Rich Levin

This system is proven to bring you a continuous flow of repeat business.
Some things make me smile!  This is one.  Fall is the time of year my Coaching Clients (Real Estate Agents) are reaping the rewards of following the Referral Reward system all year.  It actually generates business all year.  In the fall the flow increases.

The principles behind are as simple as the system itself.
The Referral Rewards Principles:
1. People like to receive gifts
2. People appreciate gratitude.
3. People respond to attention and acknowledgement.
4. People want relationship with people they respect.

The Referral Rewards System
1. Within 24 hours of receiving the referral, regardless of what happens with the referral, send a good old fashioned hand written thank you note with a small gift.
a. Say something like; “Thanks for putting me in touch with Bob and Sue.  Have a cup of coffee on me.” (include $5 or $10 coffee gift card)
2. Call the referring source at least once during the sale process.  (Be sure you have permission from the Client to share information about how the process is going.)
3. When you receive your check, send a more significant gift.
4. Call these Referring Sources within three months, a month later is ideal.  Just say thanks again and see how their life is going.
5. On an irregular basis send a small gift to everyone in this group.   (Favorite Book or Bookstore Gift Certificate, Movie Tickets, Dessert).  Irregular because you don’t want them to expect gifts from  you. Random unexpected rewards are proven to be the most motivating incentive.

This system is very easy to implement in your business.  Just add it to your transaction checklist.  You can even have your Assistant do it using online gift services.
Oh, and the return on your investment is between twenty and hundred to one.

Pam Ermen

Growth Factor #1: First Things First
Aaaah Teams…
Creating one can be the best thing that’s ever happens to your business, or the worst! So what factors determine which side of the equation you’ll experience?

The “Top 5″ Growth Traits of a Successful Real Estate Team
Hiring people before acquiring systems is the surefire path to failure. Think of it this way, if you hire a team member and can’t plug them into systems, procedures and lead generation programs, what do you think they’ll plug into? (I just can’t shake this mental picture of a dog with a new litter of hungry puppies!) It’s no wonder that many Top Producers equate Teams with pain, NOT growth.

If you think you’re spread thin now, just wait until you have an Administrative Assistant and/or a Team Associate literally standing at the door, waiting impatiently for you to walk in, and ready to be told what to do next. To make matters worse, their conversation with anyone who will listen rings of a “this is not what I was expecting” message, and of course, the fact that it’s your fault is also part of their ongoing dialogue. The painful truth is that what they’re saying has validity…you are the one responsible for creating focus, purpose and cohesiveness within your team, and a “we-they” mentality that develops will surely undermine any chances of that happening.

You must develop a plan the policies, procedures, systems, documents and programs necessary to grow a successful team, before your life as a Team Leader actually gets easier. If you don’t, expect it to get harder!

Growth Factor #2: Discover Who You Are
The “Top 5” Growth Traits of a Successful Real Estate Team
Remember when your Mother used to tell you there’s no one else in the world that’s just like you? It was her maternal attempt to somehow make freckles, braces and baby fat a wonderful part of what makes you unique. Perhaps it’s a bit of a stretch, but tapping into that “conversation with Mom” before you develop a team, could prove invaluable! Creating your Team by duplicating the structure and nature of another team eliminates the buying or selling experience that is unique to you and that contributed to your success in the first place. In addition, why would you want to foster a “commodity” mentality between you and your competition in the minds of the Consumer?

What’s more, long term retention of your team members will have much more to do with being part of a unique and inspiring environment than it will ever have to do with the amount of the commission dollars they earn. Don’t get me wrong, every Team Associate wants to keep the most money possible, but as successful managers and companies understand, there is ALWAYS a better deal somewhere else. Agents stay where they are for reasons than are much great than just money.

Can you clearly define who you are, what you stand for, and why another individual would be excited to be a part of your vision? Do your core values truly drive the course of your business and the overall goals you have for yourself and anyone who associates with you? Is the public aware of the unique and valuable experience they will have when they work with you or one of your team members? Just remember, no team member is attracted to a “secret indentity” and neither is the public.

