Ever felt stuck in a negativity whirlwind? What if you could harness the superpower of gratitude to shift your mindset and achieve success? Join us as we explore this transformative journey with real estate veteran Christine Newell, who's cultivated a positive mindset through 22 years of industry experience. Discover the power of a gratitude-filled morning routine and learn practical strategies to wake up early.
Christine takes us on her journey from a butter-less kitchen, a symbol of her rock-bottom, to the heights of her career. She shares her insights into the science of gratitude and how to channel it through gratitude interventions. Christine's secret? Writing notes of gratitude and practicing daily affirmations. Listen as she unravels the balance between discipline, indulgence, and presenting oneself healthily and confidently to the world.
We also delve into the wisdom of Bob Bird, author of The Go-Giver, and his five influential laws. Learn how to navigate the law of authenticity, value disappointments, and set easy goals for effective habit formation. Christine gives us a sneak peek into her inspiring book, The Habit of Grateful, an essential guide to spreading gratitude. Stay tuned for a transformative exploration into an abundance mindset and the positive use of social media. Get ready to reshape your world with the power of gratitude!
Ever felt stuck in a negativity whirlwind? What if you could harness the superpower of gratitude to shift your mindset and achieve success? Join us as we explore this transformative journey with real estate veteran Christine Newell, who's cultivated a positive mindset through 22 years of industry experience. Discover the power of a gratitude-filled morning routine and learn practical strategies to wake up early.
Christine takes us on her journey from a butter-less kitchen, a symbol of her rock-bottom, to the heights of her career. She shares her insights into the science of gratitude and how to channel it through gratitude interventions. Christine's secret? Writing notes of gratitude and practicing daily affirmations. Listen as she unravels the balance between discipline, indulgence, and presenting oneself healthily and confidently to the world.
We also delve into the wisdom of Bob Bird, author of The Go-Giver, and his five influential laws. Learn how to navigate the law of authenticity, value disappointments, and set easy goals for effective habit formation. Christine gives us a sneak peek into her inspiring book, The Habit of Grateful, an essential guide to spreading gratitude. Stay tuned for a transformative exploration into an abundance mindset and the positive use of social media. Get ready to reshape your world with the power of gratitude!
All right, hey, I'm with Christine Newell here. Welcome to another episode of the Still Occasion podcast. Christine has a pretty cool background here. She's gonna talk about her day job and then she's gonna talk about her career, I guess, or what it is that makes you up. So welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, Alex. I'm excited to be here today.
Speaker 1:Awesome, thank you. So we're gonna get into the gratitude stuff here a little bit later. I love that we have a gratitude expert on here. I know I'm gonna learn, hopefully, a lot from you here, but talk to the audience a little bit about your background, because we do have a lot of people on here that are real estate background and I think that's pertinent here.
Speaker 2:Excellent. Yeah, so I've been in real estate for just over 22 years. I started off selling real estate and did that for quite some time. Also during my real estate career when I was out there in the field selling, you know I lived in Connecticut and at one point was a single mom and three little kids survived the downturn in the market of 0809, which anyone listening if you survive that downturn, more power to you, because that was pretty tough for all of us.
Speaker 2:And yeah, so sounds like Alex, so you may have survived that as well. Yeah, stronger for it, right? We always say that these tough times they just make us stronger and smarter, so I'll leave that right there and look real estate's in my blood now. I just can't seem to get away from it. And so, about gosh, 11-ish years ago, went into leadership, became an assistant manager, a manager, a regional manager, and now I'm a senior vice president for a major luxury company in both North Carolina and Florida. So you know I think real estate has been amazing to me, and probably most of you guys listening. But there's a high rate of burnout and mindset is key. That's one thing I know for sure.
Speaker 1:So how do we? That's a great segue. How do we? How do we forestall, or even, you know, get away from that dreaded word, or double word there burnout.
Speaker 2:Oh gosh. Well, you know, I feel that in real estate, first of all, every day is really a roller coaster, right? So you can be having an amazing morning, but by lunch something's crashing and burning, or vice versa. So by having kind of a nice level, I would say, outlook, having a level outlook and being in the positive mindset, we can handle those curve balls and with our clients we can just become collected and that's really what they want from us, right To be that step down transformer. So mindset and also asking yourself, you know, are you a victim, Are you a player, are you on the negative side or in the positive side? And having that daily routine that can help you to be in a positive mindset every single day. So I don't know about you, alex, but I gravitate towards positive people and if you agree with that, most people ask themselves how do I like become more positive in real estate? You know how do I do that every day.
