It’s Worth The Effort

Friends are so special. I can’t imagine what life would be like if I had no friends. Given my personality and my need for friends, I’m not sure I could even survive without having lots of friends. One might say I’m using the term “friends” very loosely; and I suppose I am. I call people that I know fairly well, friends. I refer to people that I go to church with as friends. I refer to people I work around as friends. These people that I call friends are not people that I have in my home for dinner. For the most part I don’t associate with them outside the area for which we commonly come in contact with each other. In reality these people I call friends are actually acquaintances.

I have been fortunate to have strong enough feelings for a few people to consider them my best friends. Naturally these best friends came at different times in my life. When I’m teaching time management, I teach people that there can only be one most important thing that needs to be done in a specific time frame. The next most important thing becomes the second, third, and etc most important. Therefore we can only have one best friend. All other friends are at a lower level. I consider best friends to share a special unconditional love, respect, and forgiveness for each other. Always supporting each other through the good times and the bad times. I have considered someone as my best friend and for some reason, the friendship deteriorated. I suppose I misread the friendship or maybe I had more affection for them than they had for me. I personally think that people are lucky to have one real best friend during an entire life-time. Only time and endurance can determine the real depth of a friendship.Our choice of friends largely depends upon our priorities and needs. We decide what is most important to us and we generally select friends who have a common interest with us that can help us achieve our goals. I need friends who can help pick me up when I’m down; who can inspire me to do more when I really want to do less. I need the encouragement that comes from the competitive edge of a friend. I need a friend that believes in me when I don’t believe in myself. I need someone I can share my thoughts with that won’t jump to conclusions or be judgemental. I am grateful for the close friends that I have that inspire me to be the very best I can possibly be.

People don’t like sales people as a general rule. They don’t want a pushy sales person trying to force them to buy something they don’t want. When possible, people buy from people they have some sort of relationship with. This relationship is often described as a friendship because there is at least a certain amount of trust that has begun to develop. They can communicate with each other to the point the consumer trusts the sales person to tell them things they need to know. Relationships are the birthing grounds for friendship that may or may not follow. Relationships are a necessity for any sales person to achieve success. The importance of relationships is overlooked by so many sales people. They are so focused on making a sale; they forget the importance of the consumer’s best financial interests. The sales person, who works toward establishing and enhancing a relationship with the consumer, rather than focusing on making a sale, will ultimately enjoy much more success.

We sales people need to slow things down during our initial conversation with a prospective buyer or seller of real estate. We shouldn’t take for granted that the consumer fully understands the buying or selling process. I’m referring to a step by step process. We deal with it every day so we understand it and we assume everyone else does but they don’t. To make it worse, they have too much pride to ask. Besides, they don’t want anyone to know that they don’t know. If we’ll simply say something like, “I’m sure you already know the process of buying or selling, but please allow me refresh your memory. It may be important to your financial interest a little later.” Can you see how this type information helps establish a relationship that when enhanced over time might turn into a friendship? Providing free services establishes relationships and friendships that can last for a life-time.

Should you have specific questions concerning various issues, please let me know and I’ll research the answer for you. I also want to encourage you to subscribe to our “News & Updates” weekly report so you can stay abreast of issues that might affect you when buying or selling real estate. If you haven’t visited my website, please go to www.AlabamaRealEstateInstitute.com  and view previous articles.

Get Over The Fear of Calling Strangers

Fear of rejection is probably the most common disease associated with sales people. No I didn’t make a slip of the tongue. I consider fear of rejection a very deadly disease to a sales career. Fear hits a person at a very early age and if uncontested, it becomes cancerous; to the point it is such a large obstacle, it appears totally impossible to bypass. I can tell you first hand that this type of fear is real and from the onset seems insurmountable.

Let me give you a real life example of me having fear of rejection. When I got into real estate in February 1969, everything was altogether different than it is today. I don’t think the term “lead generation” had been devised at that time. Sales seminars were few and far between, and I might add, miles and miles apart. However, every seminar that I attended, the main technique taught to generate new prospective clients was simplified by using the term “Prospecting.” For the next 25 years or so, I blocked three hours every day for just prospecting.

