A Red Rose and a Hat!

 

A Red Rose and A Hat, Lots of Hats

By Jim “Gymbeaux’ Brown, December 30, 2022

Today is December 30, 2022 and I received an email from Vickie Carlton, a real estate agent who works in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas area.  Why am I telling you this?  So glad you asked.

I met Vickie many years ago, too many that I want to admit to.  At the time Vickie and I worked for the same national franchise real estate company.  She began a promotional campaign that featured a single red rose on a black background.  Her business card was black with a single red rose and if my memory serves me, she had the words, “Simple Elegance” over the rose.  It had to be there, otherwise I would not have remembered it after these many years.  On the occasion of us both attending a training program, she gave me a tin of cookies and you may have guessed it, the tin’s lid was black with a single red rose on the lid.  To this day, whenever I see a red rose, I immediately think of Vickie Carlton from Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas.  http://www.lascolinashomes.com/

Then there is Sandra Nichols, “The Hat Lady” from Montgomery, Alabama.  Like Vickie, I met Sandra at a training event many years ago.  What made the meeting memorable as compared to other such encounters, was that Sandra was wearing a hat when most women at that time or since, have NOT worn hats; see the photo above.  In fact, every time I saw Sandra, she was wearing a different hat and that, aside from her wonderful service to her customers, became her trademark – women’s hats.  I once received a post card type Christmas card several years ago, I wish I had kept it.  It displayed a lone Christmas Tree in a field and the only ornaments were women’s hats.  I did not have to turn the card over to know who sent it to me – it was Sandra!  https://www.homesforsaleinmontgomeryalabama.com/blog#

The point I want to convey is this.  If you are in sales, sales of any kind, the number one thing you must do is to first create relationships with people and you do that by meeting them and then developing the skill of asking questions and LISTENING to their answers.  The questions do not have to do with what you may or may not be selling, they should be questions about the “probable buyer”, the “probable buyer’s” likes, the “probable buyer’s” family, the “probable buyer’s” business, etc.  The more you can get the “probable buyer” to talk about such things, the better you will be able to build a relationship with this specific “probable buyer”; PROVIDED YOU ACTUALLY LISTEN TO THE ANSWERS!  I considered “listening” to be so important, I wrote and taught a course titled, Effective Listening; How to Become an Effective Listener, and taught it the agents in my office.

I put the phrase, “probable buyer” in quotations for two reasons.  The term came from one of the best sales trainers of all time, Jeffrey Gitomer.  He suggested that EVERYONE is a probable buyer, not a customer or a client or as real estate agents often say, “my people”, and you must learn to treat them as “probable buyers!”  If you learn this one fact, it is very possible if not probable that you will eventually increase YOUR income by treating everyone you meet as a “probable buyer.”  Therefore, a shoutout to Jeffrey Gitomer for this income producing training tip!

To put this into perspective, I spent over 33 years in the real estate sales business.  Most of my time was spent training real estate agents in sales techniques and standards of practice.  My emphasis was NOT on agents becoming selling machines but rather I hoped they would become experts on relationship building and that they would become the best listeners on the planet.  No one is ever selling anything if they are doing all of the talking.  You can only discover that you may or may not hold the keys to satisfy a “probable buyer’s” needs if you learn what the “probable buyer” actually wants and needs.  You do this through relationship building and being an effective listener and that may require actually taking notes about what you hear.

Vickie Carlson and Sandra Nichols may both hate my guts but that doesn’t matter when it comes to their bottom line.  Unless I do illegal things, they understand that my political beliefs, my personal likes and dislikes, my habits, my family, my job have very little to do with both of them building upon our relationships by ensuring that I know they exist, what they do and where they do it.  I may never buy real estate or know of anyone buying real estate in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas or Montgomery, Alabama areas but if I did, I know who I would be calling.  Therein is my point!  Both Vickie and Sandra have maintained either an active contact such as Vickie’s monthly real estate newsletter and her red rose, or, Sandra by engraining in my mental grey matter that every time I see a women’s hat, I think of her.  This is called marketing.

It is critical to understand the difference between marketing and advertising.  You market to people you know.  You advertise to people you don’t know (it may also touch the people you do know provided they see it.)  Advertising is often referred to as the shotgun approach.  You send out a lot of material in the hope that someone who needs your service or product, sees it at the very moment they realize they need the type of service or produce you provide, and then contacts you.  Vickie and Sandra, both know me.  They know what I have done in the past.  They know where I live.  They know how to reach me if they need to.  They also know that I know a lot of REALTORS® and as such, if they need a REALTOR®  in my area but did not know any, they may call me to find one.  That is simply good networking and it works. 

