I belong to a volunteer real estate organization called Real Estate Lives that helps people in commercial real estate who have either lost their jobs or are looking for something better.  Many of the folks settled for something less than what they hoped for because they are the type of people who are willing to do whatever it takes.  You know, people like you.  It's been an interesting group for me to be involved in.  The organization was formed when the real estate crisis hit and we expected to be closed down in a few short years.  But here we are today.  Our vision is a thriving real estate market in the Tampa Bay area filled with a highly knowledgeable and talented workforce built up and sustained by the members of the real estate community. And while we've helped more than 450 people get back to work, there's still a strong need for us to continue.

So why do I share this with you?  Because of the lessons I've learned from those we call "Rebounders" - those who are/were "rebounding" after the real estate recession.   The Rebounders we were able to help the most were those who religiously attended all the meetings (as you might expect), but more than that, they volunteered.  They got really involved and the smart ones knew that the best thing to do was to help us with the job board which required them to call around town looking for jobs to post.  They spent hours each week essentially looking for jobs on the behalf of others and as you might guess, they found jobs for themselves.

It was all about being willing to call on and talk to strangers.

That's really the secret to success.  Every day we have opportunities to perfect our skill at talking to strangers, but often we don't recognize the opportunities for what they are or we're just too lazy to take advantage of them.  But seriously, talking to strangers is the coolest thing to do because for most of us, our livelihoods depend on us having good people skills.  So how much more fine-tuned do you think we become when we take advantage to speak with nearly everyone we have an opportunity to?   This is one place where one of life's basic truths...Quality always trumps quantity...doesn't really apply.  It doesn't really matter "who" you speak with.  It only matters that you do it with intent to improve your skill at making people comfortable with you and most of all, it helps YOU get over your fear of speaking to complete strangers.  And hey, don't feel bad that you have a little fear of speaking with strangers, even if you won't admit it.  It's your parents fault.  Really.  Those words, "never talk to strangers" were so valuable when we needed to be protected, but now are so difficult to get  out of our heads. They have a permanent home in our subconscious brain.

They say that our opportunity to actually speak to people is getting less and less with each passing day given our ability to text, email, tweet and check social network sites.  Assuming that's true, I suggest you start taking advantage of things right now!  Go find some strangers to talk to!

Come join our discussion on our blog, or I welcome your feedback through email.