Thursday, February 25, 2010

Thank God It's Monday!

Nuggets For The Noggin

Thank God It’s Monday!(*)
By Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, February 20, 2010

(*) The title “Thank God It’s Monday!” was taken from Tommy Newberry’s book, “Success Is Not An Accident” (a wonderful book I might add and I highly recommend it.)

You have all heard the phrase, Thank God It’s Friday. There is a very successful restaurant chain named TGIF meaning the same thing. What is so special about Friday? Why are so many people happy that it is finally Friday?

Most will tell you it is because Friday signals the end of the work week. Others will tell you that it is because they now get to pursue something they really love to do. Some are just tired of working and others can’t wait to have fun. Yet there are some who are tired of working and have no fun scheduled for their time away from work.

What happens on Sunday night or Monday morning? Do these same people move into a feeling of dread as they head back to their JOBS? Do they refer to Monday as TKIM, Thank God It’s Monday!

In sales we tell our probable buyers that we want them to buy what they love and love what they buy. Why would that same advice not be true for what you do? Do you do what you love and love what you do? The actual career field makes no difference; your attitude towards your profession/career does.

If you loved what you do and did what you love do you think it would make a difference in the number of sales you make? Do you think it would make a difference in your family relationships when you came home for the evening or the weekend having just completed a day at work doing what you love? Do you think it would make a difference in your relationships when you come home from working at a job you hate and can’t wait until its Friday to get relief from something you hate?

Take it to another level. I love to play golf. What kind of golfer do you think I would be if all during the week I absolutely loved my job and had a great relationship with my family and now it is Saturday and I am going to play golf? I may not play a great game of golf but it would not be as a result of a horrible attitude. On the other hand, I would be almost guaranteed a horrible game if I carried onto the course all the dislikes of the past week from my profession/career.

If you are not passionate about what you do, it almost assuredly will carry over into other aspects of your life. If you ARE passionate about what you do, you will discover that your attitude and your goals and objectives become contagious amongst those people you surround yourself with.

Now comes the hard part – improving on a good thing. Find your passion; hopefully it’s something you love to do. But what are you doing to get better? How will you maintain the love for what you do? If you are not getting better, it is easy to understand why you would hate what you are doing. The solution is really quite simple:

1. Surround yourself with like-minded people. Avoid the complainers in life as if they had the swine-flu. Find people who stimulate your thought process, who can appreciate what you do and where you want to go and who can help you get there.
2. Become engrossed in your own self-education. Once into the business world there is no one who will take charge of your education. If you fail to assume this role for yourself, you are almost doomed to mediocrity. It is almost impossible to advance without education and while you may think you are improving you are more likely not even standing still, you are instead falling behind those who value their own educational process.

“You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.” – Charles “Tremendous” Jones. Not one to argue with Mr. Jones, I believe that there is more to this. I believe you will be the same person in five years, ten years, and for the rest of your life unless something intercedes into your life to change the people you “hang” with, the books on improving your life and career you choose to read, the CD’s you choose to listen to, the DVDs you choose to watch and the seminars and conventions you choose to attend.

It has been my experience that the 80/20 rule applies to all of the above; 20% will do it, 80% won’t. With over 75,000 real estate associates in the company, about 8000 attended the 2010 annual family reunion (convention). As good as that number first appears, that’s not even 20%. It was stated that 25% of the attendees were NOT with Keller Williams so that means 6000 were; 2000 were not. The main excuses given, “I can’t afford to attend”, or "I'm too busy to attend." What is really being said is that "I don't see a value in attending." I believe you can’t afford NOT to attend. It is impossible to attend and not learn something that will help you in your business. I contend that it is impossible to attend a convention and not discover at least one technique, one script, one new tool, one new process that will help you close at least one sale you otherwise would not have closed. If that is true, and I believe it is, then the one thing you learn will have more than paid for your attendance at the family reunion (convention) where not only do you learn, you have a lot of fun.

Why do so many people, not you of course, fail to see the value of attending seminars hosted by experts, people who have done what you would like to do? Most say it is a lack of funds. If you thought you would make money by attending, the funds would be there. Some say they don’t like the travel. How much travel is there? If it involves flying and you don’t like to fly, I can understand that so combine it with a family vacation and drive – spend time with your family to and from the event. Plus you can deduct a lot of the expenses as business expenses on your income tax return all while you are learning and having fun with your family.

It has been my experience that money is typically the problem because so few people, at least in real estate, fail to create a business and personal budget and then work their budgets. For those who prepare budgets how much is included for personal development/improvement? If the answer is “0” then without some outside influence, you are more than likely doomed to continue to do what you have always done while expecting to achieve different results – how’s that working for you?

