If You Want More Give It Away!

 The lesson of giving and receiving was clearly shown to me this last few weeks on building a team for a political campaign. It was truly amazing what happened and taught some very powerful lessons.--lessons I am still ruminating about how to duplicate in other areas as effectively. 

 The idea of giving away and having what you give come back to you is ancient and has been told many times in many ways. It is found in the Bible many times and there are many religions and philosophies that also speak of it. 

In Luke 6:38 "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again."

Some call it the Law of Circulation. Whatever you call it, there is great power in it. 

 Our story started when a friend and I came to the conclusion that Indiana was going to be the turning point in the 2016 Presidential nomination process and that there was no political ground game started here to run that campaign. So on March 28th, we started a grassroots Facebook group to start building one to get the campaign ready for the May 3rd Election Day. Our group started with 2 people and soon grew to more than 500- even before the first campaign employee was hired for Indiana and was more than 4,400 just 36 days later on Election Day. We had more than 40 people who accepted Administrator positions on this group who could add, delete, block and more. They had the full powers that the two of us who started it had. It was this core group who were spread out into all nine congressional districts who created the pony express sign brigade to move campaign signs and materials to every county and most cities and to polling places all over the state. The national campaign joined us and we worked together. They cited that they had never run into any such grass roots effort in any other state, and our candidate won in a landslide. 

 The point of this story has nothing to do with politics other than that was the arena that this lesson was learned. The lesson was actually twofold. One, that we shared a common goal. Two that we gave away power and ownership of the site to others. We chose people we knew first and then people those we trusted knew and trusted and gave them full authority over what went on in the group. Gave them ownership. It was truly magic. It took a life of it's own. My original partner called me one day asking who changed the name of the group, I had no idea, but someone did. I looked at it and thought it looked better so I still have no idea who did it, and don't care. This is tough for a recovering control freak. 

 What I'm excited about is that just Wednesday of this week, in our company, we were pushing more power out to others to take as well. This to me is something I have been wanting to do for at least two years if not longer. I can't wait to see what dynamic results spring from this. 

 Have you a team that you could empower more? Could you let go of things that you have been controlling to someone who could do it for you, and trust them to make changes to what you have always done? Could you benefit from the brainpower and energy of others around you to help your business grow by letting go a bit more? 

Done Beats Perfect Every Time

 In an industry of control freaks, I was one of the freakiest. I have to admit I love the commercial where he says "I'm not a control freak, I'm a control enthusiast." Boy could I relate. I hated giving up control over any and every aspect of my business. I would be known to say things like, "You just can't hire good help these days," and "No one has my work ethic any more," and "If you want something done right you have to do it yourself."  Are any  of you ever guilty of saying, or at least thinking the same things?

 What I kept struggling with is a basic math problem, to make more money I had to trade more time, I could never figure out the equation to have more money and more time. The worst part is there is a cap to both, there is only 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year and unless I figured out a way to multiply my time I was stuck. Anyone else ever find that?

I grew up on a farm, and we did it all. We were mechanics, livestock wranglers, mid-wives, nurse maids, drove large machinery, you name it we did it. I started doing all those things as early as six years old. Life on the farm is deadly dangerous, and most especially to children, so I still hear my dad  in my ear admonishing me to think out every possible consequence to whatever action I was doing. To check, double check and triple check lug nuts on wheels, or any other myriad of possible calamities. He was precise in how you put on things like lug nuts, stacked things, everything was explained how doing it wrong could kill you. Maybe I have an excuse to be a control freak. 

 However, something popped into my mind the other day driving, I had my tires rotated and was reminded how often we all trust others to do things for us, and to do them right. I didn't stand there watching to make sure they put the lug nuts on alternating then tightening around to make sure they were on properly and yet I was driving down the highway at high speeds. How often do we get on planes and never see the pilots, or approach oncoming traffic at 60 mph each and a closing speed of 120 mph a handful of feet apart and not think about the other driver?

We trust strangers with our lives daily in so many ways,  but we often don’t trust anyone to help us in our businesses.  I have so often heard agents talk about how they couldn't let someone else do their marketing, their paperwork, work with buyers, whatever --because no one does it as well as they. It might be said in somewhat different words, but that is the meaning. 

It isn't until we learn to trust other partners, that we learn that Done beats Perfect Every Time. It is only then do we have a chance of duplicating our time and actually harvesting more time and money into our businesses and lives. 

