I don’t care what you do for a living, you are in sales. There are jobs (like mine) that are considered sales jobs and but the thing most people overlook is that all jobs are sales jobs. You are either selling a product/ service or you are selling yourself.

Take the young lad who goes to the grocery store and applies for a job as a bag boy. During the interview process don’t you think he is selling himself? Sure, he is. He is putting forth his very best self in hopes of getting a job. Every time a person talks with their boss or co-worker, they are selling themselves and their personality.

This morning (early) my brother was having surgery and we were told that due to COVID, his wife could only see him in the surgery prep area for only a few minutes. So, I took her up there and while I was parking, she is told at the reception area that in fact, no, she can’t see him. Well the salesman part of me gets involved and I asked the young gentleman at the desk, “if she could have seen him, where is the surgery prep area located?” he says, “oh, you go to floor two take a left and down that hall etc. etc.” I told the young chap “thank you.”

I told my brother’s wife to follow me. You guessed it, I put on my salesman’s shoes and with boldness, walked through door after door, hall after hall until we were standing at the nurse’s desk in the pre-op area. A little begging (selling) was involved but ultimately the nurse agreed that since we were there (only because we found it on our own) she could go in tell him she loved him before the surgery.

Afterwards the nurse asked us who had brought us up there to the pre-op area. I told her it was all my fault and all my doing because (a) it was true and (b) I didn’t want the little person in the lobby to get fired over it.

So, my point is this, every interaction, every conversation, every handshake, every meeting, every interview, every phone call, every zoom call is an opportunity for you to sell yourself. You don’t have to be selling a product or service to be considered a salesman. Everyone is in sales. KT

At the start of 2020, most everyone had wishes, hopes, dreams, objectives and goals for how they wanted 2020 to go. Over the past five months, most of those plans have changed.

Do you roll up in a ball and just wait for 2021? No, you don’t. You still get up each morning and wash your face and keep on keeping on. You work at it and then you work at it some more and you will eventually get through it. These past five months have been devastating to many industries, jobs, families, lives, health and livelihood, but sitting down and crying about isn’t going to change anything.

A smart person once said, it is amazing how much better you get at something the more you practice at it. Well, today and for the past five months I feel like I have been just practicing (ha) but with practice and consistency comes great reward and great satisfaction.

In life you can’t be rigid in your thinking and your planning. Take any family vacation you have ever been on and you know that whatever the plan may have been at the beginning, there were always changes that needed to be adopted. It is that way in life also. If you have an exact plan and then get upset when things don’t go accordingly, you are just going to end up frustrated. You can’t control what you can’t control but you can control how you respond to it.

There are some people if their plan is disrupted, they lack the ability to recalculate and respond to the change. They just give up. Don’t be one of these people. I love the military special forces units like the Rangers, Green Berets, Navy Seals, Marine RECON units. If you study these units, you will find that they have THE plan and then they have all kinds of contingency plans if events change. Very rarely do you see them at a loss of what to do. No, they don’t wring their hands and worry. They just move to their back up plans.

That is what I am saying today. Just because the plan you had earlier in the year has changed, be thankful that you are alive and well and able to keep learning and moving forward. Stay flexible in your thinking and able to respond positively to change. KT

There are somethings in life you just need to say no to.

I sell hotels and over the years, I have had buyers and sellers offer me everything from money under the table to free cars if I would help them get a deal. I am proud to say that I have not only never taken the bait, but that I have never even been tempted to.

Even in my darkest financial (restaurants back in the 90’s) time, I never even considered it. Doing these type things cost you your credibility, your opportunity and in some situations, your freedom. There is a person that I knew well years ago who chose to take side deals, kick backs and money under the table. Today that same person is serving a prison sentence and has lost everything he had and once believed in.

Why am I telling you this? I was on a call today with some investors that offered me this exact thing. I shut it down so quick they couldn’t believe a broker didn’t want to earn some extra money. Ha. Here is the thing. In life, whatever you compromise to keep, you always seem to lose. I believe that once you step over certain lines you never really get it back. When I retire, which is probably sooner than later, I want to know that I did it right and that I did it honestly.

