Matt Sundermier's Memos on Real Estate & on Life

Hi There,

Matt has given me the honor of guest writing this month’s Matt’s Memos.  If you have been reading his Memos you probably know my name.  Matt has been sending his letters to all of my clients as well as his while I spent the last year battling cancer.  I had multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer.  It was the fight of a lifetime and I almost lost.  However, I had a bone marrow transplant at Stanford last September and I am now cancer free.  The recovery from a bone marrow transplant has been rough but I am mostly back at work now. 

It was the experience of a lifetime.  My family and I had amazing support from our community.  That includes family, friends, neighbors, co-workers and my clients.  The support we received came in the form of many person-hours doing everything from preparing meals, babysitting, driving back and forth to Stanford, dental work, construction work, housecleaning, nursing, doctoring, financial planning, and most of all, prayer and good wishes.  My gratitude for this support is something that I have trouble expressing in a meaningful way.  The fact is that I can never repay all of the good karma sent my way, but I want to acknowledge it here.  Thank you!!  

Probably the biggest support I received was from Matt.  He worked double time to take care of my job duties and my clients while I was gone.  He also asked nothing in return for this.  Anyone that knows Matt knows he is a good guy, I am here to say that he is the kind of guy that would make huge sacrifices to take care of a friend.

It is said that every dark cloud has a silver lining.  For me, the silver is in discovering just how powerful a community of people from many different walks of life can rally to a cause and make a big difference.  That is a lesson that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.  It gives me hope that through all of the craziness of today’s world, that the goodness in all of us will prevail over the challenges. 

Philosophizing aside, I am now back at work and ready to face the next stage of my life; living life as a cancer survivor.  My experience has made me appreciate everything I have even more. Furthermore, I’ve made a commitment to Matt to help him take care of his clients whenever he has the need.  As a result you may be speaking with me from time to time if you are doing business with Matt. 

Another commitment that I have made is to live my life fairly openly so that others may learn from my experiences.  I have received a lot of positive feedback for my blog and how it has helped others understand what it is I went through.  I started it back before I got sick.  The entries follow the arc of my process and are often raw, sometimes profane and personal and they rarely have anything to do with business.  It is there for you to read or not.  I still put in new updates on a regular basis.  The address is http://www.puddinrider.blogspot.com.  Also, I am an avid Facebook user.  If you are too, please send me a friend request.   Of course if you want to chat, give me a call.

Best Wishes,
Friend of your Mortgage & Real Estate Consultant for Life
Spencer Rubin

I recently went on a relaxing vacation with my wife.  But getting out of town was anything but relaxing.  I was at work at 4:30 AM the day before our trip to get things done; I was calling and emailing on the drive to the airport to calm client concerns.  Why was I so crazed leading up to a time of rest and relaxation.  Was it because I felt guilty about going on vacation?  Nope.  Was it because I wanted to make sure my clients were taken care of?  Sure, but I have an awesome team who’s capable of doing that in my absence.  Was it because of bad time management?  Absolutely!

Good time management is an essential part of life, especially with juggling multiple facets of life like jobs, kids, family, and vacations.  We all know this, but forgetting the obvious can be all too easy.  My friend Spencer once directed me to a great lecture on time management by Randy Pausch.  Mr. Pausch was a professor diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer in 2006 and given 3 to 6 months of good health at the time. He also wrote a New-York Times best-seller called “The Last Lecture,” and passed away in July 2008.  His down-to-earth perspective is something everyone can connect with, and I would encourage you to either pick up his book or listen to his audio lectures.  Feeling a need for inspiration and improvement on time-management, I listened to the lecture almost immediately.

The message had an instant positive impact on me.  I adopted little suggestions Randy made like having two computer screens at your workstation and removing the annoying envelope icon that pops up whenever a new email arrives.  These two things have vastly improved my daily time management at the office.  But, over time, I’ve lost the over-arching message: time is valuable, and you must “spend” it wisely.

Many of us are smart with our money.  We know where it goes, we have goals for it, and we spend it wisely.  We need to apply these same adages to our time.  Life is short and much too demanding to spend our time inefficiently.

