Set Goals and Reach Them!

A goal can seem daunting if you focus only on the end results, so break down the goal into more achievable milestones. Hitting smaller goals along the way is much more motivating. Pick a date and commit to it! Having something specific makes your goal more concrete. Make a visual of your goal to focus on, it will them become more powerful. Tell everyone about your goal! It makes you more accountable and your loved ones will help you work towards it. Set realistic yet challenging goals. Get scared, shoot for something big.

Top 5 Pieces of Advice We Have Received

1. Do things now! Do the things that people don't want to do because they seem hard. You'll be able to do things later that others can't.

2. Make decisions but never when you are emotional. Before you make a decision think if its coming from an emotional standpoint. If its, table it and come back to it.

3. Why. Always know it! When you know the why you can endure the how.

4. Be very careful who you get advice from. You wouldn't take financial advice from a person who just claimed bankruptcy so make sure the person you are taking business advice from is qualified to give it.  

5. It's not easy. If it was easy to be successful everyone would be so new flash its hard work. 

Celebrating a Successful Year

My team members are usually heard saying phrases like "work hard play hard". And "have fun make money". It's nice to see these come into play. 

This year, we had a lot of accomplishments. The most recent being promoting another managing partner and expanding to White Plains, NY. I think it's finally time for our annual management vacation. 

We like to treat the management team annually to a vacation where they can unwind and celebrate their victories. We've done this everywhere from Puerto Rico to Arizona, and this year, we're doing the Carribean. Stay tuned for pictures on all our social media. 

As if this trip wasn't good enough, I was also personally invited to an entrepreneur training conference for young up and coming business owners. It actually takes place the same week as our vacation. There's nothing like filling up my notebook with new information and then celebrating with my team! 

Here's a few pictures from our last few annual management vacations. 

Venice Beach, California 

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Scottsdale, Arizona 

Why is our expansion so awesome?

As you all know, we are expanding our company into the downstate market at the end of the month. We're super exited but it got me thinking, what are some actual reasons why expanding into a new market is so great? For one, its another chapter in our life book! Most of the team that is relocating has been born and raised in the CNY area, so this will be their first experience moving away from home. I, personally, have lived mostly in the Northeast but have resided in RI, NYC, NJ, and upstate NY. It has given me a ton of life experience and I have met some life long friends along the way. Visiting is great, but living in a new area is an eye opening experience and hey you'll have better stories to tell when you get old. 

Another factor is that this move will cement our team bond. Six of us have decided to relocate for this expansion and it was a big decision for everyone. We will be venturing into a new experience both personally and professionally. It has already brought us all very close together. The crew already has an invite to their first NJ Thanksgiving, courtesy of my mom. It's nice to know that your coworkers have your back no matter what and will be going through the same joys and challenges that comes with growing a company in a new market.

The driving forces for our company are meeting client demands, expanding our brand and preparing our staff to grow our organization by reaching their professional goals. The expansion team is getting a full dress rehearsal for what it will be like when they reach their goals and branch off into overseeing their own branch office. This is an amazing opportunity to see first hand the amount of work and reward that comes from intense planning and goal setting. It will also make it that much easier for them when that day comes!

At the end of the day the more you challenge yourself and push yourself out of your comfort zone, the more your grow as a person. Also tomorrow is my birthday, just thought I'd throw that in there :)

-Stephanie Melas

Some Life Tips for our Summer 2014 Interns!

It's always a bittersweet time when the summer comes close to an end. At LTG, it's mostly because the interns go back to school! We have a lot of fun with our internship program and we usually end it by awarding a few of the top performers. "I made the most money I ever made. I had the most fun at a job that I ever have" says Cam Kyle, our intern who won "Best Office Presence".

We treat our interns exactly like Full Time employees. They attend the same meetings. They learn the same things. Although it's more heavily sales based, they get a taste of our management development program. All of our top interns became great trainers. Our "Top Intern Award" went to Bryan Weinert, who actually started developing a sales team and became part of our "Core Leader Group", which is group of exceptional leaders. He was recognized in a nation wide sales magazine as "Number 1 Rep in the Verizon FiOs Campaign"... in the entire country! Our intern Dan DeBottis won the award for Most Consistent Intern. He was always on his top game! I'm very proud of our intern's growth and accomplishments.
One really nice thing about our internship program is seeing the growth of an individual! In just a matter of 2-3 months, our interns grow from an average college kid to a business professional. Our winner of the "Most Professional Growth" went to Kevin Black. Our interns, especially Kevin, became more positive, more professional, and more resilient with their goals. Here's some tips that could help our interns, as well as anyone else looking to accomplish something big!

1) Celebrate the small victories. Don't look at your mission you give yourself as a mountain. It's overwhelming. Break it down into sections. Celebrate each step of the way.

2) Create a habit of being resilient. Don't give up on your goals. Know that you're going to do it no matter what. Other people are going to be better, but you can work harder! Hard work beats talent.

3) Don't hold yourself back by comparing yourself to others. Competition is healthy until it affects your mentality in a negative way. If anything, compete with yourself. Make yourself better. Don't worry about anyone else.

4) Set your goals extremely high. Most people work their whole lives and they're satisfied with their life. They're just satisfied with the salary, home, car, and lifestyle. This has probably always been the case. It's only those that look above the average that achieve it. It's only the one's that see what the norm is, and set their goals past it. Don't settle for mediocrity.

5) Don't fear failure. Most people don't shoot higher because they're afraid it'll hurt more if they fall. Well, that may be true. But those who are successful don't care. They bounce back. Most people fear something "different" than what they're used to and never allow themselves to see a new opportunity. They use excuses to explain to other people why they're not doing something, when really the excuses disguise their fear. We see this all the time in our business. Let yourself go! You'll be surprised about what you can accomplish.

Winning the Most Improved Award

It was really a humbling moment to win the Most Improved Award at the most recent Conference. It had been my goal for the whole year. I joked with my office and said that winning the "Most Improved Award" usually means you were really bad at some point. To go from where we were to one of the top offices in the nation says a lot. But it doesn't say as much about me as it says about my team. My team is awesome. I think if someone didn't have the best attitude they wouldn't fit in. That just shows in our numbers. We've been number one in the country many times this year, promoted an Assistant Manager, and will soon be promoting her into management. We'll be expanding to an available location in a few months, and again within the next year.
I ran a meeting with my office about how I believe that I earned this award. I said it was all about being in your zone. You have to be relentless. You have to act as if there's someone working full time to take your goal away from you. You have to be mad that you didn't get it last year. Really believing you can do it is huge. If somebody doesn't actually believe they can do it, they never will.

                                                  

'Tis the season to slack off

Happy Memorial Day! It’s the official kick off of summer which means nice weather, barbeques, and feeling anxious at work due to the former. In order to get the most out of your summer you need to attack work with a plan to be more productive and get the most out of this time of year.

1.       Start your morning early – kick start your morning with an outdoor activity

2.       Make a progress map – print out a monthly calendar and add your goals and action plans to it

3.       Start your day strong – prioritize your to do list, some of those emails can probably wait

4.       Adopt a two minute rule – if you can address an email in two minutes do it! You take longer thinking about the response while doing other tasks

5.       Know when you need a break – a quick break goes a long way mentally

6.       Build a rhythm – identify the time of day you begin to procrastinate, during that time close out all distractions and set a time for 20 minutes to focus on one task

7.       Give yourself an out – if you have something planned at the end of the day you will push harder at work to make sure you can leave at a certain time