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How To Deal With Real People.

By Filed Under: miscellany

The last post that I put out there seemed a little more defensive than I am. We live in a world, for better or worse, that requires that we get along with people. Most of the people that we have to deal with are going to have the qualities of the incompetent. And most of the time, we do our best when we help other people.

The problem is, being available, approachable, and not imitating the vast majority of the earth that is downtrodden. The challenge is to be authentic, unique, and completely yourself…and not let “bad” influences dictate the course of your actions.

To not be one of those idiots who loudly trumpet (so you can hear it) “I don’t care what anyone thinks.” Yes, buddy. Better to say: I don’t wanna be influenced by the thoughts of the teaming masses.

The truth? Authenticity is sexy, it sells. Claiming a unique perch, and living or dying by that works. We know what a Mercedez-Benz is , but we have no clue what a Ford is. We know what to expect at Nordstrom, but not at Sears. Being really original is gonna offend some people, natch. Having “low prices, always” means that you’ll sell junk, and there will be certain people that leave in droves.

But…

It’s better in EVERY way to have a few raving fans…

…who evangelize.

…who love you.

…who want to see you do well.

…than a bunch of people that will “usually” return your call.

And to be different, you gotta think different, and do different, and act different. I’m not talking being a little better at the margins–but that is important. I’m talking about being RADICALLY DIFFERENT THAN OTHER PEOPLE so that you can have a RADICALLY DIFFERENT outcome.

That’s all for today. Tomorrow? Lots of shit goes live.

You Simply Cannot Fake Autheticity

By Filed Under: Start Here
office_revenue_october_2007.gif

I get some criticisms about my “personality” a lot.

  • I’m abrasive.
  • I talk too fast.
  • I bulldoze over people.
  • I’m arrogant.
  • I don’t listen to other people’s point of view.

To that I say (in order)

  • You have stupid ideas.
  • You think too slowly.
  • You are a milquetoast.
  • Effectiveness isn’t arrogance.
  • Why would I listen to people that are repeatedly inept?

Nobody can stand anything resembling a display of ability. It makes everyone around mad, it hurts everyone’s ego. And, it draws ire and venom like nothing else. For too long I took to heart, the fears of the incompetent, and made them my own. For too long, I made the aimless and nebulous worries an excuse not to act.

It’s possible to be ridiculously good at many things. I apologized for ability, and let it atrophy. I appologized for clarity, and let it drift away. I let the attitudes of those who don’t impact me far more profoundly than I should have. Here: This graphic was passed out at our last meeting:

office_revenue_october_2007.gif

This is not an anomalous picture; I’m usually around half or more of the revenue; doing more than 4 others combined efforts. I’m not “raking it in, either.” I’m doing alright, but the rest of the people must be starving.

Why do I let their critiisms in? Why would I value their advice? What can they offer me? Why let them lecture me?

I’m not saying that we should not treat people without respect, but in that venue, they are no more qualified to give me advice than I am qualified to give Bill Gates advice on how to be an entrepenuer. But I have to listen, I have to validate, and I have to coddle…or else I’m an asshole.

I got a diatribe from someone about producing deals. I had to listen to this thing for ten minutes, about how my “service” wasn’t high enough. (About 70% of my deals are from referrals from Realtors, the rest, referrals from cusotmers….)

After the insinuation that I’m being dishonest (from a guy who I saw commit fraud) I interrupted: “I don’t want the business that you have, and so I won’t do the things that you do.”

The guy was looking for justification for his role in the businesss…IF he can’t outsell me, his ego requires the manufacturing of achievement-some metric where he’s better/stronger/more than me. His ego requires that he’s better at something than I am…and rather than compete with me, he does that!

It’s HARD to be uniquely valuable, uniquely insightful, authentic, productive, and different. It’s easy to swim across the grain and to swim upstream. And NOBODY ELSE wants you to do it because it’s an affront to them. Examples:

“He’s not really frugal, he’s a failure that has no money…”

“He’s getting his business because he steals…”

“He only had one idea/got lucky once” (i.e. the Mark Cuban attacks)

“Sure, he’s good at this, but I’m good at (non sequitir).”

