Goldwasser Institute

Are you a hyper-productive person? Do you get more things done in an hour than most people can get done in a day? Do you find yourself so on top of things that all of your important work is done by noon? Are you so focused that you do not see the outside world when you get into a project ort activity that is important? If you can answer yes to all of these questions you are at the top of your game, and you are also in the minority. In this new world that we live in with cell phones, emails, text messaging, internet, and all of the other things that can distract us, we must work on our productivity. If we want to get the most out of our lives we must hone the skills that will enable us to see great results. Legendary management guru Peter Drucker said, “Nothing else distinguishes effective leaders as much as their tender loving care of time.”  I want to share three skills that will help you to become more productive with your time, they are: prioritization, scheduling, and focus.

Prioritization

Do you ever have one of those days where you get to the end of it and you are wondering what did I do today? Where you think, man I really wasted a lot of time today. These are the times that push me to prioritize my most important activities. How do you prioritize, do you create a daily to-do list? Do you do whatever you feel like in the moment?  In order to figure out what should be taking precedence in your life you should ask yourself, what activities give me the greatest return? Where am I most useful? What are my main strengths?

Here is a simple formula that I learned from leadership author John Maxwell. Consider the things that you want to do in the coming month and the coming year. Then use the following formula to rate when to do them. For each task, multiply its importance (Critical=5pts, Necessary=4pts, Important=3pts, Helpful=2pts, and marginal=1pt) by its urgency (This Month=5pts, Next Month=4pts, This Quarter=3pts, Next Quarter=2 pts, and end of year=1pt). Then determine when the task should be scheduled on your calendar.

A=16-25    Critical task to be finished by the end of the month

B=9-15       Important task to be finished by the end of the quarter

C=1-8         Low priority to be finished by end of the year or eliminated

You can use this system to help you to prioritize. Use something to start filtering the activities that you do on a daily basis, and start getting rid of the time wasters in your life. You will be amazed if you start really watching your time, how much is actually moving you in a forward direction and how much is just being thrown out the window.

Scheduling

Are you using your schedule? To get to our most productive state we must use some sort of scheduling tool. I use a computer system called Top Producer and everything I do goes in there. Every single thing from family time, personal time, appointments, prospecting, networking, open houses, everything that you do goes into your schedule and you must start looking at it every day and every night. You then start taking those items that you have prioritized and putting them in there.  Making sure that the items of most importance to you get the most scheduled time. On Sunday nights after I put the kids to bed, I will jump on my schedule and start looking at every day of my week and filling in the holes where I have blank unused time with my priorities. Start putting all of your life in your schedule and do as your schedule says. There will be times when it will be impossible to stick to the schedule, but if you can stick to it 75% of your time you will be in the top 1% of people in no time.

Focus

Focus is your superpower! Say that with me now, “Focus is my SUPERPOWER!” If you watch Tiger Woods on the golf course when he is getting ready to make a 20 ft putt, he gets bent down and he cups both of his hands over the bill of his cap and he has laser beam focus. There is nothing else going on in his mind but that single putt right there right then. Tiger is the greatest golfer to ever live because he has developed his ability to focus to a level of mastery. When you work on, and strengthen your ability to focus, the entire world will fall away when you get into a project and you will get so much done. A lot of people are so distracted that any little bump in the road can take them off kilter. Here are some suggestions to help you stay focused when in the midst of an important task.

1.       Shut off your world.  So many of us can get taken off task by our cell phones, emails, other people in our office, so turn all of those things off. When I want to be hyper productive, I turn everything off and get in the zone.

2.       Close your door. If you want to get things done, then shut your door, or do what my executive assistant Tina does, put a sign up outside of your office door that says, I love you but I am focused now, please come back later. Thanks!  

3.       Stick to it. Sometimes the mundane tasks of our everyday work will get us bored. I say, stick to it. Give it 5 more minutes. Work through the boredom, stay on track and you will be amazed at your results.

The power to focus is amazing. I have worked very hard to increase my ability to focus and it has paid off big time. It will pay off for you too.

