Category Archives: Career

Knowing what you need to do

Career, Life

Years ago (1990) before I started selling hotels, I had invested in some restaurants and was slowly but surely going broke. I remember the period so vividly that it brings me to tears when I go back and look at journals I wrote or items from that period. People will tell you that time helps to ease certain memories but at least for me, I remember that period in our lives with such clarity, it forced me to find God’s new plan for my family.

I was basically trying to change anything I could and market anyway possible. As I look back on it, it was going to fail and nothing I could do would stop the slide. I was working (seemed like) 100 hours a week and was more broke at the end of the week than at the start.

I remember stopping one day and prayed the prayer, “lord, I don’t know what to do and how to fix it but I commit my life to giving you all the praise if you show me the way.” I realized that God is not usually found in a flurry of actions, rather, he is found in the still, small voice if I would just stop and listen.

I can tell you will all honesty in my heart that one day I was coming back from Columbus GA where we owned the restaurants and for some reason I got off the interstate and started winding my way through of all places, Riverdale GA. I remember turning on a street and seeing a sign for real estate school and with no previous thought, decided to pull in and go see how much it costs. Something deep in my spirit gave me the calm assurance that I was there for a purpose and a reason and that it was not a mistake. I can’t explain it, but I remember signing up for the class that would ultimately change the course of my family’s financial life.

I got my license and showed up on Bill Hodges’ front door who was a friend as well as he sold hotels. I ask if he could teach me to how sell restaurants (because that is all I knew) and I remember Bill saying he didn’t know how to sell restaurants but he could show me how to sell hotels. I said ok. The rest of the story would take ten pages to write but that would not be the point of this blog.

The point is that when you find yourself at the end of your abilities and having tried all you know how to do and willing to place your future in his care, I find that God will show up and lead you where you need to be. I can say with all certainly that without the restaurant failures, I would not be in the business I am in today. Did God lead me into the restaurant business to fail? The answer is no, he didn’t. It is more like he picked up the pieces and led me out of the forest.

Before buying the restaurants, I remember hesitation in my heart that I just assumed was cold feet and therefore I ignored it. The result was that I failed my family and almost lost everything. I can also say with crystal clear clarity that it was God that led me out of that situation and into a better way. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t like I just walked away free. It took me eight more years to get completely out of debt from the restaurants. Therefore, there are some decisions in life you must sweat through it, but it is the knowing, that you are in the right place at the right time that gives you the hope and vision you need to get through it. KT

Old school selling

Career

When I started selling hotels, we had no internet, email, cell phones, tweets, text, websites or social media etc. If you did an evaluation for client, you had to buy an airline ticket or drive to the hotel to physically see it. We had no aerials photography or sites like google maps. We had to get face to face to sell anything. We also had to print presentations and offering memorandums for each hotel we were selling. The magic back then was the personal meetings with the sellers and or buyers.

This past week I was reminded of how easy it is to assume an emailed presentation and then follow up phone call is sufficient. Well, it’s not. The fundamentals of selling have not changed. People still hire people they like and trust. The only difference is they can’t tell either of those things over email, websites or phone.

The below link is an American Airlines commercial from 1990 back when a phone and a fax was the most advanced way to communicate with a client. You will get the idea. The basics of business, at least our business has not changed. It’s the personal connection that is the magic maker. KT

American Airlines – 1990 –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU2rpcAABbA

Vision in Business

Career

Keeping a company relevant could be the greatest challenge in business. It is about the vision of the company that is a game changer. Any entrepreneur that owns or runs a business knows that you must continually update the vision, the product and the marketing to stay relevant. The business leaders who do not improve what the customer is looking for, will be challenged.

In the business there are so many examples, it is impossible to just pick a few. Today, technology plays such a significant role in consumer buying decisions that it often becomes daunting to keep up. What is really a little scary is trying to imagine what business will be like in five years and ten years from now. Clearly, operating just like you did ten years ago is becoming less and less of an option.

My two examples of businesses are Blackberry and Amazon. 11 years ago, Blackberry owned the smart phone market and believed they were impenetrable and had the consumer market fully locked up. Their stock was through the roof and the shareholders were experiencing gains like never seen before. Then, on June 29th, 2007, Apple launched the iPhone and started what we now know as one of the greatest market maker moves in corporate history. Blackberry today, is all but irrelevant.

