A new feature in the
mid-month newsletter will appear here. Each month you’ll get 3 resources or ideas for
simplifying your life!
1. Just say NO! What obligation have you said yes to that you
no longer enjoy? Let go of at least one thing this month that will give you more energy to
do what you love. Or consciously say no when asked to take on something else, even if you
have nothing else scheduled on your calendar.
2. For the days when you need an escape …….The Sweet
Potato Queen’s Book of Love by Jill Conner Browne
Find it at amazon.com.
A funny, irreverent (does contain sex and profanity---just a
warning) look at life and love that guaranteed to make you laugh and, perhaps, think about
this male/female relationship thing :>)
3. Oprah’s Magazine, “O”
is a favorite of mine. Visit at Oprah.com
Much of the content is available online with ideas for life balance
and enjoyment. In addition, there are great cards to send with
inspirational quotes.
The
TECH AdvantageLinks
========================
**** Advantage TECH TIP: USING EMAIL FOLDERS
Managing your Email by
utilizing folders in your email program is essential as your rely on this method of
communication more and more.
Setting up folder is
easy:
In Outlook or Outlook
Express:
In your drop down under File:
Choose New/Folder
Or you can go to
Folder/New
Now you just name the
Folder you want to add. Perhaps “Clients” then you can add subfolders with
each client’s name
If you’d like a
free seminar on this, join me for the free teleconference on May 24th at 1 PM
EDT!
****TECH Info:
FREE VIRUS
PROTECTION
A good free virus
protection program is innoculate.If you are not
updating your virus software on a regular basis (daily or at least weekly), you are
leaving yourself open to viruses.
****Website TECH Tip
By posting a contest on your website, you have
the opportunity to offer value, to capture email addresses of visitors and to create more
visits to your site.You can announce the contest in your snail mail newsletter to
encourage those consumers to visit your
site.The more interactivity and value you provide, the more often people will visit your
site.
****TECH Resources
- PERSONAL PROMOTION Use the Visual Tour Software for your personal promotion
by adding your personal information to the
disk that you give out at open houses or send to clients with the Visual tour. If you
aren’t doing $25 tours with the great program from VisualTours….you can’t
afford to wait any longer! Check it out at visualtour
and then contact me for a special discount on purchasing the software :>)
- THE BEST GETS BETTER My favorite Webmistress Extraordinaire, Sandy Teller,
has teamed up with Hilary Smith to form Sizzling Studios. If you need a website, you must
check with them at sizzlingstudious . While
you are there, subscribe to their great monthly newsletter full of things that will help
make your site more successful! This month feature’s tips on copyright issues.
- LEVERAGE YOUR PROSPECTING I have shared information with you about ART
(Automated Response Technologies) and their 24 hotlines. I truly believe their services
leverage your money and time. Their latest offering is Voice Broadcasting. The system
leaves a message on answering machines that sounds just like a live call from you and
frees your prospecting time to talk just with the ones that are home. What a time saver!
For information about their services, call 888-472-4477 ext.7204
Submit YOUR favorite sites or tip and get 50% off any Real Estate Game!
THE COACHING DISTINCTION OF THE MONTH:
Having
a Life vs
Having
a Lifestyle
========================================
DEFINITIONS:
Having a Life: Joyfully Living the way YOU want
to!
Having a Lifestyle : Doing all the RIGHT
things to Impress
COMPARISONS:
Being Present vs Living In the Future
Living From Values vs Keeping Up With The Joneses
Enjoying vs Acquiring
EXAMPLE: Jeff struggled every month to make ends meet. He
was obligated to pay for the Country Club, the new cars, the fancy address and the latest
of everything for the kids. Jerry and his wife had consciously decided to live
“beneath” their means and use the reserve to take one GREAT vacation each year,
while putting away money for the kids to go to college and for their retirement.
KEY POINT: When you
become very clear at what you REALLY find important, it often isn’t more stuff. When
you are clear on the WHY you want to achieve, you often don’t NEED as much
BENEFIT Making
choices based on a enjoying the present fully, where you are happy with where you are and
what you have right now, is an abundance mentality that will attract more to you.
Appreciating each day that you are “above ground” and making the best of each
situation frees you from the energy drain of what “might have/should have been.”
COACHING ACTIONS:
- What
is perfect right now? Make a list of those areas that ARE how you want them to be.
