Tech with Ty

🤖 [T]echnology: Ok, It's Pretty Dope
🎓 [E]ducation/Entertainment: Open Houses (cont'd)
💪[C]oaching: Stay in Your Lane
📹 [H]ow To: Create a Social Media Post in Canva

[T]echnology:

Last week, I expressed my envy for a personal AI avatar and said I might pull the trigger on the HeyGen upgrade…well, I did, and it’s pretty dope. 😎

Here’s a video example:

It’s not 100% there, hence why I didn’t want it on the screen the entire time, but damn it’s pretty close. 👯‍♀️

I sent to my buddy, Chris Dawson, a web developer who is way more knowledgeable on the actual inner workings of AI, and these were some of his responses:

If you're not keeping up with AI offerings, I can't reiterate enough: you need to be…

[E]ducation:

Last week, I also discussed Zillow’s touring agreement and how I thought it was bad for agents and consumers. However, I mentioned its potential use for open houses based on the NAR’s proposed settlement rules (at the time of writing), which basically said you would not be allowed to represent a buyer walking through an open house. 🏠

Much to the dismay of our agents, we even discussed it at Bagels with Brokers in our office last week.

This past weekend, I received some additional confused emails and texts from agents and fellow brokers. 🤔

And I agree, it didn’t make sense that this would be how we would be forced to conduct business moving forward, but as many pointed out, NAR did come out with guidance on Open Houses.

For clarity, this happened after last week’s Tech with Ty was published. I know many of you don’t necessarily read this the second it comes out, so I apologize for any confusion. Your emails and texts make way more sense now. 💡

Here is the updated FAQ.

Here is the specific language surrounding Open Houses:

So, carry on…for now…

But keep checking that link, as it’s being updated faster than I can write emails. 📬

[C]oaching:

Throwback story...

More than a decade ago, I helped bring RebarCamp to Ohio.

It was a great concept dubbed the “unconference.” The idea originated with a bunch of real estate agents getting together in a bar to talk about, you guessed it, real estate. There were no keynote speakers, just a bunch of folks interested in getting better at real estate. 🤓

In Nashville, it grew to an event that sold out yearly. 📆

After arrival, you would enter a full room of real estate professionals ready to learn and share. Next, you would be asked to give session ideas that interest you and session ideas you were proficient enough in to facilitate. Once all the surveys were compiled, the event organizer created the day’s program. The 500-1000 barcampers gather around a central, posted schedule and divide into subjects and rooms that interest them most. This organization process was completed in about 30 minutes and changes throughout the day based on agent needs.

At our first event, I was asked to facilitate a session on SEO. After about 15 minutes of talking about blogging and meta descriptions on photos, I could see the glazed look on the faces in the room, so I paused.

I asked, “Who here is actually going to spend an hour a day doing this?”

No one raised their hand. 🤚

I said, stop worrying about your SEO and blogging if you’ve never done it and it doesn’t interest you.

Instead, spend that hour prospecting and reaching out to your sphere, and I promise you’ll see better results. 📈

The room gasped a sigh of relief, and the conversation changed to the best practices for contacting your sphere. Man, I miss rebar!

This still holds true today.

Stay in your lane. ⛔️

Stop chasing the latest and greatest lead source and spend an hour a day (or more) doing what you know works

[H]ow To:

Last week, I brushed the surface of Canva, starting with navigating the homepage. Now, I am going to go over actually designing a post. 🖌️

After you click create a create a design, go to “Design” in the top left. This is where you search for templates and where I like to “cheat.” The majority of the time, I don’t create from a blank template. I am usually combining different elements from already created templates in Canva. I’ll swap out different styles and play around until I get something I like and is my own. 😊 I recommend changing up any templates you use to match your style. A big reason why I recommend this is many people grab already created templates and just post away.

You don’t want to be posting the same graphic as someone else. How embarrassing. 🫠🫠

Next up, we have "Elements". Elements is where you look up anything and everything stylistically. This could be a house, a dog, shapes, background images, or anything you want added to your design.

If you don’t have Pro, this is where you’ll get pissed off. 😠😠

Canva lovesss to throw all Pro features at the top. So, if you don’t have Pro, you’ll have to sit there and search until you find something without that crown icon. Funny enough, when you have Pro you can filter Pro features out. When you don’t have Pro you aren’t able to do that. Truly evil. 👿 

Below that we have "Text." This is where you add any text you want in your design. Once you place the text onto the document then you can change the font and sizing just like you would in Microsoft. 

Following "Text" is "Brand." Like we talked about last week, if you choose to build a brand kit with your colors and logos, this is where you would easily be able to access them. 

After "Brand" is "Uploads." This is where you will find/upload any items that are personally yours, including listing photos, headshots, or any other items you want added to your design that Canva didn’t have. 

The last few items on our list I don’t use very often. We have a basic draw tool that you can draw onto your design. Projects, where you can pull up any other previous designs you would like to work on. Lastly, Apps which we discussed last week. This is just a place where you can play around with any popular apps people are using that can influence how you design. Feel free to mess around and see what you might be able to utilize. 

This pretty much covers the forefront of Canva’s Design page. If you have any pressing Canva questions that you want a How To on please let me know! 😊😊

-Ty Morton