Growth Factor #3: Hire “Right” From the Start
The “Top 5” Growth Traits of a Successful Real Estate Team
I once asked one of the most successful Team Leaders in the country what he would define as THE most important factor in a successful team. “Hire the right people”, he responded, without hesitation. Seemed simple enough, but as we all know, simple and easy are rarely the same thing. Asked for further insight, he shared how important it was to first clearly define what the traits of a successful Team Member literally looks, feels and acts liked based on your expectations and your type of team.

Let’s assume you’ve cleared the first hurdle by hiring Team Associates with common core values that line up with your vision and business model. Next, there are personality and learning behaviors to consider. Are you a “Thinker” or a “Feeler” when it comes to communicating, and even more importantly, when it comes to handling conflict? Are you “direct” or more “laid back” when interacting with both your Team Associates and your Clients and Customers? “Opposites attract” is rarely a recipe for success when creating a team. Yes it’s possible, and can even be beneficial to have a variety of personalities on a team, but only if the Leader understands personality and behavorial differences and knows how to manage them.

In addition, what kind of Team Associate is best for your particular business model? Perhaps you’re looking for Team Associates who will basically show the property, allowing you as the Team Manager to “close” the sale. That Team Associate’s strengths may differ from those in a different business model where all Associates are expected to take responsibility for the transaction from start to finish. Another type may hire for specific responsibilities, for example, a Listing Specialist who will concentrate all of his or her efforts on the listing side of the transaction only. Whatever your desires, knowng DISC personality profiles and understanding adult based learning types can save a Team Manager loads of frustration by initially hiring the right person for the right seat on the bus.

Growth Factor #4: Develop an “Eye” Team vs an “I” Team
The “Top 5” Growth Traits of a Successful Real Estate Team
Ask yourself this question “What is my motivation for developing a team?” If you’ve use the pronoun “I” more than 5 times in the first 60 seconds, save yourself some frustration and forget about the prospects of creating one. A team can be your ticket to a more balanced life, more quality time with the family, and ultimately more income with less labor on your part. But, you can’t get there without first understanding the importance of “We”.

If you have clearly defined who you are and what you stand for, and have hired team members that are excited to be a part of what you’ve created, your on your way to creating an “Eye” Team. Focused on common well defined goals and inspired by the same core values, an “Eye” team possesses the “All for One and One for All” mentality. Each team member recognizes and respects the role of the Team Leader, while the Leader makes decisions and policies that are motivated by what benefits the whole. This is a winning formula for trust and respect between a team’s management and labor force, so to speak, and the firm foundation of any “Eye” Team. Ultimately, this kind of environment leads to a sense of “ownership” on everyone’s part

Growth Factor #5: Bring Meat to the Table
The “Top 5” Growth Traits of a Successful Real Estate Team
Many agents believe that growing a team in the midst of today’s market conditions is for the foolhardy. The opposite is true! The challenges of today’s marketplace are actually causing highly trained, experienced agents to consider team opportunities who may never have done so when their business and income was more predictable. If you’re thinking like a business owner and entrepreneur, you know that the best of opportunities often present themselves in the toughest of conditions. By nature, most individuals will play it safe in challenging times. But consider the words of one of the most successful businessmen in the world, Warren Buffet, who defined his investment philosophy as “being fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.” For a Team Leader, some of the best deals in this market may come in the form of high quality, well trained producers who are fearful of riding through this economic storm alone.

Keep in mind, though, these Agents are not only looking for confidence and leadership, but business! The consistency of the business they have enjoyed, especially over the last 5 years, has thinned out as a percentage of that Agent’s past clients delay their plans in real estate, in addition to their usual referrals of friends and family members who may have also put their real estate dreams on hold until the market his “bottom”.

A saavy Team Manager who is targeting a variety of business sources, including opportunities unique to the current market such as foreclosures and short sale business, is positioned to “feed the masses”, which is what business planning for a team is all about. Developing a team business plan is a specialized and necessary process that should address exactly what sources you will target, the amount of business you can expect from each source, what portion of that business will be shared with each Team Associate, and a master budget that ensures the income goals of ALL team members can be met.

