In this new motivational series, Scott will share some highlights on how to become a Peak Performer.
Step One – Time management and scheduling. Set up a to do list, prioritize them, add them to your calendar, stick to your schedule to accomplish more tasks – no multitasking.
Need more motivation – feel free to contact Scott at 703-652-5777 or scottmacdonald@remax.net
At RE/MAX Gateway, we strive to add value to our agents so their businesses flourish and grow. We provide various professional development training classes, mentor programs and we make one-to-one coaching available with our highly experienced, top producing management team. In doing so, we help our agents meet or exceed their goals ever year! 
Here is an example of what we do to help agents with their marketing plans, to give them more focus and get better results.
The ‘marketing mix’ is a foundation concept in marketing that consists of the “5 P’s” – Product, Promotion, Price, Place and People. This is how we relate these fundamentals to real estate marketing:
We help our agents use these tangible and intangible “P’s” by incorporating them into their business plans, helping them become top producing agents with balanced lives. Several of our agents have received numerous awards from RE/MAX including the Hall of Fame Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award by incorporating this marketing and mindset into their businesses.
Want to learn more? Please feel free to call me to set up a confidential interview at 703-652-5777 or scottmacdonald@remax.net.
As I was thinking of ways to improve my Platinum Club meetings I came up with this little agenda for myself and thought you could use them in your mastermind or round-table discussions:
By getting everyone involved in the conversation, they feel included and it helps them to gain confidence in what they are doing.
Get it? Got it? Good!
Ready to join a Mastermind Group? Give me a call 703-652-5777
RE/MAX Gateway
About 1.5 years ago I made a decision to get in better shape so I could live a more independent life as I aged and would not become immobile relying on others to help me do daily tasks. 
During this time, as I start each day at the gym, I listen to or watch motivational videos and it makes you reflect upon your own beliefs and how you should live your life.
My belief is I need to live with the following elements in mind:
With these components in your life, you will be a success in any endeavor. These beliefs have taken me to a new adventure, as a team of us from RE/MAX Gateway are going to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro.
Now, go sell something
RE/MAX Gateway
Happy New Year Gateway Agents,
Now that the holiday season has come and gone, it is time to get geared up for 2015 and make it your best year ever. In order to achieve all you desire, you will have to make sacrifices, develop more willpower, practice more discipline, have more consistency and continue to grow personally and professionally.
One is time. Time with family and friends will be limited. As you will be busier than you have been before, are you ready to make this sacrifice and are they?
Another area is investing in yourself and your business. Do you have the money and resources available to you and are you willing to allocate them appropriately this year to realize the success you are planning for in 2015. Lastly, committing yourself to working more efficiently, effectively and focused is a huge sacrifice – are you ready to make the sacrifice for your success?
Developing willpower – the ability to say no to unproductive, time-wasting activities is huge. You will have to say no to coffees, lunches, happy hours, and ball games with family and friends to keep you focused and on point. Do you have what it takes to develop this necessary ingredient to high levels of achievement? Get willpower do to the hard things and get successful.
Practicing and working on discipline is critical to getting the results you want for yourself. Getting up earlier, staying at the office a little later, developing a morning routine that gets you on track the rest of the day, sticking with a structured schedule – daily – and pushing yourself outside your comfort zone are the pieces of the puzzle that will get you further, faster. Be disciplined in your activities, work smarter not harder and achieve great things in 2015.
Accomplishing tasks, making things happen and doing them regularly, with consistency is a key ingredient to success. The important thing to keep in mind here is to not let a few disappointments slow you down. Consistently set a schedule – with top priorities the night before you leave the office, consistently call your database, consistently attend networking events, consistently grow your database, consistently review and adjust what your plan is according to how the market fluctuates.
Growing personally and professionally is another success factor. Start an exercise program, eat healthier, drink less alcohol and sodas, stop smoking, and take time to think. Grow professionally by attending trainings, get involved in mastermind groups, obtain a designation, get a mentor or coach and meet with an “expert” in the business to get their perspective on what is happening and what they are doing to be successful.
Here are a few more tips to consider – stay positive, stay focused, talk to yourself and stop listening to yourself, read more and watch less TV, stop complaining, hang around people more successful than you, volunteer your time, learn something new every day and take action.
Don’t just survive, it’s time to thrive in 2-0-1-5! Get it? Got it? Good!
Now, go sell something
RE/MAX Gateway
Wow, November really 
flew by this year. It’s hard to believe that December is here already. At this rate, when we blink it will be a New Year. This being said, with December comes reflection and projection.
Let’s reflect, this year, what resonates with me is that it was odd to say the least. Looking back, for the real estate business it has been especially challenging. We have not had a year where we couldn’t predict the market because there were no trends that lead the way for us. The harsh winter weather carried into May so there was no momentum from a spring market to carry us into the summer months. We had overly choosy buyers, rising inventory, fewer first time buyers, fewer investors, more inventory coupled with more days on the market plus even more. You name it, it happened and we couldn’t predict what would happen next. What we did have this year were very low interest rates – stable house prices – inventory was plentiful but nowhere near historic highs yet we had a “different” year. In a year where buyers should have been coming out of the wood work, they stayed on the fence. There are many in the business happy to see an end to this year from a business perspective.
So, let’s talk about next year. We are expecting a strong spring market based upon what our top producing agents are talking about in our mastermind meetings. Many of them have buyers ready to buy homes, they have realistic sellers ready to put their homes on the market and rates will remain low through the spring market. We hit a low in first time buyers last year that we haven’t seen since 1987 but there are financing changes upcoming with lower down payment requirements and changes in regulations relaxing the tight underwriting standards we have had recently. These revisions will make first time buyers and Millenials a viable option that will help revive the housing market in the lower price points that will help the market flow up stream. We expect that the month’s supply of homes will remain between 3.5 – 4.5 months so sellers will need to be patient. Overall, we are optimistic that the real estate market will be strong in 2015.
