Your goal should be to EMPTY your inbox at the end of the day!
 

****TECH Info:

 ****Website TECH Tip:
You can use a domain name you have bought to point at any page WITHIN your site.  For instance, you have bought the name of a subdivision you farm and you’ve posted a community bulletin board or other resource information. It’s simple and cheap (Internet Crusade charges only $15 for this) and will allow you to brand yourself with that domain name.  For this service, domain names and othe email management, visit internetcrusade

****TECH Resources
1. The NAR ePro Designation is available again!

2. DOMAIN NAMES

3. RE-ROUTE YOUR E-MAIL 

4.  FREE BUSINESS CARDS

Submit YOUR favorite sites, tips or resources and get a 
                    certificate for 50% off any Real Estate Game!™

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THE COACHING DISTINCTION OF THE MONTH:

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Promise vs Expectation

 DEFINITIONS:

Promise:        A bi-lateral agreement for a defined outcome
Expectation: A uni-lateral assumption something will happen

 EXAMPLE and COMPARISONS:

Steve told his manager, Jan, he would make 15 phone calls to previous clients before Friday. Kandy told her manager, Mandy, she would take care of getting the refreshments ordered for the party.

ELEMENTS OF A PROMISE: According to Terrie Lupberger from The Newfield Network

“These are the elements of a promise:
-Speaker
-Listener (very important!  because as speaker you need to ensure your listener has listened what you were try to speak)
-Conditions of Satisfaction (also very important.  What EXACTLY needs to happen for both parties to be satisfied?)
-Time
-Shared Background of Obviousness (means that the speaker and listener share a background about the concern....sort of 'on the same page'.)”

KEY POINT:  Anytime something doesn’t happen as you expected, there is usually one or more of the elements missing. Most of the time, it is a simple breakdown in communication between the parties. In order to be able to bring a complaint, all of the elements must have been specified or else you just end up with someone bitching about it not getting done “right.”

BENEFIT:  Both parties are clear what is expected and by when.

COACHING ACTIONS:  Raise your awareness!

1. Notice when you are giving your word without all the elements being included.
   You may be giving yourself more wiggle room by not using a “by when” or specifying exactly what the desired result would look like. Tighten up your practices to make sure you are giving your word in a way that people know they can count on you.
2. When asking others to do something, make sure all elements are included.
3. If there is an expectation you had that didn’t work out the way you had expected, take a look to see which element was missing.
4. Don’t bitch about things not being done the way you wanted/expected unless you have taken all the steps above.

==================================

The HEALTH Advantage

  Ten Easy Things To Do

It doesn’t have to be difficult to be healthier.
The little choices you make all day long make a difference. 

1. Park the car as far away as possible from where you are going and walk a little extra
2. Take the stairs instead of the elevator
3. Drink 8 glasses of water by keeping a pitcher of water on your desk- Drink one in the morning and another during the afternoon
4. Don’t finish EVERYTHING on your plate
5. Put on music you love and DANCE for 5 minutes
6. Eat a piece of fruit instead of candy
7. Eat an Energy or Protien Bar instead of junk
8. Take a multivitamin
9. Take a 2 minute break every hour. Close your eyes and breathe deeply. Relax!
10. Smile more than usual

The SKILLS Advantage:

=================================

 TO PARTICIPATE: Send an email to register@joeann.com with your name, company, city, phone and email address   

If you can't participate……..
you CAN order the tape for only $10! 

LAST CALL!!!!!<<>>  POWER Email: Leave AOL The Easy Way!

FREE    Thursday    October 18   10 AM Pac, 1 PM EDT with Joeann Fossland 

If you are on AOL and you are ready to change to a business email account….this teleconference will make it easy to switch. Learn how to get your mail forwarded, how to get a permanent email address, and what to do to minimize the hassle. 

<<>>Mastermind Call: The Best of the NAR Convention
FREE   Wednesday    November 7   10 AM Pac, 1 PM EDT
Facilitated by Joeann Fossland   

I’ll share and ask others who attended the NAR Convention and Trade Show in Chicago to share the   “best tips and best products” from the show.