What Is The Single Most Important Requirement In All Your Business Relationships?

 What is the single most important thing that must be in place to succeed in any business venture? It is always that you and any partners, team members, or those who you work for or works for you is that you have aligned interests. It is critical that you all either prosper together or feel pain together or  it isn't a question of if a problem will appear, it is simply when.

 What does aligned interests really mean, and how does that look in real life? One of the things I often explain to agents is that there are some popular business models that sound excellent on paper, but are creating a misaligned interest between the agent and their brokers, where one loses if another gains, this is a problem waiting to happen.

 Consider this if the plan has a cap, where at a rather low level, the agent no longer pays the broker or main company any further fees this sounds awesome, but let's look at it deeper. Let's say that I'm your best friend who is your top producing agent at a Cap company and you're my Broker. By February each year I produce enough business that I cap and have no more fees to the house until the following January.  However, you still have to provide basic services to support my business, but won't receive any compensation. You still have rent to pay on the building, staff to pay, utilities, office expenses keep going and actually climb as my business climbs. So once I have capped your net income on my business actually drops with each transaction you have to provide services for I grow my business.
This is a gross misalignment of business interests. Not only are you not rewarded for helping me grow, you're actually punished.

 Now let's look at the model we use at RE/MAX Ability Plus where you as an agent hire us to support your business. There is a fee structure that covers overhead and your receive 95% of the gross commission,  then the potential profit to the broker is 4 of the 5% with the 1% going as the franchise fee to RE/MAX. That means that the profit we look for is 4% of the gross commissions of each of our agents and the only way we can increase the net profit is to help our agents grow their businesses. So if you are a 5 million dollar agent and want to be a 10 million we are 100% committed to help you do so. If you are a 10 million who wants to be a 20 million you have all our staff at your side helping you. The interests are aligned, the ONLY way we can increase our net profit is to help you increase yours and for every extra 1,000.00 we can help you make each year we make an extra 40.00.

Our only question is How Big do you want to go?

"But I Don't Want To Change!!!" Sound Familiar?

 Why is it that personal growth only comes out of your comfort zone, and often by stepping into pain? I guess it really doesn't matter if we like it or not, but that is just how it is, always has been and will always be. So, ultimately it always comes down to a decision, your own decision, that only you can make.

 Earlier this month I was assigned the leadership role for a team of our staff to compete with teams led by Jimmy Dulin and Jennie Franklin to see which team will take the most steps with our "Fitbits" each month. My immediate reaction was anything but positive, I am careful not to take on challenges that I know I don't care about the outcome. Further, there was a deep emotional reaction. I had been doing my level best to hide an old high school injury where my hip would fall out of joint that had not been snapping back for the last few years. So I normally try to take a few steps as possible per day because there is a price for each one. So, now all the staff gets to see exactly how many I take per day, this was horrifying to me.

 This little device took on the role of the Junior High bully that mocked, made fun of, and exposed my weakness for all to see, I was transported back to 7th grade. As I tried to get past the emotions and find a resolution the first thought was I had to mute this new bully. In seventh grade, it was learning that running from it, or just living with it were not solutions I could live with. Standing up and fighting the seemingly endless stream of the school "hoods" that everyone was afraid of that my antagonist would set up turned the tide. Not hiding, but standing up ended it. So I realized I had to quit hiding my current embarrassment and admit my challenge with my hip and that my daily numbers would reflect it.

 The next step was learning a new style of leadership I had never had to do before. I'm a huge believer in that in all things you must have aligned interests to have success. I have always believed in leadership by example, to never ask anyone to do anything I wasn't willing to do and do more of than anyone else. Now I had to find a way to cheer them on, while not really carrying my own weight. I started deep diving into leadership secrets from competitive rowing coxswains, who are doing exactly that. Trying to learn how to find an aligned interest when taking more steps was not  my personal goal while wanting to help my team reach their own. This led me to understand that my own interests were to learn a new leadership style, and to gain the freedom of no longer worrying about what other's might think if my infirmity was exposed.

 For years I would talk about how you would see a defensive back in football who gets burned on a big play often comes up limping coming back to the huddle. It is known as the "loser's limp" trying to make an excuse for not making the play. I had to learn to lose my own "loser's limp" of hiding my own limp to protect my own ego. This has been a learning experience so far, and has been strangely liberating. Now on to helping my team reach their own individual goals.

