Category Archives: Coaching

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How Physics is Similar to Your Business

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The Avengers came out yesterday.  Big moment for my family.  I would be Iron Man – coolest cat on the planet.  My wife is a big fan of Thor.  I’ve tried to pull of that accent but it doesn’t do it for her.  My 10-year-old would be Captain America, and he should.  He already has that True North sense of right and wrong.  My 6-year-old goes between the Hulk and Hawk-eye.  My daughter still doesn’t understand the rules and ran into the living room with a Spiderman costume on.  It is futility explaining to a 3-year-old that Spiderman wasn’t an Avenger – not to mention he didn’t have a pony-tail.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I bring up the Avengers for a different reason, though.  I feel like the Hulk is sitting on my face.  I have the distinct pleasure of having both nostrils out of commission.  So, I’m going to tell a quick story and then ask a few questions.  Then I’m going to bed.

 

The Story

This may be hard to believe, but my favorite subject in high school was physics.  I am a thinker.  I’m not sure why.  I’m not much of a feeler, a bit more of a doer, but definitely a thinker.  I want to know why stuff works the way it does.  Physics was full of ‘Aha’ moments for me.  I remember when Mr. Claypool showed me the formula behind why a curved road is banked at a certain degree.  This was super cool to me.

I remember toying with actually majoring in Physics in college.  Turns out that I majored in playing guitar into wee hours of the morning and dropping class….  My youngest brother is currently studying physics at my college right now.  In some ways I envy him.

But enough about physics.  Do you know how Physics is like Commercial Real Estate – or any other business?

If A=B and B=C then A=C

What do I mean, you say?  Consider this about your business.  What works?  What led up to that big sale – that big deal?  Did you know that if you repeat certain patterns you will get certain desired outcomes?  My business of CRE is just like yours in this regard.

The question is how do we do more of those patterns to get more of those desired outcomes?  You need a formula that works.

In my business and with my coaching clients, we call these systems.  I understand that if I send out this many letters and follow-up with this many cold calls, then I will get this many meetings.  If I get this many meetings, I will win this many assignments.  This is prospecting, and it needs to be a system.

Repeat certain behaviors to achieve desired results.

A Few Questions

Why don’t you systematize your business?  One of my hero’s in the business spends 2 hours a day cold-calling.  He’s the boss of is office.  He is working a system.  And he’s killing it.

Have you ever sat down with your team to brainstorm what works – and what doesn’t?  You’d be shocked at what you find out.  That is, if you’ve created a team that trusts enough to tell you truth.  Break things down to their smallest parts.  Delegate.  Maximize efficiencies.  Spend more time with clients and prospects.  Let your staff do anything that they can do so that you can do the tasks that only you can do!  Systematize!

What’s keeping you from taking that time needed to work ON your business instead of IN your business?  Something to think about:  top performers have accountability and coaches.

Let me hear your thoughts.

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My Tools to Manage Twitter in 15 Minutes a Day

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One of the most frequent questions that I get as I speak to groups is how I manage twitter.  No one believes that it only takes 15 minutes or less a day.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Let me clarify.  In one of my previous posts – The Rule of Thirds – I shared the 3 types of tweets that you should be using:  curating original or other great content, engaging with others, and getting a little personal.  The key to the first category of curating original or other great content is getting the tweets done and scheduled at one time.

So without further ado, here is my list of time-saving tools.

Chrome – Chrome is Google’s web browser.  It is fast and has a simplistic elegance.  I also want Google to like me.  My favorite thing about Chrome is that it has a ton of add-on apps.  Two of them I will describe below – huge time-savers.  I also use the Chrome App on my shiny new iPhone 5.  All my bookmarks transfer – it is beautiful.  If you haven’t tried Chrome – download it now.  It is free.

