« No Strings Attached – Panasonic Phones | Main | Intermediate Ways To Excel At Ppc Advertising »
Creating A Fan Club
By admin | April 19, 2008
One of the big mistakes people make is trying to build a great career and life on their own, without any help from others.
In the world there are two distinct groups of people.
Those that fight their way through life, and those that sail through life, riding over the rough seas - with help from their friends.
When you see someone truly successful in life or in business they will undoubtedly have a very strong network or fan club around them.
I noticed this early on in my business career when I worked with a young man, who despite his years had an amazing network of people supporting him. He seemed to know everyone that was possible. If you need a mechanic, he knew one, if you needed a builder he knew a reputable one and on and on it went. Not only was he referring a lot of business to this group but he was constantly getting the heads up from them on any business within his industry too. He has learnt the value of having a strong group of people around him that were looking out for him - ensuring his journey was going a lot more smoothly than mine!
Sometimes in our lives we have to make sacrifices now to accomplish the greater goal later. Delayed gratification it is called. Unfortunately others around us may not be so committed to the long term goal and believe they need our time or resources right now.
This can create what I call ‘an emotional blackmail’ situation. Where quite frankly you are left feeling dammed if you do and dammed if you don’t I remember in my early years of selling real estate when my children were very little. I was in a constant dilemma when I had to go out in the evening to secure a listing or negotiate a deal. This was often right at their dinner or bedtime and their demand for me to read a good night story or be there with them in the evening was strong and well vocalised.
Often I would leave the house with such a feeling of guilt, that it affected my whole performance in the field. Instead of walking out the door charged to go and do the business, or to be in the groove to negotiate a deal, I was stressed and guilt laden to the point that I knew the clients could probably sense it too.
Then one day it dawned on me, what I need was fan club one that would cheer me out the door, one that would be as excited as me when I had completed a deal, and a fan club that was coming with me on the journey.
So, simple as it sounds, I sat down with my two young boys and my wife and set about explaining to them what I was trying to achieve and what it meant when I had to go out at night.
I went to great lengths to explain, what I did and how it all worked.
But most of all, I sold them on what it would do for them. I set a goal for all of us, that if I could sell one extra house each month for the next 4 months we would all go to a tropical island for a holiday.
They were impressed. I put up a poster of the island in each of the boys rooms and got some brochures showing them all the fun things they could do on the holiday!
Now I had a fan club!
Each night if I had to go out, I now had two young boys cheering me out the door, ‘go Dad’ they would yell, ‘get out there and sell a house’! Waving as I drove out the drive, what a difference this made, when I drove off I was invincible, the greatest sales man in the world!
And of course first thing in the morning they would run into our bedroom to ask if I had done the deal! Were we all, that bit closer to the holiday?
Now here is the secret! This worked in two ways!
Firstly I was released to do the job without having to carry the emotional burden out the door with me - weighing heavy on my back.
I now had a ‘fan club’.
But just as importantly I now had a whole extra layer of motivation, how could I let this new ‘fan club’ down and not perform to deliver the team the goal of the holiday on the tropical island.
This is a technique I still use today, if you can have others buy into your dream, with their support anything is possible!
Grant Thorpe is an internationally recognized achievement based Business Coach, Mentor and Professional Speaker.
His specialty as a coach is working with high performing entrepreneurs, business owners, CEOs, corporations and salespeople from around the world.
With a business coach, you will heap success on success until you gain the balanced and rewarding life you desire and know you deserve.
Read more about the results Grant Thorpe can achieve for you on his website at http://www.grantthorpe.com
Listen to his audio series http://www.secretstoawonderfullife.com
Or see how Happy you are at http://www.100thingstotrybeforeyoudie.com
Tags: children, coach, family, fan club, holiday, houses, network, real estate, referral, success, tropica
Related Posts
- Golf, Lower Scoring And The Short Game
- Bingo And Online Gambling On The Up!
- Creating A Masterpiece With A Cross Pencil
- Danger - Creating Your Own Online Web Site, Part Ii (via Cobweb/3.1 Planetlab-2.cs.colostate.edu)
- The Meaning Of Committment
Topics: Automotive, Self Improvement |
