Broker Bits

And in those days, behold, there came through the gates of the city a salesman from afar off. And it came to pass, as the days went by, he closed a great and exceeding number of deals.

And in that city were order takers masquerading as salespeople, who spent their days in gloom and inactivity saying to one another, "Verily this is surely one suckey market!" And they whiled away the hours drowning their insecurities on handheld devices, or over coffee and alcohol in the bars, and any other place they could congregate and be safe from would be clients. They talked not of business but exchangeth their troubles and despair.

And when these order takers heard of the many deals done by the salesman from afar they were astonished and said one to another, "What the hell? How doth he do this in such a suckey market? This surely is some magician's trick".

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This Broker Bit starts out with more advice from my father. 

"Finish what you started, or no-one will believe in you," and "If you fail to prepare, then prepare to fail." 

In typical fashion, his advice was brutally honest, clear, and valid. I have learned to use this advice for properly "finishing" a year and "preparing" for a new year.  

In the past for me, other than the actual date/year change, there was not a clean finish to the current year and preparation of the new. I was in 'cruise control' mode from Thanksgiving to Christmas to New Year's Eve and then BAM, it's the new year (Happy New Year)! It was clear that I was not finishing the year properly, nor was I properly prepared to start the new year. I needed to define the "finish" of the current year and the "preparation" for the new year to get off the last 45 days of the year in 'crui...

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Let me start by saying how grateful I am for my Fairhope Team, our leadership and Bellator as a whole. I feel fortunate to have found a work home that I align with professionally and personally. 

I'm about a month into my prep for 2023 and I hope you guys are working on this as well. If you're not, I suggest starting today. It's not possible to optimize all 12 months of 2023 without starting 30-60 days before January 1st.  David Horn wrote a great Broker Bit on this a few weeks ago. In addition to business planning, it is time to create positive daily habits that will be necessary for you to meet or exceed your goals next year.  I hope you're all signed up for the Ninja Installation in January, where they'll lay out the Ninja 9 and lots of other tools, but today I'm simplifying here with two critical habits.

#1 Habit - Show up

Come to work...

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It is possible to "know" someone for years and never actually know them; to miss entirely what makes them tick and to think they must have had some kind of magical life that you have not enjoyed. It's almost never true. If you know Monica Alidor, Mobile's Admin., you may have wondered about her happy heart! She's one of the funniest people I've ever met, and her spirit reverberates throughout our office. I can tell you, on a personal level, as I've walked through the grief of my son's passing in March 2021, Monica's spirit has often lightened my heart. She's helped me laugh and live! She is my teammate and my friend in every way, and I've often said that if she decides to retire, I'm going to need a minimum of a 24-month notice...so I can figure out how to retire with her! This invaluable gift she shares so freely came at a price to her...read on for a small part of Monica's story...

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I have no doubt you've heard the saying by Benjamin Franklin: "If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail." I heard it growing up and vaguely remember thinking, "That's obvious; that makes sense." It really is a great message, but as adults, we know it is not always 100% true.

In the last few years, a lot of people in this industry have succeeded, and done enough to survive, without a plan at all. For a time, if you could fog a mirror and show up, you could make it in this business. That time in this industry was an anomaly, and it may not ever happen again.

I can tell you this with certainty:

1. No one has ever been ALL they can be without a proven and repeatable plan.
           2. In 2023, you cannot leave it up to chance! You cannot risk winging it!
    

Are you achieving everything you hoped to achieve? Are you puttin...

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