What’s In a Name?

Would you still eat at the hamburger joint with the golden arches tomorrow if the name wasn’t McDonald’s?

If Donald Trump sold all of his buildings tomorrow to a guy named Barnaby McPherson, would there be tourists asking to visit McPherson Tower in New York City?

Is there a reason why people would say they’ve never heard of Robert Zimmerman but love Bob Dylan?

Let’s face it…name recognition is powerful.

Even Old New York was Once New Amsterdam

For the last four years I have written this blog, sharing tools tips and techniques to build your real estate business. Since my first blog post back in March 2008, I have been creating content for The Realtor’s Toolbox. Over the last few years it has evolved into more of a place to share ideas and inspiration as well as fun ways to be successful in a career in real estate and succeed in life at the same time by following my simple philosophy ~ build relationships, solve problems and have fun.

I received a letter this past week from the Legal Affairs Department of the National Association of Realtors stating…

The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS has identified the Internet domain name, realtorstoolbox.blogspot.com, as one in which the membership marks of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS (National Association) are used as a part of the domain name.  The National Association requests that you comply with the rules developed by the National Association to preserve and protect the Membership marks and discontinue using this domain name.

While my reason for naming my blog The Realtor’s Toolbox never was intended to mislead the general public in any way, I was always wondering when the all and powerful NAR might find reason to protect their trademark. I actually named it The Realtor’s Toolbox because that was the name of my very first public presentation I did back when I was a branch manager. It was the class that helped my land my current role as Director of Agent Development and has become my “signature class” when I speak across the country to real estate companies and real estate associations (many of which are filled with Realtors). It just kind of made sense that my blog and my signature class would share the same name. After all, my slogan is “nobody knows homes like a Carpenter” and shouldn’t every good carpenter have a toolbox?

Time to Change

I had been contemplating moving my blog from the Blogger platform to Word Press for quite some time but was happy with the results I had been seeing via Blogger. They were constantly working on bringing new enhancements to the platform and my subscriptions of new readers was steadily growing so I kind of felt that if it “ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Well, when you get a letter from a Legal Affairs Department of one of the largest trade organizations in the United States, you’re not going to sit there and argue. It was time to change.

I contacted my friend Jeremy Blanton, a real estate and technology consultant that I met at last year’s Coldwell Banker Gen Blue Convention and told him I was ready to make the conversion. Jeremy’s company, 210 Consulting, was eager to help and quick to make the site “come alive.” In a matter of 36 hours my blog posts had been moved over from Blogger and my new site was up and running. A big shout out to JB for his efforts and guidance.

New Name. Same Great Content

While the name has changed to Carp’s Corner (the name of my hard copy newsletter I used to send out to my friends, family and past clients when I was an active agent), the content will remain the same. If you are already a subscriber, nothing should change and you should still continue to get my posts sent to your email or RSS feeds as you were before.

If you’re not a subscriber, please consider adding your name to the box on the right and recieving updated posts from Carp’s Corner straight to your email inbox. I can assure you that you’ll get an idea, some inspiration, a valuable tip or at least a smile each time you read it.

If you know someone who might enjoy the site, please email them a link, share the site on your social networks or tell them about it the next time you see them in person.

Thanks for being a loyal reader. I really appreciate you taking the time to ‘sharpen your saw” each day with me. Until next time, keep building relationships, solving problems and having fun.

PS – Please let me know your thoughts on the new look and feel.

Photo Credit: Rev Stan Creative Commons 2.0