Coach Dan Foster | Purpose Driven Broker » Personal Development

You’re At The Top – Now What?

Dan Foster — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:30:00 +0000

It seems like everywhere I turn there is an article or blog post written for professionals that are struggling in this challenging market. As in every business cycle there is another group of professionals that are consistently “hitting it out of the park” and having a great year. If you find yourself in the latter category, this post is for you. I want to encourage you with these five steps to keep you engaged and continuing on the road to a productive and successful year.

Take time for your personal priorities. When business gets crazy usually the first appointments to be cancelled or forgotten are your personal ones. Make sure you are scheduling time for your workouts, dates with significant other, and reflection time. Review your Life Plan regularly and stay rested. Your mental, physical, and relational health is essential for continued success.

Connect with other successful professionals. The need to connect with others that are experiencing a high level of success has never been more important. Iron sharpens iron and you need to spend time with other successful professionals. This can be done via social networking, attending conferences, or through a regularly schedule face to face meeting. Choose people that have a positive attitude, are hardworking, and willing to give of their time.

Continue to focus on outstanding customer service. Your ability to offer outstanding customer service and differentiate yourself is obviously working. Don’t let up or cut corners on how you provide a great experience for your past, present, and future clients. Look for new and innovative ways to serve and don’t hesitate to ask for repeat or referral business.

Mentor someone. You’ve been blessed in your business so don’t hesitate to pour into someone else that needs encouragement and a helping hand. Mentoring increases your confidence and your standing among peers. It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you have to keep your best practices a secret. We all benefit when everyone is a growing and developing professional. You have a great opportunity to be a mentor in this market; take it.

Stay focused and don’t let up. My friend, Daniel Harkavy talks about bi-focal vision where you keep one eye on your vision and one eye focused on the day to day operations of your business. If you lose focus of your vision you will end up somewhere you never intended to be and run the risk of spread yourself and your business too thin. If you focus only on vision, you will lose touch with reality and the ever changing market around you. Don’t let up. I know it is exhausting sometimes but we are in for a long fight and you will need to stay healthy in all areas of your life and business (see step 1 above). There will be a time to rest in the future but right now you need to be firing on all cylinders.

Question: What are you doing this year to stay focused and driven towards success?

Make it a Great Day!

Coach Dan

You’re At The Top – Now What? is a post from: Purpose Driven Broker

8 Key Areas That Affect Performance

Dan Foster — Mon, 17 May 2010 15:43:26 +0000

If your performance has been lack luster lately or you feel yourself slipping into a slump, it probably is time for you to reflect on why this is happening. Sometimes working harder is not the best and only answer. Consider the following key areas that affect performance and try to identify the area(s) that you are struggling with the most. I’ve provided some questions for you to consider how each factor may be influencing your performance.

Job Environment: This area includes all the resources, equipment, relationships, and tools you need to perform your job properly. Is your work environment positive and supportive of your efforts to achieve success? Is your team aligned and driving towards a common vision? Do your customers recognize your brand, see you as authoritative, and trust your ability to get the job done? Is your company’s technology and tools keeping up with the pace of the industry and allowing you to serve your clients in new and innovative ways?

Drive: Are you willing to do what it takes to be successful. Drive goes beyond the desire to be successful. Drive goes beyond words and leads to action. It is the feeling or compulsion when your wants meet what you need, and you are willing to do what it takes to be successful.

Knowledge: Do you have the knowledge that you need to make the right decisions, understand the direction of your industry, and articulate how your services will help your client achieve their goals? This area requires you to be an expert in your field, knowing the key measurable and trends in your industry are essential. Are you taking time for personal and professional development through training and education?

Skills: Do you know how to do what it takes to be successful? Do you have the skills to pick up the phone and make calls to clients? Do you know how to develop client presentations? Do you know how to communicate effectively? This has nothing to do with #2 above, and is just focused on your ability to do what needs to be done to achieve success?

Attitude: Your attitude towards your job is going to affect every other item mentioned in this list. How do you feel about your performance, about your work environment, about what you have to do to be successful, and about the types of people you are working with? Are you voicing these feelings to your coworkers, clients, or your key supporters? If so, analyze the words you are using, are they positive or negative, uplifting or degrading, encouraging or complaining? Your attitude is not everything but it is the difference maker in performance.

