It's kind of strange that this is the second post in less than three weeks to focus on my car's odometer but it's not very often that you see your birth date on your dashboard, is it?
Are you paying attention to those signs that might be popping up right before your eyes? Do you "see the signs" as they appear in front of you?
Who knows where your next opportunity might come from but my guess is something big could be right in front of you this week.
I've been on a big kick lately about people bringing passion to their jobs. I don't care if they are an artist, a banker, a teacher, a waiter or whatever. We need to realize that everyone benefits when people are excited about what they do and how they deliver it to their customers, clients, neighbors and even strangers.
The great Martin Luther King, Jr. once gave a speech at a junior high school in Philadelphia in October, 1967 (the month I was born) where he said the following:
"...When you discover what you will be in your life, set out to do it as if God Almighty called you at this particular moment in history to do it. don't just set out to do a good job. Set out to do such a good job that the living, the dead or the unborn couldn't do it any better. If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well. If you can't be a pine at the top of the hill, be a shrub in the valley. Be the best little shrub on the side of the hill.
Be a bush if you can't be a tree. If you can't be a highway, just be a trail. If you can't be a sun, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are."
I've been thinking what the ingredients are to create passion. See if you agree with these.
P is for Pride. You should have pride in your product, company, team, city, neighborhood, service and most importantly in yourself.
A is for Attitude. You can't fake passion so you better start with a great attitude.
S is for Skills. Are you knowledgeable, competent and confident it whatever it is that you do? Do you constantly seek to be better, taking classes, reading book or blog and talking to those in your field who are better than you?
S is for Sincerity. Can people see that you mean what you say, believe in what you do and who you surround yourself with and most importantly care about people? If they do, you're passion will be visible.
I is for Internally Motivated. I've always felt that inspiration comes from the outside but motivation must come from within. Do you have a fire burning inside you that makes you want to be the best you can be. If you fail, are you worried about those you may have let down or are you more concerned with letting yourself down? What does that "man in the mirror" say to you each day? Does it make you want to go back to bed or could you run to work on energy and enthusiasm?
O is for "Oh My God!" That is what I want people to leave my classes saying. "Oh my God, that was sooooo fun," or "Oh my God, he gave me so many ideas to build my business." How many times have you experienced "Oh my God!" service? Isn't it fun? Isn't it memorable? You can't wait to share your experience with a friend or family member.
N is for "Next." - Passionate people are always looking ahead to their next opportunity, their next challenge, their next chance to have fun. If you are good at what you do and enjoy it, why would you want to wait to do it again?
P-A-S-S-I-O-N
How do you spell passion? Do you agree with me? Would you change any of my definitions? What was the last experience you had that involved passionate service?
Until next time...Build Relationships...Solve Problems...and Have Fun!
Today is s a bittersweet day for me. My long time Training Coordinator and assistant, Sarah Poston, has been promoted and has moved downstairs to her new desk and new role.
The "bitter" part comes because she did such a great job of keeping me on track, focused on my responsibilities and always had me excited to tackle my challenges each day. (Those of you who know me knows how fast my mind can run at times). It's "sweet" because I couldn't be more proud of Sarah and her accomplishments.
Sarah has been with the company for 9+ years, starting as a receptionist in our Bexley branch, then joining our Dublin-Muirfield branch in the same role. Her duties were expanded to tackle more responsibilities and then a little over three years ago, I was lucky enough to have Sarah join the Training Department.
She is one of the most mature people I know and is incredibly talented at making other people feel comfortable around her, certainly a useful skill when working with new real estate agents in a demanding career. As someone who appreciates quality customer service, I didn't have to look farther than outside my office door to see it being delivered every day by Sarah - in person, on the phone or even via email.
Sarah has been elevated to a new position here in the company. I think the position was created by our leadership team because they saw the talents we had sitting right in front of our eyes and we needed to harness the skill she has to offer. She's going to be the Director of e-Marketing, a role that will allow her to really display her technology talents in tandem with her truly remarkable service.
She's just moving downstairs so I know I can still pop in and visit her for a quick laugh or positive exchange but I'll miss having her within shouting distance. I also know that her replacement, Jaimie Shaffer will be a tremendous asset to the department and I look forward to her achieving some outstanding levels of success.
An old adage I heard once was this ~ "Would you rather train someone and have them leave or not train them and have them stay?"
Sarah - I am really proud of you and will expect great things from you in your new role for many years to come. I'm certainly sad to lose ya but I am thrilled that you'll be able to share your talents with more people. Remember where you learned all the stuff you get compliments on! Good luck and kick ass!
Your clients, friends and family trust you, know you and love you. They look to you for advice about their homes, their communities and anything else that might be on their minds and that is a good thing. Remember, if they are calling you, that means they're not calling who? Right - the competition.
People are always asking me what types of things they could be "the source" of. I respond to them - "anything." Here's a perfect example.
I was reading the March issue of Money Magazine over the weekend. I am not a huge fan of Money because they haven't been card carrying members of the Realtor Fan Club over recent years but they might just be guilty of today's rule of thumb when it comes to selling magazines- "if it bleeds, it leads."
Anyway, the cover story of this issue is "The 20 Best Money Websites...and Ones You Should Avoid." It covers sites in areas of interest such as your portfolio, wallet, home, health, job and purchases as well as listing some great iPhone apps and also shares many tips and links to additional cool sites.
This is exactly the type of thing to send to your data base. You could make a hard copy of the article from the magazine and mail it your your list with a cover letter including a seasonal greeting and quick update on the market...or you could add it to you blog (like this)... or you could go online to Money.com and find the article there and share the link to your sphere via email...or even post it on Facebook or Twitter or any other social networking site. By doing that, you just became "the Source of the source."
