Colin's Motivational Mondays

What's your energy level this morning? Where ever it's at we could probably go a few notches higher right? We know that the energy we bring into a room can set the tone. That goes for our meetings today in the office with our escrow partners and outside of the office with our partners and targets. We have the best resources to help our partners grow...are we bringing it to them in a relate-able & connect-able way? The energy, passion & care that we have MUST come through. We are the tone setters for everything that is around us.  What tone are you setting? Does it match your goals? Little things make a BIG difference...smile :) before you answer the phone today and you'll hear a difference in your voice...the cool part is the other person will notice that same difference. 

What are you going to do this week that hurts? Stretching is growing and being stretched is the only way to GROW. To do it once is easy, but creating is as a habit of discipline means growth is constant and I think I'm safe in assuming that we all want growth to be a constant in our lives. If you're with me hop on the bus that leaves behind where we are today (and we aren't going back) and join in the growth journey.  Action: What "thing" or purposeful action(s) are you going to do that brings some pain or uneasiness? Know that tomorrow it'll become easier and then a strength! #BetterEveryday

We need ideas to act on for sure. The most important part is ACTION to make it happen. Making it happen from beginning to end and not just 75% of the way complete. Don't get distracted by the next thing so much that we don't complete what we are currently doing.  This week focus on completion and follow up. That is where the magic happens. We need to have the seeds planted, but the results come in the cultivation in order to harvest.  

Sales Trinity Increase Revenue Expand Market-share Reduce Cost If we bring & connect these above with our clients & prospects the sky is the limit. We can't just bring them products, tools &/or services to achieve these goals though. We must CONNECT it to them, how the can implement it in their business with the least amount of growing or change pain as possible.  For today:  When we are prospecting or in meetings is our goal to bring 1 or more of these above to the person? Do we know the products, tools &/or services enough to know how to connect them? If not, are we investing the time to "sharpen our sword" and grow? Are we closing the circle from the meetings when value is brought and accepted from the client/prospect? Are we connecting them to their escrow team, doing a P.E.P. (if needed) and asking for the order? Let's connect the dots today & remember that you are the most important "dot" in the eq...

I found this article at the gym & wanted to share it as today's Motivational Monday. -Colin The Only Productivity Tip You’ll Ever Need By  James Clear     |     Minimalism ,  Procrastination ,  Productivity Ernest Hemingway woke each morning and began writing straight away. He described his daily routine by saying, “When I am working on a book or a story I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as you write.” Hemingway's routine — along with hundreds of other prolific authors, artists, and scientists mentioned in Mason Currey's book,  Daily Rituals: How Artists Work  ( audiobook ) — hints at the most productive strategy I have found for getting things done and making daily progress in the areas that are important to you. Let's talk about the only productivity strategy you'll ever need, why i...

It's not just about the hours you put in, it's about what you put into the hours. Working out this weekend it really hit me. As I was going from machine to machine I took a break for some water and stretching and looked around. There were many people on their phones, talking or seemingly just standing around. There were also those with their head phones on, in a zone getting it done or people working out in pairs spotting and pushing each other. Both can say they "showed up" at the gym, both could probably even say they were there for the "same amount of time" but they will have vastly different results.  A few words jump at me from this: Focus | Productivity | Drive We all have at the least 8 hours of work a day. Are we getting the most out of it, drawing us closer to our goals daily?  

Recognize that everything that you achieve in life is going to be with the help and support of others. Understanding this concept is a key to success personally and in business. There is not lone wolf success, but through collaboration, partnership, learning and growth. Look at your team in all parts of your life (internally in our firm and externally with your business partners) are we working with them to gain more strength and doing the same back for them? What are you doing to build you 'muscle' to bring more strength to your 'team'? MAKE this week great! Grow. Leverage. Excel. Connect. 

Who has ordered something off Amazon.com in the last week? For many many folks then answer is "I have." When people ask me "Where did you get that?" Many time my response is "Amazon." I love referring out great products & the services that I receive that are great. Amazon is great because they remind me & give me permission to do so. That same premise can be applied in our industry as well. When we give great services &/or tools to our business partners do we give them permission to share it with others? Our best conversion rates are warm leads, so this week focus on leveraging our current partnerships into introductions that will lead to new ones.  Make it a great one! (Jeff Bezos is the Founder, Chairman & CEO of Amazon)

Our words aren’t just important in how they impact someone else but also in shaping who we are as well. Our words reinforce either a positive or negative perspective. Our words subtly echo the story we tell ourselves every single day… a story that after a while becomes what we tend to believe. It was a subtle thing, an unconscious word choice but a choice all the same. Here’s the thing… HAVE TO  frames things in a way that says I am obligated or required.  It’s negative in most cases. GET TO  frames it more from a sense of gratitude and appreciation.  It’s positive.  See the difference?  It’s a simple shift of perspective but it can mean a lot over time as we subtly train our brains to respond out of a place of gratitude and thanksgiving versus an obligatory requirement. The truth is, there’s not much in life that we HAVE TO do but there is a lot in life that we GET TO do. We have to prospect or we get to prosp...