Look at how Amazon has changed the entire retail industry and how the consumer shops. I don’t need to tell you the stats, stock values etc. because it is ridicules. I can sum it up with one fact. Today, 100 million people have an Amazon Prime account which is equivalent to 64% of the US population.

So, what am I saying? If you run a business, interact with customers, are in sales or management or even if you bag groceries, there is something you can do. Try as best you can or think beyond what you do every day and imagine the changes your field of work will experience over the next several years. Managers, bosses, shareholders, bankers etc., love people that offer solutions and potential improvements far more than the person that just complains about how things are.

The human brain cannot and will not ever be equaled by man’s inventions. Therefore, don’t be hesitant about using your impressions, imagination, wisdom and vision for the future because those thoughts may just be the next market maker idea. KT

Trying your best

Career, Life

I remember in high school my football coach said, all I can expect of you, is to do your best. He said when you get back on the team bus after the game, the only thing that will matter is if you left it all on the field. Meaning, you played as hard as you could.

In life there are successes and failures and I have experienced both. The failures are the ones you end up thinking about the most. It is common to ask yourself after a failure if I had done this or that, would it have changed the outcome? I believe if you can look back on a failure and know in your heart that you tried as hard as you could and did your best, knowing that, will help you work through the failure as compared to the temptation to let the failure define your future. Sometimes, failing can actually be a gift.

Abraham Lincoln lost nine, yes nine, very public elections before deciding to run for President. The question all historians have asked is, if he had won one of the other elections, would he have still run for President? The common theory is that if he had won the senate seat, he would have been content and would not have ran for President. Think about the course of American history if he had never run for President.

As I look back on my own life, my worst financial failure was the restaurant business when I was in my middle 20’s. As I look back at that time, it was that failure that caused me to look in a different direction where I ended up selling hotels instead. While no one can say with certainty what Lincoln would or would not have done, I can say for certainty, if I had experienced success in the restaurant business, I would still be in that business today working 100 hours a week.

Many of the inventions we enjoy today were the by-product of a failure. A few examples of failures that led to great inventions are, the pacemaker, microwave oven, Penicillin, Ink jet printers, x-ray images, post-it notes, potato chips, chocolate-chip cookies and Coca-Cola. So, if you have had a failure in your life that you can’t quite get over, step back and really look at your life in the context of where you are and maybe you will see God’s hand at work trying to get you to a different destination than where you thought you were going.

Mark Twain once said, “the next time you fail, think again about what you could possibly invent from the failure.” KT

Feeding Frenzy

Career

There is this place in the mountains we go where this guy has an old general store that is located next to a mountain stream. You can go out on the back platform and buy corn to feed the fish. When you throw the corn in the water, there must be five dozen big fish that all go after the food at the same time and create a feeding frenzy.

Today in the financial markets, it is sort of like that. For the period from late January to late April 2018, most all the hospitality publicly traded stocks were down in value and impacted the acquisition markets in a negative way. Over the past five weeks, most of the same stocks have rebounded in valuation causing the publicly traded companies to look again for investments. I just attended the New York Investment conference where there were more groups looking for investments, than I have seen since summer of 2007. The reason I bring this up is because the outlook in summer of 2007 looked very favorable and then the market crash began in October 2007 when the secondary debt markets began to falter. The US economy is the strongest in what could be decades and the market for single family housing all the way up the ladder to commercial real estate seems to be at valuation levels unlike anything I have ever seen.

Life and human nature are funny things to try to understand when it comes to money. One would think that a seller would jump at the chance to transact when things are good but this assumption is often incorrect. I saw this during the last market cycle where sellers instead of transacting, decided to hold out for every dollar and many of these same clients missed the window. I heard a smart guy (Jack ward) say once that “many times, the best time to sell is when it hurts the most.” He was speaking of a seller fighting the temptation of waiting for the last dollar.

I think today while the market is hot, Jack’s advice would be prudent to follow. I have seen people sell a little too early and I have seen people try to sell too late. In this regard, early is much much better than being late. KT