For the last year I have been working on launching an internet startup in Orange County. This has given me the opportunity to explore the ecosystem and develop relationships with other tech leaders in the OC. Overall I have been very impressed with the efforts being made to both create new companies and support them.

If you’re just getting started I would recommend that you attend some of the monthly events from OCTANe, TCVN, or TechBiz Connection. Also, there are some good annual events like the Irvine Entrepreneur Forum and VC in the OC.

The best people to network with are the fellow entrepreneurs (even if they are in a different type of business). Collectively they have likely encountered your problems before and can provide guidance or insider tips that can help save you money and accelerate the process of accomplishing your goals. Sometimes, when things are not going very well, they can be great listeners and allow you to vent.

Overall I would say that we’re pretty lucky here in Orange County to have an environment to create innovative tech companies (and we have great beaches too).

This year at infiniteROI we started an internship program. We’ve been blessed to have a very smart and curious intern named Kyle Chezum (a senior business management major from Biola University). Kyle accompanied me on the trip to San Jose and he had a different take on the California Realtors Expo. I asked him to write down his thoughts and decided to share it with you.

Two weeks ago I accompanied Paul Mobley, CEO of Infinite ROI, Inc., to San Jose for the annual California Association of Realtors Expo. Seven hours in the car each way with Paul was time enough well spent, but the ensuing two days of seminars, expo booths, and networking opportunities were equally valuable. I say networking opportunities because I didn’t actually do much networking. I felt somewhat out of place at the convention almost immediately when I discovered that no, the name is not misleading—nearly everyone in attendance was a Realtor, and, more specifically, a real estate agent. As the intern-assistant to an out-of-town broker, I was afraid I wouldn’t be taken seriously. This never became a problem, however. Everyone seemed eager to talk, and through numerous interactions on the expo floor and a few surprisingly meatless seminars I had the chance to develop some first impressions of the industry. It was not what I expected.

I concluded from this initial exposure that the real estate agency industry was an arena full of older men and women who were unfamiliar with new media and technology and were not interested, or at least not aware that they ought to be interested, in becoming proactive, transformational leaders in the business. I attended several technology-related conference sessions and was surprised to find speakers presenting Internet tools such as Facebook and LinkedIn as novel outlets for social interaction and marketing. Many of the sessions focused on how agents could use Facebook to garner a presence within a community and develop clients and buyers from that presence. I had assumed such tactics were intuitive. I guess I was wrong. In this and other ways, I learned that the real estate industry has, at least on a broad level, not fully acclimated to the information age.

The CalREDD demonstrations offered a glimpse into a brighter future. California’s local MLS systems, I learned, vary widely from region to region with regard to their structure, user interface, and capabilities. CalREDD’s product, a statewide MLS that takes real estate information systems to a whole new wondrously adaptive level, began its gradual takeover just a handful of months back. From the short demonstration I saw of it, CalREDD is real estate’s answer to new media and the changing face of the global marketplace. It’s a few years late, in my opinion, but it’s encouraging.

All of the above notwithstanding, I came away from the conference with more respect rather than less for the real estate agents who ply their trade across this vast state day after day. My intensive two-day plunge into the guts of real estate provided me a view of the business I hadn’t seen before. It gave me a view of the heart. Selling real estate—at least in the single-family-home arena—is, I think, less about hawking a product and more about meeting the life needs of families and individuals. It’s about caring for people who need advice and aid as they transition from one chapter of life to another. It’s about creating and strengthening communities. I had never seen real estate sales in that light before. It gave me something to think about. What can I bring to this business? An intuitive sense of how to use technology for marketing and leverage? Passion rather than dread for coming changes such as CalREDD and whatever else may lie on the new media horizon? This and more, I think. I’m glad the expo opened my eyes to it.

THE INTERNET IS NOW USED BY 84% OF REAL ESTATE CLIENTS

• The Internet is used 9X more often than newspapers
• The Internet is used 34X more often than real estate magazines
• Internet users are better informed, have higher incomes, and take 40% less time in transactions

I’m glad open-source technology exists to help shape our future. If not…

This week we took our son to his first mountain experience. We chose to go up to the Idyllwild Inn where my old friends Josh & Emily White are the hosts. In a world of cookie cutter hotel experiences the Idyllwild Inn is a refreshing change.