IMPORTANT POINT!  I retired from the real estate business after 33 years on December 31, 2012, over ten years ago.  That is a long time to remember people like Sandra and Vickie who I haven’t actually seen in over 30 years.  How many people who are NOT related to you and who you met over 30 years ago at a 2-hour training seminar can you remember?  How many plumbers can you name?  How many electricians can you name?  How many car salesmen can you name?

CRITICAL UNDERSTANDING!!!!  I have just said I retired after 33 years in the business.  Can you appreciate the number of REALTORS®  I have encountered in those 33 years considering that I attending as many Conferences and Training Classes that I could possibly attend all over the country?  The number of agents number in the hundreds if not thousands.  In my own hometown of Slidell, Louisiana, there are easily over 300 licensed real estate agents and prior to 2012, I either knew most of them or was at least aware of them.  Most were aware of me because I was the Broker for one of the companies in Slidell and agents typically know who the brokers are.  Nonetheless, I have met and have known (past tense) hundreds and hundreds of real estate agents.  Yet, twelve years after my retirement in 2012, only two agents routinely reached out to me to “market” themselves and their businesses.  What does that say about the hundreds upon hundreds of other agents who claim to be looking for referral business?  How many car salesmen do you think have reached out to me in my lifetime AFTER I have purchased a car from them?  ZERO!  How many plumbers maintain contact with me?  ZERO!  How many electricians?  ZERO!  How many roofers?  ZERO!  At one point I had 105 agents in my Slidell office and after 12 years of retirement, how many have maintained constant contact with me?  ZERO!  Maybe everyone does hate my guts and none want to ever do business with me ever again or accept any referrals that I may be able to send their way.  Maybe it IS me!  But I doubt it.  Sales people simply do not understand the difference between marketing (a hand written note card) and advertising (a billboard or newspaper ad) and therefore spend most of their budget on advertising to the masses in hopes of attracting a customer rather than asking people they already know if they know of anyone that could use their professional services or buy their product.  If there are 300 agents in Slidell, Louisiana and you are one of them, what are YOU doing to stand out from the crowd?  What are YOU doing to create a mental note for people to recall you even 30 years later?  If you can’t answer these questions, what exactly are you doing to grow your business and increase the profit number on your personal financial spreadsheet?  And by the way, I receive a text message on every holiday from a local handyman who has done work for me in my home. 

Suggestion:  You may want to consider purchasing a red rose or wearing unique hats.

Question: 

What separates you from the crowd?

If you can’t answer that,

neither can your database of probable buyers. 

You do have a database, right?

 

Out of the Shadows

By Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, December 18, 2022

 “I can’t compromise any more,

I want to send a good message to my kids. 

I want them to know, at the end of the day, their Dad

did what was right and fought for the good things in life.”

Brad Martin

 

“I feel exactly the same way in spite of what others may think of me or what I believe;

I desperately want to send a good message to my kids; I only hope they are listening!”

Gymbeaux

The above quote was extracted from a video documentary with the title, “Out of the Shadows.”  It occurs at the very end of this extraordinary video that I believe everyone in America if not on the planet should watch.  It IS exactly how I feel.  Taking a stand for what you believe is NOT always easy and you run the run of people thinking you are crazy or that you have fallen off the deep end but that is a price as a parent I am willing to pay and accept.  I have done my homework; homework that so few people are willing to do on their own.  As a nation, we have been brainwashed as described in Out of the Shadows but so few people realize what has been done to them.

I understand that most people, certainly not you, choose NOT to watch documentary videos, especially when it might challenge what they believe to be true.  No one ever wants to be proven to be wrong about anything.  They choose to believe what they believe and then also choose to ignore any contradicting evidence to the contrary.  That is what has led America to experience the HUGE political divide that now spreads like a cancer throughout our society.  Democrats believe what they believe.  Republicans believe what they believe.  But there is a third category of Americans that may in fact be the largest demographic of all – Americans that just don’t care and want to continue to live their lives as if nothing is happening.

Vladimir Lenin, yes, that Communist Leader Vladimir Lenin, describes “useful idiots” as:

In political jargon, a useful idiot is a term for a person perceived as propagandizing for a cause -- particularly a bad cause originating from a devious, ruthless source -- without fully comprehending the cause's goals, and who is cynically used by the cause's leaders.