One of the ways of prospecting was a term called “Door Knocking.” In case you aren’t familiar with it, let me share my early experience with door knocking. I attended a seminar in Atlanta and Steve W. Brown was a very dynamic and persuasive speaker who convinced me that door knocking was a very productive way to get new listings. I couldn’t wait for that weekend to pass. I had chosen a real nice subdivision that was about five years old and I just knew it was bound to have at least one owner that was interested in selling. This would be the perfect place to try my new door knocking technique.

On Monday I arrived in the subdivision about 10am, with business cards in my pocket and a listing agreement in a notebook under my arm. With all the confidence in the world I walked to the front door and as I reached to ring the door bell, suddenly a fear of not knowing exactly what to say came over me like a fog. What if they ask a question I can’t answer? What if my coming here unannounced offends them? How will I handle it if they chew me out? I rang the door bell and suddenly discerned I wasn’t ready for this so I quickly returned to my car and drove off before anyone could answer the door.

I carefully thought things through, put pencil to paper to script out exactly what I would say in response to several different scenarios. Now that I no longer have anything to fear, it’s time to ring another door bell. It’s amazing how quickly one’s attitude can change between the car and front door. I rang the door bell and suddenly fear arose from nowhere. It was even stronger than before. Once again, before anyone could come to the door, I quickly returned to my car and drove off; looking back through my rear view mirror to make sure no one was chasing me. Every day for close to two weeks I would ring door bells and run. It was like a new game and I was committed to learning how to play it. Fear had gotten so strong that my hand would quiver when I reached for the door bell. Each time I would regain my confidence by rewriting my scripts and then saying my affirmations repeatedly.

On a brand new day, and with renewed spirit I walked up the sidewalk, reached to ring the door bell and suddenly the front door flung open. I froze for a second out of total surprise, then quickly introduced myself while handing the lady a business card. The lady looked deeply into my eyes and said, “Young man, you are a God send.” My husband just got promoted and we have to move. We were talking last night about how we should market our house. Can you come back at 7pm tonight to meet with us?” It was so easy. She did all the talking for me. I had the rest of the day to plan my presentation and wasn’t worried about it at all. I met with the couple that night and when I left I had a signed listing, a key to their house, a for sale sign in their yard, and a completely new attitude about door knocking.

I had probably knocked on 18-20 doors and each time I ran like a scared dog. This time the lady beat me to the punch by opening the door before I could ring the bell. More importantly she taught me that behind closed doors are people who may need my services. Statistically speaking, I knocked on 20 doors and got one listing. That is a good ratio! How many doors can I knock in a day?  This changed my career forever! I should have said it changed my life! Since that day I have never been afraid to knock on the door of a total stranger, or to call someone that I have never spoken to before. I have no fear of rejection because I realize that within every situation lies an opportunity. It is all about people talking to people and I have found the vast majority of people are respectful to other people. They are only disrespectful to those who are disrespectful.

I suppose its human nature to fear the unknown but to do so is having a negative attitude. Through the years I have learned that it is more profitable and less stressful to maintain a positive attitude by viewing the unknown as an exciting opportunity. I believe it was Franklin D. Roosevelt who said, “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.”

DREAM BIG & BE BOLD…….for great and mighty forces will come to your aid.

Should you have specific questions concerning various issues, please let me know and I’ll research the answer for you. I also want to encourage you to subscribe to our “News & Updates” weekly report so you can stay abreast of issues that might affect you when buying or selling real estate. If you haven’t visited my website, please go to www.AlabamaRealEstateInstitute.com  and view previous articles.

Brands Sell Product

Within a few years after I got in the real estate business, I purchased a cattle farm. During the early 70s there was a growing problem of stolen cattle and horses. Not many cattlemen were branding their stock at that time but the one’s that did, didn’t seem to be bothered with having missing livestock. Cattle rustlers seemed to stay away from all branded stock. North Alabama ranchers had abandoned the use of branding about 50-60 years prior so it was something new to us.

I had always said that I was born in the wrong century. I have always had a love for ranch work. I think I could go on a life-time cattle drive and enjoy every minute of it. Sitting straddle a horse all day is a sheer pleasure to me. As you can easily guess, my favorite movies are westerns. The thought of branding my own cattle was like acting in my own western movie.

