real estate: It MATTERS. (On recognition) - 01/10/13 04:24 AM

 
Dear Leader,
A recent Posting in my Facebook newsfeed caught my attention last week and I hope it catches yours now, because it comes from someone who your organization is built around: a competent, unassuming, talented, worker bee. This young graphic designer - still relatively new to her first corporate position - had an unusual and unexpected surprise as she sat creating away at her cubicle. Let her tell it:
Supervisor just walked by my desk , leaned into my cubicle and said " Hey,  I just wanna let you know how much I appreciate how hard you're working … (2 comments)

real estate: The Cubs Are On Their Way (and what we can learn from them)... - 09/17/12 02:25 PM

How is it that my beloved Chicago Cubs boast the second WORST record in the Major Leagues, but the SIXTH best attendance record (including the FIFTH best attendance compared to 2011)?  Why would so many support so fully a team demonstrating such professional ineptness?
The answer is simple - it's because the fans on the north side of Chicago believe that there's a PLAN in place that will bring the success they so desperately crave, and that it's being carried out!    Just yesterday the Cubs President of Baseball Operations (and the architect of "The Plan"), Theo Epstein candidly shared with the Cubbies faithful that … (0 comments)

real estate: "A Category of One"...(On Great Service) - 08/21/12 06:10 AM

"Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap",.  "Tap, tap, tap, tap".
We heard a series of them shortly after takeoff though they soon ended and we forgot about them as our breakfast was served.  Until I noticed that for the very first time, after eating hundreds of similar airline breakfasts, this one was different...The lid was off of my yogurt.  Not only that, but my fruit cup was in a glass instead of its normal plastic cup...
I asked my American Airlines commuter flight attendant Tom McCarthy why the lid was off my yogurt.  "I've seen too many people get squirted when they … (83 comments)

real estate: On Those DIVA Top Producers... - 07/30/12 03:15 PM

I heard it again last week: "We had one of our agents - a TOP PRODUCER - leave last week, and I've got to say, it's like a breath of fresh air.  She has been very demanding for the past two years, never has been a team player, and we don't make any money off of her.  We are THRILLED she's gone!  Give me those unassuming, middle of the road producers any day.  We make money off of them, and they appreciate us". 
Big Hitters.  Superstar agents. Team leaders. Me, if I'm a broker, I want them.  Why?
People who … (2 comments)

real estate: Leadership by Consensus. Isn't. - 05/29/12 07:16 AM
They come into office filled with such noble aspirations and we with such fresh hope for them!
Yet, it doesn't seem long at all until their "leadership" seems to consist primarily of trying to figure out and then pander to what the majority (or the most powerful) of their constituents want.  Instead of crafting bold initiatives, implementing real solutions or taking decisive action, these leaders work hardest on maintaining their constituent base, often communicating with them through empty platitudes.   Instead of voting their conscience, or basing their decisions upon the values of the founders or those that they collectively share, their votes are cast where the least feathers will be ruffled, or the … (13 comments)

real estate: Real Estate Street Vendors (Value Propositions) - 04/02/12 08:56 AM
 
 
Hands down, the latest and greatest corporate buzz phrase this year is value proposition.  I'm tired of hearing it, and more tired with the way we're utilizing it.  The way value proposition is typically described is as a list of all the tools, programs, systems that would be available to someone choosing to affiliate, or stay with a company.  Subsequently, I see great emphasis being placed upon the creation and communication of long and detailed laundry lists of every possible such tools, programs, systems, benefits.  Such a recognition of the positive elements of an organization, while important, does not constitute a value proposition!  Here … (0 comments)

real estate: Quit Scrounging for Pennies...(When there's a Goldmine Underneath You)!!! - 04/02/12 08:55 AM
Brokers everywhere have slashed expenses over the past few years - many to the point where they believe significant further savings are futile - incremental at best.  As they contemplate survival strategies in the "new normal", many are convinced that their future depends not in cutting expenses  further, but in finding new and/or enhanced sources of revenue. And so we see brokers urgently investigating many new potential sources of revenue such as  property management, title, mortgage, and specialty niches such as distressed, investor, and luxury markets.  Yet, while brokers scrounge to  pick up a trickle of pennies on the sidewalk through such strategies as increasing their legal defense fund overages and raising the prices of copies and soda, one rushing … (0 comments)

real estate: A Leadership Lesson from Fighting Illini Basketball... - 04/02/12 08:52 AM
 

University of Illinois (my Alma Mater) Head Basketball Coach Bruce Weber has come under intense fire lately, precipitated by our basketball team's late season swoon.  Let me begin by stating that this post is not about whether Bruce should or shouldn't be fired, but I do believe this situation provides us an outstanding leadership lesson...
Coach Weber has always characteristically exhibited much transparency including in his interactions with the media (for which I applaud him).  After a particularly disappointing loss to Purdue, he volunteered the following analysis of his own performance:
"Instead of developing people, I've been worried about winning.  Maybe I should … (0 comments)

real estate: "We're in Survival Mode" - 06/13/11 06:55 AM
"THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."
What Thomas Paine meant in 1776 was that times were tough, not everybody would make it, and that overcoming great adversity would make victory sweeter. Although he wasn't exactly referencing a real estate market, might … (3 comments)

real estate: On "Scripts and Dialogues"... - 05/23/11 08:50 AM
Someone close to me - one of my very best friends - actually USED IT ON ME...the classic "Alternate of Choice" closing technique some 20 years ago in trying for an insurance appointment and I can still remember my reaction to "Would Tuesday be good for you, or would Thursday be better (with an upswing at the end as a demonstration of positivity!)?".  Although  I'd been taught this very language myself early in my sales career,  I still remember the distinct surprise, the disappointment, the low level of disgust I felt that a friend would actually attempt to employ sales talk … (106 comments)

 
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John Schumacher, CRS, CRB, MBA

Mission Viejo, CA

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Coldwell Banker Real Estate, LLC

Address: 1606 Yorkshire Drive, Champaign, IL , 61822

Office Phone: (217) 355-9114

Cell Phone: (949) 633-9686

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