Month:July 2021

Thoughts on Leadership: The Meaning of Mentors

By Gino Blefari

This week my travels found me at home, starting the day with my typical Monday WIG calls. On Tuesday, I had my call with Berkshire Hathaway Energy, the HSF Affiliates Townhall (virtual) and a “Go Live” with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices President Martha Mosier and her team where I presented time management. On Wednesday, today and tomorrow, I’ll cover seven Q2 company reviews.

These past few weeks, I’ve been thinking a lot about mentors. I explained the impact of Jim Rohn in this post, Og Mandino in this post and for today’s Thoughts on Leadership discussion, I want to focus on Zig Ziglar and his mentor, PC Merrell.

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THE INFLUENCE OF MENTORS

By Gino Blefari:

This week my travels find me at home, starting Monday off with my typical WIG calls. On Tuesday, I presented Time Management during Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Network Realty’s companywide meeting and today I’m attending a top producer’s event at Intero Real Estate Services.

If you read my Thoughts on Leadership post last week, I referenced one of my mentors, Jim Rohn, and even posted a photo from us in the ‘90s. (I guess funky sweaters were in back then?) Anyway, sharing that story made me think back to when I first met Jim at the very beginning of my real estate career.

When I started in the real estate business, I was working at a company called Fox & Carskadon, a prestigious firm in the San Francisco Bay area. At the Sunnyvale office, I was fortunate enough to end up sitting behind an agent by the name of Mike Ray and to this day, I consider him the best real estate agent I have ever been associated with. Why? He was so, so, so knowledgeable about everything related to real estate and the market. Back then people didn’t have assistants, and even without help, Mike would list more than 50 homes per year, which was a lot for that time. He was just that good. Without the benefits and efficiencies of technology, without social media, without anything but his skills and service, he listed that many homes a year.

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Thoughts on Leadership: The Richest Man in Babylon

By Gino Blefari

This week my travels find me in Orange County, California. (I traveled there on Sunday.) On Monday, I had my typical WIG calls and on Tuesday, I had my monthly HomeServices of America CEO leadership meeting, which was hosted from the HSF Affiliates boardroom! It was great to be back in the office. On Wednesday, I attended a dinner with the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties leadership team and Tim Wilson, President and CEO of Prosperity Home Mortgage. On Thursday, I gave my Time Management presentation to the team at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties, and it was the first in-person meeting they’d held since March 2020!

If you’ve been following my social media accounts, I recently posted the books I’ve been listening to and reading this summer. In addition to that list, I’ve also been revisiting some older reads like “The Richest Man in Babylon” by George S. Clason.

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Thoughts on Leadership: Leadership Lessons from Paul Blefari

By Gino Blefari:

This week my travels found me first in Capitola, celebrating the three-day weekend at my beach house. On Tuesday, I participated in the weekly Berkshire Hathaway Energy call and spent Wednesday (and the rest of the week) planning for next week’s CEO leadership meeting and other upcoming presentations.

Often in these posts, I’ll highlight leadership lessons from something I’ve read or listened to, but today is a very special Thoughts on Leadership because it’s all about lessons learned from my dad, Paul Blefari.

Today, July 8, my dad turns 96 years young, and for my entire life, he has been a constant source of inspiration on my leadership journey.

Whenever I’m asked the question, “Who had the biggest impact on you growing up?” I always say my mom and dad. To this day, I make time in my schedule each week for my parents. On Sunday, we get in my car and drive for three hours (we call it the “three hour tour.”). We never have a plan; we just drive. Sometimes we cruise to the San Jose foothills or drive through Los Altos Hills or to my house in Capitola. Sometimes we go to San Francisco or Morgan Hill to have coffee with my friend Ben Bruno. Ben brings out coffee and biscotti and we eat right there in the car. My parents are in a hurry for most of the week, and the only place they really hurry to is the doctor’s office. Sunday is our time to have no agenda except to drive.

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Thoughts on Leadership: Happy July Fourth

By Gino Blefari:

This week my travels found me in Denver. I began my Monday with WIG calls and on Tuesday, I participated in the weekly Berkshire Hathaway Energy call in the morning, then flew to Denver, Colorado. Wednesday I joined the team at Kentwood Real Estate for an evening with Kentwood top performers. On Thursday, I had breakfast with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Innovative Real Estate CEO Scott Nordby and a few of his team members I hadn’t met before. After breakfast, I headed to the airport to write this post.

My trip to Denver was filled with celebration, and on the topic of celebration, there’s a big one coming up this weekend, I feel like a kid again. I can’t wait.

To get to know some of our team members, I have a series of 18 questions I’ll ask (and they’ll ask me). It’s a way to strengthen our connection. One of those questions is: “What’s a memory from childhood that stands out?”

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