After some extensive research on the state and federal level, I made application for my own brand. After receiving approval of the registration from Washington, I then took to my blacksmith shop to make a branding iron. My livestock would now wear a trademark for protection from thieves. Matter of fact all my personal property has since been protected under my brand. This is not, however, the type brand I wish to address in this article. But there are a lot of similarities between branding cattle and branding a business.

A brand is an object, an image, or phrase that is registered, either by trademark or copyright, so that wherever or whenever it is used, it establishes ownership. A brand is quickly recognized as being owned by a particular person or company. A brand generally stands out, in contrasting color or shapes, so it can easily be recognized for long distances.  My personal brand and my business brand are different. They both play off the letter “A” which is the first letter of my last name. I could have used the same brand but a brand is for life and if I built a company using my brand, then I couldn’t sell my company without giving up the use of the brand.

I have watched real estate Company’s miss out on vast opportunities because they didn’t take advantage of branding.  What if a company or an individual, designs a logo, color scheme, or some other image that they use on every advertisement they send out. I’m talking about every “For Sale” sign, every “Post Card,” every printed ad, every business card, on the building, on cars, on social networks, websites; on everything you ever do there’s that brand. How powerful it that?

Almost as important as the lack of proper use of a brand, lays the misuse of a commonly used method for producing a response to an advertisement.  Almost every agency I know of drives all their advertisement to a phone number. What make that so bad is that the phone isn’t always answered and if a message is left, and many times the agent doesn’t return the phone call. If the agent answers the phone and has a conversation with the consumer, it is a one-time shot to reach their interest. What if advertisements drive a response to a website? Now it is impossible not communicate with the prospect in some manner. From your website, they can contact you, they see other properties for sale, they can see other properties you have sold, and they have instant access to information about other services your company offers. Just imagine using a brand that drives thousands of people to your website. Now that we are in the era of social networks, link our website to those networks and watch your SEO get better and better. How productive can that be?

Should you have specific questions concerning various issues, please let me know and I’ll research the answer for you. I also want to encourage you to subscribe to our “News & Updates” weekly report so you can stay abreast of issues that might affect you when buying or selling real estate. If you haven’t visited my website, please go to www.AlabamaRealEstateInstitute.com  and view previous articles.

Run Your Own Race

As a real estate educator, I am often confronted by students that are completing their prelicense course. These students inquire about various real estate companies and especially the companies that are national franchises. They are inquisitive about the various payment plans, monthly desk fees, and if the company provides training. Naturally I am more than willing to share my knowledge with them and even advise them if they ask.

After giving them a short dissertation about the agencies in their area, I quickly suggest that most companies are all good agencies. That is they all have good people working there and they have good intentions of providing professional services and growing their business to a high level of success. In most cases when I am pushed to suggest one company over another, I explain that the company they choose is a matter of choice. It’s important for a new agent to understand that almost all agencies are good; some are just more professional than others.

I don’t mean to be copping out on giving these students a straight answer. I work with many different brokerages and almost all of the national franchises so I have must remain somewhat mutual and not show partiality one over another. If I am asked, however, I will tell the student if a brokerage has a less than desirable reputation, or if they practice in a manner that could be damaging to the student’s future.

I am of the opinion that the brokerage only provides me a place for my clients to meet with me. If my personal success in this industry was dependent upon a company providing me all the tools I needed as well as plenty prospective clients to work with, I might put more emphasis on the company. However, I am totally convinced that my sales career is what I make out of it. A real estate sales career is a business. Agents are independent contractors. We work for ourselves; we make all the decisions that affect our business, and we either reap the pleasures that come from it or we cry over our misfortunes and blame others for our failure. Whichever the case may be, I make every decision about everything I do and therefore I must accept the responsibility for all my actions. I must be accountable to myself.

Many students will tell me about the interviews they have been on and the promises they were made if they would come work with them and it causes a cold shiver to hover over my body. When I was first getting started in real estate and many times since, I have heard those same promises. Now that I have gained much wisdom I can see through the promises as good intentions but not fruitful. What can I say to these innocent newcomers to keep them from making what might become a huge mistake? What good advice can I give them? The same advice I give everyone and that is to depend on no one but you. If you understand from the beginning that if you get it, you will earn it; you will probably have a successful career.