So there you have it-proritize, schedule and focus. These are three keys to becoming the most successful person that you can become. The ability to sharpen these skills will not happen right away, but keep at it and you will find a major shift happening in your life. People will look at you in awe of what you are able to accomplish and you will be a great asset to yourself and your company. Henry David Thoreau wrote, “It is not enough to be busy. The question we must ask is, What are we busy about?” Make sure that you are busy about the right things in your life. Have an awesome day! cg

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Are you growing to reach your maximum potential? In this hustle and bustle world that we live in we need to stop and take time to grow. Our goal should be to relentlessly pursue personal growth every single day. Obviously we cannot take all of our time to read, think, meditate and change ourselves, but we can do a little bit every day to make ourselves better. In this day and age where it seems a lot of the world is focused on the doom and the gloom, we can be the bright and radiant light of hope if we stay focused on the positive. We can do this by being aware and planning for it. Here are some thoughts about how we can all relentlessly pursue growth.

1.       Have a personal growth plan-Just like you have a business plan; you should have a personal growth plan. It should be short and easy to follow and should include the simple steps that you will take to get better.  Things such as reading great books and studying them. Taking out the quotes and the ideas that they give you and applying them to your life. I have a system that I use when I find a great section or a great quote from a book. I take a 3 * 5 note card and I title it with the context of the quote, either leadership, or commitment, or sales, or service, whatever the main point of the quote is. I then write out the quote and who it was attributed to and what book it was from. Then I file these quotes and study them to keep my mind thinking on the greatest thought.

Your personal growth plan should also include some writing, or journaling time, keeping track of your progress and cataloguing your thoughts and ideas that will help you move to the next level. Writing has always helped me to get clearer on ideas that I have been thinking and it also allows me to go back and review ideas that I may have forgotten. I also like to journal and write about my goals and my vision.

Your plan should also include seminars and self improvement workshops. My goal is to attend three personal growth seminars per year. It is incredible to get around others that are looking to grow and be the best that they can be as well. When you got to these seminars it is also a great opportunity to network with other top leaders.

Once you have a plan for your growth and keep after it every single day. Laminate your growth plan and look at it every single day to remind yourself that you have to grow and enlarge yourself every day.

2.       Resource yourself-When you decide to dedicate yourself to growth you have to buy the resources for yourself. Books, books on tape, DVD’s and other materials that you will be able to utilize on your path to greatness and change.  I remember listening to one of my favorite motivational speakers, Les Brown and he was saying that he had a resource collection of over $50,000, that is huge. You should listen and buy the great stuff that people have put out and continue to put out. get the classics such as How to Win Friends and Influence People, The Power Of Positive Thinking, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, just to name a few. Fill your library with books and tapes and cd’s that will fill your mind with the greatest thoughts of all time.

 These resources will teach you how to think great thoughts, and they will change your life forever.

3.       Focus on changing yourself not others-It is easy to see the faults in others, but hard to admit the faults in ourselves. We cannot change others, only ourselves. If you just continually focus on making yourself the best that you can be, others will follow your lead. When I see people growing and getting better, I take their lead. I have realized that no matter how much I want people to change the only person that can make change is me. And the only person I can make change in is myself. Yes, I can lead by example, but I cannot force others to do as I say-even with my kids most of the time. so focus on you and the rest of the world will fall into place.

From John Maxwell’s  “The Law of Process”

“Becoming a leader is a lot like investing in the stock market. If your hope is to make a fortune in a day, you are not going to be successful. What matters most is what you do day by day over the long haul. If you continually invest in your leadership development, letting your “assets” compound, the inevitable result is growth over time.

The good news is that your leadership ability is not static. No matter where you are, you can get better.”

I feel like in the past ten years I have grown more than at any other time in my life and it has been an awesome process to go through. I am still focused on getting better every single day, as a husband, as a father, as a friend, as a Christian, as a leader. I want to grow to reach my maximum potential and the only way to do that is to never stop. Never stop growing, never stop believing that you have reached the top, always strive to grow and we as leaders will make a difference in this world.

You servant hearted, growth driven friend,

cg

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I cannot tell you how amazingly fortunate I feel to be able to learn from John Maxwell. I had the opportunity today to spend three hours in a front row center seat and listen as he gave one of the most powerful presentations I have seen him give. I have been reading John’s books, listening to his CD’s, and attending his Exchange Event for the past 7 years and he continues to add value to me and change my life. Today he was in Austin, speaking at a Celebration Church. I am going to share with you a little more than usual in this Blog, so enjoy and thanks for reading.

From my notes:

Success is…Knowing my purpose in life,

                       Growing to reach my maximum potential,

                       And sowing seeds that benefit others.