I could easily make the case that there are “useful idiots” in both the Democrat and the Republican Parties as well as those people who consider themselves as Independents.  In either category, these are people who for the most part, are UNCONSCIOUSLY doing the dirty work of a “devious ruthless source” in order to achieve the “devious ruthless source’s” agenda which is usually not a good thing.

It is my opinion that out of all Americans, the Americans who choose to remain neutral, who feel as I have stated that “who just don’t care and want to continue to live their lives as if nothing is happening” are worse than “useful idiots.”  If there is something wrong in America and/or the World and they choose to ignore it, then not only will they pay the ultimate price, the entire world will pay the ultimate price for their desire to “not caring and a desire not go get involved.”

I beg of everyone, for just one hour and eighteen minutes, that they put aside their Democrat, their Republican, their Independent beliefs and especially their “I don’t care” attitudes and watch the documentary Out of the Shadows.  In all honesty, I had “some” idea of the material covered in the movie but I had no clue as to the depth of the material covered. 

Please, if you don’t watch it because you want to stay in your bubble of beliefs, watch it for the sake of the future of your kids and their kids and their kids.  The documentary discusses the treatment of children but it also discusses HOW we are all being brainwashed by none other than our Government and Hollywood and then demonstrates exactly HOW celebrities, news media and politicians become corrupted, a process you may or may not know or appreciate how deep it runs.

Just ONE HOUR and EIGHTEEN MINUTES, that is all I’m asking.  Is that too much to ask for?  I certainly hope not.

 

https://rumble.com/v1z1pai-out-of-shadows.html

 

If the link does not work by clicking on it, please copy and paste to your browser.

Biden Safe Driving Awards Program

 

Biden Safe Driving Awards Program

By Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, December 11, 2022

 

I have it on very good double verified information plus one anonymous source, that President Biden is working on a Safe Driving Awards Program that will apply to everyone in America that has a valid driver’s license.

You have to understand how traceable modern-day cars have become.  In the government’s attempt to get consumers to switch to all electric vehicles, President Biden has decided that good drivers should be rewarded for being a good driver.  The government is able to tell when you change lanes without using your turn signals.  It can tell when you fail to come to a complete stop at a stop sign or traffic light.  It can even tell when you run a red light or cross during a yellow or caution light.  Plus, it can tell when you exceed the speed limit at any given time.  Computers are already in placed that can track every driver’s performance in the country unless of course you are driving an old car.  In that case, President Biden is preparing a reprieve of the old Cash for Clunkers program to incentivize drivers to purchase new electric vehicles.

What is needed for this program to work are incentives for drivers to do the right thing, all of the time, not just some of the time.  Therefore, it has been reported that the drivers exhibiting safe driving techniques will be eligible to receive cash payments for their safe driving.  The following is the proposed schedule, the amount to be awarded is still under review and budgetary approvals.

1. 100% use of turn signals whenever turning a vehicle or changing lanes.
2. 100% coming to a complete stop at all stop signs and traffic lights
3. 100% never crossing an intersection when the light is yellow (caution)
4. 100% failure to properly yield when merging into traffic on interstate highways
5. 100% staying within the posted speed limits
6. Guaranteed to have automobile insurance
7. Must have a valid driver’s license, extra points if you annotate you are an organ donor

The government has realized that it is very difficult to meet the 100% goal but for those people who do meet it, they will be handsomely rewarded with financial payments once every quarter for as long as the program remains in effect.  For drivers who meet these objectives only 90% of the time, they too will be rewarded but at a significantly reduced amount.

People who fail to meet the above guidelines at a level of 80% or lower, will have their driver’s licenses suspended for 30 days.  Once reinstated, repeat offenders will have to reapply to have their licenses renewed.  This program has all been made possible because of advances in computer technology and their tracing abilities.

The Biden Administration feels that by rewarding safe drivers, people will want to become safe drivers and this will significantly reduce motor vehicle accidents and even deaths on our highways.  The Biden Administration, more so than most previous administrations, realize that money talks louder than any words or simple desires.  Money will make Americans WANT to obey the traffic laws of the country to avoid unnecessary penalties.

If you have read this far, one of three things will have happened.  First, you are excited because you are already a good driver and any extra income would be very much appreciated.  Second, you are suspicious that this is actually being considered by our Federal Government.  Third, you have no opinion, one way or another.