You will pick up positive emotions from other people that work in the office. You will associate with some of those agents more closely than other. Generally you will associate with people you deem a more successful, or maybe you respect them more than others. You may even befriend the top producing agent in the entire area. You may even have regular practice sessions where you practice your conversational scripts together; listing or sale presentations. You may learn the best techniques through this association, but when it comes right down to it, you will have to make your own sales.

Nobody is going to give them to you. I have received a $50,000 commission but I have yet had anyone give me one that I didn’t earn. To top it off I don’t know anyone who has had such a generous gift. This is the best advice I can give anyone with a career in sales! You have to do it for yourself or it won’t get done.

Should you have specific questions concerning various issues, please let me know and I’ll research the answer for you. I also want to encourage you to subscribe to our “News & Updates” weekly report so you can stay abreast of issues that might affect you when buying or selling real estate. If you haven’t visited my website, please go to www.AlabamaRealEstateInstitute.com  and view previous articles.

Is This A Quantum Leap?

What is an unrealistic expectation anyway? Unrealistic is an adjective describing expectations as not realistic or inappropriate to reality or a fact. In other words it is something that you should not necessarily be able to attain to begin with. Expectations are the act or state of anticipation of something in the future. It is the probability an event that will occur at some point. It is assumable that general expectations will become a reality. When we look at the two words used together, it means that it is inappropriate to ever think that this task can be performed.

As a young man I could grip the front bumper of Volkswagen car and lift the front end off the ground about six inches. Fifty years later, a realistic expectation might be to firmly grip the bumper. As for lifting the front end of a Volkswagen today, that is totally unrealistic. I would even go so far as to say that it is impossible for me to perform such a task.

We perform many tasks without evaluating the difficulty and to some degree never consider the task as realistic or unrealistic. As an example let’s say that I am averaging closing one sales transaction each week. Suddenly I get distracted by attending a few training classes and my closed transactions fall way behind. In order to catch up and still be able to reach my annual goal for this year, I need to close two transactions each week for the next three months. Are my expectations realistic or unrealistic? I would say it is not impossible but it is improbably. Looking back at my history, I have never averaged closing two transactions a week for three consecutive months. Therefore, I would say this is an unrealistic expectation.

I see a lot of sales people set unrealistic expectation when they attend a sales meeting and the sales manager is attempting to set a very high sales goal for a specified time frame. The manager puts you in the spot light when he asks if you can close XXX number of transactions next months. To save the embarrassment of publically admitting you can’t do something, you accept the challenge even though you realize the tasks is unrealistic and almost know for certain that you’ll never put forth the necessary effort to attain such a high goal. Oh, it sounded good in that meeting but how will it sound next month when you are forced to report your total sales for the month. How will you feel when you show no increase in sales during that specific time? I can tell you because I have been there myself; you will feel humiliated, defeated, and in very low esteem.

How many unrealistic expectations do we have in a day, week, month or even a year? We are human. We make mistakes. We make many mistakes. This is the way we learn. We attempt to do things we’re unable to do. After a period of time our failures seem to grow exponentially until they mount up so large we feel like a total screw-up. After experiencing a few defeats, negativity begins to dominate our mental attitude and we no longer have a desire to excel, to try new things, or to attempt new techniques. In short we have no desire for excellence.

To overcome these obstacles one needs to accept the fact that everyone makes mistakes. Everyone faces trials and tribulations. The difference between people experiencing success or failure is their ability to address their adversities, learn from the experiences and move forward. If we will only share our experiences with others we may find that they have faced the same problem and they overcame it. We don’t think badly of that individual; rather we respect them for facing defeat, pulling up their boot straps and giving it another try from a different angle. Some defeats can be foregone if we’ll only be totally honest with ourselves as well as others. Had I explained to my sales manager that I had never closed that many transactions in that time frame and asked for their assistance, I would have won the respect of everyone in the meeting and I wouldn’t have an unrealistic expectation to worry about.

I don’t think it matters if we’re talking about unrealistic expectations, unreachable goals and some other type of failure that leaves us feeling defeated which lowers our confidence to an unacceptable level. What really matters is our mental attitude and how we spring back from undesirable outcomes. If we are filled with self-doubt, we will only see the negatives within ourselves. If we hold on to past failures and fears, we will accept our imperfections with fear. We can’t allow undesirable results to cause us to be depressed.

