Tag: success (page 1 of 1)

June 10, 2010

Are we losing our competitive edge?

by Alex Cortez

Realtor, Surfer-in-Training

With the start of the World Cup just hours away, I am reminded of the unrelenting competitive spirit that makes such events worth the wait (and trust me, I have been counting every single day since Germany in 2006). God-given talent can make one successful, but without that unwavering fire within the highest plateaus are unreachable. Although Michael Jordan had an amazing ensemble cast to support him, you could see the determination in his eyes to single-handedly turn his team into a basketball dynasty. Lance Armstrong had insurmountable obstacles on his path, yet his blind determination led him yet again to the greatest of success in his sport and his place in history. There are countless stories (in sports, business, life) to illustrate this point, but I digress.

Real estate is obviously a highly competitive field in which individuals are publicly recognized for their accomplishments, everything from Top 40 under 40, to Top 100, to Realtor of the Year, Inman 100, etc. But does it accurately reflect the competitiveness of the rest of Americans as a whole? I recently took my 10 year old nephew to his Tae Kwon Do tournament, in which trophies were handed out, not on the basis of merit or skills, but rather on a rotating basis (the ones who took ‘silver medals’ this time, will inevitably get ‘gold medals’ next time). Or have you been to those soccer/baseball games where they don’t keep score? Sure, every person, whether a kid or adult, wants to be acknowledged as special, a true champion. But in so doing, are we embracing mediocrity? Is there something wrong with accepting being average without unnecessary accolades? Are other competing countries (i.e. China) teaching the same values to their future leaders? Your thoughts/comments are welcomed.

November 12, 2009

The #1 Obstacle in Real Estate

by Sean Purcell

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Would you like to know what the #1 obstacle is to achieving success in the real estate profession? If you did know, would you create a marketing campaign around it and start knocking the ball out of the park? I love marketing campaigns. I love creating them and prodding them into action; I even love writing about successful real estate marketing campaigns. But the truth is, the biggest obstacle to our success isn’t a lack of good marketing ideas. It’s not the economy or interest rates or the inventory. It’s actually nothing “out there.” That’s because there’s nothing “out there” nearly so scary or powerful or destructive to our success as we are to ourselves. That’s right: our #1 obstacle in Real Estate… is us. We all carry around a few self-doubts, maybe even a few “I can’ts.” If asked, I bet you could list five things you don’t like about yourself without even putting much thought into it. It’s as if we’ve gone on a date with ourselves and halfway through dinner decided we’re not good enough for the other person at the table… and the other person is us!

Knowledge is power and knowing that we are our own biggest obstacle is very powerful. Yes, you have to have goals. Yes, you need a marketing plan to achieve them. But I guarantee you that plan will be much more successful if its very first step, is to fall back in love… with yourself. Sound a little corny? Maybe easier said than done? Fear not: I’m going to leave you with a small, powerful two-word phrase for that all-important first step. Not long ago I was talking to my 7 year old son and I was congratulating him on figuring something out for himself. He immediately threw his arms into the air and said “Yeah Me!” No pretense. No guilt. Only genuine admiration. Imagine that: “Yeah Me!”

Go ahead, try it yourself. Stop reading for a moment, put your arms in the air and say “Yeah Me!” Come on… say it with feeling – really mean it. “Yeah Me!” Does it feel Read more

June 12, 2009

This Post Has Nothing To Do With Real Estate

by Sean Purcell

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Not long ago I listened to an inspirational speaker discuss ways to make our lives less stressful and more enjoyable. At one point he told this story:

In the wild, a big lion sprints toward an antelope who’s quietly feeding. After a short chase – if the antelope hasn’t been caught – the lion slows down and eventually stops to rest. Interestingly enough, the antelope often stops only a short distance away and begins to feed again. The lion doesn’t bore his friends with excuses or puff his chest out and tell the antelope to “wait till next time;” nor does the antelope, flush with righteous indignation, cry out: “What’s your problem, you (censored)!” They both live in the present and by doing so find great peace.

I get the “message” in the story and maybe it’s just me; but I’ve never felt all that comfortable with animal metaphors. Here’s another story; this one’s about stress and enjoyment too, but without the potential of being eaten:

Last Saturday I attended two Little League play-off games on the same day: one for each of my sons. During the first game, I watched my older son’s team from the stands. The other team was employing a delaying tactic and one of the fathers from our side made a condescending remark. A coach from the other team heard the remark and replied in a less than congenial way. The dad followed that up with an unmistakable insult to the opposing coach and before long we had ‘tough guy’ looks going back and forth. (I swear, you can’t make this stuff up!) The dad in our stands (mis)spent the next two hours of the game talking about what he was going to say next and what he should have said already and telling anyone who would listen what he thought of this coach. He simply could not let go.