“Nobody likes him.”

The danger of listening to (or even being around) the mediocre:

  1. You become like them. You want to screw up your own life? Fine. But HOW DARE YOU OBSTRUCT PEOPLE FROM THEIR DREAMS! HOW DARE YOU, WHO WON’T TAKE A RISK, DISPENSE ADVICE ON ANYTHING?
  2. You accept their standard! Look, I wanna compare myself to better people than me. I wanna reach and change, and grow in effectiveness, insight and value. How can I do that if i hang out with idiots? Sure, I can be king shit of turd mountain, but who wants that?
  3. You lose the sense of never ending possibility and youth. Man, the unifying quality of the mediocre is that they are already old and set. Their goals might be to get
  4. You start to self censor You have better ideas than most mediocre people. You censor the good ones.

Finally, four things to keep you from becoming medicore:

  1. Look at real metrics to discern competence. If you’re a blogger, how many long term readers do you have? If you’re a salesperson, what percent of your industry does better than you or does worse?
  2. Don’t let your ego lie to you. If someone out performs you, figure out why. Is it a connection they’ve made,skill or style they have?
  3. Have a big damn dream. No matter what iti s, don’t settle. No matter what you’re doing, don’t lose the sense of endless possibility that goes along with having great dreams.
  4. Build creativity from a base of consistency. First, crush the game that you’re playing. Then, go into blue oceans.

Slow Down the Beginning to Speed Up the Ending…

By Filed Under: miscellany

So I’m about 60% of the way through building the loan process for my customers. I set out with the goal to have a very predictable loan process that could close all loan types in ten days. The industry average is three-to-for weeks. I wanted to cut that up for a number of reasons. If I never get the process right–to the point of a guarantee–I still benefited immensely (lesson: put yourself out there).

With the outcome–speed–being the primary function, there are a lot of different requirements on that process. One example is the dreaded “workaround”. Often in the mortgage industry, some documentation will come up later in the process that wasn’t disclosed–or asked about–up front. An example would be major write offs on your taxes. There are other issue–property seasoning, asset seasoning, declining income…all of which come up on less than 2% of all loans, but all of which can make the deal skid out and fall into the ditch.

The industry tolerates a certain amount of “oh hell,” in the business. To close in 10 days, you gotta get that out, so you gotta collect the things that have made deals die or get delayed, and ask the questions up front. If the customer cannot complete the application, you have to inform all parties that you have an incomplete application, and are thus not on the clock.

To get faster, you have to have a process that anticipates delays, even unpredictable ones. To get faster…you have to have well established, rock solid processes and a commitment to whatever throughput that your industry calls for.

It used to take me ten minutes to take an application, and I was proud of that. “Hey, I’m in and out in ten minutes…” If the file was a solid, A-paper deal, with no surprises, then I’d be in great shape. Asking only the minimum questions makes this job harder, so now I have about a half-hour application process, and I set expectations more solidly.

This is FASTER and MORE EFFICIENT because I know if the deal is–or isn’t–going to go through, and what the trouble spots are going to be. An extra 20 minutes covers questions about assets, write offs, past credit histories…questions that I didn’t formerly ask, and questions that allow me to confidently say, “Hey, we’re gonna have loans done in ten calendar days, 100% of the time,” and mean it.

So, if you’re trying to gain velocity/inventory turns/whatever, what steps can you take to speed yourself up? How can you think about your procss to gain speed?

Jack of All Trades Doesn’t Always Apply: Some People Are Just Smarter.

By Filed Under: Start Here

(note: I have a ton of stuff to get out there tonight–maybe a ton of it will become a post, maybe not).

Your mind automatically finishes the following sentence: Jack of All Trades….

And we all know that type. The “Experts” on everything, dispensing knowledge without thought, and giving direction of dubious value (but regular frequency). I see people (largely because I sell for a living) bouncing around from job to job or company to company. They’ve done a lot, but never well.

And then there are others–and I’m sure you know them. The Physician that is a world class violinist, the Attorney who knows five languages. Ben Franklin, who charted the gulf stream, assisted in creating the Declaration of Independence. It’s not impropper to be good at different things.