John says that the 2 greatest days in life are they day you are born and the day you figure out why. Do you know your purpose? I have talked about this before, and I continue to realize more and more how important it is to figure out your definite major purpose in life and then to pursue it with all of your energy. Highly successful people know their purpose and they focus all of their time there.

In your purpose, you should spend as much time developing yourself as you can to reach your maximum potential. For instance, I know that my purpose is to positively affect the lives of millions of people worldwide. I will do this through speaking, teaching, and writing, the three things that I am most passionate about.  Yet, I spend the least time developing and actually doing these things because I am so busy selling homes. It is time for me to take a leap of faith and focus my energy in my purpose area, and just do what I was put on this Earth by God to do. We as people have to realize that when we know what our purpose is, and we know what needs to be done to manifest it; we will only be truly happy and useful, when we are pursuing that purpose with all of our energy. We will also be the most successful.

John says that if you want to figure out your purpose you have to ask yourself 2 questions. Answering the first question is 80% accurate and answering the second is 100%. The first question is;

What am I passionate about? Usually whatever you are very passionate about is where your purpose will lie. When you are passionate and excited about something it will energize you. Do you ever notice how when you are doing something that you absolutely love that you could do it for a very long time without ever feeling yourself getting tired? That is because passion is the Great Energizer! When I am writing or speaking, it is in my purpose, it is my passion and it gives me 10,000 mega-watt energy. You just have got to experience the joy of doing what you love to do, and figure out how it fits into your life. You may be passionate about animals, or bikes, or acting, or selling, or cooking, or music, or business, or chemistry, or anything, whatever it is that you love to do, that is a passion, now you just have to figure out how you can build a life and a career around that. The most successful people in this world are the most passionate about what they are doing. When you discover your purpose and figure out how to make it your life’s work, you will wake up every day, bounding out of bed, excited that you have the opportunity to go out and do what you love. Now that is the way to live your life.

One warning here that John gives is this; passion can sometimes set us up for failure if we are passionate about something we are not good at. That is why he suggests that this first question is just 80% accurate in helping us figure out our purpose. Just look to the tryouts for American Idol to discover what he is talking about here. Passion in an area that we are not gifted in can cause disastrous results!

The second question that John says you must ask yourself which is 100% accurate is this;

What am I good at? What areas am I gifted in, talented in, what is my uniqueness? Every single person in this world is good at something, what is it for you? What comes naturally for you? We all have something and when we realize what it is we can go to the highest level in life if we work to strengthen our abilities in these talent areas. For me I am gifted in communicating, speaking. I have a strong ability to get a point across and to motivate people with my words. It is my strength, but if I do not focus on it and develop it, I will never reach my maximum potential in it. I will also never live out my purpose to positively impact the lives of millions of people worldwide, because I will never get good enough to have people that want to hire me.

When you figure out what you are passionate about and good at, you will find your purpose, and you will get energized and excited. Realize this as well, talent is never enough. Sometimes people want to hang their hat on their talent and that can cause major failure. World class performers figure out where there talent lies and they focus their time and energy in becoming the best that they can become in that talent area. They practice, they hone, and they grow in the area of their talent.

All right, say this with me now;

I will find my passion, I will find my strength, I will find my purpose, and I will spend the rest of my life living with purpose and energy!

More to come, there are no limits!  cg

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It is the little things that we do that will make us great and different. If you can get that statement right there, it seems you can do anything and become anything that you want to become in life. It is the little things that you do on a daily basis to serve your clients, to improve your skills, to build your mindset, to be a better team player, to implement new scripts, to create better systems, just to get better in general that will make you more successful. As New York Times bestselling author Seth Godin says;

 “There is no such thing as an overnight success. Every great company, every great brand, and every great career has been built in exactly the same way; bit by bit, little by little and step by step. There is no magic solution for success.”

I look back at my own life and my own career, and where I am at today, and any success that I have ever had and it is just because of a singular focus to get better every day, it is my littlest goals accomplished daily that make my biggest dreams come true.

This particular thought struck me yesterday as I was helping one of our new agents set out his signs for an open house we were doing. We were making sure the signs were set out just so, just right to attract as many buyers as possible, we got 12 people there. Then as we got to the home, we made sure all the lights were on; all the fans were on to make the home feel just a little better. He had previewed 8 properties in the neighborhood; I had pulled all of the information and the statistics on the neighborhood so that we could convey our professionalism and knowledge to the potential clients that came through. We had our best scripts and dialogues ready and practiced so that we would be able to give good information to the people and lead them to make the right decision to work with us. Our awesome new agent Omar was learning new details of how to do an open house that will make him more successful, and we have at least 5 good leads from 1 open house.

