This became abundantly clear to me as I recently hiked to the summit of Mt. Shasta (elevation 14,160′) with a group of eight friends. Here’s what I learned from the most difficult hike I’ve ever been on that also applies to business:

• Pace yourself - when the challenge is very difficult (read: steep), you will quickly burn out if you don’t pace yourself. On the seemingly endless 45° slopes of Mt. Shasta we could maintain a pace of 20 steps, rest; 20 steps, rest; and so on. Anything faster and we would actually fall behind and become more exhausted. For maximum advancement, find your pace, then stick with it.
• It’s better to not look at the whole mountain - for our final assault on the summit, we left at 4:00am using head lamps to see our way up the vast snow field. Seeing only a few feet at a time was a good thing. It would have been too demoralizing to be constantly reminded on how much further we’d have to go with every step.
• You will reach the summit, eventually - there is always a point where you no longer will struggle with the up hill slog. It’s called being at the top, the summit and the view is incredible.
• Once you are at the top you can enjoy the ride back down - there is nothing sweeter than knowing you achieved your hard won goal and can now enjoy the fruits of your efforts. For us it meant having thrills (and some spills) glissading down the mountain (i.e. sliding down our butts in the snow).
• You now have greater confidence - the experience of conquering a difficult challenge gives you the confidence and experience to it again, or even something greater. (BTW, Mt. Kilimanjaro – elev. 19,341′ is on my bucket list)

Human beings were designed to be challenged. It’s the only way we grow, get stronger and get better. So next time you run into a wall with your business, just remember that it’s just a really, really steep hill. And with the right approach you can conquer it and turn it into your advantage.

NOTE: to see some HD videos of our Mt. Shasta adventure taken with my “helmet-cam” just go tohttp://vimeo.com/mrusser/videos/sort:oldest. These include attempts at glissading by me and our team and some breath-taking scenery.

My speech was called “Convert Online Prospect with Email and Web Scripts“.  Clearly this really resonated with the people at the convention.  Yet what I find so funny is that I’ve been teaching these same principles to this industry for nearly 15 years!  One could argue that old habits die hard (which is usually true), but I think there is something else going on here.  You see, most sales professionals still prefer the visceral thrill of working with people face-to-face or on the phone, where they, not the consumer is in control.  However if they try to apply those principles online, they will literally drive the online consumer away from them.

One of the more popular strategies I shared with them is my “Critical First Response Email Script” which has a proven track record (over many years) of instantly changing the relationship between the agent and the online prospect.

Now this is where it gets interesting.  You see, Brad & Bobby Carroll of Dakno Marketing (good friends and colleagues of mine) were LiveStreaming my presentation to viewers all over the Net just using Brad’s laptop camera and microphone.  Well, it turns out some of these folks really paid attention because it started a Twitter storm with one virtual attendee (who immediately put the email script to work) remarked:

“Please tell Michael that I used his sample letter (that you were kind enough to twitter post) to respond to a net inquiry. WOW! It worked!”

Joan

Everyone in the session had a great time (especially me ) and I  loved seeing the enthusiasm from so many agents when so much of the industry is down in the dumps.  This just goes to show that if you enter into something fully engaged and with no expectations, you can be pleasantly surprised.

With the opportunity to address RE/Max Europe came the chance to delve into what trouble a new city has to offer. Let’s go ahead and get the practical business info out of the way… Yes, it was a highly successful meeting! There were over 35 countries represented in this seminar hosted by RE/Max Europe, Europe’s largest real estate brokerage. The attendees were delighted with Michael’s performance, stimulated by the new ideas he presented, energized and motivated to take their business to a new level. Of course, we expected nothing less, right?

Now to the fun stuff. Honestly, Michael cleared out of that meeting as fast as he could go. There were things to do, places to go, sex toys to see! Oh, ah, we mean… well, no – it’s true. You know they are a lot more liberal with that kind of thing over there! Just take a look at this picture. Nah, that’s not so bad, huh? And it must be admitted we never actually saw him enter the shop. However, he did have a few extra minutes when this Intrepid Paparazzi had to visit the little Dutchmen’s room!

The rest of the sight seeing was even more beautiful. Like this place for example! What would a trip to Amsterdam be without sampling the golden bubbly native nectar? Of course, doing a bit of sampling ourselves, we missed getting that incriminating photo for proof…

Oh, and what visit to a new locale would be complete without a bit of gambling on the side, hmmm? You should have seen Mr. Internet there – even the Little Dutch Boy couldn’t have stopped his cash flow!

All right, all right. We didn’t catch him with his finger in the dam either, so guess we’re done impugning Mr. Internet’s squeaky clean reputation. Worst we can accuse him of is trying on a few too many pairs of wooden shoes. Truth is, the main focus of Michael’s camera during his trip was on the true beauty of Amsterdam: the unique architecture, the lovely landscaping, the artistic decoration. Called “The Venice of the North” due to its extensive canals, boats and bicycles are the primary transportation in the city. Here we share with you a few of the images he captured.

Well, that’s it for now. We’ll keep you up to date from time to time, giving you the low down on the down low of Mr. Internet!