Real Clues

[RealClues] #307: Make 08 Your Best Year Ever!

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This week at www.LuxuryClues.com
Four Business Planning Tips for Luxury Agents
How to Make Your Luxury Real Estate Ads Stand Out from the
Competition
Inman Real Estate Connect Conference in New York City, January 8-10,
2008 and the Luxury Conclave from January 16-18, 2008 in Scottsdale.
Will you be there?

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Table of Contents
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1. CoachingClues: Start 08 with a Clean Slate
2. Welcome Notes: Make 08 Your Best Year Ever!
3. Reprise: Back to Basics: How's Your Follow Up?
4. Create a Better Life: Your Mother was Right
5. Positive News for Positive Realtors(reg): Plenty of Good News for
2008: How Greenspan and the Other Experts Got It Wrong Again.
6. Featured Products: Uncover the Secrets of Top Real Estate
Performance
7. Increase Your Production with Personal Coaching
8. Give Us Your Feedback on this Newsletter
9. How to Subscribe/Unsubscribe

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1. CoachingClues: Start 08 with a Clean Slate
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Happy New Year! Are you setting goals for 2008? Before you begin, the
most important decision you may make is determining which goals from
2007 to keep and which ones to dump.

Have you ever set a goal and not completed it? If so, are you still
hanging on to that goal or have you let it go? If you would like to
achieve what is really important to you as well as creating more
space and time in your life, now is an ideal time to begin by
cleaning your slate of your old goals.

There are many reasons for letting go of goals you haven't yet
achieved. For example, you may have had the goal of losing ten
pounds. This goal may be something you carried for the last five
years. The energy you spent feeling guilty about the foods you eat,
discussing how you need to go on a diet, and condemning yourself for
not taking action, could be diverted into achieving other important
goals. Letting go of unachieved goals allows new energy and new
opportunities to come into your life. It also makes it easier to take
action because the energy wasted on old goals is now free to be used
elsewhere.

As you select your goals for 2008, identifying what matters is
critical. After cleaning your slate, identify the three or four most
important aspects of your life as well as what gives your life
meaning. What can you not live without? The answers to these
questions represent your core needs and values. Thus, when you write
your goals for 2008, do so with the idea of bringing your goals into
alignment with your core needs and values. Be creative and focus on
activities that feel right for you.

Here are six additional strategies to help you set and achieve your
goals for 2008.

1. Clean out your goal list completely
List each of the goals that you had for 2007. No matter how much you
have done to reach the goal, declare each goal to be complete. Next,
clean the slate by burning your goal list in the fireplace, burying
it in the back yard, or ripping up the list and tossing it in the
trash. Be creative. Cleaning out your list of goals opens the door
for new things to come into your life.

2. Reduce the size of your goal list
How many goals did you declare "complete" from 2007? When you set
your goals for 2008, reduce the size of your goal list by at least 50
percent. If you find yourself resisting this strategy, determine the
percentage of goals that you actually set and achieved. Setting too
many goals reduces your overall success since your energy is
scattered in too many directions. In contrast, keeping your energy
focused on achieving two or three core goals increases your
probability of success. Once you reach or discard your current goals,
add new ones.

3. Identify the top five activities that worked for you in 2008
Be specific. Continue these activities in 2008 because they work.
They also form the foundation upon which to create your new goals for
the upcoming year.

4. Eliminate at least one activity that doesn't support you to feel
great
Whether it's eating a chocolate bar when you're depressed or running
late for an appointment, these short-term behaviors have long-term
consequences, the most serious of which is guilt. The way to
eliminate detrimental short-term behaviors is to ask, "Does this
choice support me in the long term?" If not, choose differently.

5. Focus on process rather than outcome
Rather than focusing on the end goal, focus on what you need to
accomplish at a given moment in time or in a specific day. This
greatly increases your likelihood of success. Also, if you miss
hitting your goal for today, you can start with a clean slate
tomorrow.

6. Baby steps over time result in major changes
Lao Tzu said, "A journey of 10,000 miles begins with a single step."
The behaviors you engage in today are a result of consistent steps
over time. Thus, the way to achieve new goals is to apply the same
strategy. Take small steps over a period of time. For example,
instead of setting a goal to save $10,000, identify small steps you
can take to reach that goal. In this case, you could use coupons at
the grocery store. Place the money you save into your bank account.
The same thing is true for eliminating negative behaviors. Rather
than tackling everything you want to change at once, choose one
positive goal to implement and one behavior you would like to
eliminate. Complete these two goals before working on anything else
on your list. This will reduce your stress as well as making it
easier to create long term, sustainable change.

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2. Welcome Notes
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Welcome to our new subscribers this week. Each week RealClues
provides you with great strategies to improve both your business and
your life. If you find this issue of RealClues helpful, take a moment
to hit the "forward" button and send it to another friend in the
business.

Did you know that many top agents have their best year ever when the
market is slow? The reason is that when markets slow down, sellers
need agents who have strong negotiating and strong marketing skills.
Strong agents aren't afraid to tell the truth about what it takes to
sell a property. Strong buyers' agents know how to motivate reluctant
buyers to take advantage of the slow down. Sadly, the strong market
over the last few years has allowed many people to become licensed
and achieve some success with little or no training. What will make
or break your 08 will be your personal level of expertise and market
knowledge.