There is something special about a business that has been family-owned and operated for generations. Josh & Emily are the 4th generation at this Idyllwild, CA landmark. It is very clear that the rustic mountain experience is important to them. You can tell it by the way that they keep all of the rooms extremely clean, the constant improvement projects, their community involvement, and the way that they interact with guests and staff… that this is a place that is unique.

While most other businesses search to find their “story”. They have more stories than they have time to tell. It is no surprise that they book out for Christmas a year in advance. That people plan annual vacations for a week at a time for “their” cabin. (These too are booked far in advance and they plan their year around their trip not the other way around).

Idyllwild is a secret in Southern California for one reason: It’s not on the way to anything. You have to go there intentionally. Most Californians are too lazy for that! I’m sad that it took me years to get back myself and experience the Idyllwild Inn (the last time I was in Idyllwild was for a backpacking class in college).

I’m glad that we made the journey up to Idyllwild for my son’s first mountain experience. Hopefully it will become a tradition and he’ll take his kids there too.

Derek Sivers, the head of CD Baby, said, “It’s so funny when I hear people being so protective of ideas. (People who want me to sign an nda to tell me the simplest idea). To me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions.”

The book Getting Real gives a wonderful description of the value of an idea. Unless you execute on that idea the value of your idea is basically worthless!

Just like real estate, the way a property is developed determines it’s value, and those that can see the highest-and-best use usually win.

Value, and thereby profit, comes from the multiplier effect between the IDEAS and ACTION. Basically, if you’re not taking action then your idea is worthless!

This post is dedicated to [b]ecker and all of the other great photographers who always out play me in Texas Hold’em. The short list also includes: Jessica Claire, Mike Colon, Dane Sanders, and many more.

Paul Mobley had the cover image and a feature article in Rangefinder Magazine in July 2009. How do you like them apples?

You thought I was just a business guy, right? Amazing what you can do with the new Canon G10. I’m going to steal all your booked gigs for 2010 by under-cutting your price!

You don’t believe me do you. You’re right I don’t have the cover image but my namesake in New York City does. We were talking about the accomplishment and I was trying to get something that I could use to brag about him. Yet, the only thing that he wanted to talk about was his subject. I think it’s great when you guys focus on the people in front of the camera instead of behind. In my opinion, that is often one thing that is common between all of you… but doesn’t get talked about much in the books, blogs, or seminars.

Paul Mobley from New York, NY told me, “The guy is a Texas farmer who just turned 100. He works everyday. One of the most delightful subjects on my American Farmer journey. His name is Catarino Romero, from Mineral Texas. He’s been married 80 years!”

Paul was nice enough to send over an extra image of Catarino and his wife. (A paulmobley dot com exclusive).

For all of the professional photographers and the amateurs like me it’s a good reminder that what is important is the people in our lives. Even if we only meet them for a few minutes they have a story to tell and it is the photographers responsibility, no mandate, to tell it with respect.

Steve summed up my point from yesterday in this wonderful political cartoon from the San Diego Union-Tribune. Thanks for sending it to me Julie!

Greg Creed, the President of Taco Bell, said last week that their goal is to be, “the other number one” by growing to $10.6 billion in sales within 5 years. (Note: The “one” is McDonald’s). Today I am proud to say that I have reached the status of “the other number one”. At what, you ask?

For a while a Google search for “Paul Mobley” wouldn’t land me on the top page. Now I’m the other number one and my LinkedIn profile is in the top 20 too. It’s not an thing of vanity (at least I hope not) but it’s a practical thing in building a reputation in business. People want to be able to find you on Google as one of the factors for judging trust.

The photographer Paul Mobley, from New York City, has been ranked number one for quite a while. We’re not related (to my knowledge) but I do respect him a lot for his wonderful photography and ability to capture the uniqueness and character of a person. Honestly, I hope he stays on top since deserves it more than I do.

I recommend that you go to his website paulmobleystudios.com and look at the work that he does. Second, I recommend that you buy his new hardback book titled, American Farmer: The Heart of Our Country. It would make a great Christmas gift for anyone who wants to connect with something real.

The “E” Myth Revisited is one of my favorite books on small business management. It challenges the concept of being a “business” owner. Not that owning a business is bad, on the contrary, Michael Gerber just makes the case for not owning a “job”. Additionally, he gets into some wonderful strategic planning for startups. If you own a small business, or are planning to jump into the fray, this is a must read.