Today's thought & encouragement for all of us to look at our day, or activities to see if they are getting us closer to our growth goals or not. Our goal isn't to just be busy, it's to be productive in the field with our clients for our escrow teams.  Keep rocking it out there team getting better each day, growing & achieving great results!

Lions like to hunt  just as much as they love the prize. A part of being a beast is the hunt; it's the hunt that they are excited about. they love the process For us in sales we love the result, but we also need to love the process of getting to the development & close of new business partners. In the field it can get long, but if we love the process, then the days fly buy, our results grow & we form best practices along the way. This can create a compound effect of getting our desired results quicker increasing our conversion rates and thus our productivity increases. When that happens it creates win-win scenarios for you, your escrow partners & clients.  Make it a great day!

A simple reminder for the day to follow up. We could be very close to reaching on of our goals or getting a new client & it's just one simple action, call, etc... away from being ours.  Speaking of follow up. Let's all get out our trackers from the sales contest we had at the end of last year and see how many of those new clients are still opening with us? If some are not, why? That is someone to follow up with if they are in your market or could be a great one to give as a lead to one of your counterparts in that market. ...I'm looking forward to hearing the results from this.

It's about focusing on the customer and not what others are doing. Followers focus on their competition, while winners focus on the goals. YOU are the best in the industry, that is why the competition is looking at you with a target. They are off on the focus and we can keep growing our gap if we stay focused on our goals.  Make it a great day!  

How are we approaching today? When we love Mondays it's a jump-start to success for the week. Hit the starting line hard, not just showing up, but showing up ready to crush it with a plan to execute goals, grow your client base & move market share for your offices. Our goal every day is to bring value to our clients & prospects, thus earning escrows from those people & teams. I'm proud to be beside each one of you. ...don't forget to check in with your escrow teams*

Waking up this morning I really wanted to hit my snooze button. At 6am I had a choice. Hit it and sleep in or get up and do my am workout. I choose to get up and workout. I didn't really 'want' to, but I did know that the decision was going to have a ripple effect on the rest of my day. I could have slept in and it would have felt good at the moment, and that one act would have had little direct impact right then BUT if you compound it then the impact is profound. If it hit the snooze button today it becomes much easier to do the same tomorrow and I will see no result. The same is true for getting up and doing my 14 min workout. I got up today and did it, so it'll be easier to do tomorrow and over time there will be a noticeable difference for the good.  The same is in business. The discipline to do what we should do is HUGE. The calls made today may not directly turn into a new client, but the discipline of today carried into tomorrow will give you results fro...

Please click the link below to a short video:  http://www.yo utube.com/watch?v=N6D5ykiwSdc

There are 3 areas I think we should all take some time to review to take a real assessment at to see where we soared and where we can focus on for next year. Our best asset to our business' is ourselves and those around us. As we get better, so do our surrounding and results.  How did your team/home branch evolve over the past year? We are only as strong as the team(s) that drives us forward. People have diverse strengths, weaknesses, and motivations that are often unpredictable. Assessing the evolution of your team over the past year can provide you with valuable insight into the dynamics of the office, as well as provide insight into what the future holds. What went well, and what didn’t? Every business has its ups and downs; the important thing is to learn from every situation. We need to be intellectually and emotionally honest about what went well over the past year, and what didn’t. How -or- why did your strategy change over the year? Our ...

...different. At the end of the day the product that we have to sell is title and escrow services which is a commodity. Most are priced fairly the same and provide fairly the same coverage. The difference is our people, products, tools and services. This is how we differentiate ourselves in the marketplace, on a daily basis with those that are partnering with us already and those that we would like to work with in the very near future. When we are talking to targets and they let us know what they like about their current situation we have to not just be better then who they are currently with but different.  Intriguing enough that they are curious about the change and are willing to give you a try.