<<>>NEW: Will 2002 be your “Best Year Yet”?
The Real Estate Game(tm)     LIVING ON PURPOSE GAME           

An Hour Call every Wednesday at 11 AM Pacific for 6 weeks
Facilitated by Coaches John Smith & Joeann Fossland
Begins Nov 7    Money Back, Guaranteed Satisfaction investment  $175 

You will:

• Develop a business strategic plan and a personal strategic plan – ones that work together so you can have a business and still have a life! 

• Learn the 7 key skills and 5 key system for implementing a successful and profitable plan
  
• Become powerfully clear about your strengths, your vision, your mission and your purpose

• You’ll receive materials you need to accomplish this and a step-by-step, easy to follow method delivered by two professional real estate coaches.   

  THE REAL ESTATE GAMES™
& Business Planning Retreats
============================================

The actions you take in November and December will get your 2002 off to a FAST START!  

Awesome Year 2002 Workbook

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A newly updated version of this popular workbook is available to help  You create your plan for 2002. 30+ pages available now by email for $10   or snail mailed hardcopy for  $12

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THE REAL ESTATE GAME (tm) 

Playing the GAME will keep you in action. 

Four weeks of daily focus & motivation for less than the cost of a cappuccino !! 

***THE NEXT Real Estate Game (tm)     Nov. 5      9:45 AM EST, 6:45 AM Pacific

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***LIVING ON PURPOSE GAME       Nov 7   2 PM EST, 11 AM PST

6 hourly calls with 1-1 optional coaching supplement    $175 or $275 

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To register:   joeann.com  

Or send an email to joeann@joeann.com  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“ Living On Purpose”:

THE REAL ESTATE GAME BUSINESS PLANNING WEEKEND 

Are you using your strengths fully?
Do you truly ENJOY your work?
Is it part of your life plan?  
Are you poised to make 2002 your best year ever? 

 If not, this weekend will revolutionize your life!

WHERE:   Santa Fe, NM                    January 26-28, 2002

3 Days of personal & business coaching to help you achieve your dreams.

VERY LIMITED OFFERING  to the first   20 agents

Only $485  

For more information:  joeann.com

Or send an email to joeann@joeann.com

<<>> ** <<>> ** <<>> **<<>> ** <<>>

ADVANTAGE THINKING:  No Regrets

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Last week, Ira Serkes, RE/Max Agent from Berkeley,  hosted one of my monthly free teleconferences and shared some fascinating ideas. Along with generously sharing his high tech practices, he gave us a personal philosophy he called “Regret Minimization” : making certain that when you reach 80, you won’t look back at what you wished you had done, but had lived each year, doing it!  Ira gave the example of visiting his Mom twice each year, no matter how busy business is, because she is now in a nursing home in NY. 

As a coach, I find the agents I work with are yearning not only for ways to be more productive with their businesses, but want that quality of life that will enhance EVERY DAY! The latter, is perhaps the tougher thing to do, because it is so personal and does not finding acceptance in  external world as becoming a superstar. All the world loves a top producer and wants to know the success secrets to becoming a millionaire. The world is less interested in whether you have told your parent’s you loved them today or if you gave up serving on a high profile committee so you could enjoy some personal reflective time.

What REALLY important to you?

As this year winds down, you may be beginning to think about your business plan for next year and what you want to create. As I’ve been preparing for the first of several business planning retreats that Coach John Smith and I are facilitating, this idea of “regret minimization” is one I find running through the materials and the work I want to do with the participants, since I feel it is so crucial to a joyful life and career. Yes, the numbers and actions are important. Your vision is important, but the day to day happiness you create for yourself and others is even more important. Try this for the next week: rate yourself each day 1-10 on happiness each day. What would you have to do differently to be a 10 every day? 

What gets in the way? 

A big one for me, and I find for many people, is forgiveness. There’s a hidden energy vampire that sucks life called “being right”. And, oh, how tough it is to let go of this for the sake of having happiness. We have soooo many reasons why we need to hold on the resentment, hate or anger when someone else has hurt us.