Hootsuite – Hootsuite is a fantastic social media manager.  There are a number of others like it – tweetdeck, seesmic (just acquired by Hootsuite), and some others.  It allows you to do a number of things.  First, it allows you to automatically organize all the tweets out there.  You should set up permanent searches for mentions of your handle (ex. @bobarronccim), your industry, your city, etc.  Here is a screenshot of mine.  Note:  there are other set searches spanning to the right.

Hootsuite also allows you to post to LinkedIn, Facebook, and can manage multiple accounts of each.  It also allows me to schedule tweets.  This is key.  After I finish writing a post, I can schedule when it will be tweeted in the future – and on LinkedIn and Facebook as well.  Huge time saver!

Hootlet – Hootlet is a wonderful thing.  Find the Tools menu in Hootsuite and drag and drop the hootlet icon into your browser menu bar.  It allows you to easily tweet from any webpage.  If I am on GlobeSt.com, and I want to tweet out a great article, all I have to do is click the hootlet.  It generates the title of the tweet and the link.  Genius!

Google Reader – This is where the real-time saving happens.  Instead of bookmarking the websites that you regularly go to find great content, use Google Reader.  All those websites then send their new content straight to you.  Using RSS (really simple syndication) from your favorite sites, the new content gets sent straight to you.  Go to Google Reader and sign up.  It is free!  Here is how it works:

BufferApp – Buffer is my all-time favorite app.  It is essentially a queue that holds your tweets and releases them per a pre-set schedule.  This means that you can scan through Google Reader, pick out the 10 or so best articles, and simple click the buffer button.  It creates the content of the tweet just like the Hootlet, and puts it in the buffer queue.  This allows you to be tweeting all day long even though you simply spent 5-10 minutes filling the queue.  And it’s free!

Note that Buffer allows you to tweet it now or throw it in the queue.  So super easy!

Paper.li – Paper.li is a really cool app that aggregates the stories tweeted out by those your follow into an online newspaper.  Once a day, it sends a tweet for you and names some of the authors of those tweets.  They really appreciate “you” mentioning them, and Paper.li is completely automated.  And it’s free!

What do you use to increase your efficiency and save time?  What did I miss?  I can’t wait to learn something from your comments that will save me some more minutes!
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The Difference Between a CRE Broker and a Drug Dealer

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If you have read some of my other posts, you may know that I was an Arabic Linguist in the Marine Corps.  One of the huge differences between English and the Arabic language is that Arabic is completely contextual.  Words don’t have meaning outside of context.  Said another way, the context gives meaning to the words.

Here’s what I mean.  To say that I am a Commercial Real Estate Broker I would literally say:  “I am a broker in the buying and selling of real estate.”  The problem is that the word for real estate is also the word for illegal drugs.  So, if you don’t know me or have any context to give you a clue, you would not know if I’m saying that I’m a CRE broker or a drug dealer.  Context is everything.

So here is a story for you to give context.  This post will spawn others as I unpack this story.  My purpose in this post is to show how systems, the proper team, and technology work together.  I want to demonstrate what is possible.

The Story

A few months ago, I was riding with my dad heading to a meeting in central Kentucky.  We drove through a small town called Perryville where I saw a Dollar General Store.

Dollar stores are a core part of our business.  Seeing this store gave me the idea to cold-call the owner.  I opened the Dropbox app on my iPhone 4S and accessed my Kentucky Dollar Store database.  Finding the owner, I looked him up in my mobile cloud-based CRM solution, ClientLook.

I recognized the name for the Perryville store as a man who was a former college coach in my town.  That gave me the common ground I needed to connect with him.

I was fortunate to get him on the phone.  By the time we had driven through that small town, I knew that he owned three Dollar General Stores – not just one.  I also knew that he was in a partnership, that he would like to simplify his life, and that he was likely a seller.

He agreed to send me the leases so that I could do proposals on his properties for his partnership.  He had one of his staff email me the leases.  I forwarded them to my assistant.  This all happened in 30 minutes, from a car in the middle of Central Kentucky, using just my iPhone.