Of course, this is a joke but once I put it on paper, I could actually see someone within the Biden Administration actually making such a bid for this ill-conceived program.  But what is NOT a joke is that there already is a similar program within our HealthCare Industry; more specifically our hospitals.  You think I jest?  I do not!

There are very few independent doctors practicing medicine.  That means that they have all signed on with Hospital Systems.  When they do, they get directions provided to them from Hospital Administrators.  Keep in mind that one of the primary jobs of a Hospital Administrator is to make certain that hospital operate in the black, meaning it makes money.  Doctors took an oath to do no wrong when it came to medical practice and their patients.  Hospital Administrators took no such oath.  Their job is cut expenses and to make money for the Hospitals.

Enter the U. S. Federal Government and COVID.  I have already done my own research on this and know it to be true.  I can and will tell you in principle how it works but you owe it to yourself to verify what I am about to tell you in this Nugget.  Don’t take my word for it, research it yourself!

Our hospital systems receive bonus money from the Federal Government when:

1. Someone is given a test for COVID
2. Someone tests positive for COVID
3. Someone is admitted to the hospital with COVID
4. Someone is administered Remdesivir for COVID
5. Someone is placed on a ventilator with COVID
6. Someone dies and the cause of death is listed as COVID

I kid you not.  The hospitals stand to receive bonus payments from the Federal Government when one or more of these benchmarks are achieved.  I have seen various numbers but can assure you the numbers reach into the tens of thousands of dollars for EACH COVID patient.

The Federal Government has incentivized the Hospitals so that they receive a lot of cash for doing what the government wants them to do.  This is precisely why Hospitals and Doctors have all but outlawed alternative medicines that have been proven to work to fight against and even cure COVID but they refuse to prescribe them because they make no money off of such actions.  Two such medicines, Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin have been banned but are continued to be used throughout the rest of the world.  Hydroxychloroquine is an over-the-counter medication in most parts of the world.

Think about it.  If a patient is cured using a medicine that can be obtained over the counter in other parts of the world, the Hospital Systems would not receive the thousands upon thousands of dollars to follow the government prescribed protocol for treating COVID patients.  It apparently doesn’t matter that people have died using this protocol, in fact millions have died at the hands of hospital employees under the direction of the Hospital Administrators and our Federal Government.

If you are like me and I am so thankful that you are, you are asking yourself, why would someone intentionally do such a thing?  To answer this, you have to look at the United Nation’s programs Agenda 21 and Agenda 30 (Agenda 30 is nothing more but an update to Agenda 21 when they failed to meet their schedule for Agenda 21 to happen).  Add to the United Nations the World Economic Forum and even the Center for Disease Control and you will quickly see that one of the major objectives of these organizations is to reduce the world’s population from 8 BILLION to about 500 MILLION.  That represents a HUGE reduction/elimination of people.  It represents a reduction of 13 of every 14 people on the planet.  How do you achieve such a reduction?  Wars, pandemics, disease, murder, natural causes.  If you look at the guidelines provided by the government during the recent pandemic, who were the first groups targeted?  The elderly and those people with underlying medical conditions.  In other words, people who are already receiving an inordinate amount of medical care (expenses) and whose deaths would be “expected” during a pandemic.

So why are they pushing vaccines for children 6 months to 12 years old?  Do the research yourself and look up birth rates before and after the pandemic.  You will see that adults are having fewer babies and the ones they do have are more often than not, still births.  The results won’t be known for years to come but it is believed that the vaccines are causing the young to become infertile which then becomes yet another method of reducing the population.

Why am I telling everyone this information.  So glad you asked. 

BEING AWAKE SUCKS!

It really does.  I no longer watch the main stream news media.  You get the exact same stories on every channel regardless of network.  That in of itself should be impossible but yet there they are, same stories, same words, same phrases all from different people on different networks.  There is only one explanation for that; the stories are coming from the exact same places/people.  The media has become the country’s NUMBER ONE ENEMY when it refuses to report the truth.  Therefore, concerning people, such as yourself, should turn to alternative news sources where you receive an entirely different story of world news.  When YOU become AWAKE, assuming that you haven’t become so already, you realize that you are in a minority and there are more people asleep than awake and that is why being awake sucks!  You are written off as a nut job, you are crazy, you are insane, you are a conspiracy theorist, or you drank the cool aid. 

 

TIME TO WAKE UP FOLKS!