You’ve heard this expression many times before but in owning your own business, this may be the difference between success and failure. There’s always something to do, tasks unfinished, deadlines to be met and opportunities for improvement everywhere. And as a trainer, I’m often guilty of pointing those areas out. However, sometimes we’re so busy in our lives that we forget to have one!
At our corporate HQ at Buffini & Company, we have this beautiful 87,000 sq. ft. building which sits atop the famous Carlsbad Flower Fields – a spectacular display of nature’s repertoire of colors with row upon row of red, yellow, orange and white tulips. As you stand there taking in the view of the fields, your sprits are lifted by the additional backdrop of the Pacific Ocean and buoyed by its fresh breezes.
As fantastic as that sounds, I had a conversation with a staff member the other day who in the four years we’ve been at this location has never once taken the thirty yard walk across the street to take it in. “I’m just so busy and I have so much to do.” As his boss, I’m glad he’s working hard, but I know one simple truth: by May 1st, the tulips are gone and his opportunity of seeing them again won’t come for another ten months.
There are seasons for everything in life – whether it is kids’ or grandkids’ ballgames, weekend trips, vacations or just five minutes to take a break and smell the tulips.
It’s a good life!
Brian
Currently rated 4.9
The three opportunities in today’s market are first-time buyers, move-up clients and investors:
My hope for people in the real estate community is not only will they help their clients skillfully through the transaction process, but they ultimately get to participate in real estate as an investor themselves. Become your own best client…and your fortune is assured.
Currently rated 5.0
Recently at a Turning Point, one of our cameramen, Mario, gave me a couple of containers of his home-made honey. He gave me a colorful description of how his bees fly miles and miles every day, flower to flower, to gather the pollen…how they bring it back into the hive, and then the extraordinary process of how their labor over time yields one of nature’s greatest foods. For the size of the bee and the amount of work, it’d be the equivalent of running a marathon every day and then lifting weights for six hours.
Thank God we don’t have to work that hard to provide for our families! But this noble insect is a role model for work ethic. It’s time to bee busy so you can bring the money home to your honeys.
Currently rated 4.8
That was the phrase I heard most growing up as a child. My mother was consistent and relentless in encouraging me to believe in myself. As a young boy, I was very small and slight for my age. (I’ve filled out nicely in recent years!) I was also put into school early and I was typically a year and half to two years younger than my classmates. My mother didn’t want me to know I was small or young or had any other potential shortcomings or excuses. She just consistently championed me to believe in myself.
A funny thing happened. I guess it worked! I can never remember a time when I didn’t believe in myself. In fact not having many pictures of my youth, I don’t ever remember being small or thinking of myself as small. Today, one of my youngest children is very small and slight, but I’ve kept up my mother’s winning ways by telling him he’s unstoppable and there’s nothing he can’t do. At every turn, his stature is an advantage to him. When he plays basketball, we remind him of the diminutive Spud Webb who at five foot seven was an all-star in the NBA.
Maybe you didn’t have a cheerleader growing up, but there’s nothing to say you can’t be your own cheerleader today. Not only that, but I have found it even more empowering to become other peoples’ cheerleaders. A word of encouragement spoken at the right time can be life-changing for someone.
The words we say to ourselves and others can make all the difference in the world. Make sure you’re building up; not tearing down, encouraging; not discouraging, strengthening belief and not causing doubt. You can do it…
Currently rated 4.6
With the news media in full throttle, using terms such as “MELTDOWN”, “CRISIS” and “RAVAGED” to describe our industry, it’s easy to understand why buyers and sellers feel a little skittish. With terms like "recession", "stagflation" and "global slowdowns", it’s easy to understand why so many people lack confidence in the market.
News flash! More millionaires are created in downturns than upswings.
Bulletin! The goal of economic gain is to buy low and sell high.
This just in! While your competition is shrinking and pulling back, this is the time to strategically grow.
At times like this, you need to lean into the most innovative and creative parts of your nature, let out your inner entrepreneur and build a plan for success.
Nelson Rockefeller was, in his time, the wealthiest man in the world. He stated that the time to buy real estate was when the blood was flowing in the streets. That was as true for the turn of the 20th century as it is today in the 21st. This is what opportunity feels like; lean into it, embrace it and conquer it.
In 1974, Morris Albert recorded this Grammy award winning song. At that time, it was considered one of the most strongly emotive and moving melodies. As time has gone by, when viewed in hindsight, the same lyrics that won a Grammy have often been lampooned as the sappiest song ever written.
Whether you like the song or not, feelings can be very dangerous for your business. In today’s market, there are lot of emotions; fear, anxiety, frustration and regret. Maybe you don’t know where your next commission check is coming from. Maybe you’re consumed with fear about where the economy and this market are going. Maybe you’re dealing with frustrated sellers who constantly focus on how much their home used to be worth as opposed to what’s it’s worth today. Perhaps you even have a ready, willing and able buyer who’s just afraid to pull the trigger because they don’t want to pay too much for a house.
The answer for a professional is to manage their emotions by keeping perspective. You need to know the historical trends of this business, how good of an investment real estate is (check out www.housingmarketfacts.com), and keep track of your own daily activities so you know you’re doing your best each day.
Feelings are great things. They let you know you’re alive. Personally they deliver the highs and the lows of the human experience. When it comes to your business, feelings don’t help at all. Manage your emotions, manage your business and manage your success.
How many calls, notes, Pop-Bys and business to business meetings are you having?
It's a good life!
Currently rated 4.5
With two adults and six active kids, you can imagine how much laundry there is to wash at our house. Sometimes we miss a couple of days, the baskets in the kids’ rooms overflow and when all piled together, the mountain of clothes looks like an overwhelming task with no end in sight. We have a choice at that time; clean clothes or go shopping for more.
As grown adults when we get behind on our lead-generation activities such as writing personal notes, making calls or doing Pop-Bys to our favorite clients, it’s just like a pile of dirty laundry. The thought of catching up seems overwhelming, the notes begin to pile up, and rather than sitting down and dutifully going through these one at time we let our minds drift: “Let’s run out to the Realtor® store and buy a talking house sign”, “Let’s go buy some internet leads”, “Let me do anything other than chip away at that big pile of unfinished tasks which will ultimately allow me to get my financial house in order.”
Very few people allow their dirty clothes to pile up for weeks on end, but in my experience, many small business owners will allow their lead-generation activities to pile up. Allowing your laundry to pile up is not the most hygienic thing to do… and if you put it off long enough, you’ll have nothing to wear. Putting off lead-generation activities isn’t too healthy for your business either and eventually will leave your financial cupboard bare!
It ain’t sexy but it’s simple enough: take care of your business before your financial challenges become your personal dirty laundry.
When Samuel Clemens uttered these immortal words under his pseudonym Mark Twain, it encapsulated what economists had been trying to say for years…that the fundamental law of economics is supply and demand. Outside of volcanic activity on the Hawaiian Islands, no new land is being created. Therefore, supply is limited.
The world population grows by approximately 90 million people a year increasing demand year over year. Human beings have three basic needs for survival; food, shelter and clothing. And I don’t see that changing any time soon. On occasion, the market goes through cycles of having too much resale inventory and too much new product followed by a housing shortage and price increases.
And even in the midst of surpluses like today, there is certain built in demand. For example, there’s a tremendous shortage of apartment buildings in many cities. Many markets are experiencing a surge in rental prices of single family homes. This creates pressure for the first time buyer to own and investor clients to buy.
So buy land; preferably with a house or apartment building on it. They’ve stopped making it!
It’s a good life,