by Dave Sheffield
…We interrupt this song to bring you this in flight emergency…
This message may be shorter than those I usually write for various business publications; similar to a recent flight I was aboard a couple of weeks ago; but with three important observations to help assist you.
Sometimes it pays to be very observant, and other times it pays to have your head in the sand, not exactly know what’s going on around you. I know that last statement may sound just a bit strange, but let me share with you a very recent experience I had while returning from a string of speaking dates on the West Coast of the United States. I was flying from Phoenix, Arizona to my home airport in Illinois. Once we hit our cruising altitude, I quickly fired up my laptop and plugged in my iPod with noise canceling headphones (these things are a Godsend for anyone who has trouble focusing on one thing at a time).
The hard rocking sounds of the Canadian band Nickelback flooded my ears as I began working on content and ideas for my latest book. The flight was scheduled to last 2.5 hours, providing me with plenty of time to tap into my creative juices and knock out some inspiration at the keyboard. After about 90-minutes of work, I notice the plane starting to descend. The thought that initially crossed my mind was “Wow! This pilot must really be kicking some serious butt! We will be getting into town much quicker than scheduled!”
I shut everything down and prepared for the early arrival home. Then I looked out the window and saw mountains. There are not mountains within 800 miles of Illinois, and for a brief moment, I thought that I was going to be the subject of one of those stories where someone gets onto the wrong plane and winds up in the wrong city.
While visiting with a couple of my fellow passengers, I discovered that the special device that keeps the plane level and holds the plane’s attitude decided to break. We were headed back to Phoenix, and I was informed that everyone spent the previous 45 minutes or so freaking out. Except me, because I was lost in my head-banging Nickelback trance, and typing away thanks to my noise canceling headphones. Since I wasn’t going to fly the plane, I sat back calmly and realized there was really nothing I could do about the situation, except be patient and let the captain do his best to get us safely on the ground.
Here are three key lessons that anyone who is in the real estate business can take away from this experience:
#1. Shut out “Life Noise”. Have you ever listened to the cockpit chatter on your headphones? Sometimes airlines will broadcast it on one of the audio channels so you can hear the pilots talking to the air traffic control towers. It is pretty interesting…for about 20 seconds.
While hearing the pilots are talking about changing altitude, speed, and updating various conditions necessary for a smooth flight is somewhat interesting; it is not productive at all for me to listen to. (As if they would tell ATC, “Hang on while I check with the guy sitting at 3B to see if he thinks we should avoid this storm ahead!”) The same kind of chatter may be happening in your office at the water cooler, your email inbox, in the media, or on the phone.
I will frequently shut off all distractions when I have a publishing deadline or when I’m working on a new program. Marketing legend Dan Kennedy refers to distractions as “Time Vampires”. They will suck a few minutes here and there from your productive day. Before you know it, you feel like you have run a marathon and finished dead last.
When something comes to my attention, I simply do my best to determine whether it needs my immediate attention or if it can wait. For example, a medical emergency is both urgent and important and would necessitate immediate reaction. A signature that is missing on a closing document that is supposed to occur in 20 minutes would be in the same category. Filling out an expense report may be important, but not urgent and would fall into the “needs to get done, but not now” column. A very brilliant person once told me “Every yes will cost you something. If you are going to coach baseball, you will not be able to go out with the guys. If you are going to work late, you will miss family dinner time, etc. Feel free to give yourself the gift of saying ‘No’.”
#2. Check your attitude. Any pilot will tell you that the attitude of an airplane is what direction the nose is pointing, thus it will determine where the plane is heading. The same can be true for your attitude. Successful people don’t have a positive attitude because they are successful. They realize that having a positive attitude provides fertile ground for creativity and growth and is instrumental for success to blossom.