I woke this morning thinking this needed to be the topic of this month’s newsletter and I didn’t want to listen and honor that thought. This is too personal, I thought. This sounds too much like a political statement in light of the past month’s tragedies. I am learning, painfully, that I MUST be courageous and listen to my inner promptings. I felt I “should” be focusing on just the business part of success in this newsletter, knowing when I stray into the personal, I get requests from people to be removed from the newsletter. Somehow, I am beginning to understand that is perfect….those of you who stay, for whom the messages I share are beneficial, are the one’s I am writing for. I keep needing to internalize and model my own message: Life is too short to make EVERYBODY happy! Finding the niches that fit our own talents and being true to that, finding the message we are put here to express and share is the most gratifying action I can think of. 

So, forgiveness is this month’s message.  

When I was 15 years old, my mother died after a long illness. My father drank as his way of coping and to my 15 year old mind, he had abandoned my brother and me just as surely as my mother had. I felt like an orphan and resolutely decided to make something of myself WITHOUT needing anyone! You can imagine what kind of life a person who has made that decision would live and how it would be hard to form relationships.

For the next 10 years, I hardly spoke to my father. I sent Christmas and birthday cards, so as not to be seen as a “bad” daughter, but few visits and virtually no love was expressed between us. He was as dead as my mother in my mind and there was no upset, or so I thought. It just was the way it was and I didn’t “need” him anyway. Even after he stopped drinking, I couldn’t find in my heart a way to let him back in because he was so wrong to have not been there when his two children needed him…… 

Anger, resentment, and hate cling to those who harbor them. They eat up something inside and drain from us the energy and love that are natural expressions. The bigger drain on the person holding on to these negative feelings than on the person from whom the love is being withheld. The funny thing is often the other person doesn’t even know how angry or resentful I am and they would make amends if they only knew.  

After 10 years of this estrangement, I attended one of Landmark Education’s workshops. The leader asked a participant, who had an issue with his mother over something awful she had done, ”Would you rather be right or have what you want?”  Having “what you want” meant to me, at that moment, having the love of a father who WAS still alive, albeit not perfect. I suddenly saw the cost of continuing to withhold the very stuff I craved: acceptance and love had been very costly to me. I had deprived myself of a father that WAS alive.  I also saw how I had limited the love I could receive by being unwilling to give mine to almost everyone, unless I felt the person was worthy or it was safe and I wouldn’t be hurt. That certainly limited most human interactions!

My father and I had some long conversations, in which I found he was holding some things against me too. We talked, forgave and began to build a new relationship. He is 82 and lives here in Tucson. He went into the hospital this weekend with chest pains, and although he is ok, it served as a reminder to me of how grateful I am that we have been connected over the past 30 years. How blessed my life has been having a father…instead of pretending he was dead and I didn’t care. 

We have the choice, at every moment of our lives, to forgive and give love or to be right and withhold. I know I feel happier and have more joy when I am doing the former, but I also know there is some strong pull to feel the righteousness and want to have the other person “pay” when I have been hurt. I am not perfect (and, damn, I’ve sure tried to get there in these 50+ years :>) and I still want to be right. I don’t think I’ll ever get past that.  I’ve found, however, letting go of the hurt and asking myself, what CAN I do in this situation just works better, and I can be more productive with the rest of my life.
The happiness and joy increase and that’s REALLY what’s important to me.  

As I look at the bigger picture, right now, I believe those who have committed crimes must be punished.   I also believe this horrible situation is an urgent reminder to recognize of the importance of “regret minimization.” This can be a wake up call to look for and clean up or take action in those areas in our lives that might give us regret if it all were to end abruptly.

The INSPIRATION Advantage
============================================

“Men rush toward complexity, but they yearn toward simplicity.”
G.K. Chesterton 

“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.”
   Hans Hofman

 "In order to seek one's own direction, one must simplify the mechanics of ordinary, everyday life."
Plato

"Insantity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtaxed."  Oliver Wendell Holmes