I remember a lesson I learned, a long time ago, when I first learned how to ride motocross in the Southern California foothills to keep the cycle pointed straight ahead at all times. My natural reaction was to find the seemingly easiest path through the trail, bobbing and weaving to avoid any large boulders; however surprisingly this was not the correct course of action. Instead, I was advised to keep heading straight, even if a huge boulder lay dead ahead in my path. The bike and its shock absorbers would handle even the largest rocks. A terrific sense of enlightenment and freedom came over me that I remember to this day.

Occasionally, I catch myself in an avoidance mode and suspect there are many others in these tough economic times with the same strategy. Then I get back into the saddle and begin to forge straight ahead despite what the depressing news says, no matter what the source. I tell myself, “These are the days we have to dig our heels in deeper.” They say when the going gets tough, the tough get going. It’s up to us to decide our personally appropriate strategy of fight or flight.

Over the course of the past year, I found myself expanding my view of my team’s market area. This was not only by a geographic territory, but also by niche or specialty. A strategy such as this requires a non-traditional approach to staffing our team. I decided I was no longer after an agent who could simply service an area, now I was after a hybrid. Such a person may be fit to service an area but they must also have special talents. Such talents may include advanced knowledge of luxury home sales, equestrian properties, international sales, new construction, golf properties, commercial, etc, or anything else that makes them stand out from the crowd.

Additionally, servicing the Denver Metro area wasn’t good enough anymore. Now I felt compelled to expand along the Colorado Front Range, from Colorado Springs to Fort Collins. This meant recruiting and positioning additional team members to service these new areas with local experience and a willingness to travel and learn new areas of their own. In a time where recruiting is challenging enough, now I really had to dig in deep, reach out and be even more selective at the same time.

Then, if that wasn’t enough, my expansion plans required that I expand existing and also add more local websites inclusive of area MLS IDX service providers. This meant adding more websites with single local or combined MLS IDX feeds to properly service our growing territory and client base. Each of which requires a unique level of marketing. Needless to say, this has not been an easy chore unto itself. Regardless, this had to be done!

To sum it up, here we find ourselves, positioning for the next market, however it plays out, and we’re ready to forge straight ahead. In all reality, the sizes of the obstacles ahead of us are all in our mind. We make our own destiny by striving to become the best, to be the best in this market or the next. For some, this may mean bobbing and weaving and to some it may mean full force ahead. Whatever may be right for you, I’d subscribe to the theory that our courses of action not lead us astray of our final goals. Don’t let those goals go in an effort to survive but rather let those dreams pull you through the muck as if wind to your back.