A Salute to Moms & Our Publisher’s Advisory Board

As most of you know, when I took over the magazine 6 years ago, I was quite intimidated by the editorial aspect of the magazine. You see, I had been in advertising sales/publishing for several other all advertising based publications (Homes&Land, Apartment Guides, Perfect Wedding Guides, etc) and wasn’t sure if I was qualified to decide what editorial needed to be in the magazine.

I have always believed that if you didn’t have all of the answers and weren’t even sure what the questions were, you needed to surround yourself with people that were more knowledgeable than you are….no problem there. I pride myself on how little I know and seem to get away with it!

In March of 2002, I started gathering the most incredible and knowledgeable people I knew and established the Publishers Advisory Board. The “Founding Members” of the board (still on the board today) are Rita Santamaria, Shad Bogany, Vicki Fisher, Virginia Grace Green, Hedley Karpas, Marilyn Wier, Margo Frederking, John Cruise and Irby Rozelle. These people nominate and vote on the cover honorees, give me feedback on the industry and are my inspiration to continually “better my best” every issue. When you see these individuals and the other current members of the board, please tell them how much you enjoy the magazine and appreciate them being a part of it. I sure do! The 2008-2009 Publisher’s Advisory Board is featured on the adjoining page.

May is the month of two great holidays, Mother’s Day and Memorial Day. Mother’s Day is always bitter sweet for me. My mother was a victim of Breast Cancer that took her life at just 38 years old, oddly enough on Mother’s Day Weekend. Earlier this month, I received an editorial from the Houston Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure® folks that I thought was a perfect fit for this issue. They have a suggestion for Mothers Day, when you are thinking of the perfect gift, give the gift of a reminder to the women in your life about the importance of breast cancer awareness and early detection.

This month’s cover honoree is a Stephanie Schley of RE/MAX Northwest. I have been wanting to honor Stephanie for a long time. There have been quite a few other agents from that office who have made the cover of the magazine and I was glad when the advisory board nominated Stephanie. She is a terrific agent, a great partner to Katie McMullen, a great friend to many, many, many in the industry and (most importantly) a great wife and mom! You will enjoy her story.

As always, good reading, good sales and Happy Mothers Day to all!

Success to You!

Steve Levine