When we are depressed, nothing seems important to us. We lose interest in things we once loved and enjoyed. Depression is an ugly word and frightening experience. In attempting to avoid depression, many times we turn to food, alcohol, drugs, sex, or may be sleeping extremely long periods while making the excuse of feeling poorly. The state of depression is just as normal as the state of joy. We have to accept that everything is perfect all the time. We need to learn that imperfections are not disastrous. We need to realize that success is formed from the overcoming of many defeats.

Always remember, when bad things happen in our lives, replace the bad thoughts with good thoughts, positive thoughts. Only positive stimuli can replace negative stimuli in our brains and we are in total control of what is put into our minds.

Should you have specific questions concerning various issues, please let me know and I’ll research the answer for you. I also want to encourage you to subscribe to our “News & Updates” weekly report so you can stay abreast of issues that might affect you when buying or selling real estate. If you haven’t visited my website, please go to www.AlabamaRealEstateInstitute.com  and view previous articles.

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Procrastination is A Deadly Desease

It seems that the older one gets, the faster time moves past us. In my mind’s eye it seems like only yesterday that I was in high school. That’s what my mind tells me but my body tells me differently. Oh what I would give to relive my life, knowing what I know now. Isn’t it amazing how wisdom helps us view things totally different? I wonder why we don’t have more wisdom when we’re young. It seems that’s when we really need it most, because that’s when we made most of the mistakes that we would change now if only we could. I’m sure you are smarter than I am, and probably didn’t make as many mistakes as I did but I’m very confident that there are things in your life that you would change if you had the ability. I am also very confident that if we will be totally honest with ourselves, we’re still making some of those foolish mistakes today. We have recently made decisions that we would change; after evaluating it in the rears.

We can’t do anything about the things we’ve done in the past. That is now history and it’s only good for our use to learn from. There are things, however, that we can do something about. Almost everyone have great intentions but somewhere along the days of our youth, we learned to procrastinate. Poor time management skills leaves things on our to-do list undone because we run out of time. Let me set you straight on this issue. We didn’t run out of time. We all have the same amount of time in every day. It is our decision; it is our choice as to how we use the time we have. If we waste time; squandering it away doing non-productive things, naturally we will be forced to move the productive things on the list to a later time.

We do pretty much exactly what we want to do. Some will argue that point but did anyone hold a gun on them demanding they do certain things. No! More people than not, don’t even make a list of things they need to accomplish in a certain time frame. But those who do make a to-do list decide for themselves as to which is most important; or we might say, which is most important to them to do and in which sequence. We prioritize everything we do. Therefore if something doesn’t get done in a specified time, it was most likely because we deemed it less important than other things on our list.

Let me confess one of my weaknesses and the total blame is how I prioritize. I have been in church services and learned about a particular person having severe health issues. I would make a note to send them a card to let them know I was thinking of them. The next time I opened my bible, there is the note reminding me to send the card that I never sent. Now it is too late because his funeral was yesterday. I had good intentions to send him a card. My heart was in the right place. I meant to and didn’t, and now I can’t. The problem was, once I got home, there were other things that I wanted to do more than send a get-well card to a sick friend.  One might contend that he wasn’t such a good friend after all. Speaking of prioritizing, it doesn’t seem that I have the word of God very high on my list either.

The lesson we need to learn is not to procrastinate. Don’t put off doing today what you can do tomorrow. We are not assured that there will be a tomorrow. If you have a career in sales, regardless the type industry, taking only a few minutes to send a client or a prospective client a card will go a long way in building a lasting relationship. You may not believe it unless you time yourself, but calling someone just to let them know you are thinking about them takes less than two minutes, but it can make the difference between earning a commission or not getting a pay check. I have actually timed agents, in my coaching program, that were making cold calls. They thought the calls they were making were between five and seven minutes. When timed, their calls were less than a minute and thirty seconds. It just doesn’t take long to say “Hi” but the rewards are priceless.

Should you have specific questions concerning various issues, please let me know and I’ll research the answer for you. I also want to encourage you to subscribe to our “News & Updates” weekly report so you can stay abreast of issues that might affect you when buying or selling real estate. If you haven’t visited my website, please go to www.AlabamaRealEstateInstitute.com  and view previous articles.

