Top 5 Productivity Posts of 2012

This is the second of the three Top 5 posts you will read this month on theBarronBlog – (click here for the first.)  Today’s Top 5 is around the theme of productivity.  Growth in this area simply means that you are more efficient.  You can get more done in less time.  With more time saved, you can improve your work/life balance – be a better spouse, parent, or friend.  Invest in your relationships.  Live a healthier life.  You can do it, and the posts below can help!

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But First…

Before you get to the posts below, I want to remind you of my favorite discovery of 2012 – The Dollar Shave Club.  This ingenious company produces a great product at an awesome price, and ships razors to your door every month.  No more over-paying for razors.  No more spending time at the store buying them.  I endorse this product 100%.  Guys, do yourself a favor and check it out for yourself here.  Ladies, my mom as well as some of my friends’ wives have signed up their husbands – great gift idea!  Click here for more info (this is an affiliate link, but I do not recommend anything that I do not use myself.)

Top 5 Productivity Posts of 2012

The 5 Steps to a Paperless Office – The key to pulling that off was having a paperless office.  All my data is in the cloud.  All my data is accessible to me anywhere my iPhone has a signal.  I can access it on the fly.  It means I can jump on opportunities with lightning speed.  And speed kills.  Read more…

How to Shave 30 Minutes a Day Managing Email – Email has now become a drug, and we are addicted.  As a major form of communication in the Commercial Real Estate industry, many CRE practitioners feel like they must check their smart phone every five minutes.  Show of hands:  who checks their phone before they even get out of bed?  Guilty here.  Read more…

The 17 Rules of Email Etiquette – My biggest beef with email is its ability to interrupt me.  The nature of my business requires me to be doing multiple things.  I am not a natural multi-tasker.  I much prefer to hone in on a task and focus all my energy on it.  I rarely get to do this.  I am also easily distracted.  The ding and notification that announces every email can cost me 5 – 60 minutes if I let it.  I routinely get 200+ emails a day.  That equates to 200+ opportunities to be distracted from what is important to what is less important but potentially urgent. Read more…

My Tools to Manage Twitter in 15 Minutes a Day – Let me clarify.  In one of my previous posts – The Rule of Thirds – I shared the 3 types of tweets that you should be using:  curating original or other great content, engaging with others, and getting a little personal.  The key to the first category of curating original or other great content is getting the tweets done and scheduled at one time.  Read more…

The 7 Rules of Conference Call Etiquette – Alas, the conference call is still sometimes a necessity.  On a recent call, there were 2 different people trying to lead the call (one of them was me).  There were over a dozen people on the call from 4 different time zones.  I couldn’t tell who was speaking.  People were talking over each other.  It was a free-for-all.  Read more…

So as we wrap of the year, what are the areas in your life where you have seen the most growth in productivity?
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Top 5 CRE Posts of 2012

It is that time of year when we pause and reflect.  Over the remaining days of 2012, I will be posting my “Top Posts” of 2012 in the categories of Commercial Real Estate, technology, and productivity.  Even though I just started blogging in earnest in Sept, we have over 50 posts to choose from in these categories.

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Quick Announcement

If you have not done so already, I invite you to sign up to follow this blog via email.  You can click on the link to the right to sign up.  I am working on some exciting projects for 2013, and this is the way to find out first.  You will also be notified every time there is a new post.

Top 5 CRE Posts of 2012

The Difference Between a CRE Broker and a Drug Dealer – Here’s what I mean.  To say that I am a Commercial Real Estate Broker I would literally say:  ”I am a broker in the buying and selling of real estate.”  The problem is that the word for real estate is also the word for illegal drugs.  So, if you don’t know me or have any context to give you a clue, you would not know if I’m saying that I’m a CRE broker or a drug dealer.  Context is everything.  Read more…

The 8 Steps to a Killer Prospecting System – I want to clarify what I mean by prospecting.  Prospecting is a form of business development.  Networking and building a presence – or a platform – is another form of business development.  Their activities are similar.  Their purpose is completely different.  (To read about the difference between prospecting and networking, click here.)  Prospecting involves asking for the business.  That is its only purpose.  Read more…

The Difference Between Top Producers and the Others – In my coaching business with the Massimo Group, I have also had the great privilege of coach CRE throughout the United States and Canada.  From the catbird’s seat, I have gotten to see what top producers do that all the others do not. Read more…

The 12 Keys to Becoming a Top Producer – Faster!  Part 1 – The Commercial Real Estate industry – or any industry really – is often so different from the Marine Corps.  I’m specifically thinking about advancement – growth – achievement.  In the Marines, there was a formula for promotion – at least at the lower enlisted ranks.  I knew exactly how to earn promotion.  Read more…

