Marie, Natalie, Trish and myself from the Lois Buckett Real Estate Team have just returned from the Australian Real Estate Conference (AREC) 2010 Conference in Sydney. As the name implies this was an opportunity to get together with industry leaders and other like minded agents across Australia and New Zealand.
To say that the experience was inspiring is an understatement.
DAY ONE
With speakers such as Erik Wahl, Edward de Bono and Sir Bob Geldof gracing the stage on Sunday 16 May the focus was on “The Art of Sales Excellence”, “Lateral Thinking” and “Reaching Your Dream”.
All 3 speakers were captivating and succinct and truly offered the audience an insight into their success and a look at the struggles along the way.
Quotes and Snippetts:
Erik Wahl shared an interesting acronym for FEAR – False Evidence Appearing Real. As fear is often the governing factor in our inability to commit to change it is refreshing to be able to identify what Fear actually is!
He recommends 20 minutes each day of reckless abandonment in an effort to break outside of the “Comfort Zone”. Try eating dinner backwards – or even better- without using your hands.
A quote from Robert Frost “ Our mind is a beautiful organ, it starts the minute we wake up and continues working right up until we get to work!”
According to Bono “The space of excellence and opportunity is like the silence between the notes.”
Edward de Bono is the creator of the term lateral thinking and has written 62 books, including “Lateral Thinking and Six Thinking Hats” the theory of which has been adopted across the world.
He has a favourite word that he has invented – EBNE – Excellent But Not Enough and adopts this mode of thought in all that he does. With such insights as 90% of errors of thinking are errors of perception and the CORT program which focuses on thinking creatively.
Sir Bob Geldof was captivating in his summation of his life to date and it was fascinating to have such a high-profile individual telling us in his own words the trials, tribulations and achievements that he has experienced over his lifetime. But, most importantly what he did with it all.
Sir Bob encouraged the audience to build a culture within their given field – a culture of ideas where failure is not recognised as a governing factor.
He quoted the following:
G B Shaw “All change comes through UNreasonable people”
WH Murray “The moment one definitely commits oneself – all else comes. What ever you can do, or dream you can, just begin it.”
Ghandi “If you want change, first change yourself.”
Now you may be asking yourself, “What does all of this have to do with Real Estate”? As was pointed out by several of the esteemed speakers over the whole event; as agents we deal not just in the commodity of property, but, most importantly with people’s lives.
The sale, purchase or rental of premises is often aligned with major changes in an individual’s circumstances and the manner in which an agent approaches and manages a listing can often have a dramatic affect on the experience and final outcome.
This is why I encourage all the staff to “Look outside the square” and to “Put the shoe on the other foot” in all situations that come up. The behind the scenes work in our real estate office is the glue that holds it all together and demonstrates the passion and commitment of each and every team member.
I look forward to sharing more of the AREC experience over the next week.