Speaker 1:So with a lot to unpack there, let's look back up a little bit. Let's say, I mean it takes some time. So say you maybe have a negative mindset, or maybe even that you're not even aware of what your mindset is. So let's go with that. You are aware that you're just having these kind of tough thoughts. What is your secret? What would you tell the audience? How do we shift that from being in negative space to being in a positive mindset?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. Number one having negative feelings. You know, sometimes that's normal. So I wanna obviously acknowledge that. If you're negative once in a while, we're all human and having awareness of yourself is a huge step. So if you recognize the fact that you wanna make a change, that you're noticing you are kind of very negative about everything, that's awesome, right. So that means you're kind of ready for the next step, and I use several different methods. The first is really gratitude, and I've been studying gratitude now for I don't know, probably at least 10 years, and ended up, you know, writing a book about gratitude.
Speaker 2:What I learned is that gratitude is the easiest way to shift yourself into a positive mindset. It also has a lot of other benefits that go far and far beyond even mindset. But if we just stick with mindset, it's impossible to be angry and grateful at the same time. So there's so many little tools, but if you start off on using gratitude right when you wake up every day and having that as part of your morning routine in real estate especially for us, you know again, in real estate, high degree burnout we're dealing with difficult clients every single day. In real estate I've found the top, top performers that I know in the markets if they use a morning routine every single day. They are high achievers, they're high performers, so gratitude should be the absolute first thing you do every single day when you wake up. Right Sounds easy, but the key is doing it every single day. So, alex, not sure what is your first thought first thing when you wake up? What do you typically do when you open your eyes?
Speaker 1:Shilu I wrestle with because I usually set the alarm for 4.30, so I still, after years of doing that wrestle with you, could go back to bed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and maybe it's Be honest, that would be what it is. Yeah, I typically have like three alarms going off at once. Same thing I'm always trying to get up at five. 4.30 is ambitious, so okay. So you're coming to consciousness, right. You're trying to decide if you're gonna wake up. When you finally decide okay, it's time to do it, and then I'm gonna get up. What's the first thing you do?
Speaker 1:Cold shower. Put the coffee on, get ready to go to the gym.
Speaker 2:Okay, cool. So right before you get out of bed, this is where you're going to start practicing your gratitude, and it's very, very simple. The first gratitude every single day is today is a new day and I'm alive, right, and I say that to myself every single morning. I am alive and that is a gift, because let's take a minute and think about the fact that there are people that did not wake up today or won't wake up tomorrow, and so there's a saying this morning I had two gifts, and they were my eyes. So waking up and just being grateful for your life, that's a very easy gratitude. If you say it out loud in your mind, that's fine. And then you go on to three more things that you're grateful for in that moment, and so what's gonna happen is, as you come out of that sleepy mindset kind of coming to your day, a lot of us have a tendency to start thinking about all the negative things or about all the things you have to do, and so this helps your mind go right to gratitude.
Speaker 2:What are you grateful for? So you can make it very simple, like this morning when I woke up, I was really grateful that yesterday was my birthday and I had a wonderful day, thank you, and I thought to myself wow, I had a beautiful day. I have amazing kids I talked to all my kids and amazing husband. I had a great birthday and I'm happy to be alive. So that's very simple. Other days it's my dog, other days it's coffee. I don't know about you you said cold shower but I live for my coffee every day, like when the sun's coming up. So, again, you just start to think about some things that you're grateful for, and just three things Very, very simple, very simple.
Speaker 1:And what effect so that has an effect over time to start to get you into a positive mindset? It sounds like you've done a lot of research on this. Is there any anatomical like effects on the body or anything like that?
Speaker 2:Yes, there is so much. So anytime you shift into the state of gratitude, you're actually working on your dopamine and serotonin kind of your feel good chemicals in the brain and mind. There are drugs that they sell for those things. You know it's that rush. They also have done brain scans of gray matter in different parts of the brain that are associated with just being having a more positive disposition, in general, more agreeable, and there are also immune benefits that if you practice gratitude as a habit.
