May 2018 Newsletter: Controlling Your Stress in Business

If you intend to succeed in your career, you will need to develop good strategies for dealing with stress.

April 2018 Newsletter: Asking for Referrals

The purpose of every business is to create a customer who creates new customers

March 2018 Newsletter: Should You Dress to Impress?

When you look your best, you perform at your best.

February 2018 Newsletter Your DREAM is possible

    Do you dream of achieving big things? I believe that a dream is a prelude to reality. I know this is true because it has happened to me over and over throughout my career. Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, said the same thing using different words: “If you can conceive it and believe it, then you can achieve it.” That quote has been in my head since high school. I didn’t grow up with a mentor, and nobody ever gave me a blueprint to succeed in business. In high school I was a class clown, always trying to make people laugh and never really taking things too seriously. Even though I had an incredibly loving family, nobody laid out a path for me to follow. However, I remember where my true motivation came from. When I was 16 or 17 the blockbuster movie Rocky came out, and seeing that movie changed my perspective on life. I realized that if a self-proclaimed bum could develop a strong enough work ethic to become the heavyweight boxing champion of the world, then I could create a work ethic just like he did and become a successful businessman. That movie was so empowering for me that I still get chills thinking about it. Fifteen years later when I was building DEEB Realty I hired Jimmy Jamison to sing our company’s jingle. Jimmy was part of the group Survivor that performed the soundtrack for the Rocky movies. When people heard...

January 2018 Newsletter You can choose to be confident

Are you confident that you can reach your goals? If not, then you’re getting in your own way. Being confident is a choice that only you can make. When you choose to become more confident, you are opening the door to a more successful career and a more fulfilling life. Being confident goes much deeper than just saying you are confident. You must believe in yourself and be passionate about it. You have to OWN it and LIVE it. Self-confidence is one of the most attractive qualities you can have, and it inspires people to believe in you. If you don’t have confidence in yourself, then how can anyone else?   “Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.” – Norman Vincent Peale   You don’t have to be in your career for 5, 10, or 15-plus years to be confident. When I started my career in straight commission real estate sales at age 23, I was as green as anyone could be. I had no formal training and was brand new to Dallas, Texas. I had a lot going against me. In an industry where a huge part of your success is based on who you know, I knew very few people in Dallas. At 23, I was entering an industry where the average age of a real estate professional was 55. To make things even more challenging, interest rates were 17%. Despite all these...

December 2017 newsletter: You WILL accomplish your goals in 2018!

“What are your plans?” This question comes up in many different situations. At this time of year you probably find yourself asking people what their plans are for the holidays, and you might even ask them what their goals are for next year. Making plans and setting goals are top priorities for success-minded people. As Benjamin Franklin said, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.”   We are all guilty at times of just going through the motions of everyday life instead of thinking about the path we’re on. However, just imagine how much better your life could be if you had a plan to make a change and then made it happen. Without a plan, your thoughts are just thoughts. I believe that having a plan and a clear vision of what you expect from yourself is a prelude to reality. By taking small steps every day, you can reach your goals.   “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” — Abraham Lincoln   If I were your success coach, I would ask you to make a list of changes you want to see in your life in 2018. Your list doesn’t have to be filled with monumental, hard-to-achieve goals. We all need small victories once in a while to keep us on track and moving forward, so it’s important to include some easy goals along with the harder ones.   Here are some...

November 2017 newsletter Disrupters have more fun

Are you a disrupter? Would you like to be one? Maybe the word disrupter sounds like an insult. Well, in the business world it’s quite the opposite, and in my world it’s a compliment. Disruptive innovation is a term used in the field of business administration. It refers to an innovation that creates a new market and value network and eventually disrupts an existing market and value network, displacing established market-leading firms, products, and alliances. My personal definition of a disrupter is someone who changes things for the better— someone who blazes a new trail instead of doing things the same way they’ve always been done. One of my favorite descriptions of a disrupter comes from a speech by Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple: Here’s to the crazy ones — the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things. They push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones who do. At this point you might be asking, “Van, what makes you a disrupter?” I entered the real estate industry in 1983, and once I learned the fundamentals of the industry I...

October 2017 newsletter “The Man in the Mirror”: Make that change

When you want to do better, when you want to be better, these lyrics remind you that when you look in the mirror, the person who is in charge of making change happen in your life is staring right back at you.