMAEON on Oct 13, 2009

We are thrilled to announce that Tim Vasko will be the keynote speaker for the University of Victoria’s Faculty of Business Banquet for students, faculty and the business community on November 26th, 2009.

His speech, “Let’s Face It: Tough Markets, Broken Models, You Can Make a Difference” will focus on how changes affect us and our perspectives and how it gives us the opportunity to reach for new horizons.

“Let’s face it - it is a fact of life that the world changes; business changes and the economy changes. But rarely do we see an impact on society like we’re experiencing today. Not in an entire generation has the world been so impacted. And it has never been due to such a ubiquitous, interconnected event as the recent financial meltdown.”

(0) Read More...

All Looks Tip Top in London - Seen Directly from "London's Eyes" on the World Financial Scene

Posted by: tim in tim vasko, technology, strategy, Realestock, real estate, connected market space, CMAEON, brand on Aug 18, 2009

img_0106

I met with a good friend of mine who deals in the financial sector in the UK today.  It was great to see Andre - haven't seen him since last August when the markets went to hell!

The last time we met, I was just discovering that our largest health client had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy - it was a distraction during our regular board meeting in Toronto.

(0) Read More...

It's Just Smarter Marketing To Connect (2 of 2)

Posted by: tim in tim vasko, technology, strategy, connected market space, CMAEON, brand on Aug 14, 2009

In the last few posts I've been talking about "Smarter Marketing" - which is why we call "Smart Marketing" in The Connected Market Space iQ3. I talk about it here on my Video.

 

(0) Read More...

It's Just Smarter Marketing To Connect (1 of 2)

Posted by: tim in tim vasko, technology, strategy, myblog, connected market space, CMAEON, brand on Aug 10, 2009

Do you still pay $3.00, $5.00, $10.00 per minute for international phone calls?  Ever hear of Skype?

Of course if you were a business person who was paying $5.00/ minute for a phone call (if you still use the phone at all with email, SMS and your Blackberry in hand) you'd be working for the Government and have an unlimited budget.  Oh wait, Governments are cutting back and getting smarter too...

(2) Read More...

<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 Next > End >>

Recent Articles

RSS

Categories

Recent Press

Archives

Blog Authors

Tim Vasko (69)
CMAEON (21)
Administrator (13)
0 (5)
0 (2)

Common Tags