Speaker 2:So that's the key, alex, and we need to talk about that. It's got to be a habit. You can't just do it once. If you practice it as a habit, your immune system is stronger, you have better relationships with your friends and your family and, again, you're just more level set when it comes to emotions. So I may get negative or upset, but I flip right back pretty quick. I don't allow myself to stay there. It's very easy for me.
Speaker 2:So I would say 95% of the time, because we're human, I am living in a positive, a low positive mindset. High positive is the performer mindset. That's like Tom Brady when he's LFG get out on the field. It's if you acts, are going on a big listing appointment. That's high positive, that's awesome, but that's not sustainable because that's such a high level of energy. So we want to live most of our day in real estate, in the low positive.
Speaker 2:Now, if we were in the negative, you have high negative or low negative and if you've ever met somebody that is just negative, you pick up on that vibe and most people don't want to be around them unless they're also negative. Negative people like to hang out together, you'll notice, and so I really try to run away from those people. But getting back to the benefits, I have actually four habits to work on every day and the first one is that daily gratitude in the morning. Now I also suggest again having that morning routine. Now it sounds like you do a cold shower, you go to the gym, which is great. I also love affirmations, so I will do my affirmations. And again, you can read so much about morning routines. There's so many books and thought leaders. Like I love Jim Quick. He talks a lot about his morning routine, which is different than mine, right, and probably different from yours, but I think gratitude needs to be a part of that morning routine.
Speaker 1:So are there any like other within the let's stick with the habits of gratitude? Do you do that throughout the day? Is it something that you can help shift you and use it as like a tool?
Speaker 2:Absolutely Yep. So the first one is the daily gratitude. The second habit is going to be using the words I appreciate you or I'm grateful for you all throughout the day. So what this does, and this is really cool when you start off doing your own gratitude, it's a very internal process, right? So you're thinking about the things you are grateful for. The second piece is going to be shifting gratitude to an external focus, so telling other people in every conversation how much you appreciate them.
Speaker 2:I use this a lot. If I'm starting a meeting, I can ask everyone in the room hey, let's start the meeting and just everybody throughout a quick gratitude. That's a cool icebreaker. You can do that at a lunch with one person. You can do it at a meeting with 20 people. If I'm doing a sales meeting, I'll usually start my sales meeting like that. So that's a great way to start using gratitude.
Speaker 2:But even one-on-one like, say you know, I just was on the phone with you, I would start my conversation and I'd say, alex, I really appreciate you and I would tell you why. Because I'm you know. Again, it's I'm having to think of gratitude for you, another person, and the same benefits apply, so the same benefits of the improved immune system and the positive mindset and all of that. It still applies. And now I get to make someone else feel really good and kind of lift them up.
Speaker 2:Because the other thing I learned in all my gratitude research is as humans, our biggest desire is to feel that we matter. That's really, it comes down to it for every single person, right, feeling like we matter. So when you tell someone else, even in a really quick conversation and I don't know about you, I probably talk to at least 10 people a day, sometimes 30. If you can tell those 30 people or those five people, hey, I appreciate you, you know, and didn't give a few reasons, that's going to give them a little lift. And I also believe in any time you talk to somebody, to leaving them a little bit better than when you started. You know, just kind of lifting them up as best you can.
Speaker 1:What brought you down this path that you started 10 years ago or so?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so great question. It really was that crash of a 0809, when I was selling real estate, and I'll never forget it. I had a $19 million sale, which my average the average price point in that market was like $450,000, but I had a $19 million sale that was set to close. And not only was it going to be a huge commission, but that deal was going to basically change my life. Yeah, I thought it would. You know, get me out of my financial mess, save my marriage, fix my everything. I was going to, you know, get a trainer, get healthy. I mean I was going to solve all problems, right, Classic. And so when that deal crashed, my life crashed along with it and the financial crash went through a horrible divorce. And at the bottom of that, I had what I describe as my butter moment and I was trying to make dinner for my three kids.
