The Ratchet of Awesomeness

“There isn’t a high I haven’t fallen from or a low I haven’t crawled out of in my entire life.” I lead with this quote for those that aren’t patient enough to read this entire blog, that sums it up. I look back at my life…my entire life and remember all of the highs that have left me feeling untouchable, king of the world and all of the lows that were so low you don’t know how you will press on. Being aware of those moments has lead me to this stage of Zen….

I share this with you in hopes it helps you level the peaks and valley’s into a strong trend line when needed. It is as simple as taking every moment of your life that leaves you feeling devastated and zooming out, looking at all of the other times in your life you felt the same way, and reassuring yourself that as you look back at all your lows, they were followed by highs. This is a survival skill for me because of my line of work both as a Realtor and in my past as a manager I don’t just have to deal with my feelings, I have to absorb or deflect the feelings of my agents and clients amplifying my highs and lows.

You see, the trouble with a feeling is that when it varies from the bell curve, they feel like they don’t end…the low is all you see if you don’t consciously zoom out. The highs feel like you have “arrived” when really you are just visiting. So what should you walk away with when you are done reading this?

I am coining my strategy as, “The Zen Ratchet of Awesomeness”. Think of your relationships…they have lows…but wasn’t there always a high some point after the low? Your career has lows…and wasn’t a high around the corner? This is a pattern, but when in the moment it is all we see. 4 Steps to Ratcheting up your life!

1. When you are feeling low, zoom out and examine the last time you felt that way…this time is just like that time (trust me) and the high is coming (it always has before right?).

2. When you are feeling high…EMBRACE it, capitalize on it..push it as far as it can go like a professional athlete..push and do NOT take your self out of the game at this point.

3. Ratchet…using this stratgey doesn’t eliminate highs and lows, it simply makes the lows feel less low or at the very least finite. Then it makes the highs feel higher, longer.

4. Now instead of riding the roller coaster, you can watch a trend line of a gentle climb in the pursuit of sustainable happiness and growth.

Disclaimer…this works for me, it may not for you. My experience validates my theory…you can look at feelings like Christopher Columbus setting out to find the new world not knowing how long it would take or if it ever would happen or you can look at them like a power failure…the lights have gone out many times in my life…they always come back on.

Rock on my friends and thanks for visiting “In My Head”.

Stop Thinking, Start Processing!

Stop thinking, start processing. I often wonder if the giant leap forward in technology will come when machines can think for themselves. Has anyone considered that at that very moment, the efficiency of machines will completely deteriorate? Instead of completing tasks in a row without hesitation, the pc wonders…Where did I come from? Why am I here? Even worse, what if they didn’t feel like turning on because Mercury was in retrograde?

I was thinking of my associates and I tonight, and I wanted to take out the endless thinking that comes with lead generation. What if it was as easy as executing timed tasks?

TOPIC NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT:

Who Gets It?

How Do They Get It?

What is the URGENCY/PAIN of NON-Action?

How Will You Relieve The Pain?

This WILL BE DELIVERED by 8/5/2013 12:30pm in x format.

On A Scale of 1-10 with 10 being right on, how in line with my business plan was this method?

What did I learn?

The question is, if you had one of these created for EVERYTHING in lead generation. Wouldn’t you just have to grab a few sheets every morning, and execute?

It’s simple systems like this that push me forward, unlock the next level and help me. We need to stop marinating in thought and indecision and START measuring our days by OUTPUT and SHIPPING. One of the hardest things about owning a business balancing perfection and action…I hope this tool helps you find that balance.

by Brett Boettge

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The Great Home Rebate

What were you doing in 10th Grade? The last thing on my mind was purchasing a home and my retirement. I was much more interested in rebellion, snowmobiling, boating, did I mention rebellion. Amidst all of the curriculum approved by the State of Wisconsin, the “What is the Magna Carta? What was Sherman’s March? What is the boiling point of alcohol? was a lesson in Math on Cumulative Interest. Looking back, I wish there was a gold star next to the lesson’s that can reshape generations, your grandkid’s, kids lives. Maybe even have  a special area in the High School referred to as the “HIGHLY APPLICABLE WING”. We can’t look backwards though can we…as I was moving from one Honor’s Study Hall to the next sticking pencils in the ceiling praying for it to be over, I missed it. The lesson of all lessons. Cumulative/Compound Interest.

Here I am 14 years later and actually had to Google what year that lesson was covered because it was SO long ago. Now nearly a decade into the real estate business and working to blend a great life while creating a great legacy, I stumbled across the lesson again. Where? Well, believe it or not, in church. My wife invited me to something called Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey and WOW what an eye opener especially for my industry. After the 8th lesson at FPU, I was reviewing some real estate statistics and what I found put me back in my chair. The following is the scenario I cooked up:

A 200k  Loan at 3.4% is truly after 30 years going to cost you: $319,306.49

Now let’s say interest rates will rise to 4.4% by years end the difference in monthly payment is: $114.56 (Savings if you BUY NOW)

Now let’s say you buy the home today instead of years end, even assuming no appreciation of the home, you save that $114.56, but instead of spending that on Twizzlers, Movies and Over-sized Popcorn, you invest it.