Handling Accountability and Consequences

In the professional ranks of the business world, much is said about accountability, but exactly what is it? God gave us all the necessary talents and gifts we need to make a worthwhile contribution to the world in which we live. What we do with those gifts are entirely up to us. We can choose to ignore them or pursue them. We should exert an effort to explore the opportunities and alternatives available to us; totally without fear. How else can we know for ourselves about anything? I wasn’t born liking the taste of apples. I had to bite into one, and enjoy the flavor before I could develop a taste for apples.

Only I, determine what I will do with the day that has been given me. Every day we should ask ourselves, “Am I doing the very best with what I have been given? Am I using my gifts; my talents well?  If not, am I willing to take the necessary actions to change?” One of the best ways of getting in touch with our inner thoughts is to share those thoughts with others. Doing so verbally allows for too many mistakes, and doesn’t always translate into what you really meant. By scripting out your thoughts you will give more attention to what you’re saying and how you say it. The internet has totally changed the way we communicate with each other. Blogs have provided us a meaningful way to share our thoughts with others. I have found that scripting my thoughts or frustrations insures against me making a total fool of myself. I have written many letters, notes, and emails that were never delivered because a sense of calmness came over me, after putting my thoughts in print, releasing the frustrations that I had experienced. Martin Buber once said, “We can be redeemed only to the extent to which we see ourselves.”

Many of us have heard a prayer, and many have it framed in their office, that says; “God, grant me the serenity To accept the things I cannot change, the Courage to change the things I can and the Wisdom to know the difference.” I don’t know where it originated but nothing can be more meaningful, than to a person with a sales career. It seems to be human nature to bellyache about things that we have no control over. We can’t control other people or circumstances that are brought on by other people. We can only change ourselves by changing our attitudes, our actions and our reactions to certain circumstances or situations.

By looking inside ourselves to examine our innermost thoughts, we discover that we truly are in control of our own lives. Subconsciously we tell ourselves that we have no control over a circumstance when in fact we do, but we don’t like the results. Think with me for a moment; don’t we usually do what we want to do? When was the last time we were forced to do something and not given a choice? I have always heard the saying, “The only two things we have to do is pay our taxes and die.” According to this, everything is a choice but death and taxes. Let me correct the saying. We even have a choice about paying our taxes. We don’t have to pay taxes if we are willing to accept the consequences. We can even end our own life as a personal choice; the only time we don’t have a choice is when God makes the decision for us.

Life is all about our thoughts and the actions we take in response to those thoughts. Every action we take has an equally opposing reaction. Circumstances require decisions. Decisions require that an action be taken. The result of every action is a consequence or a set of conditions. It begins with us and it ends with us. When we make the right choice, life seems to be grand. When we make poor choices, life seems to be gloomy and of course it is always someone else fault. Our life truly is what we make of it.

We are not perfect. We always do and always will make mistakes. This is the way we learn; the way we gain wisdom. We learn to make better decisions by reflecting on the mistakes of previous decisions. The Holy Bible, the book of James, chapter 1:2 says, “Count it all joy when ye fall into diver’s temptations.” This is the way we learn patience. We learn and overcome from our mistakes. Confucius said, “The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.” Accept the responsibility for the consequences that result from our decisions. Learn to be accountable to yourself, for you are who you choose to be.

Should you have specific questions concerning various issues, please let me know and I’ll research the answer for you. I also want to encourage you to subscribe to our “News & Updates” weekly report so you can stay abreast of issues that might affect you when buying or selling real estate. If you haven’t visited my website, please go to www.AlabamaRealEstateInstitute.com  and view previous articles.

Only You Control Your Attitude

Sometime back in the 1970’s or maybe 80’s there was a country music song titled; “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitude” became popular with artist/song writer Jimmy Buffett. When I listen to songs I don’t hear the lyrics; I only hear the music. This makes it very difficult to sing along so many times, I make up my own words and they don’t always make sense. For some reason this song stuck in my head as “Changes in Latitude Changes the Attitude.” For some 30 years now I have referred to this song title in my motivational speeches where “Attitudes” determines ones success or failure. In reality there is no correlation between the two but it is forever branded on my mind.

