RawlsGroup.org

Prior to starting my career in real estate, I was a tennis coach. I actually got my real estate license and started coaching tennis while I was in college, and before I had graduated from Georgia Tech, I had worked my way to becoming the assistant coach for the women’s tennis team there. Unlike professional tennis, college players can be coached during changeovers in match play.
 
One day I had gone down to the court where our #1 player, Kristi, was playing the number #1 player from another ACC school. They were in the first set and Kristi was losing because she was missing her first serve, giving her opponent too many opportunities to “tee off” on her slower-paced, second serve. When I asked her what was going on, her answer was, “I don’t know. My serve’s just not working for me today.” Her answer struck me as amazing. It was amazing to me because this was a very talented athlete who had probably been playing tennis competitively since the age of 4 or 5 and she was telling me that her serve ‘just wasn’t working today.’
 
I began asking Kristi some questions, hoping that she would quickly determine that there were better answers than luck regarding the results of her serve. “Where’s the ball going?” I asked. “It’s hitting the net.” “And what are the two biggest reasons for a serve hitting the net?” “A low toss or I drop my shoulder,” she said. “Or maybe BOTH,” I insinuated. “All you’ve got to do is REACH for it. Get your toss up there and REACH for it and you’ll be fine. You can win this match!”
 
In any competitive sport (tennis, golf, football, basketball, soccer, baseball, REAL ESTATE, etc.), minor adjustments must always be made in order to achieve a winning outcome. Everyone goes in with a strategy or a game plan, almost every one of which must be altered during play to accommodate reality. The reality is that the sun, the wind, the rain, the temperature, the energy, the mindset, the mechanics, the air in the ball, the tension of the strings…all put pressure on any game plan and challenge a player to make the necessary adjustments to their game in order to win.
 
How are you doing with your adjustments? Do you feel like your business plan is working? Is what you are doing with your time getting the results you want? Do you feel like you are playing more offense or defense? Do you know what you need to stop doing or start doing? Do you know what you need to do more of? Do you know what you need to do less of? Are you willing to admit that what you do and what you don’t do are the most important ingredients for your success?
 
While everyone’s business is different, there are a few components that are foundational to anyone’s success. With that in mind, here are a few tips that will certainly help you improve your game:
1. RECONNECT WITH YOUR “BIG WHY.” Why do you want to win? What will winning provide for you? Do you have a clear mission, vision, values and beliefs? How can you provide tremendous value to those you will serve? Having these answers clearly in your mind is essential for any top performer to maintain the proper perspective when facing the adversity that exists in any competitive situation worth winning. Winning is never easy, and it’s practically impossible without emotionally connecting with the right mindset.
 
2. IMPROVE YOUR SKILLS AND IMPROVE YOUR SCRIPTS. Practice, practice, practice. Go to training. Shadow great performers. Go to www.kwconnect.com and watch the videos. Go to www.agentmountain.com and learn from great agents and Gary Keller. Read MREA. Read MREI. Read SHIFT. Sign up for coaching. Come to your team meetings. Focus on successful people who have already found the answers you are searching for. This market requires you to be learning based and challenges you to constantly ask yourself, “Can I succeed tomorrow with what I know and do today?”
 
3. SPEND 30 MINUTES MORE EACH DAY LEAD GENERATING. I know that we preach lead generating 3 hours a day for success. I also know that if you are lead generating ZERO hours each day with consistency, the thought of 3 hours could intimidate you to the point of doing nothing. So, do this: Commit to 30 minutes more time lead generating every day. That’s it. If you aren’t doing anything consistently to lead generate each day, 30 minutes could change your life. If you’re doing 30 minutes, do an hour. The fact is that the activity of lead generation is the number one required ingredient for your success. Just add 30 minutes of real lead generating activity to your schedule each day and watch your business and your life improve. When it works, you can only imagine what a whole 3 hours could do!
 
That’s it. It’s time for you to get back on the court. And by the way, Kristi did adjust her serve that day. She got her toss up and she kept her shoulder up, and she won the match. You can, too.
 
“Go get ‘em!”
 
Your #1 Fan…
 
SHAUN

Superstars…

I recently had a conversation with David Pollay, who, among other things, is the author of an upcoming book titled “The Law of the Garbage Truck.” I’ve been reading this book, which is full of messages and strategies that remind us that we always have a choice when it comes to who and what we let into our lives. David Pollay creates a vivid picture of the garbage that so many people carry around with them and how they tend to dump their garbage on those of us who allow them to do so. Best of all, he challenges us to declare our personal and professional lives “No Garbage Trucks! Zones.”

When you think about it, our inputs determine our outputs. What we take in determines what we put out. That’s why the great Jim Rohn would say, “If you want the stuff on the highest shelves, then you have to stand on a higher stack of books.” The better the books you read, the smarter you get. The smarter you get, the better you think. The better you think, the better you do. The better you do, the more you succeed. The more you succeed, the more significant you can become. The more significant you become, the greater the legacy you leave. Rohn said that “the best things in life are usually located on the highest shelves, where not everyone can reach them.” What a great reminder he was of how simple it is to succeed. I think David Pollay would agree with Jim Rohn, because his book underscores the notion of “garbage in, garbage out.

Unfortunately, what’s easy to do is even easier not to do. As a broker who counsels with hundreds of professionals each year, it amazes me how success boils down to one simple decision. The most successful people I know have simply DECIDED to succeed. They haven’t decided to succeed as long as it’s easy, or as long as the market doesn’t shift, or as long as they can afford it, or as long as someone doesn’t outmaneuver or outwit or outplay or underprice them. They decide to succeed. Period.

