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Posted On Thursday, 04 January 2024 12:27 Written by
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Posted On Wednesday, 03 January 2024 13:10 Written by
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Some superheroes are born, and some are made. The same is true of leaders in the professional world. Whether an individual leads a for-profit company, a nonprofit organization, a government body, a pedestrian organization, or a university, truly extraordinary leaders are continuously created through education and endless learning to perfect their craft.

During the latest Opportunity Hour: Conversations with the Masters, I had the pleasure of speaking with a longtime friend of mine, Dr. Nido Qubein. Dr. Qubein is first and foremost an entrepreneur, serving on several Fortune 500 boards, including La-Z-Boy and Truce. He has authored 12 books and received numerous awards as a leader himself.

His abundance of accolades and entrepreneurship capabilities have enabled Dr. Qubein to effectively speak on what it takes to be an extraordinary leader, which is the foundation of today’s blog post.

Back in 2005, Dr. Qubein became the president of High Point University, a struggling college that he turned around with a vision and the consistency to fulfill that vision. During Dr. Qubein’s time with High Point University:

  • Their economic impact went from $160 million to over $1 billion
  • 28 buildings grew to 122
  • 385 employees grew to over 2,000
  • Their operating budget went from $38 million to over $400 million
  • 10 new academic schools were founded
  • 99% of graduates have found fulfilling employment within 6 months after graduation

Professional Success Versus Career Significance

No matter what you are leading, your actions as a leader should positively impact the people you serve, the people your actions affect, and so forth. Your interactions with people should incorporate trust and dignity no matter what.

This all goes back to the focus of significance over success that both Dr. Qubein and I believe in.

Yes — we all want to be successful, but success is defined differently with different people. For some, success is financial well-being or a certain level of wealth. For others, success is making an impact, teaching underprivileged children, or providing food for the needy. This intricate difference is what extraordinary leaders find between success and significance.

I have talked about significance in the past, and I have loosely defined it as what we hope to achieve for others instead of just focusing on our own personal gain. I view significance not necessarily as something that you should prioritize over success, but as something that must come before success.

The way both Dr. Qubein and I view the connection between significance and extraordinary leaders is those individuals’ ability to look further ahead than everyone else and attempt to turn the impossible to possible. They focus on wants, needs, goals, assumptions, and fears of their stakeholders and customers to take significant actions now by being an Anticipatory Organization.

Conversely, many traditional leaders and organizations are only inclined to stay ahead of the competition, gaining every inch of profit and margin they can while staying in the same lane indefinitely. By focusing only on achieving some type of success over your competition, you are putting yourself in a reactionary mindset where you merely react to adversity and client needs as they come your way. But by the time you solve them, you have already let the future pass you by.

An Anticipatory mindset of an extraordinary leader puts significant actions and the impact we have on others at the forefront, with a confidence that success is sure to follow. As Dr. Qubein stated in our recent discussion, “The value of our existence on this Earth will be defined not by the accumulation of our achievements or acknowledgments, but rather it will be defined by who we’ve impacted and influenced in the world.”

How to Shift to Being an Extraordinary Leader

Dr. Qubein and I agree that no matter the type of organization you are leading, there are three P’s to running a business: Product, Process, and People. While the product and process may be slightly different depending on the industry, how you influence and project values and significance on the people the product and process impacts is fundamental.

To shift to the life of an extraordinary leader, it is time to ask yourself: 

  • What is your vision for your company? 
  • What is your vision for your customers? 
  • What is your vision for your employees? and most importantly, 
  • Are yours and their visions aligned?

 

The essence of an extraordinary leader is expressing a vision to the employees and customers alike with extreme clarity. Even if they do not necessarily agree with you, if you put forth effort to respect them with fairness and justice, people will respect what you are doing.

Here are some steps to consider, brought forth by Dr. Qubein and myself:

  1. 1. First, Be Anticipatory: Never wait for problems to come your way and react to them with feverish crisis management. Instead, use Hard Trend future certainties to anticipate the known future and pre-solve any issues before they become issues.

  2. 2. Create Clarity in Value: No matter what you are trying to achieve with the strategy you are attempting to implement, if employees do not recognize value in it, they will not work with you toward a common goal. Be sure to clearly identify the value for all involved in your strategy!