Conclusion
Creating an environment of interdependence among a team of independent salespeople sounds like an impossible feat. If you have already made an effort at growing a team without applying the traits and principles discussed, I’m sure you feel like it is one! Hiring Agents to share the workload does not make a team. A team is really a microcosm of a real estate office, requiring an intentional daily focus on systems, relationships and quality leadership in order to become healthy and productive. If these are lacking, you may as well install a revolving door at the entrance of your office or allot plenty of time for renegotiating splits with your Team Associates in order to keep them. If you’re willing to put that same time into understanding these Top 5 Growth Traits of a Successful Team, new levels of success and profitability can be just a few new team members away!

For More information or to book Pam Ermen at your next event,
call 1-877-211-6472 Ext 1 or visit www.BrokerAgentSpeakers.com

Today everyone seems to beam about their ability to multi-task. With the revolution of technology and communication going from simultaneous exchange (phones) to non-simultaneous exchange (texting) we continue to handle multiple activities in what appears to be one increment of time.

But is it a good thing or a bad thing?   A recent study from the American Psychological Association released in August suggests that not only do we get less done by multi-tasking, but it can be hazardous to our productivity!

Even though we think we are “multi-tasking” according to reports by Vanderbilt University, we are still only able to process one activity at a time, but since we can do it fairly quickly, we have the illusion that we are in fact doing it concurrently.

Our “executive control center” is our decision making center which takes significant amounts of time, and according to the report, several tenths of a second, which adds up when people switch back and forth repeatedly between tasks. Where multi-tasking may seem more efficient, it may actually take more time at the end.  In this report, Dr. David Meyer pointed out that a mere half second of time lost to task switching can result in life or death of a driver operating a car using a cell phone.

Another survey done for small businesses revealed that 56% of the responders indicated that they often handle three or more tasks at a time, and reported that one in four business owners stated that multi-tasking does, in some ways, hinder their working ability.  The results from obsessive multi-tasking shows decreased quality of work, taking actually longer to complete a simple task and eventual burn out.

So what can we do? Many of us will continue to perform master multi-tasking activities, and sometimes that can be done appropriately.

But here’s an interesting fact: Did you know that by cutting back only 20% of your day on multi-tasking you have the potential to free up about 237 hours or almost 6 weeks a year of time?  Chris Crouch, President of DME Training & Consulting and developer of the GO System Training course is a productivity expert and coach.

In his program, he asks his students to perform a simple exercise that takes less than 30 seconds for most people to complete, but found the multi-taskers on the first exercise took 61 seconds! 

The bottom line is that multi-tasking is really an illusion.  Science Daily claims we can improve our multi-tasking timing, but in reality, we still can only process one rule or command at a time…maybe faster or slower…but our brains still process one at a time.

 The bottom line:  Be aware that you multi-tasking is okay in moderation, but know you might not be getting as much done in less time as you thought. But by adding a few small changes can help you get more done and free up real time. Crouch suggests that we perform “deliberate” practice of focus and block out 96 minutes per day.  To achieve and maintain this focused state of mind he suggests we use a behavioral ritual or an anchor to help us stay focused on completing a task.  He tells us to practice blocking out 96 minutes every day for deliberate practice (20% of your workday) to stay totally focused on a high priority, high impact task and watch your productivity increase.

It’s all about mindful productive tasking versus unproductive multi-tasking driven by habitual behavior. You don’t have to give up multitasking…just give it up for 20% a day, and be aware of the fact that when you do, it may be costing you!

Practice your “right now” technique and become a master at mindful multitasking…and then figure out what you want to do with all that extra time!

If you are managing anyone (even your spouse or kids), you’ll love what you get when you use the very best motivator in the world. Doesn’t matter if we’re selling, managing, or training, we need the skill of motivation.  I know what you’re going to say. You can’t motivate anyone; they have to motivate themselves. But, each of us has the ability to provide an atmosphere where motivation can occur most easily. And, in this challenging market, using the skill of motivation is really, really important for all of us to master. 

