Ken Eddy’s Mastermind Retreat - Held against the backdrop of culturally rich New Orleans, this gathering of top agents from across the country enjoyed a phenomenal, hard to beat experience. The sharing of ideas, success stories, challenges and changes, formal presentations plus casual interaction with tours/dinners and world class entertainment made the retreat an event to remember.

The Royal Sonesta Hotel, located in the heart of the French Quarter on Bourbon Street, provided the perfect setting for our group, offering inner courtyards for private conversations, a refreshing pool for those not-so-private conversations and relaxing while soaking up the southern sun with the added convenience of pool-side service.

The Opening reception was held in a parlour room with a 40 ft balcony overlooking Bourbon Street (if location, location, location counts for Bourbon Street balconies, well this one is the Location all other balconies would strive for!). The superb location provided everyone with a casual, relaxed atmosphere to get to know one another, followed by a lengthy stroll down the middle of Bourbon Street (which is closed to traffic every evening and with the whole street power-washed at 4 am). Meanwhile, spectators are treated to an endless musical and cultural experience that just does not stop block after block.

Opening session was kicked off by Keith, a local well known street performer (if the large coffee did not wake you up, the 9 am trombone styling certainly did). Keith was recruited the evening before by Cal who immediately recognized his remarkable talent!

Our first feature speaker, Greg Hamre from Re/max, Ottawa, shared with us the secrets to his tremendous success. He gave us intimate insight as to how and why he decided to join his mother, Shirley, in real estate and how he has built his business year after year to a level that most Realtors just dream of achieving. Greg also shared with us his top marketing ideas, trials and errors, sales and profit. We were all amazed at Greg’s ability to maintain an extremely high profit level both in dollars and as a percentage of his total sales.

With the addition of his brother Steve, Greg and Shirley have created a family business that is the envy of the industry, with not only top level production but all conducted with style, class and professionalism.

Our second feature speaker was Katrina Cavaliere from River City Realty, Kamloops. BC (Broker/Owner along with her husband Vince). Katrina gave us an in-depth observation of a subject we all need to be well versed in, and that is the Hiring, Training, Managing of our Support Staff.
Katrina took us through a 10 step procedure to be used prior to hiring an assistant and support staff. This included the interview format, the qualifications you should look for, personality tests and most importantly the questions to ask. She continued with the actual systems and procedures she uses on a daily basis with checklists, forms and procedures, showing request forms, telephone call handling systems, setting up appointments, feedback procedures, how to build a CMA, work order forms, just to name a few, all with checklists that have been revised and built through years of experience!

As I said, this is a subject we all need to listen to, improve upon and implement in our own businesses, and thanks to Katrina’s presentation I know all of us in the room will be doing just that.

City Tour on Thursday afternoon had to be one to the best, insightful, educational, emotional ones I have ever been on. Bob, our driver and guide, toured us through the devastated Lower Ninth Ward (we soon discovered that was only a small part of the overall disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina). We witnessed the rebuilding and reviving of blocks of the city, and developed a more deeper understanding of the struggles and the feeling of hopelessness that the residents must have endured.
We continued our tour with a short visit to one of the many above-ground cemeteries and listened to the history of families who are entombed throughout the endless rows of large and small structures of all shapes and sizes.
The tour continued across town to the Garden District of New Orleans. The homes we viewed could not be more opposite then what we left in the Lower Ninth Ward. These homes were truly mansions of the old south, and as we cruised down St Charles St (street-cars run the length of this street), our guide Bob once again enlightened us with a history tour of the area, including a side trip to Ann Rice’s old house, where she penned several books including “Interview with a Vampire.” We also toured through the warehouse district with its unique shops and sites.

I highly recommend, that if you visit New Orleans, take in a city tour early in your visit.

Thursday Night Dinner at the world famous restaurant of “Arnauds“ was an amazing dining experience. After having cocktails in the Frenchman’s Bar (guessing 150 years old) we were given a tour of an exclusive museum on-site by our most gracious host Lisa Sins. The tour featured the Mardi Gras Queen’s dresses, dating back decades and providing another history lesson for all of us. Dinner was served in the Gold Room, a perfect private setting with an old European flavour that was just the tip of the iceberg. Lisa and her staff presented us with one of the best meals I have ever enjoyed. For you chefs out there, here was the customized meal we shared: Shrimp Arnaud and Crawfish Bourgeois, Turtle Soup, Chicken Fish Pontchartrain, Fillet Charlemond, Breast of Duck Ellen and Bananas Foster (I was a little worried here with the amount of flames produced during its creation).

If that was not enough, our host Lisa surprised us with a three-piece band! Wow, were they something (noted by most as the highlight of the trip). They sang and played several Old South songs that made the evening absolutely magical! Thank you again Lisa Sins! If you travel to New Orleans, be sure to dine at Arnauds!

Friday morning feature speaker was none other then Steve Poscente from Las Vegas (via Edmonton/Calgary). Steve is a highly sought-after speaker nation-wide. He has given over 1,500 presentations and trained over 10,000 agents with his Star Maker Program. He has also spoken to gifted four-year-olds, right up to fortune 500 corporations. Steve’s presentation was absolutely terrific, with subjects and comments that were current and relative to our needs. Most notably, Steve outlined the top six characteristics that we all need to adhere to:
Be positive, Be Disciplined, Be Resilient, Be Flexible, Be at Peace, Be Nice!