There are certain things in your life that you just must do before you can truly enjoy the rest of your life. I believe knowing in your heart that you were honest, is one of those things. Oh, sure there are some scoundrels that never get caught and live to an old age but the real question no one will ever know is, did they really have peace and joy.

My friend and mentor Harmon Born passed away a couple of weeks ago and he always told me that the key to restful sleep, peace and joy is to do what is right even if no one is watching. I think those are pretty good words to life by. KT

The financial world is not as complicated as the news would lead you believe. There are some intricacies that are terribly complicated but on a macro level, not so much. Wall Street refers to the market as bull, bear or wolf market. Very few people have ever heard of a wolf market, but it is a real thing and that is where (my humble opinion) we are today.

Think about the three animals and what they look like, act like and attack and you can see correlations to real life in the financial markets.

The bull has his head up looking forward and ready to charge, the bear has his head looking down like he is sad. The bull and bear charge or attack alone and they are so big, you can hear them running at you before they get there. The bear has almost a snort and a dog like bark and once he gets there, he can outrun you and out climb you. Wilderness guides will tell you that the best protection against a bear is to stand still and not show fear. Sounds easy right?

Then you have what we are seeing today, a wolf market. Let’s say you are tent camping. You hear wolfs howling from far away, but you know they are not close. When the wolf decides to attack, he comes with his friends and they are stealth quiet. No barking, no growling, just a quiet approach to where you are.

The first indication that there is a problem is you hear a nearby growl and when you look up, you see not one, not two, but a pack of wolves. They attack from all sides and there is no getting away unless you jump in your truck if it is nearby and lock the door.

Financially speaking, the wolves have been howling for 120 days now. The bulls on wall street have been trying everything they know to prop up the market even in the face of COVID-19 and the civil unrest. The issue with a prop, is it is not designed for long term stability. Its is designed for holding something up for a short period of time until the real stabilizers are in place. Good strategy, right?

The problem is that the wolves are no longer howling from a distance. They are in a pack and are surrounding your campsite now. Regardless of the efforts to reopen the economy and act like everything is back to normal, we all know it is not. The second and third quarter earnings reports will have devastating financial results in most all sectors from hotel, airlines, travel, retail, restaurants, office, manufacturing and even multifamily (apartments.)

The advice is to hold your head up, be aware, don’t extend yourself financially, hold on to cash and you will get through this. The good news is that wolf attacks are rare, and you have a greater chance of being killed by lightning or a car collision. Being careful (financially) is the best protection against a wolf market. Oh yea, one more thing. If you go tent camping, sleep in your truck. KT

That title is quite the tongue twister. It simply means to not go out of your way looking for trouble.

A perfect example of this is what some people seem to say on social media. I was taught years ago to never put something in writing that you would be ashamed to read aloud in open court. Ha. That is probably one of the best pieces of personal and business advice I have ever been given.

Today you have colleges students getting kicked out of school and booted from college teams for what they say in writing on social media. There are company executives for large corporations getting fired over things they put in writing on social media. Where did the idea come from that you could say whatever you want to say (in writing) on social media and not worry about any consequences. It is literally absurd that there are educated people that think this is how to behave.

How many times of late has some famous person said something wrong and get called out for it in the media? The media then demands the person apologize and when the person does, they blister him/her again. How dumb do you have to be to do this, especially when you have seen the last 100 people who made that misstate. It is like a music artist going political knowing that they will lose half of their customers. Ha. It makes no sense to me but hey, I am just an old school guy with old school manners.

Looking for trouble where none exists is like standing in the street hoping no cars will come by. Common sense is just that, it should be common for everyone to know it. Clearly even that term escapes many of the well healed, well-educated politicians, leaders, actors and music icons of our day.

Proverbs says in 11:27 (Christian standard version) The one who searches for what is good seeks favor, but if someone looks for trouble, it will come to him.

Many people think the bible is outdated, old fashion and not relevant today. I would argue that it is more relevant today than it was when it was written. KT