Pregnancy is not a disease

I had an interesting conversation today with a very intelligent young girl who is very focused and driven. She finds herself pregnant (not planned)and it was interesting to hear how other women have reacted to her news. She will need to re-assess her goals, pregnancy is never easy, having kids changes your life, you will need to give up a lot, how are you going to balance your career and have a child as well, you of course will need to take 12 months off - is what she has been hearing.....WHAT HAPPENED TO HAVING IT ALL FOR GOODNESS SAKE.

Pregnancy is not a disease. I know many successful women who have had children and balance motherhood with a career, our kids have not grown horns or do poorly at school. In fact one could argue that we encourage them to be self thinking, independant and free spirited souls who are taught to be self reliant and confident from an early age. Their parents are still there as a safety net and are these qualities really that bad? And are they really any different to kids whose mums do choose to stay at home?

I respect mothers who choose to stay at home as I think they actually have a tougher job but women need to stop making each other feel guilty. We need to work as a team, stand together and support each other and understand that sometimes we do not have a choice, financially we need to go back to work, secondly some of us make better mothers when we work and play and thirdly many of use enjoy being the CEO of households... we are all equal and whatever we choose it is OK from time to time to put ourselves first.

This young girl will make a terrific mother and I look forward to the day when she has her own extremely successful business!
And she would have achieved it all her way, on her terms with no guilt and what a terrific role model she will be to other women.

Women in Real Estate

I got a call from a collegue the other day asking if I knew anyone who could speak at an upcoming conference. During the course of our conversation we both agreed that although it would be great to put up female speakers it was hard to find women in our industry who were not only business owners but able to speak strongly on the subject of real estate.
Yet consistently we see women out selling their male counter parts.

So why is that we dont feel the need to own businesses?

Is it lack of opportunity?
Do many of us leave to have children or need to be home at specific times for kids?
Are the hours too taxing on family and relationships?
Does our industry need to change and review areas like flexible work places, job sharing, part time work etc to encourage or attract more women back into real estate?

Would love to hear your thoughts on this issue and if anyone has seen a strong female real estate speaker please let me know

The Migration Across the Ditch

I have a number of clients in New Zealand and their biggest issue is finding good people. It is not helped by the fact that most Kiwis are coming across to Australia to work.... I was having a facial last week and my therapist and 4 of her friends decided at New Year to come out to Australia to seek better opportunities. They all got jobs within a week of arriving and have no intention of going back....

This migration raises a number of issues in New Zealand and Australia

How is the current brain drain going to impact NZ long term?
Are the Kiwis taking over our jobs and in the current economic climate is this right?
Are there opportunities in NZ that Australians could potentially take up?

Certainly as far as real estate goes now is the time to buy in NZ and the rental return on investments is still great.

Time will tell I guess....

Sadhana

Tribes

I am reading the latest book by Seth Godin called Tribes - We Need You to Lead Us... interesting book and concepts on leadership.
However whilst I was reading it I was struck by the realisation that currently many of our leaders and managers have not managed or lead people when there is a down turn in the economy.
Leadership today requires a lot of resilience as not only are you trying to manage your business through some tough times but your people are looking at your for support, confidence and security.
How are you managing your people?

Wow Customer Service

As a trainer I often speak about the wow experiences you can create for your clients to keep them coming back... well on a recent trip to Bangkok I was the recipient of such service.

We arrived at the Lebua Hotel after a 10 hour flight, we were met at the taxi by a customer service team member who welcomed us to the hotel and took us immediately up to our room. On the way we were greeted by the front desk manager who also welcomed us and gave us his card in case we had any issues.

There was fresh water and a fruit basket in our room, all our paper work in regards to check in was done sitting on the couch, restaurant reservations made, tours explained etc.

It certainly was a different experience to one that I get at any other hotel and one that I will talk about for a long time.

What are you doing to create memorable experiences in your business?

Travel Woes

Why is it that whenever I return to Melbourne Airport I have an incredibly long wait for my bags. Upon my return from Thailand on Friday it took me an hour to get through customs and baggage.... is it just me being lucky or do others have this same issue.

If you are a tourist coming into our country this frustrating welcome is really not a good start.