 I don’t mean the kind of appreciation that’s just shown in big production and with trophies. After all, not everyone likes being in front of thousands! I mean the kind of appreciation that can be shown in a myriad of ways, from a greeting card to an email to a voice mail to………..

You’ll find, too, that appreciation usually doesn’t cost much. In fact, buying 15-20 greeting cards and keeping them ready is easy. You’ll see your agents keep those cards on their desks for years!

 Here’s a resource, too, that I use for motivational and thank you cards: Baudville. They are classy cards and have inspirational messages.

 Did Anyone Ever Tell You They Got Too Much Appreciation?

 You probably chuckled at that! I’ve never heard anyone criticize the fact someone said something nice about them or gave them a card of appreciation! Usually, we go around feeling unappreciated. Not because we really haven’t done anything noteworthy, but because no one noticed!

 Test your Appreciation Quotient

Take a minute and write down all the ways you appreciate those working with you. Now, count the number of times you applied those appreciations in the past week. Then, double it. You’ll see your production soar.

 Turnabout is Fair Play

 Management can be lonely. Here’s the good news. You’ll find when you appreciate people, they will start appreciating you.

 For much more on motivation and how to use it as a manager and how to motivate yourself, see the On Track to Success in 30 Days System for the Experienced Agent.

 Now you know. The hands down, flat out, very best motivator in the world is appreciation. Put this motivational principle to work and count your profits.

 Carla Cross, CRB, MA, is an expert in real estate management. She helps those managing people to get the very best performance from people through applying management principles and systems she created as a two-decade award winning manager, writer, and national speaker. Cross is a National Realtor Educator of the Year, and was just named one of the 50 most influential women in real estate. 

We live in a high-tech world. Almost every buyer goes online before ever contacting an agent. They look at homes and have access to a tremendous amount of information about the neighborhoods and values of those homes, but the experience home buyers have when searching for homes embarrasses me and it should embarrass you as well.

Did you know that most homes are eliminated from their search based on the visual experience the buyer has with that property? Allow me to explain. Less than 4% of all homes listed have virtual tours and most homes are shot by amateurs (yep, that means real estate agents using their own digital cameras), which provide poor (at best) examples of what the home is really like. Now, I don’t mean to offend the few of you that are actually competent photographers, but when I log into my local MLS with my buyers and they ask to see the virtual tours, more often than not there is no tour of the property and the photos are very bad. Why?

There are only two reasons I can think of that make any sense to me. First, we don’t really understand what buyers want, so we give them what we prefer instead; and two, Realtors are too cheap to spend a little money on professional photography. (Or maybe in this tough economy, they just feel that they don’t have the money to properly market their listings.) Either way we are failing.

Go to any web site like www.Nike.com or www.BMW.com or www.Apple.com; each of these sites is visited by millions of people each month who are then treated to an interactive online shopping experience. Even more importantly, they get a “customized” experience that allows them to design their car, their shoes or even their cell phones. These companies spend millions of dollars understanding buyer behavior and then they deliver—and in many cases exceed—their buyers’ expectations.

As a real estate professional, if you want to start meeting—and exceeding—your buyers’ expectations, then it’s time to put your $199 digital camera away and let the professionals handle your photography. It does not matter if the home is a short sale, a crack house or is listed for $89,900—if you show it offline, you should stage and show it online. Period.

One of my favorite technology companies is Obeo (www.Obeo.com). This company has done the research and developed the tools to really deliver what agents want…and need. With every tour package they include still photos, panoramas, neighborhood information and demographics, social networking integration (automatic posting to your Facebook and LinkedIn accounts), YouTube video creation and posting, and a lot more.

But wait, there’s more! When I first saw their optional service called the StyleDesigner, I knew they were onto something special. The StyleDesigner allows the potential buyer to change the color of the paint on the walls, or change the counter tops, floor coverings and cabinets. When I watch buyers interact with this technology they are blown away AND they can actually start to visualize what it would be like to live in that home and make it their own! This is the experience they are used to in so many other industries. Why has it taken so long for us to get there? Now that we are there, why are so many agents pinching pennies and not giving these buyers what they want? My guess is most agents don’t know these tools exist, or they simply think that what they provide is adequate. In this competitive world, I don’t believe adequate is enough, we have to be exceptional!

