Over the years I have written several blogs that feature bird dogs and hound dogs and the characteristics that make up good hunting dogs. A bird dog is more like a salesperson than just about any other metaphor I can think of.

If you ever go quail hunting with a guide, they will generally bring two types of dogs with them. Pointers and flushers. The pointers basically run around like they have lost their mind trying to get a scent of where the birds are hiding. When the pointer spots some birds, he will stand perfectly still and stick his tail straight up in the air and wait for instructions. The flushers are the dogs that just hang around until the birds are found and then they just pounce on the bush where the birds are, which causes the birds to take flight and that is when you shoot the birds.

Like these two dogs, salespeople fall into those same two categories. You have salespeople (pointers) that can find the lead and find the deal, but they don’t know what to do with it. They can see it, but due to anxiety or fear of failure, they do not possess the ability to go after it.  Then you have the salespeople (flushers) that have no hesitation or fear and always somehow find a way to go get the business.

Over the years I have hired, trained and in some cases, fired salespeople and have come away with the incontrovertible fact that I have no idea which ones will be a success and which ones will fail until they get on the playing field. It doesn’t matter what their background or education is or how they talk and look. It only matters what they can go do. I feel very certain when I got hired as a hotel broker 36 years ago, they all said, “he won’t last six months.” I had no formal education, no training, no history in the hospitality space and I was ugly and stuttered. I am sure they were snickering behind my back (ha) but (please listen to this) – Sometimes it is the very people no one imagines anything of, who do the things no one can imagine.

It might be worth reading that last sentence again. Love ya. KT

I heard a story recently that caught my attention. This business guy was traveling for a meeting, and the airline lost his luggage. He needed a suit and didn’t want to spend a lot on a replacement suit, so he went to the thrift store. He found one, bought it and took it back to the hotel to change it and get ready for the meeting.

Everything fit great but when he started putting his wallet, pen, money clip etc in the pockets, he realized the suit didn’t have any pockets.  He took the jacket off and looked at the label and it was from a funeral home. Apparently, the funeral home ordered suits in bulk for burial purposes and ordered them without pockets.

The guy said to himself, “well, I guess I understand why there isn’t any pockets. You can’t take anything with you.” I know it is a bit morbid but think for just a minute that you literally will leave every single thing you own behind when you die. The only thing you can take with you is the reputation and memory those you leave behind will have of you. KT

Take a minute and see if you can figure out the difference between a travel agent and a tour guide. Well,,,,, here it is. A travel agent talks about places they have never been where as a tour guide tells you about places they have been. In the issues of life, there is a huge difference between a travel agent and a tour guide.

You say, “Keith, why are we talking about this?” it’s a metaphor for a life lesson I want you to get and fully understand. Many of the life situations you have been through are areas where you can be a tour guide for your children, friends and family. It always rings fake to me when a person that has never gone through what I am going through gives their opinion on how to do it. See, they are a travel agent on the subject not a tour guide.

If you are in the jungle (of life) you want a tour guide who has been through there. You don’t want a travel agent telling you their opinion having never gone through what you are going through. You want someone who has been there.

When you look back over your life, if you are human, there are mistakes, failures, pitfalls and life land fields you have been through that you would like to keep your family from having to go through. You can be a tour guide based on your past, not a travel agent. As you look back over the mistakes in your life that you wish never happened, think about this. Is it possible, you went through that season of life, so you can help those around you now to not have to experience it.

This doesn’t mean if you are a life travel agent you can’t give advice. Rather, it means you can say, “Bob/Susan, I can’t pretend to know what you are going through but I can be here to listen and I can hold your hand and pray for you.” When you say that, you just bridged the void between travel agent and tour guide to help someone.

Use your past to be a tour guide because just maybe, that is why you went through it. KT

No. What we are seeing today is mild compared to history. The difference is we hold a live news feed device in our hands, so the flow of information is instant and the news media wants us to think the world is falling apart.

To name a few times in history that were far worse than what we are seeing today – The COVID pandemic five years ago, financial crisis of 08-09. Vietnam war where newspapers were publishing the casualty list every day and moms and dads all over American held their breath reading the casualty list every day to make sure their child was not on the list. Korean war. The Civil rights movement of the last 60’s. Let us not forget WWII when we lost 407,000 of our youth. WWI, the great depression that lasted 10 years. Wrap your head around that stat – 10 years of homelessness, hunger, joblessness, despair.

Also let us not forget the Spanish flu of 1918-1920 where 1/3 of the global population died – Estimates were up to 100 million people died worldwide and 675,000 just in the US. More people in the US died from the Spanish flu that we lost in WWI, WWII, Korean war and Vietnam war put together. Then the Civil war when America lost 620,000 of our young men. Lastly, just read the bible, and the middle east has been at war for 2,000 years before Jesus was born and for the 2,000 years since Jesus was born.

My point – God has got this. All of today’s world unrest did not surprise God. It didn’t sneak up on him, and he is fully aware of all of it. Today, put your phone down and blow the dust off your bible and turn to Psalm to 46:10. It reads – “Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

Take comfort today in knowing that God still has his hand at work, and he knows everything including your every thought and action. Be still and know he is God. KT

This morning i was speaking with a dear friend that was one of my mentors in life and helped me get started in the hotel brokerage business some 35 years ago. He asked me how it was going for us?  I told him, (excuse me church friends) that it is like a damn dog fight every day. He laughed and said yea, it does feel that way.

Aside from the stock market, which continues to grow without any good reason, the greater economy is still struggling mainly because of the effects of high inflation and higher interest rates which has affected pricing for everything from labor and housing to toothpaste and everything in between. Today you spend close to 15 dollars for a burger, fry and coke. The last five years have resulted in the greatest (in my opinion) financial reset of my lifetime. It’s like everything just jumped permanently 30-40% in price. For many areas, housing prices have doubled and, in some cases, tripled.

In the hotel world, owners still think their beloved hotel is still worth what it was in 2019 and its just not. Couple that with the need for them to renovate their hotel and newly built hotels competing with them, and it is like a triple whammy in our business. Hence the dog fight example.

Add to all this, the civil unrest we see every day in the news, and we find ourselves living in a different world than just a few years ago. Well, the good news is that this, like all cycles, change, and this financial market and civil unrest will stabilize and settle down at some point hopefully soon.

So,,, in today’s financial market, you just have to put on your helmet, button your chin strap, cowboy up and poke your chest out and be determined to end the day better than when you started. It’s a dog fight out there so we need to be ready. KT