THANK YOU to Windermere Real Estate for having me as your closing keynote speaker for your national convention and Homecoming Week honoring your 50th year with my theme of Build a Better Now®.
I applied the theme concepts of change management as the real estate industry, especially in Seattle, faces major shifts. Everyone was on their feet cheering by the end of the keynote.
Build a Better Now® is about regaining our focus amidst a world of distractions. For Windermere I customized it to explore solutions through managing change, exploring creativity, and embracing the power of collaboration.
Approaching change requires looking at the situation from two major angles. There are seemingly smaller changes in terms of how we approach one another, how we reinvest in our reason to be doing what we do, and how we adapt to changes in the marketplace. Then there are larger changes, structural and significant and long lasting.
These take more investment and more time. But they all work in conjunction with one another. My friends at the Harvard Business School call these wider ranging shifts “transformational changes”.
I approached both angles on change management in my keynote, though I didn’t specifically name them as such, exploring change management from a wholistic approach. To face change effectively we need to shift ourselves first and then the organization and group structure second.
We had an incredible amount of fun. Audience members became the stars, we had lots of laughs, and we got totally inspired about the future by focusing on the present moment and the changes we can make to improve our outlook on the situation.
And the situation isn’t dire: its shifting yes, but it only becomes a nightmare when we listen to the news instead of to our experience and to our talented, highly skilled, selves.
In fact, during my preplanning for the keynote, (which I do every time for every keynote presentation I do), I interviewed professional economists in the real estate industry who told me (in excruciating detail!) that the market is not nearly as problematic as the news makes it sound.
If people were to simply restructure their approach based on fundamentals and not react and overreact to headlines, then the course we are charging as we manage change would not be nearly as troublesome.
The path before us is clear. We are on a steady road to success as long as we stay true to ourselves and to what we believe in.
Build a Better Now® was the perfect fit for this group. They are facing seemingly massive change in their industry, and are in need of really dialing in their focus so that they don’t lose sight of what matters most. And what matters most are people. Co-workers, collaborators, clients, and all those with whom one works.
People matter most. And the reason we are doing what we do is because of an honest belief in it. That is the core message and takeaway of this particular keynote.
Collaboration and networking are an essential part of Windermere culture. I used those as key components to deliver ideas for how to work through the issues audience members were facing. It’s time for reinvestment in themselves, one another, and their industry.
With the right mindset we can be ready for the future today. Specifically, for this group and industry, this meant maintaining a positive mindset and staying true to oneself and to one another.
Thank you Windermere for letting me be a part of helping you discover solutions!
This keynote was booked almost two years ago (and postponed twice due to Covid!) so to finally be able to have fun with six hundred people and share ideas from the stage in real life was absolutely awesome. There’s nothing quite like hearing an entire room full of people react and laugh together.
At the end of the day, the main theme resonated most: “If you want to build a better future, build a better now®.” I am glad to have had this chance to share my message as a keynote speaker. I never take it for granted!