Think about this: When obstacles present themselves in your life, do you feel that they threaten your success? Most people do. I used to, too. Then, I realized that the more successful people in my life have a very different perspective of their obstacles. Because their success is certain, they perceive obstacles merely as ingredients in their ultimate success – ingredients that are simply part of the journey. I cannot begin to tell you how much freedom we can gain from improving our perspective around this issue.

If you think that your success has more to do with what you do (or what’s done to you) than how you think, I disagree. There are plenty of examples of people who have succeeded on the outside at very high levels, only to lose it all because they never were that successful in their own minds. People make millions of dollars in business only to become bankrupt because they never really believed they were worth the success they achieved. People perform at the highest levels in sports only to end up in an eternal slump because they never really believed that they could truly be “the best” at anything. If you want to succeed in business, in your relationships, in your faith, in anything, then you have to DECIDE to succeed at it…for better or for worse.

This year Gary Keller was explaining to a group of people why he plans his vacations and his play time at the beginning of each year BEFORE he plans his work time. He said, “I do this because I know I’m going to work hard and I’m going to need it. And I know I’m going to be successful, so I’ll be able to afford it.” Brilliant. The bottom line is that Gary books vacations way ahead of time because he already KNOWS that he’s going to work hard and be successful. Gary just happens to be one of the most successful people I know.

Year after year, too many agents “wait and see” before they plan their vacations and put their deposits down. They “wait and see” how their income is before they invest in a 33 touch program designed to produce massive results. They “wait and see” how their year is going to turn out before they create leverage and hire talent to help them succeed. This strategy all too often results in vacations never taken, touch programs never developed, talent never hired and results never achieved. In the Keller Williams course Quantum Leap, we teach that if you don’t plan your time, then someone else will!

It’s now June. We’re almost halfway through the year. Now is the time to make a pit stop and check your inputs, defend yourself against the garbage trucks who want to dump their mediocrity on you, and commit yourself to the decisions you need to make in order to have the life and business that you want. If you’ve been a passenger in your own life’s car, then move over and settle into the driver’s seat. Take control. Reconnect with your BIG WHY, re-focus on your goals and intentions, improve the books you read, improve the company you keep and DECIDE to succeed – rain or shine.

It’s been an awesome year so far, and I believe that the second half of 2010 may be one of the most critical times of the rest of our careers. Deciding to succeed and doing the time-tested, proven things that produce results is going to be a crucial part of our daily routines. Look at the results you want to achieve – that you REALLY want to achieve – and then make a list of the things that you do each day that directly impact, or cause, those results. This is a fantastically simple exercise that can call you out on a lack of focus or commitment to your goals. Often times what we want and what we are doing seem worlds apart. Re-evaluating where you are now and re-committing yourself to what you want and why you want it could be the most important thing you do this year.

Thanks for all you are doing to make a difference. And know that if you want to discuss any of your strategies and accountabilities, our leadership team is ready, willing and able to help you succeed at any level you wish to succeed. No one succeeds alone, and in this company, you’re never alone. So be sure to take advantage of all of the good stuff we have created here to make sure that we have a productive and fun environment in which to work and prosper.

DECIDE…

Shaun Rawls
OP – The Rawls Group – Keller Williams Realty
RD – The NY Tri-State Region – Keller Williams Realty
www.RawlsGroup.org

Superstars…
 
It’s Saturday, and I’m trying to absorb all of the amazing efforts that were put forth by us and other Keller Williams agents all over the country for RED DAY on Thursday. Facebook has provided a never-ending sea of pictures and comments and testimonials that demonstrate the power of focus and the impact an entire company can have on the nation with just one good day of community service work – together. In practically every state of this country, KW agents banded together for what has to be one of the largest corporate “do gooder” events in the nation. Clothes were donated, food was donated, houses were repaired, streets were cleaned, cities were transformed, blood was donated, the sick were helped, the elderly were cared for, and cities and states all over the country declared May 13th “Keller Williams Red Day” by proclamation.
 
All of this effort was started just one year ago, making this past week the SECOND annual RED DAY for Keller Williams. The first year was amazing enough, and this year was even bigger and more impactful. I can barely imaging how big this thing can actually get. What I’m most thankful for is that I’m a part of all this goodness – that every one of us who enjoys the privilege of being with a company that sets the bar for “walking the talk” gets to experience, first hand, the rewards of giving back as a part of a collective whole.
 
When I was a kid, I remember my grandmother setting up a giant loom in one of the rooms of her house, and she and her sisters and friends would work tirelessly to make patchwork, quilted blankets. They would take little squares of different fabrics and they would assemble and sow them together to make what seems like the world’s most soft and comforting blankets. Prior to becoming blankets, there were just lots of fragments of fabric, without much of a purpose. Together, with the work of some really talented ladies, those fragments became wonderful blankets that would comfort and warm generations to come.
 
RED DAY seems a lot like those patchwork quilts to me. All of us working on our local fragments of community service, being woven together on a much larger scale, having a great impact locally, regionally and nationally, and leaving a legacy that will inspire future generations of Keller Williams associates. RED DAY is, perhaps, this company’s greatest demonstration of the culture, the focus and the synergy that all KW associates share.
 
Whatever your role was for RED DAY, I want to thank you for doing your part to insure that this company leads by example. Sometimes it’s easy to forget what a significant piece of a large puzzle we truly are. However, RED DAY reminds us all that the consistency, the quality and the commitment of our associates is alive and well all over America.
 
I’m so proud to be in business with you. Thanks again for making RED DAY a tremendous day of giving.
 
Your #1 Fan…
 
Shaun