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.

Tightening the Screws

Has there ever been a time where you felt like you were king of the world? I have, and I can tell you that you don’t learn a thing when you feel that way. It was last week Wednesday (April 2011) that I was de-throned by a self assessment, not on how I rank compared to my competition, but how I rank based on my potential. My expectations for myself are extraordinarily high as are the expectations I have for those I choose to surround myself with. The challenge is good truly is the enemy of great and it is so easy to fall back on a performance review when compared to your peers, not the mirror. So, let’s wrap this up and put it to bed, I’m tightening the screws in my life again so that I can leap through my current achievement ceiling, and just like before (the day I founded this blog) I am going to ask for your help.

Come here daily and ensure that I have posted a “status update” about these areas of my life.

• Fitness – I need to Get in Shape
• Appointments – 2 Per Work Day
• Growth – A Book Report or Nugget Daily
• Contacts – 15 a Day
• Strategic Alliances – 1/wk.

This starts tomorrow morning May 4th and runs through June 30th to reinforce some old habits and recreate new ones.

I have some big goals between now and November 1st 2011, it is going to take a commitment to some key tasks in order to achieve this growth. The only way for me to live the life I want to lead and ensure my family and I can achieve our “Why” is to enroll myself in this level of accountability.  There will be challenges, road blocks and a great deal of pressure and I LOVE it. What I am most looking forward to is the personal growth in this process and the ability to look at my daughters and lovely fiance and say with integrity, “I’m doing what it takes every day to achieve our dreams.”

I can’t do this without your help, so please, please, please check in often and comment without hesitation through the good and the bad.

Yours in Accountability,

Brett Boettge