- Of
the things that are not perfect right now, are you learning from the situations you are in
and moving towards perfection? If not, what actions can you take?
- What
lifestyle choices no longer fit you today. Do you still need to belong to all the groups
you are a member of? Do you need all the toys?
- Choose
1 major change to simplify and implement it in the next 30 days
- Next
time you feel the urge to spend on a large item, wait 24 hours and ask yourself if you
really need this?
- Save
at least 10% for retirement of EVERY paycheck FIRST
The SKILLS
Advantage:
3 Free
Teleconferences
=================================
LAST CALL For May…..Register Now for June!
1. <<>> POWER Email: Folders &
Message Rules<<>>
FREE Thursday, May 24, 1
PM EDT, 10 AM Pacific & AZ
with Coach Joeann Fossland, Master Certified Coach
Managing email is an important skill. This class
will teach you how to simplify by creating multiple folders. Then learn how to use message
rules to automatically manage your mail. You’ll need Outlook Express and the ability
to be at your computer for this class.
2. .
<<>>"iPro Productivity Center Call & Freebies
FREE Tuesday
June 5th at 10 AM Pa/1 PM EDT With Stuart Sutton & Master
Marketer Rand Smith
If you are ready to take charge of your business
and tame technology, you can’t afford to not checkout the services iProCenter is
offering. You get a free 30 day trial to use their autoresponders, set up a website and
much more PLUS, you will get FREE of charge, Rand Smith's incredible Marketing Magic CD
valued at $495! This CD is loaded with over 200+ ads, letters,postcards, pre-listing
packages for both buyers and sellers.
3.<<>>"Dominate!
Capturing Your Market With Today's Technology!"
FREE
June 13 9 AM Pacific, Noon Eastern
with Allen F. Hainge, CRS, Allen F. Hainge Seminars, Inc.
Allen will share secrets from his new book,"Dominate! Capturing
Your Market With Today's Technology!" He
is a no geek-speak technological whiz who presents wonderfully informative seminars with
his CYBERSTARS™ . This will
fill up!
Visit his Web Site: Cyberstars™
TO PARTICIPATE: Register at joeann.com
Or send an email to register@joeann.com with your name, company, city,
phone and email address
If
you can’t participate……..order the tape for only $10.
THE REAL ESTATE GAMES™
& Business Planning Retreats
============================================
You’ll be
motivated, stretched and produce consistent action!
THE NEXT GAMES
May
29 10:45 AM EDT, 7:45 Pacific
Also check out THE NEW AGENT GAME and the EXTREME GAME
For Complete Information visit TheRealEstateGame
Cost for all four weeks is only $99 (less than $5
a day)
To register: joeann.com
Or send an email to joeann@joeann.com
THE
NEXT REAL ESTATE GAME
BUSINESS PLANNING WEEKEND
Are you truly ENJOYING
your work? Is it part of a life plan? If not, this weekend will revolutionize your life!
WHERE:
KONA, Hawaii
June 30
July 1& 2
3 Days of personal &
business coaching to help you achieve your dreams.
Registration Now Open
For:
Planning 2002:
Scottsdale, AZ
October 4-7
Send an email to joeann@joeann.com
<<>> **
<<>> ** <<>> **<<>> ** <<>>
ADVANTAGE THINKING:
4 Surefire Steps To Cure A Slump
<<>> **
<<>> ** <<>> **<<>> ** <<>>
If things have stalled or slowed down, it’s
no time to panic…….it’s time to SPRINT!
"When times are hard, the last thing you
should do is panic. When you panic, your brain shuts down; you stop listening and
learning."
William F. Miller,
professor emeritus of computer science, Stanford University School of Engineering quoted
in Fast Company Magazine
Successful agents take action regularly to build
future business. They nurture their spheres of influence—especially that 20% that
gives them 80% of their referrals. They use a co-ordinated marketingplan that consistently
and repetitively connects with their target
markets. They continue to plant seeds for future business, especially when they are
handling the details of having a flood of now business and
they have systems set up to stay on track with this, effortlessly.
In spite of everything, sometimes a slump or slow
down appears.
Currently, I am hearing from many of my clients in
different parts of the country that, despite the national news of a strong housing market,
there’s a slowdown in their marketplaces. The downturn in interest rates has
been a boon, but there seems to be much less exuberance than the last few years. When
there are shifts in the market, a wise agent knows that calls for a change in strategy.