Do you have a loser's limp you are hiding that might be holding you back? An imaginary bully whispering in your ear? You can defeat them by taking away the thing they hold over you, for me it was openly admitting it. What will free you?

Are You Speaking The Language Of Success?

 In any industry, and Real Estate is clearly guilty, we tend to speak our own language. We use terms and acronyms that we know and understand when we speak among ourselves, but habitually use them with our clients as well. Those outside our industry may not use things like CMA or  escrow everyday.

 Over the last month I was slapped in the face how much this is true in our industry, and it came from viewing the most recent commercials from two of the three largest lead generating portals, Zillow and REALTOR.com. I'm not going to get into the benefits of one over another, or my belief that there is no reason for REALTORS to have a preference beyond a direct return on investment to their own businesses. What I do want to point out is how brilliantly they can teach us about language and how to communicate with our clients.

 REALTOR.com's newest campaign is directly targeting their paying clients, they have tapped into the emotions and fears of those who pay them for their product, REALTORS. They attack Zillow directly, they speak to our frustrations with the bad information found on Zillow. In fact they name Zillow by name seven times to only three times for themselves. It is clear that their goal is to reach REALTORS and connect to them, and not so much home buyers who do not have these emotional concerns over Zillow. You can see it here.
REALTOR.com commercial

 Zillow went a completely different direction, their most recent commercial shows a couple traveling looking at homes on Zillow.com and deciding on a home to bring back the child they were flying to meet and adopt into their lives, and the new home they will live together. This clearly is targeting the emotions, dreams and desires of families and how they see their homes, or want to.
You can see it here.  Zillow commercial

Looking at the views on the two videos their impact is crystal clear. REALTOR.com has had approximately 6 thousand views in a month, Zillow has had approximately 143 thousand views each of the last seven months. It seems that REALTORS are watching REALTOR.com as they targeted them to and families looking to find their dream homes are watching Zillow's. Who knows which approach is right for those companies, because both actually make their money selling to exactly the same customer, REALTORS. One chooses to go after their customer directly the other to their customer's customers to sell a connection.

 The most important part for each of us is making sure we are communicating to the people we need to, and in a way that resonates with them. I would suggest watching both several times and consider how you then can also target, communicate and connect with whom your business depends upon.

The Much Maligned Millennials

Millennials. You can't pick up a business magazine without finding articles lamenting the work ethic, attitudes, and entitlement of the Millenial Generation. You also always find articles discussing the need of businesses to recruit, learn to understand, and relate to the Millennials if they are going to stay relevant in the market place. It seems such a conundrum, but is it really anything new?

Last week, I was reading a social media thread from a friend in our industry. This friend was complaining about an interview gone bad with a Millennial and was asking if anyone had any luck working with this new generation. The thread became one of the busiest for a few days, with a lot of "Me too's." What always pops into my mind are the quotes from antiquity bemoaning the "kids these days." It seems like something that likely happens in nearly every generation, or at least after major culture shifts.

My Grandparents' generation was formed by the Roaring 20's, the new freedoms of automobiles, and shocking the older generations with their antics. However, they soon also experienced the Great Depression and W.W.II, and soon became known as the Greatest Generation. My parents' generation was the 50’s, a great time of growth and prosperity. Following them, my generation, the Baby Boomers was formed by the 60's and 70’s. The Boomers lived out the Hippy Dippy Days of challenging every rule, moral, and social mores. The Gen-Xers were the "Latch Key Kids” of the 80’s who saw the rules change on their parents. They watched as their parents maintained a good job, worked hard, and retired - only for their pension to disappear. Now Millennials (Gen Y) are shaped by growing up not only as technology natives, but in a world that has been at war most of their lives. Not only that, but the domestic economy has been as bad as the one of four generations ago. The reason we talk about them so much is the same reason we talked about Boomers so much - both generations are huge and have made, are making, and will continue to make impacts on everything for decades. There were appr. 80 million Boomers, only about 50 million Gen–Xers, and now around 80 million Millennials.

So what are they really like, these mysterious Millennials? Commonly you find them working more than one job, one of which is often their own business. This is likely due to a very tight job market competing with Gen-Xer's and Boomers, who are now willing to take entry level and part-time jobs after being downsized. Companies get experience cheaper. The average household income has dropped 5,000.00 a year since 2009 numbers. This hits those new to the workforce hard, especially with large student loan debts.