Let’s take it our online marketing up a notch and start giving buyers what they really want!

Verl Workman

Speaker, Trainer, Coach

www.verlworkman.com

http://www.facebook.com/VerlWorkman 

http://twitter.com/verlworkman

Really, this is the most valuable lesson; how to control your mental and emotional state.  One of my favorite books on motivation “You Can Heal You Life.” By Louise L. Hay reads, “The point of power is always in the present moment.  What we think about ourselves becomes the truth for us. Your thoughts create what you believe about yourself.  Change the thought.  Change your life.” 

One of the foundational teachings by Tony Robbins is a model called “The Triad” that describes the influence on our emotional responses.  Here’s the bottom line.

What we focus on we feel.  Focus on a horrible thought and a horrible emotion arises.  Focus on a fabulous thought and you feel fabulously.  Thousands of thoughts occur to us each day.  We discard most of them at an unconscious level.  We discard others at a conscious level.  And some take hold.  We focus on them and they create our life. 

In the last couple of years many people were fascinated by the book and movie, “The Secret” that strongly presented “The Power of Attraction.”  This is the power of putting things in your subconscious mind in ways that bring them into existence.  Control of your mental and emotional state adds the power of your conscious mind.  That is enormously powerful.

Many times, each of us notices a thought that we know we would be better off discarding instead of dwelling on.  But, out of habit or carelessness we allow the thought to take our focus.  I am reminded of arguments with loved ones.  A thought occurs that we could or should stop… and too often we continue.

Imagine catching those thoughts early and replacing them.  Imagine catching the thought that you know will deepen and lengthen the argument with the loved one and perhaps deepen the hurt feelings.  Imagine replacing it, just in your mind, with, “I love you” purposely ending the argument for the sake of the relationship  Imagine having that kind of control over you mental and emotional state. 

It is a pursuit that I have worked hard to master.  Of course I have not mastered it.  It is a lifetime pursuit of continuous improvement.  It is an ability that I have shared with my spouse, taught my children, and work to develop in my Clients (Real Estate Agents). 

Winning or losing, rich or poor, busy or idle, the ability to create a great empowered feeling out of nothing or to shift from a bad feeling to a good one, at will.  That ability is, without a doubt the most valuable lesson of life.

 Do you lead meetings? Do you want to do buyer or seller seminars? Do you present to two or two hundred? Managers, trainers, and even agents sometimes have to present in front of three to hundreds of people. Unfortunately, many who have to get in front of others have no training and dread the thought! It doesn’t have to be frightening, though. Take a look at the three ‘pro’ speaker tips below to make your next time in front of a few –or many—enjoyable, memorable, and equally enjoyable for your audience.

 Grasping Skills Makes us Competent—and Confident

 The very best part about performance is that anyone can get better at anything through learning skills and practice. I learned that as a pianist/flutist, and I’ve seen that over and over again—no matter what adults think! (I taught adults piano lessons so I know all the barriers that get in our way!). Just keep in mind the quote I read from the great UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden:

                      It’s what we learn after we know it all that counts.

 Those Three Powerful Speaker’s Tips

 1. Vary your delivery. Don’t lecture for more than 10 minutes. Adults just don’t have that long an attention span (too much on our minds!). Change it up. Use various “alternative delivery methods”–methods to teach other than lecture. In my Instructor Development course, I help students learn these teaching methods by modeling them so they can observe me teaching. Then, we de-brief on what we did. Finally, each student teaches a short module using creative methods, and the rest of the students provide feedback. (We really only learn when we do something). Doing greatly increases confidence–and competence.

 2. Anticipate adults’ fear barriers to change. When you want to change adults’ perceptions, beliefs, or knowledge, don’t just start talking to them. You may just cause them to shrink more into their beliefs, and to defend it (have you observed students who live to argue with the instructor?)