The difference between someone who is good at a lot of different things, and someone who floats like a drifter is competence, ability, and commitment. Mostly, commitment. Some people are just plain “Better” at things. Some people do things right, plainly, and without showing off. I would think that the “Master of None” comes from people that drift, gain a little experience, fail, but are somehow left from the experience as “world class experts.”

…that nobody wants to talk to.

….because their next big thing is just around the bend.

….because the knowledge that they have is blunted by the fact that–at the core of their being–they are not committed, not competent, and they are full of only sound and fury.

If you aren’t committed to winning the game you’re playing, then you give yourself the mental outs, and aimlessness that begets incompetence. If you’re doing something, REALLY DO IT. Be sure to be the best, most, fastest, anything “est”. Subordinate your ego to being effective, and don’t insist on patting yourself on the back for achieving low end mediocrity.

The thing about life is this:

Man, the time is gonna pass anyway. Suck every drop of marrow out of it. See where your limits are. Stretch them.

GTD Commitment #2 I has a bucket.

By Filed Under: Achieving Goals
bucket.jpg

I has A Bucket GTD BucketOne tennant of GTD is the weekly review.

Basically–you put everything out of your mind and onto a device of either high tech (voice recorders) or low tech (jotter) design. You then have one inbox, and process everything in order that you get to it. You do stuff that takes less than 2 minutes, you drop/delete what you can, you delegate what’s not yours, and you defer the longer-than-two minute stuff that you need to do–just not right now.

So, for list number 2/2, I’m going to give you my buckets….all of this stuff gets processed at least once a week, most of it more often.

  1. Google Notebook: Being able to hit ALT + N to get to my notebook has been the single biggest reason that I switched to Firefox. I have: Stuff to buy, Books to read, ops manual, chris todo, someday/maybe blog/webcast home…stuff for mike (shared, naturally), message log (to record messages I get), music & mobird to get (when someone plays a cool song)
  2. A little notebook. Staples sells em 4.5 by 3.25. (not on catelog at staples, oddly). Carry it with you at all times–even in the shower.
  3. A bigger notebook. I carry a big old “man purse” with me everywhere I go. This has more of my “stuff” in it, and more of the things I am “to do” in it.
  4. A (too) cheap voice recorder: compared to the current one
  5. jott.com/email: I use google to put stuff on my todo list; it’s a filter that I can use to make this work.
  6. Single sheets of paper- I have them throughout my office, I stuck notes on them for stuff to do.
  7. ACT! to dos. (This is the worst system I have; I ignore way too much of this).

This is where I put stuff right now–then I do a sunday sweeep–every sunday night from 7p-10p, and I blast through what I can do.  I think that I need to make my review–as the Author suggested on Friday, AND on sunday, so I’m mentally ready.

I’ll tell you this:  I don’t have nearly as much stress.

Now, I’m not yet fully immersed in GTD. I’m about 40% of the way there–yet it has already probably created a 3 fold increase in the work that I do. I think that when fully implemented, I’ll see a (literally) 10 fold increase in the work that I’m capbable of getting done. I am reclaiming a lot of my turf via GTD and I am eager to see what more I can do.

Scott Ginsberg re -awakened my precociousness, the sense of expanding possibility that was once intrinsic. Was a huge kick in the ass about 4 months ago. GTD reawakened my command over my environment–the notion that I’m the captain of everything.

Probably the two most important finds this year.

List mania continues tomorrow!

Buckets…Processing…and Ditching.

By Filed Under: Achieving Goals

Right now, I’m in the midst of my first full blown GTD crisis.

Edit:  somehow got put into my sock drawer.  By me.  

I lost my jotter. It’s part of the GTD ethos to collect everything somewhere and trust it. I had about 40 notes; somedays/maybes, etc, in there, and I can’t find the thing anywhere. HOWEVER, I don’t feel that horrible about it because, chances are, I would have been no closer to doing any of the things in there anyway, so there’s that.

