Thoughts on Leadership: Be Relentless

By Gino Blefari

This week my travels found me first in Northern California for a lunch with best-selling author and communications guru, Carmine Gallo, then in Southern California—specifically in the City of Industry, CA—for Relentless. The annual event, through interactive educational sessions and keynotes, details ways attendees can navigate daily obstacles while improving their lives both personally and professionally. As always, it was hosted by my friend Danny Morel, also broker/owner at Intero Real Estate Services of Southern California and a real estate coach. I’ve known Danny for almost 20 years, even well before his Intero days and then when he came to own an Intero real estate franchise. Now, he’s crushing it in his brokerage’s market of Rancho Cucamonga, CA, on social media, and through the inspiration he imparts to tens of thousands of aspiring real estate agents nationwide.

Relentless is all about that passion Danny so clearly possesses, and it’s a passion not only to make his own wins a reality but also to help others accomplish their goals, too. I couldn’t have been more honored to join Danny onstage to talk about such an important topic.

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Thoughts on Leadership: Memorial Day 2017

By Gino Blefari

This week my travels found me first in Las Vegas for the ICSC REcon event and next in Minneapolis for the HomeServices of America, Inc. CEO meeting. Before I describe Minneapolis, I want to first explain ICSC, the world’s largest retail real estate convention with more than 37,000 attendees representing 58 countries. These commercial real estate powerhouse leaders gather each year for deal making, networking and innovative education, and it was incredible to be among so many passionate commercial sales professionals, especially as Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices continues to grow its commercial sector nationwide.

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Thoughts on Leadership: The Importance of Celebration

By Gino Blefari

This week my travels find me first working from my home office in Northern California and then eastbound to Miami for the AREAA Global Luxury Summit, all about the rise of Miami as an international powerhouse for high-end real estate investment. Speaking of real estate, spring is such a critical time in the cycle of a real estate agent—we’re right in the middle of spring selling season—and it’s often a time when we expect a lot and reality may not always deliver. That’s why I want to write today about the importance of celebration, (as you know, I always say we must celebrate the small wins), and how critical it is to make time to celebrate as we move onward and upward in our careers. Oprah Winfrey once said, “The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.”

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Thoughts on Leadership: Love What You Do

By Gino Blefari

This week my travels found me in Las Vegas and then Phoenix, meeting with iconic broker, Mark Stark, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Arizona Properties, Nevada Properties and California Properties, and his teams at Arizona Properties and Nevada Properties. As usual, I’ve been traveling a lot lately and with the upcoming holiday weekend, airports have been more crowded, roads filled with more traffic and getting around has been just a little bit harder. It’s during these somewhat stressful times I must constantly remind myself how much I absolutely love what I do—serving our network brokerages and helping people achieve their goals faster than they would in my absence.

I’ve often said I love what I do largely because of who I get to do it with, and that means working with great leaders like Mark, whose energy, enthusiasm and dedication to his agents is beyond compare.

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Thursday Thoughts on Leadership: Not of Decline But of Progress

By Gino Blefari

This week my travels found me in Baltimore, MD and Lancaster, PA to meet with the outstanding team at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty, led by Co-founder and Managing Director Doug Rebert; Co-founder and Managing Director Pete Slaugh; Rick Doyle, president of realty operations; and CFO Rod Messick. I delivered both my 7 Principles of Success and How to Create An Unstoppable Mindset Routine to the members of the brokerage and speaking against the backdrop of these extraordinary cities made me really think about the significance of both Lancaster and Baltimore’s rich history, and how some of the central themes in my talks are echoed in the cities’ past.

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Thursday Thoughts on Leadership: The Mindset of a Champion

By Gino Blefari

This week my travels found me first in Las Vegas to speak with HomeServices Lending CEO and president Maureen Sammon and her team at HomeServices Lending’s Elite Producer Event. Next, it was off to Tucson to speak with our Real Living Real Estate network members for the annual Real Living Connection conference.

At each event, I spoke about the importance of a positive mindset for effective leadership and the topic couldn’t be more top of mind than after this past Sunday’s historic Super Bowl LI game.

As all of you know, the Patriots won the Super Bowl in a stunning overtime victory, claiming the Vince Lombardi Trophy I wrote about last week. The game—which many claim was the greatest Super Bowl played—boiled down to tactical errors made by the Atlanta Falcons and decisive execution on the part of the New England Patriots and their on-the-field leader, Tom Brady, and off-the-field leader, Bill Belichick.

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Thursday Thoughts on Leadership: Winning is A Habit

By Gino Blefari

This week my travels find me first in Irvine for a meeting with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties CEO Mary Lee Blaylock and the California Properties team then off to Dallas to meet with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices PenFed Realty Texas agent Russell Rhodes, leader of the Russell Rhodes team, PenFed Realty Texas Broker/president Rick Wylie and the entire PenFed Realty Texas team. After that I flew to Detroit and spoke with agents, managers and leadership at Real Living Kee Realty. For each meeting, I delivered several principles for success, specific ideas to follow in order to win.

It’s no surprise winning is on my mind because I just received a text from my good friend and former All-Pro wide receiver for the San Francisco 49ers as well as five-time Super Bowl champion, Dwight “The Catch” Clark, who’s on his way to Houston for Super Bowl Media Week appearances. Each summer, as soon as pre-season begins, teams have one Wildly Important Goal (WIG) in mind: Make it to the Super Bowl and then, win the Vince Lombardi Trophy. This trophy—a football resting atop a pedestal that measures 22 inches and 7 pounds of sterling silver glory—is only given to the team that has proven to be the very best in the world.  

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Thoughts on Leadership: Rethinking Your Perspective

By Gino Blefari

This week my travels find me in Irvine, CA and the trip to Southern California has afforded me a healthy dose of perspective. On Tuesday morning, I moderated a lively Book REview session—if you don’t know, Book REview is our quarterly online discussion of a business book—then sat in meetings with our national REthink Council for the next two days.

For me, reading (and listening) to books is a way of life. I’m never NOT starting a new book. Why? Because new eyes see old things in new ways. Reading about the perspectives of others helps broaden, sharpen and focus your own. Our book for this week’s Book REview was The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson, all about small changes (I call them small wins) you can make to ultimately drive big results. Olson also emphasizes the importance of maintaining a positive mindset from the minute you wake up so that lasting success is less of an uncertainty and more of an inevitability.

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Victor Quiroz Breaks it Down: The Importance of Being Mentored

By Crescent Seward

Victor Quiroz, sales manager at Covina, CA-based Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties and former national REthink Council member, answered the phone after only one ring. It was early on a Monday morning, the day after attending an Oakland Raiders football game (they won, by the way). I knew he was traveling and probably had a long night celebrating the win but he answered chipper and ready to share with me his takeaways from a recent mentoring experience he had in Philadelphia.

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Thoughts on Leadership: Omaha, Change and an Exchange with The Oracle

Last week my travels found me in Omaha, NE attending the Berkshire Hathaway Energy January 2017 Executive Leadership Conference and related workshops. More than 350 officers and managers from throughout the enterprise attended the three-day event, which included cross-business panel discussions and presentations related to key challenges and opportunities.

Panel discussions centered on managing competitive risk, modernizing assets, reducing our environmental footprint, enhancing cybersecurity plus an overview of political and economic effects on our businesses – all great material.

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