Speaker 2:Back then was a single mom ex-husband had moved out and the kids myself, the dog and I just, you know, things have kind of gotten bad and I didn't realize it. So I was trying to put together stuff for dinner and I had like, okay, I had no eggs to do breakfast dinner, I had no mac and cheese kit. I had no, no, ravioli. Or I didn't have sauce and I didn't have butter. And butter seemed you need everything for butter. And in that moment I thought to myself what kind of a mom doesn't have butter? A mom of three kids, successful real estate agent, doesn't have butter? And I fell to the ground, never forget it, laid there sobbing hysterically until I saw the kids appear over me, kind of going like what's wrong with mom? And that was really when I hit rock bottom and I basically had to get help. I had to thankfully had some friends and family members had to get help and rebuild my life.
Speaker 2:And a few months later, when we were having dinner and we had a lot of food, finally I had such gratitude for food. I'd always just eaten my dinner and never really thought about it. But to see the kids really happy and our kitchen was full again with food, I really focused on. What did that feel like? Feeling grateful for food, and it was kind of this warm, fuzzy blanket, this ray of hope, and I like to compare it to a life raft, because every single day we can look around at all the things we don't have and on social media we see so many things we don't have. I don't have a garage full of exotic cars, I don't have the 10,000 square foot mansion, I'm not going to Greece right now. We can stay fixated on all the things we don't have, but when we think about what we do have the fact that, gosh, I had three kids and I'm still now I have four kids and there's a lot of people that don't get to be parents, right or the fact that I have a beautiful home or a home with heat or air conditioning when you really think about those simple things like I can go to my kitchen and I can turn on the faucet and there's water how grateful are you for water? I mean, there are people in countries that don't have water in their home like that, and they don't have a toilet that flushes.
Speaker 2:So when you really start to focus on all the things you're grateful for, suddenly you feel really really rich. Right, and what does that do? It puts you in a positive mindset and increases your vibe over time, and you just tend to look at life differently right Through the lens of all that you have. And what's so interesting is people have a misconception that, oh yeah, somebody's really successful. Of course they're grateful, you know. But it's actually the opposite. What if that's how they became successful? Because they were grateful for those little blessings that built and built and built and built.
Speaker 2:So that kind of led me down this journey and I just found, like, the more I started reading about gratitude, I got really fascinated in all the studies, the science Dr Robert Emmons is one of the leading researchers of gratitude. He's at UCLA, he has a bunch of books, or so many books. And then I started when I was talking to really successful people. Most of them have a morning routine and most of them do use gratitude and the ones that use it as a habit I just found, like my gosh, like this is a superpower, like I need to know more about it.
Speaker 1:How long did you take? So there's so much there that I wanted to ask, I think, for the audience, like, how long did it take with this, as we want to know, right, and it's gonna be different for everybody because it's not a prescription, right, but what kind of timeframe do you see like this taking effect, absolutely?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's. You know. What's fascinating is certain people are more predispositioned towards gratitude and I find that fascinating. So, for example, my husband is more. He's wired more in a negative state and a lot of the research. Dr Martin Selgman he's also a pioneer, actually a positive thinking. There's a positive psychology movement that he started and he says firsthand that he's wired very negatively.
Speaker 2:But the good news is you can train yourself to see things more positive. What that requires is, if you picture a garden and you have negative seeds and positive seeds, water the positive seeds and make sure they have lots of sunshine. They're just gonna grow and develop more. So over time you can actually do that. So everyone's gonna vary a little bit depending on what side of the spectrum you are, but a solid 30 days. If you do a gratitude intervention for 30 days, you will see benefit, and I do in my book. I talk about gratitude intervention.
Speaker 2:The next piece to simply saying things like I appreciate you in your conversations. Also, like if you're a Starbucks or with a new bird, tell that person that you appreciate them. I know it sounds really simple but, man, when she started doing this it feels really good and it works. But the third habit is writing notes of gratitude, and so this is really has been and still is very fulfilling to me, and I would encourage everyone right now, like if you think of one person in your life that you're grateful for and maybe it's somebody that's done something big for you, or maybe it's somebody that's done something kind of small, but that one person that's been your champion, that has maybe seen things in you you don't see and if you think of that one person, it would be great to write them a note of gratitude. And this simple exercise, again it's part of the daily habit or weekly habit, however heavy you wanna go with gratitude, but you would write their name down and I recommend taking a scrap piece of paper and actually writing out some things you really appreciate about them. And again, in my book I have some guides happy that we can even get more into this now if we have time and then you write that on a little note dear Mary, I appreciate you for taking me out to dinner and having such great conversation, always encouraging me. You're an important person in my life. Thank you Simple and sign your name and I recommend sending that in the mail.