But…GTD is having a geometric impact on my own life, for a lot of reasons–I’ll list them:

  1. Enlightened…It thinks like I (and others) naturally think. Enlightened common sense.
  2. BIAS TOWARDS ACTION: It frees you to DO the lower level stuff…so you can focus on higher level thinking.
  3. ELEVATION As you get more lower level stuff knocked out, you can elevate your goals.
  4. Low Stress You don’t have nagging things in the back of your mind.
  5. Energy–you can rev yourself up by doing little stuff.
  6. FREEDOM I don’t have to remember anything anymore–I just trust the system.
  7. Someday/Maybe. Wow. If ever a category fit, it was someday/maybe. Permission to drop stuff is implied in the “maybe”….but you keep it around just to think about it.
  8. Lists. It encourages list based thinking, and keeping lists.
  9. Preparedness: You will be prepared and “ready for anything” when you apply this system.
  10. Coherent and comprehensive: since it’s fully custom, it’s both coherent and comprehensive.

Now, this kicks off a commitment to you, my 25-26 readers: List mania. I am gonna make at least 10 lists every week; stuff like, the mundane (how to organize a garage) to the esoteric (books I probably should but probably won’t read).

Minimum of 10 lists a week. Minimum of 100 list items.

Lists rock.

Relax. Be Frugal. Be different.

By Filed Under: miscellany

For whatever reason–(oh, probably being advertised to since I was an infant) I’ve equated “success” with “stuff.”   Having a good suit, a nice house, a nice car, all were the visible signs of being successful.  Even getting involved with the community of self improvement people didn’t help–there is an acute “stuff orientation” there  (Get a mercedes, get a new house, etc).

When I made a “goals board,” it was full of stuff.

But stuff doesn’t make you happy–it increase your stress.

I’ve always earned a six figure income (with the exception of last year, where I took a dive by changing jobs something like 5 times).  My net worth is probably still negative (added to google notebook: get financial software up and cranking).

“Stuff maintanance” is expensive.  Eating out–going to restaurants and getting mediocre food for too much money is expensive.

Living in a highly consumerist society is expensive,  demoralizing, hollow, sad, and it puts more stress and apprehension on people than they should bear.   It’s not necessary to have ‘the trappings’ of success.

It’s not necesary to own a house.

It’s not necessary to own a car.

It’s not necessary to get coffee at Starbucks, lunch at Panera, or anything like it.

I found “the simple dollar” about a month ago, when I started with Google reader. It gives smart, thoughtful, successful people PERMISSION to divorce thrift from failure.  I used to think that the reason someone would drive a Geo Prizm was that they were failing at life.  No, not really.  People can
That’s not necessarily the case–it’s rare, but not impossible to be in this category.  The Millionaire Next Door had the notion that the most common vehicle of net worth 1-5 millionaires was  a Ford F-150.

Buying and maintaining and having “stuff,” and being “stuff” oriented is for suckers.  I am going to eschew consumerism whenever possible, and not do it with a lick of concern for what people think of me.  I’m doing it to keep my stress down.

Before making a financial decision think:

  • Will this make it EASIER or HARDER to give money to my church & my  special causes.
  • Will this save time.
  • Will this make it easier or harder to save for retirement.
  • Can I put this off and enjoy the same lifestyle.
  • Will this make it easier or harder to do my job.

There are other questions to develop along these lines.

Take stuff personally.

In the book “Catch-22,” the lead character (Yosarian) gets more and more offended by the Germans.  He is at war, and he takes it very personally that they are shooting at him.  An exchange:

“They’re shooting at EVERYBODY, Sir,”

“Yes, but they are shooting at ME!”

Companies don’t give a rip about you, they want your money, no matter what it costs you.  No matter if it costs you sanity, overdraft fees, whatever, they want your cash.   This is something YOU need to be offended by, not just accept.  If you responded to even a TENTH of the marketing…you’d be absolutely stressed and broke.

Financial Freedom is:

  • Living a lifestyle that doesn’t require a lot of money.
  • Being viciously frugal.
  • Getting out of debt.
  • Saving money ALL THE TIME, no matter what it hurts.
  • Giving money away because it no longer has a hold on you.
  • connecting gross income required with monthly budget.

