Maybe it is just me, but have you noticed a significant increase in people everywhere looking down at their phone? Airports, restaurants, grocery stores and many times even while driving. I was at the airport a couple weeks ago on a trip and almost everyone in the gate area was looking down at their phone. No interaction with their associates, family or even their own children.

Before the Blackberry (yes, I had one too) there was no reason to look at your phone unless it rang. People in restaurants actually talked with the people at their table. At the airports, people had their coffee and actually relaxed and watched the other people or read the newspaper. At a retail store, the teenagers actually looked around at the inventory and talked with their friends instead of looking at what the new insta or FB post is or what the Kardashians said.

I am ready (almost) to go back to the wall phone with the long squiggly cord and real newspapers at the front door. I am not ready to go back to the TV in the corner with three channels and all the commercials you must watch. Ha

Seriously, can’t we blend tech with actual life? Can’t we put down a cell phone and just be? Can’t we go a day without knowing who said what to who and what candidate just got their hand slapped? What I am about to say, I believe with all my heart. The person we will be in five years will be largely influenced by the books we read and the people we associate with. You might want to read that last sentence again.

I don’t want my future self in five years to be based on what some actor, actress, singer or politician said and what they wore to some event or what they ate at dinner. I am not unplugged yet, but I have the cord halfway out of the socket. KT   

Closing a hotel sale in today’s market is like hiking a new trail you have never been on. You have all the hiking gear you have always used but now your boots are too small, your pants are too short, your shirt is too tight and the backpack you’ve had for 20 years has holes in it and all your food is falling out. ha

That is a visual image of what it us like closing a hotel transaction in today’s compressed, high interest rate environment. Numbers are still numbers and cash flow is still cash flow, but everything has changed on how you get there. The metrics you have used for years, no longer work the same. Its like the wolf is not only at the front door but there are others wolfs at the side door and back door. Needless to say, it is challenging.

The other day I ordered pickup from a well-known steak house (it ends with the word ‘Back’) and ordered two grilled chicken dinners with sides and salads. After tip, it was $65. I thought ‘come on, I know inflation is high, but this is ridiculous.’

I believe we are in a bubble that is leaking air as I type this. The stock market seems oblivious to the fact that 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and have less than one thousand dollars saved in the bank.  Our national debt increases 5.2 billion dollars every 24 hours. Again, I believe we are in an inflated financial bubble that will pop at some point.

Back to the Hotel sales – It’s been a tough 18 months that I believe will last well into 2025 for hotel transactions. The only deals we are getting done are with the very wealth or all cash buyers. I am being forced to tell the buyer who wants to put 20% down and thinks he can close the deal – “just stay at home and eat another sandwich.” KT

Yesterday I had something interesting happen. There was a young homeless man standing on the street corner trying to sell used jeans. He was talking to someone who wasn’t there, and I felt for him. I drove by where he was standing and went to Starbucks. As I was walking in, and it was like God spoke to me. What I heard in my spirit was Matthew 25:40 – “In as much as you have done unto one of the least of these, you have done it unto me.” Needless to say, I went back and gave the young man some money.

There is a homeless issue in America. I told my girls and my wife years ago; don’t ever stick your arm out of the car window with money to help the people on the street. Before you think bad of me, let me finish. I told them to tell me where the people were, and I would go and give. I didn’t want them to be in harms way. Over the years there is no telling how much money I have given to people on street corners. In my humble mind, the gifts I give to those in need help two people. Them and me. I have found that many good and caring people will turn up their nose and say things like, “it’s their own fault – if they had done this or that – they should get a job,” and many more similar statements.

These statements help them feel better about themselves for not helping that person. Every time I give to one of these people it is like a bell ringing in my heart that reminds me of how I got to where I am, and it was not me. It was God’s hand on me. It also reminds me of Psalm 8:4 “who am I that you are mindful of me.”

So yesterday I had a little God moment and maybe because of this I was able to help the young man. It wasn’t all about him, it was also about me and my heart. God will speak to you through his prompting of the holy spirit,,, if you let him. KT

My wife gave me a beautiful watch for our 25^th anniversary. That was 20 years ago. Ha. It is the kind that you keep for the rest of your life and hand it down after the Lord Jesus calls you home.

The watch does one thing, it tells time. I know this sounds like such a novel concept in today’s world, but telling time is why they were invented. If the internet goes down and all the electrical grids go dark, my watch will still work. It is self-winding, meaning, all I have to do is wear it and it never loses time. I never have to plug it in to recharge or change any apps or settings, it just sits there on my wrist and tells time.

I see many  people wearing Apple, Garmin, fit bits, Spade, Tag Heuer, Amazfit, Gard Pro, Fenix etc. watches and while all the options, functions and connectivity is cool for a minute, I just like the old school feel of a heavy regular watch that I don’t have to look at it all the time to see who is texting me, emailing me or telling me to drink more water. It is also a weapon. Say some doofus tries to take a swing at me, all I have to do is block the punch with my watch and it will break his hand. Take it off and hold it by the band and swing it, it’ll knock somebody out. Try that with an Apple watch. ha

In my line of work, I spent a lot of time on the phone and answering all manner of messaging on a computer. I also have an I-phone that I use for contacts and,,,, the old fashion voice to voice phone call. The last thing I want is to come home at night and be looking at my watch to tell me what I am doing wrong or who wants to hit me up. Some may say I am a contrarian to modern technology, and you know what, they are right. I don’t want to go back to the world of pay telephones, long squiggly cords on a wall phone or beepers, but I also don’t want to be controlled by my watch. Most evenings I will turn off my cell phone when I get home and just assume the person calling at 9pm will be ok leaving a message. If he gets upset, he can just buy a hotel from someone else. Every now and then I will forget to turn the phone off in the evening and there is usually someone who wants to talk about 8 or 9pm. I don’t have Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok or X because I really don’t care (except for my family) what other people are doing, what they are eating or where they are going.

I talk and email all day with clients and the last thing I want to do is carry that communication into the evening hours. I like looking at my old fashion watch to see what time it is, but I don’t need it to talk back to me. Call me old, outdated and old fashion and you would be correct. KT

Being able to give, is one of life’s most beautiful, rewarding and fulfilling experiences. When you see someone in need and are able to help, it stays with you.

When you adjust your thinking from, just making money for the sake of making money-to-making money so you will be able to give, it changes everything. It gives what you do for a living, a reason and a purpose.  Proverbs 22:9 says, “the generous will themselves be blessed for they share their food with the poor.”

What a great feeling it is when you are in line at the grocery store, and you see a young mom struggling to get by and you are able to add her grocery bill onto yours. Something shifts inside you and makes you even more thankful for being in position to help. I believe God is watching all the time and he sees the little things you do when no one else does. I believe when you are faithful with a little, God knows you will be faithful with more.

I was having lunch with a friend yesterday and we started talking about the rough patches in life. We’ve all had them. I told him about when I first started selling hotels and how I would be looking at the hotel (I know it sounds strange) and I would tell God that I was tithing (right then) the income I would earn from the sale of that hotel. I wouldn’t even have it under contract, but I went ahead and ‘verbally’ tithed what I would earn from it. The bible says that Abraham called those things that be not as though they were. That was what I was doing. Telling that story yesterday almost made me tear up. We were so broke at the time, but I knew we had to be faithful with the little before he would trust us with the more.

If you are in a financially good place, don’t’ forget how you got there. Deuteronomy 8: 17 & 18 are very applicable verses on this subject.

Giving to others helps them, but it changes you. KT