You open an IRA and invest in Growth Stock Mutual Funds earning a steady 11%, you start out with a $1,000 deposit and then deposit the $114.56 into the IRA monthly….after 30 years you have an IRA worth: $347,993.88

So let me sum this up for you…the money you save if you bought today vs. waiting for interest rates to rise to 4.4% could essentially earn you a rebate in the entire Principal and Interest on your home after 30 years. This is a game changer…had a REALTOR paired with a Financial Planner explained this to me at a basic enough level that I could understand it at 20 years old I would have learned this lesson in APY instead of the lesson I learned in APR from Credit Card Companies. I bought my first home when I was 20…assuming the same scenario, my IRA would have $38,000 in it, I would be 18 years from owning it free & clear and having 100% of my P & I coming back to me through compound interest.

Am I the only one that didn’t look at this? I feel like the last one to the party on this one. What do you think? Are you floored or bored? Shoot some comments my way!

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,600 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 27 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Stimulus to Response!

Good Day-

Have you ever been in a situation where someone says something and your jaw hits the floor. What they said was so utterly appalling that it makes you uncomfortable and changes your opinion of who they are at their core. It’s that gap between an external stimulus and your response to it…how long is it? What do you accomplish during that gap? It is this gap that the battle of tact is won or lost. What impact does this have on your business? For those that think they have a short fuse and no filter, I get that and yet it’s no excuse. I have a short fuse and it takes SO much energy to effectively manage or extend the stimulus to response and yet I do it because the outcome, the trust, the respect and the ability to gain agreement is so absolutely powerful it’s worth the energy. Think about this…let me know your thoughts.

On the goal front, appointments were strong at 2 and we’ll have 1 tomorrow and four Friday. Contacts 18 meaning I still need an extra five in the next couple days, likely Friday since tomorrow is RED Day.

Thanks for tuning in!

bb

Tuesday – Might As Well of Been a Friday

Freedom, Flexibility and Wealth! That is why we seek out real estate isn’t it! In third grade we weren’t telling our parents about our aspirations to negotiate with Bank of America for six months at a time, take Tommy Tirekicker to 69 homes in 4 county’s when gas is $4.00/gallon or spend countless hours convincing a seller that what they “need” to pay off their credit cards and have enough to move up is irrelevant to what their home is actually going to sell for….yeah definitely not common examples given in the “when I grow up” conversation. Freedom, flexibility and wealth..those are the reasons. So today I exercised some freedom. I only made 6 contacts today, have 3 appointments before 2:00pm and then went disc golfing I enjoyed it and it was guilt free. I was off the course by 4pm and back to the office (sneaking in the back door) to sign checks and off to pick up my daughters. It was a beautiful day, the first of the year and I rearranged my entire week to make today work, YES I time block according to the 7 day forecast. So am I a slacker? Have I forgot my goals? What happened to my ambition? Here is the deal, I still need 60 contacts and 10 appointments this week. My life is results oriented, NOT time bound and tomorrow my day is structured so that I can make 25 contacts. If I became so effective and disciplined in my job that I hit my goals in 1 week every month, I would work 12 weeks a year and do you think the owner and investors in the firm would have a problem with that? As long as my goals aligned with theirs, my role as is anyone in sales is tied to a result, your goal and has nothing to do with time. In the words of Gary Keller, “If you take more than 40 or 50 hours to do your job, you are cheating.” My interpretation of what he means is that you are using time to make up for your lack of skill and efficiency. They say first that if you don’t have a plan, you become part of someones and then if you erase, you must replace referring to different timeblocks/appointments in your day. I love this concept and I am grateful to be in a position that understands results are not tied to time…thanks kw.

bb

A vision in RED!

Today was a growth day, hard lesson’s learned that will change the way I work forever….and at the same time you know this lesson will be learned again in the future. The power of a clear vision….it’s one thing for you to know it, a  completely different story is sharing that vision with those around you. I’m not talking about just a few bullet points on a poster up in the tech room, I  mean an impassioned, sweaty, taste it, smell it, feel the excitement and the chill up the back of your neck kind of experience someone feels when a vision is so compelling, it is lived. A vision so profound it taps into emotion that defies logic, creates tears that stain your face for hours or a smile so authentic that you look around the room embarrassed or guilty that a single thought brought you so much happiness in a random moment. These moments happen every day through the entertainment industry, they spend hundreds of millions of dollars to create these moments. How do we create them every day for our family, our business, our future? How do we use the create an emotional response so powerful through our words that people don’t just acknowledge us, but enroll in our success? They say vision is all about describing what it looks like when a mission is accomplished, but describing anything these days is a lost art. We are 180 characters away from delivering a txt message, yet 180 miles away from delivering a vision that could change someones life or the course of history itself. I have to say I have been delivering messages and falling short on enrolling people in a vision. Tonight, as I race to complete this entry against the clock that is my laptop battery, I solemnly swear to take a moment and think about the long term impact of every short term task, choice or action you or I might make with the hopes of effectively painting a picture of what that will look like 5, 10 or 20 years down the road. Vision is influence.