Talents: Your talents are different than your skills in that your talents are natural, not learned. Do you have the natural capability of behaving in a way that will lead to success in your job? If your job requires you to be a good presenter and to connect with people than you should naturally enjoy this type of work. If you find your job difficult to do, not because you don’t have a desire or the knowledge, but because you just are not good at it, than you probably have talents in in other areas that would match with a different type of job. Explore behavioral and talent tests like DISC and StrengthFinder to see if your job is a match for your talents.

Capacity: This is your ability to learn how to behave and perform in order to achieve success. It has to do with your ability to learn new methods, systems, and processes that are required by your industry and clientele. Is your industry moving so fast in the area of technology that you are unable to stay on top of what is required of you to be successful? Are your clients expecting such new and innovative ways to engage them that you’re feeling unable or unwilling to change to meet their needs?

Balance: One of the most elusive characteristics of true success is having balance between your personal life and professional career. When we are out of balance it will affect our performance at work and our personal relationships. When was the last time you worked out regularly? Are you eating healthy so you have energy and stamina throughout the day? When was the last time you spent time in prayer or thoughtful reflection? Are you spending time with friends and family members? Do you have a list of business books, seminars, and workshops you plan on attending this year to help you grow personally and professionally? Are you able to leave work at work and home at home? Do you have a Life Plan to help you achieve balance?

Where do you go from here? If you identified areas that are negatively influencing your performance and keeping you from reaching your goals, than you are now faced with a choice. You can either continue performing at the level you are and struggle to meet your goals, or you can reflect on these areas of influence and make the necessary changes to improve your performance.

Let’s assume you decide to make the choice for improved performance, your next step is to set action plans in each of the areas that are negatively influencing your performance. These action plans should be SMART short term steps that you can take to improve your performance. I encourage you to take a half or full day off to reflect on these areas of influence and create 90-Day Action Plans to help you get your performance back on track.

Question: Which area listed above is having the greatest negative influence on your performance right now and what are three things you can do to improve in this area?

If I can be of any help please do not hesitate to let me know!

Make it a great day!

Coach Dan

8 Key Areas That Affect Performance is a post from: Purpose Driven Broker

6 Steps to Better Decision Making

Dan Foster — Fri, 07 May 2010 19:34:38 +0000

Helping clients make decisions is one of the most important responsibilities of being a real estate broker. Our clients view us as a trusted advisor; someone that can provide them with objective advice throughout their real estate experience. However, even the most seasoned brokers can find themselves caught up in the emotions of a transaction and have difficulty walking their clients through a rational decision making process.

In his book, Decide and Conquer, author Stephen P. Robbins lays out a decision making process that helps people make consistent value-driven choices that lead to the achievement of their goals. Below, I’ve outlined Robbins’ six steps to better decision making and encourage you to use this process the next time your client turns to you for advice when facing a tough decision or problem.

Step 1: Identify and Define the Problem: Problems exist when a gap occurs between what our clients want (their goals) and their current reality. Helping your clients articulate exactly what it is they want to achieve or experience is crucial in this beginning step. You don’t need to criticize or evaluate their response here, rather try to gain some clarity around what it is they are after.

Step 2: Identify Decision Criteria: Next you must help your client discover and write out what is most important to them when making their decision. Have them write out their interests, values, goals, and personal preferences. When they list these criteria you will begin to have a better understanding of what is driving them and what factors play a role in their final decision.

Step 3: Weigh the Criteria: After their criteria is laid out and the client agrees there is NOTHING else that will play into his decision making, have the client rank each of the criteria in order of importance. Remember if everything is ranked the same then nothing really is important and it will be difficult for you to analyze all factors and choose the best next step.

Step 4: Generate Alternatives: After helping your client define the problem and set criteria it is time to generate a list of solutions that will allow the client to achieve their desired end result. The client may not like all of the alternatives that are discussed so try to keep an open objective mind and list out all possible alternatives.

Step 5: Evaluate Each Alternative: After the potential solutions are noted you and your client need to go back to the criteria that was listed in step 3 and analyze, evaluate, and rate each alternative option.

Step 6: Select the Choice that Scores Highest: The process concludes when you have ranked each alternative and the client is able to objectively and rationally choose the alternative that scores the highest. From a rational standpoint this would be the best choice.

From Experience: From experience I know that people often prefer to go with their gut and make a decision based on what feels right at the time. This will occasionally end up being the right decision in the long run but from the standpoint of being someone’s trusted advisor and a professional; I encourage you to use the six steps to rational decision making whenever possible. When helping someone through a major or life changing event, such as buying or selling a home, the rational approach to decision making is your best course of action.