There are a wide variety of things that you can do to support your
business success in 2008. The first is to take one hour and to write
down your income and transaction goals. Next, look at what was
successful for you in 2007. Expand these areas and delete those that
did not produce sufficient income. Then, try one thing new over the
next 4 to 6 weeks. If that works, then make it permanent. If not, try
something else. The goal is to build on what works for you.

The next step is to actively pursue regular training. Whenever I
speak, it's always the top producers who are sitting in the front
row. Why would someone who sells $50 million a year need more
training? Because the best of the best know that you must constantly
be learning to stay on top of your game. They attend seminars, buy
training programs, read, and listen to new ideas (and the best of the
old) on a continuous basis. If you do nothing else in 2008, resolve
to turn your car into a rolling university and listen to training.
Our audio CD programs are excellent for this purpose as well as our
www.ListenandLearnRealEstate.com audio training programs that are
available on your computer or downloadable to your MP3 player or
iPod. Turn those dead times when you're waiting for a client or
caught in traffic in to your personal growth time.

May you and yours have a wonderful 2008!

Warmly, Bernice Ross, MCC, and Byron Van Arsdale, MCC
www.RealEstateCoach.com, www.LuxuryClues.com, www.RossdalePress.com,
www.ConferenceCallTraining.com, and www.TeleconferenceLine.com

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3. Reprise: Back to Basics: Prospecting Expired Listings
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As part of our Back to Basics in 2008, we're reviewing the best of
the tried and true. Expired listings are a great way to build your
business, especially when the market begins to turn. This article
will help you convert more expireds into closed sales for your
business.

http://www.realestatecoach.com/articles_archive/art200611expired1.html

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4. Create a Better Life: Your Mother Was Right!
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If you're carrying extra pounds from the holidays, please read Good
Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. Although It is a somewhat
challenging, the book gets you the straight skinny on the scientific
literature on weight gain, cholesterol, diabetes, and heart disease.
Bottom line: Your mother was right--sweets and starches make you fat.
They also give you diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and high
cholesterol. Taubes' book turns our thinking about weight gain upside
down. The bibliography alone is over 95 pages in length. The research
clearly shows that our current obesity epidemic, as well as deaths
due to diabetes are tied to sugar and refined carbohydrate
consumption, specifically high fructose corn syrup.

If you are considering making a lifestyle change for the better in
2008, whether it's low carb or low fat, there's no downside in eating
more fresh foods and avoiding sugar and starches. There are a number
of terrific low carb books. If you haven't discovered The Best Recipe
by the folks at Cooks Illustrated, it is a wonderful resource of
amazing recipes, many of which are low carb. If you're going low-fat,
there's also a Best Recipe Lite Cookbook that is excellent as well.

If you know someone with Crohn's Disease or other serious digestive
problems, the "Specific Carb Diet" has worked miracles for many
users. Search "Specific Carb Diet Recipes" on Google for their diet
and recommended recipes.

Regardless of which route you choose to take, proteins eliminate
hunger and carbs stimulate it. The less processing the food has, the
better it is for you. Eat fresh whenever possible, enjoy healthy
proteins, fruits, and vegetables, cut back on the grains and carbs,
and become a healthier you in 2008!

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5. Positive News for Positive Realtors(reg)
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Lots of good news for 2008! The press is still on its rant about a
potential recession. Holiday spending was up, jobs numbers are good,
and manufacturing jobs are returning to the U.S. because of the weak
dollar. Check out what you need to be telling your clients this week
in our Positive News for Positive Realtors(reg). The so-called "free
fall" in prices is a joke. Tune in to find out why.

http://www.listenandlearnrealestate.com/news.html

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6. Featured Products: Uncover the Secrets of Top Real Estate
Performance
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In just five short hours all from the convenience of your car or
office! Now you can learn the secrets used by the most highly
acclaimed coaches in the country. Rather than spending thousands of
dollars and three years in training (like we did), you can now get
the equivalent of a year of full coaching for less than the price of
a single month in most coaching programs. How? Get our "Get Balanced
or Get Crazy" program. In it, Byron coaches me through six different
scenarios that happened during my real estate career that hurt my
production. At the end of each section, there are 10 tips to improve
your business. That's 60 tips--8 more than you need to complete one
per week in 2008! If you want a great business and a great life, this
simple audio CD program can help you reach the production level you
seek while affording you all the time you need to enjoy life as well.

To order this powerful program, click on the link below:

http://realestatecoach.com/training/coach.html

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7. Increase Your Production with Personal Coaching
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Looking for a well-trained coach who knows the real estate business?
Our coaching team can help you increase your production and make your
dreams come true! Send an e-mail to Shane@RealEstateCoach.com and
we'll help find the right coach for you.

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8. Give Us Your Feedback On This Newsletter
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We want your feedback-to share your thoughts and suggestions, please
e-mail us at Shane@RealEstateCoach.com.

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9. How to Subscribe/Unsubscribe
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Visit our Web site, http://www.RealEstateCoach.com to
subscribe/unsubscribe to RealClues.

Copyright (c) 1996-2008, RealEstateCoach.com and Teleclass4U.com,
LLC. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce, copy or
distribute RealClues as long as this copyright notice and full
information about contacting the contributors to this newsletter is
attached.

Contributors to this newsletter:
Bernice Ross, MCC, and Byron Van Arsdale, MCC, Owners,
www.RealEstateCoach.com, www.LuxuryClues.com,
www.ConferenceCallTraining.com; www.RossdalePress.com; and
www.TeleconferenceLine.com
Shane Bowlin, REC General Manager

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