Unless we are someone who has completely given up all hope, which unfortunately happens to some of us every once in a while, we are all driven to succeed in our lives and in our businesses. This drive for success motivates us to look for ways to get better at what it is we do, which ultimately pushes us to …
Problems Suck
If you’ve been inspecting for more than a couple of days, it is quite likely that you’ve already encountered a problem. Problems are a way of life for small business owners, and, let’s face it, problems suck. Problems usually mean that, one way or another, someone is extracting a pound of flesh from us. We’re likely going to end up …
The Right Messaging
I’ve recently fallen down a rabbit hole, as I am prone to do, learning about the human mind and all the different ways that our brain receives information. We could easily say that we go through every day of our lives, constantly receiving messages. We spend every waking moment (and some sleeping moments) getting sensory input, receiving useful information from …
The Decider
Being a professional home inspector means wearing a lot of different hats. Yes, we walk up to the house wearing our inspector hat, but we had to perform a lot of other jobs to get us to that front porch. Obviously, we’re a student, always learning about our profession, but we’re also a marketer, an accountant, a secretary, a tech …
Sharpening the Ax
This time of the year is notorious for adding more stress to our already hectic lives. We’re often doing things wildly different from our normal routine and we find ourselves subjected to personal interactions we would normally steer clean from in our daily lives. Ah, the holidays! In spite of all the extra demands placed on me by all this holiday …
Why Should We Change?
Most of us have a good thing going. Whether it’s our job, our daily routine, or our relationships, there are some areas in our lives where we’ve settled into a well-worn routine. Personally, I’ve been doing inspections since 2000 and feel like I have it down to a science. I know my job, my software, and my routine like the …
Our Defendability Score
Wouldn’t it be great if everyone we dealt with in our businesses (and our lives) saw things from our point of view? Whenever there was a problem, we would talk it out, they would quickly see things our way and the issue would miraculously disappear! Unfortunately, that’s not the way that things work in the real world. We are certain …
3 Things
What the hell am I supposed to do when this happens? When we’re out there inspecting, running our business, we’re going to be asking the “what do I do now” question a lot. There are always going to be unusual situations popping up, and we’re the one left trying to figure out what to do next. Things happen to us …
Opportunity and Decision
What do we do when faced with an opportunity? How do we decide what’s our best course of action? What happens if we can’t make the hard decision?
Answer Before They Ask the Question
We will start out today with a quote from author Shawn L. Anderson’s book “A Better Life.” He says that “Preparation is what allows the teacher to truly inspire. Preparation is knowing exactly how the lesson plan will flow. It’s in knowing what questions to ask and what answers to give.” The author is speaking about teachers, but this sentiment …