Education is the key to success. It is that simple. Here is a frightening thought. At what point in your life did you learn about money, about savings, about buying a car, about balancing a check book, about buying a home? If you are like me it was much too late in life; it certainly was not during my formal years of high school and college educations. I see nothing changing that process and therefore it is up to parents to make certain that our children/grand children are receiving guidance on the value of having goals, understanding money, interest, taxes, investments and most important – continuing their education – no one is going to do it for them – like so many they will be left to their own devices to discover what should have been taught by either the educational system, parents or both.

TGIM – Thank God It’s Monday! I get to go on stage to demonstrate I can do what I do and that I love doing it. It would be easier to say Oh God, Another Monday! If all things were equal, who would have the better week? If you need help with the answer, please stay off the highways.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Y2K

Nuggets For The Noggin
Y2K

By Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, February 12, 2009

Do you remember the years leading up to Y2K? (That is January 1, 2000 for those folks who may have lived on the moon?) How could you forget? It was like the world was going to end at midnight on December 31, 1999. All the computers in the world were going to crash. Admit it; you thought there was some truth to those predictions. I’ll even bet you ran to your computer soon after midnight to see if it was still working just to see what you may have lost, right?

Can you believe that was over 10 years ago? Well it was, it was over 10 years ago; how time flies.

It is now February 12, 2010 and something caused me to think of Y2K. Think back to January 1, 2000, what were you doing? What goals did you set? What did you want to have achieved in the next 10 years? Did you achieve them? Did you have goals? Did you have yearly goals? Did you have goals for 5 years out? Did you have life goals? If you are like most folks, there is not a lot of difference between January 1, 2000 and February 12, 2010 in regards to setting goals; they still do not set them in writing; they simply are not a priority in life. If so, you still are working without a net. You have no specific goals. You do not have a picture of who you want to be or what you want to achieve 10 years from today. Therefore why would you expect that anything would change between now and February 12, 2020, 10 years from now?

“You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.”
Charles “Tremendous” Jones

For those who have read previous Nuggets you know that they emphasize creating an educational plan for yourself because no one is going to do it for you. Run the numbers for yourself. If you had spent 30 minutes a day, every day for the past 10 years, you would have spent 1,820 hours working on your profession. What could you have achieved or become if you spent 1,820 hours working on becoming the best you could be? What and who WILL you become by February 12, 2020 if you spend 1,820 hours over the next ten years? It is never too late to start. If you do not start now, when will you start? If you do not make a study of your profession now, when will you start?

I have a list of over 50 of the best reads for anyone in sales and will make it available to anyone who asks. Just send an email to JimBrown@gymbeaux.com and ask for Best Reads in the subject line.

But for those of you in real estate, both new and experienced, if you want to start a real plan to educate yourself in real estate at least over the next year, this is my recommendation:

1. Start with your state’s Real Estate Law and Rules and Regulations. This should be read twice a year. Yes it is boring but it is what gives you the authority to do what you do so does it not then make sense to become an expert at what the law says?
2. Read the REALTOR® Code of Ethics, again at least twice a year. This gives you the guidelines to enable you to ethically work with the public and with other REALTORS®. Again, does this not make good sense if you want to be the best you can be?
3. The only other book I would read during the first year is The Million Dollar Real Estate Agent by Gary Keller, Dave Jenks and Jay Papasan. Yes I am with Keller Williams Realty (a disclaimer) but this book is NOT about Keller Williams; it is about building a business. Therefore any business person in any business could use this book as a study on how to set up a profitable and successful business, real estate agents being no exception. I would take it a step further and not only purchase the book, I would have a company like Office Depot, Staples, etc take the book apart and insert a spiral binder so it lies flat on your desk. If you take your real estate career seriously you will want to make this your absolute study over the next year and beyond. You will want to highlight the ideas and business practices that will enhance your business. I would also purchase the book on CD to listen to in my University on Wheels whenever I am on the road. Is this an over kill? Only if you do not want your real estate business to succeed. If you truly want to be the best real estate agent you can be you must first become the best business person you can be and this book will certainly demonstrate how than can be achieved.

The key is not to just “read” these items but rather to read, highlight, re-read, discuss, create plans to implement what you have learned, set goals for yourself and your business and then treat your business as a real business. The ultimate result would be that when you decide to retire you will have a product to sell – your business. What will it be worth at that time in your life? If you have it defined, if you have systems in place, if you can show history and success, if you can show a profit and loss statement with the emphasis on profit, YOU HAVE A PRODUCT TO SELL! If you owned a donut shop you wouldn't just walk away from it as most real estate agents seem to do, you would sell it. Why would you not want to sell or derive a benefit from all your hard (smart) work?