Ever since I started training sales people back in the 70’s, my motivational speeches always begin with the fact that we determine our own outcomes. The difference maker is always the individual’s attitude. Our attitudes are the mental focal point for our every action. James Allen authored a book that I should be paid royalties for because I have been quoting him and suggesting people purchase his book for many years. The book is titled; “As A Man Thinketh.” In this book Mr. Allen states, “Our outer circumstances are a direct result of our inner attitudes.”  I really believe this statement to be true. Not only because Mr. Allen said it, but more importantly, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ said the same thing in the New Testament.

It is so much easier for us to believe that we victims of forces beyond our control or our childish notion that we are limited by our past, our environment, our poverty or whatever else we claim as the cause of our unhappiness. How can we honestly believe that we can make little or no progress in bettering ourselves or improving a particular situation?

We choose, consciously or unconsciously, the circumstances in our lives. Our problem is we don’t want to accept the responsibility for the decisions we have made. We don’t want to be held accountable for the actions we take. It is so much easier to blame someone else for our imperfections. We need to become increasingly aware or our deepest attitudes and motives if we wish to rise above our circumstances.  We are not the victim of other people’s attitudes, actions and neglects. We are free to choose our own thoughts, and determine the actions we want to take. We can transform any of the unwanted conditions in our lives by simple having an attitude adjustment.

James Allen stated, “The divinity that shapes our ends is in ourselves. All that a man achieves or fails to achieve is the direct results of his own thoughts.”

There is only two type’s stimulus that enters our brain. This stimuli is either positive or negative and it determines the type attitude we possess. When we allow negative stimuli to settle and take root in our brain, it can only be removed or replaced by positive stimuli. This is why it is so important for us to reject all negativity and constantly fill our minds with positive thought processes. Vocalizing affirmations all during the day will help keep your mind filled with positive thoughts which are more powerful than negative thoughts.  Since we control our own thoughts, we should all maintain a positive attitude at all times.

Should you have specific questions concerning various issues, please let me know and I’ll research the answer for you. I also want to encourage you to subscribe to our “News & Updates” weekly report so you can stay abreast of issues that might affect you when buying or selling real estate. If you haven’t visited my website, please go to www.AlabamaRealEstateInstitute.com  and view previous articles.

MEASURING YOUR SUCCESS

Undoubtedly people measure success by many different standards. I have heard people crediting someone for their successful career when in fact; they performed far below average in their field. In reality, I think they were actually giving the individual credit for working the same job for a long period of time or working for the same company for so many years. They were just trying to be as gracious and respectful as possible. They didn’t consider that misusing the word “success” was such a big deal, but to someone who has truthfully performed at an extremely high production level, misusing the word “success” can be very demeaning and offensive. So is success measured by production level, amount of income produced or expertise in job skills; all, neither, or more?

Success simply means an outcome or result; a degree of measure of succeeding; a favorable termination of a venture; and the attainment of wealth, favor or eminence. These definitions come right out of Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. In order to have success we must first succeed at a particular thing. Thus the real word we need to define is “succeed” which according to Webster means to go up, or follow after. It also means to turn out well, or to attain a desired object or end. I consider myself as having a successful real estate career. I have worked in the industry for 44 years and during that time I averaged closing more than 53 transactions a year for each of those years. I have also been recognized for setting other records within our industry. When compared to my fellow agents, I excelled in some areas while falling well beneath the standard in other areas. Having said this, one doesn’t have to set records or attain the highest level of closed transactions or defeat all others at any one particular thing in order to succeed at what they do. A lot of my competitors were much more successful than me in a lot of different things. That doesn’t mean that I wasn’t successful.

I think most people gauge success to the standard of income produced. Personally, I didn’t set out to become the highest income earner from real estate in my area. My initial goal was to earn above average income so that I could live a joyous life style. By attending many sales seminars and reading all the motivational material I could get my hands on, I learned that if I did the right things on a continual basis, success would follow without it being a top priority. Let me explain.