Question: Do you have a system in place that you use to help people make decision based on their values and goals rather than gut feelings or emotions?

Here is a Rational Decision Making Tool to use the next time you need to help a client with a major or life changing decision.

Choose to make it a great day!

Coach Dan

6 Steps to Better Decision Making is a post from: Purpose Driven Broker

Q&A with Real Estate Superstar

Dan Foster — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 00:00:22 +0000

This past week I had the honor of interviewing Kim Dittler of Prudential Northwest Properties. Kim was recently honored by the National Association of Realtors as being one of 30 rising stars under the age of 30 in the entire nation. Kim is a true professional and all around great person. After spending time with her there is no doubt that she is one of the best real estate brokers out there right now. Kim and I spoke on many different topics and in this post I’ve listed ten questions that I asked her along with her responses.

Q: Now that you have been in the real estate business for a few years, what do you love most about it?

A: I’ve been selling real estate for about five years and got started right out of college. I love owning my own business and working with people and building relationships. I’ve become good friends with most of my clients. I love that this career pushes me out of my comfort zone and every day challenges me. I love the marketing and negotiating aspects of the business and working towards my clients’ goals.

Q. What keeps you motivated each day and your attitude positive?

A. It is so easy to be motivated and positive when things are going great, but when things are tough we all have to look deep for the reason we do what we do, which is our true purpose. We have to be able to answer the question, “Why am I doing what I’m doing”. It is so tempting to be discouraged in this type of market. For me I truly care for people and I’ve found a job where I can help them through a very stressful time in their life. I love having the opportunity to care for people when they are at their best and when they are at their lowest. I love helping them with this large financial and emotional decision they are making for their home and family.

Q. What do you see as your guiding principles for working with clients?

A. There must be a values match with your client and there must be a good fit with your business model. We have to use wisdom and work with the right people for us. I want to be the best agent for my clients and if I cannot do this then I need to refer them to someone else.

Q. How are you engaging your past clients and sphere of influence in an effort to receive referral business from them?

A. I’ve had to become an expert in the market and be very professional at all times. I make it a point to educate my clients on the market via a customized market report that I send out. I do a great deal of networking and holding open houses to meet new clients. I do not cold call but I do stay in touch with my past clients and sphere of influence regularly and I’ve been blessed to have them send me referrals.

Q. Are you using social media to grow your business? Explain how that is working for you.

A. Yes. I am using Facebook primarily. I use it as a soft sale. My friends know I’m in real estate so I don’t talk about it a lot on Facebook. I have a photo album on Facebook where I share pictures of my clients that recently sold or bought a home. I try to focus on letting my Facebook friends know that I am a real person and that I have a life outside of real estate. I want them to see the personal side of me as well as the business so I focus on a soft sale approach in social media.

Q. What do you believe are the top three to five marketing tools that must be used by all brokers in our current market?

A. The big hot topic is Social Media. Facebook Fan pages are something I’m looking into using more. Working with other businesses is extremely important to get business to business referrals. A client appreciation event has been very helpful for me as well. Any activity that focuses on connecting you with other people.

Q. In your opinion, what are today’s consumers looking for from a real estate professional?

A. One thing that I love about this market is that it has weeded out a lot of the agents that had bad business practices. What is left are the agents that are dedicated and treat it as a career. I think professionals are expecting to work with agents that are well educated, professional, punctual, and caring. Clients want to know that you care about them and that you recognize they are a part of your success. People want someone that is tech savvy. They want agents that will match their communication style whether it is texting, phone, email, or using social media.

Q. What is your take on the market right now? Are you encouraged, concerned, excited?

A. I think right now we are experiencing a perfect storm in our market. We have low interest rates, a tax credit for first time home buyers and move up buyers, and we have low prices on homes. I get excited about working with first time home buyers and I share with them just how much of an opportunity this market is for them. I don’t think the expiration of the tax credit will affect our market at all. I think the low prices will keep buyers engaged in the market. I’m excited and encouraged.

Q. What is next for Kim Dittler? Where do you see yourself in 3-5 years?

A. I would love to say on a beach in Hawaii! I don’t necessarily have aspirations of having an incredibly large amount of business. I prefer quality over quantity. I’m looking to grow my business but maintain quality. I’m looking at adding an assistant to my business to help me with the non-high payoff activities. My main focus though is to grow my business but never sacrifice the quality of the service I am providing my clients.

Q. What is the best piece of advice that you can give to brokers that are striving for success in their careers and life?