It isn’t:

  • Having a $600/month car payment.
  • Having a budget so fragile that you can’t miss a a day of work without feeling it.
  • Avoiding reality (often by spending).
  • Avoiding preparation
  • Spending future money before it’s earned.  (Generally, if you’re older than 26, you should stop going into debt for unsecured items, and REALLY think about what benefit a car payment will do for you.)

Anyway, Go Read “The Simple Dollar,” and go synthesize this information for yourself.  Being thrifty doesn’t mean you’ve failed.

So the NEAR Future…

By Filed Under: miscellany

I don’t see my self carrying on as a low-leverage sales practitioner in this industry indefinitely. There will be mortgage people for the next 6-7 years, so far as I can tell. So far as I can tell, there will be folks that explain the mortgage process, help get files gathered and underwritten.

I’m guessing the fee per deal goes down.

I’m guessing that there are fewer people/groups doing more deals per person. I’m hoping for some sort of industry-wide optimization, because the lack of inegrated/integratable standards is really bizarre.

I think that, for 5-6 years, it will be roughly business as usual. There will be a need for more velocity. (Our process lends itself to sloth, because each…outlet requires a wholly different set of paperwork to deal with).

We need RIDICULOUS speed–Jamie Dimon level speed in this business.

So–for now: Leverage my contacts, my ability to meet people on a predictable basis. Grow my Realtor Contacts.

10 Day Mortgages/10 Day Service…is a powerful idea. I have to brand that idea AS something shortly. I like it because it’s succinct, it’s specific, and it makes a specific promise to my customers.

And…FOR MY NEXT TRICK: RightRightNow.com

With solid systems, I can lower my involvement in the mortgage business from 40-45 hours (down from 60-65) to 15-20 per week. As soon as all of my main systems are in place (Lead Generation, Application Handling, Processing, Closing, CRM, Post closing), I will move to market myself as the owner of a technical services company. This won’t take long; I think by April 08, I can get that accomplished.

There’s a lot to do–but the gist of what I want to develop–the “right right now” idea is small project custom consulting. I think I can get an average ticket of $3500 bucks.

I’m branding under “right right now,” because I want to limit the things that I’m perceived to do. I want to specialize in rapid delivery IT projects. Since I’m only going to be getting them, I need to start with small, safe projects–and grow from there. I think stuff like “$900-1000 cusotm wordpress implementations” will be where I start.

What I want “right right now” to do, ultimately, is to be the company that helps other businesses do things FASTER and with more confidence. GTD has probably had a geometric effect on my productivity, red

Finally…blogging?

I’ve established this as a “rough draft” site, more or less. Not trying to be on topic or particularly interesting; this is mostly a place to write down ideas for development a little later. For that–it’s working. I ditched “livejournal” for this site and Google Reader. Instead of the repetitive whining of below average people that gained access to my mind by virtue of sharing an interest….

…I get insight from world class experts that are still willing to interact with me.

I’ll maintain this blog, but not advertise it much, not deliberately, at least. I will produce the best stuff I can, but this is really a “first draft/rough draft” place. I will also maintain “columbusmortgagenews.com” or it’s equivalent.

The rest? I’m not an expert yet, but I think that “speed” as a concept is a niche I can fill. THere are “efficiency” sites, and “personal productivity” sites, but I think being oriented around speed is a dynamite concept to sell and share. Keeping 2-4 posts per wek, on topic…about that idea…is a way to teach ME how to be speedy. Being the “speed” guy is probably a ridiculously effective application.
And, I can throw my insights about sales/general business here, and some of ‘em will rise to the top.

More tomorrow.

Shutting down tonight.

Zero Exceptions.

By Filed Under: miscellany

Most of the time, most books I read are not worth a lot.  They stimulate my brain, and keep me in mental shape, but usually, business/motivation and self help books are only “ok.”  A lot of it has to do with the way the publishing industry works (i.e. there’s no viable market for 30 page articles, so they have to fill an entire book).   A lot of it has to do with the kind  of “least common denominator” approach–trying to write for “Everyone” means that the book is useful for “noone.”