Have a fantastic, safe and relaxing holiday season with your family and friends. In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns about your situation, feel free to call me.
RE/MAX Gateway
As you grow and develop it is necessary to experience discomfort. You will need to break out of your comfort zone and create a new comfort zone that will help you expand yourself and your business. In some cases in can be referred to as expanding your box – get out of your box and experience exponential success. Let’s review how this can be broken down into manageable steps:
D – Decide that you need to do more than you are doing to get you more results than you are receiving today. Being satisfied with your results today won’t advance your future. At the same time, getting fewer results than you desire is going to put you further behind. Decide to do more today.
I – Implement the strategies required to make you attain the success you need to grow. It could be building more relationships, making more calls, attending more events, or whatever it takes to get you in front of more people. Relationships are the key to success. Build relationships deeper, make new ones and make them count for you and them!
S – Strateg
ize the what, how and benefits of what your actions will do for you and others. It will be necessary to adapt to the changing environment and make yourself relevant. Technology is rapidly changing all aspects of our lives and you need to make sure your strategy is in alignment with these changes.
C – Create the vision to make it happen. Write down what is necessary for your success, visualize your success in these undertakings and the results it will bring you and others – and they will happen.
O – Ownership of the ideas, thoughts and necessary tasks to get you to where you want to go will enable you to achieve your success. If you don’t buy into the end result, you won’t leave your comfort zone and make it happen.
M – Mastery of stretching yourself beyond your comfort zone through repetition, role playing and rehearsal will make you more comfortable in doing what is necessary to take yourself to the next level. Become a master of what steps you need to take to make it take place for you.
F – Find people who will help push you out of your comfort zone and want to see you become successful. Having others hold you accountable, help you grow and have your best interest at heart is vital to your growth.
O – Opportunities will become available to you as you make yourself expand and grow outside your comfort zone. You will be able to direct your future and take advantage of these opportunities. Luck is preparation meeting opportunity – be ready by experiencing discomfort.
R – Reward yourself for your new found comfort zone. If you don’t take the time to pat yourself on the back with small, medium or large rewards for your efforts, you won’t continue to put forth the effort. Rewarding yourself is a critical piece to keeping you motivated to do more.
T – Track and measure your results so you know how far away or how close you are to your goals and what you need to do to expand yourself to make these dreams a reality. What can be measured can be improved. Tracking what needs to be done for your success is imperative to receive results.
Discomfort allows you to grow and become better in the end and it is necessary for your success in all areas of your life. As the saying goes, if you aren’t growing, you are dying. Step up your efforts, step up your activities, grow outside your comfort zone – with baby steps or by leaps and bounds – and get where you want to go faster and perhaps even further than you expected. Get it? Got it? Good!
Now, go sell something!
RE/MAX Gateway
In the search for a meaningful and fulfilling life, it is extremely important to determine what you are passionate about. Too many people go through the motions of life without purpose because they are not pursuing their passion.
Here are my thoughts on passion.
Prioritize what is important to you.
Assess yourself and see if you have the ability to do what you are passionate about.
Skills will be necessary, so develop them continuously. The better you are at what you love, the more passionate you will be about it.
Seek the people and the knowledge you will need to get better. Always learn more from those who have been there and read voraciously to be the expert on your passion. A mentor will get you where you want to go more quickly with fewer hiccups.
Initiate – as Nike says, just do it. Take action to pursue your passion. If you delay, you will only be hurting yourself, your success and your happiness.
Optimism, positivity and productivity in your life will ensue when you follow your dreams. The choice you have every day to be positive or negative is easier to make when you are taking action on your passion.
Never give up – never, ever give up. There will be obstacles in any endeavor but remember to keep your eye on your prize, you will make great things happen.
If you are looking to improve your life, do more of what you desire, improve by enhancing your skills and learn from others that know what you want to become. Take action sooner rather than later.
Now, go sell something!
RE/MAX Gateway
Kristina Bouweiri, President & CEO Reston Limousine kbouweiri@restonlimo.com
The Entrepreneur Business to Business forum at NVAR yesterday featured an accidental entrepreneur, Kristina Bouweiri. She calls herself this because she never thought or had the desire to become a business owner. She was a 100% commission based sales person selling advertising when she was offered a position at Reston Limousine. It was there she learned what it was like to operate a business. She did booking, invoicing, hiring, you name it – she did it all plus was a mother of four.
There were several events that helped shape her business to where it is today. One is when she was approached to provide a shuttle service for the National Geological Survey which got her company into the government and getting government contracts and the other was 9/11. When 9/11 occurred her business ground to a halt and she had to get out behind the desk and out on to the street to make things happen. She got involved in Chambers, Charities and multiple Boards which all helped her gain clients and not only survive but thrive.
Her philosophy of how to run a successful business mirrors running a real estate business whether you are a broker or an agent.
Here are a few things owners and agents need to consider:
As you can see, she was a wealth of knowledge to the numerous agents in attendance and it was great information that parallels our industry. To learn more, feel free to reach out to me.
Now, go sell something!
RE/MAX Gateway
The Spring real estate market is already warming up and due to low housing inventory, an Open House can be an effective way to get your listing seen. Listen as Scott offers some great ideas that were shared in “The NEW Agent” training series on how to help ensure a successful real estate open house.
Scott MacDonald, Broker/Owner/President of RE/MAX Gateway mentors and offers practical advice to real estate agents. Want to learn more? Contact Scott MacDonald (703) 652-5777 scottmacdonald@remax.net to learn more about how to be your best as an entrepreneur in the real estate world. Read more at scottymacsblog.com
Scott's Motivation and Real Estate Market Updates 