ADvantage Solutions
Newsletter

August 1998

Nobody succeeds beyond their wildest expectations unless they begin with some pretty wild expectations!

Watch out for goal setting! Your goals can limit you! As I ride my bike I often find myself looking at the road that lies right in front me—focusing on the next hill or curve in the road. I ride, though, to give myself a break, to energize and enjoy the magnificence of our Arizona weather and scenery. Often, the hawks come out to fly with me. As long as I focus on the road right in front of me and don’t look up, I don’t even see the hawks cheerleading me on during my ride. My ride will be ordinary and even just something else to be done and gotten through. However, if I look up, I am rewarded. So, what’s this got to do with your goals? Do the goals you set at the beginning of the year still excite and motivate you? Have you set your sites high and are you looking up? Perhaps, going goaless the rest of the year would set loose innovation & creativity! Let’s discover the joy of going GOALESS this month.

1. ARE YOU PLAYING A BIG ENOUGH GAME? When we lack enthusiasm and passion about the direction we are headed, it’s often because the goal that we have set is not awesome enough to pull forth excitement. A business as usual, incrementally larger goal than last year seems the thing to do, to be safe and have it be attainable, but if it doesn’t inspire you, you’ll have a tendency to get bogged down in the day to day circumstances and distractions. The little things will annoy and stop your progress.

COACHES ACTION TIP> Reexamine your goals for the year and see if the juice is there? On December 31^st are you going to be hugely proud of your accomplishments and growth this year? With the rest of the year before you, give yourself a clean slate for what you have and haven’t done and imagine a goal big enough that it scares you a little, yet inspires you. Now let go of the defined actions and focus on the BIG picture. Look up!

2. LINEAR VS NON-LINEAR By setting specific goals and action steps, you can plan and know where you want to go. This can, however confine or restrict a bigger possibility of you fully expressing your vision. We all are familiar with breaking down our goals into actions: You must prospect 80 people to yield 8 appointments and get 4 listings, etc. Non-linear actions, on the other hand, focus on becoming a more skilled or better agent (the who rather than the what). Some ways to achieve this would be by increasing your skills, your wardrobe, your networking group or your education or knowledge.

COACHES ACTION TIP> Let go of the specific action plan. First, your business should already be solid to play this game. Your foundation and the basics must be strong first. Once this is in place, you can play the "goaless" game. Identify some criteria for your game: It should include fun, adventure, some ridiculously high stars to shoot for! Then, let go of specific goals and actions for the next 3 months (or 6, if you want to play big) and focus instead on 1 major change in how you do business each month. Here are a few ideas: Get an assistant to allow you more face-to-face client time, completely reorganize your office and implement new systems for working with clients, or research, buy and implement the computer programs that will be most valuable in freeing up your time.

3. TRUST YOURSELF… Each day, pay attention to the opportunities that are right in front of you. Don’t worry about the future but make today a perfect day. Live it as if it were the last 24 hours you were going to have.

COACHES ACTION TIP> Examine the opportunities of every day with a child’s wonderment. Go with the flow. Consider how you can make your actions in the next 24 hours represent the excellence you are committed to and bring joy. Take 1 more action each day than you ordinarily would. Thank 1 more person, call 1 more prospect, take 1 more 15 minute walk. BE excellent each day and the doing will come automatically. Have more fun and don’t postpone joy!

Real Estate Trend Watch- Is Direct Mail History?

An agent recently shared her experience with a "response mailing" she sent out to a farm area she has been tending for a while. Immediately after the mailing she got 6 responses: all to be taken off her list. Three said they would never move and the other three said she was killing trees and they were offended by that! Not exactly the response she was looking for. It is, I believe, a harbinger of the changing expectations of our market. Recent NAR studies showed 45% of buyers last year were first time homebuyers and of those the average age was 32. The average age of a Realtor was 46. Learning the preferences and expectations of our target markets is what successful marketing is all about. I am seeing those agents who go deeper with their database of "near and dear" rather than prospecting cold clients (going wide)

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Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this, will you do me a favor? Take a minute and forward this to others who might benefit as well! Thanks!