The small details can make the biggest difference in our days, relationships, presentations & soo much more. The large parts of our days are easy to focus on, but many time its the little details that are the tipping point to winning the meeting, client or day. Much like the rudder of a ship is small in size, the impact it make changes the course of the whole ship. The sail can be full of wind moving the ship, but the rudder dictates the direction to the destination. Let's keep focused on every step on our path to growth and success. That one, seemingly small thing that you do, or not do can make the the largest impact.  Make it a great one! -Colin

The quote above is an illustration of the information below. We've all see the chart below and it motivates us for a short while to make sure we are following up. The key is persistently following up, dependably every time. Having a system of follow up in place helps this to happen. When there are steps laid out all we have to do is follow them. Do you have framework for your follow up? If not, let's develop it. You may be soo close to the conversion from prospect to business partner,  but just didn't make that seemingly insignificant 5th call to the prospect. Don't be the bottom miner....soo close.  We are all great achievers that are truly capable of INCREDIBLE achievements....strategic targeting & execution will help us all get there! Crush it today!

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."  -- John F. Kennedy This is a very simple one this week. Let's remember to approach each day, meeting, moment with gratitude & thanksgiving.  We live in a truly blessed country, work for an incredible company & get to enjoy life with those around us.  Have a truly wonderful Thanksgiving!  The action/challenge for this week is to work & live in a state of thanksgiving; all will be better & we will accomplish more. 

Good Morning! What are we achieving today? Not, what are we doing, but what are we achieving? There is a fundamental difference here. We can 'do' a lot of things that may not get us closer to the goal or achievement that we desire. Our goal is not just the activities of having meetings to share products, tools & services with their best practices. Our goal is at the baseline is to drive revenue through market share growth by growing our business partnerships...getting more escrows for our teams. We achieve this by doing the activities above with those that can move our needle.  Let's crush it today by beginning with the end in mind and pursuing that! You're the best in the biz...it's a privileged. Let's finish 2016 strong and keep the momentum into 2017!

Let's all take TNT to our business. Getting things done now, today instead of tomorrow is key. At times we say "We'll do it tomorrow" and tomorrow becomes next week and so on. The Today Not Tomorrow mindset means you don't put it off, but get it done now.  Action for today: What is one thing that you've been putting off that you need to do? Those prospecting calls, follow up, etc... Act today...do it.  Make it a great day! 

Do you surround yourself with anchors or engines? In life there are engines who propel us forward, believe in us and are supportive. Then there are the anchors who weigh everything down. It's important to stop and think; are you surrounding yourself with anchors or engines? Are you an anchor or an engine? We all have the abilities within us to be a great engine to those around us as well as to ourselves. We can be engines of motivation & inspiration to our families, our co-workers, friends, business partners or even somebody chance puts us in front of once.  Make today GREAT!

This speaks to the limiting believes that we all allow to set up camp in our mind. Our job is to break through those limiting beliefs, grow and conquer what we have out ahead of us. Everything we can do now was one something we couldn't do so breaking through barriers is something we do on a daily basis.  Do we ever think I can't make that call? They won't be responsive? Or I don't know how to do this? If those are questions that we face push through them. Simply make the call. Simply ask. If you don't know how there is someone around you that does or resource that will help you achieve that goal. Let's always look to be highly resourceful and kick some butt this week!

Today is a simple reminder that we can't do things/activities occasionally and expect success to be consistent. It's imperative that we practices consistency in order to achieve consistent growth and success. As we are reviewing our own business plans look at the goals that you set our to achieve and if you are on pace to meet them. If so, what were the activities that you did? If not, where did we lack & how can we improve upon them to change the game for Q-4 & 2017? Crush it!!  

What have we learned from our past? Have we grown from it? Learned, applied & succeeded because we learned from a lesson in time? Think about it today. Our past experiences prepare us for what we face today, tomorrow and beyond so let's strive to learn every day to be better every day forward.  How great would it be to be able to look in the mirror every morning and truly say " Today I am better than I was yesterday!" Go out today and #CrushIt !! 

What are we busy about? That is a great question to ask ourselves as we get busy. Busy and productive don't have the same definition. It's important for us to look at our activities and tasks to see where we can better optimize or make best use of our time, resources and talents. As we go into the 4th quarter it's more important than ever to know what we are busy about and evaluate our activities that we are doing to get there.  Challenge for this week: Look at your calendar/schedule and your goals. Is what you have booked and your structure getting you there? Can it be improved? You all are the best and the best only get better by challenging themselves to grow.  Let's win it!

This week I wanted to remind us all on the importance of offense. Driving forward with the intent to achieve your goal & using the resources/team around you in order to achieve that goal or goals. No one in the history of sports has won with the score of Zero. While some may be just looking to maintain we are all looking to move that line, grow or score if you will.  Today's challenge is to look at your day and see what your planned offense is. Do you have strategic meetings or activities where their outcomes are to achieve our goal of bringing value to our partners/targets and in return to get new escrow partnerships and deepen current ones? Think about it, act on it and look at the tools, resources & people we all have access to help you achieve your goals.  Crush it team!!