You could do this with recipes, television or movie reviews, restaurant recommendations, sports updates or anything else that people might find interesting.
But What If They Hit "Delete"?
So what? That's okay, because they will have seen your name and known that you reached out to them. They may not read it all all, they may save it and read it later or they might read it right away, find value in it and who knows...might hit the "reply" button! How cool is that?
Or they might think it so neat that they share it themselves with people they know and add in their email the following blurb:
"Hey, check out the cool ___________ that my Realtor sent me!"
So what are you waiting on? Start "out sourcing" to your data base, friends and family. Remember, they don't need to be thinking about you every second of every day. You just want them to think about you when they have a need for a great Realtor.
Over the weekend I had my first opportunity to see the band Umphrey's McGee. According to their website, Umphrey's McGee was "founded in 1997 in the shadows of the Golden Dome of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. Umphrey's McGee soon made Chicago home base and set their sights on becoming one of the premier live acts in today's touring circuit. Over the course of the last ten years, the band has performed at festivals such as Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza, and continues to sell out shows in the nation's premier venues coast to coast."
I attended their sold out show at The Madison Theatre in Covington, Kentucky with a fraternity brother from The University of Florida and his wife. It was his 11th show, her 5th. I'm pretty sure that many in the overflow audience have made "attend Umphrey's McGee concert" a high priority on their "To Do" lists based on their familiarity with each song and the all important dance grooves.
As I enjoyed the show and the festival-like atmosphere, I started to think of all the great lessons that Realtors can learn from Umphrey's McGee.
Build a Following
The band has created a legion of supporters that loyally follow the band on their mini tour swings (the Covington show was the fourth stop of the week with other shows in Syracuse, Buffalo and Columbus) in much the same way that The Grateful Dead had their Deadheads.
Imagine if you had a loyal following of fans that supported your every move as a Realtor? They subscribed to your newsletters and blogs, they attended you Open Houses, they referred other people to you like my friend referred me to the band. It's gotta be cool when other people are singing your tune.
Screw the Status Quo
It seems that most stage shows these days come equipped with large viewing screens and a full blown choreography plan to amuse the paying customers. Not Umphrey's McGee. Just a very crowded stage complete with keyboards, two percussion sets and room for three guitarists. Sure they had awesome light displays and the necessary sound board equipment but there was no extra "stuff" in play just because that's what someone once said a concert should have.
How do you run your business? The way those around you run theirs? The way you've always done it because it's safe or simple? With over a million members of the National Association of Realtors, isn't now the time to open a big ol' can of creativity and be different?
Create a Community
Seth Godin talks about it in his incredible book Tribes and Umphrey's McGee has done just that. They've gathered people from all walks of life in various ages and built a loyal group of people who support the band and each other.
What are you doing in your local office, your company, your board and your larger community? Are you a visible member of the community where you work and live? Do you participate in charity events, school activities and church functions? Do you "lead by example" when it comes to doing the right thing?
Find Your Groove
Allow your groove to be just that...your groove. You shouldn't decide to dance based on whether you know the words or not. You should dance because you want to dance. Don't worry about what other people think of your dancing either. You'll be surprised at how many people want to dance as well if they can just get over "what others will think." Watch this video below to see what I mean by finding your groove. (Pay close attention to what happens after the third guy starts dancing)
Improvise When Needed
Umphrey's McGee has been labeled, fairly or unfairly, as a "Jam Band." This just means that sometimes they sing a song as it appears on one of their studio releases but usually they are using the original song as more of a guideline and then creating a blend of music, rhythm, melody and feeling. Some of their songs last minutes while others can go on for a while, oftentimes blending songs from one to the next.
If you're in real estate and you're not good at improvising, you might want to start updating that resume. It's not very often that a deal comes together without any snags, hold-ups or changes so you've got to be able to roll with those changes as they occur.
Leave Them Wanting More
As the band played their last note of the second set, no one left the packed floor because the whole room (band included) knew that there was still an encore to come. With anticipation and excitement the crowd buzzed in anticipation of what the band would play.
How can your service leave people wanting more? It should be your goal to accomplish all that your clients were expecting from the onset of your relationship but if you follow the four word rule of "under promise, over deliver" you're sure to leave your clients happy and satisfied that they received "truly remarkable service" and witnessed the best performance you were able to deliver.
If you're lucky, they do just what my friend did with me. They'll tell a friend about your performance and encourage you to "experience it for yourself."
Until next time...Build Relationships...Solve Problems...and Have Fun!
I've been on a big kick lately about people bringing passion to their jobs. I don't care if they are an artist, a banker, a teacher, a waiter or whatever. We need to realize that everyone benefits when people are excited about what they do and how they deliver it to their customers, clients, neighbors and even strangers.
I was reading the March issue of Money Magazine over the weekend. I am not a huge fan of Money because they haven't been card carrying members of the Realtor Fan Club over recent years but they might just be guilty of today's rule of thumb when it comes to selling magazines- "if it bleeds, it leads."
Over the weekend I had my first opportunity to see the band Umphrey's McGee. According to their website, Umphrey's McGee was "founded in 1997 in the shadows of the Golden Dome of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. Umphrey's McGee soon made Chicago home base and set their sights on becoming one of the premier live acts in today's touring circuit. Over the course of the last ten years, the band has performed at festivals such as Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza, and continues to sell out shows in the nation's premier venues coast to coast." 
Leave Them Wanting More