Tom Ferry's Success Summit 2010.
I'm at Tom Ferry's Success Summit right now. I'm in my hotel. I'm at my computer. My brain is dancing around in a spinning motion at about 5,000,000 RPM. It's not a bad thing. Not at all. I have a kajillion blog posts I want to write, telling you all of the thoughts flying through my head right now.
But I'm not going to. Not yet.
Instead, I wanted to take a few moments to thank Tom Ferry, his staff, the ActiveRain staff, and everyone I've met in the last two days and all those that were in the room when Tom called me up onstage. It was kind of weird being onstage for something that didn't involve beer and loud guitars.
First off, Tom Ferry and ActiveRain for allowing me the opportunity to win the coaching with Tom. It has been a great experience and Tom has been phenomenal at digging deep enough in a short period of time to really understand me, my problems, and offer me action-based solutions and ideas. ActiveRain, you know I'm grateful for the opportunity, but just in case you missed it - thank you, I truly appreciate it. I am a thankful kind of guy, but seriously, you gave me this chance to speak with Tom directly and although I have lots of cool moments in my life to thank you for, this is one of the big ones that I'll be talking about when people ask "How did you do it?" This is not the end of my story by any means.
Secondly (but not really in any sort of real order), Tom Ferry and his staff. Lauren and John helped me put my trip together to come out here and although I haven't bumped into John yet, I did get a chance to briefly talk with Lauren. Two excellent people who (I'm sure) Tom is glad to have at his side. As for Tom, I actually have some personal blog posts to write about the man I once wrote that I hated. I'll be getting to them soon enough I hope, but I do want to say this; Tom has shown himself to be a man who can motivate me, keep my interest, and truly make me feel like he has not only a business-level passion for this, but a personal-level passion as well. Say what you want about coaching, but I can be the biggest cynic at times and I'm not feeling so cynical these days. There's a lot of very personal things that I have shared with Tom over the time we've worked together and it's a two way street. Tom is not afraid to call me out on the B.S., but never forgets to find a spark that he can push either. Whatever it is, it is working. Am I a super-successful-number-one-on-the-westside-agent? Not yet. (Then again, I'll never be "#1 on the Westside" - but that's a whole different story - agents, stop the sales pitch of "I'm #1" - the consumer doesn't care- they want to know what you're going to do for them, not how much money you're making. My personal opinion, but something Tom mentioned today (and Stefan Swanepoel backed with numbers).) Tom - a huge thank you. I know that my success will be the thanks (that and maybe my entrance into the Inner Circle, haha) for you, but you've really changed some things for me and I can't say it enough - thank you.
Lastly (but never leastly), everyone that I've met and chatted with over the past few days, anyone that was in the room when Tom invited me up onstage (the applause brought me back to my rock and roll days a bit), and anyone who's been watching, following, commenting, or sharing their stories with me recently. I don't think everyone knows just what occurred when I wrote the "Rock Bottom" post that Tom read excerpts from. It started as a way for me to be accountable in front of the ActiveRain membership. It was a dare/challenge from Tom. He told me what he wanted it to be about what I wanted to accomplish, but I don't think he knew exactly what he was going to get out of me. I know I didn't. When I wrote it, I wrote it as if I were talking to myself from a distance. I wanted to tell myself to shut up, stop with the excuses, and get to work. The words poured out (a lot of them - it happens a lot to me).
I wrote the post and hit publish (I rarely pre-write, re-write, and correct - it's all a sub-conscious flow when I write). Soon, the comments came. About fifty comments in, I realized something had happened. The post wasn't about me anymore. I realized through the comments, emails, tweets, phone calls, and voice mails that you and I struggle with the same things. I just chose to tell my story on ActiveRain. Maybe there's a few bits here and there that are different, but I began to see agents in a new light. And after being onstage with Tom today, I spoke to quite a few agents who shared their story and thoughts with me. Some very personal stories. I won't name names, but there is someone out there who I spoke to for quite awhile immediately after the last session and I felt like I was talking to myself in the mirror (except myself had much longer hair and looks much better in a dress than I ever would). It was almost uncanny. We all have our problems, hangups, difficulties, stumbling blocks - call them whatever you want - we're not all that different in that regard. What sets any of us apart is what we do when we see that we're stuck. Many of you are part of the process of helping me get "unstuck." You may not even know you helped, but you have, so you too deserve some thanks.
Now get out there and start shaking that apple tree...
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