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A free ,100% opt-in, bi-monthly e-newsletter of tips, learning opportunities and resources you can use immediately to increase your personal and professional effectiveness & your bottom line.

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ADVANTAGE CONTENTS

The FAST Advantage

Joeann’s Monthly Message:  Making Dreams Come True

The SIMPLE LIVING Advantage:  Book Resources

The TECH Advantage:  Top 10 Resources

The DISTINCTION OF THE MONTH: Prosperity vs Wealth  

The HEALTH Advantage: Weight Training

The SKILLS Advantage:   Fossland's Resources for LearningTHE REAL ESTATE GAMES!

ADVANTAGE THINKING:  

The INSPIRATION Advantage:  What's YOUR Perspective?

The FAST Advantage 

 Dallas Cowboys Coach Landry once said, “"A coach is someone who gets you to do what you don’t want to do, so you can be who you want to be.” 

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Joeann's Message
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Making Dreams Come True

I believe in living life NOW, not later, and I’m excited to be getting ready to leave for Australia through the end of July!
The trip has taken us 3 years to be able to plan and execute and it has been part of my 100 item “Be, Do & Have in this Lifetime” List. 

I’ll be one of the speakers at the International Coaches Federation Australasian Conference in Sydney and then my husband, Bub and I will be traveling all over the country. A dream come true for us! 

What dreams are you manifesting this summer?
What ones are in the works?
Do you need some new ones?
If you don’t have one right now that you are working towards, I invite you to give it some thought this week and plan for when you will do it! 

This newsletter features resources, some new, some tried and true.
I’ve tried to bring together a variety of resources, some free, some worth it for you to see what could enhance your business.
Hopefully you’ll find at least one tool to make you money or make you more effective!

Do You Need A Coach?

If you are perfectly happy with your business as it is and you can’t wait to get to the office each day and you have plenty of time and energy to do what the job takes, you don’t need a coach.
If, on the other hand, you want to take your business beyond it’s present scope and don’t quite know how, or if your are feeling burned out and don’t enjoy each day and find yourself stressed out trying to do it all, a coach may be your answer.  

Determining what result YOU want from the coaching is the place to begin. There are many programs and coaches, each offering different services.  So, the clearer you are about what you are looking for, the greater your satisfaction. The coach that works with the top producer in your town (and I’ll bet they do have a coach!), is not necessarily the BEST coach for you. And, it may be training you are looking for, instead of coaching. Anyone can call himself or herself a coach and some people have just changed the name of their training to coaching because it is trendy. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with getting more training, but knowing what you want or need and distinguishing whether it is coaching or training is useful because finding the right solution is sometimes tricky.  

Below is a list of some of the reasons you might want a coach. If you are thinking about hiring one, take a look at this list and determine which, if any, are areas you want to explore and then you can ask the coaches you interview what they can do for you in these areas.

  10 Areas A Coach Can Help

 1.      TO CREATE A BUSINESS AND LIFE PLAN
Do you know not only what you want your production goals are but why? And do they have a relationship to your overall plan for financial independence?
2.      TO BRING WEEKLY FOCUS AND ACCOUNTABILITY
Are your weekly actions and priorities aligned with your plans? Do you monitor where you are on a regular basis so you can make course corrections to get back on track? Do you follow through on the ideas and plans you make?
3.      TO BE ENCOURAGED AND TO BRAINSTORM NEW STRATEGIES
Are you doing things in the same way that you were 5 years ago? Do you know what the “new” consumer wants from you. Do you have the right tools and knowledge to deliver it?
4.      TO FOCUS ON USING YOUR STRENGTHS MORE EFFECTIVELY
Do you try to figure out what you don’t do well and struggle getting better at it or do you know yourself and what you are positively brilliant at and leverage that skill? Have you developed a business to attract the people who need the skill you are best at? For instance, if negotiating and bottom line results are something you pride yourself in, creating a business to work with investors, or others who are making practical, rather than emotional buys would be a good fit.
5.      TO HELP YOU ASSESS WHICH LET ACTIVITIES AREN’T THE HIGHEST AND BEST USE OF YOUR TIME
Do you hold onto to all activities because no one else can do them as well as you? Do you know what an hour of your time is worth? Have you identified companies and people to outsource to who’d charge less than what an hour of your time is worth?
6.      TO SUPPORT YOU IN FINDING THE RIGHT WAY OF DOING YOUR WORK SO YOU ALSO HAVE A LIFE
Do you work to live or live to work? Do you regularly take time for yourself, your family and to rejuvenate? Do you take vacation time? Do you set boundaries about what times you can be reached and are available?
7.      TO BRAINSTORM THE “PERFECT” NICHES
Are you trying to be available for any business that shows up or have you narrowed your focus to areas where you can be the expert? Are you a generalist or a specialist? What area or type property or client do you know better (or enjoy more) than anyone else?
8.      TO HELP STRENGTHEN YOUR “BRAND” BY CLARIFYING YOUR UNIQUE GIFTS
Is your marketing designed to promote a memorable impression that positions you as the “guru” of real estate in one or more ways. Have you coordinated your materials and strategies to strengthen your brand or is it hard to distinguish you from everyone else?
9.      TO LISTEN AND LET YOU KNOW WHEN YOU ARE OFF COURSE
Are you ready to try some new, even, off-the-wall way of doing things? Can you give up what has worked in the past for new ways of doing things? Do you have objective people who give you honest feedback? Do you have ideas that you need some outside perspective on?
10.  TO PROVIDE RESOURCES TO HELP YOU ATTAIN YOUR GOALS FASTER AND MORE EASILY
Are you well connected to knowing where to find the people and tools that will allow you to implement the strategies you are committed to? 

This list is a place to begin in your thinking about where the gaps are in your business and your life that might be helped by a coach. As Dallas Cowboys Coach Landry once said, “"A coach is someone who gets you to do what you don’t want to do, so you can be who you want to be.”

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       The SIMPLE LIVING  Advantage:

      Book Resources

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1. FREE BOOK SUMMARIES  I love the in-depth summaries available through this service. Gives you the high points and you can decide if the whole book is worth your time. Sign up at  free book summaries

    2.    This Month's Picks: 
           FOR BUSINESS:  If you haven’t gotten Wendy Jones’s E-Book
            450 WAYS TO HELP YOUR HOME SELL FASTER
            ……you are missing a GREAT RESOURCE!!!!!!
            You can order it, personalize it and use it in your prospecting!!!
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FOR PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS: 

DON'T SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF - and it's All Small Stuff
by Richard Carlson, Ph.D.

Simple ways to keep the small things from taking over your life, Carlson's handbook reveals 100 ways to calm down in the midst of your incredibly hurried, stress-filled life.
Personal note:I especially loved the chapter that talked about nothing being permanent..that EVERYTHING will wear out or break. After sharing that with my friend, Sue Cartun, she told me of author, Stuart Wilde, having his apartment broken into and everything stolen and his response was “Oh, look, the universe came for the stereo.” Whoa…..I’m not sure I’m THAT enlightened yet :>)   But I am working on letting go, materially and intellectually and this book is a great little reminder of many areas where it is only small stuff!!! 

FOR FUN: one of my all time favorites:  Now in the movies, but I LOVED the book! Some classic mother-daughter dynamics, with a dysfunction family I could relate to! Is there such a thing as a “functional” family? 

DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA YA SISTERHOOD by  Rebecca Wells.