The next day, my assistant used the leases to build proposals through BuildOut.  She is able to quickly take raw materials and take a proposal to 80% completion.  I then did the financial analysis, approved the comps, set a value, and pressed ‘print.’  Though I have a paperless office, I do print and bind property proposals.  The quality is so high on these packages that I know property owners will not throw them away.

The next week, I was in the man’s office – one hour from my office – presenting proposals on his properties.  Because we’d done our homework building a database of properties, had systems in place to be lightning fast, and used technology that made us mobile, we were able to instantly take advantage of an opportunity.

Over the coming weeks, I will take you behind the curtain of our business and unpack how we build databases, what systems we have in place, and what technologies we use.  This post, however, was all about context.  Never confuse the broker for the drug dealer!

UPDATE:  Post 2 in this series can be found here:  The 5 Steps to a Paperless Office
UPDATE:  Post 3 in this series can be found here:  The Benefits of a Virtual Office
Parting thoughts:  do you use a database in your business?  What systems do you have in place?  What technologies do you use?  Share a story from your business that will provide context for this conversation.  Engage!
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The Rule of Thirds: How to Build Your Tribe and Engage On Twitter

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One of the questions that I get asked over and over as I speak to audiences of Commercial Real Estate brokers is this:  how on earth do you use Twitter?

Here is some context.  The Commercial Real Estate Industry is notorious for being in the technological Stone Age.  I personally think this is for a couple of reasons.  First, the industry is dominated by really successful brokers that are my dad’s age.  These brokers are the ones asking me this question.  They became successful before the internet played a role in their business.  Why do they need it now?  I have a great answer for that…for another post.

Second, many of our clients are baby boomers who have been slow adopters of technologies as well.  Or at least slower than the Gen X, Y, and Millennial generations.

So for those in the industry just realizing the power of Twitter, here is how you build a following, engage, and benefit from the power of Twitter.

The Rule of Thirds

The basic premise of the Rule of Thirds is your tweets should fall fairly evenly into the following 3 categories:

First Third – Add Value By Tweeting Great Content.  You’ve heard over and over that ‘Content is King.’  This is true on Twitter as well.  People will follow you because you add value to their lives.  Think like a curator and a creator.  Example:  as most of my followers (currently 2,478) are in the CRE industry, I try to find great articles on Commercial Real Estate to tweet to my followers.  I also tweet out the content that I create myself.  Here is an example:

The 4 Blessings of a Down Market « theBarronBlog http://bo-b.co/QKfmV6 #cre

Notice the key parts of the tweet – the title of my blog post, the title of my blog, the link to the site, and then the hashtag identifying this is about CRE (or Commercial Real Estate).

Think add value to others!  And always include links.  Apps like Buffer and Hootsuite make this infinitely easy and efficient.  I will be reviewing both these apps in the coming weeks…so stay tuned!

Second Third – Engage.  Internet 1.0 was about static websites – think megaphone.  Internet 2.0 is all about engaging and sharing ideas – think telephone.  A third of your tweets should be connecting with others.  How?  Start with having manners.  Say ‘thank you’ when you get retweeted!  Comment on an article of value that was tweeted out.  Connect with people as if you are at a cocktail party.  I literally have real friends because I engaged on Twitter (@Michael_MBA, @BarbiReuter, @commsource, and many others).  This is the third where you will pick up loyal followers – where those connected with you will start retweeting you.

Third Third – Get Personal.  Be real.  Nobody wants to follow a robot.  You are a complete human.  Act like it.  Don’t just tweet out industry specific tweets all the time.  Allow people to know that you do other things.  I like to tweet out pics of me with my kids.  I want my followers to know that I’m a dad – and that I LOVE being a dad.  This engenders like-ability, and people help and do business with people they like.  Click here for an example.

A word of caution.  When using this Third, be smart.  Don’t tweet:  ‘Going to Italy for 3 weeks.  Please rob my house.’  Use common sense.