Speaker 2:And again, when you're writing that note. You're using gratitude, so you're flexing that gratitude muscle, because if you do one pushup you're not gonna get buff. It's the same thing with gratitude. You gotta like work out that muscle every day. But then when that person receives that note, they feel like they matter, they feel appreciated, they feel lifted up and it strengthens your relationship. Now they've also done studies. If people were, say, having symptoms of depression, dr Emmons did various studies where he had those people write notes of gratitude and it did improve their feelings of depression. They felt happier and less depressed the more frequently they wrote notes to people. So if you are to do these basic habits for 30 days, you will see a difference, a dramatic difference, and most people report after like a few days.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So you mentioned something earlier and I don't feel like I wanna, or how I can phrase the question is so those are positive habits. What about? You mentioned it earlier about social, about they're going to Greece, they got the big house and so forth. I have this kind of and I don't think this is anything groundbreaking, but I think, do you think that that, but with that being on social quite a bit kind of like pulls away from that gratitude, because you kind of have this want of something else and not being just thankful of what you have?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's interesting. We live in this age right of social media that for many of us, you know, we never had before, so we kind of get to see it. We still remember life prior to social media, which is different, you know, than the kids of today. I think that you have to pay attention to who you're following on social media. If you find that you're using your social media and you're having a negative response, take a look at who you're following and you want to make those adjustments. Maybe unfollow people and put in different hashtags. So, like I have a lot of hashtags around mindset, inspiration, gratitude, abundance. You know abundance and scarcity that's everything in real estate. You know those two mindsets. I believe there's more than enough for all of us. There is abundance. So if I don't get that deal, I don't get that client or someone else gets it, it's okay, there's more than enough minus coming right versus that scarcity like oh no, I'm never going to share. You know there's not enough and they took that lead. If you go to the abundance side of it and you talk to any big producer that's been in this business for a long time, most of them live that abundance mindset. They're very generous people, because they know there's more than enough.
Speaker 2:So I think you have to kind of ask yourself, like, who are you following? What are you seeing? Yeah, and in those moments, sure, like I see somebody in grace on, like, oh, you know, I wish I could do that. What I do is I say to myself, do I want that bad enough to put it on my vision board? Right, because I have a life list, I have a little vision board of, like, what do I want to accomplish? And maybe I'll add that trip to grace on there, you know, or maybe I'll take a new look at my vision board. It's okay to be curious about those things if they bother you, and then go back to the things you have, though, you know, because you know, there's a saying that you know someone else is praying for all the things you have right now, and so you also just have to put it in perspective, and that's what gratitude does for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you had mentioned a couple of other things here. If I was to throw it as an open forum here, what would you like to kind of discuss this? Maybe some cutting edge stuff that you're kind of diving into right now?
Speaker 2:Gosh, I think, writing the notes of gratitude and kind of going deep there, I think that's kind of exciting. I recently did an exercise with a group of people and it was pretty deep. I also think I have a really fun meditation that I love to do on gratitude to get us into that state of mind. I think that's all exciting. And I think the habit you know, developing a habit that's something we all struggle with, you know, especially in real estate where every day is so unpredictable and our schedules are unpredictable. You know, I think having a habit and you know, kind of getting into how do we cultivate that habit, I think that's also very important.
Speaker 1:What do you find? Have you read Atomic Habits or any of those on kind of how to develop habits?
Speaker 2:Absolutely James Clear. He's incredible. His blog is also incredible and I love his stuff. I do.
Speaker 2:I like when he talks about the value of disappointment, kind of like that place, because a lot of times there's another saying like don't give up before the magic happens. So sometimes when you have a new endeavor, like, say, you want to, you know, lose weight or be more fit or you know whatever, do, this gratitude routine that we're talking about there tends to be that like little dip in which you don't see the results, and then all of a sudden you do. And it's funny.
