All posts by Keith Thompson

The refrigerator door is more important than the office wall

Life

The life represented by the pictures and drawings hanging on your refrigerator door are much more important that what is hanging on your office wall. People, men especially, seem to get this confused. If you are ever in doubt which is more important to you, just look at what is hanging with magnets on your refrigerator door; it will remind you of what is most important in your life.

At the office, you can have all manner of awards, commendations, trophies, and accolades, and when you die all those things will be meaningless. The items hanging on your refrigerator door are what will mean the most to you when you get to the one yard line of life and began to look back over your years.

Last night, I was up alone reading by the fire thinking about this very thing. I got up and walked over to our refrigerator door and began to look at our lives displayed with little magnets. I realized that right before me on the refrigerator door was the essence of my life- what I held most dear in life and what I cherish the most. This morning when I got to the office, I took a little walk and looked at the walls and the items hanging on the walls. I realized that at my funeral none of the items on my office wall will be displayed for the people to see. The items on the refrigerator door are the ones that will be seen as meaning the most to me.

Sometimes in life when the world is closing in and the lines between work and home began to merge and get confusing, step back and look at your refrigerator door. It will remind you of what and who is important and where you need to be focused during your living years. We all have to go to work if we want to eat and raise a family, but work doesn’t have to be what identifies who you are; your self esteem does not have to be determined by your work. In fact, your greatest work is with the people pictured on your refrigerator door. KT

His eye is on the sparrow

Life

There is a great old church song titled “His eye is on the Sparrow.” It is a song that depicts the innocence of a little Sparrow bird in a big world and that if God has his eye on the sparrow, you better believe he has his eye on you.

There are eight passages of scripture that reference a Sparrow. In all passages, the use of the word Sparrow is used in the context of a little bird with little value and yet the bible says that not one of them is forgotten by God or overlooked by God. What a powerful mental example of the way God looks at you and me.

Are you in a place where you doubt God can see you? Trust me when I tell you this, he knows how many hairs you have on your head now and how many you had yesterday. Do you really think there is such a place mentally, emotionally or physically where you can go that God does not know what is going on? It is foolish to think so. He knows how many times your heart has beaten since you were conceived, and he also knows how many more times before he calls you home.

When you feel that you are someplace that God cannot find you or that you are separated from him, please know that you are only a quiet spoken word away from his presence. Some of the most meaningful prayers I have ever spoken were prayed quietly in my spirit. God hears every one of them, and he hears every one of yours. If you are a parent, you know what I mean when I say the love of a child is a love that is unconditional and a love that you would die for. God looks at you the same way you look at your child, and he hears with the same passion and focus that you hear your child.

Wherever you think you are, God is right there with his eye on you just like he has his eye on a little Sparrow. It is a big world, but he knows exactly where you are and exactly what is going on. KT

 

Hotel AG

Career

I want to tell you something about Hotel AG that many people don’t know. While we have a good company, we have even a better environment. The people that work with Hotel AG actually enjoy what they do and where they do it. It is a rare occasion to see a privately owned company with the retention rate that Hotel AG has.

Years ago, I was involved in starting a company called ThompsonCalhounFair with my two best buds, and we were a hotel brokerage firm just like Hotel AG. We were prosperous, conservative, and knew that what we had was a very special company. In business, being involved in one successful startup is a gift, but for it to happen twice in a lifetime is a blessing. Hotel AG is that second blessing for me.

Hotel AG started in 2007 and almost went under in late 2008-2009 during the economic fallout, but we survived through the downturn to watch the company grow to what it is today. Over the past 7.5 years, we have only lost one broker and a couple of staff members when during the same period, many large companies laid off half of their staff. The work environment is very special to me and something that I will protect because it is an environment where people trust each other. There are no locked doors, and the staff actually like each other. There is a camaraderie that is rare and very hard to duplicate.

With all the economics aside, Hotel AG is a rewarding company to be involved with. I believe in business if you are a leader creating an open and trusting work environment, the possibility exists to grow something very special in the marketplace today: a company where people are able to reach their personal objectives and enjoy doing it. One of the things I am most thankful for is the opportunity to be part of Hotel AG.  KT

Preach a sermon every day and when necessary, use words

Life

This is a famous quote that has been said over the years, and I think the message is very profound. The message is that people watch how you live your life much more than they listen to what you say. You will reach more people by the way you live your life than by the words you say. You have heard it said that we should separate the message from the messenger, but we all know it is almost impossible.

We subconsciously only listen and take advice from people we respect. KT

When to stop selling: The Ask

Career

When you are in sales, there is a time to verbally sell and then there is a time to stop talking. Once you have explained the deal completely and done all you can, there comes a point where you “ask” the buyer if they want to buy whatever it is you are selling. It is common knowledge in the sales world that once you propose the “ask,” you need to be quiet until the buyer has answered. If you continue to talk after the ask question, you almost always will kill your chances of the buyer buying what you are selling.

The first time I got to the point of asking a buyer if he was ready to move forward with an offer was on some ding dong hotel in Florida 25 years ago. I had been selling hotels for maybe a month. I will never forget that moment because to this day, it still makes me chuckle. Here I was at this hotel in Florida and didn’t know what I was doing.  We walked through the hotel, the market, the construction and answered every question except what size underwear the seller wore, and we were standing outside the hotel on the grass. I looked intently at the buyer and “asked” him if he was ready to move forward, and then I purposely closed my mouth and stopped talking. We stood there quiet as a church mouse for maybe 45 seconds while the buyer decided what he wanted to do. As I looked down, I noticed that the buyer was standing in an ant bed, and he had a thousand ants on his shoes and pants. I decided I should probably tell him what was about to happen because he was about to be crying like a baby. Well, I looked at him and told him about the ants, and he looked down and just about fainted. He ran off to his room to jump into the shower. Well, you guessed it. He did not buy that hotel. Maybe if I had waited until a little longer before that first ant found skin, the outcome might have been different. It still makes me laugh today.

I know this other broker who is probably the smartest person I have ever met, but the problem is he is so smart he cannot shut up. He would get to the “ask” question and just keep on talking and almost always talk the buyer out of the deal.

There is a time when you have people’s attention, and there is also a time when you began to lose their attention. In sales, it is important to know which phase you are in. I have literally been in presentations before with a client where you sense a shift in the client’s attention; you just know that you have reached the peak in the meeting, and you had better make a hasty retreat if you want to save the deal. The more you talk, the less likely your chances are.

So, I guess in summary, there is a time to be in selling mode and there is also a time to be in listening mode. In business, you need both gears, but you need to know when to shift. KT