Later that same day I’m coaching my younger son’s team. When you’re in the dugout with the boys you get a chance to listen in on their conversations and they can be quite mean. It’s not uncommon to hear a Read more

May 22, 2009

The Secret to Success (part 372)

by Sean Purcell

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Want to know the secret to becoming a wildly successful, top producing, charismatic, healthy and attractive real estate agent? Want to feel ten pounds lighter and ten years younger? Want the whole thing in one easy to swallow pill? Me too.

I know all of us want to make money – some more than others. But our ultimate goals: security for our family, a peaceful sense of happiness, a worry free future – they are much more than just money, aren’t they?

Earlier this week I was driving my two boys to school. The older one piped up and asked what day it was. “Wednesday” I replied. He was ecstatic with that answer; bouncing on the back seat and just as excited as a nine year old can be on his way to school. I asked him what made Wednesdays so special. “On Wednesday we have PE,” he explained. “That’s like an extra recess! And on some days we play ‘anything-goes.’ Those are the best days ever!”

I started wondering: when was the last time any of us scheduled an extra recess? Hell, when was the last time any of us scheduled a regular recess? Can you remember the last time you found yourself enjoying a game of ‘anything-goes?’ May I suggest that when you finish reading this article you go directly to your calendar and schedule yourself an extra recess. I’m not talking about some quiet time where you can get caught up on your paperwork! I’m talking about a long lunch or a long walk. Maybe going down to the beach or the park and bringing a picnic. How about meeting your husband or wife at a hotel near their work for a romantic afternoon?

Schedule yourself an extra recess; preferably involving a little ‘anything-goes.’ I guarantee it will do wonders for your business. You might even have “the best day ever.“

April 10, 2009

How India Made Me a Better Agent

by Sean Purcell

Real Estate Renaissance Man

The following is a true story. The names were not changed and only the mistakes were innocent.

Not too many years ago I took a month off and traveled to India (for those new to the real estate profession, there was actually a time one could take a long vacation and still be successful). India was not so much a destination of choice as it was obligation: I was married at the time and my wife’s family is from there. In any case, I found myself in India.

It is common for foreigners traveling in India to become sick the first week (the malady even has a name: New Delhi belly). When I began feeling better I wanted to go for a run. From the tenth floor window of our hotel room I looked down upon a large, undeveloped space bounded on all sides by city streets – roughly the equivalent of a city block. I guesstimated a lap to be just short of a half mile and headed down to get in an hour’s worth of exercise. Seemed simple enough from the tenth floor. Strange thing though: once on the ground the loop was not nearly as obvious and that third left turn just never appeared. I was quickly lost:

Lesson 1: No matter how great or simple or brilliant your marketing plan, things can and will go wrong.

I decided that I would keep going, counting on the innate, natural sense of direction all males possess… (I’ll pause for a moment while the women stop laughing). Two and half hours later I decided I was really lost. Nothing looked familiar and I was no longer even in town. It was also at this point that I stopped and took a good hard look at my situation: “I am lost, I don’t speak the language, I don’t have any ID with me and I’m not carrying any money. Hmmm, this is not good.” I decided to enlist some help; I was pretty much all-in after running for over two hours and imagined everyone back at the hotel worried sick. Plus, there was the ‘spectacle’. Read more

April 8, 2009

IF (…for the real estate crowd)

by Sean Purcell

Real Estate Renaissance Man

A little Hump-Day fun. (Apologies to Rudyard Kipling.)

If you can keep your deal when all about you
Are losing theirs and talking of failure to you;
If you can trust your client when all clients doubt you,
And understand their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired of writing offers,
Or, being lied to, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being rejected, don’t deal in scoffers,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream of clients – and not make clients your master;
If you can think of volume – and not make volume your aim;
If you can meet with REO agents and short sale specialists
And take pride in what you do just the same;
If you can bear to hear the comps you’ve spoken
Twisted by appraisers to make agents fools,
Or watch the escrow you gave your all to broken,
And start again with new marketing tools.

If you can save 10% of all your winnings
And run through a prospecting plan,
And gain nothing, and start again at your beginnings
And never make complaint or show you ran;
If you can force your assistant and lender and staging pro
To serve your turn after they want to be gone,
And so hold on to that open escrow
With nothing but the Will to say: “Hold on”;

If you can talk with banks and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Brokers – nor lose the common touch;
If neither real estate coaches nor time vampires can hurt you;
If all clients count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ of marketing done;
Yours is the farm and all the transactions in it,
And – which is more – this profession will be fun!

