Smart Phone Overload!

Posted on 16. Aug, 2010 by Paulette Costa.

I’m on Smart Phone Overload!  Here’s my dilemma: Do I stay with what I have, my current smart phone, which I like and serves my purpose, has useful applications for my needs and functions in nearly any area I travel, or do I switch based on hype? There is so much to choose from, so [...]

Continue Reading

Practice What You Preach

Posted on 30. Jun, 2010 by Paulette Costa.

We tell our agents the number one thing they must do to get more business is prospect, prospect, and then prospect some more.

Continue Reading

What’s in Your Toolbox?

Posted on 15. Jun, 2010 by Paulette Costa.

Several years ago I was asked to participate in a Habitat for Humanity project. It was a day when only women were to work on a home that was being built for a single mother in Hartford, CT, and I was proud to participate.

I participated with several agents from my office and upon arrival we were met by the local builder who provided each of us with a carpenter’s apron, a hammer, nails, a tape measure and our assignments. Mine was to hammer floor boards. The builder barked out instructions, demonstrated with a few swings of his hammer and left me to my work which I took on with feverish excitement.

Continue Reading

Do You Lead or Manage?

Posted on 27. May, 2010 by Paulette Costa.

A few weeks ago, Wendy Forsythe published a post, The Attributes of Great Real Estate Companies. The number one attribute listed was “Strong Leadership,” a worthy attribute indeed. Leadership and management have often been used interchangeably, and though there are many times when leaders and managers share roles, there is a distinct difference between them. [...]

Continue Reading

It’s Q2 … Do You Know Where Your Business Plan Is?

Posted on 21. Apr, 2010 by Paulette Costa.

Real estate business planning is often considered a necessary evil among agents. Why? Any of these responses could suffice…

Continue Reading

“Can you rephrase that, please?”

Posted on 01. Mar, 2010 by Paulette Costa.

How many ways can you express your thoughts? Dan Roam gets us thinking about expressing our thoughts in pictures in his book Back of the Napkin. It’s a great concept and use this type of simplistic art to demonstrate ideas and concepts often and it works well, especially when I’m communicating with visual thinkers who, according [...]

Continue Reading

Dig Up Your Passion and Energize Your Enterprise

Posted on 11. Feb, 2010 by Paulette Costa.

I’ve observed a disconnect in our business recently. Like the economic debacle we are experiencing, it didn’t happen overnight. It was a long and winding road that sidetracked us – from home ownership advisors to contract writers; from proactive to passive prospectors, from excited drivers of business to expectant and sometimes even complacent riders on the [...]

Continue Reading

Agents of the Future … Today

Posted on 21. Jan, 2010 by Paulette Costa.

A friend’s Facebook post announced her successful completion of the real estate licensing exam. She is enthusiastic and anxious to get started at her new firm. Any firm would benefit by having her.

Agents of the future are entering the business today. What words of wisdom would you give? My message to her follows.

Continue Reading

Embracing Change

Posted on 18. Dec, 2009 by Paulette Costa.

Who Moved My Cheese? We’ve all read it. Dr. Spencer Johnson’s book featuring the ever-famous Hem and Haw and Sniff and Scurry characters- a national bestseller that is still used in many corporations today to educate and prepare their organizations for change. In Leading Change, by John P. Kotter, the author says “By any objective measure, the [...]

Continue Reading

Bridging the Real Estate Generation Gap

Posted on 05. Oct, 2009 by Paulette Costa.

Are you experiencing a real estate generation gap in your business and if so what is its impact on your agents and their productivity? As a professional real estate trainer for nearly 25 years, I have the opportunity to come face to face with agents across the spectrum of professionals in our industry – an [...]

Continue Reading

Fourth Quarter Game Plan

Posted on 24. Sep, 2009 by Paulette Costa.

According to Wikipedia, in American football, The Hail Mary refers to a now legendary pass by Dallas Cowboys Quarterback Roger Staubach that resulted in the Cowboys’ last minute upset win in the 1975 NFC Divisional Playoff Game between the Dallas Cowboys and Minnesota Vikings, played on December 28, 1975 at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota. [...]

Continue Reading