ATTENTION DECODED

Duck. Duck. Goose? Duck? What are you? That is the look I want to see on your clients face after they listen to you.  Below is the most common question you will get as a service provider. “Your competition will _______ , so why should I pick you.” - potential customer While I typically I never advise anyone I work with to dip down and entertain a direct answer to this controller question, today only I'll break my rule.  First the truth. My clients and potential clients (you) do not have this pressure packed phantom almighty person on your heels and waiting for you to drop a ball that is also non existent.  Reality is what you make it.  And now for another truth. I can't stop you from answering a question directly regardless of what I know to be best.  So if you are thinking of answering a question that puts you on the spot.  Here are the ground rules:  1. Prepare to handle yourself with a keen know...

The do not call list is not only a call list, it’s a call all the time list.  The list has been hacked by people that think sales as a trap is a reliable tactic. It is illegal and no one has stopped it.  Not because this is an impossible problem to solve, but because this is another problem that falls under the excuse of “it’s not my job”. Anything that crosses our path that is unwanted is an interruption.  When a stranger calls and assumes they deserve your attention, and then offers you an easy way to make 5k a month--they have interrupted you.  Cold callers bring no value to you. In our ecosystem, you are one click away from getting what you want.  It is called Amazon. It is called Ebay. It is called calling a friend. Who is this cold calling and terrible emailing sales tactic still working on?  Who isn’t frustrated by it?  Anyone? Sales as an occupation as it was defined 20 years ago is dead and if you ...

Discount brokers and FISBO sales are at an all time low.  This news isn’t news to your full time, and full service Realtor friends.  Good Realtors don’t play Realtor like a kid picking out a Halloween costume.  In fact, we look at discount brokers with merciful eyes for both their clients and themselves. We don't envy them nor do we think about them unless we see that yet another has gone out of business.   Why are discount brokers going out of business at such catastrophically high rates?  #1 In our state it is illegal to "limit" services as a Realtor. Meaning, many discount brokers are out of business because they were not practicing legally.  #2 logic. If you charge anyone less than what it costs to provide your service. You will eventually run out or money. #3 There are many other reasons but frankly, #2 sums up the main reason discount brokers are giving up. Homeowners are selling homes themselves less because it...

Discount brokers and FISBO sales are at an all time low.  This news isn’t news to your full time, and full service Realtor friends.  Good Realtors don’t play Realtor like a kid picking out a Halloween costume.  In fact, we look at discount brokers with merciful eyes for both their clients and themselves. We don't envy them nor do we think about them unless we see that yet another has gone out of business.   Why are discount brokers going out of business at such catastrophically high rates?  #1 In our state it is illegal to "limit" services as a Realtor. Meaning, many discount brokers are out of business because they were not practicing legally.  #2 logic. If you charge anyone less than what it costs to provide your service. You will eventually run out or money. #3 There are many other reasons but frankly, #2 sums up the main reason discount brokers are giving up. Homeowners are selling homes themselves less because it...

The concepts I coach on productive communication and business are not new. Most of us would be remiss if we claimed to be the only source of our work. I believe that no vocation can be acted upon thoughtfully without inspiration, a great deal of study and self reflection.  However, I feel invested and practiced enough in my work to feel totally confident in saying I do not know of anyone else that can do what I do in the way that I do it. I say that at the risk of sounding pompous but with hope you all feel the same way about your work. Below I have placed an excerpt by Ralph Waldo Emerson from his work on the topic of self-reliance. I feel it is a good time to turn ourselves inward as business owners and not concern ourselves with what anyone has accomplished other than ourselves. Only you can deliver your message to your clients in a way where the will know you genuinely care for them. A true professional takes ownership of everything they do. They abandon all excuses and do what...

The airport is different . People show emotion here. Mothers openly embrace their comoflauged Sons as the leave to serve our country. The entire gathering of strangers cried along with them. A few gates further and a father was reunited with his Daughter and the rest of the world stopped. Emotion comes back to life here. Emotion that is reluctant to make an appearance outside the baggage claim and the security check line. Emotional interactions somehow feel risky. Our society is uncomfortable, nervous and scared to show emotion or connect. Even when we are around love. This urge to turn away isolates us, makes us more machine-like, and makes us fearful emotion. The irony is tragic. Society is not an outsider. Society is not them. It's us . It's me. It's you. Every time we make a judgment, we perpetuate the disconnection. With every assumption, we play both judge and jury. Every decision impacting the story of what is acceptable or not. Every claim to know how someone shoul...

People don’t buy what you do they buy why you do it. December 8th 1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave the Perl Harbor Address to the Nation. He addressed our Nation one day after the attack of Perl Harbor.  A day that would live in infamy. A day that took the lives of 2,403 Americans. The following remarks President Roosevelt made did not detail any certain plans. "I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us."  -President Franklin D.  Roosevelt  December 8th 1941 He did not give the I have a plan speech. He spoke on behalf of the will of one Nation with one cause. That we will stand up and defend as one. People don’t buy  what  you do they buy  why  you do it. A leader holds a position of power Leaders make clear w...