February 26, 2009

The Twitter Experiment: SWRake Seeks Companion for Possible LTR

by Chris Johnson

Instigator, anthill kicker.

Alright. I talked about posting my results on this post.

Today’s pay pal of $575.00 allowed me to cross the finish line, early. I have blogs to build, SEO to SEO, copy to write, PHP to PHP and more work than I can possibly do. And way more than that, to channel Yogi. Lawyers, a local News Station…Realtors®…and others have contracted with me to do everything from setting up social networking profiles (boring), to trying to aggregate information on their competitors (fun). I have a pile of work to do. From Twitter. It’s an efficient clearing house when you’re ready to pick up the phone and be a catalyst and when you see phrases and words you dig at http://search.twitter.com.

I’m not highly skilled as a cold caller compared to many. But I make the calls. That’s most of it. And, I had one shitty response. Only one. But I pick up the phone, I say I’m enjoying your tweets. And, I now have money to pay 2008’s extortion taxes. I’ll probably have $14,000 after I pay my subs out. There’s money in twitter. Just lying around. If I’m a mortgage lender, EVERY Realtor® would get a phone call in EVERY state I could lend in. Why? Because being ON twitter is instant credibility & rapport.

I didn’t spend hours doing this, really. I spent probably about 70-75 minutes a day initially calling, and then I did follow up, scheduled through ACT 6.0 now that I have my PC working on my MAC. (Act 6.0 was the pinnacle of single user CRMs) . I also asked the Twitterers for referrals that WEREN’T on Twitter. That was $8,000 of my $25,150. I have probably another $4,000-8,000 in business I could extract if I’d follow up with zeal and vigor.

And there’s the rub. See, I need someone to manage and do the work. I’ve sold it, gotten project requirements, I’ve found people with real needs to be helped. And I’m looking for someone to help grind out the work so I can honor my clients, and keep the pace up. I want someone that Read more

May 14, 2008

Success is Knowing Who Your Friend Is

by Sean Purcell

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Back on Monday, Jeff Brown wrote a post explaining in no uncertain terms why some real estate agents are failing. If you have not read that post yet you need to take a long look in the mirror, get your priorities straight, stop reading this post and go back to Jeff’s. Once you are done reading take another long look in the mirror and come on back. Yesterday Brian Brady wrote a post with no less than sixteen links on marketing as religion. If you are going to reference religion in marketing you had better use a minimum of ten links, so Brian is safe. If you have not read his post: Marketing is Religion you need to take a knee for a moment, get your priorities straight, stop reading this post and go back to Brian’s. Once you are done reading take a knee again, meditate or pray about your philosophy of marketing, then come on back. Go ahead, I will wait right here…

My two cents’ worth on creating leads has more of an athletic angle; if you don’t know me you might find this interesting. (If you do know me you are probably quite sick of the ‘sport as life’ analogy, to which I say: tough!) Two years ago I began racing Ironman triathlons (I use the term racing lightly here). If you are not sure what an Ironman entails, I will be glad to tell you. You start your day by jumping in the water with a little over two thousand other competitors for a quick 2.4 mile swim. This warms you up sufficiently for the 112 mile bike ride that follows and we cap the whole thing off by running a marathon. The cut off time for finishing is 17 hours and believe me, that doesn’t sound like much as the day progresses. So besides bragging, you ask, what does sharing this have to do with marketing for leads in real estate and mortgages? Plenty.

By the time I start the marathon portion of an Ironman, I am not alone. I have a little buddy that shows up occasionally and runs along with Read more

May 12, 2008

The Joker is Your Ace in the Hole

by Sean Purcell

Real Estate Renaissance Man

“Eat your peas.”

“Don’t talk to strangers.”

When we were young, we heard many admonitions. Being of curious mind, I always had a lot of interests, so one particular admonition I heard repeatedly was: “A jack of all trades is Master of none.” The implication being that someone with a wide array of interests but no focus will establish mastery over nothing; which is to say: will not find measureable success. There are, of course, exceptions to every rule. Ben Franklin is certainly one. His insights and accomplishments exist across a wide spectrum of intellectual and physical arenas. Quintessentially, the exception to the rule might be Leonardo Da Vinci. Alas, they are the exceptions. As a matter of fact, if you establish mastery over many endeavors a la Da Vinci, we have created a new category for you. You are a Renaissance Man. The goal of becoming a renaissance man is quite laudable… and beyond comprehension for most of us.