The Power of Focus…is largely like that.  It is a big, ambitious, meandering book that resells a lot of the ideas that most buyers will have (20 pages on writing goals down, etc).   There is one idea that redeems the book, and makes it worth the 5 hours I spent with it.   If I can get this idea down–then the book will have served me.

“Have a Zero Exceptions Policy.”

That’s it.  Second chapter.  They advocate building habits one at a time, and then having a zero exceptions policy behind them.  Meaning, you are gonna work out?  OK, up at 5:30 and work out, zero exceptions.   One habit at a time, zero exceptions.

There are a lot of things I want to do, but I let whims change my mind too much.  How I “feel” about something–as if that matters–dictates what I’m going to do or not do.   Having a “Zero Exceptions” policy to establishing new habits is very powerful.   I run my day off of a checklist that starts with the alarm going off at 4:45 during the week (soon to be weekends), and ends with me going to bed by 10:45.

But there are times that my days are frayed.  I’m doing INFINITELY better than I was (thanks to Getting Things Done, in part), and I’m trending in the right direction (i.e. I’m earning money, writing, losing weight, and I’m connected with my faith).

But–if I had a Zero Exceptions policy…and I integrated habits into my life…one at a time,  boom, I’d be slamming progress.

So, now I do:

Plan my food 100% of the time.

I was doing well, winning the battle of exercise, but killing myself with the garbage I ate.    If I plan and prepare my food, 100% of the time, this won’t happen anymore.

So it’s time to plan my eating, my food.  I’ll figure out how to do that in a minute.

A few specifics…

By Filed Under: miscellany

OK, I’ve sorted out a lot of what I intend to get accomplished in the near future, and more or less how I intend to do it.   Getting liquid is important, and with a baby on the way it’s not entirely practical to expect to shed expenses.

Some thougths:  Do I stay in Columbus Long term, or 3 years, or do I take off asap?  This is totally undecided.  I have to come to an ok decision with this soon.

 Thought #2:   Do I stay long term in the mortgage industry,and, if so, what do I do?  More or less, I’ll roll with it a while.  I’m in a good spot, I’m working less and making more.  I am not at the top of the pile, but I think that I can creat a system that keeps me working under 20 hours a week, and allows me to earn $30k/month net.   No, I’m not there yet.   But, it only requires that I get a LITTLE bit better/faster/more sticky.

Thought #3:  10 day service is my brand.  Do I go with www.10dayservice.com

Or something else?  Starbucks vs Seatle’s Best Coffee question.

Tomorrow–more stuff coming.  Mostly written.  Gonna finish the buckeyes game.

Professionalism.

By Filed Under: miscellany
freedomfighter.gif

freedomfighter.gifOK, I invited some realtors (i.e. as many as I had email addresses for) to an event:

(click here if you care)
On the EMAIL, I had: Friday, October 3rd, 2007 in one spot (even though I had October 5th in other spots.  I goofed).

I got this in response from one Realtor (who doesn’t do much business).  This is what she said:

 I would probably take this SERIOUS [sic]… IF you knew what DATE this Friday was.

HOW UNPROFESSIONAL!!!!!!!!

Now…this was what I was afraid of.  If you stick yourself out there, you’re gonna screw up sometimes.  You’re gonna suck at some things.   FACT. OF. LIFE.    A date is something that I screwed up–and it was still reasonably clear when to come, but it wasn’t handled as well as it could have been.

At first I thought: How embarrassing–this is the WORST THING that I’ve ever done.   Man, I’m a fool.    And then a thought occurred to me:  I will NEVER be perfect EVER.  It’s not efficient.  It’s not smart, and some people are gonna look at stuff you do and try to tear you down.

My second thought:  I’m never gonna get it perfect, and I’m never gonna get it all done.   And I don’t have to.

To think about it: in 1775, the most “professional” group of soldiers were under the British Crown.  General Howe and (later) Cornwallis had them fighting with ultimate professionalism, compared to the folks under George Washington who had a bunch of plain folks that believed in their cause.

I let it go–I’m bummed that I made a mistake.

But..

It would have been a bigger mistake to NOT try.

It would have been a bigger error to NOT put myself out there.

I welcome the feedback and the opportunity to get better at what I do.