Environmental Consultant, Marketing Guru & Hopeless Romantic,
Dedicated
To Peace, Healthy Living & Environmental Justice.
Marketing 101: It's easier to stand out in a crowded market if you're the
one smiling in the rain...
Hi,
my name is Steve Schappert I founded The Green Marketing
Company on August 15th. of 2011. The concept was a fusion of my
passion for all things green and my lifetime of sales and
marketing experience. Yup, at age five I went door to door in
the winter asking if, "me and the boys" could shovel snow, so we
could buy our supply of Bazooka bubble gum that week. At age
five I learned the power of smiling and asking for the order...pppplease!
The purple lips probably helped to evoke an emotional response.
My competition is laughingat me but that's OK, I have heard it before,
and there is a method to my madness. I have been self employed
my entire life, and I have grown a thick skin, while remaining
passionate about what I do. I created the first website for my hometown, Brookfield,
CT back in 1996, then the site for the library, the elementary
school, Candlewood Lake Authority, Housatonic Valley Council of Elected
Officials and finally my real estate business and 486 other sites relevant to my
businesses. All of my income for the last 15 years has come from
the web or a referral, because my sites sat on top of
GOOGLE for years. My real estate business supplied 550 leads a
month to a network of 2000 agents nationwide. My building business
shipped a home from upstate NY to Germany, because we were on the top of
GOOGLE. Being on the top of GOOGLE helps when the media wants to do a
story or reality show on your industry. I received 2 screen calls
from the TLC channel in NYC and my business was recommended by Woman's
Day Magazine. The Woman's Day article had an initial distribution of 30 million readers. We received
leads from the article for 6 years because of the magazines shelf life. I have been interviewed by
ABC, NBC, and CNN all because of Facebook or my websites. So the
competition can keep laughing about the ridiculously low intro prices,
because they won't last for long. In the month of January 2012, I
hired 16 regional managers in 8 countries and I opened
5 offices in CT.
What happened?
Everything was wonderful 3 yeas ago, I was building
my 15,000 sf home and office, valued at $3.6 Million. We had financing
approvals for $12 million, a letter of intent for another $69 million
and $1.3 Billion with a capital "B" on the drawing board. Then the
market crashed and over lunch I lost $1,200,000, it was everything, my investor left me
with $142.
Marketing was always my strength but I only
spent 5% of my time doing it, and 95% on operations. Since I have
to recreate myself I am going to spend 100% of my time doing what I love
and excel at...marketing. Down side to
working for yourself forever and opening a marketing business... no referrals, I was the marketer and the
client. I am spending my first few months putting together my happy
client list with raving testimonials, it seems to be a great place to
start, and yes the prices will be going up at the end of the month.
I
have combined my passion for all things green with my
natural marketing instinct to create
The Green
Marketing Company. The
Green Marketing Company is a full service marketing, sales and
advertising firm.
I understand
what it is like to work with a tight
budget. I started the Green Marketing Company with my last 20 bucks. I
registered TheGreenMarketingCompany.com for 99 cents, printed 10 black
and white fliers, walked to 10 businesses and got my first sale. Ten
days later the website out ranked 230,500,000 other pages relevant to
green marketing and landed on the first page of three major search
engines. That was the day I realized I could compete as a world class
advertising agency.
BACKGROUND:
Over
the years media sources have
called on
Schappert when looking
for a real estate or green building expert. These days
Schappert is asked to speak about all things green. In March of this
year
Schappert provided a four hour presentation at the Yale Peabody Museum
to a Masters class in science education, the music video is linked
below.
Schappert has been recognized nationally for my expertise as
a broker, contractor and green expert.
Banks, real estate companies and homeowners in New York, Connecticut
and Arizona have relied on
Schappert's skill in evaluating homes
and making cost effective improvements to maximize profits.
Schappert has shipped energy efficient homes as far as Germany!
Last summer Schappert toured the country in a hydrogen hybrid
72' convertible Mustang and was interviewed by ABC, NBC and CNN
radio to mention a few.
