Letting go of the excess baggage

Life is a series of emotional experiences varied by the effect of our environment, people we meet, family, friends, lovers, partners and the list goes on. 

These unique experiences play a role in shaping who we were, who we are and who we are about to become. 

Many of the experiences we collect in life are memorable, treasured and when we recall them fill our hearts with joy and love. 

However, from time to time, we do encounter moments or events that impact us deeply. Experiences that hurt us to our core and give us so much pain we just wonder, how are we going to move on. 

This can cause us to stop, curl up, change who we are, become cautious and suspicious. We know that we never want to feel this way again. 

What we do as we heal is we package these emotions and fear and we let it impact who we are becoming. Most emotional upheavals cause us to change who we are or the direction we may be heading in.  

We can become angry, distrustful, we have triggers that take us back, a word, a tone, a sound.

At an extreme we end up in therapy, we can battle self esteem and confidence issues, we may have breakdowns or suffer depression. 

I have had experiences in my life that have taken me to the edge. 

Its an interesting place to be. 

What I have discovered however, is the human spirit and strength, is an amazing thing. 

Once you decide to step back from the edge you have the ability to rebuild your life with colors that are strong and vibrant. 

Part of the rebuilding though, no matter what emotional experience you are walking away from is to say thank you for the lessons and let go of the fear, the anger, the suspicion. 

You attract into your life what you give out. You have the ability to manifest the outcome. So be very careful of what you do put out. 

When new people come into your life make sure that the baggage you carry, and we all do, is light, full of love and care, lessons that have been learnt and you are ready to create new experiences and lessons. 

Its a bit like going on holiday. Only take the things you need not the whole house.

So let go of the things that don't need to be taken to the next destination.

Who knows what you may find waiting for you if you are just open to it. 

Would anyone miss you?

Can you imagine sitting down with your great grandparents or even your grandparents and explaining to them the world we live in today.

The technology we now have in place would be mind blowing for them. Imagine trying to explain that the mobile phone is all we really need to talk to people, run businesses and stay connected.

The fact that we have connections to people we haven’t even met, thanks to social media platforms such at twitter, facebook and linkedin and we know what is happening anywhere in the world, as it unfolds, through social media rather than the daily papers or the 6pm news. This alone would astound generations gone by.

It’s because of these connections scarcity no longer exists. We can do anything we want with a mobile device and a connection to the internet.  The bottle neck that generations prior to us experienced no longer exists.  

What does this mean for us?

Well, what we do know is that people today are looking for experiences and connections. In fact, most teenagers would rather give up their car and keep their phone as the phone connects them to the rest of the world.

So how are you connecting with your tribe, what stories are you telling them?

Humans are story machines, you need to tell great stories that are memorable and remarkable enough to resonate and spread. No one cares about the facts, they care about the stories.

If one of your colleagues came in with an awesome haircut, you would ask, where did you get that haircut? People remark on the haircut because it was remarkable.

If you had a great massage, the best one you have ever had, no one is going to remark on your massage unless you tell them about it. As the client, you make the experience tangible by sharing it, getting others to connect with the experience and they, in turn, will want the same.

A lot of what we do in real estate is like the haircut and massage. We can run great opens and conduct awesome auctions – very tangible, however how do we make people feel when they interact with us face to face, via the internet or phone; how well are you making the intangible, tangible.

How remarkable is your marketing, the service you deliver, the connections you are building?

They may be remarkable to you but are others going to remark about it.

We create environments by connecting with people, these connections are like links on a chain that you can constantly add to. However to connect with people we need to care about how we make them feel, not just once, but every time we interact with them. You have to care more about the experiences than you do about the transactions.

If you create the connections and feed it with experiences they can remark on, at some point, it will feed you back.

Your customers decide if you are worth remarking on.

A question to ask yourself constantly - if you disappeared from your market place today, would anyone actually miss you?

No matter how large your boards, how big your market share, the tribe you work in will only miss you if you were remarkable to them.

Most of our businesses get noticed. This is different to getting remarked on. The streaker on grand final day gets noticed but the win the Hawks had over the Swans gets remarked on.

If you have not reviewed your business strategy recently or don’t really have one, I would suggest that you review or put one in place immediately. Remember what got you here won’t get you there.

Look for the edge in your business and people, what is your “only” that will blow your competition out of the water.

Just like fashion, remember wedged shoes? They were fashionable, then they weren’t, then they were again. Just because you are remarkable today does not mean you will be tomorrow. So you must constantly invent and reinvest to stay ahead and be remembered.

Being remarkable isn’t enough. Our competitors copy remarkable quickly so you have to be remarkable and valuable to the client at the time they need you.

Our industry is full of databases that no one calls, marketing that too often does not connect with the tribe, service that is average and a pre-conceived reputation with clients that isn’t remarkable. 

What an opportunity!

To be remarkable and valuable is so very easy, most will opt out, however if you are the agent that opts in and provides experiences that are remarkable, creates connections that are constantly added to, understands what your tribe wants because you pay attention, you will never be missed because you will never become extinct.