Why doesn’t she “just get a job?” Because she can live better on welfare. You begin to see complexity of problem. She may be “homeless” but she isn’t stupid.

You see a man with 4 children and no wife, who hasn’t a suit, washing machine, computer, fax machine or answering machine to take calls while he’s out looking for a job, and you begin to see complexity of problem. “Why doesn’t he just get a job?” becomes “How could he get a job?”

NO ONE EVER CONVINCED ANYONE BY LOGIC

I could talk till I was blue in face about “homelessness,” and not have any impact, while 30 minutes in a homeless shelter, seeing real people, seeing a “face” instead of “a problem,” reached in and touched people at their core. There’s no place for “cold logic” in a homeless shelter. It assaults your heart, and therefore it assaults your brain.

EMOTIONS TAKE PRECEDENCE

Emotions have a stronger impact, because they’re essential to our survival. We don’t need to know a whole lot about bear that’s standing in front of us snarling; in fact if we DO stop to think, our life will be at risk, so our brain pumps us full of “fight or flight” chemicals which preclude thinking and cause us to TAKE ACTION.

MOTIVATION

In conducting tours of homeless shelter, just act was my main objective. I knew that reality of a face-to-face encounter would accomplish what I couldn’t, and eventually didn’t even try, to do. Motivation is real when it comes from heart. Whatever person decided to do after touring shelter, was between them and their heart.

The outcome was always a new understanding of a situation that had previously existed as “cold facts” in their head. The changed behaviors it elicited were different—some decided to volunteer, some sent a check, some went back to organize others, but all were touched.

It never failed to touch me to go over there, and that showed too.

People’s general reaction changed from “there’s a problem,” to “what can I do?’ And each individual, moved from his or her armchair in front of tv to reality of problem, as represented by real human beings, decided that there was something THEY could do. They decided they wanted to make a difference.

I used it to motivate myself as well. Sitting over in my office, overwhelmed by workload and enormity of a problem for which there is no solution except day-by-day, one-by-one, I was often discouraged. A trip over to shelter was always antidote to my flagging energy.

THE PROS

The Archbishop of San Antonio often spoke at our fund-raising banquets. He always began by giving a specific example of a specific person in a specific encounter. He put a face to a “problem,” touched people at feelings level, and caused change.

Motivation is not a thinking word.

Remember, for those of you in creative real estate, or wanting to get into real estate we show you how to do this as a business. This avoids you always having to look for deals, we show you how to get deals to come to you.

So even if you are not doing creative real estate, think about a way you can set up a referral program. For example, let's say you do manicures. Give your cards out to a hair salon and tell that owner that for everyone she/he sends you, you will pay a $10 referral fee; and will recommend their salon for haircuts. Or you could both work together and give discounts to each others' customers. There are a number of scenarios that could work for a salon and manicurist.

Use your imagination, and you can come up with many different ways to work with others and have them promote your business.

Just don't forget your business cards do you no good sitting in your office. You need to give them out EVERYWHERE.

Copyright DeFiore Enterprises 2002