Schappert had focused Panelized
Building Systems and Bios Building Technologies on energy efficient
and energy independent construction for both remodeling and new
construction projects. Utilizing state of the art geothermal and
photovoltaic technology, Schappert hoped to take a leading position
in the advancement of Energy Independent Building (buildings that
produce more power than they use)! To accomplish this Schappert
had developed his own trademarked product line, called BIOS.
The "BIOS"
concept in its most basic form is simply, "do well by doing good",
a simple philosophy that could save the environment and boost the
economy. Schappert says, "There are no delusions, it
is a lifetime of work for many people. A lifetime dedicated to leaving
the world a better place for the next seven generations. It's about
people caring enough to get involved, roll up their sleeves and
taking ownership in a cause that is more than just building and
selling homes. It's our present, our future and the dreams
of many. Today
Steve is focusing all his efforts on building the BIOS brand and
helping others promote the green side of their business. Steve is
searching for others to partner with to make the world a little
greener and affordable, because he knows full well the combination
is required for the world to see real sustainable change.
Schappert now feels he can do more good by helping other
companies with their marketing instead of handling all the
operations himself.
Steve's NYC Interview With Rew Starr. Steve talks about
Green Building, Al Gore, Global Warming, GreenFest and
The BIOS WaterCar
Here is a simple list of accomplishments
from over the years starting with the most recent:
* Created
GreenFestA Battle of the bands with 23
bands from CT, NY, RI, Washington DC and Armenia!
* Created the
BIOS Center Concept:
A Green Living Expo with alternative energy museum and environmental
art gallery.
* Founder
Bios Energy Systems a division of BIOS
Building Technologies a licensed CT home improvement contractor.
BIOS
markets the following services: electricity that is the
low cost leader in CT with a higher % of renewable energy, energy
audits, energy efficient home improvements, cost effective alternative
energy and or co-generation systems, and back-up
power in the form of batteries of generators.
* Featured speaker at National Real Estate Convention.
The National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents annual convention
is in Las Vegas this year along with the National Association
of Realtors Convention. The theme of the 2007 convention was
Green Building and Steve Schappert delivered a 3 hour presentation
on the subject.
* Featured Speaker:
Environmental Sciences Class The Sound School
regional vocational high school for aqua & agriculture
* Featured Speaker:
Sustainable
Business Class Gateway Community College
* "How To Promote
Your Green Contracting Business" Created multimedia presentation, with Co
speaker Craig Clark of the Connecticut Energy Efficiency
fund.
*Featured in and recommended byWoman's
Day Magazine "Get a
broker on your side. In most states, real-estate agents
work for the seller, not the buyer. This means that
the agent wants to get the seller the best price possible.
Using a buyer's broker, who has your best interest in mind,
may help you shave thousands off a home's purchase price, mortgage
or various other costs, and there is no fee to the
consumer." Woman's Day suggests to find a buyer's broker, you
should call one of the many referral services across the country
such as Buyer's Trust "-
"Cutting Your Expenses" by Karen J. Bannan
was featured in the January 2nd. edition of Woman's Day Magazine
* # 8 Amateur Poet In The World 2008 Poetry
by Steve Schappert A master communicator, Schappert was
published in two books and recorded ---on
3 CD collection.
* Considered as potential writer for "Real
Estate Investment for Dummies"
*
New York Times, Quoted as the
Candlewood Waterfront Expert
Steve Schappert
Gets Screen Call!
Steve Schappert of Buyer's
Trust Real Estate will be headed to Manhattan on Monday to Meet
with producer Mike Wechsler for a new reality TV Show Wechsler
is putting together for the BBC called, "Real Estate Road Trip".
For the first time in America, you can have the opportunity to
try out a house
before you buy it. You tell us what you’re looking for in
a new house, and we will match you up with three different properties.
Then you get to choose to spend the night in one of the properties
to see if it is a good fit for you and your family - and if you
want to purchase the house.
Kathleen
Chiras of Skyforinc., a national referral service, confirms
she has been speaking to the casting director for about a month
in an email to Schappert. Chiras says, "Good
luck, Steve! Yes, I 've been talking with the casting producer
there for about a month. Let's hope they pick an EBA! KC ".
