Tales of a New Expansion – Part 5

Thanks a ton to those of you that keep coming back to read about my expansion team journey! I last left off in the planning phase, getting into the nitty-gritty of preparing to move (literally) into expanding to a new market—over 800-plus miles away from my current market.

I’ve already learned a lot along the way that I’ve shared with you. I’ve mentioned how OCD and checklist-oriented I am and what a planner I am. Now, I want to share a tough life lesson I learned in this journey. While trying to have it “all together” and trying to perfectly manage my checklists in just the right order, I forgot something. As the masterful coach Verl Workman teaches us through Og Mandino’s amazing book, “The Greatest Salesman in the World,” we must remember scroll 7. Scroll 7 states, “I will laugh at the world.” As Og says in this chapter, “When all else fails, we still have laughter. We can laugh at defeat and anger and thus persevere.”

I attended the Elite Retreat in late September with RE/MAX’s top agents to mastermind and learn together. I was honored to be asked to speak at this conference about the amazing and endless opportunities for growth within not only the RE/MAX brand, but also within this industry. Leading up to the event, I wanted to ensure we made our expansion team announcement to this room of leaders. We ordered a giveaway for each attendee. As luck would have it, shipment was delayed, so we sent them directly to the hotel for me to assemble upon my arrival. Darn—I really hoped to have my admin team assist me with this job. Oh well! As soon as I arrived to the hotel (after a horrible flight which the airline stewardess herself referred to as “severe turbulence”), I got to work and finished preparing my giveaways. I thoroughly enjoyed the conference, meeting with and networking with so many top-producing agents.

Meanwhile, my husband and kids had the movers physically loading up the house that Friday of the conference. While listening to the closing speaker that morning, I was receiving texts from my husband that said, “Do you want to keep your outdoor planters?” and “What are we doing with the large painting over the steps?” Needless to say, this OCD momma wasn’t there to help manage the movers, and it was driving me crazy. It was also my kid’s last day of school at what would soon be referred to as their “old school.” I was sad to not be there as they got home from school that day. I know my husband handled it well and loved on them enough for both of us, but I was bummed to miss it. Before I left on this trip, our family had devised a plan for the last night sleeping in our “old house” together. It was to be a family camping slumber party in mom and dad’s room. Remember, all our furniture was packed up by the movers earlier that day. We planned to take one last dip in our hot tub and cuddle up together to watch a movie on our air mattress that night.

So, as soon as my conference ended at noon that day, I had the earliest possible flight out. I was to land in Michigan by 7 p.m. and be cuddling with my family no later than 8 p.m. I rushed back to my hotel room as soon as the closing speaker was done to grab my luggage and check out. While stuffing my last few things into my bag, my razor fell out of its case and badly sliced my finger. Ouch! It was a bad cut and I probably should have gone to get stitches, but I didn’t have time for that—I had a flight to catch and a big campout to get to. I grabbed a hotel towel and wrapped my finger as tight as I could. (I’m sorry Hyatt Regency San Antonio Hill Country—I owe you a towel.)

This was just the beginning of a series of unfortunate events to occur over the next 48 hours. My flight ended up being delayed out of Texas due to bad weather in Chicago and ultimately resulted in my connecting flight home being canceled. I wasn’t having it. I quickly got a rental car once landed in Chicago and drove the three hours home in a horrible thunderstorm and downpouring rain—with my finger throbbing in pain.

Obviously, this wasn’t the night I pictured. I finally was home by 3 a.m. and sleeping (or trying to) with my family for our slumber party. Oh, and I forgot to mention that I thought months ago that it’d be a great idea to squeeze in our Client Appreciation Photo event Saturday morning from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. before doing the final load-up of our cars to drive the 12 hours to our new home in Charlotte that afternoon. After all, we had arranged (in all my “wonderful planning”) to meet the movers at our new house by noon on Sunday to move in. Are you tired yet following along? Even writing it, I still can’t believe this all happened.

At 3 p.m. that Saturday, we cleaned up after the Client Appreciation event, went to see our cute little newest nephew, just born the night before, at the hospital, and then hit the road with our cars—jam-packed, two cute little kids and our Pug, Max, in tow. I could continue and include the details and follow-up to my sliced finger, how I literally (and figuratively) ran out of gas during our drive that night through the mountains while nothing was open for miles at 1 a.m. in the pitch blackness of the evening, or how our moving truck had a blow-out tire on their drive down, and more (yes, there was more)…but why bore you? Ha!

To put it best, we were exhausted—physically, mentally and emotionally. Having “the show must go on” attitude was about to stop me dead in my tracks. I was darned if my family, my team, my new brokerage (and, God forbid, social media) saw my exhaustion. You see, I forgot to “laugh at the world” during all of this. How can one certainly even imagine such continued obstacles within a 48-hour timeframe?

Looking back, I probably should have taken a deep breath, realized it may be nearly impossible to accomplish my “plans” and maybe move the next day instead after a bit of rest, or at least discuss or entertain another option or two with my husband. I was just so set on ensuring I followed the perfect blueprint of my plans I had laid out. Stuff happens and life happens. We all certainly learn this each and every day in this business. I’m not by any means saying to throw in the towel or to give up. Imagine if we’d all just follow Og Mandino’s “I will laugh at the world” mentality to get through our daily challenges. What a different world it would be.

Follow Brooke on her journey at www.ExpansionTeamMom.com.

Brooke A. Sines is a Workman Success Systems coach and full-time REALTOR® with RE/MAX in West Michigan and Charlotte, N.C., who has been in the business of working with people all her life. She is a mom, wife, real estate coach, team leader and broker. Contact her at Brooke@WorkmanSuccessSystems.com. For more information, please visit www.WorkmanSuccess.com.