Online Newsletter for the Week Ending March 18

QUOTE: "Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." - Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essays

BLACK BAGS AND STANDING OUT by Jon Gordon. This article makes so much sense. The “black bag” syndrome as I like to call it applies everywhere. When our cruise ship pulled into New Orleans we were told, along with all the other passengers, to pull our bags from the hundreds of bags that have been set out for everyone. Do you have any idea how many of those bags were black? My guess would be about 80% of them. What are you doing to stand out from all the other real estate agents in the area? http://www.jongordon.com/newsletter-031411-stand-out.html

THE CURE FOR ENTHUSIASM DEFICIT DISORDER by Joe Tye. Joe hits this one out of the park! http://tinyurl.com/4k5b2x2

CAN LEADERS INFLUENCE WITHOUT AUTHORITY? HARDLY! Great article by Jeffrey Gitomer. Everyone in our Market Center is or should be a leader. This article applies not only to be a leader but also to being a great sales adviser to your customers. http://www.gitomer.com/articles/ViewPublicArticle.html?key=ajcdMibak3OVg%2Fn5Q%2Fj8Jg%3D%3D

HOW TO MAKE WORK-LIFE BALANCE WORK, by Nigel Marsh. This is short, entertaining and far more importantly a great video if you wish to have more balance in your life and live a meaningful existence. http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/nigel_marsh_how_to_make_work_life_balance_work.html

WWW.GOALSCAPE.COM. This is a computer program to record and track your goals. Highly recommend you visit the site and watch the demo video that explains how the program works. It provides you with a very good video graphic of your goal(s), how much time you are spending achieving your goal(s) (or not) and the resources spent to achieve your goals (or not). Since it is computerized and can be placed on your desktop and cell phone, it places your goals front and center to where your focus needs to be. The cost is $124.00. http://www.goalscape.com/

A HUMAN TOUCH FOR DIGITIZING BUSINESS CARDS, by Gaylord Dewald. This is an article on an IPhone APP that literally takes a photo of a business card, digitizing the information and sends the info back to your phone. (Blackberry is working on a similar app). The App is called the CardMunch. Good article: http://www.inman.com/buyers-sellers/columnists/gahlorddewald/a-human-touch-digitizing-business-cards

PAPERLESS NOTE: Please enter something in the Cooperative Agent portion of Greensheets. If you are a dual agent, simply enter DUAL AGENT. If there is a coop agent involved, fill in the blanks.

RENTAL CONCERN: Not sure how you can be the agent involved on a lease without doing a very thorough walk through with the prospective tenant documenting the exact condition of the property being leased. You want to protect your owners against damaged caused by the tenant during occupancy and you want to protect your tenant from being responsible for damage that pre-existed prior to occupancy. Yet so many paperless submissions fail to include any result of a final walk through inspection. You really ought to be taking lots of photographs to protect all parties to the transaction.