We must hold ourselves accountable for everything we do. We must evaluate everything we do as to its level of importance in the overall scheme of our work. By asking ourselves, “Is what I’m doing right now the most important thing I could be doing to help me reach my goals?” Another important question to ask is, “Am I doing all I can do to become the very best that I can possibly be?” If the answer to either question results in a “no” we need to eliminate wasted time and focus on the doing the things that will help us reach our overall goal. Not only is this proper time management; it is also the wisest business decision you could make at the moment.

If we are committed to doing everything within the realms of possibility and we consistently strive to reach our annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily goals; we will have done the best that we can do and in my opinion, you have reached a level of success. You will never succeed as long as you don’t personally believe you have given it your very best. You’re standard for measuring success comes from within.

Should you have specific questions concerning various issues, please let me know and I’ll research the answer for you. I also want to encourage you to subscribe to our “News & Updates” weekly report so you can stay abreast of issues that might affect you when buying or selling real estate. If you haven’t visited my website, please go to www.AlabamaRealEstateInstitute.com  and view previous articles.

It Is So Hard to Decide

I can personally guarantee that someone who read this, if not a lot of people who read it will totally disagree with this statement, “You can have anything you want if you want it bad enough.” Even if you disagree, the statement is accurate 99% of the time. We pretty much do what we want to do all the time. Some will say, “I don’t want to go to work but I have too.” No, we don’t have to go to work if we don’t want to. We do, however, have to accept the consequences that come from not working. If we elect not to work, then we won’t receive a pay check. It’s just that simple. Which do we want more? We are a people of choice in that we decide for ourselves our wants, our desires, and our needs. Life is filled with choices we have to make and each decision results in a consequence; whether good or bad. We simply must evaluate each situation prior to making a decision and determine which consequence is best, or most desirable to us.

One of the most common complaints that arises in my sales training classes are, “I didn’t do my assignment because I ran out of time.” My reply to them is, “Whose fault is that?” It certainly isn’t mine. Time management is a problem that every sales person has to work on every day. It’s like a cancer. If we don’t manage our time very closely, our time will be eaten up and we won’t accomplish the things that might be most important to us.

When one has a productivity coach, the coach holds the person accountable for their actions. For example; I might ask the person I’m coaching if they accomplished their goals for a certain period of time and they might reply, “No I ran out of time.” My response to them might be, “What did you allow to interfere with you accomplishing the things you said you wanted to accomplish?” A typical response I have heard many times is, “I got to the office and different ones began asking me about my new listing and time just slipped away.”  As a coach I see that as an excuse. They made the decision that it was more important or more enjoyable for them to visit with other agents than it would be to do the important things that might generate additional income. You see, it’s all about the choices me make.

A true sales professional, top ten percent in their respective industry understands that everyone has the same number of hours in a day. They deem it necessary to spend every moment of the working day, as wisely as humanly possible. They allocate so much time for performing certain tasks and then they block that allotted time to insure they have sufficient time to accomplish the task at hand. When they have a scheduled appointment, they keep it; at all cost. For some strange reason real estate sales people think it’s appropriate to make an appointment with someone and then cancel at the last minute because they suddenly got a showing appointment. Hog wash! An appointment is an appointment and they should be kept by both parties. When you cancel an appointment with someone, you are saying to them that they are not as important to you as someone else is. Besides being hurtful, it can also be very damaging to you but we don’t always realize the damage because the damage comes later and we don’t associate it with the cancellation.

The average person never considers how many decisions they have to make in a normal day. The determinate factor in most decisions is based on which benefits us the most. If not a benefit, then the decision comes down to our personal likes, wants and desires. In reality we have become so self-centered that we unconsciously make decisions without giving them much thought at all. Time isn’t considered that precious until we realize that when time has been spent, it is gone forever. I don’t remember who said it but it goes like this; “Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.” The older I get and the more health problems I have, the more I realize just how precious time is. Life itself is so short and we need to make every day count. The working span of our life is much shorter than we realize. We need to manage every precious moment of time to accomplish the things that are most important to us while refusing to allow insignificant things to hinder us. How we spend our time is up to us, but always being aware of the consequences that will follow.

 Should you have specific questions concerning various issues, please let me know and I’ll research the answer for you. I also want to encourage you to subscribe to our “News & Updates” weekly report so you can stay abreast of issues that might affect you when buying or selling real estate. If you haven’t visited my website, please go to www.AlabamaRealEstateInstitute.com  and view previous articles.