Today’s goals were met:

Appointments
Contacts
Strategic Alliance

Today’s goals not met:

FITNESS 😦 Sorry Jody – It won’t happen again.

Sincerely,
Brett Boettge

Do your clients get it?

Do your clients get it?.

The Model and Me!

Good Evening Friends,

I told you you wouldn’t get a post today and I lied. I’m inspired and the keystrokes are going to come to me with ease and elegance this evening. I had a quick round trip drive of 9 hours to my Regional Leadership meeting over the last 24 hours and there is nothing, nothing in this world that will bring you more clarity than a 500 miles and a radio cranked to the level of troubled adolescent. A man and his thoughts….the drive up to Minneapolis we’ll call defragmenting where I literally pieced together my thoughts and experiences of the 1st quarter of 2011 compared to the vision I have for my life. Not a single aha or breakthrough in that process, as a matter of fact from the outside looking in…this was about as entertaining as watching your computer literally defragment for four hours.

I arrived in Minneapolis caffeinated and ready for bed at 2a.m. and then I blinked and the alarm went off, up and out of bed I flew and I just felt a little lighter. I had a quick breakfast, executed my first coaching call of the day and then headed to my meeting encouraged to see Wendy Harrelson LIVE, as I am used to the e-meetings these days. I believe my DeFrag set me up for an incredible learning experience, the morning was packed with aha’s, nothing I haven’t heard before I was just hearing it in a different way today, a way that had a clear path to implementation…I started to get excited in true Brett style and expressed it by laying back in my chair, crossing my arms and not smiling. Then Wendy took the floor and WOW, most would describe her as dynamic, phenomenal, a powerhouse, talented and she is undoubtedly all of those things but there was something more about this one….she was authentic. Wendy wasn’t channeling Gary Keller, impersonating Todd Butzer or quoting rhetoric from Zig Ziglar, Wendy spoke the truth, the gritty, in your face, “I’m sorry but it’s terminal” level of truth. I was dazzled, won over and more importantly refreshed. Let me tell you why….

As a brand new 25 year old TL (4 years ago), you are pretty programmable to be a warrior of productivity. The message, “people have succeeded before you and it would be wise to learn from their lessons and do what they did.” Some of the best advice in the world if you don’t take it too literally. Unfortunately I did. Through the intense training I participated in over the next 4 years  I saw all the greats, Brian Combs, Craig Owen, Eric Copper, The Great Eugenio and Shawn Rawls. These guys are all examples of supreme leadership and all I wanted to do was to be that successful for my agents, my family and my O.P. and four years later, this is what I found….Brian Combs is the best because he is Brian Combs, I am an o.k. Brian Combs. Shawn Rawls in probably one of the most successful leaders in our organization, he is GREAT at what he does, being Shawn Rawls, I am a mediocre Shawn Rawls at best. There is a model to follow, and after four years I get the model, I understand it backwards and forwards and I appreciate it. My next evolution is to trust myself and know that to be the very best, I have to be Brett Boettge. There is no seminar, no coaching, no book that will alter my approach, I will execute the model in my unique style…everything else will just enhance me. This is one of those life altering moments and I left this meeting with such a rush I didn’t even say goodbye to half my friends that were there, sorry guys. I experienced 240 miles of clarity and alignment…..it almost felt as though super powers were given to me and along with that weights were lifted off my shoulders.

So the road ahead….you know just as well as I do that this moment of inspiration is just that a moment of inspiration. I could wake up tomorrow and instead of enjoying my DeFragged brain, it may be a blue screen or twirling hour glass. That is why this blog exists…this blog is uniquely me, this blog is for me and if this long post nearing 1000 words is too much, I didn’t write this for you…so get over it. I am on a track and this track will lead me into the next chapter of my life…

Sincerely,

bb

Day Numero Uno

Accountability to the World, what a concept….I just have to say that I hit the majority of my goals for the day, and it was fun. What I missed was executed appts. I even squeezed in some pushups and lived on Carnation Instant breakfast. The growth plan for the day is a Wednesday coaching call. In today’s coaching call with Mike Bastian, we discussed my month end and the importance of being pro-active in ensuring we close what we project. Numbers, reports and knowing what to do with them is such an integral part of this business and certainly my role. With a “Shiny Thing” behavioral profile one might imagine that I never read a profit and loss, never read a report and don’t pay attention to the numbers…but my friends you would be wrong. I obsess over numbers, they are the language of business and they dictate my every move.

On purpose and on fire. Once you have clarity which this blog brings, focus, which this blog brings it reignites a passion and you move on purpose. I would suggest if there is something that you want to do….create a blog, invite the world to watch and get used to life in  a fishbowl. Thanks much.

I am headed to Minneapolis right now and will be out of the office all day tomorrow so you won’t get a blog tomorrow, but Friday night, look out I’ll have some great updates for you on my progress.

Think without limits, eliminate excuses and all you will have left are the results you seek.