Invest in yourself!

As I prepare for my annual trip to the RE/MAX International Convention it seems approiate to talk about the investment we make in our selves or don't make.  Annually on behalf of my Office I travel to the RE/MAX International Convention, RE/MAX Broker Owner Convention, Real Trends "Soar with the Eagles" it is and invite only for the top 500 Real Estate Companies in the United States and the NAR Convention. So How do you invest in yourself? Please this is not and attempt to point fingers but rather ask you if you are exspanding your edeucationa and your best practise knoweledge from other people around the world.  Whether you are with a one person firm or a National player there are opportuinities to get out and grow.  DON'T rely on your local office or local board or even your state board to expose you to the type of "Best Practises" that are going on around the world.  When I attend I find it helpful to carry my ipad, I make alot of notes, take pictures, gather cards and do my best to meet and talk with as many succesful people as I can.  One example 2 years ago while attending the "Gathering of the Eagles" 9Broker/ Owners Only btw Convention I was in a room and the speaker who was the Owner of one of the US's largest independent Real Estate companies was talking about complimenting services a firm can offer it's agents.  The gentelmen sitting next to me asked about Insurance to which the speaker spoke very highly of.  When the meeting concluded, I who had the same interest in Insurance asked the gentelmen who asked the question about Insurance questions about his thoughts, after 30 mins of talking we had really hit it off and the plans were set! I set a date to fly to his Pennsylvania office for a visit, he had one office and 120 agents and knew the RE/MAX system backwords and forwards.  I flew in and enjoyed 3 days of great food and conversation about his office and the "annual meeting" was born.  From that trip I have now iplemented 3 to 4 great ideas and that doesnt even include the launch of our own Insurance Copany to help our Agents and their clients.  Travel, ask questions, meet great people and share what you know because the reword is greater success than you will ever find alone...

Today I begin a new segment of my life that I could never imagine...  I will begin regularly posting about the world of Real Estate and what I love and well don't love about it.  This is like standing on a cliff for a person scared of heights so I have to establish rules, lol.  The rules are as follows: laugh as often as you like about bad grammar, misspelled words or any other general screw ups but don't tell me.  So that's it, enjoy my posts and my screw ups but don't bother to tell me about them.