It is easy to look around and blame the
outside circumstances when your production isn’t matching your goals. Sometimes, you
think, “ this is just short term and I’ll just ride it out...”Stinking
thinking will often creep in if things don’t change pretty quickly, though. You start
to question yourself and your competency. Isn’t it amazing that an agent can be in
this business for 20 years and still think when a slump occurs that maybe this isn't
thebusiness for them? The more you delve into that question, the more evidence you’ll
find for getting out now or believing that you really don‘t have what it takes. When
my coaching clients are in this place, I’ve know the longer they allow themselves to
stay in this mindset, the longer the conditions will persist. It requires ACTION to move
the situation.
4 Surefire Steps To Cure A Slump
- Assess All That You DO Have
Your attitude is one of
the most important resources you have.When things slow down, the average agent starts to
focus on what he doesn’t have. A fundamental law of the universe is that we
will always get more of what is most real to us and what we focus on expands.
So when you begin
to see scarcity all over, you will use all the collaborating evidenceyou can find to
justify the continuation of this thinking:i.e. the market has slowed down, the FSBO’s
are being more successful, there just aren’t any listings out there.
And then it appears more and more real because you
have gathered evidence and usually a lot of agreement with the other unproductive agents
in the office.
At this point, you tend to
“awfulize” the situation: you think of the worst and most extreme
outcome—perhaps that you’ll end up a bag lady—and you start worrying on
that. Then things tend to stay stuck here for a long time.
The extraordinary agent, on the other hand, will
focus on what they DO have. They remember some agents do business even when the
economy has slowed or it’s a ‘bad time” of the year. They know there are
ebbs and flows to this business. They find evidence to support the fact that there are
still buyers and sellers in the market. They take time each day to be grateful that they
have a house and a car and health and an
opportunity to make an unlimited income.
Focusing on the abundance creates more of
that evidence and the slump subsides pretty quickly.
2. Assess what IS working and what ISN’T and Shift
to do more of what IS!
Life is too short to perfect your
weaknesses or to struggle with persistence of
trying to make something work. It’s a funny thing, but most people have
been brainwashed to believe that struggle is good and proves you are worthy! Wouldn’t
it be more fun to work SMART? To have FUN? We all have opportunities right under our noses
that we aren’t recognizing as such and/or aren’t being leveraged. If you have
treated your clients well, they are the best opportunity for referrals for future
business. Yet I see most agents thinking a
slump means they need to find cold people to call on. No! No! No! Call those that
know and love you! Pick the low hanging fruit!
A slow down is a good
opportunity to do a time out and assess your strategies.
What IS bringing in business? How can you do more of that? Let go of the things that aren’t working.
When I worked as a marketing consultant to agents, I’d see 20% of business coming
from sign calls and less than 10% from ad calls. Yet their spending was maybe 5% on signs
and 80% on ads. How could you use the fact that your signs are creating business and
leverage it? Do you put all your listings on the back of your flyers in the flyer box?Is
your website address on your name riders? Do
you use an Automatic Response Systems, such as automaticrespnse
, that gives you the phone number of the hot prospect immediately so you can call them
right back? Plan some R&D (research & development) thinking time……
Look at your last 20
transactions and see what generated the initial lead. Then do more of that!
3. Take action-Plan A Sprint!
"The common conception is that motivation leads to action, but the reverse
is true – action precedes motivation.You have to 'prime the pump' and get the juice
flowing, which motivates you to work on your goals. Getting momentum going is the most
difficult part of the job, and often taking the first step is enough to prompt you to make
the best of your day." - Robert J. McKain
Stir up the cosmic
dust! Have you ever noticed when you get really busy at taking action, When
you make calls and connect, business often flows to you? Things start happening
from areas you haven’t even focused on? You’re making calls to your sphere of
influence and all of a sudden someone from your farm area calls and wants you to list
their house. It may SEEM like luck, but you are taking action and it creates an energy
that returns to you. It’s the old saying
about the more prepared you are, the luckier you get.
Hit it Hard &
Fast….
When the strategy that
you have been using is not producing the result you want, it is time to shake things up.
The best thing about a sprint is that it is a short-term push. You can do anything for a
week. If you feel good about the results, you can do another week, but this isn’t
about having to push this hard forever.