We all need little reminders to improve our time management.  Like a preacher reads his Bible more than once, we too need to revisit important messages for our lives.  For me, I will start to make a point of returning to this lecture every so often to keep its meaning fresh.  If you too would like to watch Randy’s lecture on time-management, see it here or download it for free on iTunes.

The old adage “practice what you preach” is sound advice.  Actions always speak louder than words, and no one wants to be preached to when those words are not backed up by supporting actions.  When wanting to teach or share wisdom with others, you must practice what you preach.

I was recently reminded, however, that when wanting to learn from yourself, you must also preach what you practice.  Last week I was invited to be a panelist to discuss referral marketing.  As a professional who has primarily built my business on referrals within a competitive industry and during a difficult market cycle, I was excited to share my insight.

In participating on the panel, “preaching” my practice reinforced to me the most important elements to my business.  I also realized there is room for improvement in my own business on the very things I was suggesting to others.  Simply put, sharing insight with others reminded me to follow my own advice.

We must make sure we’re listening to and applying our words to our own lives.  This is true not just with business practices, but also with our values, faith, and daily habits.  Yes, it can be easier to keep these things to ourselves and not “preach” to anyone, but in doing so we can skirt accountability from ourselves.  If you tend to be introverted with your “practices” (as I am), then challenge yourself to “preach” from time to time.  Don’t preach to be the revered or all-knowing preacher, but rather to encourage self-reflection and reinforcement of your own practices.

The most significant suggestions I gave as a panelist emphasized the importance of actively asking for referrals and regularly describing the impact referrals have on your business; I was preaching what I practice.  I realized, however, it has been some time since I’ve done that with my own clientele.  You surely know my business grows from your referrals, and for that I am incredibly grateful & fortunate.  Through your referrals I am able to focus on serving my clients rather than devoting resources to marketing and making new contacts.  I get to spend my time on you, and do a superior job as both a mortgage consultant and REALTOR. 

The real estate industry has changed dramatically, and it has become even more paramount for people to find a trustworthy, knowledgeable, and devoted consultant when wanting buy, sell, or finance a home.  The current market has also created a perfect storm for home buying and refinancing.  Interest rates below 6%, home prices at decade-low levels, and tax incentives for 1^st time home buyers have made real estate a hot topic in our struggling economy.  You will surely have a conversation with someone in the near future that could benefit from my services.  I encourage you to pass along my contact info in order to help them receive trusted and comprehensive service, to help you so I can keep my focus on my valued clients, and to help me continue to follow my business plan of growing a referral-based business.

Thank you in advance for your referrals, and remember to occasionally preach what you practice in your life.

I once had the privilege of attending a seminar and listening to an interview with Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time.  While Phelps epitomizes winning, I most enjoyed his stories of losing.  It reminded me that the greatest opportunities for growth are the times we don’t prevail.

 

Phelps recounted a race several years ago where an Australian, Ian Thorpe, was the heavy favorite and world record holder of the 200-meter freestyle event.  At the time, freestyle was not Phelps’ strongest event, but he wanted to race regardless.  “I had no business being in the pool with him, but I always want to compete against the best,” he said.  Phelps did not win the race, but he learned.  He learned about his competition, he learned about himself.  Losing also gave him more motivation to win.  In 2008 at Beijing, Phelps won the gold in the very same event, clocking a new world record in the process.

 

Some say “you win some, you lose some.” I prefer to say “you win some, you LEARN some.”  Losing happens too often in life for it to be the end result.  The key is to make losing manifest into positive learning.  With this perspective, you always win. 

 

I recently applied for something where I had no business “swimming” in the particular applicant pool.  It required a tremendous amount of work, introspective reflection, and exposure to nay-sayers.  Like most dreams, it was scary to pursue.  While I didn’t win, I learned.  I learned that reaching for a lofty goal never ends in failure, that being your best requires help from the best (i.e. – my wife), and that competing is always better than idling through life.

 

Whether you’re an athlete striving for gold medals or a desk jockey working towards a promotion, we all should be competing.  Most of us aren’t Michael Phelps, however, and we will lose our fair share of races.  But don’t let losing scare you away from competing.  The losses that can fuel your growth will always be more valuable than the victories that feed your ego.