Thursday Thoughts on Leadership: Travel to Learn

By Gino Blefari

This week my travels find me in the city of St. Louis to meet with the team at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Select Properties, an amazing group of real estate professionals who prove with crystal-clear assurance what you can achieve when you have a strong, vibrant culture at your brokerage business.

I have to tell you, being in St. Louis was really an eye-opening trip for me. I’ve long been a fan of the idea that new eyes see old things in new ways and sometimes, these “eyes” aren’t literal eyes but instead places, things and experiences that widen your perspective in ways you never thought possible. Travel, in this sense, is more than just going from one place to another but instead a complete mindset shift and a chance to learn what you otherwise would never have known. For instance, who knew that there’s an area of St. Louis called “The Hill,” home to baseball greats Yogi Berra and Joe Gargiola Sr., who spent their childhood living across the street from one another on Elizabeth Avenue?

“Not only was I not the best catcher in the Major Leagues,” Gargiola once famously said, “I wasn’t even the best catcher on my street!”

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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: REALTORS® Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo

By Gino Blefari

This week my travels found me first in Atlanta for the Relocation Directors Council Spring Meeting then off to our nation’s capital for the REALTORS® Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo (follow the conversation on Twitter at #NARLegislative) held annually in Washington, D.C. to provide an opportunity for NAR members to take an active role in advancing the real estate industry, public policy and the association at large.

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Thursday Thoughts on Leadership: T3 Summit

By Gino Blefari

This week my travels find me in Westlake Village, CA for the 2017 T3 Summit, a premier real estate event that brings together leaders from around the country to take part in hearty discussions about the current state of our industry and how to best move the needle forward and bring about positive, progressive change. More than 30 CEOs and C-level executives join Stefan Swanepoel, chairman/CEO of the T3 Summit Group, onstage during the conference, sharing their unique experiences and how they’ve overcome challenges specific to residential real estate. I was humbled to have been asked to be among this group and honored to share my life’s story with the crowd.

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Thoughts on Leadership: The Balance of Old and New

By Gino Blefari

This week my travels find me in Northern California working from my home office then in Denver for the 2017 Real Trends Gathering of Eagles conference. This year marks a special one for the annual assembly of our country’s brightest and most innovative real estate leaders, as Real Trends is celebrating 30 years in business. Since the start of 2017, Steve Murray, editor and president of REAL Trends, Inc., has been publishing articles all about what the milestone means not only for the company but also for him. Murray said this in a recent story about the anniversary: “Things have changed—and not changed—since that first edition … It’s funny to think how the world has stayed remarkably similar over the past 30 years.”

Here are some fun facts he shared about the real estate industry when REAL Trends first began:

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Creating Leads Through Technology: Are Real Estate Agents Behind the Digital Curve?

A white paper study by Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices’ re_think Council leadership.

The national re_think Council kicked off 2017 at the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices’ corporate office in Irvine, CA for a two-day conference of collaboration and learning. Council members wanted to dive deeper into what makes them successful and went back to the basics. Instead of focusing on next-level tools, the Council unanimously agreed it’s not about technology; it’s about leveraging technology to streamline a profitable business. This white paper, “Creating Leads Through Technology: Are Real Estate Agents Behind the Digital Curve?,” covers the national re_think Council leaderships’ findings to take lead generation to the next level. Read it today.

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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