It may not be glamorous, but gee it sure is effective. In the end consistency beats intelligence, raw talent & skill.  Our goal in the field is to  "Get More Escrows". We do that by bringing value through products, tools, services & a high level of service. Once we get that escrow and client in the door the deeper goal is to keep the client with us. Client  acquisition  is much more difficult than client  maintenance . It's important to strive to excel at both &  consistency  is a HUGE key to  achieving  this.  Crush it team!!

Today is a very, very simple reminder. Don't forget to smile and smile big and smile often. No matter if we are in front of somebody or talking to them on the phone they can easily tell if there is a smile on our face and if it's coming from inside of us. Think about when we come across somebody unexpectedly joyous and how that makes us feel. Let's do that today to the people we come across. From our clients and prospects to the escrow teams in our offices to and we get home tonight. Make it an amazing day!

Happy and loyal producing customers is what we are always shooting for. We purposely bring them things of value (products, tools, services & more) to keep them with our team by providing high value as a strong partnership. One of the highest benefits that we sometimes forget about is asking them to share the good news is there partnership with us to those around. Having their third-party endorsement from a peer goes along way in our industry. You can open a door that previously said maybe been shot or very tough to get through.  Todays encouragement and challenge for today to make sure if we have earned the right to ask for an endorsement for referral to another business partner to do so. It could lead to new partnerships and more growth at a much more rapid pace. Make it a great one! 

You got this! Whatever it is, you got it. That is usually the encouragement we give others, but at times it's the opposite of what we tell ourselves. Excuses are easy to make, but don't pay off. It's the times that we push through with determination that we remember and celebrate the outcomes of, not the times that we decided it wasn't for us or that we'll do it later; many times later never comes.  Our action for today: Believe you can & pursue "it". Be blown away that you did it, because here's a secret.....you CAN! Make it a great one!

Last week I was meeting with the founder of a local mortgage company and as we were touring his office I noticed this on the wall. He and I chatted about it and he let me know these were three things that his mentor shared with him that he continues to instill in everyone of his employees. From the originators to the front desk and everyone in between. Today my encouragement and motivation is simple. If we do these three things success will always be at our doorstep. Do the right thing. Do your very best. Show people you care. Make today great!

Ben Franklin said it very well: " An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." Over the weekend I was thinking about how I have started many books, still yet to finish or downloaded podcasts that just sit on my phone to be listened to. I prepared to grow by using those resources but hadn't put them to use. That's not to say that growth isn't happening, but it could have been at a whole other level. I want to challenge all of us this week to find something that feeds our minds for growth. I have a few that I do listen to, subscribe to or read daily that I have found really put me in a better place. (driving back from Napa Sunday while Danielle slept was able to listen to 4 podcasts on my phone & they were all great...better than listening to the same songs on the radio again) :) Make it a GREAT one team!!                                  Subscribe to Darren Daily (Da...

Fear. It is one of those very short words that can have a huge impact on her life if we allow it to. Many times it will keep us from doing the things that we really want to do and more importantly the things that we are equipped to do. Today my encouragement is to push it to the side and take the shot. Go for it! What ever you're "it" may be seek it, find it, achieve it! 

Trust me...I know that a lot of work goes into on-boarding a new client/business partner & you guys are amazing at purposefully prospecting & converting. This is a simple reminder to us all that getting them to choose us is just the beginning. A few transactions is nice, but becoming their go-to, long term is what our goal is. As they are leaving their previous provider they will notice the loss & try to retain them (if they are good), so it's up to us to remain diligent & complete the on-boarding process. After they have opened up numerous orders over a few months period of time then they are in the business "relationship" with us. Their first few orders are the "dating" period.  Rock it team!!! "If you do what you did in the beginning of the relationship, there won't be an end." -A. Robbins

How do we feel when Monday rolls around? Are we sad because the weekend is over or are we excited for what we get to go do, the people we get to see and what we get to accomplish throughout the week? One of the greatest things that makes the impact on our week is one word and that is our attitudes. It not only affects us but it affects our offices and all those that we are around as well. Below is a little challenge for us all to get a little bit out of our zones compliments of Darren Hardy.  Action for today:  Today, perform (at least)  5 acts of positivity . For instance, you can: – Be friendly to those you don’t know. – Tell someone they did a great job (and mean it). – Use the power of a smile to reverse the tone of a situation. – Enjoy the unexpected, even when it’s not what you originally wanted. – Be a source of energy that lifts those around you. – Show happiness for someone else’s success. – Pay a compliment, even to a total stranger. – Vocalize the beauty of the...