  3. 3. Interpret That Value: Value must be interpreted from the perspective of the other people involved, not just you alone. In Dr. Qubein’s case with High Point University, this meant interpreting the value that parents (the market), students (the customers), and stakeholders (campus faculty, alumni, donors, and more) observed.

  4. 4. Remove Irritants: There are many fears and hesitations within the market and between both customers and stakeholders. The only way to fully gain acceptance into what you are trying to do is to remove these fears, or minimize them as much as possible. This goes back to pre-solving problems by paying attention to Hard Trend future certainties shaping the industry and thus impacting your vision.

  5. 5. Never Stop Learning: The best leaders never stop learning while continuously honing their craft. That is how they stay at the top of their game and remain extraordinary. They hire coaches, consultants, and other leaders to continuously learn from to be able to take risks based on facts, analysis, and a healthy abundance of valuable information.

  6. 6. Create Trust: Trust is based on honesty, transparency, and vulnerability. Tell both your customers and employees what you are going to do, why you are going to do it, and why it is important to do it the way you intend. Also, if something does not go your way, own up to it and ask for input! Charisma is important in leadership, but authenticity always wins it all.

  7. 7. Find the “Wow” Factor: Finally, show everyone why your vision has merit, but do it in a way that instills confidence and acceptance. By doing this, you are encouraging positive word-of-mouth advertising, obtaining advocates for your business.

The paths to becoming both an extraordinary leader and an Anticipatory Leader are quite similar. You must first have a clear vision added to the ability to interpret that vision and passion to create value from that vision to whom you serve. This will equate to a product or service that people want to be a part of, and one that creates positive disruption to help further the betterment of your industry and society!

Posted On Tuesday, 23 January 2024 00:00 Written by

You all know that I am very committed to business planning and scheduling. Knowing what you are trying to accomplish and then plotting the course and scheduling the work is a foundational part of what I share with my clients. It is so important that not only you have a plan and a schedule to execute, but being very specific in what you are trying to do and the results you are expecting are critical.

Too many people in our business don’t plan at all, they just prognosticate and then hope it all works out. As I have said before, “Hope is NOT a strategy for success!” Mortgage professionals have a very bad habit of just throwing numbers out there into the universe like, “I’m going to do ten deals a month”, or “I want to close $50M in loans.” But very rarely do they break it down as to HOW it is going to happen. Key questions you need to ask yourself are:

  1. 1. What is my conversion rate on the leads coming from all sources?
  2. 2. Who are the specific people who I expect to refer to me this year?
  3. 3. Based on the “Referral Triangle” concept, am I as balanced as I need to be, or do I still have targets to acquire still?
  4. 4. Am I basing my estimates on actual data or just projections?
  5. 5. How frequently will I review my numbers and adjust?
  6. 6. Given my market, how many purchase transactions can I expect in 2024?
  7. 7. Given my database and social media connections, how much will they need to grow?
  8. 8. IF we see a steady decline in interest rates, what are my additional expectations for both purchases and refinances based on my business plan?

 

It helps to have names and faces to go with your plan, even if they are just known potential targets or even if they are unknown future targets, having that listed helps keep you moving forward toward your ultimate targets of production and referral partners. Scheduling time to review and adjust will help keep you on track!

If you have questions or comments, please feel free to reach out: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Posted On Wednesday, 03 January 2024 00:00 Written by
Posted On Tuesday, 02 January 2024 09:25 Written by
Posted On Tuesday, 02 January 2024 08:10 Written by

The share of U.S. homebuyers looking to move to a different metro area declined for the third straight month in November, dropping to 23.9%. That’s the lowest share in a year and a half, according to a new report from Redfin (redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage. It’s down from 24.1% a year earlier–a tiny drop, but the first annual decline in Redfin’s records–and down from a record high of 26% over the summer.

Overall homebuying slowed in 2023 because it was the least affordable year on record and there was a severe supply shortage. There were 4% fewer Redfin.com users looking to move to a new metro in November than a year ago, compared with a 3% year-over-year drop for Redfin.com users searching within their home metro. The slightly bigger drop for house hunters looking to relocate explains why migrants are making up a smaller share of overall home searchers.