Sometimes I will sense that a coaching client is under a tremendous amount of stress during our coaching calls. They may be bothered by something related to family, health, or work; but stress = fear, and fear KILLS creativity. To help them break out of this state, I give them an assignment of watching a funny YouTube video, then call me back. Five minutes later, they are in an entirely different state of mind. There is an endless parade of short videos on YouTube that will leave you laughing and wondering why Darwin hasn’t eliminated those people from the gene pool yet. This simple exercise is like flipping a circuit breaker in your psyche, resetting your state of mind.
#3. Be part of your organization, don’t be the organization. “Me-me-me-me” should only be sung while warming up for an opera. No one wants to hear about how great you are. Great leaders in real estate rarely talk about themselves. They are encouraging others to excel and reach their goals. To quote the motivational prophet Zig Ziglar, “You can get anything you want by helping enough other people what they want.”
When I was working with people within my direct sales team, I never talked about what I am going to do. I focus on what I can do to help them. Prior to speaking professionally, I used to run one of the top direct sales offices in North America. We were consistently in the top five highest grossing offices, because I focused on helping as many people as I could earn $1000 per week. There is something monumental in one’s psyche that occurs when they have never earned more than $400-$500 in a week, and you hand them their first $1,000 check (sometimes I would get their permission to cash the check and present them with cash in our morning meetings…talk about motivating!)
Once they hit $1000 once, they would hit that amount or more with every successive pay period. Their barrier was not external, it was internal. By helping people on my team shatter the walls of limitation that they held onto, we were consistently one of the top grossing offices in North America. Of course, having 20 people in my business making $1000 per week or more had a very positive result on my earnings as well.
My hope is that you don’t just read this publication, set it aside, and think, “That was neat.” My challenge to you is to decide one action item that you pulled from this publication, and start taking action on it right now. Your potential is just like a fully fueled plane sitting on the tarmac. Push the throttle forward, take action, and take off!
Tune Out, Don’t Freak Out
Dave Sheffield
…We interrupt this song to bring you this in flight emergency…
This message may be shorter than those I usually write for various business publications; similar to a recent flight I was aboard a couple of weeks ago; but with three important observations to help assist you.
Sometimes it pays to be very observant, and other times it pays to have your head in the sand, not exactly know what’s going on around you. I know that last statement may sound just a bit strange, but let me share with you a very recent experience I had while returning from a string of speaking dates on the West Coast of the United States. I was flying from Phoenix, Arizona to my home airport in Illinois. Once we hit our cruising altitude, I quickly fired up my laptop and plugged in my iPod with noise canceling headphones (these things are a Godsend for anyone who has trouble focusing on one thing at a time).
The hard rocking sounds of the Canadian band Nickelback flooded my ears as I began working on content and ideas for my latest book. The flight was scheduled to last 2.5 hours, providing me with plenty of time to tap into my creative juices and knock out some inspiration at the keyboard. After about 90-minutes of work, I notice the plane starting to descend. The thought that initially crossed my mind was “Wow! This pilot must really be kicking some serious butt! We will be getting into town much quicker than scheduled!”
I shut everything down and prepared for the early arrival home. Then I looked out the window and saw mountains. There are not mountains within 800 miles of Illinois, and for a brief moment, I thought that I was going to be the subject of one of those stories where someone gets onto the wrong plane and winds up in the wrong city.
While visiting with a couple of my fellow passengers, I discovered that the special device that keeps the plane level and holds the plane’s attitude decided to break. We were headed back to Phoenix, and I was informed that everyone spent the previous 45 minutes or so freaking out. Except me, because I was lost in my head-banging Nickelback trance, and typing away thanks to my noise canceling headphones. Since I wasn’t going to fly the plane, I sat back calmly and realized there was really nothing I could do about the situation, except be patient and let the captain do his best to get us safely on the ground.
Here are three key lessons that anyone who is in the real estate business can take away from this experience:
#1. Shut out “Life Noise”. Have you ever listened to the cockpit chatter on your headphones? Sometimes airlines will broadcast it on one of the audio channels so you can hear the pilots talking to the air traffic control towers. It is pretty interesting…for about 20 seconds.