So how do you connect?  What are some of the guidelines you use that I failed to mention?  Let’s connect on Twitter.  You can follow me by clicking the Twitter button at the top right.  I will follow those that leave their Twitter handle in the comments.  I’m looking forward to learning from you!
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The 3 Questions to Unlock the Power of Focus

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My recruiter duped me into being a linguist.  He told me I wasn’t smart enough for that job, and I had to show him.  I hate languages, by the way.

So after boot camp, I arrive at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA.  My commanding officer sits me down and tells me that I have a say in what language I get.  My options are Korean, Russian, Arabic, and Spanish.  He asks me to rate them 1 – 4.  Spanish, Russian, please God not Korean or Arabic.  This was the year 2000.

Next thing I know I’m taking a battery of crazy tests.  These tests evaluated how someone learns – how quickly they pick up on information.  How well they retain it, etc.  This test said that I was best suited for the Arabic and Korean languages.  Figures!

The final factor in what language I received was the “Needs of the Marine Corps.”  Turns out that this was the only one that mattered.  I became an Arabic Linguist.

I have a coaching client in Florida that had a focus problem.  He is very high-profile and as a result, he has many opportunities walk through his office door. BIG deals.  little deals.  Land.  Retail.  Office.  Hotels.  He was running around with no focus having the impact of a shotgun at 300 yards (very little, if you’re wondering).  What follows are the 3 questions I asked him and you should ask yourself.

  1. What do you like?  (Please rank your language choice…) Those of you that don’t have a specialty and a focus will work on anything.  This is where you need to start.  Take out a piece of paper and list the types of deals that you like.  Don’t stop until you have at least three.
  2. What are you good at?  (Please take this battery of tests…)  This is not the same question as #1.  Single Tenant Net Lease deals are hugely different from Multifamily deals.  A Convenient Store deal is way different from selling an Office building.  You need different skill sets.  Which asset verticals fit your skills?
  3. Where is the deal velocity?  (Needs of the Marine Corps)  Here is where you insert reality.  You won’t make your mortgage payments by specializing in marinas in Kansas.  I don’t care if you love marinas and are the world’s most gifted underwriter of marinas.  Where are the deals happening?  This analysis is what shifted my focus to Dollar Stores.  You must find the overlap between what you like, what you are good at, and where is the deal velocity.

My client now has focus.  Instead of being a generalist in his office, he is the now THE guy for his asset vertical.  Not only is this specialty branding him and raising his presence, but he now gets to cast-off onto the other advisors in his office.  Here is his decision grid.  First, he has a minimum commission amount.  If the opportunity does not meet this threshold, he immediately refers the deal to someone else in his office.  He is loved, and he gets paid for saying no.  Second:  is the deal in his primary or secondary specialty?  If no, he refers.  But if yes, he unleashes the power of his new focus on the opportunity.  He is hitting it out of the park!

So what about you?  Do you have a laser beam focus on a specialty?  Top producers do.  “Go and do likewise…”

P.S.  There is a free book (not yours Rod!) I will send to the person who correctly identifies the movie reference of “Go and do likewise…”  Answer in the comments below!

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The 4 Blessings of a Down Market

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Being ready is not what matters. What matters is winning after you get there.

LtGen Victor H. Krulak, USMC
April 1965

Much of what I know about discipline, excellence, and leadership comes from my 5 years in the Marine Corps.  Marines exist for one reason – to win battles.  At a foundational level, Marines only do two things – win battles and train to win battles.  My little brother is a Marine pilot.  He deployed to the Horn of Africa earlier this year and will be deploying again soon.  He will tell you that his days are spent training for the potential missions that he could have while deployed.

I firmly believe that Commercial Real Estate advisors have the ability to succeed in any market.  The keys are systematizing your business (prospecting, creating presence, etc.), specialization, building a cohesive team, and loads of tenacity.  But let’s be honest.  The last 4 years have been tough.  There is a silver lining to a down market – you get to train.