 How to tackle the ‘old belief’ challenge:

 Prepare students to learn something new. For example: Use a ‘true-false’ or ‘multiple choice’ to start the presentation, or to check learning. I do this in my IDW course in the middle, and ask students how they would have answered at the beginning of the course–and then contrast that with their new perceptions and learning. It creates lots of ‘ahas’ with them, and further cements their learning experience.

 3. YOU are the medium, not the visuals. Don’t just read from the PowerPoint on the screen (and, just as onerous, provide the student with the PowerPoint as the “outline”.) If an instructor does that, I feel I want to just take that outline and leave. I can read, thank you! Too many real estate instructors rely on PowerPoint to do the teaching.

 Your Right Brain Can Save the Day

 Effective teaching is much more than just talking. It should be creative. Use all the “attention strategies” at your disposal (that means to get them into your repertoire).

 Suggestions:

Use props, stories, various audio-visual aids, handouts to control the audience “contour”. I learned this as a musician playing for dancing. You direct how you want the audience to dance, and you ‘contour’ the whole experience (slower to faster, then back to slow). As a great instructor/ facilitator, you can direct your audience in an awesome learning experience. It just depends on the skills you bring to the table.

 Check Out These Resources To Help You Gain Skill and Confidence

 A very few people seem to be born with innate talent for getting front of people. However, for most of us, it’s a matter of gaining and practicing the necessary skills. Here are some methods to get skilled, and raise your confidence level dramatically:

 Join Toastmasters. It’s inexpensive, and will provide you skills and practice.

If you get serious about speaking, look into joining your local chapter and national organization for speaking professionals, National Speakers’ Association. As a long-time member of both my chapter and the national organization, I highly recommend it for both skill and marketing development.

 Finally, I’ve just completed a new resource for real estate presenters, trainers, and facilitators:  The Ultimate Real Estate Trainer’s Guide.  Watch for it at www.carlacross.com in early September. In it, I’ve provided all the tips, skills, processes, and sample outlines I’ve gleaned in my two decades as a real estate trainer.

 It’s Worth the Effort

 Most presenters/trainers aren’t in it for the big bucks (where are those big bucks, again?). They’re in it to assist others. Gaining and practicing presentation skills helps us give back better. The bonus: Deep appreciation from our audience. We’ve even been known to change lives for the better! No amount of money can provide that sense of accomplishment.

 Carla Cross, CRB, MA, is a National Realtor Educator of the Year, international speaker, and author of training and coaching programs for most of the international franchises. She was recognized as one of the 50 most influential women Realtors of 2008. See her blog, Management in a Minute for management and training tips. See her coaching and training resources at www.carlacross.com.

 I love the tag line I see when I log into my Facebook account. It says simply this “Facebook, a place for friends.”

What an excellent marketing phrase! I have been watching agents, brokers, companies, sales people, housewives, children and aliens (oops! I mean teenagers) log on and use Facebook.

As a technology coach, my team specializes in identifying technology, testing it to make sure it really works and most importantly testing it to make sure it is a true profit center for our agent and broker clients. To be honest, in the beginning I struggled with understanding the point of sites like Facebook and in quiet moments have caught myself asking whether there is any real value to this whole social networking thing. I can now state unequivocally, that without any doubt, social networking has become a critical part of today’s technology arsenal for real estate and is here to stay.

I have always taught that our most valuable asset is the relationships that we have. These relationships are only valuable if we stay in touch with the people we know and especially the ones we have done business with in the past. Many agents keep a database so they can send their annual Christmas card or calendar in January, but then leave their database alone and hope the clients will call and ‘turn themselves in’ when they’re ready to do business. While I admire the effort, an occasional letter or holiday greeting does not keep you at the front of mind of your relationship and has proven to not be effective in the long run. So, what other options do we have that will allow us to reach out and touch our entire database, that are also are permission-based and not offensive? The answer is social networking, especially Facebook. Here is what I know about Facebook:

¡  150 million members

¡  80 Billion page views per month (yes, that’s a B…for Billion!)

¡  In 170 countries and territories

¡  Available in 35 different languages

¡  More than 1 in 5 people who access the Internet log into Facebook

¡  If Facebook were a country, it would be the 8^th most populated in the world!