A. I think it is all about your frame of mind and attitude. I love what I do and love working with people. I see my job as an opportunity not as a challenge. If you have your heart in the right place and you are willing to work hard you will do very well. Take a day off and rest from your business. Be excited and keep your attitude positive.

If you would like to here the entire interview with Kim Dittler you can click here.

Make it a great day!

Coach Dan

Q&A with Real Estate Superstar is a post from: Purpose Driven Broker

Avoiding Distraction

Dan Foster — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 07:27:54 +0000

We are masters at the art of distraction. In most of my coaching sessions lately my team has shared with me their difficulty in staying focused on the behaviors they know lead to success. This struggle is not foreign to me either. It is so easy for my attention to get distracted from what I know to be important for me to focus on and instead be pulled towards other interests. The world in which we live in is no friend in this battle. Today’s media is especially gifted in creating a sense of “urgency” around every news story. They have mastered the art of distraction and created a need to “stayed tuned” to the latest and most up to date information regarding whatever they have deemed important on a given day. Without systems in place to help me stay focused on my priorities and high-payoff activities, I’m quite certain I would get very little done and what I did get done would be of poor quality. Knowing that this is a common struggle, I thought I would share six systems that I have in place to help me avoid distraction.

My Life Plan helps me stay focused on my personal and professional priorities. In my life plan I identify my vision and purpose for each priority (account) and the behaviors that I need to engage in to help me make regular deposits into these accounts. The necessary behaviors are scheduled in my calendar, they are a part of my business plan, and I have a great coach to hold me accountable to them. I review my Life Plan monthly to make sure I am staying on track and engaged with the people that are most important to me. A great blog post on developing a Life Plan can be read on Mike Hyatt’s blog, click here.
I use a One Page Business Plan to manage my staff, my sales team, and help me be a contributing member of our management team at Prudential. My one page plan outlines my goals for the quarter, the activities that I must do on a regular basis to help me reach those goals, and the improvement projects I’m working on during the quarter. I love the one page plan because it summarizes everything that I striving for and need to do and is easy to read and reference. There are so many choices on how to spend our precious time each day. Having the one page plan helps me make the right decisions and stay focused on the high-payoff activities that ensure me the highest probability of success. A great blog post for creating your own one page plan can be found on Daniel Harkavy’s blog, click here.
My sacred Planning and Preparation Hour occurs every day from 4PM to 5PM. My goal is to stop work and to assess the days achievements and events. I look at my week ahead and start to make my to do list for the next day. I use this time to return my final emails and voice mails of the day. Most importantly though I mentally prepare for the next day so that I can focus my attention on my family when I get home. I don’t want to be distracted when I am with my family and this hour helps me leave work at work. This one hour of planning and preparation has helped me be more productive at home and work.
I work from a To-Do List each day. My list includes the people that I need to engage and the tasks that are most important to achieve on that particular day. I screen this list against my Life Plan and One Page Business Plan to make sure I am focusing a large portion of my time on the right priorities. There are days when the list is overwhelming and many of the items seem to lack a focus on my priorities, but that is okay occasionally. Brian Buffini taught me that we cannot win every single day but we can win enough days to say we’ve won the week, and enough weeks to win the month, and enough months to say we’ve won the year. Perfection is not possible for us.
My Calendar is King in my life. I schedule everything on my calender. My date nights with my wife, my coaching sessions, my drive time to different appointments, my weekend plans, client meetings, reflection time, literally everything. This helps me stay focused on what I must accomplish and allows me to spend time turning business off to focus on surfing the net, reading my favorite blogs, and doing other non-business related stuff so that I feel connected to the outside world. If I don’t schedule time to check out then I am more likely to get distracted and sucked into “distraction” trap.
I practice Candidness with everyone that requests a part of my time. If someone asks me if I have a minute, I am frank with them and tell them Yes, No, or not right now but I will at this certain time. It was really tough for me to do this at first because I thought I had to respond to everyone and everything immediately. By living my life in the tyranny of the urgent though I was getting nothing done and what I did get done was of such poor quality. My goal is to never be rude but always truthful with everyone making a request. Most people are happy to wait if you tell them when you can speak with them.

I do not enjoy being a master at the art of distraction. I would much rather say that I am a master at getting the right things done at the right time with the right results. As I continue to work on these systems and use different tools the more empowered I feel and the less distracted I am each day.

What tools or systems do you use to stay focused and not get distracted?

Make it a great day!

Coach Dan

Avoiding Distraction is a post from: Purpose Driven Broker