I was honorably discharged from the Corps on Nov. 1, 2004.  I moved home and started working with my dad in the Commercial Real Estate industry on Nov. 2.  The next week I was in my first CCIM class.  I didn’t even have my license yet.  As a CCIM designee, he understood the value of the CCIM education to my career.  He also knew that it would be harder for me to have time to pursue the designation when I had a full pipeline.  So it can be with a down market where you find yourself with more time.  Here are 4 blessings of that silver lining.

1.  Master Your Craft – when you have 50 listings and 20 deals under contract (may it be so!), you don’t have time to sharpen your ax.  You just keep swinging.  In a down market, however, it is imperative that you continue to master your craft.  Take a course on financial underwriting.  Read a book on cold calling.  Train!

2.  Attrition – In this sense, Darwin was right.  Since the height in 2008, around 40% of CRE practitioners have left the industry.  This is good for a couple of reasons.  The best brokers and advisors are the ones still standing.  This raises the bar of excellence, and the reputation, of the entire industry.  This also leads to blessing #3…

3.  Increased Market Share – By default, with 40% less brokers and advisors in the business, a huge amount of market share is up for grabs.  Frankly, I don’t want to settle for some default increase.  As we see the market picking up, now is the time to claim that market share.  This leads to blessing #4…

4.  Rewards for those that Invest in Themselves – Blessing #4 is the natural conclusion of the first three.  Be the one that invests in yourself – train hard!  Take advantage of the attrition our industry has seen.  Don’t simply rely on a law of averages that you will pick up more market share just because you have less competition.  Hire a coach.  Study and emulate top performers who did not use an excuse of a down market.  Take advantage of the time to train.

So how have you used the last 4 years to master your craft?  How are you gaining market share left behind by those that bailed?  I invite you to share you stories and successes.  Let’s learn from each other!

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The 5 Reasons to Systematize Your CRE Business

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If you are new to theBarronBlog, I encourage you to subscribe either by RSS feed or by email so you don’t miss anything.  Both are to the right below my picture.

Commercial Real Estate Systems.  The word is an anomaly.  While you may not be able to define what a system is – you need them.  You need them badly.  They can make you more effective.  They can make you more money.  They can shave hours off your week – hours you can give to your family or a worthy cause.  Let me share with you what I mean.

I have two sons (and a little 3-year-old princess).  They are both playing football.  Tonight, I was at the 9-year-old’s practice.  As I watched the practice, the coaches spent 80% of the practice putting in the system.  20% running the plays.  Now you know what I mean, don’t you.  Think about a football team.  Every player has a specific role.  They specialize.  My son is the quarterback because he is an intellectual.  He knows where everyone should be.  He also has the smallest butt on the team.  It would be ludicrous to make him a lineman.  His coaches spent 80% of the practice putting in the system because success between the hedges comes from a group of individuals working seamlessly as a team.  The sum can be so much greater than the parts.  Magic!

So should your business be!  Here are the five main benefits to systematizing your business:

  1. Systems allow you to break a process down to its smallest tasks.  This is so important.  This is what I go through with all my coaching clients.  Most leaders…most entrepreneurs…most of you, are big picture oriented.  The details are stifling.  I know they are for me.  The simple act of sitting down with your team and breaking a process down to its most detailed parts has tremendous value.
  2. Systems allow you to lead effectively by delegating.  Huge!  The primary role of a leader is to ensure the success of the team.  To do that, team members must understand their roles.  Once you go through the task of breaking a process down to its smallest tasks, those tasks are delegated to the team member with the most fitting skill set.  You just made your life easier.
  3. Systems allow you to hire/fire better.  This is a no-brainer.  Once you systematize your business, you have a better understanding of the skill sets you need in place.  Think of my son’s football team.  The coaches would have been foolish to draft a team full of little fast guys.  The coach understands the system he wants to run.  So he drafts the same.  Go and do likewise!
  4. Systems allow the team to execute.  This is where you see your team come to life.  The system is in place so just execute.  This allows for efficiency and speed.  If you don’t get the results you want, change the system.
  5. Systems allow the leader to focus on high dollar activities.  From my chair, this is the greatest benefit of systematizing your business.  When your team knows the play and their roles, then the leader can focus on just the things that only the leader can do.  This is the sweet spot.  This is where you can see exponential growth.  You should have goose bumps right now.

