Happy New Year: 2013!

Happy New Year: 2013! – by Dana Sparks

 

The new year represents many things to many people! What will you make of it? Is it a time to make a “fresh start” in certain areas of your life? A time to reflect on the blessings you enjoyed last year and those you wish to bestow this year? A time of non-stop football bowl games? A time to add a new dimension to your business? A renewed hope for a better future? A time to focus on the commitments you choose to make a priority this year? A time to make a difference? Or just the turning of the calendar!

Whatever meaning the New Year invokes for you, please know that at Maximum One, we wish you a year full of blessings, happiness, health, prosperity, harmony, gratitude, adventure, peace, ease and love!

Elf on a Shelf for Your Business

Elf on a Shelf for Your Business – by Dana Sparks

 

Have you ever wondered how Santa knows who is naughty & who is nice? The “Elf on a Shelf” helps Santa with his Christmas magic! Those of you with children certainly know about the Elf on the Shelf! You show your children this little guy & tell them that he is Santa’s helper to note who is nice & naughty. The children only notice that every day leading up to Christmas, their little elf-spy is in a new location in the house watching the kids & reporting back to Santa! If YOU had an “Elf on a Shelf” watching YOU work in and on your business, on which of Santa’s lists would YOU be!??!?!

Now is a great time of year to look at your business from a new perspective!  How would you rate your business if you were your “boss,” your “customer,” your “co-op agent,” your “co-worker?”  Rate yourself from 1-10 in the following categories from each of these perspectives and see how you score:

• Product Knowledge
• Customer Service
• Promptness for Appointments
• Promptness for Returning Calls & Emails
• Ability to Explain the Contract/Situation
• Ability to Adapt to Roadblocks
• Ability to Generate New Business
• Ability to Convert Opportunity (Leads) into Profit (Closings)
• Ability to Generate Referrals
• Knowledge of Different Types of Distressed Properties
• Knowledge of Your Own Productivity Numbers
• Ability to Present Your Services Clearly & in a Compelling Manner
• Memorability Factor
• Courtesy to Co-Op Agents & Staff
• Level of Technology

If Santa were making a list of where you rate on each of these categories, would you be on the “nice” list or “naughty” list?  Be your own “Elf on a Shelf” and improve your business!

List-Making Time

List-Making Time – by Dana Sparks

 

Now is the time of year when we make many many lists!  Lists of all kinds organize our lives right now.  Santa has a list of who is naughty & who is nice.  We make Hanukkah & Christmas gift lists for our loved ones!  We make grocery lists for Christmas dinner. We make lists of what gifts we want to receive. “And the list goes on and on!”  LOL LOL

Now is also the time of year to make your many lists for your real estate business to prepare to grow next year!  Using lists are a way to keep you focused on what is important in your business and personal life.  Lists can guide your behavior to get the success you want!

Consider making and analyzing the following lists for yourself so that you may have a prosperous year:

• What really makes you happy in life?
• What are you most confident about in yourself?  Your Business?
• What can you do to accomplish your goals in each area of business?  Life?
• Where did your Buyers come from in 2012?
• Where did your Sellers come from in 2012?
• What percentage of your business in 2012 came from Buyers/Sellers/Rentals?
• What part of your business is making you money (i.e. your website? postcard campaign? sphere of influence?)
• Where are you spending money on your business that is not producing any return on investment?
• How much time/money did you invest in your education?
• How many hours did you work?  Did you spend with your family & friends?
• What are your challenges & solutions for generating business?
• What are your challenges & solutions for after-the-sale servicing?
• How many prospects before you get a lead?
• How many leads before you get an appointment?
• How many appointments before you get a client?
• How many clients before you get a commission check?
• Etc.

Please see the Business Planning Workshop for more lists to make designed to prosper your business in 2013.

 

See You at the Top! Zig Ziglar 1926-2012

 See You at the Top! Zig Ziglar 1926-2012

Arguably the most influential motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar passed away last week at age 86. He was known for his seminars, which grew into large gatherings held in packed arenas.  Ziglar wrote more than two dozen books on salesmanship and motivation over five decades.  He spread his message of positive attitude, motivation and success through stories punctuated with short quotes that became legendary among his followers.

Each of Zig’s quotes speaks volumes as a “how to” be successful in your real estate sales business. Consider spending each day focused on one of Zig’s nuggets of advice… I guarantee the end of your day will be better than the beginning and you’ll end up helpng more people and making more sales as a result!:

• “Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street.”
• “Success is the maximum utilization of the ability that you have.”
• “Of course motivation is not permanent. But then, neither is bathing; but it is something you should do on a regular basis.”
• “Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.”
• “When obstacles arise, you change your direction to reach your goal; you do not change your decision to get there.”
• “Among the things you can give and still keep are your word, a smile, and a grateful heart.”
• “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great”
• “The chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what you want most for what you want right now”
• “A lot of people have gone further than they thought they could because someone else thought they could”
• “If you go out looking for friends, you’re going to find they are very scarce. If you go out to be a friend, you’ll find them everywhere.”
• “Make today worth remembering.”
• “You can have everything in life that you want if you just give enough other people what they want.”
• “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.”
• “You never know when a moment and a few sincere words can have an impact on a life.”
• “There are no traffic jams on the extra mile.”
• “You are what you are and you are where you are because of what has gone into your mind. You change what you are and you change where you are by changing what goes into your mind.”
• “Failure is an event not a person”
• “Some people find fault like there is a reward for it”
• “Outstanding people have one thing in common: an absolute sense of mission”
• “The more you are grateful for what you have the more you will have to be grateful for”
• “Attitude, not Aptitude, determines Altitude.”
• “The greatest of all mistakes is to do nothing because you think you can only do a little.”
• “Success is the doing, not the getting; in the trying, not the triumph. Success is a personal standard, reaching for the highest that is in us, becoming all that we can be. If we do our best, we are a success.”
• “Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes.”
• “Duty makes us do things well, but love makes us do them beautifully.”
• “You were born to win, but to be a winner you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.”
• “It was character that got us out of bed, commitment that moved us into action and discipline that enabled us to follow through.”
• “You cannot consistently perform in a manner which is inconsistent with the way you see yourself.”
• “Some of us learn from other people’s mistakes and the rest of us have to be other people.”
• “A narrow mind and a fat head invariably come on the same person.”
• “The most important persuasion tool you have in your entire arsenal is integrity.”
• “Make failure your teacher, not your undertaker.”
• “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”
• “Ability can take you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there”
• “Don’t become a wandering generality. Be a meaningful specific.”
• “If God would have wanted us to live in a permissive society He would have given us Ten Suggestions and not Ten Commandments.”
• “Failing is an event, not a person. Yesterday ended last night.”
• “When you put faith, hope and love together, you can raise positive kids in a negative world.”
• “It’s not how far you fall, but how high you bounce that counts.”
• “Optimists are those who go after Moby dick in a row boat with a bucket of tarter sauce.”
• “Confidence is going after Moby Dick in a rowboat and taking the tartar sauce with you.”
• “If you learn from defeat, you haven’t really lost.”
• “Motivation is the fuel, necessary to keep the human engine running.”
• “Motivation gets you going and habit gets you there.”
• “If you can dream it, then you can achieve it. You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want. “
• “When you are tough on yourself, life is going to be infinitely easier on you”
• “Everybody says they want to be free. Take the train off the tracks and it’s free-but it can’t go anywhere.”
• “A goal properly set is halfway reached.”
• “If standard of living is your major objective, quality of life almost never improves, but if quality of life is your number one objective, your standard of living almost always improves.”
• “The fact is that you can’t hit a target that you can’t see.”
• “If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else. You have to have goals.”
• Ask yourself a question: Is my attitude worth catching?”
• “Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street.”
• “You can succeed at almost anything for which you have unbridled enthusiasm.”
• “Chance made us sisters. Hearts made us friends.”
• “Money is not everything but it ranks right up there with oxygen”
• “Take one cup of love, two cups of loyalty, three cups of forgiveness, four quarts of faith and one barrel of laughter. Take love and loyalty and mix them thoroughly with faith; blend with tenderness, kindness and understanding. Add friendship and hope. Sprinkle abundantly with laughter. Bake it with sunshine. Wrap it regularly with lots of hugs. Serve generous helpings daily.”
• “Don’t be distracted by criticism. Remember ~ the only taste of success some people have is when they take a bite out of you.”
• “Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly–until you can learn to do it well.”
• “Put all excuses aside and remember this: YOU are capable.”
• “Go as far as you can see and you will see further.”
• “It makes no difference where you go, there you are. And it makes no difference what you have, there’s always more to want. Until you are happy with who you are, you will never be happy because of what you have.”
• “You can feed your ego or you can feed your family. You can’t feed them both.”
• “You don’t drown by falling in water; you only drown if you stay there.”
• “It’s not what you’ve got, it’s what you use that makes a difference.”
• “It is not your aptitude but your ATTITUDE that decides your altitude in life.”
• “Success occurs when opportunity meets preparation”
• “Encouragement is the fuel on which hope runs.”
• “You hit what you aim at, and if you aim at nothing you will hit it every time.”
• “Most people who fail in their dream fail not from lack of ability but from lack of commitment.”
• “It’s not where you start or even what happens to you along the way that’s important. What is important is that you persevere and never give up on yourself.”
• “People do not wander around and then find themselves at the top of Mount Everest.”
• “If you treat your wife like a thoroughbred, you’ll never end up with a nag.”
• “Life is a classroom — only those who are willing to be lifelong learners will move to the head of the class.”
• “Be helpful. When you see a person without a smile, give him one of yours. ~”
• “Every choice you make has an end result.”
• “I believe that being successful means having a balance of success stories across the many areas of your life. You can’t be a success in business if your home life is in shambles.”
• “People don’t buy for logical reasons, they buy for emotional reasons.”
• “Do it and then you will feel motivated to do it.”
• “Success means doing the best we can with what we have. Success is the doing, not the getting; in the trying, not the triumph. Success is a personal standard, reaching for the highest that is in us, becoming all that we can be.”
• “Every success is built on the ability to do better than good enough.”
• “You cannot tailor make the situations in life, but you can tailor make the attitudes to fit those situations before they arise.”
• “Life is too short to spend your precious time trying to convince a person who wants to live in gloom and doom otherwise. Give lifting that person your best shot, but don’t hang around long enough for his or her bad attitude to pull you down. Instead, surround yourself with optimistic people.”
• “Action often precedes the feeling.”
• “You do not pay the price of success, you enjoy the price of success.”
• “Success is the maximum utilization of the ability that you have.”
• “For every sale you miss because you’re too enthusiastic, you will miss a hundred because you’re not enthusiastic enough.”
• “Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.”
• “If you want to reach a goal, you must see the reaching in your own mind before you actually arrive at your goal.”
• “Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust.”
• “Just remember, when you should grab something, grab it; when you should let go, let go.”
• “The foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love and loyalty.”
• “You cannot climb the ladder of success dressed in the costume of failure.”
• “Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business.”
• “You are the only person on earth who can use your ability.”
• “Success is in the details.”
• “Success is not a destination, it’s a journey.”