While hearing the pilots are talking about changing altitude, speed, and updating various conditions necessary for a smooth flight is somewhat interesting; it is not productive at all for me to listen to. (As if they would tell ATC, “Hang on while I check with the guy sitting at 3B to see if he thinks we should avoid this storm ahead!”) The same kind of chatter may be happening in your office at the water cooler, your email inbox, in the media, or on the phone.
I will frequently shut off all distractions when I have a publishing deadline or when I’m working on a new program. Marketing legend Dan Kennedy refers to distractions as “Time Vampires”. They will suck a few minutes here and there from your productive day. Before you know it, you feel like you have run a marathon and finished dead last.
When something comes to my attention, I simply do my best to determine whether it needs my immediate attention or if it can wait. For example, a medical emergency is both urgent and important and would necessitate immediate reaction. A signature that is missing on a closing document that is supposed to occur in 20 minutes would be in the same category. Filling out an expense report may be important, but not urgent and would fall into the “needs to get done, but not now” column. A very brilliant person once told me “Every yes will cost you something. If you are going to coach baseball, you will not be able to go out with the guys. If you are going to work late, you will miss family dinner time, etc. Feel free to give yourself the gift of saying ‘No’.”
#2. Check your attitude. Any pilot will tell you that the attitude of an airplane is what direction the nose is pointing, thus it will determine where the plane is heading. The same can be true for your attitude. Successful people don’t have a positive attitude because they are successful. They realize that having a positive attitude provides fertile ground for creativity and growth and is instrumental for success to blossom.
Sometimes I will sense that a coaching client is under a tremendous amount of stress during our coaching calls. They may be bothered by something related to family, health, or work; but stress = fear, and fear KILLS creativity. To help them break out of this state, I give them an assignment of watching a funny YouTube video, then call me back. Five minutes later, they are in an entirely different state of mind. There is an endless parade of short videos on YouTube that will leave you laughing and wondering why Darwin hasn’t eliminated those people from the gene pool yet. This simple exercise is like flipping a circuit breaker in your psyche, resetting your state of mind.
#3. Be part of your organization, don’t be the organization. “Me-me-me-me” should only be sung while warming up for an opera. No one wants to hear about how great you are. Great leaders in real estate rarely talk about themselves. They are encouraging others to excel and reach their goals. To quote the motivational prophet Zig Ziglar, “You can get anything you want by helping enough other people what they want.”
When I was working with people within my direct sales team, I never talked about what I am going to do. I focus on what I can do to help them. Prior to speaking professionally, I used to run one of the top direct sales offices in North America. We were consistently in the top five highest grossing offices, because I focused on helping as many people as I could earn $1000 per week. There is something monumental in one’s psyche that occurs when they have never earned more than $400-$500 in a week, and you hand them their first $1,000 check (sometimes I would get their permission to cash the check and present them with cash in our morning meetings…talk about motivating!)
Once they hit $1000 once, they would hit that amount or more with every successive pay period. Their barrier was not external, it was internal. By helping people on my team shatter the walls of limitation that they held onto, we were consistently one of the top grossing offices in North America. Of course, having 20 people in my business making $1000 per week or more had a very positive result on my earnings as well.
My hope is that you don’t just read this publication, set it aside, and think, “That was neat.” My challenge to you is to decide one action item that you pulled from this publication, and start taking action on it right now. Your potential is just like a fully fueled plane sitting on the tarmac. Push the throttle forward, take action, and take off!
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Call Or Text (425) 985-3289 to get the most comprehensive home inspection in the Seattle area. Property Inspector, LLC has been perfecting the art of Home Inspection since 2001. The industry has continued to evolve with new standards and more advanced technology to confirm the condition of the home. But one thing has remained consistent: our dedication to providing the best Home Inspection solutions.