So join the conversation.  What processes in your business could you systematize?  How would you do it?  

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How to Get You and Your Agents to Make More Calls – These 3 Easy Ways

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Commercial Real Estate (or any) sales is about calls:  cold calls, warm calls, personal calls, and so on.  He who makes the most calls generally does the most deals.  Making calls is also a lost art.

I recently had a review with one of my agents.  He was not making enough calls.  He and I had spoken a couple of times about this subject with no change.  Then it dawned on me.  Performance flows from leadership.  The problem was with me.

When I was in college I had a mentor who would teach me things by this method.  Teach me why.  Show me how.  Do it in front of me.  It was incredibly effective.  Answering the questions ‘why’ deals with casting the vision for the desired future outcome.  And this is rarely about making money.  Teaching the ‘how’ is the book smarts.  Demonstrating how introduces the street smarts.

I had been neglecting the third step.  So Friday morning, we went into my office and I spent nearly an hour making calls – on one of his deals.  I believe doing this on a regular basis is going to reap rewards.  More deals will be done, sure.  But there will be growth in our team in this area.

Here are 3 easy ways to make more calls:

1.  Block out time on your calendar.  This seems like such a no-brainer, but we don’t do it.  Prospecting for new business is the key to healthy deal flow and sustainable cash-flow.  Yet, it is the activity that is the most dreaded and overlooked. Block out time every day to make prospecting calls.  A top producer I know, who owns his company, schedules two hours a day on his calendar.  He gives his team the green light to ask him to get busy calling when he gets distracted by another task.  He knows that making calls is the absolute best use of his time.

2.  Keep the calls short.  The first call I made on Friday lasted 20 minutes.  I know better.  This should never happen.  The purpose of a prospecting call is to get a meeting.  If you get a talker, politely transition the conversation after 4 minutes to scheduling a meeting.  If they want to talk, do it face to face at a later date.  Remember that prospecting calls are a numbers game.  The more calls you can make, the more meetings you can get.  Challenge yourself to a certain amount of calls in your scheduled time.  Don’t let one talker derail you.

3.  Schedule an office wide calling blitz.  Most agents do not like cold calling.  Some of the weird ones, like me, do.  But most salespeople are ultra-competitive so make it a game.  Schedule a block of time once or twice a month when everyone in the office is making calls at the same time.  Make it a competition.  Have a prize for the winner.

So what other ways do you encourage more calls?  What ideas have I missed?  Let’s see how many great ideas we can come up with!

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Vintage Business Principals of a CRE Investor

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Part of my business includes Commercial Real Estate coaching with the Massimo Group, America’s premier Commercial Real Estate Coaching firm (www.massimo-group.com) and I have the privilege of coaching around a dozen brokers throughout the United States and Canada.  This blog is inspired by one of my clients in South Carolina, Ben Goforth (www.twitter.com/bengoforth), who sent me what is to follow.  I do not know the man who wrote these principles, but they resonate with me as if they were said by my own father.  I debated elaborating on some of these, but they don’t need it.  Read and enjoy, and maybe if we’re lucky, these words could be used to describe us someday.

My Business Principles

by T. Walter Brashier – as taught to him by his father, Ralph Brashier

1.  Let your word be your bond.  Think before you speak, but when you tell a person something, do it, even if it costs you.  Keep your word – have credibility.  But remember…

2.  Plain talk is easy to understand.  “Never beat around the bush,” because…how can you give a man “your word, your bond” if a man does not understand perfectly what you are talking about?  Remember…

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