Tom Early President of The Buyer's Real Estate Brokerage and President
of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents had this to
say, " Fantastic,
keep me informed. I too sent them a bio but have not heard from
them. Tom "
Schappert
said, "I had no idea about the show but on Friday I received
a phone call from Mike Wechsler of BBC Production
in Manhattan.
They are doing a reality TV show about home buying. I was
interviewed, over the phone by Mike, he asked for a picture so,
I gave him my website for Buyers Trust. he said he would get back
to me. He called back one minute later and asked me
to come to Manhattan for a screen call on Monday at 11. "
"I really appreciate
the opportunity regardless of whether I am chosen or not. This will
be a great PR piece for Exclusive Buyer Agents everywhere!
Schappert and Wechsler also talked briefly about Schappert's new
zero energy mixed use building in New Milford."
http://BiosBuildingTechnologies.com/btc.htm
Real Estate Veteran Has Been Starting Businesses Since
Childhood
Most 12-year-old
boys are interested in video games and sports. Most 24-year-old
men are trying to figure out how to begin their careers. Most successful
business owners choose one pursuit and make it work. Most people
are not Steve Schappert, chief executive officer of Brookfield-based
Buyer’s Trust Real Estate, whose career began early and shows no
signs of slowing down. Born in New Rochelle,
N.Y., Schappert moved to Brookfield when he was 2 and by the age
of 12 had already started a successful business mowing lawns in
the neighborhood. After graduating from high school, an accomplishment
he jokes on his Web site happened because administrators “were afraid
to have [him] around another year,” Schappert began painting houses.
He attended Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, where
he studied marketing and psychology, although he didn’t graduate.
“I had been self-employed
since I was 12,” said Schappert. “I figured I’d go to get the knowledge,
but I didn’t need the degree.” Instead, having accrued some experience
in the industry, Schappert moved to Arizona at the age of 24 to
begin a house-painting business, and soon had 10 people working
for him. In 1992 he returned to Brookfield where he applied his
knowledge and expertise and began a painting and contracting business.
Within 18 months he had 25 employees and was successful enough to
be named “Contractor of the Year” by Sherwin-Williams in 1993.
Schappert shifted
his focus in 1994 from contracting to real estate, and after working
for someone else for two years, became a broker in 1996. No stranger
to starting his own businesses, he began Buyer’s Trust Real Estate
that same year. “Buyer’s Trust
is sort of a niche business, focusing on the buyer’s side,” said
Schappert, who added that at first the idea of such a honed pursuit
was not greeted with enthusiasm. “When I opened Buyer’s Trust, brokers
laughed at me,” said Schappert. “‘You’re only doing buyers. You’re
giving away half your business,’ they said. I said, ‘Yeah, but there
are 1,700 agents in the Danbury area and I’m the only one doing
something different.’”
A Novel Concept
To Schappert,
doing something different seemed like something natural. The conventional
practice of Realtors representing multiple parties was something
he saw as a contradiction. “Realtors working for traditional offices
represent themselves. They’re promising to get the highest prices
for the seller, but they also claim to represent the buyer. How
do they do that? How does one attorney represent both the husband
and the wife in a divorce? They can’t do it, can’t give both sides
100 percent,” said Schappert. And so Buyer’s
Trust was born, a company based around the novel concept of putting
the buyer first. In straying from the trodden path, Schappert was
able to set himself apart enough to be recognized on a national
scale. He was featured in an NBC News special entitled “Connecticut
Waterfront Treasures,” in The New York Times as Candlewood Valley’s
premier buyer-broker and in a Women’s Day magazine article on how
to minimize expenses. The road to such acclaim has been a long and
rather slow-going one. Initially the problem was getting the word
out. “I got into the
business not being able to afford advertising,” said Schappert,
although the problem did not deter him. “I figured out how to develop
a Web site and have since gotten the Web site to the point where
we do national referrals.”
It was not an
immediate process. “The public view of the Web site has a six- or
seven-year project behind it that I put $500,000 into. It’s the
backbone of the system,” said Schappert. Upon logging into
the site, a potential client will see a list of state names. Once
they click on a state and fill out their request, the Web site automatically
sends the referral to an exclusive buyer agent in the selected area.
The system is vast and has taken a long time to complete.