Other comments I would like to share from Steve’s presentation are:
“You can always start your Real Estate Career over, everyday!”
“It is what you learn after you know everything that matters!”

Steve’s 20 plus years in Real Estate Training/Speaking, on top of an impressive list of other experiences and accomplishments, make Steve one of the most entertaining, educational and all-around great speakers we have ever had!

Special Guest speaker Michael Polzler, Vice President and Regional General Manager of Re/max Ontario/Atlantic closed out the formal portion of the retreat with his global views on the Real Estate world. Michael gave us his views from the corporate level as to the changes in the Real Estate market and how top agents are adjusting to these changes, along with offices and regions. He discussed key factors that are front and center such as the media’s role in the shifting market and the attitude we need to adopt to weather any tough market.
As Michael points out, most of us have to take care of the six inches of Real Estate Market between our ears and not get caught up in the knee-jerk reactions of most Realtors/media.

Michael fielded questions from virtual offices, virtual assistants, the quality of Realtors that he is striving for, the struggles and successes of other corporations as to how they can learn from one another and the perfection of the Re/max model as it attributes to the success of us all. Michael’s insightful candid comments and observations of our Real Estate world were well thought out and very much appreciated.

Swamp Tour with captain Mike and Cajun Encounters was billed as a great tour and certainly was, but I would be remiss if I did not mention our tour guide and driver on the way to and from the swamp, Lucien Payne. He was a terrific source of more history and events. It was interesting to hear his point of view on the events of Katrina and the lack of response from the powers at be. As we toured east of New Orleans, we cross a corner of Lake Pontchartrain (salt water lake) on our way to the swamp (almost in Mississippi). Just to note, the hurricane’s centre was in this area (Katrina was 600 miles across) and with the lake (third largest in the US) on the north side of New Orleans, and the Mississippi River on the south side, the pressure and storm surge from the hurricane forced water to breach the levees in and around the city and in turn flooded the majority of the city, parts with one foot of water and others with 18!
We entered the swamp area, and Cajun Encounters with Captain Mike were terrific to deal with. We loaded onto a swamp boat and with its 150 hp Yamaha outboard, tore down the river, viewing wildlife and additional hurricane damage.

We later cruised upstream to the land of the Big Gators. Unfortunately, or fortunately, we never ran into any 24 ft monsters that, according to Captain Mike, have taken a bite out of the boat’s canopy before. The fact that Captain Mike had survived two tours of Vietnam still didn’t make us feel any safer. The smaller female gators swam out to the boat, and we fed them marshmallows (apparently feeding them chickens in the past was not such a good idea, since they tend to think that we are also a food source, I guess even we taste like chicken!). The male gators are very territorial and usually have a hood of approximately six square blocks. Captain Mike told us the names of the big males in the area: Caesar, Big Al and Brutus, they sound charming.

After the tour, we feasted on boiled crawfish, with a quick lesson on how to peel and dig out the meat, we managed to pile up quite a few carcases. I believe Steve or Vinny would have been the crawfish eating champions until our bus driver dug in, with his 50 years of crawfish eating experience certainly paying off as he made short work of a few dozen.

On the way home we toured by a NASA complex where they built the huge booster rockets for the space shuttle, pretty impressive. Our driver told us that 38 workers volunteered to stay in the complex while Hurricane Katrina pounded the area.

Snug Harbor and Ellis Marsalis, if you know jazz, you will know Ellis Marsalis who tutored Harry Connic Jr and others. We were some of the lucky few who had the experience of listening to a fabulous performance by one of the greats in a setting not much bigger then the average living room. If you get to New Orleans, be sure to check and see who is performing at Snug Harbor Jazz Club on Frenchman’s Street.

Pool Time on Saturday was just what the doctor ordered to soak up the sun and relax as the formal part of the retreat was now over. Some attendees left that day and some of us stayed on for a few more days to explore the area.

Dining at Emeril Lagasse’s, Emerils of New Orleans restaurant at 800 Tchoupitoulas Street on Saturday evening, one word…excellent! The only thing better than the food, was the service, top-notch, us Realtors can certainly learn from the staff at Emerils.

Plantation Tour on Sunday was spectacular. Our driver from Friday, Lucien Payne (call 1-504-610-8086 if you are planning a visit and need a guide) toured us up the west bank of the mighty Mississippi to a plantation named “Laural.” We had a guide take us through the buildings in the area, including slave quarters, and brought the history all to life with his stories and facts of a time gone by.

We also continued up river to a plantation named “Oak Alley.” Now that is a plantation! This magnificent home has had several movies filmed at it, including “Interview with a Vampire,” “Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte” and “Primary Colors” to name a few. Well worth the trip to experience the Old South charm!

Summary: to view pictures of Ken Eddy’s Mastermind Retreat in New Orleans, simply log onto http://www.keneddyseminars.com.

San Diego will be the host city for the Ken Eddy Mastermind Retreat 2010. For more information and registration, again, simply log onto http://www.keneddyseminars.com or contact Ken directly at 403-510-2133.

See you on the beach in Southern California!

Ken Eddy