Speaker 2:Dealing with a lot of real estate agents, I feel like so many give up, you know, before, before they recognize the benefits, and that can be like even a direct mail piece or working on their social media. You know it's like don't give up, but yeah, just getting a little better each day, because I do think also we tend to be hard on ourselves, right, a lot of us were, and that's not good either. So maybe just, you know, setting a pretty easy goal, like you know, every morning I'm going to do my gratitude for the next 30 days Like that's one easy place to kind of start. How do you find, alex, that. How do you institute like new habits when you're working on that for yourself?
Speaker 1:I have a. I know it's not here right now, but usually it's in front of me. It's a tatter piece, so I get these, and these are all habit trackers.
Speaker 2:Wow, okay, awesome.
Speaker 1:Years of these, and so if I want to institute a new habit, when I first started these they were very, very I won't pull it out, but you can see there's like there was like 10 things, but now I've added and added, and added, and added and added. So it's like everything from working out to did I read bold law, did I? How many contacts that I want to make, and so forth, and that just strengthens those habits. So now I have actually I'm proud of this bag of tattered pieces of paper with coffee stains on the lens.
Speaker 2:That is awesome. I know it's awesome. You have something tangible to say, like you did it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm a paper kind of person. You mentioned social, so I remember you know beepers and such. But yeah, you know it's just worked for me. I know that's that's my system to start a new habit to answer your question.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know, that's why Discipline. Well, it sounds like you're a very disciplined person.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'd maybe want to talk about that, like you mentioned. So what I try to, what I'm working on, is finding the balance between being disciplined and saying like no, we're not doing that and hey, sometimes it's okay to eat ice cream, you know. Like finding that balance, that's what I'm working on. So, yeah, I can be very disciplined and I think I've always said recently, I guess, that I think that word is really misunderstood I always say it's like people think of discipline as like wagging the finger, like you know where are you, you know you need to do this, you need to do this, and it's like discipline is just basically doing what you say you're going to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, and it's also, yeah, it's choosing how you want to present to the world. I guess you know and I definitely struggle with discipline in the food fitness arena I recently, in February, started a new lifestyle of being very physically fit and eating really clean. So now you know. So yesterday was my birthday, so of course I ate like sugar and like all the bad things, and so I hear you on that. I think that each one of us has to kind of figure out, you know, how often do we want to be 100%, you know, and can we have a few cheat meals or a little time off or a little Netflix, you know to? I mean, it just depends. Like I think the cool thing is choosing what you want to work on right now for yourself, and I've always been one of those people and always working on some part of me.
Speaker 2:I was reading a book actually this morning and it resonated, it tied in and it just broke it down into mind, body, soul. It just articulated for me those three kind of silos and I feel like they all have to be working together right. So mind is pretty simple and we're talking about reading books and writing and being curious about ourselves and developing our intellect and all of that. And body right, and there's such a tie into body In real estate. I find that with the burnout, so many people just stop being physically active and eating. Well, because we're so busy all the time. And it's the first thing to go. But when you really honor yourself and you take care of your body and you put yourself first, you will read big benefits.
Speaker 2:You know, with everything, the way you feel, the way you present to the world, and then soul, which I think talking about things like lifting others and being in a more positive mindset and spreading kindness and using gratitude and relationships with other people. You know that really comes down to soul. So I think you know working on these three things, it comes down to how do you want to present to the world. And in real estate we are so fortunate that we can earn unlimited income and I think every day is a journey. So you know, I think just the discipline thing, it's so fun. I think we all struggle. When I talk to agents, you know around the country most people are struggling with one of those components and it's going to be a journey, right, we're never going to be experts.
Speaker 1:Yeah, certainly. I guess you know the thing with the discipline is it's like you know how, I know how quickly I can slip, so it's where I really really don't say, ah, you deserve that. It's like, yeah, I deserve it and I've got plenty, so why do I need to indulge a little bit more? So it's like, yeah, it kind of falls into what you're talking about here because it helps me to go. Hey, you know, be grateful for your health, and why do you need to? I look, my weakness is fro yo, I like froze.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fro yo is horrible. I'm eating chocolate cake, I mean exactly.
Speaker 1:Then I'll be like, oh, it's on the cake, it's you know, it's like kind of the good and you put some strawberries out there and you get your fruits for the day. But yeah, I mean it's, I quit drinking about I don't know three something years ago and it's really interesting. As I was talking to, I just went home and I remember, because when I go home I remember high school and stuff and I don't remember it, you know, or it doesn't come to mind on a daily basis, but anyways, my wrestling coach was sober and I just couldn't even, I couldn't even imagine it. I was like, how could you not drink? Yeah, I was 18, too, which is crazy, but I was like, how can you not drink? And then you real I realized more over the years these things that you know you really are attached to habits.