The 12 Keys to Becoming a Top Producer – Faster!  Part 2 – Top producers are team oriented.  Top Producers are not loners.  They don’t try to do everything.  They understand the value of a team.  And not only just having a team, but maximizing the production of that team.  Rod Santomassimo discusses this in his best-selling CRE book – Brokers Who Dominate.  Beyond the fact that I am profiled – along with about 22 others – this is must reading for any CRE practitioner.  Read more…

As I began this post, this is the time of year to reflect.  What were your Top 5 most productive activities this year?  Please share them with us.  We’d love to learn from you!
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Top Posts for November – And The Dollar Shave Club!

In case you missed them, here are the top posts from November.  I have also added a bonus Saturday post at the bottom that is guaranteed to improve your daily life – if you shave.  Be sure to check it out at the bottom!

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The 17 Rules of Email Etiquette – My biggest beef with email is its ability to interrupt me.  The nature of my business requires me to be doing multiple things.  I am not a natural multi-tasker.  I much prefer to hone in on a task and focus all my energy on it.  I rarely get to do this.  I am also easily distracted.  The ding and notification that announces every email can cost me 5 – 60 minutes  Read More…

The Difference Between Top Producers and the Others – How many times have you heard brokers complain about how the market has sunk their business?  Maybe I’m talking about you?  You have heard the cliché, “a rising tide lifts all ships.”  The reverse of that would be, “a sinking tide sinks all ships.”  That seems to be the mantra of the CRE industry of the last four years.  Read More…

How the 14 Marine Corps Leadership Traits Apply to Your Business – Part 1 – Today, I was organizing my closet.  Hanging there next to my ties and dress shirts were my old Marine Corps uniforms.  They caused me to think back 8+ years to my former life.  So much of my life now is influenced by my enlisted years.  Just as the old meets the new in my closet, so much of the USMC leadership traits apply to running a business.  Read More…

How the 14 Marine Corps Leadership Traits Apply to Your Business – Part 2 – I was born with bearing.  God just knitted this one into my personality.  When I was a PFC (private first class), I had duty for the first time.  This meant that I stayed up all night manning a post in the barracks.  I was part of a 3-man team.  This was my first time “on-duty,” and I made a mistake…  Read More…

How to Turn Failure into Motivation – You will experience failures in your personal and professional lives.  It should not be the failed goal that defines the experience but the way that we respond to the failure.  Consider reflecting on these questions…  Read More…

My Salute to Our Fighting Men and Women this Veteran’s Day – Today is Veteran’s Day.  Today is the day that we remember and honor all the men and women who sacrificed.  They sacrificed years. Some sacrifices limbs.  Many sacrificed their lives – for you and me.  We understand freedoms not known by most throughout history.  My brother, who is a Marine Aviator, is this day protecting the freedoms of Americans to burn the flag or hate our country.  That is sacrifice.…  Read More…

Bonus Post

I remember when I was in college, I would shave every 3 to 4 days.  There was two reasons for this:  every guy hates shaving, and I was lazy.  Then I enlisted in the Marine Corps.  They require a clean-shaven face every morning.  It is called “scraping your grape.”

Five years of “scraping my grape” every day has two unfortunate consequences.  The first is that I now prefer the shaven face.  The second, and worse, is that my wife now can’t live with my scrubby face anymore.

Since I have resigned myself to shaving every day for the rest of my life, I now hate the razor racquet.  I can buy the razor handle for pennies, but the razors cost a fortune.  I’m in a bad mood every time I have to buy razors.  And since I have to pay so much for them, I use them longer than I should.  This causes me to hate shaving even more.  This is a vicious spiral.

Enter the Dollar Shave Club!

This is the coolest idea I’ve seen in a long time.  Additionally, this video is genius and hilarious – though unfortunately more raw than it needs to be.  Regardless, enjoy the video.

So here is how it works.  You sign up for one of the 3 levels of razors.  They send you every month the razors you need – automatically.  This rocks for the following reasons:

  • The razors are comparable to the Gillette Fusion I used before.
  • The price of the razors are way less.
  • You no longer have the negative experience of actually purchasing over-priced razors from the store – the razors are shipped to your door!
  • You don’t have to stretch the use of each razor.  This improves your overall experience.

In a word, the Dollar Shave Club rocks!  Sometimes it is the simple things in life.  This is one of those things.  Do yourself a favor and check them out.  And have a great weekend!

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