I think that in any area of your life, whether it be doing an open house, parenting, being a good wife or husband, being a good team player, being good at your career, whatever it is you are doing in life that the little details taken to the extreme will allow you to stand out from others. The devil is in the details, that is it. Success is simple, but it is not easy, if it was easy everyone would be a great success, but not everyone will pay attention to the details. Our advantage as a team, our advantage as people is to do the little things better than anyone, smile when we answer the phone, be the most knowledgeable about the market, dress well, talk to the clients and be a great listener, give out positive energy, in everything little thing you do look to get just a little better every day. That is how you build the #1 real estate company in the world, that is how you become the best that you can be. That is all we should ever ask of ourselves; to be the absolute best that we can be!

Pay attention to the details in your life and you will see massive improvement before you know it.

You are the best at what you do! cg

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Last week we had Keller Williams Mega Camp here in Austin. It was awesome. We had a booth and we were very active, people are so incredibly excellent to us. As I have said before the support, and the encouragement that you all give me, pushes me to get better it pushes me to grow.

One of the great things about any event that we go to is the opportunity to continue to build great relationships with great people and build a strong national network to refer business back and forth. As an agent, part of your lead generation wheel, one of your  strong spokes, should be agent referrals. Not just hoping agents will refer you, but how can you refer them. Part of your thought process should be to be a “connector”. What I mean by this is to connect agents that you know and like to other agents that you know and like.

I decided on last Tuesday night to be a connector. I took Chris Heller, Ben Kinney, Pete Willis and Ida Terbet all out to a great dinner at Eddie V’s here in Austin. None of them knew each other quite well, but I knew them all. It was a great opportunity to connect some great people. We had a beautiful evening, and everyone got along great. These people are all great friends of mine and it was so fun for me to hang out and continue to build strong and meaningful relationships with them and also allow them to get to know each other.

Here is the cool ending to this story. I got an email yesterday from Chris Heller asking me for the contact info for Pete Willis because he had a referral from San Diego to Dallas. How cool is that? Do you know how excited I was to call Pete? Super excited. Do you think that building strong relationships and connecting others is a good way to build solid relationships? If not change your mind, start networking and be a connector!

Have an awesome day!   cg

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Yesterday my team made me proud. Actually they make me proud every day, but yesterday was special. We have a mission at Goldwasser Real Estate, here it is:

We will build the #1 real estate sales team in the world by cultivating a culture of leadership, teamwork and personal growth. By focusing on putting people before profits, we will provide a consistently exceptional client experience. We will drive sales and brand growth by positioning ourselves as the market leaders in the communities that we serve. Our dedication to our mission will allow us to give back to our team and our community.

That is our mission. The reason I share that and the reason I am proud today is that our team stepped up and continued to live to that mission by giving back to our community. We have an area that we market to heavily and where we do a lot of business, and yesterday my team when out into that neighborhood and went to 4100 doors meeting people and handing out bags and instructions for a food drive to help our Capitol Area Food Bank. 4100 doors! Now that is powerful, and it is not easy. You see the temperature was over 100 degrees, and no one complained. We all went out, had, fun, made it happen and gave back to our community.

When you have a mission and you live to fulfill it, you start doing things that are in line with it, you set the example for others even when it is hard, that is when you start to make great progress in your life. No matter what you do or who you are part of your life mission should be to help others. When you put it in your mind that you will live your life to serve others, to help others, to give back, you will feel better about yourself.

We all have things that can bring us down emotionally. Do you ever get down in a rut and have trouble getting out like me? If so I will share with you that when you are giving yourself to others, serving people you will feel better. When people are being affected by you because of the way you are living and giving it will fill your emotional gas tank, and you will be pushed to give of yourself even more. I am living my life to serve others and to make a positive impact on the lives of millions of people worldwide for a very selfish reason-IT MAKES ME FEEL GOOD!

So for all of you great people out there that share your stories of how in some small way I have positively impacted your life, thank you! Those thoughts and sentiments are the fuel that pushes me to grow more, to grow faster, and to dedicate my life to fulfilling my team mission and my personal mission to positively impact the lives of millions.

And by the way if you happen to be in Austin on Friday, we need some help picking up the food!

Go breakthrough to your next level…there are no limits!     cg

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