A recent post on BloodhoundBlog asked if agents writing on blogs shouldn’t spend more time writing about real estate. I certainly do not take issue with that inquiry, nor do I question the purpose of the suggestion. Real estate blogging can and should benefit those who buy and sell as well as those who represent. But I do disagree with the premise. I suggest that somewhere between Jack of all trades, but Master of none and achieving the pinnacle of renaissance man lies a gray zone most do not understand.

Not everything we were taught at a young age is correct. Wide ranging interests without direct focus does not necessarily lead one to become a Jack of all trades. As a matter of fact, by measurement of trade I have not participated, as a Jack, in a great many callings. Yet in my life, outside of a few athletic avenues, I have not gained mastery over many things either; I certainly have yet to become a renaissance man. So what do we call the strange area where interests are many and masteries are few? The area in between Jack of all trades and renaissance man?

There Read more

March 31, 2008

Bad Marketing Candy from RSS Pieces

by Sean Purcell

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Mary McKnight wrote an article last Friday called Real Estate Blogs are Stores, Not Websites – So Blog Like You are Selling Houses, Not Writing For Your Local Paper and it made the short list for the Odysseus Medal Sunday. It is well written and provocative. Mary McKnight is recognized as one of the premier web site designers and SEO experts in Real Estate. I have a great deal of respect for her knowledge as it pertains to web sites and SEO. If you have not read it, please do; and then answer this question for me: How is it possible that someone so good at creating real estate web sites, can be so wrong when it comes to real estate marketing?

The Sugar Coating
Let me preface this by saying that I have a great deal of respect for Mary McKnight. Add to which a lot of people for whom I also hold a great deal of respect use her services and listen to her advice. But when she says Your real estate blog is a store, not a newspaper, I find myself asking the obvious question: If it is a store, what do you sell? If you answer “homes” I am going to assume you work at a mobile home dealership. Otherwise you clearly do not understand your product. Here’s a hint: you see your product every day in the mirror. You no more sell homes than you stock them… which is why you are not a store. You are a service and your product is your expertise.

The Creamy Middle
The point of her article is …to get you to understand that if your business is about real estate and you want to attract customers that have a real estate need you MUST write about real estate, not skateboards and restaurants. This is true on a very grand scale: most of your articles and certainly your “look and feel” must tell the reader that you can and will be the best agent they have ever had. But does that mean you should only write about real estate? When Mary says it

is inconceivable to (her) that Read more

March 18, 2008

Bloodhound by Choice

by Sean Purcell

Real Estate Renaissance Man

I was working with a local real estate agent yesterday on a strategy to achieve one of his goals. When we were done he declared the strategy good and decided that, barring any bad luck, success might just find him this year.

—–

A few weeks back I was driving my two boys to school. They are without doubt the most beautiful boys in the world and I speak with the absolute neutrality of an objective father. At five and seven they are also completely present. By that I mean they live in the here and now the way most children do. The recent past has no more meaning than the near future. Their focus and their conscience are in the moment. It fills them with a constant sense of wonder and never ceases to amaze me.

So we are in the car and singing along to the radio when my seven year old sits up in the back and asks: “Daddy, do you believe in good luck?” As an adult long separated from the freedom of childhood, I was twelve different place in my head when he asked the question and none of them were the present. I absent-mindedly tossed off one of my favorite sayings to placate him. “No,” I said, “I believe that the harder I work, the luckier I get.”

My son, however, pressed on. “I believe in good luck Daddy, but I do not believe in bad luck.” At this point I was blissfully reminded, once again, how very present children are and I snap out of my own thoughts. I too get present and I pay attention. I say to him “I do not think you can have one without the other.” (At this point I must share a little background. I have taught my boys about the subconscious mind, calling it the “magic” part of their brain. How it is always listening and recording everything we say. How our thoughts have power and our words create our realities.) I went on, “if you believe in the idea of good luck, I think you must accept the idea of bad Read more

Tag: success (page 1 of 1)

Are we losing our competitive edge?

by Alex Cortez

The #1 Obstacle in Real Estate

by Sean Purcell

This Post Has Nothing To Do With Real Estate

by Sean Purcell

The Secret to Success (part 372)

by Sean Purcell

How India Made Me a Better Agent

by Sean Purcell

IF (…for the real estate crowd)

by Sean Purcell

Success is Knowing Who Your Friend Is

by Sean Purcell

The Joker is Your Ace in the Hole

by Sean Purcell

Bad Marketing Candy from RSS Pieces

by Sean Purcell

Bloodhound by Choice

by Sean Purcell

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