Speaker 1:When you do let them go, it's like, wow, why did I hold on to that so much, or why did I put so much value or whatever word you want to put on it On it, you find that, with the gratitude, once you get something going and you get momentum going again back to that discipline, it's like I want to keep it going with real estate as well. If you're on a momentum, keep going. Don't take your foot off the gas. What are your thoughts around all of that jumbled thought I just had there?
Speaker 2:No, I agree 100%. I think where it becomes even more tangible in terms of business and gratitude would be writing notes of gratitude to clients, past clients. It's because that's where, if you were to do that, every single day, write a note, or once a week, say, pick a day and you just write 20 note cards. First of all, most people don't get stuff in the mail, a personal note. You'd be amazing if you ask somebody. The last time they got a personal note on the mail. You get so much attention and there's an open rate that you can't compare to. It really does pay off because you're practicing your gratitude muscle Again, you're flexing that muscle, you're working it out and you're generating business for yourself. If you start sending out handwritten notes of gratitude to your clients, your past clients, with frequency and to what you're saying, like actually just doing it every day, you will get leads, you will get referrals far more than if you weren't doing it.
Speaker 2:That is one area that I think it's really easy to crank up the knob, just like you do with your little habit, trackers and reframing the way that we think of stuff to your point. All of a sudden, you conquered that drinking and making it something very easily accomplishable. I think gratitude's the same way. If you just start to add this into your daily routine the thinking of things and the writing of the letters, and using it in your conversation, before you know it, it's autopilot. I'm doing most of this without even thinking about it. Everyone's going to have to remind myself. Okay, I have to get my notes out, but all the other stuff, it's total autopilot. In fact, if I have a bad day and I say, oh wait, did I do my gratitude this morning? I usually did not. So, yeah, it becomes autopilot. It comes part of you, just part of who you are. So now you're not a drinker.
Speaker 1:Do you actually you ever heard of Ninja selling? I think you guys actually think Sotheby's did it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. Larry Kendall is a dear friend of mine and he is in the book as well, and I do credit him for teaching me about his morning routine and gratitude for sure. That's where I heard a lot about gratitude, reinforced with some other sources. But yeah, ninja selling, if you've not read that amazing and you can do the four day in-person course. I highly recommend it 100%.
Speaker 1:Awesome. I love that. You edified that. So I remembered one of the things which I did for a while and then, of course, got out of doing it was writing two personal notes a day, and it was incredible and it's like, oh well, then I found Zillow, so then I don't need to write notes anymore. So you have really, really inspired me to integrate gratitude into my morning routine. I've read about it Now and you've really solidified it for me here and also for writing the personal notes. I really implore upon the agents to do that. I write them a lot to people that I talk about, but you reminded me I need to do it to my past clients and to my friends and family and all that. So what a wonderful guest you've been. I really appreciate you taking the time. Our good friend another one, a legend, Bob Bird, put us together and I'm very grateful to him. He really walks the walk. That guy is incredible. He's incredible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, His book the Go-Giver is incredible and he is such an amazing human being. I love his five laws. I live by them as well, and I think the law of authenticity that was one of the harder ones for me and because sometimes we don't do things like send notes or reach out because we think we're bothering people when in fact you are a gift right, Just a nice phone call, that's a gift to someone and don't ever forget that, how powerful it is and how much you have to share and give to the world. So, yeah, I appreciate you so much, Alex. Really fun talking to you.
Speaker 1:Well, how can the audience consume some of your content? Where can they reach you? And we'd love to plug from you here.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you so much. So, yeah, my book. You can buy it on Amazon, an Barnes and Noble, and it's the Habit of Grateful. So I would love, if you'd like to read the book and I'd love any comments. Follow me on Instagram. Christine W Newell. I'm on Instagram every day. I'd love to hear from people that are reading the book, that are doing the four habits and just spread gratitude. That's what life's about just being grateful and appreciating others. So, thank you.
Speaker 1:Well, speaking of that, thank you so much. I appreciate you.