The portion of house hunters who are relocating to a new area is coming down for a few reasons. One, there’s less flexibility to work remotely as employers call workers back to the office. That means the flow of homebuyers moving from the Bay Area to Austin, TX or Boise, ID, for example, has slowed. Two, home prices generally increased more in popular migration destinations than they did in expensive coastal metros during the pandemic, making the case for moving a bit less compelling. For example, prices in Sacramento–the most popular destination this month–are up about 35% since before the pandemic, compared with an 8% increase in the Bay Area.

Still, the migration rate remains above pre-pandemic levels of around 19% as some Americans are still chasing affordability. All 10 of the most popular migration destinations have lower prices than the most common origin of buyers moving in.

Spokane, WA lands on list of popular destinations for the first time

Spokane has made it onto Redfin’s list of popular migration destinations for the first time on record, landing at number 10. Popularity is determined by net inflow, a measure of how many more Redfin.com users looked to move into an area than leave.

The number-one origin of homebuyers moving to Spokane, the second most populous city in Washington, is Seattle, followed by Los Angeles and Portland, OR. Spokane has comparatively low housing costs: The typical Spokane home sells for $416,000, compared to $775,000 in Seattle.

Top 10 Metros Homebuyers Are Moving Into, by Net Inflow

Net inflow = Number of Redfin.com home searchers looking to move into a metro area, minus the number of searchers looking to leave

Metro*

Net Inflow, Nov. 2023

Net Inflow, Nov. 2022

Top Origin

Top Out-of-State Origin

Sacramento, CA

5,100

7,000

San Francisco, CA

New York, NY

Las Vegas, NV

3,800

6,400

Los Angeles, CA

Los Angeles, CA

North Port-Sarasota, FL

3,700

3,700

New York, NY

New York, NY

Cape Coral, FL

3,700

4,000

Miami, FL

Chicago, IL

Salisbury, MD

3,600

2,000

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Myrtle Beach, SC

3,600

2,800

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Orlando, FL

3,500

3,300

New York, NY

New York, NY

Portland, ME

3,400

2,800

Boston, MA

Boston, MA

Nashville, TN

3,000

2,800

Los Angeles, CA

Los Angeles, CA

Spokane, WA

2,500

2,300

Seattle, WA

Los Angeles, CA

*Combined statistical areas with at least 500 users searching to and from the region in Sept. 2023-Nov. 2023

Los Angeles tops list of metros homebuyers are leaving for first time

More homebuyers are leaving Los Angeles than any other metro area in the country. That marks the first time on record it has been the number-one place homebuyers are leaving and the first time in over two years the Bay Area has dropped out of the number-one spot. The Bay Area comes in second, followed by New York. That’s based on net outflow, a measure of how many more Redfin.com users are looking to leave a metro than move in.

Migration out of both Los Angeles and the Bay Area has slowed since the height of the pandemic, when remote workers were fleeing both California metros in favor of more affordable places. But Los Angeles has surpassed the Bay Area because the flow out of the Bay Area has steadily slowed, while the flow out of Los Angeles has picked back up in recent months.

Top 10 Metros Homebuyers Are Leaving, by Net Outflow

Net outflow = Number of Redfin.com home searchers looking to leave a metro area, minus the number of searchers looking to move in

Metro*

Net Outflow, Nov. 2023

Net Outflow, Nov. 2022

Top Destination

Top Out-of-State Destination

Los Angeles, CA

26,100

30,300

Las Vegas, NV

Las Vegas, NV

San Francisco, CA

25,400

32,000

Sacramento, CA

Seattle, WA

New York, NY

24,900

20,700

Miami, FL

Miami, FL

Washington, D.C.

13,300

16,100

Salisbury, MD

Salisbury, MD

Seattle, WA

11,900

1,300

Spokane, WA

Phoenix, AZ

Chicago, IL

7,600

7,100

Cape Coral, FL

Cape Coral, FL

Boston, MA

5,000

6,100

Portland, ME

Portland, ME

Philadelphia, PA

3,000

1,300

Salisbury, MD

Salisbury, MD

Detroit, MI

2,100

3,400

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Denver, CO

2,000

3,200

Chicago, IL

Chicago, IL

*Combined statistical areas with at least 500 users searching to and from the region in Sept. 2023-Nov. 2023

To view the full report, including charts and methodology, please visit: https://www.redfin.com/news/housing-migration-trends-November-2023

Posted On Monday, 01 January 2024 00:28 Written by
Posted On Monday, 01 January 2024 14:41
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