They, unlike my Boomers, are “joiners." They are the potential salvation of clubs and organizations like the Masons. They are hard workers, collaborative, and love to work on teams. Are there slackers who feel entitled? You betcha - just like every generation before them. Remember, we didn't create a Nanny State government by just those who have voted in the last two elections. Just like in any generation, look for the cream of the crop and you can't go wrong.

Tis The Season To Reflect On What's Important

Tis the Season for reflection, introspection, sharing memories with family and friends, and planning for the upcoming year. It makes me think of one of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite Christmas movies, "The Bishop's Wife” - the scene where an angel visited the good Bishop to give him guidance through a tough time. The Angel's last gift was writing this Christmas Eve sermon for the Bishop to deliver. 

"Tonight I want to tell you the story of an empty stocking. Once upon a midnight clear, there was a child's cry, a blazing star hung over a stable, and wise men came with birthday gifts. We haven't forgotten that night down the centuries. We celebrate it with stars on Christmas trees, with the sound of bells, and with gifts. 

But especially with gifts. You give me a book, I give you a tie. Aunt Martha has always wanted an orange squeezer and Uncle Henry can do with a new pipe.

For we forget nobody, adult or child. All the stockings are filled, all that is, except one. And we have even forgotten to hang it up. The stocking for the child born in 

a manger.

It’s His birthday we're celebrating. Don't let us ever forget that. Let us ask ourselves what He would wish for most. And then, let each put in his share: loving kindness,

warm hearts, and a stretched out hand of tolerance. All the shinning gifts that make peace on earth."

 This is also a good time for you to ask yourself, what really means the most to you? As you're preparing your goals for next year, what is your burning why? What is it you really value, really want? 

 Today I had lunch with an agent from another firm. It was originally to be a recruiting call, but became more of a coaching session. The agent is at one of the traditional firms, and is finding it to be a financial struggle. After a $5M year last year, the goal this year was $7M;  but it looks like $5M is more likely. We discussed several different points, two of which became turning points: Why the volume wasn’t there and why $7M was the chosen goal. As it turns out, it was to pay a debt. We discussed that setting a goal of debt reduction, while noble and needed, often backfires because your mind is focused on the debt. Whatever you focus on you get more of. I suggested changing the why to living a paid-in-full life.

 When I suggested how to create dreams and rewards for reaching different goals, the response I got was that not everyone is wired that way. I agree that not everyone is as an adult, but all are as children. As we grow from childhood into adulthood, we are taught not to dream somewhere along the way. We need to tap back into that childlike dream-building. Remember, God actually created us to be dreamers. Why else did He tell us about Heaven, if not to build a dream for us to reach? The Bible is full of stories of how the dream was the driving force behind accomplishment. If what you set your goals for doesn't tie back to what you really care about, it is much less likely to happen. Only you can decide what it is you care about. Maybe you desire to do something for someone you love. Perhaps you desire to leave a legacy for your children and your children’s children. Whatever it is, you have to come to that conclusion – it shouldn’t be chosen for you.

 When was the last time you read the story of David and Goliath? You will find it in 1 Samuel 17. If it’s been a while, read it below. You'll likely want to go see for yourself, because odds are, you haven't ever heard it this way before.

 David was the youngest son in his family and his father sent him down to where the army was gathered to take baskets of cheese and bread to the officer in charge over his three older brothers. This was a smart move on Dad's part because in the old way of battle those on the front row always died, so if the commander was getting goodies from some families those men tended to be moved back a few rows. David was there when Goliath came out challenging the Israelites causing them to all pull back in fear. Back in camp he heard some soldiers talking about the reward that King Saul was offering to the man who killed Goliath: he would ride upon a white horse (major status symbol), have land as far as the eye could see, from that he and his family would never pay taxes, and he would be given the Princess to marry.  Upon hearing that David said, "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine?" It wasn't Goliath who sparked his interest. It was the Princess, the land, the reward. He kept asking more questions until his brothers saw him. And, as family so often does, they tried to stifle his dream.

"When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.” 1 Samuel 17:28

 Upon being called out by his brother and embarrassed in front of the soldiers he could have done what many of us do. He could have tucked his tail between his legs and walked away. But, instead, he "turned from them unto another and asked again, what is the reward for the man who kills Goliath?" He went back to his dream.

If it's good enough for this story, isn't it good enough for your own?