¡  Average age of the Facebook user is 27 (but the trend is getting older)

I have come to realize that Facebook is not an evil time-waster for college students or something scary or irrelevant for Realtors. It is a tool that connects people with those around them. Guess what? Your clients, friends, sphere of influence and business associates are there.

If you choose to use Facebook, make sure you have specific goals in mind as to why you are there. Here are some guidelines:

1.       Get found by people who are searching for homes or real estate

2.       Connect and communicate with current and potential clients

3.       Create a community around your business

4.       Promote your business and content that keeps you at front-of-mind with your relationships, including webinars, blog articles and other valuable information

Bottom line is this: You have a sphere; Facebook allows you to make it a true sphere of influence.

Have fun with this new method of marketing called social media, embrace the technology, but do it with a focus on business and you will find thousands of dollars waiting for you there.

Social networking is no longer a mystery; it is a profit center if you work it right.

Join me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/verlworkman 

I look forward to keeping in touch with you.

Verl Workman

Speaker Trainer Coach

www.CoachVerl.com

www.PQPipeline.com

One of the things about being with BASB is that the Bureau has carefully screened all of their speakers. The quality is definitely there. But what about the bloggers, the panel members who sound great, or the IT folks who have in depth knowledge? Having mastery in a content area is great–it has no relationship, however, to how well the person can convey that knowledge in front of a group.

Today, anyone can proclaim that they are an expert. This seems to be particularly true in the areas of social media and distressed properties. Just because someone has a certification or is blogging or writing about a topic, doesn’t mean that they can deliver that material in front of the room. The question is how to distinguish those who have both the content AND the platform skills that will provide the best value to your audience.

With money being tight right now, it’s tempting to go for the low cost alternatives–the question is, what is the value to your audience? If you cut corners and go for a second tier speaker who has the knowledge but can’t hold the room, everyone loses. The audience is deprived of the skills that could have helped to build their businesses. Realtors vote with their feet and when they don’t like something, they leave (and often don’t come back next year!) Furthermore, with the advent of social media, feedback about the quality of the session is instantaneous. There’s nothing that can kill your future attendance more quickly than having negative posts all over the social media about how lousy a session was.

To keep this from happening to you, ask for references. If the speaker or trainer doesn’t have a video tape, request that they make one. Search the speaker’s name on Google as well as on the major social networking sites such as Twitter. See what the speaker’s reputation is online.

Even more importantly, ask their references about how easy the speaker was to work with–the big ego off stage translates into big ego onstage. The bottom line is that if someone doesn’t express gratitude for the opportunity to speak before your audience, then they’re missing the most important point of all–speakers and trainers are there to be of service–not the other way around.

Posted by Bernice Ross, author of the #1 Best Selling book at NAR 2008–Real Estate Dough Your Recipe for Real Estate Success

Randy Eagar, CRS

I was at a funeral today of my wife’s aunt. No, it’s okay, she was 97 years old and died peacefully in her sleep. Without going into the obituary there was one thing that stuck out to me that I hear quite often. “She had a passion for what she did and looked forward to getting up every morning to do it again”.

It makes you think. Are you doing something for which you have a passion? Most agents will say “yes, unless the market is bad”. That’s not a good answer. The answer should be “absolutely, yes”. You see if you have a passion for selling real estate or whatever it is you do, you’ll find a way to make money at it. But know this. Making money is NOT the objective. Why do you want to make money? Most would say to buy the things to enjoy life. Nope. It’s just to enjoy life.

As incredible as it seems, there are many people who love selling real estate so much, get so much of a thrill out of helping others, that they’d do it without being paid. The strange thing is that if you have a real passion for what you do, it will show and you will have to beat away the business.

So if you’re waiting for the market to pick up to enjoy what you’re doing, get out of the business right now and do what you’ve always wanted to do. You’re probably not making that much right now, so now is the best time to switch over.

When you die, will they enumerate how much real estate you sold, or will they say that you were one of the lucky few who had a passion for what you did? I hope it’s the later, because life is too precious not to enjoy the ride . . . not the destination.