Here are the
steps:
·
Get your calendar out for the next week
and block the prospecting time
·
Plan at least 2 hours per day, or 10
hours over the week (you could do 2 five hour sessions)
·
Start with warm calls to those who
already know and love you
·
Designate at least 3 of the hours to
other “hot” possibilities like FSBO’s or Expireds
·
Call ones others might not be
targeting: Expireds from 1-2 months back or FSBO’s from the internet FSBO sites
instead of the newspaper
·
Create structure of support for
yourself-get a coach or a partner to hold you accountable. Use something like The Real Estate Game, to get you focused,
accountable and competitive with others.
·
Create a reward and/or a consequence-if
you’d have to pay $100 to a cause you abhor, for instance
· Create
a reward and/or a consequence-if you’d have to pay $100 to a cause you abhor, for
instance
·
Remember your goal on the calls is to
connect and find some future possibilities-it’s not about closing someone; it’s
about finding out if they have a need that fits with your offerings and then about
educating them as to how you are different from the others.
·
Have in place a great system for follow
up. Most agents will contact a FSBO once. Most FSBO’s will choose the agent that
stays in touch and contacts 5+ times.
·
Have some fun-make it game. Try playing
the “no” game: Decide you’ll call until you get 20 no’s…let go of
the result and have fun in trying different approaches and just connecting with the people
you talk to. When you aren’t needy, people sense it and relax with you.
4. Take VERY
good care of yourself
You’ll attract more people and business
because you’ll be feeling good and be projecting positive energy. This is the very
time to make sure that you are getting enough rest and time off to balance the focused
time you spend on the sprint. You need to be at your sharpest and your best.
Focus on treating yourself well.
· Get
a massage.
·
Take a day with a friend and do
something you love to do
·
Go to the beach or hike in the
mountains
·
Take the kids to the zo
·
Eat Right
·
Exercise or do whatever you find
relieves stress for you
·
Have some fun
Could your business use
an infusion of energy? Is it time for you to get into action?
Planning the business and personal actions to implement will set you up for success.
Committing to intense, focused action WILL bring you business. Whether you
need to sprint for a week or all month, you’ll find a momentum begins. Soon,
you’ll be complaining about not enough time to take care of the activity you have
created.
That would be a good dilemma to create,
wouldn’t it?
The INSPIRATION Advantage
============================================
"Re-examine everything you have been
told. Dismiss what insults your soul." Walt Whitman
"Let the beauty you love, be what you
do" Rumi
"The cost of a thing is that amount of life
which must be exchanged
for it." Henry David Thoreau
“I wake up every morning determined both to
change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning the day a
little difficult.” E. B. White
JOEANN’S
SCHEDULE
Attend one of these
sessions!
HAWAII
July 2-5 Real
Estate Game Business Planning Retreat
MIAMI
July 20 LTG VIII The Internet Professional
I am now booking speaking engagements for 2001& 2002
I’d love to visit with you, speak for your group or have you attend one of my
sessions!
STAYING
AHEAD OF THE CURVE
============================
Resources You Should
Use!
PLEASE
GIVE ME YOUR HELP!
What resources have you found that are valuable? Send in a suggestion and earn a
Certificate for 50% off a Real Estate Game! ™
1. Book Picks Business, Your Money &
Your Life! For additional suggestions, visit the Bookstore
The
E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber
If you don’t have great systems in place for
your business, this book will give youlots to think about and change. You’ll see why
it is important to not only work in your business but to work on it, as well.
Rich
Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki & Sharon Lechter
Robert’s personal story and philosophy may
shake up your thinking a bit about your assets and your spending. If you are interested in
becoming financially independent, this book is a must!
Simple
Abundance by Sarah Ban Brethnach
Is the world moving too fast some days? This book
is has lots of inspiration and tips to slow things down and enjoy the days more fully. A
great bedside companion.
2. Awesome Year Planning Guide is
available at $12 each.
A step by step, 30 page workbook to guide you
through your yearly planning!
3. Visual
Tours For $25 per tour. This is the answer to stay on the cutting edge. Join us for
the free conference call this month to find out lots of ways to prospect and make money
with this tool. Call me for the best price on their software.
4. ART:
Automatic Response Systems Do you have enough qualified prospects? Would you like a
tool to give you an edge on listing appointments? Consider the advantage you can have with
a 24 hour hotline Or the ability to send a voice message to your entire database.
Call 888-472-4477 ext.7204 for a free sample. the needy ones. This is also causing
her not to have the time or space for the serious clients.